http://www.physorg.com/news141570427.html
http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/gesture_control/ (extra research)
About every household in America has a TV in it and it is seems to be a necessity in today's society. Well the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge has developed the technology control your home entertainment center and TV with just a wave of the hand. The way Toshiba TV works is when the viewer is in front of the display screen the TV will recognize the movement and then the control the display with the raise of a hand. “The gesture-control research is extremely exciting and is opening an array of possibilities for consumers, such as new interfaces for TVs and interactive displays in shop windows and information kiosks,” explains Professor Roberto Cipolla. Professor Cipolla and Dr Bjorn Stenger at Toshiba and Tom Woodley at the Department of Engineering have been working on the computer vision in human-machine interaction since 1992. The way the system works is there is single camera mounted on top of the display and is started with that wave of the hand. After that the software then tracks the person hand for certain cues and it will react to them. The system can even track movement in different lightning and rapid movement. Now the team is researching on how to deal with multiple users and how to track finer control. I think that this is a very cool invention and I think Americans will love it, but there are a couple things that I thought about that can hurt the system. What if some comes in the room and throw hands up, it could change the channel even if you do not want to change it then. Then if the person that can't use their hands, that is a downfall for them. But I also do not see the advantage of the hand control of the system; it might be the reason that it is just something new. If it comes into the market it might become popular but I do not think that it have too big of an impact on society.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Journal #4, September 21
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/wheelchair-0919.html
http://web.mit.edu/kvogt/www/wheelchair.html (extra research)
There are millions of Americans that use a wheelchair everyday, well MIT researchers developed a new type of autonomous wheelchair that can learn about locations in a building and then take the person to a certain place in the building in response to a verbal command. The robot wheelchair has a map of the building in it's memory and if the person gave the command to take me to my room or go to the living room the wheelchair will use the map and will drive itself to the room. The robot wheelchair will allow the person in the chair to relax and free from controlling the chair. To gain the maps or the computer system of the chair the person would first give a tour of the place and during the tour the person would identify an important stop or room. The robot wheelchair can even work outside, but when it is outside the chair can use GPS receivers to figure out where it is at. GPS does not work very well inside of a building so that is why the tour is needed for the chair. Right now the wheelchair uses a WiFi system to make maps and navigate through them. Nicholas Roy, the developer, said that the robot wheelchair still has a lot more stuff to put on it. He said that he would like to add a collision avoidance system using detectors to prevent bumping into any obstacles and he like to add a mechanical arm to aid the person by picking up any objects or opening doors.
I really like the idea and the sound of what Nicholas Roy has created. It is what I like to say that is technology that really helps society in a whole. There is a lot of people that are disabled and uses a wheelchair everyday and moving in a building or home can be difficult at times. Sometimes the people using a wheelchair cannot use the arms and legs so to have it to be verbal is awesome, along with after the command the chair goes on it own, so no assistance from a nurse, so I think that will allow the person to free more independent when using the wheelchair. I hope the people at MIT continue working on this project and hopefully it will be out soon.
http://web.mit.edu/kvogt/www/wheelchair.html (extra research)
There are millions of Americans that use a wheelchair everyday, well MIT researchers developed a new type of autonomous wheelchair that can learn about locations in a building and then take the person to a certain place in the building in response to a verbal command. The robot wheelchair has a map of the building in it's memory and if the person gave the command to take me to my room or go to the living room the wheelchair will use the map and will drive itself to the room. The robot wheelchair will allow the person in the chair to relax and free from controlling the chair. To gain the maps or the computer system of the chair the person would first give a tour of the place and during the tour the person would identify an important stop or room. The robot wheelchair can even work outside, but when it is outside the chair can use GPS receivers to figure out where it is at. GPS does not work very well inside of a building so that is why the tour is needed for the chair. Right now the wheelchair uses a WiFi system to make maps and navigate through them. Nicholas Roy, the developer, said that the robot wheelchair still has a lot more stuff to put on it. He said that he would like to add a collision avoidance system using detectors to prevent bumping into any obstacles and he like to add a mechanical arm to aid the person by picking up any objects or opening doors.
