A particular detail has always stuck with me from The BFG, Roald Dahl’s dark-as-hell children’s book that’s actually about giants snatching kids from their bedrooms. The one good, non-kid-eating giant tells his friend about superhuman hearing: "if I is twisting the stem of the flower till it breaks, then the plant is screaming. I can hear it screaming and screaming very clear."
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Learning how to sign takes time and a whole lot of effort. Others get the hang of it fairly quickly, while some find that practice makes perfect. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have something like the Sign Language Ring to help you throughout the entire process.
The conceptual device is actually a bracelet and ring combo. The bracelet comes with detachable rings that, when worn, detect the signing motions that are made by the wearer. It then “translates” the signs audibly via the bracelet, which has an embedded speaker. The bracelet can also translate voice to text, which is displayed on the built-in screen.
It shortens the learning curve and makes communication easier between those who are hard of hearing or are speech impaired with those who cannot understand sign language.
The concept was thought up by Cao Zu-Wei, Hu Ya-Chun, Huang Ching-Lan, Liao Po-Yang, Tsai Yu-Chi, and Yang Yi-Hsien, who drew inspiration from Buddha prayer beads for the bracelet’s design.
The Sign Language Ring is a 2013 Red Dot Design Award winner.
[via Red Dot]
It hasn’t been outrightly confirmed by the government of Iran, but at least some within the nation’s borders are now able to access both Twitter and Facebook. For those keeping score, public access to the networks has been banned since 2009, shortly after the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, seems fairly convinced that Iran itself should not be restricting its citizens to information available via social channels, and a number of trusted accounts — including Rouhani himself along with The New York Times‘ Thomas Erdbrink — have tweeted in recent hours without the use of a proxy. It’s unclear whether the lift is intentional, or if it’s scheduled to remain permanently, but we’re obviously hoping it’s a sign of meaningful change.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Quartz
Hello, compatibility! Microsoft’s obviously a major proponent of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), but if you’ve been using electronic mail for any length of time, you’re probably aware that IMAP is a darn near universal protocol. Now, Microsoft is adding IMAP (and OAuth) support to Outlook.com. In addition to this being a lovely sign of Microsoft not shunning rival standards, it also opens up a ton of new possibilities. For one, applications that haven’t supported EAS — programs such as Mac Mail and the Mac edition of Mozilla Thunderbird — can now host Outlook.com accounts.
Moreover, IMAP gives devs the ability to build third-party clients and services that are useful to end-users, and Microsoft’s announcing the first set of those as well. TripIt, Sift, Slice, motley*bunch, Unroll.me, OtherInbox, and Context.IO have taken advantage of Outlook.com’s new IMAP capability and are rolling out updates today that allow their apps and services to integrate with your Outlook.com email. If you’d like for your own app to follow suit, Microsoft’s providing a bit of instruction right here.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Source: Outlook Blog
Most people lie. Whether it’s once and a while or daily, everyone has to do their thing and sometimes lying seems like the best way to make it all work. But liars have tells, which can be just as important in life as in poker. And a new study suggests that people take longer to respond to texts when they’re cooking up a lie. Just one more thing to factor into the social calculus.
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Skype is working on a technology that will no doubt be impressive when used once and then promptly ignored for the rest of time – 3D video calls. The project was revealed in an interview with the BBC to commemorate Skype’s 10th anniversary (which makes me feel old), but it could be another decade before we see that project bear fruit.
Microsoft’s Corporate VP for Skype Mark Gillett told BBC that Skype’s labs has been doing work on both 3D capture and 3D display of video calls, and while it’s impressed with the progress made in monitors and TVs that can produce a 3D image, the company still believes there’s a lot of work needed to be done before the 3D capture technology is where it needs to be. That’s because there’s too much tuning required to get the multiple cameras you need for producing 3D images angled as you need them for live video calls.
Gillett said in the BBC interview that Skype has the tech working in the lab, but needs the hardware ecosystem to be able to support it before it’s introduced. But he also said that 3D video chat would take longer to catch on with consumers than other 3D video tech in all likelihood, which begs the question of whether it ever really will.
3D movies and broadcast television efforts have been seen by many industry watchers as something of a flop, after all. The BBC abandoned plans to use 3DTV tech for its programming, citing weak demand and the need for glasses as part of the problem, neither of which helps encourage the massive cost related to filming and airing 3D content. Sony also seems pretty much to have discontinued (though no official proclamation has been made) its dedicated 3D display for PlayStation gaming, despite 3D gaming being one of the best use-case scenarios for the tech.
In the BBC article, Gillett says that Skype is looking in the near-term at more practical improvements, like bringing 1080p video calls to hardware beyond the upcoming Xbox One console. Building 3D calling capabilities in the unlikely event that the tech takes off in a big way may turn out to be a prescient move, but for now it seems like a case of building something no one likely wants. Maybe fix the way Skype syncs up IM conversations across platforms instead? Please?
Sure, we hear about DARPA’s robots all the time, but they’re not the only things keeping the agency busy. Take CBMEN, for example — a DARPA project that’s goal is to create a private ad-hoc data network for the military, and it’s recently completed initial field testing. CBMEN, or Content-Based Mobile Edge Networking, allows soldiers to share images and other info without a traditional mobile internet connection. Each device loaded with the CBMEN software will automatically blast data to other hardware within reach via WiFi, cellular and radio frequencies — no intermediate infrastructure required. Early trials of the tech using Android smartphones and Army Rifleman Radios were deemed successful. We don’t know if CBMEN will ever be available to civilians, but seeing as DARPA mentioned its potential use in disaster response operations, it’s not entirely impossible. Before anyone else can test drive the nebulous network, though, it first has to ace the second phase of field testing that aims to make it more efficient and secure.
