Ed Gottsman

On Extra-Sensory Perception

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:58:46 GMT

Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed ultrasonically-enabled glasses and shoes designed to give the blind a set of "bat ears" that can detect obstacles and report them using varying levels of vibration. From the article: "The shoes will be able to detect steps, holes in the road and obstacles within a five cm (two inch) vertical distance." One independent opinion, also from the article: "There are so many bumps in Hong Kong's road. If I wear the shoes I will end up shaking and vibrating all day."

Waking up, Calming Down

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:40:55 GMT

Fujitsu is working on a steering wheel-mounted drowsiness sensor that will detect subtle changes in the driver's heart rate and respond with various wake-up calls, including opening the windows, blasting the radio and jolting the wheel. Seriously unconscious drivers might get all three at once. (Here's hoping that sheer surprise doesn't send them off the road.) So What?

The Code Quality Tool: Interesting...if You're the Right Kind of Person

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:22:37 GMT

This article is about systems integration (SI). SI articles are boring and incomprehensible to the uninitiated. If you're among the uninitiated and you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you: Accenture Technology Labs have developed the Code Quality Tool (CQT), an Eclipse (and other IDEs) plug-in designed to detect and remediate bad code. See? If you're not among the initiated, it's probably best just to skip to the next post. So What?

On Being Detained in Cairo

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:13:44 GMT

I've brought up Twitter before. Twitter is a micro-blogging service. You use it to "tweet" messages of no more than 140 characters. Your friends, colleagues and the general public can follow your Twitter stream and keep up with such urgent intelligence as, "Feeling bored," or "Currently surrounded by idiots." Or, perhaps, "Arrested."

The Accenture Health and Wealth Visualization Tool

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:28:55 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs has partnered with our Financial Services (Capital Markets/Wealth & Asset Management) group to develop the Accenture Health and Wealth Visualization Tool, a graphical system that helps people manage the trade-offs inherent in retirement planning. To save space, I'm going to call it HWVT.

Bugs & Boredom

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:48:43 GMT

The Asia Times has a long piece on cyborg insects, which are being developed under the auspices of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). (For various reasons, I'm not providing a link; you'll have to dig a bit.) Cyborg insects are one path to tiny unmanned aerial vehicles (the other is fully artificial insects), a technology that the military--any military--would like to get its hands on very, very much.

Grid Computing meets ET

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:10:06 GMT

This turned out to be a pretty nerdy post, but there are nuggets you might be able to use as small talk in the next mosh pit you visit. (Hey, it's worth a try.)

Software Telemetry

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs do (does?) two types of project: Accenture-oriented and client-oriented. Client-oriented projects tend to span a wide range of industries and are usually easy to write about. Accenture-oriented projects focus on systems delivery and often defeat my meager powers of description. This is pretty much one such. Read at your own risk.

Something You're Going to Want to Smack

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:02:10 GMT

A magic box from GreenRoad Technologies (UK) will be installed in 200 military vehicles as part of a six-month trial to determine whether it's possible to detect bad driving and then intervene to improve it. As nearly as I can tell, the boxes have accelerometers (i.e., sensors that measure acceleration) that pick up how hard you accelerate, how hard you corner, how hard you brake, and how much hot coffee you spill all over your chinos. These measurements are used to give you continuous (red light, yellow light, green light) feedback on your driving. On the theory that if you give people a metric, they'll optimize it, the hope is that the boxes will improve soldiers' behavior on the road. So What? It's interesting to wonder what would happen if you just lied and installed a box that blinked randomly as the car was driven. It's the sort of experiment rat psychologists like, and the result is usually that the rat does whatever it's supposed to do even though the pellet (green light, in this case) is being provided without regard to its behavior. Maybe the researchers could save some money on accelerometers. (Come to think of it, in order for this to be a controlled experiment, they'd almost have to have a group of cars with random boxes. Hmm.)

Web 2.0 Again: Prediction Markets

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:57:51 GMT

I just ran across an article in the Wikipedia on prediction markets, of which I've long been a fan. Prediction markets' basic idea is to turn predictions ("Obama will win" and "McCain will win," for example) into stocks, then have participants buy and sell the two stocks on an exchange. The two prices will, if the market works its magic, reflect the relative share of the vote that'll accrue to each candidate. By watching the market, you should be able to learn the future. Simple. Ish. So What? This would be a very clever idea if it weren't so utterly insane. This was my reaction years ago when I first heard it, anyway. But it turns out that there's a fair amount of theoretical and concrete material to back up the claim. To your vast relief as well as mine, I'm going to skip the theoretical stuff in favor of the concrete.

And Your Point Would Be?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:10:16 GMT

A website called The Point ("Make Something Happen") provides a framework in which you can raise support for a cause. The cause may be as grand as getting an oil company to lower gas prices or as humble as persuading the local Starbucks to install recycling containers.

Web 2.0 2.0

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:08:29 GMT

I recently offered advice on exploiting (parts of) Web 2.0's social aspects. The parts I didn't cover include crowd-sourcing and folksonomies, which I will cover today. (My qualifications in this area consist almost but not entirely of being a bemused observer of the 2.0 scene for the last couple of years.) Like the last piece, this is going to be packed. Hold tight.

Where There's Smoke, There's Twitter

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:06:31 GMT

Haha! Twitter again (and again and again)! New Scientist is reporting on the use of Twitter by private individuals to coordinate and gather critical information during natural disasters. So What? Look, it's not my fault--Twitter just keeps coming up in interesting circumstances. If it were a publicly traded company, I'd probably buy stock (except that my holdings are deliberately limited to investment-grade chocolate figurines). Also, most of the stocks I bought jumped off a ledge shortly after I took delivery. So I wouldn't go totally by what I say.

On Polite Police

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:10:15 GMT

The Register is reporting on a pilot program in the UK under which police officers will have video cameras sticking out of their helmets. The goal is to encourage good behavior on the part of suspects (and, I suppose, on the part of police officers).

Internet Addiction: Threat or Menace?

