The technology today continue to advance towards some really amazing abilities with robotics and bio-mechanical (mind-controlling) abilities such as this video with people being able to mentally control a prosthetic arm. Unfortunately am unable to embed it, so you will have to click on the link above to actually watch the video which I found on Technology Review.

Of course, this may seem somewhat similar to the Borg (with a picture of Jean-Luc Picard as Locutus), but is different in that there is no collective control over the device with sole control belonging to the wearer themselves. One of the interesting things in the future will be whether humans first become integrated with mechanical parts before the advent of the Singularity of artificial intelligence.

Bookmark To:

Google, knowing that digital TV will become mandatory within the US removing the ability to use all analog TVs without converters, has introduced a digital video recorder that can report for Google TV ads into Google AdWords.

Through a partnership with Dish Networks, the tool monitors time-shifted data from DVRs to give advertisers insight into how and when viewers see ads during the playback of recorded content. About 25% of television households in the U.S. have digital video recorders or DVRs installed, according to the Mountain View, Calif., company.

Google said it processes DVR viewership data from millions of set-top boxes to provide accurate, detailed time-shifted impression counts. There are several ways to view the number of impressions, from same day to seven days. As with all metrics in Google TV Ads reports, time-shifted impressions reflect the viewership of your specific TV commercial, not just general program viewership. The data is available to Google Adwords TV advertisers for free.

This, of course, leads to it being used within Google Analytics to provide additional information on the ads’ ROIs for free as well.

Would this be television’s savior as companies shift budgeting dollars to the Internet that has the ability to track at a deeper level? Maybe, but the problem still occurs that there is no direct correlation to one watching the advertisement and actually seeing the ad beyond the use of vanity URLs that could potentially come through other marketing channels.

That said, computers and TVs are slowly (in a technological advancement aspect) merging into one whole unit that will likely make the DVR specific device obsolete in ten to twenty years once devices such as HP’s Media Center become the norm and TVs becoming just tertiary (not secondary because one has to have two computer monitors) monitors that connect wireless to a household mainframe computer.

Unsure about how that would work? Look at how Youtube is becoming interactive now and the huge jump in tracking that will provide in the future for television (or online video content) with a simple mouse click away.

Bookmark To:

Get ready for a more “Minority Report” world as new public ads could actually be watching you and changing the ad based on who is looking at the ad:

“Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer’s gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity — and can change the ads accordingly. That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens.”

Search engines have already numbed people to a heavy amount of data analysis and tracking that goes on around the web in order to provide more and more relevant ads (assuming that advertising agencies and the like are doing the job properly), so it was only a matter of time before offline ads become very in-depth as well.

As a thought process it sounds scary, but these things get rolled out over time in a way that people just get used to seeing them as a part of everyday life. For example, when you sign up to GMail, you give Google (that is, its algorithm) the right to “read” your email in order to serve you relevant ads. I personally find that quite horrific as I consider all my emails to be private and non-negotiable for any kind of reading, but millions of people use the service as they realize that there is no real harm in allowing an algorithm to serve you ads and nothing else.

In the end, public ads that watch you will become an everyday thing–just as long as the ads are not using your name as you walk by.

Bookmark To:

I wanted to put in a prediction here and now before mind-gaming really takes off (and yes, before I actually have the product) that without knowing the fundamental code behind the devices (caveats) I wanted to make a prediction on the likelihood of mind-gaming tournaments. The prediction I have with mind-gaming tournaments is not in the area of CounterStrike to use your mind to play most of the game, but rather to use your mind against other players.

Think of it as the next-generation gaming that will take off as a more violent Wii game without the remotes. You have objects around the room that you can pick up and throw or use against many other players, with each player respectively trying to do the same to you. Heck, it could be called “Telekinesis Wars” where armies of telekenetic warriors run around and use their mind powers (through the mind-gaming device) to fight other players. So what would make this different than the use of a mouse? It would rely on how “strongly” your mind-gaming abilities are with the device (don’t ask me how, this is just a fun prediction) such that when two players tried to pick up the same object, there would be a battle of the minds for control of the object.

Would be like Peter vs Sylar in Heroes, no? Heck, that would even be the perfect game for the mind-gaming device regardless too.

Bookmark To:

Want this ability:

This would make my job more interesting:

The U.S. Army is developing a technology known as synthetic telepathy that would allow someone to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. The concept is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG…

Just remember to stay sober, ok?

