Ryan Greene: Personal Assistants

It's all been done...

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 22:19:24 GMT

Sweet.

A Canadian Personal Robot. It's not quite a robot butler, but Canadian company Dr Robot has a new personal robot that can keep an eye on your house, play chess with you, and keep track of your appointments. Set to retail for around a few thousand dollars. Read [Via Slashdot]... [Gizmodo]

Price range: $1500-$3100.

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 14:20:13 GMT

Fasten Your Seat Belts.....

I don't have much else to add to this except to echo Ryan's thoughts. Pardon the pun, but this rolls into one "device" much of what I talk about in my presentations - constant information feeds (RSS style), The Heavenly Jukebox, mobile labs (OQO + VKB + roll up monitor), etc.

Notice, though, that Ryan doesn't mention libraries anywhere in his speculations. And why should he? Have we proven ourselves yet that we're ready for this brave new world of digital content, delivery, and preservation? We need to make sure we stay in the dissemination and distribution loop so that we can serve patrons (like Ryan) with these types of devices.

As a whiplash turn to make the point, witness the lack of understanding about the role librarians can and will play in a society drowning in information. Even Tom Peters doesn't get it:

"Round two of the revolution is underway. We have a term for job positions occupied by travel agents, stockbrokers, bank tellers, librarians, receptionists, reservationists, and many customer-service oriented jobs--Toast! Not crunchy, cooked-just-right toast. We are talking about burned to the crisp and then left on the counter for three days toast. The kind of toast that leaves a thin layer of toast sweat on the counter. Toast that’s only palatable if you soak it in milk for an hour, plug your nose and swallow." [People & Places that Rock, link courtesy of Simon Chamberlain]

[The Shifted Librarian]

Hey, I did leave libraries out of that. Libraries are going to be more important than ever, and I can forsee users being able to access them and get information from them without stepping through the doors. How?

Wireless access. I go to the site for my local library, login, and fill in a questionairre about the information that I am looking for. They are probably using a finely tuned Library AIMbot (LAB) for this part of the interview. Once that is complete, I'll start getting basic data fed to my system, most likely a synopsis of the information via a custom RSS feed that the library runs to my account. If I need more information, I can tune the results I want by weighting the articles that I am sent (1-10 scale, 10 being the best).
Walking through the door. I walk in, and get greeted by a live human, or use a research kiosk where I enter keywords and phrases, author names, etc, all in an effort to get as much information as possible. While I should be able to do this from the net as well, the AIMbot insures that I am getting as specific with my search as possible, and actually conducts an interview, as opposed to just googling for results. I can then go and sit down at a display equipped table (which they should all be), and sift through the data, looking through the data and sorting it according it's usefulness to me.
Phone. VoiceML combined with your AIMbot above would make for a wonderful combination, assuming that the system can handle a wide variety of accents and impediments in the users speech. Since you would log on over the phone for any inquiries beyond the basics (Hours, events schedule) the system could then email or again RSS feed you abstracts of your own results. This would be great for people on the go who need to learn about a specific topic quickly.
Scenario: A Real Estate Agent (RA) is in a new town, and wants to check his library to see if there are any EPA superfund sites in the area, or if there has been any heavy industry that may have contaminated the soil.

RA: I need to do some research on Townsville.
LAB: What do you need to know?
RA: Is there any history of contamination, chemical spills, or heavy industry polluting in the area, or any nearby superfund sites?
LAB: Is there a time frame you want me to look within?
RA: Anything at all please.
LAB: Let me check, (Search parameters: Townsville, contamination, superfund, EPA [this gets thrown in because of the context], pollution, chemical spills)
LAB: Looking. (10 second pause)
LAB: Still looking.
RA: Can you email me the results?
LAB: Certainly, please confirm your email address. You are REA@famousagency.com?
RA: Correct.
LAB: I will send you the results within the next hour. Thank you for your patronage!
Lastly, there is the issue of having books available electronically. This is a hot button issue in publishing with authors, publishers, and and users all having differing opinions. I'm not going to get into that here, but I would love to be able to read all the books I own anytime, any where, ina any format I choose. I would love to be able to download books I own to the device of my choice. Lastly, I dream that one day, I will subscribe to a magazine and get a special annual archive edition that has all the articles of the year (as well as some bonus material) in a format that I can store, search, and index locally, obviating the need for me to keep huge stacks of paper. Simply load the contents onto a server in my home, and it gets indexed, noted and kept for as long as I please.