I really like the idea and the sound of what Nicholas Roy has created. It is what I like to say that is technology that really helps society in a whole. There is a lot of people that are disabled and uses a wheelchair everyday and moving in a building or home can be difficult at times. Sometimes the people using a wheelchair cannot use the arms and legs so to have it to be verbal is awesome, along with after the command the chair goes on it own, so no assistance from a nurse, so I think that will allow the person to free more independent when using the wheelchair. I hope the people at MIT continue working on this project and hopefully it will be out soon.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Journal #3, September 14
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5nGPtmoUVIJDgehVJ_snD6vDA6gD9342FUG0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator (extra research)\
Massive particle collider passes its first key tests, that rights. The particle colliders that you see in movies and in video games has been made and is being tested. It is the world's largest and its first test was last Wednesday in a 17- mile underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists fired the Large Hadron Collider around 10:30 a.m. and it did a complete lap. The collider cost around $3.8 billion and it was described as the biggest physics experiment in history and the purpose of this collider is to try to recreate the conditions just after the so-called Big Bang. The project leader Lyn Evans has been working on this project since its inception in 1984 and his team's work has final paid off. Now since they know that it works they will start experimenting with the collider to recreate the Big Bang in a few months. The collider is designed to sent a protons beam to the speed of light, which is close to 11,000 times a second around the 17 mile tunnel. The article said the project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers from 80 nations. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country that contributed $531 million. Japan is also an observer and it is a major contributor. There are also a couple concerns about the collider when they do the main experiment, when the particles do collide there is a possible that it can create a thing we know as a black hole. A black hole sucks particles into it and its' gravity is so strong that it can pull in planets and stars or another possibility is that it makes a gateway to another dimension. This is an unknown experiment that they will be conducting and the possibilities of things that could go wrong are a lot, but they are trying to approach every step of the experiments very carefully. My thoughts on the article are they that crazy or that smart to do so. I have heard some things about particle accelerator but that has been in fiction stories and games. I would never have thought that scientist has actually created it. If they do pull the collider off, I believe that it will have a very big impact on society and science itself. The things that they are trying to pull off is in a feat itself, trying to recreate conditions from the Big Bang. But because of my beliefs I do not believe in the Big Bang, so I do not think that it will work the way they want it to. I am still curious to see what well happen when they do attempt the experiment and hopefully it does not create a black hole and probably not another dimension.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator (extra research)\
Massive particle collider passes its first key tests, that rights. The particle colliders that you see in movies and in video games has been made and is being tested. It is the world's largest and its first test was last Wednesday in a 17- mile underground ring near Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists fired the Large Hadron Collider around 10:30 a.m. and it did a complete lap. The collider cost around $3.8 billion and it was described as the biggest physics experiment in history and the purpose of this collider is to try to recreate the conditions just after the so-called Big Bang. The project leader Lyn Evans has been working on this project since its inception in 1984 and his team's work has final paid off. Now since they know that it works they will start experimenting with the collider to recreate the Big Bang in a few months. The collider is designed to sent a protons beam to the speed of light, which is close to 11,000 times a second around the 17 mile tunnel. The article said the project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers from 80 nations. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country that contributed $531 million. Japan is also an observer and it is a major contributor. There are also a couple concerns about the collider when they do the main experiment, when the particles do collide there is a possible that it can create a thing we know as a black hole. A black hole sucks particles into it and its' gravity is so strong that it can pull in planets and stars or another possibility is that it makes a gateway to another dimension. This is an unknown experiment that they will be conducting and the possibilities of things that could go wrong are a lot, but they are trying to approach every step of the experiments very carefully. My thoughts on the article are they that crazy or that smart to do so. I have heard some things about particle accelerator but that has been in fiction stories and games. I would never have thought that scientist has actually created it. If they do pull the collider off, I believe that it will have a very big impact on society and science itself. The things that they are trying to pull off is in a feat itself, trying to recreate conditions from the Big Bang. But because of my beliefs I do not believe in the Big Bang, so I do not think that it will work the way they want it to. I am still curious to see what well happen when they do attempt the experiment and hopefully it does not create a black hole and probably not another dimension.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Journal #2, September 7