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:30:30 GMT

An editorial in a recent issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry presents the case for "Internet addiction" as a legitimate disorder deserving of inclusion in the DSM. (The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--the official compendium of the conditions and syndromes that afflict humanity. If you want to get insurance coverage for your mental problem, it has to be in the DSM.)

IP on Everything

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:28:08 GMT

Recently, researchers at Harvard successfully stopped a pacemaker by reprogramming it using a radio transmitter--in other words, they did it from a distance, without touching the device itself. Fortunately (talk about your lucky breaks), the pacemaker wasn't actually in anybody at the time.

Accenture Technology Labs' "Labsbot"

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:33:21 GMT

Chatterbots can carry on an instant messaging conversation. Famous chatterbots include Eliza (the first) and Julia, who famously kept one college student on a string for over an hour. His end of the conversation consisted mostly of, "How do you type so fast?!" He never did realize that "she" was an "it." There's a hurdle that Artificial Intelligences need to clear; it's called the Turing Test and the standard version consists of the AI persuading a person (via an IM conversation) that it's actually a human being. Julia definitely passed the test--or the boy failed it, one of the two.

WSJ Cleverly Coins "Motorborg," Creates Jealous Blogger

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:22:08 GMT

The Wall Street Journal reported recently on Inrix, Inc., a Kirkland, Washington-based Microsoft spinoff that tracks speeds on 100,000 miles of US highway using data from GPS-enabled fleet vehicles, toll booths, road sensors...and citizens' mobile devices. The data is sold to a variety of companies (including MapQuest, Dash, and Garmin), which use it to provide traffic monitoring services to consumers.

On Owning Your Own Bits

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:20:46 GMT

I recently got rid of my CD collection. It wasn't a big collection, as these things go: Maybe 200 discs. I didn't even need the shelf space...I just wanted to clear out an increasingly embarrassing relic of the "age of atoms."

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:19:33 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs has developed SABLE (Search, Analyze and Browse Large Environments), a search engine for parts of the firm's Knowledge Exchange (KX). SABLE supports document search (PowerPoint, Word, PDF, etc.), high-speed preview, bookmarking and the identification of experts. It's available to Accenture personnel at https://sable.techlabs.accenture.com

You Oughta be in Pictures

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:55:42 GMT

There's a story by Oscar Wilde called The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian is a young man who owns a portrait of himself. He stays out late every night and is completely debauched. But he doesn't show any ill effects; rather, it's the portrait that becomes steadily older and more twisted. I won't give away the ending except to say that it is not pretty.

On Getting Off the Couch to Play Video Games

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:52:30 GMT

Consumer electronics giant Philips has patented a ball-shaped, throwable display whose position and movement are tracked by a stationary controller; in addition, positions of players in the living room are tracked using ultrasound units. Philips says that the device could be used for a new generation of "whole body" games. One possible game that's been suggested is a version of Keep Away in which the ball turns a different color when it goes out of bounds.

The Hands-Free Etch-A-Sketch

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:05:49 GMT

New Scientist is reporting on something it calls the "Moanstick," an alternative joystick technology designed for people with motor impairments. With Moanstick, you can move the mouse smoothly in two dimensions, click, and double click–hands-free. How, you ask? By moaning dolefully with varied pitch, energy and vowel sounds. (The video has disappeared from YouTube! See some clips of similar technology here.)

Phone Messaging Promotes Peace, Love and Understanding

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:42:06 GMT

Well, not really. The recent post-election violence in Kenya was, as it turns out, aided by the humble SMS message: Blasts of thousands of messages as well as simple friend-to-friend forwards carried incitements to murder--which were acted upon on a large scale. In response, the local telco broadcast several messages of rational moderation, apparently on the theory that "The cure for hate speech is more speech," as the popular saying has it.

On the (Mis-) Use of DNA

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:36:52 GMT

Fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal recently about the English/Welsh DNA database. We'll sneak up on it.

Twitter, Again

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:56:28 GMT

A colleague of mine just got back from the South by Southwest conference, a techno-lovefest that brings together software developers, graphic designers and a gaggle of luminaries of various persuasions. The big news, according to him, is that Twitter has come of age. (For a good explanation of Twitter see here.)

Did I Say That?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:53:55 GMT

New Scientist reported recently on a strange necklace that will soon be available from Ambient Corporation of Dallas, Texas. It has a package of sensors that pick up electrical impulses around the vocal chords. These signals are used to drive an artificial voice. Effectively, the necklace lets you subvocalize audibly (if that makes any sense) or (equally senselessly) to converse without speaking.

On Living With Your Doctor

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:34:12 GMT

Aerotel has announced the GeoSkeeper, a Global Positioning System-enabled, wrist-mounted unit that alerts a call center when you press its panic button. The call center can also track your position and raise an alert when you leave predefined zones (such as your school). In addition to the GeoSkeeper (can you parse that name? I can't parse that name), Aerotel makes a variety of wireless medical monitoring devices suitable for "mobile patients." All of these products could, in theory, be combined to produce a comprehensive location/diagnostic "über-box."

Accenture Technology Labs' "Requirements Critic"

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:44:28 GMT

Requirements Critic ("RC") is a joint project out of our Silicon Valley and Bangalore labs (time difference: An almost perfect 11.5 hours) that's looking for ways to aid the process of requirements development. Its current prototype is a Microsoft Word plug-in that acts sort of like a grammar checker–except it's checking the wording of your requirements documents for a range of common problems.

The Pen is Moodier than the Sword

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:48:50 GMT

Philips has announced what you might call the "mood pen," a package of sensors (heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, finger pressure) built into a pen that collectively determine your emotional state and react accordingly. Ink color and tip shape can change during the course of a stroke; if you know how to read it, the line forms a record of the writer's changing state of soul. Philips says: "Signatures are currently always the same, yet some documents will be signed with enthusiasm, others possibly with hesitation. Having a recording of this could be useful for historical reasons."