Now, as to Tom Peters, he's out of his head. Librarians play a vital role, as do all of the above people he's mentioned as the front line between users and the information they want. While their postions can be automated, and portions of what they do will likely be automated, there should always be a human on the end of the line for someone to talk to. Computers can't give you a discount of you've been getting horrible service from a company, or make the judgement call to cancel a late fee because your child just broke her arm and you haven't been able to make it into the store to return a film.

It appears that his point is more to the idea that a database can do what humans used to (pushing bits of data about) far more efficiently. But who is going to write that database, and maintain it? A DBA? Which is just basically a librarian who moves bits not books.

A Face For Higgins?

Fri, 11 Oct 2002 13:25:58 GMT

Very cool. While AI bots for chat have been around for a while, this onw puts a flash based face on the bot, and has a decent form of voice synthesis going on. If the tech is compact enough, run it on your Pocket PC or Clie. Now you've got a wireless stream for data that you can hit for answers, as well as get information from all in real time, and by listening.

I imagine you could have different vocies/faces for differing situations, so that you can then have emergency alerts sound different from an email notification.

Bot Mots.

Lori found some interesting chat mates:

"Meet Julia, the bot, at http://www.verbots.com. She is an interactive virtual personality and she can answer what the meaning of life is, why the sky is blue, and if she does not know the answer, she brings up the term in a google search which appears on the screen. I brought Julia up this evening and had both children (Katie, 9 and Patrick 6) at my shoulder wanting to ask her questions. Verbot came out with a public library bot at the Computers in Libraries conference, but the link which was sent to me does not work. http://www.talkie.com is very interesting too. My kids really liked Barkie, the 'talkie' at www.pets911.com, a talking puppy."

Unfortunately, the kids were already asleep when I got home tonight or I would have gotten their reactions, too.

[The Shifted Librarian]

This would also make an excellent replacement for/supplement to a chatbot/AIMbot on a site, providing a more human tone to the information that it has to give.

Sick, Busy, and Kicking Some Ideas Around

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 23:08:04 GMT

I'm fighting off another cold (and losing), I have two job related interviews in the next three days, and I've been letting a few things percolate in the old brain-pan in the meantime.

There has been a bunch of news lately, one item of which interests me quite a bit - a crossover that has not yet been considered, I think. Methanol fuel cells just got approved for use in electronics that passengers carry in airplanes. Robots are getting more and more complex all the time, and soon will be at the point where your robot serves as your own personal baggage handler, seeking you out at the baggage claim and towing your gear for you. Path navigation could be as simple as incorporating the AI schemes from existing video games, with some additional real world programming. Have a kiosk at the airports that the robots can slip in and out of in order to refuel, charging the costs to the owners credit cards or providing fuel as a part of lease, similar to the minutes on a cell phone. Go over, pay extra.

Since we don't want the robot to be a single purpose item, it can also serve as a part of your PAN, allowing you to synch all your data in and out of your systems, as well as playing back messages, and shooting video. Imagine a tripod that is programmed not only to follow you, but to make sure that you are in frame as well.

Why limit the market though? Why not sell a basic version of the robot, stripped down for kids, and let users load as much (or as little) onto it as they like? Navigation and path-finding is similar be it in a busy airport or in a school, so why not let one program handle both. Kids are already starting to use rolling backpacks to carry all their school books, so the luggage handling abilities would be welcome here too. The unit could house a cell-phone as well, so that the kids can call in to their parents, or it can alert the police if the kid hits the panic button.

Now you have the must have executive item, something that tracks you and your gear, as well as the kids market. Allow for wireless file sharing, and now you've got a great mobile system that goes with you and hauls all your kit.

Jaw On Floor

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 14:41:42 GMT

This is huge.

Flash Player for Palm.

