New gadget or technology that interests you?
By chucknoitall
@chucknoitall (98)
United States
March 31, 2009 6:38pm CST
What new thing have you seen that impresses you? I am a fan of Sci-Fi books, and I see a recurring theme in the ShadowRun series concerning smaller and smaller computers, and have seen hints of this technology in commercials and newer devices. For instance, in the Shadow-Run series, the computer is nothing more than a keyboard with a wireless connection to any router nearest to the keyboard, and since the entire city is high-tech, the routers are as prevalent as streetlights. Some of the characters in the series use the "boards" for hacking into corporation mainframes, some just use them to do business. One of the devices I have seen coming out of Japan fits this type of description, and it is real-a computer inside a case the size and shape of a large pen. It has legs that fold out like a tripod, and it uses a laser to project a keyboard on the surface of a table or desk. Finger movements on the "keys" are processed as typing, and the results of the typing can be projected on a nearby surface or into a special set of glasses the user wears. It is still a prototype for at least another year, but it is coming, "come hell or high water." Imagine what this could do to our technology and society as we know it? Thoughts, anyone?
1 response
@greenglitterturtle (2750)
• United States
1 Apr 09
hi chucknoitall...well since you're talking sci-fi. in the movie Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, i love the clear cube that the president of the galaxy inserts in the right place and it works like a DVD. first it's pretty cause it's clear and then it's functional. and in the same movie i like the time device that Ford has. it's colorful and fascinating cause it's in a different language from outer space. i liked it immediately and wished i had one. then in the movie, The Last Mimzy, i loved the toys the kids had. they did special spectacular things technologically. i loved the Mimzy rabbit that talked to the gire and the clear rectangle the boy had that had indivicual triangle designs within it. and the toys increased their intelligience. imagine how that would improve our quality of life.
@chucknoitall (98)
• United States
1 Apr 09
The clear cube is something sci-fi writers call an example of crysalline memory storage technology. We can't make it happen today, because we can't build a crystalline object at a molecular level that uses light playing along the molecule chains to display information encoded in the molecule chains like we have in the rings on a CD or DVD. We can change the rings using lasers to rearrange the patterns on the rings, and the latest version of DVD is a dual-layer, using more powerful lasers in the new DVD recorders to record data on two layers, one behind the other. The DVD is not necessary to flip like a vynil record, the laser just shoots further into the DVD. Even this one can be designed to be rewritable, using special inks that change when light strikes them.
As for the toys, it is possible, perhaps another century from now, for a device to approach real true intelligence, because intelligence is considered nothing more than a collection of information. If enough is collected, with the programming to use the information to make calculated decisions, even a machine can start to behave like a human. In the Terminator movie series, this happened, when SkyNet acquired so much information it became self-aware, because it had higher-level programming than most computers, and was allowed to collect as much data as it could handle. As it collected data, it began to reach conclusions that led it to understand it existed as an independent entity. When the human technicians realized this, and tried to shut it down, they started the war to end humanity. There was no way to stop the war, because SkyNet had multiple options to protect itself, even seeing timeline possibilities and manipulating them by sending Terminators back in time to make changes in history that would protect it or interrupt the progress of the human resistance.
What I was really asking, is, have you seen a REAL device that impresses you and presents a real possibility of changing things in our lives, maybe even in the next few years?
@greenglitterturtle (2750)
• United States
1 Apr 09
definitely holograms on headsets coming out in 2010 by infosys. they will help accident investigations. doctors and teachers.