Can't Work Out Whether it's a Joke

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:52:29 GMT

Revital Cohen, whom you might think of as an "artist," has developed a picture frame (which I guess makes it art) that displays real-time data from remote (say, in a hospital) life support machines. Putting the frame in your house would let you keep track of a loved one's condition.

On Personal Video Surveillance

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:29:17 GMT

MIT's Human Dynamics Lab is working on a form of social networking as old as humanity itself: Face-to-face introductions and subsequent chit-chat. Users wear badges that calculate how far apart people are standing (a good indicator of their reactions to one another, perhaps); record their conversation; and track their movements. In a large meeting with MIT corporate sponsors, the badges revealed a steadily more connected network (as people continued to meet each other throughout the day), with some vying for the title of "most connected" by trying to meet as many people as humanly possible.

Wikinomics 6: Platforms for Participation

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:17:33 GMT

And once again we come to a post on co-author Don Tapscott's Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. This Wikinomics series has just two posts to go; savor it while you can.

ATL's Digital Pen and Paper Mobile Workforce Prototype

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:09:18 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs' "Digital Pen and Paper Mobile Workforce Prototype" (DPPMWP) (Okay, who's responsible for our acronyms? Anyone? Anyone?) is one of many sales force automation tools we've developed over the years. It uses a digital pen (for input) and a cell phone (for communication and output). It works like this:

ATL's Knowledge Discovery Capability

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:07:22 GMT

I try to keep my posts non-technical, but sometimes I fail. This is one of those times. So it's probably best to skip the article below unless you played Dungeons & Dragons as a child.

Wikinomics 5: The New Alexandrians

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:51:28 GMT

Time once again for an installment in the long-running Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything saga, in which we analyze Don Tapscott's startling 300-page tome. This time around we cover The New Alexandrians.

A New Digital Pen

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:48:45 GMT

This may come off as a naked plug for a new gadget, but it's actually a sober technology assessment. You have my word on this as a journalist, husband, father, and President of the United States.

To Catch a Thief (or a Whistle-Blower)

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:28:23 GMT

New Scientist wrote recently about software from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) that scans organizations' e-mails to detect potential thieves...and whistle-blowers. Applied to e-mail going outside the organization, it flags mentions of "sensitive" topics. Applied to internal e-mail, it flags a sin of omission: which employees aren't discussing social events with their colleagues and hence may be considered "alienated." If you're an alienated raiser of sensitive topics, it assumes that you're a risk. That's right: Not getting sloppy drunk with your co-workers can make a piece of software suspect you of perfidy.

The Next Generation Branch

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:03:09 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs' "Next Generation Branch" (NGB) showcase is located in sunny Sophia Antipolis (which is nestled gently between Nice and Cannes in the south of France, where I do not live...but I am not bitter about this, because Chicago winters build character). The NGB is an acknowledgement that when banks got Internet fever in the late 90s (as did we all) and closed their branches in favor of virtual points of presence, they made a mistake. It turns out that customers like branches. The like human tellers and personal service. They weren't content to deal only with ATMs and websites, and they began voting with their feet. To stem the tide, banks have begun opening branches again...but this time, they're looking for something different--some way to create additional value around the customer's branch experience.

Wikinomics 4: The Prosumers

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:10:20 GMT

Once again it is time for a post on Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, (co-author) Don Tapscott's take on the future of commerce. In this installment we cover the "Prosumers." Let me reiterate that this series is not a substitute for Mr. Tapscott's book—it's more of a taste. If you like the taste, I strongly recommend consuming the book directly.

Say "Aaaah" for Your Ride

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:34:40 GMT

A Kyoto-based outfit by the name of Fujikata is preparing to launch 10,000 smart cigarette vending machines, each equipped with a face analysis system designed to determine whether you're over 20 years of age (the legal minimum in Japan). If you're deemed too young, you'll have to swipe your driver's license to get your smokes, at which point the machine will presumably 1) dispense the goods and 2) congratulate you on being so well-preserved. One test found the system to be 90 percent accurate.

Accenture Technology Labs Asset: Enterprise Knowledge Retention

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:37:51 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs' Enterprise Knowledge Retention (EKR) tool is an integrated suite of applications designed to ease the transfer of knowledge from worker to worker. It was originally designed for outsourcing engagements (where it's had great success under the name Rapid Transition Suite), but has recently been helpful in facilitating knowledge transfer for mergers & acquisitions as well as situations in which a workforce is heading rapidly for retirement. (There's also been discussion around using it to facilitate expansion into foreign markets.)

More is More

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:07:18 GMT

Display manufacturer NEC has released a report on monitor size and its relationship to productivity. Surprise: There's a positive correlation. Big surprise: for editing tasks (text and spreadsheet) the gains can be as much as fifty percent. So What?

Accenture Technology Labs Project: Six Degrees of KEVIN Bacon

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:04:26 GMT

There was a game played in the 1990s called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The idea was to determine the smallest number of hops from any actor to Kevin Bacon, using movies as the links. So if Actor A was in a movie with Actor B, and Actor B was in a movie with Kevin Bacon, then Actor A's "Bacon Number" is two. (I regard the knowledge of pop culture needed to win this game to be nothing short of astounding.)

On Cozying Up

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:05:47 GMT

Twitter...yet again. Stephen Rose over at Fast Company has discovered a new use for the beast: Following the activities of business contacts with whom you want to ingratiate yourself. So What?

Web 2.0: A Partial Tour (With Unsolicited Advice)

Thu, 15 May 2008 17:11:48 GMT

About a year ago I was told to develop a keen, spontaneous interest in the enterprise implications of Web 2.0, a contentious beast that continues to draw a lot of attention. This I duly did, and as a result I have lots of wisdom to impart. I'm going to focus here on the social (i.e., no Rich Internet Apps or mashups) manifestations of Web 2.0. Space is limited: Wikis, blogs and social networks are all we'll cover. Hold tight--this'll be terse.

Perfecting the Potato

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:57:16 GMT

New Scientist is reporting on new gaze tracking technology designed for use in 3D virtual worlds. Gaze tracking has been used for years by people with motor neurone disease, cerebral palsy and other "locked-in" syndromes, but only to operate desktop interfaces. This more recent technology will bring the likes of Second Life and World of Warcraft to people who can't play them with a keyboard and mouse.