Phillip Torrone noticed that Sony has listed the Flash 5 Player as software included with their new Clie.
You can visit the Sony site here.
[via FlashEnabled]
[mesh on MX]

While just having a flash player on a Palm device is pretty cool, this is even better, given the wireless capabilities that the PEGNX70V has going for it. Now, I can forsee not only a digital dash, but a first gen personal assistant, living on a server that updates you wirelessly over the network.

While I admit that "Clippy" comes to mind when I think of a personal assistant, I am thinking more along the lines of the Higgins product I keep going on about. So how does Higgins help you while you are on the road? Since you can't get updates, it would work as an overlay to your existing datebook, reading and writing to the data, and synching when you are in range.

Seperately, you could have PC games that allow you to play while away from your machine, as well as playing mini games against others while you are both on your Palms. This is nothing new in terms of gaming, only in terms of platform.

Three (OK, Four) Cool Stories

Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:21:10 GMT

Three cool stories about what I see as converging technologies:

Networked Video gets a Chip. ViXS is ready to deliver its XCode processor for delivering broadcast quality video at a full 30 frames per second over wireless LANs.
Samsung Looks for Middle Ground in Handheld Market. With the size of a PDA but the face of a notebook, Samsung is hoping its new NEXiO will appeal to mobile professionals that want more out of their handheld devices.
[Both from allNetDevices Wireless News, 9/26/2002; 12:43:56 AM.]
Labels shoot selves in foot by focusing on stopping P2P. A new KPMG study concludes that the RIAA and its member companies are hurting themselves by focusing on cracking down on P2P sharing instead of figuring out ways to earn a living with it. Link Discuss (Thanks, Michael!) [ Boing Boing Blog, 9/25/2002; 12:01:23 PM]

So, we are now at a point where your wireless handheld could have an embedded chip that decodes all availalbe MPEG streams, and, should labels wise up, this could be streamed to you wirelessly. Oh, combine this with
Can Libraries Circulate Videos To PDAs Now?.

"Despite the imbalanced nature of several panels, the conference was still well worth attending, with some terrifically sharp questions from the audience and some combative give and take on panels such as the State of the Industry roundtable, where Intertainer CEO Jonathan Taplin said his startup was willing to take on the Hollywood studios in court, after the studios had cut the number of movies available to his company from 1,500 titles to 15. The verbal shot across the bow, as it turned out, was accompanied by court papers, which were being filed the very same moment in federal court, alleging that the studios had violated antitrust laws by forming their own cartel, Movielink. (The San Jose Merc has the story today here.)" [JD's New Media Musings][http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/"> The Shifted Librarian, 9/26/2002; 12:43:51 AM.]

Now we have the opportunity for your local library to stream a file to you, wirelessly, wherever you are in the range of their WiFi network*. Imagine if you could "check out" public domain recordings that are streamed to you, allowing you to listen to music, read books that are from Project Gutenberg, watch movies, or access the internet, all from your home, and all because instead of a library card, you've got a NEXiO that the library lends out to users, allowing them to get all kinds of information that they have on hand.

Instead of giving kids full blown laptops, give them NEXiOs (or OQOs) and then they have something small enough to be carried easily, but so useful that they will not soon forget it. Get the school or library to use a P2P network like a customized version of The Circle for file sharing, or better yet Frontier so that the kids can upload/download their homework, check their grades via a Flash based digital dash, and keep an eye on their schedules (Userland, have you considered this market?) Parents can keep track of their kids performance, as well as keeping an eye on their schedule from wherever they might be.

Now imagine that the library/school/town has an IMbot that retrieves information for you, just the basics for now (Library hours, is a particular title available), but later it could be programmed to do an information request interview (Forgive me Jenny, for forgetting the proper term) to help you get the info you need, either from home, on the road, or via the NEXiO.

So how do labels fit into all of this? They should be using local libraries as a means of distributing music files, either as a donation to the libraries, or by helping to convert their existing music banks to MP3 in order to share the music with local users. By providing the hardware and training to do so, they would then help the communities to get a leg up technology wise, and get some local good will going.

*I've been reading about WiFi networks that are getting a 20km range through a combination of directional antenna arrays and masts. A new use for the town clock tower, water tower, or co-locate with a hidden cellular tower? regardless, this would more than cover most towns, if not some smaller cities.

It's Late, I'm Tired, and What better Time to Ramble?

