Interesting MS Surface Demo

Here is an interesting demo of how Surface-powered displays in public areas can interact with your own personal devices.
The best thing about this is there really is no more hardware to develop or infastructure to implement. This is here. Right now. The only thing slowing this down is the past and all the netbooks lacking tablet functionality that were sold in the past 8 months.

Animal Observation and Technology

In the centuries past, the development of spherical optics and gallelios astronomical telescope being repurposed as a terrestrial sighting device allowed the development of bird watching and the observation of land mammals.

Photography and its advent inspired the formation of some classical institutions devoted to the act of observation, for instance National Geographic.

Then we invented the submersible. And King James Cameron conquered this technology observing more and more of the wonders hidden hundereds of meters below the surface.

I would like to postulate on one concept available for our future. What if we identify life on other worlds? For instance, what if we find species of animals living in the clouds of Jupiter? Or live below the frozen oceans of Europa? Should we then send teams of either men or remotely operated machine to investigate and record these findings? Would that be the extension of what we're cataloging today?

Samsung's OLED ID card

Samsung via Engadget has this interesting video of an ID card which includes a paper-thin OLED display.
In the example the display is used to show a rotating model of the card holders noggin.
It's a little freaky, but I'll be excited to have one once my current passport expires.

Liquid Crystal Tie

This is a project I took the time to design. The principle is simple: Track the owner with a GPRS high-speed radio. The radio tracks location and compares this data to a database built and maintained by an advertising agency.
The agency updates the database using a system of auctions that occur constantly where advertisers compete for the ad-space on the users.
The company then uploads images to the memory on the ties micro controller.
The user then recieves a big fat paycheque for the work they've done.

Potential problems: users may not like having a company which is hardly impartial knowing where they are constantly, however I imagine it will be more acceptable once CCTV in urban areas really starts to ramp up.

Of course the user shouldn't be entitled to a cheque when they just wear the device around their home, so location tracking is a necessity.

Finally, the user could also drop the tie off in a downtown dumpster and rake in the dough so a measure will have to be initiated where every week or so the device needs to communicate with the users personal computer to receive an 'update' that tracks the user as active.

The potential for this kind of marketing scheme is massive and once flexible OLED technology becomes commercially available I hope this will become more realistic. It will also afford the ability to have, say, a full color display surrounding a simple t-shirt, effectively turning our troubled, fashion-centric youth into cheap, reliable full-motion billboards. As it is now, the technology is cumbersome and somewhat delicate, but this will not be the case for much longer.

Guilty Pleasure #22

Gyroscope plus world-class laser pico projector equals fun!
Also, the next generation of handheld gaming might require a firearms license in Canada.

Unrestrained Diarrhea of the Brain

More specific than just a boring old length of insomnia, but rather I'm doing alot of online reading.
I guess gathering information for all sorts of projects that I'd like to work on eventually. I figure where's a better place to talk about the internet than on the internet. It's like... why not contribute the results of my personal, somewhat insignificant fact-finding mission to the overall girth of the net. No one reads my posts, I'm no Doctorow. Alas.

Making a replica Jurassic Park Ranger outfit, I dont know why I thought this would be fun, it's just a khaki shirt with lapels with one or two logo badges sewn to the the sleeves. Finding the badge? Not so easy. So, after a bit of reading, I found Westerfield Studios, who is more than happy to ship internationally. The company also sells replica badges from Firefly and some from Lost. Business seems good and they've got new products on the way. The more well known competitor I think is The Intergalactic Trading Company. Same market, two URL's.

Another thing I've been interested in for some time is the notion of the wearable PC. Once you go down that rabbit hole you almost never ever find your way back. There are a host of different places to get information, but I finally discovered a de (waitforit) lightful wiki on the subject.  From here I learned a little more on the topic of HMDs (which has become troublesome after my main contender: Vuzix recently announced backorders on their new product the Wrap920). I learned about a man in Toronto who has an MIT doctorate and specializes in wearable computers.
Infact, Steve Mann practically invented the idea. Below is the actual image from the wearable computer entry from Wikipedia. I've, of course, seen this image before, but knowing I might be able to obtain his autograph...

 Currently he's teaching at UofT and oversees a project known as EyeTap.
The project really excites me and I'd love to be able to learn more. Judging from the website, this man is interested in receiving all forms of input including that from designers (not an engineer, not a computer scientist, what am I?). I plan on making the attempt at contacting him sometime before the holidays at his eyetap.org or UofT email address (though I worry because the site hasn't been updated in some time).
One idea that's crossed my mind is producing a series of questions for him and interviewing him for Urbane Magazine and perhaps using my production skills book a BB practice room and make it filmed and snappy.
Mann is an MIT post-doctorate. My chances of this dream being realized are slim.
I also located the supplier of most of the components for these projects - Tek Gear. A Winnipeg-based electronics supplier specializing in HMD and micro displays. 