Mind-writing, would make a lot of lives easier when it comes to trying to write out the ideas or phrases in my head when I try to [poorly] blog.

Bookmark To:

Watched the History Channel again talk about how the Chinese, being the first to develop gunpowder, were able to modify the type of mixtures to produce both slow and fast burning chemical explosives (Not a surprising thing from what Americans learn in elementary school history).

What I had no idea about was that the Chinese produced short-range flamethrowers, that though it was more psychological than useful, the Chinese flamethrowers were often used on the front lines of Chinese military lines during the Song Dynasty.

The Chinese were able to produce many innovative and completely new inventions in the military arena (and others as well of course). Other weapons included the triple crossbow, a 25 foot long crossbow used for long-range weaponry that could fire a mile away. It was mounted on a pivot for accuracy and mobility to hit a specified target.

The most surprsing? Chinese landmines in the 13th century–timed landmines similar to those used in Vietnam thousand years later.

Keep in mind the Chinese ability to innovate and invent when China begins to reach the top again.

Bookmark To:

As unique as you may think on a company creating a mind-gaming device, another company Emotiv Systems, based in SF, has one of their own devices (called EPOC) to come out in late 2008 (hopefully in time for the Hanukkah season). The New York Times even talked about them in June 2008:

A new headset system picks up electrical activity from the brain, as well as from facial muscles and other spots, and translates it into on-screen commands. This lets players vanquish villains not with a click, but with a thought.

[...]

The system doesn’t just lift boulders. It can also detect some of a player’s facial expressions and emotional responses: smile, frown or wink, for instance, and an avatar on screen can do so, too. Grow bored during a battle, and the system can detect ennui and supply a few dragons, or change the music. The device tracks a total of about 30 responses.

This system looks far more advanced than the Neural Impulse Actuator and far easier to learn to use, I may have to change my mind on buying the other one and wait the extra few months and pay a little more (twice the price), but it comes with a game and a far simpler system to input with the computer.

Bookmark To:

Hardcore gaming gets even more serious as Hot Hardware has the details on an awesome brain-to-computer interface:

OCZ Technology has laid claim to being the first company to bring a “brain-computer” interface to the retail market and they have aimed it squarely at the gamer. The device is called the NIA, which is an acronym that stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, and instead of buttons, sticks, gyroscopes or motion sensors, it reads the body’s natural biosignals and translates them into commands that can be used to control PC games.

[...]

The NIA is able to detect three types of biosignals generated by your brain, facial muscles and eye muscles via a special headband. The user can bind these signals to any keystroke using the driver and configuration software.

Before you beginning doubting the claims, Hot Hardware did a month study on the product and actually found it to improve gaming performance at a cost of $150… and for any real gamer, that’s chump change when they’re buying $7000+ gaming computer.

That means the next time you’re thinking they are hacking, he’s not — he’s mind gaming!

Taking it beyond gaming, this device could be used to implement odd strokes that are odd to type on the keywboard (caps key, shift key, alt + shift for typing in Chinese…).

That would be a fun device to add to my regiment at work as well… Borgtown here we come!

Bookmark To:

How to know you’ve reached the height of being a nerd?

Owning one of these:

A wonderful personal soundtrack t-shirt that you can change with a small remote control. Reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Peter wishes for his own theme song.

Bookmark To:

In the past, the Chinese were well-known for a whole variety of inventions up until around the late 1700s where a new emperor decided that having reached it pinnacle, could just slack off and coast. The West, after falling behind after the fall of Rome, innovated massively upon Chinese inventions over the years and came back to teach China a hard lesson about taking things for granted. Now, in our globalized world, the Chinese are innovating heavily:

This is either the best or worst iPhone review ever. Wendy Cheng is apparently the most popular blogger in Singapore. Before giving her the real iPhone, her producers tricked her into reviewing a Chinese knockoff. But she actually liked the fake, saying it’s “not bad for a shit*** China phone.” The real iPhone? Only “mediocre,” and “I really don’t like the touchscreen…it’s f***ing shitty.” Oh, that’s just the tip of this iceberg of awesome.

The iPhone in my opinion is definitely crippled here in the US, primarily from how very non-free market it is currently and also has limitations on what I kinds of files I can place on it as well (hence why I gave my wife an iPod–I want a music player that I can place any kind of file on it).

Nonetheless, my point is that the Chinese are innovating heavily on a variety of products and are learning in turn from America. And America should keep an eye on not becoming too complacent, protectionist, or lazy as otherwise the Chinese will surge past the US.

Bookmark To: