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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/17/2009 : 18:36:14
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Hat tip to Greg Laden. In this short, nine minute TED video, Patty Maes shows off a remarkable device developed by Pranav Mistry. Frankly, this demonstration blew my mind.
In the future, it seems, we will have even more bizarre public behavior than people walking along apparently talking to themselves. Despite this, it may be worth it.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/17/2009 18:39:40
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2009 : 19:18:54 [Permalink]
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Oh, goody...a better mousetrap. Next step would be to transplant all this stuff - save from wearing it; or maybe a heads-up display on one's windshield while driving, or inside one's eyeglasses.
Guess the market place will determine if this 'wearable tech' stuff will take off or not.
Neat stuff...logical next step in 'instant googlification' technology. Jeez...did I just coin a phrase?! |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 01:26:03 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ricky
I'm a bit skeptical about the uses. The possibilities are there, but is the software? Is a company going to get pictures of all items in your typical grocery store to do comparisons? And the annotation in the book? Where does that come from? |
Exactly. In theory the device could be programmed to identify every species of life on Earth. If you're walking along a forest path and spot an unusual bird or a pretty flower, the camera could instantly capture the subject, then provide you with the species' name and everything else you could ever want to know. But in practice a whole slew of things need to come together. Current imaging software has trouble consistently identifying even a human face, let alone hundreds of thousands of unique species. And even if that hurdle could be successfully overcome, as you say there is the question of content. Who's going to collect, edit and format all that information? I think every one of us would love to have a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in our pocket, but somebody needs to write the entries.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 03/18/2009 01:29:07 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 03:51:54 [Permalink]
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H.H., does this thing need to have data on everything? You could start out with a small set of entries for common things, and expand your personal database as you go. If the device really takes off I can see many people creating specific data sets and sharing. Wikipedia style. And some professional quality data sets would probably be available for $$.
Facial recognition software is constantly improving (read something recently about this, can't find it now... bleh) and is reliable under optimal conditions. Like a still target, close range, high res camera, front on view.
Something else occured to me as well when watching this. RFID tags could be incorporated into the packaging of goods, and a RFID reader integrated into the device. That would enable rapid searching of a large database and not rely on the camera exclusively for identifying something. Each device could have its own RFID, readable by other devices, as well. That would enable anyone who had one to identify other users nearby, with user defined privacy settings included.
One sure way to improve ability of a piece of technology, like image/face/object recognition software, (using TVs as an example) is commercializing it. If it becomes popular and the use widespread, the technology will improve.
Looks like a pretty nifty idea to me.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 09:22:14 [Permalink]
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| Very cool. Right now I have a basic cell phone....no "crack berry". But something like this (refined of course) I would seriously consider. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 09:30:17 [Permalink]
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| We are on our way to becoming Borg. Resistance is futile.... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 10:14:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
We are on our way to becoming Borg. Resistance is futile....
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Thats fine just make sure you leave the other 6 billion people alone, we're no threat to Borg, really. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 13:08:10 [Permalink]
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Like anything else new, this has positive and negative implications of course.
Might lead to something really useful for blind people, with a variety of virtual reality implants or garments.
Reminds me of the "Technomage" in science fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technomage
On the negative side, though mundane - assessing a product in the store could be influenced by a competitor's troll-like messing with initial information, requiring constant editing akin to what Wikipedia has to do with political data.
A person in the voting booth - sure, one can take an iPhone with internet access in the booth now, but what about unwanted reminders from Fox News popping up in your "reality" while you're voting for a candidate or proposition?
Joe meets Sam on the street and is considering hiring Sam for a job. Joe see's Sam has bad credit, (though Sam paid off that bill and was assured it would be removed from his record.)  |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 14:18:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ricky
| Guess the market place will determine if this 'wearable tech' stuff will take off or not. |
It's called bluetooth.
I'm a bit skeptical about the uses. The possibilities are there, but is the software? Is a company going to get pictures of all items in your typical grocery store to do comparisons? And the annotation in the book? Where does that come from?
The camera, calculator, watch, and book review from amazon seem like much better applications.
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I was talking about the thread's topic gadget, not the years old bluetooth technology, which is cool and well established in its own right.
In as far as the 'in-store product info' example shown...when developed, I can see this gadget maybe reading UPC barcodes for product specific consumer info. Either web based or store wireless...it'd have to be universal to work everywhere the same for everyone.
I can see this 'Borg' gizmo taking off, with more and more uses, as talked of in the video, being developed.
In as far as a shopping aid, there can be a information saturation point -- that is, I may not give a rat's patootie about the product comparisons between the ten kinds of canned green beans on the shelf in front of me. Too, there's that 'sensory overload' thing to consider..where and how far does one go with this stuff. Personal choices.
Then again, for one reason or another, this gadget could just fall on its face, like some many others before it.
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2009 : 19:23:54 [Permalink]
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If the goal is a seamless and intuitive experience I think RFID is the way to go. All the data from a bar code, and more, can be help on an RFID chip, and mere proximity to the object would let you access that data, plus whatever data it links to in your personal database.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2009 : 12:19:10 [Permalink]
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I have to admit that when I first read the title I thought this was going to be about a device that lets you see dead people.  |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
| Edited by - astropin on 03/19/2009 12:19:39 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2009 : 13:08:42 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by astropin
I have to admit that when I first read the title I thought this was going to be about a device that lets you see dead people.
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The devices you are thinking of are called "spectacles." Wear 'em and walk into any morgue.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Prototype wearable "sixth sense" device demoed
