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The rumor mill has churned out an interesting bit of information. A report from Research and Markets states that Apple and Sony are hard at work developing video screen goggles. Details are sparse, but if these devices can recognize and interact with the environment they’re in, it’s a concrete sign we’re headed for a giant leap into augmented reality computing. (the origin of the above image is unconfirmed)
From the RIM report:
“Today’s personal viewers provide video only with limited visibility of the environment. Sony and Apple are developing the next generation personal viewer, the navigation/video sunglasses. These products will offer navigation features in full see-through mode as well as video viewing with a clip-on to block the background. We expect that clip-ons will be available to provide both see-periphery views of the environment, as well as full blocking of the environment to enable video immersion when desired. This new versatile product generation will further accelerate acceptance and sales of personal viewers,” the report explains.
[Distorted Loop via Electric Pig]
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Google’s to do list: Organize the world’s information? Check. Cloud based software, free email? Check. Solve the world’s energy problem?
Check.
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search giant has invested $10.35 million in a revolutionary new geothermal energy technology. It’s called Enhanced Geothermal Systems, and it’s reported that the system could generate thousands of times the yearly amount of energy needed to run the US (and beyond).
Clusterstock reports:
EGS expands the potential of geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam and hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.
A recent MIT report on EGS estimates that just 2% of the heat below the continental United States between 3 and 10 kilometers, depths within the range of current drilling technology, is more than 2,500 times the country’s total annual energy use.
[Clusterstock via Silicon Alley Insider]
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In a fascinating New York Times article, Errol Morris explores the power of images, and how they can shape our thoughts. He starts off examining the infamous doctored Iranian missile photo, and goes on to talk about why we need to question the images we view. He finds that people will tend to believe what they see, even if it’s not true. Changing history can be as easy as changing the photo - either content, or simply the caption.
Morris interviews Hany Farid, a Dartmouth professor and an expert on digital photography:
(Farid) “And even like this missile one. You start putting it out there and saying, “Oh look, this picture? It’s a fake. This picture? It’s a fake.” But you know what people remember? They don’t remember, “It’s a fake.” They remember the picture. And there are psychology studies, when you tell people that information is incorrect, they forget that it is incorrect. They only remember the misinformation. They forget the tag associated with it. They did these great studies, especially with older people. They give them information about health, Medicare, Medicaid, that kind of stuff. And they say, “this information that you heard? It’s wrong.” And what ends up happening is, that information gets ingrained into their brains, and even if they are subsequently told it’s wrong, they end up believing it.”
NYT: “Photography As a Weapon”
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Daily Galaxy has an interesting round up of hot careers for the future. Not too boring, and not too far fetched. All of the occupations jibe with trends we’ve been watching come down the line. 2012 is the year these jobs are predicted for, which is approaching fast. Give your boss notice now, and start brushing up on simulation engineering, robotics and space hospitality.
MSNBC’s 10 Careers for the future list:
•Organic food producers, retailers
•Computational biologists
•Parallel programmers
•Data technologists
•Simulation engineers
•Boomer companions, caretakers
•Genetic counseling
•Brain analysts
•Space tour guide
•Robot builders, tenders
[MSNBC via Daily Galaxy]
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Going “green” can be a pain in the neck. It can get really confusing trying to sort out all the options. It’s enough to make you want to forget it all, crank the AC and mix recyclables.
That’s why it’s refreshing to find a tool like RoofRay. It’s a website that helps you calculate the value of putting solar panels on your roof. Using Google Maps, you zoom in on your house, then use RoofRay to draw in solar panels. The site will then figure out how much energy you should expect to generate, as well as the cost to install a solar setup.
[via DVICE]
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Chrysler has announced they’ll offer cars with the option of built in Wi-Fi starting in 2009. This will be a first, but as usual, innovation is not cheap. The device itself will set you back $500, with monthly payments of $30 to follow. Although this might be helpful occasionally, is it really worth it? When most modern phones can access the net, and even act as a gps system, paying for car Wi-Fi seems redundant. It’s like going backwards, and installing a car phone, instead of using a completely mobile device.
[via men.style]
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Using a stapler to open Photoshop? A Notebook as your email password? A project from the Tangible Interfaces class at MIT gave birth to a weird but potentially useful idea - using physical objects as activators of computer processes. This unusual concept software is called Amphibian, and uses the very specific weight of everyday objects to trigger computer processes. Weighing the objects on a small scale connected to a computer will match the weight with the digital process, and make it happen.
From the Tangible Interfaces web site:
Amphibian allows users to easily imprint digital functions onto common everyday physical objects. Amphibian is a low cost, low infrastructure system that enables users to choose their own physical objects and imprint onto them almost any standard interface functions that take place on a GUI desktop. The goal of Amphibian is to create a system that the common user can implement and operate so that we may learn more about the digital-physical object relationships people will form.
[via Kevin Kelly]
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Make Magazine make an interesting comment on their site about how video (like the one in this post) has become the new user-manual and that we, or at least tech-geeks don’t tend to learn from text anymore:
We think there are some good opportunities for people who makes things to share their skills and how they create and make a living doing that (and we’ve shared some initial numbers). Videos are becoming the new “text files” - if you grew up learning about some techy topics by text files shared around you likely recognize the analogy. Etsy sellers, makers and anyone who makes things might want to experiment with this model of sharing their skills with other online via video and having actually things to buy as part of the video, but not just an “advertisement” or “infomercial”.
Nice comment on the power of video to share ideas too.
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