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 03:51:28 GMT

Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players? [Slashdot]

OK, the writer is looking for a DVD player that will let him skip trailers as well as the FBI notice on DVDs. Someone suggests VideoLAN as an option. So what is VideoLAN?

VideoLAN is a project of French students from the École Centrale Paris and developers from all over the world. Its main goals is MPEG streaming on a network, but it also features a standalone multimedia player. The VideoLAN Server can stream video read from a hard disk, a DVD player, a satellite card or an MPEG 2 compression card, and unicast or multicast it on a network. The VideoLAN Client can read the stream from the network and display it. It can also be used to display video read locally on the computer : DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and DivX files and from a satellite card. It is multi-plaform : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX, iPaq... The VideoLAN Client and Server now have a full IPv6 support.

VideoLAN is free software, and is released under the GNU General Public License.

Pretty sweet. Now, if you have the scratch, imagine setting this up with a server that has some large, fast hard drives. The server watches the folders of your machines that you ahve set up with PVR cards, and grabs the show once it's taped. You also set up the server to snag a stream of a DVD as it's played, so that you have an archived copy in your system. Since you own the DVD and would never, ever tell anyone about this, you don't have to worry about getting busted for it.

Now, the cool thing is, you can have the server multicast, so you can effectively program your own TV channels. I know that for me, alte nights when I can't sleep, the best thing I can do is sit down with a quart of milk, a box of cookies, and watch some horror films, preferably Hammer Studios Dracula series. Puts me right out (and explains a lot, really.) Now, if you could tie this in with your personal assitant/Major Domo, Higgins, you'd be onto something.

Higgins: "Sir, you have insomnia?" (Higgins has noticed that you are stirring, and have just gone from the kitchen to the living room, and are now aimlessly channel surfing.)
User: "Yes Higgins. Anything good on?"
Higgins: "Mostly infomercials on broadcast. HBO 12 is showing ''My life in Bhutan'', which is one of your favorites..."
User: "No thank you Higgins, Que up some drive in horror, bugs and vampires please." (User has just used some keywords to describe what he's in the mood for. Higgins will now search through his archives for what the User likes, hasn't seen recently, and that matches the search terms used)
Higgins: "How about, The Giant Mantis, Them, and Dracula's Brides, sir?"
User: "Perfect. On the headphones, and theatre lighting."
Higgins: "Done and done." (Higgins switches the audio channel to the user's wireless headphones, and the changes the lighting to the theatre preset for the room.)
User: >belches
Higgins: "Excuse me sir?" (Higgins is in the headphones how)
User: "Nothing Higgins, I'm all set, goodnight." (This is a voice cue to put Higgins into standby unless he is addressed by name)
Higgins: "Goodnight sir."
User: (Kicks back and drifts off watching the film.)

Obviously, Higgins could be configured differently, to either respond with tones and text displays, differing genders and colloquialisms depending on region and user preference, etc, etc.

What was I talking about before?

Fri, 02 Aug 2002 02:50:50 GMT

Technology: Pearl the Robot Makes Life Easier for Elderly. 13:52 ET - Reuters [NewsBlip.com]

Wow. I'm glad to see that my earlier entry is a reality in some ways already. Pearl rolls around and has large type that is easy to read, reminding people of their schedules and appointments. Fantastic.

Chucky? Izatchoo?

Thu, 01 Aug 2002 14:28:18 GMT

A Chatty Doll of a Different Kind. New York Times Aug 1 2002 2:56AM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

New breed of doll that has bulit in voice recognition, speech synthysis, and a camera that is tied to a database of images that the can be taught to recognize.

By next year, he said, Cindy will be able to read Japanese, a notable addition to her current library of basic words in French, Spanish, German and Italian. And as processing power increases over time, Mr. Del Principe said, he anticipates creating dolls that can read sentences and recognize faces.

Now, imagine that you hook that tech to a self propelled bot that has a WiFi connection to your network, in addition to local storage of it's own, now you've got a self propelled doll that can remind you of your schedule, where you left something, stream audio, take dictation, remind you of your budget, VOIP phone calls, man, just about anything. To coin a term, a Botler for your home. Oops, some folks have already used that term.