Lollicams

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:54:01 GMT

According to The Register, there were 1,400 incidents of crossing guard abuse (driving past while they're in the road, revving engines, shouting epithets, etc.) reported in the UK last year. Dozens of guards (they're called "lollipop ladies" because of the signs they carry and because, apparently, few of them are men) have been hit by cars.

Accenture Technology Labs Project: REST: Reducing Effort in Script-based Testing

Fri, 02 May 2008 16:38:13 GMT

The (narrow but very important) problem: Test scripts used for version 1.0 of an application will probably break when applied to version 2.0 of that application. Testers try to edit old test scripts so that they won't need to create new ones from scratch, but the process is slow, tedious and error-prone. It involves running a script until it breaks (this may take a while), figuring out whether it was a test script error and, if so, correcting it, and then starting over...potentially hundreds of times.

Take Your Ticket With You

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:39:23 GMT

London's Heathrow Airport has installed a new car tracking system in Terminal 5, a terminal the size of...well, it sounds big. Ten "football pitches" (quoting The Mail, here--as an American, I have no idea what they're talking about) would fit on each of its five floors which in total house almost 4,000 spaces. It's a complex in which you are pretty much guaranteed to lose track of your car between the time you park and the time you return from your trip.

Visual Shelf Monitoring: Preventing Apoplexy

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:32:06 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs' "Visual Shelf Monitoring" system uses security cameras and sophisticated object-recognition technology to monitor product placement on store shelves. When it detects a stock-out (no more Guinness on the shelf, for example--something of a tragedy), an alert is automatically generated and the store can rectify the situation immediately, thereby potentially increasing sales.

Wikinomics 3: Ideagoras

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:35:39 GMT

The more I read of Wikinomics, the more it's borne upon me that I can't do it justice in a dozen short articles. I'd originally hoped to "read Wikinomics so you don't have to," but I'm afraid I've been persuaded that that's hubris. I now think of myself as an ad for the book which, while perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be (and also a little breathless), is worth a read.

On Data Collection: Strangers With Candy

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:25:08 GMT

In an effort to cash in on the mania for consumer research, TiVo is introducing PowerWatch, a system that joins data on the viewing habits of its subscribers with demographic information. TiVo's knowledge of viewing habits is very detailed: It knows from second to second exactly what you're watching--so if you skip a commercial (or part of one)...they know. (Unsurprisingly, skipping is rampant.) And advertisers can get that information through TiVo's StopWatch service. (Then they claw deep grooves in the floor.)

Wikinomics and Mass Collaboration

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:28:11 GMT

I'm reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which is co-authored by Don Tapscott, the man who coined the term "paradigm shift," an act for which I have actually heard him apologize) before I go to sleep each night, which means I don't remember very much of it. (I bet you do the same thing.) But I'm intrigued by the parts I do remember, and over the next few posts, we'll survey Wikinomics insofar as I can recall it.

On Collaborating with Mimes

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:57:13 GMT

Work Windows is a collaboration system developed at Accenture Technology Labs. It answers the question: What if you built a collaboration tool and no one learned to use it? This is an important question, since nobody really wants to learn collaboration software; they just want to collaborate.

Wikinomics 2: Peer Production

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:47:05 GMT

Here we continue our analysis of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (co-authored by Don Tapscott) with a look at peer production. In the Wikinomics formulation, peer production occurs when people come together spontaneously to create content, ideally without being paid. The largest and best-known example of peer production is probably the Wikipedia, though Linux, a hugely successful open source operating system, runs a close second. ("Wikis" are environments in which multiple people can work collaboratively on the same document. The Wikipedia is a wiki.)

Give and Ye Shall Give Some More

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:02:44 GMT

There is a writer (in fact there are several) who's fond of giving away digital versions of his books. Yep. He distributes his intellectual property, the sweat of his brow, as if it were flu germs. And he rails against the short-sightedness of evil media dinosaurs (like the record companies) who don't understand the fundamental principle of the digital age: Give and Ye Shall Receive.

Talking About my Generation

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:20:15 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs recently put together a small, informal, internal briefing on Generation-Y, which is entering the workforce in ever-larger numbers. Gen-Y is sometimes perceived similarly to the way the hippy generation of the 1960s and 1970s was. In particular, they're thought to be impatient with hierarchy; to take orders badly; to be non-conformist; and not to be motivated by money. Of course, as Dave Barry once put it, the hippies' cherished values ultimately "had a huge impact on which radio stations they listen to as they drive their BMWs to their brokerage houses." So maybe we should take that assessment with a grain of salt. The question is whether, nonetheless, Gen-Y will have a significant impact on the workplace. We decided that there's one way in which it will.

On Talking for "Free"

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:29:58 GMT

It had to happen. California-based Pudding Media has introduced a free Internet phone service. You "pay" by watching ads that pop up on your screen--ads carefully selected by a computer that listens in on your conversation. Pretty neat, huh? Haha! Just kidding! Well, actually, I am not.

On Sheep

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:56:10 GMT

Digital Angel Corp recently received a patent for a miniature Radio Frequency ID (RFID)-based device that reports an animal's body temperature. The device is implanted with a syringe and can be queried with a small wireless reader. Potential applications include monitoring horses, cows, sheep and poultry for disease. The companion animal market is also being assessed.

London's Most Wanted

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:26:51 GMT

A recent report by the Liberal Democrats (a UK political party) on the London Assembly suggests that the £200 million that London has spent to deploy more than 10,000 (not a typo) surveillance cameras has been largely wasted, at least from a crime-fighting perspective. Boroughs with many cameras typically don't solve more crimes than boroughs with few.

On Finding the Fertile Crescent

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:31:22 GMT

Texas Instruments (TI) is working on a miniature color projector suitable for installation in cell phones. In fact, they recently demonstrated something along exactly those lines. When it will hit the market is anyone's guess.