Filed under: Cellphones, Networking, Internet
Collaboration tools are nothing new, but they don’t always make it easy to find what you’re looking for: conversations, files and other resources may sit in entirely different places. Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield wants to solve that through Slack, a service that just started taking sign-ups for its private preview. The collaboration app centers on a universal search interface that simplifies locating conversations and shared files, even if those files are hosted by a third-party provider like Google Drive. Both messages and notifications sync across dedicated apps for Android, iOS, OS X and Windows; Slack can also pull in content from outside tools like bug trackers, help desk clients or Twitter. The company is planning for a public launch in the fall, but those who just can’t wait can ask for a peek at the source link.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software
Via: CNET
Source: Slack
You might think of pneumatic tubes as an arcane means of pushing letters around big buildings—but there’s a quiet revolution in the pipeline which could see them challenging digital communication, at least some of the time.
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Today if your car breaks down or you’re in an accident, help is little more than a phone call away. It’s something that many drivers of the 21st century take for granted, what with our Space Age smartphone technology. This automotive safety net, of course, wasn’t available in the 1930s. But one visionary who was known for thinking decades ahead wanted to change all that with a revolutionary idea: the carphone.
In the 1930s, radios were increasingly popular in American cars. So much so that cities and states throughout the U.S. started banning radios because they feared that they were too distracting for motorists. But in 1935 magazine publisher (and sci-fi legend) Hugo Gernsback imagined that these boxes of distraction could be turned into live-saving radiophones—the two-way car radio of the future.
Writing in the June 1935 issue of Radio-Craft magazine, Gernsback painted a picture for readers, explaining that too often people of the 1930s were getting in near-fatal accidents and had no way of signaling for help.
Picture a scene which can be reconstructed from any Monday morning’s newspaper—indeed, almost any newspaper of any day throughout the length and breadth of this country. The driver on the highway, due to carelessness, or due to intoxication, or because he fell asleep while driving, runs into a telephone or telegraph pole, partially demolishing his car. Let us assume in this instance that he has not been killed outright, because not all accidents are fatal. One of the passengers, however has been seriously injured. The accident is on a little frequented road. It will take time to summon help, granting that there are passing automobilists who may have witnessed the accident. If it happens in the daytime, passing cars may be relied upon, of course, to tell about the accident at the next town. However, if the accident happens at night and the car ran off the road where it is not visible, the injured party or parties may lie for hours before they are discovered—and in the meanwhile death may occur!
Gernsback’s solution? Turn all of those radios that were becoming so popular into transceivers—radios that can both receive and send messages.
Curiously, Gernsback thought that the radio set should be positioned underneath the driver’s seat to ensure that it was protected from damage in the event of a crash. Makes you wonder how many more accidents this would’ve caused if the driver tried to change the radio station from such an awkward position.
Suppose, now, that we have the car radio set (a transceiver, or convertible type of set capable of operation as either a transmitter or a receiver, at will) available in working order, (the radio set of the future will not be in the front of the car but will probably be under the seats in the rear compartment so it will stay in operation, unless the entire car is smashed to pieces). Even if the driver or the other passengers of the car are injured to some extent, they still may have the strength to flip a switch and talk into a microphone placed conveniently in some compartment in the front or rear of the car. An SOS is sounded, the car giving directions where the wreck occurred, and in very little time help will arrive at the spot. In addition to occasionally saving lives, it will often save untold suffering, because ambulances may thus be summoned quickly, and in the case of a minor accident, a towing car can reach the wreck with the least possible delay.
But it wouldn’t be so easy at first. Gernsback recognized that the FCC would have to step in and allocate radio spectrum for his transceivers if they were going to be used by the broader public.
In the first place, a special wave- length for automobiles must be set aside by the Federal Communications Commission. This must be a frequency below 6 meters; preferably, such a frequency where the effects of the broadcast transmission are ineffective beyond the horizon, or, let us say, within a radius of 20 miles or less. The reason for this is obvious. If you choose a higher wavelength, then the SOS will go out indiscriminately over a very large area and the result would be that too many wrecking cars or ambulances might be summoned. By choosing the correct frequency, however, only a few miles will be effected. The power of the "transceiver" should be such that it need not reach more than about 10 miles. This should be sufficient for all ordinary purposes. (The transmitter must be crystal-controlled so that communication is only possible in this particular channel.)
Gernsback believed that it was simply a matter of creating a dedicated frequency for emergencies that all service and gas stations could keep tabs on. Should they get a call, a tow truck or ambulance could be dispatched immediately.
Every service station in the country would then have in continuous operation a special short-wave receiver tuned only to this frequency. Any incoming call could, therefore, be heard and the attendant would immediately know where the accident occurred. (If he believes that another service station is nearer he will not go for help, unless the call is repeated within ten or fifteen minutes.)
Gernsback finished his argument for two-way car radios as a standard feature in the cars of tomorrow by pointing out that the idea, while futuristic, was entirely practical. They could be installed the very next day in every car in the country. And he was right! Police departments around the country implemented car radios for dispatch not long after.
But simply having the technology available often isn’t enough. Certain political, financial, and social hurdles need to be addressed before anything revolutionary can be adopted by the broader public. It doesn’t matter how great your tech is if the FCC doesn’t grant the spectrum, or if the gas station owners don’t equip themselves with transceivers, or if people find installing your fancy new carphone too expensive.
Whether it’s carphones or Hyperloops
Images: scanned from the June 1935 issue of Radio-Craft magazine
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