Robots at a conference

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 13:45:40 GMT

Technology: New Robot Has Basic Social Skills. 03:16 ET - AP [NewsBlip.com]

Cool. While it's still very rough around the edges, the robots that Reid Simmons is working on are a good start in mixing mobility with a personable voice based interface. Contrast this with the oversized DRD at iRobot, the CoWorker.

Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:26:05 GMT

Here are my morning coffee notes (ala Dave -- with the same caveats). Will online customer service quickly become an automated activity? I think it could. This is rapidly becomming something this isn't a wild idea anymore (particularly given the low hurdle posed by untrained customer service reps I have had the displeasure of interacting with lately).

Check out the incarnations of the Alice Bot (the engine can be downloaded in multiple forms). Then check out the animated 2D pictures available via the Pulse Veeper.   Now check out the quality of Loquendo's text to speech engine. The art of the interaction would be to create a set of responses that cover all classes of customer service inquiries (suprising easy I would suspect given the time I spent doing something similar at my last job), enable access to customer account and inventory data, and combine the three different programs detailed above for an integrated experience.

After this is done, provide data-driven flash animations of actions taken by the automated customer service rep. For example: 1) making a credit to an account, 2) transfer of funds, 3) selection of an item for purchase, 4) instructions on how to assemble a product, and 5) instructions on how to send back an item.   Visual animated display of complex actions or info is extremely important for retention.

In thinking about this, customer service may not be the appropriate place to apply this technology.    E-learning may be a better application. A free form, seemingling intelligent Q&A bot that incorporates prerecorded bits of audio/animation to walk you through modules of instruction would be very cool. Add voice to text so you can verbally interrupt a presentation to ask a question and it gets eerie. Given that home schooling is a large market that is growing by 15% a year, and the basic modules of instruction are well understood, this could be extremely profitable at a low cost of development.
It could also be done in an app that runs on your desktop. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

This would also serve as an excellent version of Higgins, the home network assistant I have been going on about for the past few months.

Fun with 'bots

Tue, 25 Jun 2002 13:29:11 GMT

Library Chat Greeter.

Roll Your Own IM-bot

"WiredBots: simple toolkits for making AIM and MSN Messenger IM bots." [Boing Boing]

This is too damn cool! If I was only a programmer, I would play around with it and create a library bot that patrons could query for bestseller lists, library hours, and eventually OPAC & database queries. Anybody else want to try until that day when pigs fly?

Alternatively, maybe Andy B. could provide some assistance on this one....

[The Shifted Librarian]

Given that they reccomend doing the programming in perl, it could probably also be done in python as well. I know with python it is supposed to be fairly easy to build in a GUI, which in turn would allow you to create the forms and fields to generate answers from. I know that perl has that capability as well, but I have books on python here, and it is already on my machine... Now I have a reason to start learning it.

Thought: Set the bot with security such that it will only give certain answers to people that you have on a list. For example, you would have it set to tell a close friend where you were, or give out your cell number in case they had lost it, but it would not hand this out to complete strangers. It could also pester you with reminders form your appointment book, or to do list, or even take short messages from your friends (if they knew the keywords to get it started).

Example:

Friend: hey! Where is Jane?
AIMbot: (checks name against list of trusted folks) Jane is on her way to work.
Friend: Leave Message?
AIMbot: Handjive? (checking for the password to allow this functionality)
Friend: Annabobanna
AIMbot: Go ahead.
Friend: Meet you at Phil's restaurant after work, 6ish, k?
AIMbot:...
AIMbot:...
AImbot:... Will that be all?
Friend: Yup, later!
AIMbot:Goodbye

Then, when the user goes online later, the bot lets them know that there are messages waiting. Since AIMbot only records messages from people that you allow, and if you want, only from those who know the password (as above).

Glad I didn't buy one

Tue, 11 Jun 2002 23:10:45 GMT

Terapin Mine Review [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

This is the device that I had reccomended to Dave a short time ago. A copy of the review is available here.

Some update.

Sat, 08 Jun 2002 21:39:54 GMT

Interesting. I went to Sony's site to see if there were any updates for my PDA. Sure enough, there is an update. I download it, install it per the directions, and try out the new software, which was an update to the camera software.