On Getting a Second Life

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:21:10 GMT

Second Life is a virtual world "populated" by "avatars" (cartoonish remote controlled mannequins, basically) driven by "real" people sitting in front of their PCs. (One of the hazards of writing about Second Life is that you use a lot of quotation marks.) Second Life is "constructivist:" Its owner (Linden Lab) builds nothing but empty islands one mile square. The avatars (actually their human controllers) are responsible for creating roads, buildings, trees, cars, pathogens, etc. The result is a visually rich and eclectic "world."

Of iPods and Digits

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:26:02 GMT

In March of 2007, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's crime task force suggested that iPods should come with fingerprint readers that would lock out anyone who wasn't the owner. Presumably the way it would work is that an iPod would come tabula rasa and "imprint" on the first finger that touched it. Thereafter, if any other finger attempted access, the machine would lock up until it saw its master's digit once again. Aware of this situation, a thief wouldn't bother stealing the iPod in the first place. (Either that or he'd steal your digit, too.) Problem (more or less) solved. The same technique could be applied to cell phones, PCs, Playstation Portables and other electronica.

Benign ATL Obsession: Green Computing

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:36:51 GMT

This piece turned out even more technical than I expected it to be. Feel free to dip your toe in, but it might be best to skip it entirely unless you "swing geek." --Editor

On Gluing Things

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:33:39 GMT

A patent's been filed for an eye-tracking technology that uses magnetic contact lenses and a head-mounted sensor to determine which way you're looking. Military applications as well as applications for people with various physical deficits are seen as the most promising areas for the technology.

Mice on Your Back

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:54:50 GMT

Prolific idea-person Chei Wei Wang has developed the "haptic clock," an application that forces your cell phone to vibrate periodically so as to tell you the time. Long and short vibrations indicate hours and minutes respectively. Hours are given on a 12-hour scale (six o'clock am/pm is six long vibrations) while each short beat indicates a five-minute interval (so three short beats means quarter after the hour). You can set it to communicate the time as often as you wish. In addition to being both useful and clever, the application absolutely pummels your battery (apparently vibrating takes a lot of energy).

Variable Premiums the Intrusive Way

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:20:27 GMT

Scientists at the University of Nagoya have developed software that tracks your driving style. It knows how hard you press the accelerator/brake; your distance from other vehicles; and how violently you turn the steering wheel. Its ostensible purpose is to give you feedback that will make you a better driver.

On Sticking Your Nose In

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:31:55 GMT

By 9.30pm on a Thursday some months ago, a commuter jet had been waiting on the tarmac for three-and-a-half hours. The air conditioning wasn't working and people were crying, throwing up, or both. When the captain announced that the crew had "timed out"--reached the end of its shift--and that another crew was being sought (which would presumably cause further delays) David Ollila sprang into action. He pulled out a video camera the size of a roll of quarters (meant to be used by mountain bikers and other thrill-seekers), walked up to the cockpit and, standing well back from the door, began to interview the captain.

The Transparent Person

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:19:08 GMT

Third Eye, Inc. is offering a system that remotely monitors employees' pulse rates. The idea is that rates will spike when something important is happening--perhaps the employee is being robbed (or is robbing) or is dealing with a particularly difficult customer. Security and/or supervisors could investigate when an alarm was raised. Casinos and banks (places where lots of money sloshes around) are proposed as high-value environments for the system.

Catch the Cheetah

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:12:26 GMT

Fun new crowd-sourcing story today, boys and girls. Cheetah, Inc. is offering the Cheetah GPSmirror, a device that knows when you're headed into a speed trap and supplies a warning well enough in advance that you have time to "refocus, concentrate, and plan ahead," as Cheetah puts it. Time also, presumably, to slow down from whatever insane speed you were going so as not to unnecessarily disturb the overworked members of the law enforcement community.

A Rogue in the Limelight

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:26:41 GMT

Parents of a young student were worried that he was being harassed by his bus driver, so they put a voice-activated tape recorder in the kid's backpack. Turned out they were right. However, Wisconsin state law holds that conversations (though it wasn't exactly a conversation) cannot be intercepted except by police or people working in cooperation with police. So while the driver was arrested and tried, the recording cannot (as things currently stand--there's an appeal in the works) be used against him.

Flat Screens and Tall People

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:15:00 GMT

Sony has announced a flat, 2.5" (diagnoal), 120 x 160 pixel display so flexible that it can roll up into a 1" cylinder. It weighs in at a mere 1.5 grams. (Why do they always give dimensions in Imperial units and weight in Metric? No clue. I'll just rebalance things by pointing out that it's 6.35 cm and 0.053 oz.)

Shy no More

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:01:02 GMT

Shyno of Milan has developed a safe-ish way to communicate with and ultimately perhaps meet total strangers via cell phone. The idea works thus: You wear a special Shyno T-shirt prominently emblazoned with a unique numerical ID. Strangers who see you (street, festival, club) can text 48200 with your ID and a message for you. That message is routed to your phone. The clever part is that--even though he can text you--said stranger doesn't know your actual phone number.

Tarpon & SOA: What in the World?

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:39:49 GMT

(Editor's note: this article is important but contains a dollop of fairly deep technical stuff whose meaning tends to escape most people...including, I have every reason to believe, the author. Also, it may render you comatose unless you "swing geek." Probably best to skip it, actually.)

Surfing Your Clickstream

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:50:46 GMT

AttenTV has come up with a novel use for the clickstream--that log of the pages you visit as you surf the Web. Clickstreams are (potentially) a marketer's best friend: They supply perhaps the finest psychographic information available anywhere. Luckily, clickstreams are private--unless you sign up for AttenTV. Then they are transmitted to other AttenTV participants who are (in effect) looking at your screen as you navigate the Web. This purports to be entertaining.

Justin.TV

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:14:14 GMT

Justin Kan (just google him--I'm uncomfortable providing a link) is wearing a wireless, head-mounted camera and streaming the feed to the Web. He has promised to do this constantly with the exception of times when he's talking business. His is explicitly a commercial venture: He hopes to attract enough advertising that he can turn a profit and perhaps recruit a whole stable of "lifebloggers."

