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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
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@ Running on air...
As someone who does a bit of running to keep fit, I can testify to the psychological importance of measuring one's performance. Most of the time, I feel the need to time my runs. Of course, I am looking for improvement, or at least consistency.
I am also interested to know how far I have run. With a friend from Motorola, I brain-stormed possible measuring apparatus for precision distance measurement. Most of the time, we gravitated toward optical measurement solutions using cameras, akin to the way an optical mouse works.
I was intrigued to find out about a pair of training shoes, I think by Nike, that include a microprocessor. I instantly assumed this was for such measurements, but it turns out to be a real-time controller for pumping goo around the sole of the shoe to adjust damping. I did think this might prove useful, with some kind of bio-feedback, to help avoid injuries.
It seems that Philips/Nike have now addressed the measurement problem. As one might expect, the solution is also an entertainment device, centred on music - or audio, playback. MP3 of course, hence the name, MP3Run. Fantastically, the sensor that straps on the shoe, communicating via Bluetooth back to the main arm- or body-strapped unit, uses 2D accelerometers to do the sensing. As a user of an air-mouse, I have an enthusiasm for these groovy sensors, so I was enthused by their use in this application.
Just take a read of Philip's whitepaper about the device to appreciate the processing power of the solution:
When the player is used for the first time, the runner does not necessarily have to input information on aspects such as length of stride beforehand. The sensor on the shoe measures 1000 times per second acceleration/deceleration of each stride using a 2 dimensional acceleration sensor. This information is used by a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to re-construct the actual gait and be finally able to give precise information about momentary speed and hence distance.
That’s what I called a usable system, at least on paper. No messing with stride measurements and the usual pedometer configurations – just strap, listen and run. Or, at least, I hope it isn’t listen, run and strap, after tripping on a kerb whilst fiddling with the controls. Let’s wait and see. I think I’m in the market for one of these goodies. Due out in August.
Now, how can we combine this unit with Spatial Messaging solutions? I'm thinking on that one......
9:29:00 PM 
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Friday, May 21, 2004
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:: Cantenna ::
 I have recently been writing about the invention of the "Cantenna", or the Pringles Yagi, as I prefer to call it. Andrew Clapp is the original "discoverer" (his preferred accolade, rather than "inventor") and I was happy to hear from him that it is still going strong, linking up his flat to the nearest community WiFi point.
I was also impressed to find out that someone (Jason Brook) has gone and made a business out of it and taken the domain name Cantenna.com. Andrew mentions on his website that he doesn't know where the name came from. It emerged from several places at once. I recall "discovering" the name "Zingo" for a wireless portal project. The name later "emerged" as a trademark for a London taxi company's wireless hailing system. They trademarked it, whereas I didn't.
Apparently, the name of a business can make or break it, so reports David Kipen when reviewing the book "Word Craft" by Alex Frankel. You can even buy names on the Net, from the likes of Names Express - 12 names in 24 hours for just 70 USD.
Some people invent/discover things. Some people name things. Some people make money on things. Some people write about it. I've tried all of them.
10:16:27 AM
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Thursday, April 22, 2004
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:: Controlling a PC via Bluetooth Phone ::
Via the Ecademy network, I came across an employee of Baracoda and from there I ended up surveying their website. They have interesting products utilising Bluetooth and barcode readers, an inevitable area of convergence. Personally, I would like to see a barcode reader built into a "sleek device" (see IXI Mobile), like a watch. It would then be very accessible to the consumer for a variety of uses, some of which are discussed in my book.
What I also found on Baracoda's site was an interesting free download to turn my T68i into a remote control for my PC, which already had the requisite BT dongle. It was quite strange, and highly satisfying, to have remote mouse control via my phone. This is a demo I had been hoping to show on various training courses - and now I have it! It is a fantastic way of enabling presentations to be remotely controlled. I had previously gone out and bought a dedicated device for this purpose.
4:53:21 PM
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004
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:: Fastap™ enters the arena ::
I had previously blogged about the innovative Fastap™ keyboard design from Digit Wireless, a company whose energy and idea captivated my imagination and made me believe again in out of the box potentialities. Indeed, the excitement caused me to include mention of the technology in my new book ("Next Generation Wireless Applications" from Wiley). That's why I was happy to receive notice from DW's President, Chris Hare, of a major launch of Fastap™ technology into the mainstream of North American wireless markets.
Digit Wireless, LG Electronics and TELUS Mobility announce production of the world's first Fastap™ enabled mobile phone
Unique phone keyboard set to revolutionize text messaging, data communications...[more]
1:31:08 AM
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Monday, August 18, 2003
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:: Q12 - Another exciting keypad design ::
 It seems my previous comment to open up a channel just to discuss keypads was justified. No sooner had I said it than these guys at Softava emailed me about this exciting new design called Q12 (right). It uses the same principle I have already reported here that Unitap and Fastap use, namely deliberately positioning keys (“hills”) close enough together that pressing what appears to be the gaps (“valleys”) between them causes several keys to be pressed at once. This combination is used to generate the desired character, so in effect each valley is like a virtual key. Fastap and Unitap both use enough keys to represent directly the letters and virtually the digits. However, the Q12 takes this to another level and uses cleverly shaped keys to represent the digits directly and the letters virtually via all the various valleys sculptured in the keys (see the schematics on their website). It sure seems clever and I would love to try it out for real.
10:46:59 PM
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Thursday, July 31, 2003
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:: Intriguing keypad design from Ventris ::
 Things are getting hot in the race for new keypad designs. I am thinking of introducing a category on my blog just to handle it. It seems that there is a lot of activity going on in this area. Quite rightly, as widely adopted keypad designs could make someone very rich! There is no need to stick to conventions, especially bearing in mind that the QWERTY keypad is actually an exercise in deliberately poor design, aimed at slowing the typist down, not speeding them up.
Personally, I just can't seem to stop thinking about text-entry ideas. I avoided writing "keypad ideas", as that may be too limiting to start with. If we doubt that new layouts can be adopted by mobile users, then we may be wrong.
Take the 3650 from Nokia, with its circular pad layout. Whilst I personally don't like it and bemoaned the fact that it broke all usability conventions (in the Java gaming context at least), I was intrigued by its complete disruption of the standard layout and what impact that might have on texting. I raised this with one of the testing managers at O2 who assured me that his teenage daughter had "mastered" it within two days and could text as fast as ever. That's not scientific, but still revealing (what would Nielsen make of it?).
After Fastap, Unitap and FITALY, I was impressed to receive a note from Ventris, who have come up with a new design called HandyScript. At first glance (right), it looks like a prop out of a Star Trek film, something the Klingons would use - BUT I'M NOT MOCKING. This idea takes a little while to sink in, but I have downloaded the trial version and figured out the concept very quickly just by visual inspection. Of course, what I really need is a mobile version so that I can try it out in a context that interests me.
An interesting feature of HandyScript is that it is language independent, able to support multiple languages with the same layout and symbols. This is very intriguing and I would like to examine this more. However, I confess that I have not had much time to formally assess it yet, but I will post a follow-up later.
12:47:02 PM
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© Copyright
2005
Paul Golding.
Last update:
3/26/2005; 8:58:13 PM.
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