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Thursday, February 21, 2002 |
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Digital data puts Mars on map. Researchers produce the most detailed atlas ever made of Mars and put it on the internet for all to see. [BBC News: sci/tech]
Image here.
Commentary: While the map is not the territory, this is one of the many first steps in us getting there. By having an idea as to what the terrain is like, we can then make a more educated choice as to where we are going to land.
9:14:00 AM 
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Point-'n'-Shoot Sound Makes Waves. New transmitters can aim sound waves so that only individuals in a crowd can hear them. The U.S. military sees a weapon in the making. By John Gartner. [Wired News]
Commentary: Cool tech, especially for the ability to have different people in the same room hear different sounds at the same time. no more fighting over the volume when my wife is listening to Jazz and I'm watching a movie, all without the need for headphones.
9:07:00 AM
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Webcasters Learn Cost of Music. The U.S. Copyright Office says webcasters must pay the recording industry .0014 cents per song. Doesn't sound like much, but online broadcasters worry that it's too much. By Brad King. [Wired News]
Abstract: Webcasters are to pay .14 cents per song, per listener to play tracks over the internet. Radio stations will pay .07 cents per song, per listener.
Commentary: This is only half the story, as thre is considerably more detail here. Additionaly, webcasters have to track the following information about their listeners:
- The name of the service or listener
- The channel or program
- The date and time that the user logged in (in the users timezone)
- The date and time that the user logged out (in the users timezone)
- he time zone wehre the signal was recieved (user)
- Unique user identifier
- The country in which the user recieved the transmissions
I forsee this as the end of webcasting as we know it, unless folks set up pirate stations.
8:56:16 AM
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Robot care bears for the elderly. Robot teddy bears are just one of the ways digital technology is being used to care for the elderly in Japan. [BBC News: sci/tech]
Commentary: Pretty cool use of tech to help keep track of how the elderly are doing a nursing home run by Matsushita. Yes, Panasonic's parent company. Currently the bears are wired into the network, but I am sure a wireless solution is on the way. The bears are used to monitor how the patients are doing, including noting how long it takes for the patients to respond to questions.
Looking at the advances made by Honda and Sony with their robot systems, both bipedal and quadraped respectively, I can see a point in time where people will have a robotic companion, equipped with a built in GPS and cell phone. Owners can then call for help when needed, take their medication on time, be tracked if they tend to wander off, and get directions should they get lost. This could work for kids as well.
5:15:23 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Ryan Greene.
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