The brilliant minds at MIT have created yet another unbelievable new product that further enhances our ability to communicate and obtain information. With the integration of iPhones and Blackberries into our society, it may seem like information is at our fingertips. It is nothing compared to the new product that MIT is in the process of creating. Called the Sixth Sense, the device feeds the user information depending on their gestures and turns any surface into an interactive, touchable display. It only consists of a webcam and a battery powered projector with a mirror, and this all is programmed to your cell phone. The $350 model they built is only a prototype, and it will only improve as time goes on. You use your fingertips in order to tell the device what to do and how to use the interactive display. Two fingers on each hand have different fingertip colors (for now, the more stylish way is to just paint your fingernails different colors), and the device reads the gesture you make with these fingers. There is no definite date for release, but the MIT said the product has the potential to be released today if they wanted to. The possibilities for this product seem endless and are at times, unbelievable.
The Sixth Sense’s main goal is to integrate technology and the internet into everyday life. The director of the project, Pattie Maes says, “By making available information needed for decision-making beyond what we have access to with our five senses, it effectively gives users a sixth sense”. The product is able to do numerous things, all without pulling out your cell phone. You can display a keypad onto your palm, press the numbers, and make a call. By putting your fingertips into a square shape, the camera reads this as taking a picture and will take a picture of whatever you’re facing. The camera also can read objects such as boarding passes and products. If you put your boarding pass in front of it, it tells you whether your flight is on time and if any changes have been made to it. Also, it scans products, and depending on what you set your preferences to (as in if you want products that are good for the environment), it will say whether the product meets these criteria. One of the very useful features has to do with books. If you go to the bookstore and put a book in front of the camera, it will project information from Amazon.com on the ratings for the book and how much it costs there. If you open up the front cover, it gives you information on the author, critiques from those who have read the book, and summaries. If you open the book to any page, it calls up background information from the internet on useful things found on the page. Also, one of the more controversial uses is the ability for it to give you information on people. When you meet someone, it can project information on what they do, where they work, and other attributes about them.
I think this is a fascinating and exciting new product. I wouldn’t buy it right now because it still has some kinks to be worked out and is rather bulky-looking. I think with time, they will be able to make it smaller, and it could end up being the size of a pin you wear on your suit coat someday. I think the uses for it are clearly obvious. From making a call and bringing up your email, to getting a video projected about the story your reading in the newspaper, this product enhances our ability to easily receive and use information. Besides the convenience part of the product, it also will be useful in less obvious ways. In the future it has the possibility to turn sign language from someone who is deaf into audio and maybe increase the abilities of those that are handicapped. I think this product can eventually be used in the corporate world, and will help companies have information on their products and customers right at their fingertips. Although this product has a ways to go before it is integrated into society, I think it has a very bright future ahead.
Sources:
http://www.cio.com/article/489089/MIT_Wearable_Gadget_Gives_You_Sixth_Sense_a_la_Minority_Report_?page=2
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
3-D To A New Level
As sports fans and collectors alike can attest, trading cards used to be all the rage. The key phrase there is used to be. Sports trading cards have definitely seen better days. What was once a $1 billion dollar industry has shrunk to $200 million in yearly revenue. Nowadays, with the increase in technology, a struggling economy, and maybe even the recent scandals in baseball, trading cards are no longer as popular as they used to be. I remember exchanging cards with friends, looking up prices, and organizing them all into neat little binders. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown older and no longer do this, but I rarely see younger kids doing it as much as I used to. Topps, one of the leading companies in card sales, have decided the way they do trading cards must be different; they’re going virtual.
Topps has now introduced webcam-enhanced 3-D baseball cards. With the help of Disney exec Michael Eisner, Topps has tried to bring baseball cards back and involve the internet and technology savvy younger generation. For $2, you can buy a pack of 12 cards, or for $1, you can get five. By holding the card up to a webcam, a 3-D avatar springs in life and rotates around the card allowing a view from all sides. Technology created by Total Immersion even allows the buyer to play simple batting, pitching, and catching games via the keyboard depending on what position the player plays. I believe it is an awesome idea, and may be just the tip of the iceberg of where things may go from here.