What else? Looking at cyberpunk fashion online. I found an interesting wiki on the Cyberpunk Review website. A site I noticed iGargoyles work on earlier in the week.  Most of the links are dead, but it was fun to find. One thing I like the idea of is making a t-shirt (cotton or poly) with panels of bullet resistant kevlar.
Like this guy's shirt I found on German Xtrax website. I doubt this shirt exhibits any properties of bullet resistance, but hey, this exist in the world so they can be made better.

This shirt reminds me of Adam Savage's Kitanica MarkIV jacket. One of the best ways to drop $500 in my opinion.

The design of the MarkIV with it's spinal absorption padding has really made me think about how an pico-ITX based computer (Like the new version of Compulab's FitPC2i - due for January) into a wearable rig could work.

The idea of a slim-profile wearable rig isn't exactly new though.

Really though, all this focus came from was a sweater designed with love and care by Marc Ecko, and trying to find it online. To say the least it inspired me, but I've also been thinking of the idea of customizing a white sweater into a space suit - either NASA's EMU or the fancier Chinese Feitian suit.

Anyway, I plan on getting the latter from ebay. Marc hates Canada, and shipping thereto.

Grossman said "The universe is speaking to me, if you listen closely"

The front page of Digg.com features three links.
The first is on tech growth from the BBC.
The Second is this

It gets a couple things right, but it's moot.

The third link is from Humanity+ winter issue and an article on the DIY Transhumanist.

Life...

Tie Patent Application

A tie loaded with:
A 3G (or even GPRS) radio.
An LCD of suitable size.

How it works. People get the tie. The tie is location aware, and is the output of the LCD is controlled by the data received from the radio.
This network is controlled by a company who represents ad agencies.

The display can be in the form of a pepsi logo, or something more elaborate like a full video commercial.
The tie will track the location of the user and this will be stored and compared to an existing model (the model may even be live updated via camera feeds) that track population density in certain areas of the city at certain times.

The tie wearer earns some revenue by wearing the advertisement and silently, but actively participating in the promotion of the product.

Now, throw in the concept of ad revenue developed by Google. The real-time auctioning of the ad space between competitors against a mathematical model ensures maximum revenue.

So, there you have it. I will attempt an early prototype someday soon

Theatre for the Future///

Ok, creative juice spiliage.

The only thing that will remain in entertainment that you travel to will be the seats. I mean, even movie theatres are passe because of HDTV. Maybe that's why the networks dragged it through the mud for so long.

But I imagine a building. Four walls and seats. That's about the only thing that could stick. I think for the most of it there will still be a screen, but maybe the audience will 360 around a stage in the center with massive holographic on display.

But that's only the half of it, the audience will at this point totally be interfaced with the digital world of this entertainment. Chemical smellovision? Don't make me laugh, this is about brain interface.

I'm sure the corporate collaborates of this tech will have varying disciplines of immersion. Like evolved models of the same product, which might be proportional to the experience. What I mean is brain-bugs (nano machines which facilitate this interface and latch on to neurons and synapses- and also possibly complex receptor sites) will evolve and newer forms of the tech will always increase in resolution over time. So, there's a huge class-aspect to it, money buys the experience. Ticket price does not relate to this at all and is something completely different. Infact, you might be able to enjoy the experience if you're complety un-modified. And I imagine that's how the baby boomers will approach this form of theatre.

I dunno if live actors come into this form of entertainment. It's a hard thing to predict. Especially if our relationship with the performers is what it is now. And that is to say human. If it were augmented in a way which allowed the communication of thoughts and feelings than it would be a completely different experience.

Imagine simultaneously watching a world-class dancer perform and yet be in sync with the thought process they're experiencing. The nervousness, and the excitement juxtaposed with elegance and the desire for perfection. And what if this dancer is genetically enhanced from birth? Than perfection would be altered, and it would become the norm. The feelings associated with this aspiration might also be muted, but new feelings would come over.

That's irrelevant. I imagine a theatre where the audience jacks in. The magnitude of resolution associated with jacking in changes with the consumers ability to have the 'latest and greatest' upgrade between the frontal and the occipital.

What does that mean? It means live performance might finally be given justice and finally have the capability of mass distribution.

I want to build transhuman entertainment.