Nothing to be Alarmed About

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:32:36 GMT

In February, the Seventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals ruled in the case of two police officers who had quietly slipped a GPS tracker into the car of a "suspicious" man. The man sued under the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable searches and seizures). He lost. Interestingly, the government conceded that wholesale warrantless monitoring of all US automobiles would be a "different" matter. Different in what sense, I do not know. (I admit that I didn't read the opinion.)

On Crafting in Miniature

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 16:02:00 GMT

Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have shown that it's possible to build a virus into a passive RFID tag and have it spread (via read/write scanners) from one tag to another. Such a virus could even corrupt or infect the back-end database system with which the RFID reader communicates. I can't find a reference to the total number RFID tags in circulation today, but a quasi-random survey of articles suggests that it's well into the billions world-wide, which is an awful lot of disease vectors--probably more even than the vector count for bird flu.

On Living in the Public Eye

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:35:28 GMT

Someone (apparently outside the United States) has begun calling convenience stores and threatening to set off a bomb if customers don't disrobe and wire him money. There's a chance, according to police, that the stores' security cameras have been hacked such that the man on the phone can actually observe the proceedings.

On Wearable Electronics

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:48:49 GMT

Canada-based Solestrom has developed a bikini with a built-in dosimeter that's sensitive to sunlight. It will warn you when your cumulative exposure (over the course of a day) becomes dangerously high, and if you have the good sense God gave Gruyere, you'll head for the shade when it tells you to.

Surveillance and YouTube

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:00:39 GMT

Recently, a Brazilian businessman working in Cologne got an emergency call from his home security system. The man connected to his home's webcam via his laptop and watched as a burglar stood in his bedroom, trying on his clothes. Outraged (the burglar disdainfully rejected most of the man's wardrobe as hopelessly out of date), he phoned his wife, who phoned police, who surrounded the house and made an arrest.

When Your Whole Life is a Stunt

Tue, 29 May 2007 16:08:42 GMT

Late last year, Oregon Scientific came out with a new, lightweight "stunt cam" designed to be mounted on helmets, bikes, dive masks, bifocals, etc. It records up to two hours of 640x480, 30 fps video and is designed for thrill-seekers who want to preserve their dangerous, adrenaline-soaked activities for YouTube or America's Least Advisable Home Videos or whatever.

Mutter and Tweet

Mon, 21 May 2007 17:16:40 GMT

Twitter is a micro-blogging service. If you have an account, you can "tweet" posts of up to 140 characters, which in turn can be read by anyone who subscribes to your feed. What can you say in 140 characters? A few actual examples: "Heading off to a meeting with the uberboss;" "boredddd;" "looking at a projector;" "just chillin out;" "IDIOTS IN THE ROOM. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH;" and "Y'know, I had, like, forgotten that offshore Venice was founded--'cause it was more defensible--after Attila the Hun sacked Aquileia. Cool!" (Just kidding about that last one.)

Stepping out of the Frame

Thu, 17 May 2007 18:43:24 GMT

According to Parks Associates, 12 million LCD picture frames will be sold in 2010, up from 700,000 in 2005. They attribute this explosive (projected) growth to falling hardware costs and people's increased comfort with digital imaging technology.

Wiimote Comes to Mobile Phones

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:26:55 GMT

NTT DoCoMo (the Japanese cell phone company) has introduced a unit with built-in sensors that mimic those of the Wiimote. For the benefit of those of you living off the grid, I should explain that the Wiimote is the remote control (a pair of sticks) for Nintendo's hugely successful Wii gaming console. It has sensors that let it pick up your arm motions, which in turn can control a wide variety of games. For example, there's a fishing game that lets you "cast" into a river. The speed and direction of your arm determine where the hook lands. NTT DoCoMo intends to have similar games available for its phone.

What Privacy is Worth

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:53:19 GMT

Accenture Technology Labs recently supplied biometric technology skills and assets (in the form of its Travel Security Services solution) to the pilot deployment at Heathrow of miSense, a system designed to increase passenger flow, improve security, and reduce costs. Participants supply a facial image, two iris images, and 10 fingerprints. In exchange, they can accelerate certain human checks in the arrival/departure process. The pilot began in October 2006 and ran successfully through January 2007.

Mixing Plaid with Ordnance

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:10:48 GMT

Fashmatch.com allows you to mix and match pictures of real shoes, clothing and accessories...and then it doesn't let you buy the whole outfit with the simple push of a button.

TIKLed and Goosed

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:39:14 GMT

MIT's Media Lab is working on a project called TIKL (Tactile Interaction for Kinesthetic Learning) which is designed to improve the speed with which you learn certain kinds of tasks (things like ballet, Tai Chi, unleashing the proletariat, etc.). An expert's movements are recorded to millimeter precision using an optical motion capture system, then compared to a novice's attempts at the same movements.

TiVo in the Know

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:24:39 GMT

TiVo has long been excoriated by advertisers for providing "commercial skipping" facilities to ad-weary viewers. And it could indeed be a problem: One estimate (by Jupiter Research) puts the value of skipped commercials at $8 billion out of $74 billion spent. If true, advertisers have every reason to be concerned.

No Prvcy 4 U

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:30:02 GMT

Wharton professor Shawndra Hill has co-authored a study showing that targeting the network of friends surrounding a customer can be an extremely effective marketing tactic.

Kindness in a Box

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:57:32 GMT

Sindan Electrical Trading (SET) will soon launch its RoadBOX driving recorder in Dubai, UAE. It's a windshield-mounted videocamera that can sense sudden decelerations--as when you brake hard or hit something. When that happens, it saves the previous 14 seconds of "tape" (and the six seconds following) for later analysis. The video can be taken off the unit with a USB key. The price will be 1,500 UAE Dirham which is roughly 535 Tunisian dinars.