Well, the updated software not only does not work with my PDA, it also makes the memory stick start choking when it is trying to play MP3 files, giving me an error stating that the MP3 is improperly encoded, that my memorystick is not available, and something else that I have since forgotten, since I was frankly pretty pissed off at the moment in time. Also, it is no longer recognizing the card that I have in the device.

OK, yank that card, drop in my other one. Nothing. While the small LED does blink to show that the PDA is trying to read the card, it is not recognized, and I can read no data off the card. Okay, maybe my cards are both fried, maybe I somehow bent them in the case that I made, rendering them inoperable. I check both cards in my PC, and have no trouble reading, writing, adding or deleting anything from them.

Hmmm. Interesting.

I reset the PDA, a process not unlike pithing a frog, as it involves inserting a small pin into the back of the device, to get it to restart. OK, now it will recognize the cards that I am inserting, buy about three tracks in I start getting the same error message again. Bah.

Pith it, restart, and after a few tries it no longer recognizes the stick at all, no matter how many resets I attempt. I am starting daggers at the device at this point, trying to figure out how/why it has decided to betray me. I run through the list of apps that I have recently installed that may have caused this to happen. Only one comes to mind, as it is the only one that I have installed in the past week. Fine. I delete the app, reset, and still the PDA refuses to notice the Memory stick. I set it aside for the night, and retire.

The next day, I get up, and reluctantly insert a stick in the hopes that it will be recognized. It is. I look at the device with one eye, not entirely trusting that which I am seeing. I open up the audio player, and start listening to tracks as I begin to write this very screed. Sure enough, it gets up to track 9 (so far) without a hitch.

The moral of this story: seemingly unrelated and innocent updates may well hamper the use of your gear.

DUDE!

Tue, 04 Jun 2002 14:52:28 GMT

SWEET! I just found out that I can have the MP3 player on my Clie run in the background while I run other apps... Very nice. So now I don't have to quit out of that app if I wnat to check an address etc. And the supplied remote still works to control volume, track #, pause etc.

An aside - I see that RBT also has UMAX on his "never buy" list, because of their driver policy.

Wed, 15 May 2002 14:56:04 GMT

Virtual Reference Bots.

"This doesn't have any direct applicability to handheld computers, but
it piqued my curiousity so much, I wanted to post it here. Have any
of you considered using a bot for live reference or for any other types of library
services? Steve Coffman, a true technology pioneer is at it again. Go here
http://www.virtualreference.net/virtual/bots.html to get a fascinating description
of bots doing reference and about an exciting program being presented
on the web on Monday! It would be interesting to see what everyone here thinks
of this idea. Try Deborah too, the experimental bot they have set up at NCSU." [The Handheld Librarian]

I wish I could say yes to this question, but I'm still trying to make headway with IM in my own organization, let alone with the public at my member libraries. I think bots as a library version of the "Wal-Mart greeter" can have their place, so I'll be interested to see if anyone pipes up on this one.

I'm going to try to join the online meeting noted at Steve's site. It's on Monday, May 20, at 10:00 a.m.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Yet another ideal part of the home assistant. The quiries that let it look up information neednot be limited to a specific area, as a search algorithm is a search algorithm. The key is having access to information.

User: "Higgins, what was that song that was just playing on the radio?"
Higgins: (Checks to see which station the user was tuned into, then hits the playlist searching for a track that just finished) "Sir, K-ROCK just played the Cover of "Papa Don't Preach" as done by Kelley Osbourne, backed by Incubus. Would you like to purchase the album?"
User: "Not at this time, but do me a favor and record it the next time it's broadcast."
Higgins: "Would you like the video of that as well?"
User: "No, thank you.
Higgins: "Very well. Will that be all?"
User: "No, I need all available data on bamboo, concentration on uses in architecture, and companies that are harvesting/selling it in the US."
Higgins: (Keywords: bamboo, farming, building materials, architects...)"When do you need this by?"
User: "Noon Tomorrow. Linked html format, lead with an abstract, and a fully annotated endnotes."
Higgins: (starts searching, inputting relevant info into an XML page that will be rendered with CSS, making sure to have the final page be nothing but hyperlinks to the various tags in the body of the diocument)"I have started the process. This will take some time. Question: Do you want contact information for US based companies, phone numbers, addresses etc?"
User: "Yes, please, have that as a page of contacts, sorted by industry, state, then alpha."
Higgins: (notes sort order)"Very well. Will that be all?"
User: "Yes Higgins, Thank you."
Higgins: (Higgins sets this as a high priority process, with allowances for other scheduled jobs) "You are welcome, sir."