Mice Feedback

Man, I would love it if Logitec made a mouse with force feedback. Not even for games, just as another sensory reception to information.
The mouse could signal email reception, or like... download complete. What Growl used to do on the Macs and what Windows always did. (mean and false, but patriotic)
Algo goes something like:
figure 2: mouse moving + timed period = yes
Figure 1: typing = no

Duh.

Can we please get this shit off the ground. I know some company has a patent on it, and besides its used in VG controllers by every one of the competing forces, so there's your lawyers whine-song right there.

Hello? World?!

My inspiration

I'm 21. I'm not rich, people haven't started paying me for my taste of crazy yet.
I imagine it will be a while before they do, but I need to at least define what my crazy is.

My crazy is my experience with the human condition. Murder and betrayal. The love hasn't been experienced in a dose which matches in intensity. So, I'm 21. I am what I am.

My crazy could bear to see certain things happen that most people couldn't. I understand revenge, but I don't condone it. Revenge consumes the soul, and it has consumed me. I work to be free of my vengeful thoughts, but they're constant. I can only learn to accept them, as I must accept my mothers murder.

I don't understand many things. I can't find the bright side very easily.
I understand growth. I understand evolution and the cold, calculated process it uses.

The man who brought murder into my life wasn't the world we're taught in public school. It wasn't the world all these freshmen I'm supposed to be friends with live in.

It was the real world. And the real world is not built on love and generosity. These are tiny pockets scattered around the globe that sometimes get together to do great things.

The things accomplished in history by love are absolutely minute compared to what fear, and greed can accomplish. These solitary forces have more effect on the world.
I might be wrong, but so far this model stands up. I feel like I'm the only one who understands this model, and that scares me. I see 99% of the world as people who could never reconcile with this idea, 0.9% as crazy misfits who don't contribute and 0.1% are the movers and shakers.

I want nothing more than to use this rationale, this model I believe in to help me in the future, but so far... I worry I'm wrong.

I'm not saying I want to live a life of greed and fear. And being aware of these on the scale I've witnessed isn't easy. The line is very hard to see.

I see a populated galaxy in my life time.
I understand the relentless nature of evolution. Evolution is passion, and you're a fool if you think that passion won't kill you where you stand.

This is how I understand technological growth. This is what my gift is. This is all I have to offer and today I pledge to stop worrying it isn't enough and realize it's more gift than any human born before me.

Realization

Medical science and philosophy combine to elaborate on the concept that many people alive today will live forever, thus altering the human condition forever.

But the idea that my life will stretch out that long.. it's stressful.
I can't manage with that thought and I wonder if suicide will rectify people who don't want to carry there share of responsibility for so long.

Then again, if you lived forever... you'd be very smart by the time you're 100 and still in decent health.

The realization is that one will need money for these therapies and they almost invalidate social health care.

Roboballet (circa 2020's)

This combined with the hand motion in an earlier robot posted here equals robots in theatre. To within on tenth millimeter tolerances.

Granted MIT has performed a robotic opera, the speed and precision available now makes me believe in more elaborate robotic performers.

I love the whole world...

and all its craziness...


So it's official: I WANT THE ROBOT DEVILS HANDS. And here they are captured on film for the first time.

AI in the future!

Guy in car coming home from work. Let's call him Jim.
2028

Jim is walking out of his office in the early afternoon after an especially bad day.
He is engaged in a conversation with an AI companion that is analyzing his PAN (Personal Area Network? So like, the nanomachines in his heart and lungs, some muscles, and what have you. His hand held device, and whatever visualizing device we have, so like... glasses with projectors)

AI: Jim, how are you feeling. Is everything ok?
Jim: Yes, how are my current stats looking?
Jim sees a representation of the AI as a gorgeous women who appears as a full resolution augmentation via stereo holographic scanning.
AI: Stress levels are a little above normal; heart rate and breathing.
Jim: Recommendations?
AI: A jog and I'll start preparing a new meal plan with the home appliance network

Jim walks to his car, enters.

Jim: Car, ignition. Manual Control.
Car: Car is active!
Car: Where do you want to go Jim!
Jim: Ugh, no car. Manual control.
Car: Rear sensors indicate not safe to do so! Auto control!
Car: Rear sensors clear! Safe for manua- not safe! Auto- Rear sen-
Jim: Fuck, car. Drive home.
Car: Auto control, Jim?
Jim:...

A speculation between man and machine in a soonish timeline.
Jim has a shitty old car, I'm afraid. A 2019 Aludillac Spectrion.

Lost Season Five: A look back

Ok, so Lost season finale was a few days ago. Being late on the report will not stop me. Because I feel obligated to share so important connections I've made (and apparently so has JJ).

