With all good things that technology brings us, there is a much less talked about “dark side”. Normally it deals with the freedoms or liberties that politicians wrongfully use various technologies for. At other times it’s merely for the love of money. Greed is a powerful motivator. Perhaps that’s what is pushing local governments to tap into the wild world of space in helping snatch the very numbers and letters off of your license plates.
Most of the sci-fi world may still be looking towards flying cars as the holy grail, but the truth of the matter is, there is plenty in the auto realm that is as equally enticing and exciting while still keeping all four wheels on the ground. As more complex electronics and computers move into our automobiles, the line between tool of the human and intelligent human transport system become become ever closer. In the year 2010, the person driving the car does most, if not all of the weather observations and corrects driving habits accordingly. The car of 2030 may know the weather before you do and correct itself whether you like it or not.
Nikolaos Georgis of Sony Technology Center in Sand Diego, California and a host of other scientists have filed for a new US patent for an in-car computer system that is leaps and bounds ahead of the “dumb” GPS navigation systems/computers currently found in a growing number of cars. The big difference between the in-car computer system of today and the envisioned systems of the future are what data is taken in, how it is taken in, and how said data is used to make adjustments via the car itself.
The car of tomorrow will not simply rely on a single source of information, say from a 3G signal. Instead, future cars and automobile computer systems will employ 3G signals as well as information collected from nearby TV/radio towers, and various onboard sensors. The information collected will then be assessed and used by the car itself to make informed decisions and alert the driver accordingly. Information relied to the driver could be as simple as a basic weather report for the destination city to displaying stopping distances at several different commonly traveled speeds on a particular stretch of roadway, to even going as far as to reduce vehicle speed (by over riding the driver) if the vehicle deems speed is too great for the current road conditions.
Getting the road conditions isn’t quite as easy as one would suspect. While Nikolaos and his fellow colleagues at the Sony Technology Center are focusing more on 3rd party streamed data and taking the technology as far as controlling the car outright, an R&D engineer with VTT (Tampere, Finland), who goes by the name of Pertti Peussa, isn’t too comfortable with the car ever leaving a human’s outright control. His solution calls for more “pro-active” detection methods using different types of lasers, radar, infrared waves, etc. With funding help from the European Union, Peussa and his team have narrowed in on traditional radar as the best option, citing it’s ability to pick up most to all road conditions — dry, wet, ice, and snow.
As a civilian from the outside of the project, I much prefer Peussa’s approach as opposed to Georgis’. Taking the car out of the human’s hands if even for a second opens doors to all kinds of new problems. Think of it as a modern age Pandora’s box. At this stage in the game and without advanced AI, a computer simply cannot make the educated decisions with the required reasoning abilities to safely navigate the world in a moving car.
Even still, the prospect of driving these “smart cars” in the not too distant future gets the geek inside of me all excited — worries of computer malfunctions or not. Chances are that 100+ years from now, humans will look back on such worries and laugh at how basic our viewpoints and technology were at this time.
But if we could fast track this technology, what would you choose: Nikolaos Georgis (Sony Tech. Center) and his computer controlled car or Pertti Peussa and his “human powered” cars? Light up the comments!
New Scientist
- December 14, 2009 8:01 am
Tattoos. Gadget blog. What’s the point? Science. Read on. Criminals often use tattoos as branding for their chosen gang. Tattoos and criminals can also be used as a “slate” or fleshy paper to send messages to other individual and gangs via tatooed on messages. Previously, criminals who were being targeted by law enforcement because evidence linked to a tattoo simply got a new tattoo covering up or modifying the old one so that the police had no way of regaining said evidence. Luckily science has come through again.
A new method that ironically uses old technology — infrared — is being adapted to to the world of tattoos by allowing law enforcement and the guy running the machine to see a criminals tattoo and any alterations. Alterations such as cover up with a new tattoo, laser removal, or even surgery are no match for the new uncovering method being developed. Supposedly, it’s so good that no matter how much alterations the criminal has tried to attempt, the technology will reach back in time and show the original tattoo and message as it was. Cool stuff in deed.
The focus so far has been marketed as a law enforcement tool to help catch crafty criminals. But criminal or not, I’m sure many have tried to in some way or another alter a stupid tattoo they got when they were young, stupid, and/or drunk. Now you can feel assured (or not) that it is never truly “gone”. Tattoos such as the Dolphin/Unicorn love fest above will eat away at your soul for the rest of eternity. Awesome.
The tactic sounds pretty similar to technologies used in the art world. Often when trying to determine if a painting is fake or not, various frequencies and waves will get beamed at a painting to determine if it is real, if there’s another crap painting underneath, or for whatever other reasons you’d want to know a paintings true past. It’s nice to see technology recycled and expanded upon isn’t it.
Soon, living the life of a criminal will be a bit harder…*Que “Another One Bites the Dust…*
Gizmodo > Tech Radar
[Image Source
Video calls while being all the rage over seas, haven’t quite caught on here in the U.S. Though, with downright laughable “highspeed” speeds, video calling would all but render our networks all but dead as millions flooded the airwaves with video bits. But, for those of you who are more fortunate to enjoy real wireless broadband speeds, video calling is a treat. But what about when the sun goes down and the lights go out? If you’re carrying a Samsung SCH-W760 in hand, you’ll be just fine. The real story here is the inclusion of an infrared camera on Samsung’s part that will allow users to place video calls when there is a complete absence of light. Creepy looking night vids are now coming to the mainstream. Super! Any sarcasm you may be picking up is entirely unintentional as this is actually a pretty sweet addition for Samsung that will hopefully make it onto more headsets. Whether or not actual video calling will get bigger in the U.S. anytime soon remains to be seen. An upgraded still camera that could take night shots would still be pretty sweet though. Don’t you think?
Source: Techchee