The technology used to create these cards is awesome, and I believe it’s an idea that will not only create a new and deeper market for cards, but may also be used for different products and aspects of business and marketing. Kids nowadays love video games and technology, and this product delivers using both. With the interactive features, I think kids will enjoy this new product. Gone are the days of just looking at the stats on the back of the card, but actually interacting with the card itself. One downside to the baseball cards is that the buyer must have a webcam. However, almost all laptops now come equipped with webcams and they have become increasingly popular.
With this new technology, I think other companies might benefit from trying to use it. If you take a car dealership or a real estate group for instance, they would be able to put their products (cars/houses) onto these cards, and allow the customer to get a 360 degree view of the product right in their hand. I think it could also be a great way to market other sports teams and products as well. Its amazing technology and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here.
"Topps Launches Webcam-Enhanced 3-D Baseball Cards"
http://www.switched.com/2009/03/09/topps-launches-webcam-enhanced-3-d-baseball-cards/
"Webcam Brings 3-D to Topps Sports Cards"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/technology/09topps.html?ref=technology
Topps has now introduced webcam-enhanced 3-D baseball cards. With the help of Disney exec Michael Eisner, Topps has tried to bring baseball cards back and involve the internet and technology savvy younger generation. For $2, you can buy a pack of 12 cards, or for $1, you can get five. By holding the card up to a webcam, a 3-D avatar springs in life and rotates around the card allowing a view from all sides. Technology created by Total Immersion even allows the buyer to play simple batting, pitching, and catching games via the keyboard depending on what position the player plays. I believe it is an awesome idea, and may be just the tip of the iceberg of where things may go from here.
The technology used to create these cards is awesome, and I believe it’s an idea that will not only create a new and deeper market for cards, but may also be used for different products and aspects of business and marketing. Kids nowadays love video games and technology, and this product delivers using both. With the interactive features, I think kids will enjoy this new product. Gone are the days of just looking at the stats on the back of the card, but actually interacting with the card itself. One downside to the baseball cards is that the buyer must have a webcam. However, almost all laptops now come equipped with webcams and they have become increasingly popular.
With this new technology, I think other companies might benefit from trying to use it. If you take a car dealership or a real estate group for instance, they would be able to put their products (cars/houses) onto these cards, and allow the customer to get a 360 degree view of the product right in their hand. I think it could also be a great way to market other sports teams and products as well. Its amazing technology and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here.
"Topps Launches Webcam-Enhanced 3-D Baseball Cards"
http://www.switched.com/2009/03/09/topps-launches-webcam-enhanced-3-d-baseball-cards/
"Webcam Brings 3-D to Topps Sports Cards"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/technology/09topps.html?ref=technology
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Digital Transition
As February 17th swiftly approaches, people are readying themselves for the switch from analog to digital television. The transition will, in theory, improve overall picture and sound quality, along with a host of other benefits including making more efficient use of the broadcast spectrum. That’s if you can figure out how to hook it all up.
A basic definition for analog TV is signals that are transmitted to your TV by continuously varying radio waves. Most analog televisions are the big box TVs with the bunny rabbit antennas on top or TVs with a rooftop antenna. After February 17th, these types of TVs will no longer receive signals unless you purchase a DTV converter box. Along with these antenna TVs, televisions without a digital tuner will need a converter box. One of the hardest parts is figuring out if your TV has a digital tuner or not. It gets confusing because a lot of newer televisions have stickers exclaiming they are “HD-ready,” but they do not include digital tuners so they will need this converter box.
The converter box has been available for several years, although the market was limited because it was fairly pricey at around $200 or more. The price has since dropped dramatically, and you can get one from around $40 to $60. The government is doing its part to help by offering a $40 coupon to anyone who applies for it, but there is a waiting list of over 2 million people.