Now, if Higgins cannot access say, LexisNexis (which is YOW! $250.00 a week!) or some other existing system, that may well hamper the search. Imagine the money to be made by a company that provides this functionality. While yes, I have seen Desk Set, and I do not believe that a computer can replace a team of dedicated researchers, I think that it can leverage the work so that the researcher is more efficient.

Fri, 10 May 2002 02:33:22 GMT

I was in CompUSA tonight, eyeing (and handling) the Sony PEG-NR70, which is the sibling of the PEG-NR70V that I so dearly want. First impressions:

It's light. Really light. Once I had some slack from the anti-theft cord that tethered it to the dispay I was suprised at the weight of the the thing.
The display is gorgeous. I especially appreciate the way the virtual graphitti area lights up when you apply a stroke.
Fast. Super fast compared to my trusty Handspring Visor Deluxe.
The jog dial was a little awkward at first, but it seemed that it would be a slight adaptation to get to the point where it would be second nature (GO THUMB!)

All in all it is a very nice unit, and I look forward to getting my hands on it's sibling (with the built in camera) as soon as I can.

Wed, 24 Apr 2002 15:59:26 GMT

How to Build a Computerized Android Robot Head [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

I imagine that a combination of some pretty smart programming along with some puppet building skills would make this work well. Tie it in with your PIM (as the author describes) and you can have a talking robot head to help you manage your time!

Mon, 15 Apr 2002 23:36:28 GMT

Paolo put Radio on his iPod. Funny, this morning I came to same conclusion. I want all of my most useful data on a portable drive. That includes my Radio files, my media files, my documents, etc. Nice. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

>Applauds Paolo

Two years ago I bought a Zip 250 drive for similar reasons, I wanted something that was small and portable that would hold all my files on it. Being me I also wanted something that would hold my "identity" on it as well, in terms of my favorites for the internet, email back up etc.

No such animal existed, then. Now, with an iPod you can do it, as I imagine you could with a Pocket PC that had a microdrive in a CF slot. Very cool stuff, especially when taken to this level as Paolo has done.

The next step: Have that firewire device hook up to anything at all, and instantly know what to do with your data, as it looks for that drive in order to find out who is using it. Modular workstations in a library that users can "instantly upgrade" in order to have it carry on their research. I am reminded of the "business cards" from Snow Crash for some reason. Hook this into the Grid Computing effort that Sony is up to, and you'll have a personal portable storage network that is limited only by the number of pockets you have available.

Thu, 11 Apr 2002 18:19:42 GMT

A Palmtop Gets a Pivot [NY Times Technology]
[Sony site]

New Sony Palm based PDA. If it had a voice recording option I'd be all over it. Even for $600.00 USD. It's a killer piece of technology, all rolled into one bitty machine. I especially like the built in universal remote feature, and the MP3 playing capability. Grab three memory sticks and you've got plenty of music. Hint to Sony: Start giving away the licences to produce the memory stick readers so that you get mass market hardware adoption, and either keep the stick production in house or allow 3rd party production for a nominal fee. This tech is too good to keep under a bushel, and USB keychain RAM is rapidly going to eat your lunch if you don't get on the ball and fast.

Wed, 10 Apr 2002 14:47:13 GMT

Sonic Foundry debuts media management suite [IDG InfoWorld]

Lawyers are already using this for a tracking depositions through this companys subsidiary. Granted, a $30K US entry point puts this out of the realm of the average consumer, but I am sure that something will be rolling out in about three years that is nowhere near as feature rich, and costing significantly less.

Wed, 10 Apr 2002 04:12:05 GMT

Wireless Monitors? [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters] Viewsonic link here.

It's not so much a monitor as a wireless tablet PC running WIN CE/.NET [Per the specs]. One of my current fields of inquiry is into decent family oriented PIM/CMS software. Being able to sync everyone's schedule, the recording of their favorite shows, when they'll be where and their contact numbers where they are is important for a family, and moreso for a business.