J.J. Abrams as he is represented on Wikipedia

Current views of reality do not take into consideration the existence of time travel.
Speaking now of the minute scale of quarks in sub atomic experiments. These experiments are of course subject to the (albeit, in a droning tone) Law of Accelerating Returns. This makes time travel in the not-too-distant future plausible.

If JJ is an informed young man he no-doubt knows this.
What does this have to do with Lost?

Consider this idea: if time travel does exist in the close future (100-200 year time frame), in a way we can't yet imagine perhaps every moment of reality is the subject of alteration of our future-selves meddling in the past. Or perhaps not our future selves, but our godly offspring that transcends time, i.e. the neohuman singularity.

If this is the point of Lost then the nanomachine smoke makes sense, and the immortal Jacob. Both elements of very common science fiction based on technological trends of today.

So, how about JJ on Star Trek? Alternate time line created albeit accidentally but with the same, subtle ramifications. My current concept for Lost season six would be to have them in the future utopia where the world benefits from the power of the island (and hopefully also technology advancement), but it's clear that the island is somewhat of a metaphor for this trend.

A trend that is a major plot point in JJ's other work, Fringe.
Putting these pieces together is nothing new, but establishing that technology can be a spiritual guiding light is not.

This is what I believe we have here: a child of a technology era with a very special insight on how humans change themselves, and what it can mean on a flexible timescale. The latter of which is something he seems more focused on than me.

Yet, I think it is very clear that JJ Abrams does have an expectation for the Singularity. He seems motivated by this belief that the world is accelerating into something out-of-control.

My last point of evidence comes from the name of his production company 'Bad Robot'. Two words when combined spell the WORST CASE SCENARIO for future intelligent machines.

3D computing

Aside from IBM's racetrack memory, there would appear to be a new form of three-dimensional memory.

The technology uses "loops of gold wires link the chips together and to an underlying circuit board". It must be a form of self-organizing nanotechnology.
The new start up coming up with this, planning on coming out 'next year' is called Vertical Circuits.

Things to look out for....

Singularity University

SingularityU will be a big disappointment if it lasts only a year or two.

It would be nice to see the school succeed for several years.
I imagine that this time next year I will be considering asking the beginning questions such as:
Do I need a fully achieved degree in order for acceptance?
What kinds of things next year do I want to focus on next year for my tech portfolio?
I've considered the latter question in some other notes of my personal questions.

This entry is actually an attempt to record this idea so it means more in a future date.
The fee of the school is actually quite reasonable, and I imagine that competition will be fierce.
I can be very vague, but certain that my base in theatre will eventually lead to understanding the motivation in creating the next form of the theatre technology. Including capturing and projection (including eventually consciousness projection through AI controlled network of nanomachines in the brain. These are the products of the future being established, disguised in our everyday-advancements.
I feel that that's enough focus on the Singularity to make my presence at the school valid.

When I was looking up the original Digg article imaged above I witnessed the overall trend since 2006 (New Digg feature. Helpful).
The mark of focus on this idea from Digg users is really optimistic.
If we compare the same trend with the Google user data we see the following:


So, what we see very pronounced in the USA (using Digg), we can also see when we compare all countries and a wider user range. It takes a little bit of imagination, but it's there. A fun, new link is 'here'.

Future Talk

Ok, here's a question for you in the transhuman movement: how do you think we'll evolve the first example of multiple hearing channels?

The hearing-brain interface is well studied - would it be an augmentation at the brain level - in the perceptual regions? Would it be the augmentation of the cochlear nerves through more mechanical means?

I argue for something stimulating nerves electrically from within the processing center.

For what it's worth, I hope this one happened sooner on the time frame as it would be a superb transhuman trait to carry on multiple, simultaneous conversations at once.

By the time we reach this point though would auditory perception be describable in these terms. Perhaps by default we will gain infinite channels of input at this level.

Talk about the voices in my head.

Note: these combined with optical nerve modification it could be possible to create virtually super high resolution images of people as if they exist in reality. As if we're always with someone invisible (Like our AI counterpart).

What would the implications of a society talking to random people be like? I suppose it might be like cell phones today. Perhaps through you're own implant you would see that there was something there, but perhaps it would be blocked. And your OptiNerv Implants would inform you thusly.

But back to my original question: how will multiple-channel audio processing evolve in humans?

Robotic Cameramen

A feature that is likely to recur.

But I want to focus on something specific about that idea, if you have a camera system, that could be fully actuated, and fast; would it be possible to scan an area completely in 3D with multiple cameras and a good use of thinking software running on fast computers, thereby replacing green screens completely, because you could just replace the backdrop in a camera generated 3D image?

I think yes, in the holographic age, yes.
(Patented Pending)