Eye Opening Devices

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opened with a slew of audio visual treats from all the usual suspects and appeared to cover a diverse range of new and emerging technologies.  The trick is to look out for similar  technologies being used in different areas because that's a sign of things that will stick.

We've all seen the crazy but desirable ideas that probably won't be a deal maker.  If you read my post the other day then you'll know where I stand on the innovative use of 3D TV technology being proposed by Samsung.

Read it here: Two Faced TV

But there's been a number of manufacturers showing at CES this year that are looking at harnessing eye control.  The technology isn't new; the military have used it in limited form in very controlled environments such as fighter cockpits, where the human workload can be excessive.

Chinese technology manufacturer Haier has demonstrated a TV that can be operated by eye control. No more fishing down the back of the sofa, I guess, unless you're in the habit of rolling your eyes.  They're not even putting their feet up at that demonstration as they say they have thought control TV just around the corner.  I'm not sure I'd be safe watching a TV that knew what I was thinking.  That's why I'm not allowed to hold the remote at home.

But you've probably not heard of Haier.  How about  Tobii Technology?  In case you're struggling a little, it's a swedish company. Like Volvo, just a little less well known.  They're proposing we carry out basic Windows operations using eye control.  The concept is that the operations involving the mouse, touchscreens and keyboards are further enhanced by zooming, scrolling and opening windows with the eyes.  The demos are pitched at Windows 8 machines that are incorporating the touchscreen technology but it seems likely that it will be of even more use to future tablet devices that are, of course, already missing an external keyboard.  And mouse, come to think of it.

Which is why Google, at last a name you recognise, has been patenting designs for eye tracking and control for a little while.  Early demo images look similar to something that Gordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation might wear, as compared to Tobii's approach which sits in front of the monitor, a bit like the Kinect, but with a lot less arm waving.

But eye control has to be a contender to push the usability of tablet and other computer devices.  We're stretching the capabilities of touch screen controls, having exhausted our finite amount of digits until evolution catches up, voice control is making inroads in fits and starts - Siri cracks me up more often than produces a useful response, Google's voice control does seem to work a little better - so eye control is a great augmenting tool that evolution has already provided us with.

On-line bingo might prove challenging, though.  Eyes down, anyone?

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Two Faced TV

It's the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) time again and day by day new gizmos are being rolled out.  The latest new offering has the whiff of an idea that takes an older idea and turns it into something more useful.

Samsung, the technology company that has spent more time in court fighting off Apple this last twelve months than anywhere else has come up with a cracker of an idea that should spell the end of the battle for the TV remote control.

They have leveraged the technology used to produced 3D TV at home - I'm not a huge fan of the 3D movement, Avatar did a sterling job and Up worked quite well,  However I felt the first half of the new Hobbit film was spoiled a little by the 3D effects which distracted more than enhanced.  OK, by the final frames the technology worked well enough, but I didn't feel the film gained anything from the technology.  Virtually averything else I've seen in 3D has been diminished by the effect, so I've not felt any burning desire to invest in a 3D TV and spend my evenings wearing coloured glasses indoors.

Anyway, that technology that can fool us into thinking we are looking at a three dimensional image on our TV screens can be used to present two independent TV programmes simultaneously.  The programme you see depends on the pair of glasses you are wearing at the time as the glasses, with built in speakers, screen out one programme leaving the other intact.

So I could sit watching a documentary while my wife could sit and watch a film beside me.  Now that's progress.  However I suspect it won't ratify the problems with the remote control - it will only take one mistaken change of channel on the other person's screen and that's the last I'd see of the remote control.  I'd have to pass constant instructions for channel and volume changes from that point on.

And I'm not sure what would happen if one of us is watching a really funny programme - I tend to laugh out loud which I'm sure would be irritating at the tear jerking moment of a romantic drama being watched adjacent to me.

So perhaps this isn't such a good idea as it sounds like the war of the remote control will escalate and divorce proceedings are likely to ensue after a week of watching different programmes.  So instead of designing a product that should allow couples to spend more time together, it looks like Samsung's invented one designed to split couples up instead.

Back to the drawing board, Samsung!

Related blog posts

Self Drive Cars Getting Closer

Tech Forecasts for 2013

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Why not take a look at my books and read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Worried/Interested in the secretive world of DLFs?  Take a look at this website dedicated to DLFs here, if you dare!

Self Drive Cars Getting Closer

Google have been playing around with self drive cars for some time.  They drove one around San Francisco for twelve months with a professional driver and a software programmer on-board.  The driver was there to intervene if the software got it wrong and was needed to prevent a crash.  The programmer was there to, well I guess he was there to write emergency code in the event of a crash.  Or to reboot if the OS failed.  OK, I don't actually know what benefit the programmer contributed but at least he kept the professional driver  company and could spot software glitches for fixing later.

Anyway, the driver only had to intervene once, and that was to badmouth an errant driver who ran up the backside of the Google-mobile.  All in all the exercise was a success and in fact in May last year Google was awarded a drivers license for its self drive car by the State of Nevada.

This is one of the spin off benefits Google has been aiming for with its Google Earth, maps and street view software.  The incredibly labour intensive generation of these programs which appear to have been donated for free to you and me has been for one reason only - to support high technology innovations such as self drive cars.

Why would we want cars to drive themselves, when driving is such fun?  Well, driving can be fun, is fun some of the time, but it's also often tedious, demanding and, let's face it, dangerous.  It doesn't matter how good a driver you are, or how carefully you drive for that matter, it only takes one inexperienced, drunk, tired or distracted driver in another vehicle to write you off.  And to be honest, most of us aren't really good drivers, or careful ones, all of the time.  We all have bad days, tired days, distracted periods and even if we don't drive back from the pub some of us will drive to work or the shops the morning after a session and probably aren't strictly sober at the time.

We're normal, I guess.

But one or a handful of self drive cars on the road won't make the roads a particularly safer place for you and me.  Sure, if we're in the cockpit of such a car it seems likely that it can avoid most of the problems we see on the roads today, but it will need a majority of cars to be driven by computers to make the process really beneficial.  On their own the self drive cars will be reactive and defensive in nature, using sensors to detect the positions, velocities and vectors of all surrounding vehicles.  It will be able to access the latest information about the road, the weather, the traffic jams and, assuming it knows where it's going, it can constantly monitor the determined route to optimise it to compensate for traffic jams and road works.

Get all of the cars on the road fitted out with the technology, though, and you've got an organism that can feed off each other.  They can share their individual destinations and route plans and can determine the optimum plan for all the vehicles on the road.  If there are a minimum of vehicles being driven manually then the defensive methodologies being developed today will kick in and accommodate them.

Perhaps the thorniest problem will be around whether you can allow non-drivers to use self drive cars without a license holder, or even if one can be used to pick up a group of tanked up passengers from the pub at chucking out time?

Is all of this science fiction?  Well, clearly not in Nevada, they've probably considered the subject of responsibility already.  Whether their determinations will be readily accepted across the board, in other States of the US as well in countries such as the UK, remains to be seen.  But at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in that State next week there are going to be announcements about self drive cars.  Specifically the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota is showcasing  a prototype Lexus that is fitted with advanced technology that monitors whether the driver is awake and can keep the car on the road and stop safely at traffic lights using sensors that take into account other vehicles and even pedestrians.

Perhaps Nevada is going to be issuing another drivers license to a machine next week.

Related stories:

Apple to buy Tom-Tom

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Why not take a look at my books and read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Worried/Interested in the secretive world of DLFs?  Take a look at this website dedicated to DLFs here, if you dare!