http://profy.com/2008/09/07/is-chrome-all-about-advertising/
Google brings out a new faster and more powerful web browser called Chrome and since it has been out for about a week, now its time to really look at it and its core. So what is Google, it is an advertising company and its' main field is business; the money that they got from ads from other companies they will use that money to make things such as Chrome. Since Google is an advertising company Chrome will probably turn in a advertising product for Google. The author gave a couple of reasons why he thinks that Chrome will influence the advertising industry. The first one is that everyone has some sort of pop up blocker and people are used to not having these ads pop up when searching for whatever they desire. With Chrome there is no pop up blocker and you would have no control to have one. Many people are content with the browsers that are out there now, so they will not change to Chrome just to search faster and more powerful, but would have to deal with all the pop ups. Google could make life a lot more easier when people are on Chrome and get rid of all those ads, but they will not; they will not make money advertising if they do not allow ads to pop up on their website. Another issue that people might have if they use Chrome is invasion of privacy. When someone searchs for something, Chrome will start sending every character that you type in to Google servers, the dangerous thing about that is Google is planning to keep 2% of that information you search for. The advertisers will notice what you have been looking for and then ads for those products will pop up and they will be trying to sell you that product, even if you do not need it. My thoughts on this is wow I can not believe you cannot block pop ups with Chrome. I cannot imagine me browsing the internet and pop ups come up about every page or more and more advertisements show up on the screen. I remember back in the day when a couple pop ups ads came up and I hated that, all they were to me was just a distraction to what I was doing; it did not push me into buying their product. It is a complete turn off to me if I do not have that option for a pop up blocker, so I would not install it. I understand that if Google also took away all the ads from their website then advertisers could lose their jobs, but I believe they can afford giving an opption for a pop up blocker for Chrome. I think that Google has enough money and probably will not suffer if they don't make money off the pop ups, in doing so they will most likely obtain more customers. The other issue about using what you type in for search and advertisers using that to help you find easier sounds good at first; but when I thought about it, they are just saving information about you that you might not want them to know even if Chrome is trying to help your search. I mean I like using Google and I use it about everyday, but what I have read from this article Chrome does not seem that appealing to me, so I think I will stick with what I have now.
Google brings out a new faster and more powerful web browser called Chrome and since it has been out for about a week, now its time to really look at it and its core. So what is Google, it is an advertising company and its' main field is business; the money that they got from ads from other companies they will use that money to make things such as Chrome. Since Google is an advertising company Chrome will probably turn in a advertising product for Google. The author gave a couple of reasons why he thinks that Chrome will influence the advertising industry. The first one is that everyone has some sort of pop up blocker and people are used to not having these ads pop up when searching for whatever they desire. With Chrome there is no pop up blocker and you would have no control to have one. Many people are content with the browsers that are out there now, so they will not change to Chrome just to search faster and more powerful, but would have to deal with all the pop ups. Google could make life a lot more easier when people are on Chrome and get rid of all those ads, but they will not; they will not make money advertising if they do not allow ads to pop up on their website. Another issue that people might have if they use Chrome is invasion of privacy. When someone searchs for something, Chrome will start sending every character that you type in to Google servers, the dangerous thing about that is Google is planning to keep 2% of that information you search for. The advertisers will notice what you have been looking for and then ads for those products will pop up and they will be trying to sell you that product, even if you do not need it. My thoughts on this is wow I can not believe you cannot block pop ups with Chrome. I cannot imagine me browsing the internet and pop ups come up about every page or more and more advertisements show up on the screen. I remember back in the day when a couple pop ups ads came up and I hated that, all they were to me was just a distraction to what I was doing; it did not push me into buying their product. It is a complete turn off to me if I do not have that option for a pop up blocker, so I would not install it. I understand that if Google also took away all the ads from their website then advertisers could lose their jobs, but I believe they can afford giving an opption for a pop up blocker for Chrome. I think that Google has enough money and probably will not suffer if they don't make money off the pop ups, in doing so they will most likely obtain more customers. The other issue about using what you type in for search and advertisers using that to help you find easier sounds good at first; but when I thought about it, they are just saving information about you that you might not want them to know even if Chrome is trying to help your search. I mean I like using Google and I use it about everyday, but what I have read from this article Chrome does not seem that appealing to me, so I think I will stick with what I have now.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Journal #1, August 31
