Ratchet Up

Personal RFID

So if you want to get your own personal RFID head over to semacode.org. Simply print it out, and paste it anywhere you like. Enabled mobile phones will be able to read it and automatically call up your URL. It's your new visual address.

Phone Scope & Rocks With Ears

f you have a couple of FOMA-style mobile phones, you can use them as surveillance devices. For now you'll have to score one in Asia, but no doubt you'll be able to buy a “television pocket” here soon. Once one of your phones is placed in the television pocket it can be aimed at anything you like, and even adjusted by you from your current location.

With just two cell phones you can scope out virtually anything you want. Even upskirt photos.

[Via PicturePhonning]

And: “The US military is developing miniature electronic sensors disguised as rocks that can be dropped from an aircraft and used to help detect the sound of approaching enemy combatants. The devices, which would be no larger than a golf ball, could be ready for use in about 18 months. They use tiny silicon chips and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that is so sensitive that it can detect the sound of a human footfall at 20ft to 30ft. The project is being carried out by scientists at North Dakota State University, which has licensed nano-technology processes from Alien Technology, a California-based commercial manufacturer of RFID tags for supermarkets.”

[Financial Times]

Matrix Online To Feature Twenty Live Actors

“After a lengthy and hush-hush beta testing period (which you can read about at length here), The Matrix Online has finally hit store shelves.

As you read this, people all over the U.S. are jacking into the dank, violent world that Monolith has created. [...] Since the close of the beta, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that it has employed a troupe of 20-odd people whose job it will be to enact narrative scenarios in The Matrix Online live. These people will assume the roles of popular characters, interact with players, and generally move the stories in ways that only live ”actors“ can.And though it appears that the story hasn't officially commenced, a few players on the Method server were treated to a pretty slick sample of it this afternoon: an extended pep-talk by none other than Morpheus himself. (See the screenshots for proof.) But this is an Out of the Box report, so here are our first impressions of the game so far. [...]

Anyway, once in the game, things are relatively smooth sailing. The character creation process is quick, and doesn’t require you to make many impacting decisions, apart from choosing your avatar’s appearance. All you have to do is choose an archetype, of which several are available. Far from boxing you into a certain role, these archetypes simply determine what your attributes look like — the Detached Observer archetype, for instance, focuses on the Perception attribute, making it ideal for players who want their characters to excel in hand-to-hand combat. Being that MxO’s combat system is one of the most intriguing aspects of the game, this is the one I chose. For what it’s worth, all the archetypes seem to be fairly balanced, so if you want your character to dabble in various roles — which the game’s skill system heartily encourages — you’re fully able to, regardless of which one you choose. You may have a deficiency in one attribute, but that doesn’t seem to be too big a deal.”

[Game Spy]

Michael Levy's Giant Steps

I can't imagine that you won't just love this animation by Michael Levy. And not just because it is a visualization of Coltrane's great “Giant Steps.” This ain't no goofie flash movie arriving via email. It's the read deal.

[Giant Steps]

Baseball Camera

“An Israeli camera that you throw like a baseball could soon be stumping violent criminals and terrorists. The Eye Ball can be thrown into dangerous situations to assess a situation without putting police at risk, the Manchester Evening News reports.

It could be tossed into a room where armed terrorists are holding hostages or anywhere a violent suspect might be hiding, the British newspaper said.

More than 20 U.S. police forces are currently testing the $1,500 device, which is about the size of a baseball. It has also been demonstrated to forces in Britain, France, Turkey, Italy and Russia. Other potential users include firefighters, rescue teams and the military.

The Eye Ball, which is equipped with night vision, is robust enough to be dropped from the second floor of a building or thrown on to a concrete floor.

”Once deployed it delivers real-time audio and video data to officers via a wireless link,“ The Engineer magazine reported.”

Sci-Tech | Defense Review

Sign of the Times

Stand in Times Square > stare up at a 22-story billboard > use your mobile phone to custom design a new shoe > observe the changes on a huge screen > click “buy” > track your shipment on the phone's screen > then hope you're home when the UPS shipment comes.

