Andrew McKinnon
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And the Oscar Goes to.... Nexi, the Emotional Robot
"Nexi" has the legs of R2D2, the face of C-3PO and the emotional I.Q. of HAL 9000, and she is preparing for her debut at the Boston Museum of Science for the summer of 2009. You can catch a sneak peak of her at the MIT Personal Robots Group home page.
Nexi represents the current generation of MDS robotics. MDS stands for Mobile, Dexterous and Social. The Mobile refers to a two-wheel base, the Dexterous refers to arms that can pick up, grip and throw objects, and the Social refers to the head's ability to understand and express emotions. Nexi expresses emotion by combining movements of the eyebrows, head, eyelids and mouth. When she's excited, for example, Nexi will raise her eyebrows and open her eyelids and mouth. She can be sad, mad, bored, frightened.
Wallet Phones are coming!
Wallet-phones featuring "contactless" transactions are inevitable. It is not a question of "if" but "when": when you are able to make all your transactions via cell-phone. In Japan, 50 million people currently use cell phones to make purchases, borrow library books and ride the subway. They simply wave their cell phones across a glass-covered infrared signal, instead of pulling out the dead cow skin, handing over the cheap plastic, signing with the dirty pen, and stuffing the paper into a clump that will eventually land in the garbage.
Japan began this service of contactless transactions in 2004 through a partnership between NTT DoCoMo, Sony and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Contactless payments are now a common feature of Japan's wireless landscape. The service uses a technology similar to Bluetooth called Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC, with shorter range and lower data feeds than Bluetooth, provides for better security. NFC, more importantly, has a shorter set-up time than Bluetooth, making for smoother transactions. Japan's version of NFC is called Felica and is produced through a joint venture between Sony and DoCoMo.
Japanese cellphone manufacturers, telecom operators and financial institutions have been cooperating for years in the development and deployment of Wallet-phone technology, leaving the US and Europe lagging far behind. Why can't the U.S. get their act together and get with the program?
Developing and deploying a service like wallet-phones requires the cooperation of three major industries: finance, telecom operators, and phone manufacturers. Wallet-phones also present regulatory and infrastructure issues that require complex congressional approvals.
The future, despite all these hassles, looks bright. Javelin Strategy projects 700 Million wallet-phones worldwide by 2013, and currently Visa is developing software for Google's Android system that will facilitate contactless payments. Hopefully, the wallet will soon be joining the Sony Walkman and the typewriter in your closet.
[From Reuters]
Facebook app incites a murderous rage
If you are a Facebook user ,then you are familiar with the status update feature in the profile section. It allows you to share with your friends things like what you're doing right now, what you're wearing and your relationship status, married, single, dating or divorced. Recent divorcee Emma Forrester, 34, and mother of two, after 15 years of marriage changed her status from married to single on her Facebook profile. Wayne, her now ex-husband, noticed the change and went homicidal.
On the 18th of February 2008, in the Croyden section of South London, Wayne, drunk and high on cocaine, repeatedly stabbed Emma with a kitchen knife in the head and neck. The attack woke up the neighbors, and he was discovered by the police sitting outside Emma's home covered in blood. Wayne was ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years, a shockingly lenient sentence for such a horrendous crime.
What lesson can we draw from this tragedy? In this new world of sharing personal information with large groups of people at the click of mouse, the emotional stakes are higher. It is one thing to share with your friends that you are back on the market, but to share with a community with the aggrieved present is another issue entirely. Facebook is a powerful social interaction tool and people get hurt, and when people get hurt, some lose it. Switched has been following some of these cases and perhaps will write the Facebook etiquette guide to help you avoid any major disasters.
From the BBC
Cash Rich Tech Companies
Valleywag has run a stock screener using the Yahoo Finance screening tool to determine the most cash rich tech companies of today. A vital question for the Investor and the spectator of these high-tech firms is how are the Microsofts, Intels and Apples managing their balance sheets during these shaky economic times? Are these firms over-leveraged?
To the casual observer Silicon Valley may seem like a profligate culture, spending large amounts of money on massages and exotic buffets for even the lowliest programmer. Technology companies do indulge on pool tables and team- building t-shirts but they generally keep large reserves of cash in order to stay competitive in the cutthroat technology marketplace where a 20-year old MIT dropout may render your business model obsolete at the drop of a hat.
The top ten is a who's who of the technology world, Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, Google, Intel. China Mobile is the most cash rich with $31.0 Billion, with Cisco in second with $26.2 Billion followed by Microsoft and Apple. China Mobile's place at the top should come as no surprise, given that China has over one trillion US dollars in its cash reserves and China Mobile is, like most Chinese Multinationals, largely government-owned.
[From Valley Wag, image courtesy of ]
FCC clears the air
The "free-use" wireless spectrum will be auctioned off by the government and several Silicon Valley start-ups are positioned to take over the operation and deliver the service, most notably M2Z Networks, Inc., a Kleiner Perkins-backed start-up that two years ago proposed the original plan. M2Z would use the 25 megahertz block of spectrum to provide a free service nationwide. M2Z would then try to recoup costs through advertising and subscriptions for consumers willing to pay for faster service.
The FCC requires the auction winner to provide free family-friendly wireless broadband services to 50% of the population in four years and 95% of the population within 10 years.
from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385228422827027.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
For more on the free wireless Internet movement and its benefits see http://www.FreeBroadbandNow.org/
Popular Mechanics 2008 Breakthrough Awards
Popular Mechanics put on a great show Wednesday for their 2008 Breakthrough Awards featuring products and inventions from synthesized diesel to powerful solar panels to small packets that make dirty water drinkable. The Awards honor the innovators, visionaries and product designers whose engineering talents and creations stimulate the moral imagination by aspiring to do more with less in the ...Underage Cellphone Users Beware!
A 15-year-old Newark, Ohio girl was arrested last Friday for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. The Licking Valley High School student spent the weekend in jail and on Monday pleaded deny, the juvenile equivalent of not guilty, to two charges: the illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material (a second degree felony) and possession of criminal tools (a fifth ...Ringo to Fans "Peace and Love" and "No More Signing Stuff"
Ringo Starr, in a video posted on his website, has told his fans to stop sending him fan mail. The former Beatles drummer in a post titled "Sorry, No More Signing Stuff" told his fans to stop sending him fan mail because he is too busy to sign or read it and it will be thrown out. "I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail, thank you, thank you, and no ...Are You a Conversation Hog? New Research Can Help You Find Out.
Dr. Alex (Sandy) Pentland, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at M.I.T., a pioneer in computational social science, has developed a system that will help you understand the tone and turn-taking behavior of your conversations. Dr. Pentland's system, called "Reality Mining," monitors conversations using a cell-phone like gadget, observes body movements using a badge with sensors, and analyzes ...Muxlim Aims to Be a Facebook for Muslims
digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2008/10/29/muxlim-aims-to-be-a-facebook-for-muslims/';
Muxlim.com, a Finnish-based social network site for Muslim communities, has announced the arrival of "Muxlim Pal," a virtual world that adheres to the Muslim code. Muxlim Pal, essentially, is a Second Life for Muslims, where the women wear virtual hajibs, or veils, that cover their faces and and where ...
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