Not Cheating but Task Support

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:25:38 GMT

Three British persons were convicted of cheating a casino by using an unorthodox approach to playing poker. Their setup included a miniature in-sleeve camera (for imaging cards from beneath as they were dealt); an inconspicuous earphone; a wireless video link; and a truck containing a video recorder (to slow down the footage so the cards' faces could be easily read). During the game, the playing member of the gang was kept up to date (via the earphone) on the contents of her opponents' hands. This gave her something of an advantage, and the group accumulated roughly 250,000 pounds before being caught. (Greed was their undoing. In their last session, they made the mistake of winning 34 out of 44 hands, which a back-of-the-envelope calculation by alert casino staff revealed was just ever so slightly above the statistical average.)

Of Speeding and Blackmail

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:30:21 GMT

Back in 2005, The Register reported on a UK police project (the article calls it Gatso 2) whose thrust was to use cameras to identify vehicles' license plates as they go by. The information on who/when/where (WWW) would be stored for at least two years, and the system was expected to process 50 million plates per day. They were planning to deploy the cameras on motorways at 400-yard intervals as well as in parking lots and other areas. Stated intent: spotting stolen cars and cars whose owners hadn't paid their insurance. (I'm having trouble learning how the project turned out, but I'm going to run with it as far as I know it.)

Dance of the Blips

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:13:36 GMT

Loopt, Inc and Sprint Nextel (the cellular carrier) have announced a provocative new service that "scans" a 25-mile radius around you and supplies a real-time map of your buddies' locations. It's symmetrical, of course: If you can see someone, that someone can see you.

On Insectile Privacy

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:59:59 GMT

Wow Wee, Inc. has developed a remote-controlled dragonfly. It is probably the single most blood-curdling (in its implications) technology to debut at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Here are the stats: 1) It is about one foot long. 2) It can fly 10 minutes on a charge. 3) It seems to be able to hover. 4) Its range is about 100 ft. Here's footage thoughtfully supplied by CNet. Watch it if you dare.

More than Rats with Wings

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:42:11 GMT

According to New Scientist, a revolution is taking place in air pollution monitoring. As sensor packages become smaller, cheaper and less power hungry, it's becoming feasible to move from networks of a few large, fixed sensors to networks of hundreds of mobile sensors. "Mobile" implying both "people" and (as you've probably already guessed) "pigeons." Yes, a U.S. technology artist has on several occasions launched flocks of pigeons wearing sensors, GPS units, and cell phones from various California roofs. The pigeons, of course, immediately and fatally plummet to the ground.

Pilgrim Progress

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:11:55 GMT

The Register reports that in Yeovil, England, fingerprint security systems have been installed in many pubs. They are used to keep out "undesirable" patrons--i.e., those who tend toward drunken violence. A committee of landlords and police (called Pub Watch) decides whom to blacklist and for how long. Pub owners who adopt the system are allowed to stay open later. Encouragingly, there's been a 48 percent drop in alcohol-related crime since the system went live. (Domestic violence, however, is up over the same period. Maybe they need to put fingerprint readers on people's front doors.)

Brazil

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:11:24 GMT

Brazilian Senator Eduardo Azeredo has introduced a bill that would make it a crime to surf the Web behind a mask. If the bill is passed, you'll land in jail for four years if you "send e-mail, join chat, write a blog or download content anonymously." All such activities must be accompanied by your name, address...and phone number. Further, ISPs are required to keep logs of your activities for three years. The intent (this is always the intent) is to deter crime.

A New Charge on Your Phone Bill

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:23:37 GMT

IntelliOne of Atlanta has developed a system that monitors traffic speeds and spots jams as they occur. It works by repeatedly sampling the locations of nearby cell phones and calculating the distance between measurements--this gives it an overall traffic speed, which it can report to authorities or traffic information providers.

Almost too Painful to Tell

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:32:28 GMT

You may have heard that an 18-year-old Welshman had his friends film him as he stole a pair of glasses from a charity worker. He then (I can barely type this) posted the video to YouTube. (Presumably he expected to stay anonymous.) The police were thus able to identify and apprehend him. They let him off with a warning.

On Seeing but Especially on Being Seen

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 21:29:39 GMT

According to New Scientist, a computer vision system developed at the University of Texas (Austin) can tell the difference between friendly behavior (shaking someone's hand) and aggressive behavior (punching someone's face). If true, the technology could render moot the most vexing question in mass video surveillance: How do we get enough people to sit in the dark watching screens?

Eye in the Sky

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:08:18 GMT

I've finally seen Google Maps for Mobile, a phone-based service that (among other things) lets you select a city and see the level of congestion (red, yellow, orange or green) of the arteries leading into (out of) it. It's extremely inspiring.

Ready, Aim, Prosecute

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:16:59 GMT

CDEX, Inc. has developed (though it still needs a lot of field testing) a nifty, yellow, $10,000 UV-based gun that will detect trace amounts of illegal substances on a surface such as a door handle or (presumably) your lips. No word on its range, and apparently it'll have to go through a lot of bureaucracy before it's unholstered by your local gendarme, but it's an intriguing piece of technology nonetheless.

The Moving Finger

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:37:12 GMT

The University of Buffalo's VR lab has developed a cap for your index finger that is exquisitely sensitive to movement--to the point that it can actually be used as a 3D digitizer. It has an accelerometer, a force sensor, and a motion tracker, and its developers believe it'll hit the market in three years, which is admirably conservative--usually researchers predict (and it's always hubris) that they're only one year away from their first Ferrari.

On Rubbing Your Nose in It

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:32:55 GMT

The Builders Association and D-Box are collaborating on a piece of performance art (a concept that, along with spray cheese, I instinctively distrust) called Super Vision, which reportedly brings you face to face with the reality of your extended, semi-public data cloud. According to a Wiredarticle, information derived from ticket holders' box office receipts and public sources is integrated into the show. The goal, according to show director Marianne Williams, is for the audience "to feel datafied--the explosive, incisive effects of the datasphere."

