Smart Dust: The Revolutionary
Nano-Technology (Source :Digit May .2002) Comes in MMS, out goes SMS (Source: CNN News - May. 2002)
(Source: Digit May. 2002) Office fans can easily move to Linux (Source: Digit May. 2002) Augmented reality provides overlapping vision (Source: CNN. News May. 2002) 3D images in your hand (Source: BBC. News May. 2002) | ||||||
Texting or SMS is set to become dated as phone operators push ahead with new products. Waiting in the wings is multimedia messaging (MMS) which looks like a text message on steroids. It allows users to send and receive messages with graphics, photos and audio and video clips. When it becomes widely available, you will be able to download payment vouchers, access banking services and watch movie previews. Those wishing to use the service will need to buy an MMS-enabled handset.
Think about entering data into a computer and the first thing to pop into your mind is a keyboard. Virtual pen or Vpen from OTM technologies, Israel is going to replace keyboards and mice. This digital pen allows mobile and PDA users to enter data, draw images, point and click and play games. The Vpen is basically a stylus with a tiny optical laser reader.
An emerging technology known as as "augmented reality" will allow people peering through computer-fueled goggles to overlay virtual images atop those of the real world. For a firefighter the computer-aided streetscape might show locations of stored chemicals and sprinkler connections - vital details in a fire. For the cop, the goggles could relay aerial surveillance images of a berserk gunman, helping the officer to get a bead on the bad guy. For the tourist, the glasses might show a virtual arrow and neon message reading "Joe's Shanghai, turn right, walk three blocks." Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation and a device that tracks a person's head movement. The clunky backpack system is cobbled together from a laptop computer and a pair of GPS satellite receivers along with a head tracking device, a high-speed wireless Internet connection and a tiny video camera. When the wearer's location tells the computer to augment the scene with an image, it pops up on a pair of Sony goggles with a see-through liquid crystal computer display.
Tiny sensors used to improve car safety could soon be helping people get more out of handheld computers. Sensing devices are being used to trigger airbags into handheld computers to help create virtual 3-D images on the screen. When a handheld fitted with the sensor is angled, its screen shows different parts of an image giving a pseudo-3D effect. The micro-machined tilt sensors, which cost about 1.50, are typically used to trigger airbags in cars by measuring sudden changes in acceleration or deceleration. On a PDA the sensor triggers the device to show a different part of an image depending on how it is being held. The sensor makes the screen act like a square hole in a piece of paper being slid over a larger document or image underneath. Pictures are given the pseudo-3D look by having their perspective distorted so that the elements at the rear of the image look smaller.