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5972867.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS (extra research)
The development of GPS is truly one of those modern marvels of the late twenty century; it was first developed and used only for the military until President Ronald Reagan made it available to the public in 1983. The Global Positioning System (GPS) today has many uses, mostly used to aid navigation worldwide and a great tool for land surveying, map making, and other scientific uses. Now millions of motorists use GPS everyday in their cars, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates 20 percent of Americans have them; they are becoming cheaper and so showing up in more cars. Well for a few years the government and other law enforcement departments have been using it to help in cases to win convictions. Recently GPS was used to help convict Eric Hanson for killing four family members when they used his GPS unit in his Chevy TrailBlazer to help the prosecutor. Prosecutors analyzed the data from the Garmin GPS device to find out where Hanson had been on the morning when his four family members were fatally shot in 2005 and he was convicted this year for the killings. This is not the only time courts have used GPS to help is these type of cases; in recent cases it has helped convict a man charged to rape when it showed him "prowling" the street looking for a victim and also convicted a man who was charged with setting fire to his own house when his car was only 100 yards away during the fire. This is just a another way GPS is changing and helping our lives and there is no telling what is next. Alan Brill, a Minnesota-based computer forensics expert said, "What we're dealing with here is a use of the technology that I don't think the good people at Magellan or Garmin or TomTom really thought about when they were developing it." I believe what Mr. Brill is saying is true, for just being developed for the military to surveying land to helping solve criminal cases. I think that the author does a good job showing the advantages of GPS in these cases, but I also think that it can impose on the 4th amendment also. There is a thin line were it can impose, not many people like that the government can use a device to know where someone is, so it is an invation of privacy,but if they can get a warrent to convict the defendant, I say go head. Now since GPS is used in court maybe it will make criminals think twice before they commit a crime because there is GPS in more and more phones and cars, so it is a great deterrent. I have never been a big fan of some of the new technology that has came out, but I must say that GPS is a great and very useful tool to have.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS (extra research)
The development of GPS is truly one of those modern marvels of the late twenty century; it was first developed and used only for the military until President Ronald Reagan made it available to the public in 1983. The Global Positioning System (GPS) today has many uses, mostly used to aid navigation worldwide and a great tool for land surveying, map making, and other scientific uses. Now millions of motorists use GPS everyday in their cars, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates 20 percent of Americans have them; they are becoming cheaper and so showing up in more cars. Well for a few years the government and other law enforcement departments have been using it to help in cases to win convictions. Recently GPS was used to help convict Eric Hanson for killing four family members when they used his GPS unit in his Chevy TrailBlazer to help the prosecutor. Prosecutors analyzed the data from the Garmin GPS device to find out where Hanson had been on the morning when his four family members were fatally shot in 2005 and he was convicted this year for the killings. This is not the only time courts have used GPS to help is these type of cases; in recent cases it has helped convict a man charged to rape when it showed him "prowling" the street looking for a victim and also convicted a man who was charged with setting fire to his own house when his car was only 100 yards away during the fire. This is just a another way GPS is changing and helping our lives and there is no telling what is next. Alan Brill, a Minnesota-based computer forensics expert said, "What we're dealing with here is a use of the technology that I don't think the good people at Magellan or Garmin or TomTom really thought about when they were developing it." I believe what Mr. Brill is saying is true, for just being developed for the military to surveying land to helping solve criminal cases. I think that the author does a good job showing the advantages of GPS in these cases, but I also think that it can impose on the 4th amendment also. There is a thin line were it can impose, not many people like that the government can use a device to know where someone is, so it is an invation of privacy,but if they can get a warrent to convict the defendant, I say go head. Now since GPS is used in court maybe it will make criminals think twice before they commit a crime because there is GPS in more and more phones and cars, so it is a great deterrent. I have never been a big fan of some of the new technology that has came out, but I must say that GPS is a great and very useful tool to have.
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