-Caveat Lector- .............................................................. >From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed] Note: We store 100's of related "New Paradigms Posts" at: http://www.msen.com/~lloyd/oldprojects/recentmail.html From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Big Blue's Big Brother Lab Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 6:09 AM http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,43186,00.html Big Blue's Big Brother Lab By Elisa Batista Apr. 24, 2001 PDT SAN JOSE, California -- Viewing the future through the eyes of IBM scientists at the Almaden Research Center is both awesome and unnerving. Imagine living in a world with sensors inserted everywhere, including sunglasses, so any time you meet new people their names appear before your eyes. If you're blind their names could be whispered to you through earplugs, thanks to voice-enabling software. Even if you don't speak the same language as the people you encounter, you'll have their words translated for you in real time. No one would remain anonymous -- you'd know the name of anyone you encountered in the world. To the chagrin of privacy-minded people, crossing that fine line into someone else's space is part of IBM's job -- especially in the field of pervasive computing. Perched on top of rolling green hills that resemble a golf course without the carts or people, the Almaden Research Center stands alone in a secluded section in the southeast portion of Silicon Valley. There isn't even cell phone coverage out here, which is a sharp contrast to the saturated technology hub just to the north. But this hive of activity, IBM's second-largest lab and the one that in 1956 developed "magnetic storage" -- what eventually became the hard drive, is abuzz with curiosity. The IBM scientists cooped up in the building are working on projects they believe will revolutionize the universe. IBM touted 2,886 patents last year, of which a third -- 962 concepts -- shipped in the form of products. IBM raked in $1.6 billion in intellectual property license fees last year, according to company spokesman Tim Blair. Blair said the scientists' work underwent a series of "complex reviews" by the business development office to determine which of their ideas would become products. Blair emphasized that the business department doesn't give the inventors a quota or tell them what to make in the labs. "You can't tell a painter what to paint," he said. However, even if a product doesn't make it into the hands of the public, the concept for the invention could survive. Daniel Russell, the senior manager at the Almaden Research Center, draws an oft-repeated analogy with how wireless evangelists predict that streaming video over mobile devices will become a hit. "Video streaming on mobile devices is oversold," he said. "(The killer application for wireless devices) will be something other than you thought." Still, after spending an afternoon perusing the wacky ideas of scientists in a lab -- which is filled with cameras and sensors -- it's easy (and fun) to slip into their psyches and dream how the inventions could be used someday. The scenario of everyone in the world knowing each other's names would be possible if everyone's face were scanned into a database. Then a camera with gaze-tracking technology -- which IBM calls the "Vision Pad Identifier" -– would identify the face and display the name of the person in a device, such as sunglasses. IBM showed off the technology, or what exactly would appear in the sunglasses, with a photograph of actress Alyssa Milano and her name displayed. Another photograph showed a police officer wearing headgear with a camera. To demonstrate how the camera would adjust itself to identify a person or object, a robot named Pong noisily adjusted his ping-pong eyes to gaze at someone in the room. It was creepy. ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrCn8.bUNmfr Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. 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