Of SWFWAPs and Data Privacy

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:50:44 GMT

The Register reports that a patent filed by Amazon.com ("Providing gift clustering functionality to assist a user in ordering multiple items for a recipient") was published last week. Its title sounds innocuous and even laudable (I frequently need assistance in ordering multiple clustered gift items for a recipient), but there's a line in it to the effect that a database covered under the patent might contain information on "education levels, genders, income levels, interests, races, ethnicities, religions, occupations, sexual orientations." Most of this information, needless to say, could not be inferred reliably from product purchases and would have to come from external sources. Amazon has said that it has no "immediate intention" of creating such a database. Let's pretend for a moment that it has an...eventual intention.

The (Virtual) Reflex

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:46:56 GMT

Duran Duran has purchased an island in Second Life, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG--further proof of my contention that we’ve run out of decent acronyms) with a population of 370,000. The band plans to give virtual performances, but they won't be the first to do so. Earlier this year, the BBC rented a Second Life island on which it held several music festivals. (Mark Twain famously said that you should buy land because God isn't making any more of it. How wrong he was.)

On Not Learning from History

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:18:20 GMT

One use of implantable RFID chips is as replacements for biometric (and other) identification. Implant a chip in your hand and voila!: A single flamboyant gesture grants access to your car, home, work, bank account, credit, theater tickets, and so on. At least, that's the vision. Its success hinges on the "uncopy-ability" of an RFID tag--obviously, if someone can remotely make a copy of your tag, then he becomes, for all practical purposes, you...which means that shortly you'll be able to write a book called something like “How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Identity Theft." Imagine, then, the wailing and gnashing of teeth at one implantable biometric RFID chip vendor, one of whose tags has apparently been cloned using little more than a PC and a homebrew antenna...

On Doing the Security Dance

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:17:21 GMT

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (NIAIST--apparently all the good acronyms really have been taken) has developed a carpet whose grid of electrodes tracks your footfalls. The magic comes from the analysis algorithm: It can determine your age (between 20 and 60) and gender (with about 75 percent accuracy) based entirely on your gait. NIAIST believes the technology could be used to analyze traffic in retail spaces or to determine audience demographics at theaters and other venues.

Tan Don't Burn With Swisscom

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:29:51 GMT

Swisscom is exploring the use of remote-controlled planes for targeted advertising. Such planes would have a WiFi or Bluetooth transmitter that would send out messages to phones and PDAs. By blinking its lights and beeping, the plane would signal to crowd members that a message was coming and that they should check their mobile devices. Lotto results and weather reports are two kinds of information that have been suggested for this

Stalin on Privacy

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:28:29 GMT

The Wireless Camera Hunter is a handheld, video walkman-size device that automatically detects and shows (it's got a 2.5" screen) video transmissions in the 900MHz to 2.52 GHz range--the range used by nanny-cams as well as "secret spy" surveillance cameras. (Several online stores stock a wide variety of this sort of technology. It's worth checking out if only for the creepy feeling you get when you realize that people--perhaps even your neighbors--actually buy and use this stuff. Search on "spy camera.") As far as I can tell, the Hunter (and, presumably, the cameras) have no audio channel--these are silent movies.

How To Watch Television Patriotically

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:31:59 GMT

The State of Texas intends to install Webcams along parts of its 1000+ mile border with Mexico. The hope is that random members of the public (that's us) will watch the feeds and call toll-free if they see anything suspicious.

On Transmogrifying Labor

Fri, 26 May 2006 12:32:56 GMT

New Scientist reports that researchers at CMU have created an online multi-player game called "Phetch" that captions Web images for the blind. It works thus: One player views a randomly-retrieved picture and constructs a pithy paragraph describing it. Three other players (who haven't seen the picture) use the caption as a starting point to search for it. Whoever finds the picture first becomes the next pithy constructor. Repeat. According to New Scientist, 130 people playing this cooperative game managed to generate 1,400 captions in a week, at which rate 5,000 people could generate captions for every Google-indexed image in the space of 10 months. (Not as infeasible as it might sound: Many people who already do recording for the blind could probably be recruited.)

Of Lies and Margaritas

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:59:00 GMT

The busy folks at MIT's media lab are at it again--this time it's an "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" for people with autism. The device consists of a miniature, glasses-mounted camera and face-analysis software. The system doesn't recognize a face so much as "calculate" the emotional state of its owner based on expression--furrowed brow, flared nostrils, pursed lips, rapidly-growing canines, etc. It will signal you when your interlocutor is becoming bored or otherwise irritated with the conversation.

Of Lies and Margaritas

Fri, 26 May 2006 12:31:34 GMT

A Meditation on Intelligent Homes

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:02:00 GMT

Do you revile the concept of "intelligent homes"? I do. And I'm not some "luser" geek-snubbing Poly Sci major who's never burned his finger with a soldering iron. No: When I was 15 and the other guys were out getting dates, I wired up my room with momentary-contact switches and latching relays (we didn't have transistors in my day) (that was a joke) that made it possible to control the various lights from the easy chair, the bed, and the door. (For reasons that escape me today, I regarded this as a crucial architectural enhancement to the space.) So I understand some small part of the home automation urge, okay? In case it's not obvious, I intend to go off on a rant, here. Then I'm going to explain why I'm wrong. I tell you this now so you don't suffer intellectual whiplash. With that level-set, let's look at some proposed applications that pop up year after year in the intelligent home community.

Pedal to the Metal, Eye in the Sky

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:10:00 GMT

The State of Illinois Department of Transportation has started an ambitious new enforcement program for laws against speeding. Beginning in July and in response to several highway worker deaths, speeding in "Work Zones" will bring a $375 fine (first offense) and a $1,000 fine and 90-day suspension (second offense). The law will be enforced by camera vans that will take images of the driver's face and license plate. Pictures and bills will be mailed to your home. The State of Illinois Department of Transportation is through fooling around.

On Pushing it Around

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 18:13:00 GMT

A team in Gothenberg, Sweden, has created Push, a WiFi-based music-sharing architecture that automatically connects any two (or more) Push-enabled MP3 players that come within 20 meters of one other. The devices then use simple music profiles to decide which tracks to trade.