The people that are affected by this digital transition are the ones that are least ready for it, the elderly and the poor. If money is hard to come by and you’re trying to support a family, the last thing you want to do is spend money on a converter box. Some older folks have used rabbit ears all their lives because that is all they’ve known. My grandma is one of them. She could easily have had cable or satellite hooked up, but she doesn’t want to deal with it, or pay for it. She reads instead of watching TV, and only needs the television for the news. Is she living the past? Sure, but she likes it like that. Now she needs to get a converter box for her television, which will cost her money and time trying to figure out how to set it up. Elderly folks are not as tech-savvy as the younger generation, so hooking up the converter boxes can be tough work for them. It may seem easy to you and I, but for them it might be something they’ve never done before.
According the Nielsen Research Center, an estimated 6.5 million homes are not ready for the digital transition. Because of this fact, the government has recently put a bill forward to delay the digital transition from Feb. 17 to June 12. On 1/28/09, it was voted down in the House, but next week it will most likely be voted on again. There are positives and negatives to the delay. A positive would be that with so many households not ready, the delay would give them time to get the converter box. I think the negatives heavily outweigh the positives though. The coupon program, which ran out of money in January and has already cost over $1 billion, would have to be continued. An additional $650 million would have to be spent on coupons and educational programs about the transition. This would be an unnecessary use of the government’s money, especially in such hard economic times.
Sources: "The Digital TV Transition: More Confusion", New York Times, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/the-digital-tv-transition-confusion-reigns/
"Analog TV Shutoff Still Likely to Be Delayed", New York Times
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/analog-tv-shutoff-still-likely-to-be-delayed/
http://dtvfacts.com/faq/
https://www.dtv2009.gov
A basic definition for analog TV is signals that are transmitted to your TV by continuously varying radio waves. Most analog televisions are the big box TVs with the bunny rabbit antennas on top or TVs with a rooftop antenna. After February 17th, these types of TVs will no longer receive signals unless you purchase a DTV converter box. Along with these antenna TVs, televisions without a digital tuner will need a converter box. One of the hardest parts is figuring out if your TV has a digital tuner or not. It gets confusing because a lot of newer televisions have stickers exclaiming they are “HD-ready,” but they do not include digital tuners so they will need this converter box.
The converter box has been available for several years, although the market was limited because it was fairly pricey at around $200 or more. The price has since dropped dramatically, and you can get one from around $40 to $60. The government is doing its part to help by offering a $40 coupon to anyone who applies for it, but there is a waiting list of over 2 million people.
The people that are affected by this digital transition are the ones that are least ready for it, the elderly and the poor. If money is hard to come by and you’re trying to support a family, the last thing you want to do is spend money on a converter box. Some older folks have used rabbit ears all their lives because that is all they’ve known. My grandma is one of them. She could easily have had cable or satellite hooked up, but she doesn’t want to deal with it, or pay for it. She reads instead of watching TV, and only needs the television for the news. Is she living the past? Sure, but she likes it like that. Now she needs to get a converter box for her television, which will cost her money and time trying to figure out how to set it up. Elderly folks are not as tech-savvy as the younger generation, so hooking up the converter boxes can be tough work for them. It may seem easy to you and I, but for them it might be something they’ve never done before.
According the Nielsen Research Center, an estimated 6.5 million homes are not ready for the digital transition. Because of this fact, the government has recently put a bill forward to delay the digital transition from Feb. 17 to June 12. On 1/28/09, it was voted down in the House, but next week it will most likely be voted on again. There are positives and negatives to the delay. A positive would be that with so many households not ready, the delay would give them time to get the converter box. I think the negatives heavily outweigh the positives though. The coupon program, which ran out of money in January and has already cost over $1 billion, would have to be continued. An additional $650 million would have to be spent on coupons and educational programs about the transition. This would be an unnecessary use of the government’s money, especially in such hard economic times.
Sources: "The Digital TV Transition: More Confusion", New York Times, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/the-digital-tv-transition-confusion-reigns/
"Analog TV Shutoff Still Likely to Be Delayed", New York Times
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/analog-tv-shutoff-still-likely-to-be-delayed/
http://dtvfacts.com/faq/
https://www.dtv2009.gov
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