“Nike, as part of it's Nike iD program, has just unveiled a new 22-story billboard in Times Square. It is a pioneering effort in interactivity and design. You use your cell phone to design a sneaker that will be displayed for all the world to see and then you can download your footwear masterpiece to your device as wallpaper. [...]

The number you call to start your interactive session is not an SMS short code, it's a phone number. 1-888-8-NIKE-ID or simply, 1-888-864-5343. Firstly, no short code means no charge to the consumer. More importantly, it means that absolutely any phone from any carrier will work - without carrier approval. This may sound trivial, but it is not. One of the biggest problems in the world of cell phone interactivity is cross-carrier approval. Short codes are expensive (on the order of $1,000 per month) and they can't be used unless you clear their use with each carrier on an individual basis.”

[Emmy Awards Committee]

InstantShareCam

❝InstantSharecam is a service for sharing your high-resolution videos/photos with your friends or your crew right from your digital camcorder to other devices when you are at the shooting location. You can now keep the quality of your memories high and also sharing it with others.

Share in real-time your video with the people you have selected in InstantSharecam interface. No more delay in sharing your vide by going back home and logging in your video blog site or transferring to your video editing suite. Become a broadcaster on the spot!

InstantShareCam was designed specifically for people whose second nature is to share their video/photo memories. It is a great tool for semi-professional users who need to go on multi-cam shooting scattered in different locations. InstantShareCam is more affordable solution than renting the industry heavy microwave radio communication system. Moreover, it provides a secure network through the trusted wifi 30G network operators. [...]

InstantShareCam Easy is the essential service application you can use to start sharing instantly your videos with your friends. By having a real-time broadcast connection associated with GPS locator you will never lose sight of your friends while you are going on group trip. All your collective memories are shared almost instantly while you are capturing the moments. You can forget about uploading your files to your computer or your mobile phone thanks to our patented Capture&Share(R) recording button. Share while you are capturing the moments. It is that simple.

Moreover, you can select up to two videos sharing sites among InstantShareCam affiliates to send your video or photos, so that people not present at the location can see your recordings.❞

[InstantShareCam]
[Via We Make Money Not Art]

What's In A Name?

[Baby Name Wizard]

E-mail = Marijuana

orkers “distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of a rise in ”infomania“, with people becoming addicted to email and text messages.

Researchers found 62% of people checked work messages at home or on holiday. The firm said new technology can help productivity, but users must learn to switch computers and phones off. Losing sleep The study, carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry, found excessive use of technology reduced workers’ intelligence. Those distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQ - more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking marijuana, said researchers. More than half of the 1,100 respondents said they always responded to an email ”immediately“ or as soon as possible, with 21% admitting they would interrupt a meeting to do so.

The University of London psychologist who carried out the study, Dr Glenn Wilson, told the Daily Mail that unchecked infomania could reduce workers’ mental sharpness. Those who are constantly breaking away from tasks to react to email or text messages suffer similar effects on the mind as losing a night’s sleep, he said.” [BBC]

Paper Camera

The name Dirkon is a play on words based on the combination of the parts of two words: Dirk- is the beginning of the Czech word dírka – pinhole, and -kon is the end of the name of a well-known Japanese camera which needs no introduction.

“During the 1970s, magazines published in Communist Czechoslovakia were controlled by the state, like the majority of other enterprises. Very few good magazines were available and were difficult to get hold of, so people would borrow and exchange them when given the opportunity. This also applied to magazines aimed at young people, which was probably one of the reasons why almost everyone from my generation, when we get on to the subject of pinhole cameras, has fond memories of the cut-out paper camera known as Dirkon*, published in 1979 in the magazine ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců [An ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists].

Its creators, Martin Pilný, Mirek Kolář and Richard Vyškovský, came up with a functional pinhole camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera. It may not be the most practical of devices, but it works!

My first attempt at putting together a paper Dirkon a few years after it came out fell victim to a total lack of patience on my part. Today, twenty years later, I decided that I had to include this unusual pinhole camera in my collection. So I got hold of an old copy of ABC and set to work. This time I was successful...”

[Pinhole.cz]
[Via Boing Boing]