This all ties into my Higgins idea as well, of having MajorDomo that runs off your home server in the background, and takes care of day to day contact management etc for you.

So how does this tie into a "wireless monitor"? I can see these on nightstands around the country, slowly brightening to act as a combination light/noise alarm, and since it's ties into your PIM/CMS system, it makes it super easy to answer the phone, change your alarm settings, etc.

I know a lot of this tech exists in a variety of ways now, but there is a long row to hoe before we get to the point that ubiquity will bring down the prices to where everyone can afford it.

The Shifted Librarian scores again!

Mon, 25 Mar 2002 14:55:14 GMT

Lord of the Robots.

"The idea is that we should have all our information services always available, no matter what we are doing, and as unobtrusive as possible. If I pick up your cell phone today and make a call, it charges you, not me. With our prototype H21s, when you pick one up and use it, it recognizes your face and customizes itself to you—it knows your schedule and where you want to be. You can talk to it, ask it for directions or make calls from it. It provides you access to the Web under voice or stylus command. And it can answer your questions rather than just giving you Web pages that you have to crawl through.

The E21s provide the same sorts of services in a pervasive environment. The walls become screens, and the system handles multiple people by tracking them and responding to each person individually. We are experimenting with new sorts of user interfaces much like current whiteboards, except with software systems understanding what you are saying to other people, what you are sketching or writing, and connecting you with, for instance, a mechanical-design system as you work. Instead of you being drawn solitarily into the computer’s virtual desktop as you work, it supports you as you work with other people in a more natural way....

In 10 years, we’ll see better vision systems in handheld units and in the wall units. This will be coupled with much better speech interfaces. In 10 years the commercial systems will be using computer vision to look at your face as you’re talking to improve recognition of what you are saying. In a few years, the cameras, the microphone arrays will be in the ceiling in your office and will be tracking people and discriminating who is speaking when, so that the office can understand who wants to do what and provide them with the appropriate information. We’re already demonstrating that in our Intelligent Room here in the A.I. Lab. I’ll be talking to you—then I’ll point, and up on the wall comes a Web page that relates to what I’m saying. It’s like Star Trek, in that the computer will always be available." [MIT Technology Review, via bOing bOing]

A very thought-provoking interview with Rodney Brooks (the Director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab) that is well worth your time. Plus, I'm adding Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us by Rodney Brooks to The Shifted Reading List. [The Shifted Librarian]

See also the iRobot site for more information.

Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:03:11 GMT

Is iPod angling to be device du jour?. Apple Computer's digital music player could begin to mature into a handheld and maybe more, say analysts and Mac enthusiasts. But Apple itself is saying don't get carried away. [CNET News.com: Personal Technology]

Given that Jobs has come out in the past and publicly blasted people for using Palm devices, I highly doubt that we'll be seeing iPods as fully blown PDAs any time soon. However I do see a time in the near future, when color high res LCD or OLED price points get low enough, that we will see an iPod that has a color screen and the ability to playback video that is either stored on the device or streamed from a bluetooth connection. Ideally I'd like to see an iPod as a mini video editor/photo viewer, with an optional keyboard connection or Newton-like handwriting interface that allows you to mark up/tag your data in the field, speeding editing once you get back to your desktop/laptop.

Thu, 21 Mar 2002 15:49:17 GMT

Voice Recognition Leaps Into Appliances. Voice control, long the stuff of science fiction, is popping up in mundane household devices like clock radios, television remotes, telephones -- even toasters. By Neil Mcmanus. [New York Times: Technology]

Integration of these sundry devices is the next key, now that voice recognition chips are down in the $1.00 USD range. This will help users, as they may forget a command after setting it, and having a text interface (say, on a nearby TV) to guide them would be good. This would also overcome limitations in device memory, so a greater number of users could have the systems attuned to their voice. Additionally, this would serve to speed the use of new devices, as the users voice patterns are already known to the system, so they can issue commands right away with a minimum of training each and every new device.

Users could carry their voice profiles along with them in their PDAs so that they could then quickly test out devices in stores, be it a new car, alarm clock, television, or other electronic device.