Tag Archives: Bluetooth

Business, Economy, Education, Help, Science, Technology

Alzheimer’s Inflicted: Technology to Help Remember Habitual Activities  

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Anyone ever walk into a room and forget why on Earth you were there?  Were you about to get a cup of coffee, or get your car keys?  Wonderful!  It’s frustrating on my level of distraction, now magnify that to the Nth degree, Alzheimer’s.  Apply a rules and Induction engine, and poof!  A step further away from a managed care facility.

Teaching the AI Induction and rules engine may require the help of your 10 year old grandson.  Relatively easy,  you might need your grandson to sleep over for a day or two.

It’s all about variations of the same theme, tag a location, a room in an apartment, also action tag, such as getting a cup of coffee from the kitchen.  The repetitive nature of the activities with a location tag draws conclusions based on historical behavior.  The more variations of action and coinciding location tags, will begin to become ‘smarter’ about your habitual activities.  In addition, the calculations create a bell curve, a way to prioritize the most probable Location/Action tags used for the suggested behavior.    The ‘outliers’ on the bell curve will have the lowest probability of occurrence.

In addition, RFID tags installed in your apartment will increase the effectiveness of the ‘advice’ engine by adding more granular location tags.

Microchip_rfid_rice
Microchip RFID compared to the size of a grain of rice.
Beyond this ‘black box’ small, lightweight computer (smartphone) integrate a Bluetooth, NFC, WiFi antenna, a mobile application and you’re set.  A small, high quality Bluetooth microphone to interact with the app.  There’s also potential for exploring beyond the home.

Kidding, you don’t need that Grandson to help.  Speak into the mic, “Train” go into the room and say your activity, coffee.  This app will correlate your location, and action.  Everyone loves to be included in the Internet of Things, so app features like alerts for deviation from the location ‘map’ are possible.

In earnest, I am mostly certain that this type of solution exists.  Barriers to adoption could be computer/ smartphone generational gap.  Otherwise, someone is already producing the solution, and I just wasted a bus ride home.

Additionally, this software may be integrated with Apple’s Siri, Google Now,  Yahoo Index, Microsoft Cortana,  an extension of the Personal Assistant.

Business, Mobility, Technology

Our Mind’s Eye Stream for Sale: Who will Own those Portals?

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As we approach a brave new world of our Mind’s Eye for Sale, who will own that portal, or jump page to other view’s or other perspectives?  It gets more and more expensive to see the world, and harder to travel.  Sound like Total Recall, the movie, not far off from the path we’re already on without even realizing.  Portals to other people’s perspectives, such as Instagram, seeing life from other people’s interpretations of the world, it is fascinating and alluring to us.

Once the Genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to turn back.  In all sincerity, a lightweight version of Google’s Android OS for Glass may even be downloadable, and free as it is based on open source.  The Glass is super stylish, but super expensive.  If you’re in the main stream you can afford the glass, if not, you can build your own.  Not that difficult relatively speaking, a kit from Texas Instruments perhaps, such as we’ve seen in the PC world, where they now offer small computer kits for building small computers with Android, and Linux.  If you wanted to build your own Google Glass, how fast will there be imitations, I imagine, faster than you can blink an eye, pun intended.

Google will make it popular and sexy, after that, there could be a flood of imitations.  After all, today we can all build knock off Google Glass, a tiny web cam, a lightweight OS, and Bluetooth integrated with your smartphone for two way interaction, streaming, and communications.  The lightweight OS could today be Linux, but the champion for this effort , Red Hat? No, they are a support and solutions group for a blend of Unix.   No, there are a few hurdles that Google must and have taken, in some cases, partnered with Verizon, who had their own blend of HUD at the 2013 CES conference.  Today, we might mock and jeer people who wore glasses with a mini cam on their glasses.  It might be clunky, the idea is to make it alluring to the masses, as well as going through iterations to make it an acceptable medium to the public.  Once Google, the trailblazer in this endeavor burns through the problems, it will pave the way for a massive wave of alternate choices, become a commodity.  It’s not just the issue with the UI, there are legal battles to be fought, privacy for example, is it safe to drive with them on, and so on.  There needs to be mainstream platforms, so people take advantage, and are lured to independent platforms.  Many other companies might follow, such as Amazon or other cloud based companies.  Maybe even independent sites, web sites, mobile apps, and others joining and integrating with APIs.

Business, Technology

Protecting Your Pet with Facial and Voice Recognition

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Here’s a story to chew on.  If there was a national database of both cat and dog facial images, as well as a sound bite of a bark or a purr, using both facial and voice recognition, this bioprint database can help you find and/or replace a lost pet.  First, take a biosignature or bioprint of your pet, download the bioprint to a microSD card, and insert the pet’s bioprint into it’s tag.  The tag is equipped with an emerging micro technology, a low power Bluetooth emerging technology.  Breeders as well as pet owners alike may use this feature for adoption, as well as identifying lost pets.

As a set of national hotspots are gradually equipped with low power Bluetooth emerging technologies, if possible, or smartphones equipped with Bluetooth, they can help identify the missing pet with an app that has access to the lost pet.  The owner would update their pet missing, and possibly update the database with a reward.  Monetary incentive, with the use of their cell phone, and the app, kids may canvas the neighborhood, and find the pet with their and the matching low power Bluetooth collar.  The bioprint confirms the authentication of the missing pet.

Hey, there’s also the possibility of replacing your pet with the best possible match. Creepy.

Education, Humor, Mobility, Technology

Thin Pen Device Covertly Answers Questions

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Todays Scuttlebot: Smart Shoes and the Top Social Network Among Teens – NYTimes.com.

A random thought regarding this article and word association:  A ‘pen’ can have two modes, and a built in Bluetooth transmitter for communication to and from your smartphone.

The initial mode of the thin ‘pen’ like device allows the person/student to read the question using Optical Character Recognition by moving the thin pen like device over the question.  The question is wirelessly transmitted to your smartphone, then the second mode of the device receives the answer from the smartphone in your pocket using the smartphone search, and can allow the user to have a simple output of ink, by rolling the highlighter against a white background.  The inverse of the highlighted area would contain the letters for the answer.  A bonus is to have disappearing highlighting ink.  Just an idea, kids.

Business, Technology

Ride the Near Field Communications Wave

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At the 2013 Computer Electronics Show, there were only a few vendors touting Near Field Communications (NFC) technology integrated into their products, that I could see, and I did try to get to as many booths as possible.  Last week I mentioned people in Korea use NFC business cards to exchange and play music on their devices.  After that post, I did see a company’s tweet saying they were going to get into the distribution of NFC cards to store music, movies, and more, as the advertisement stated.  The benefits of this technology over Bluetooth simply low / near null power signature, inexpensive relative to the Bluetooth technology, and the potential shortcoming is it has a very short range.  Smartphones equipped with NFC can be paired with NFC tags or stickers which can be programmed by NFC apps to automate tasks.   NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is possible, provided both devices are powered. NFC tags contain data and are typically read-only, but may be rewriteable.  I also had a conversation with someone that implied the storage on the NFC tags may be limited, so an easy workaround would be to store unique keys, such as a reverse domain name, and other pointers to data in a structured storage data web cloud, which is hosted by any number of verticals.

In this post I wanted to highlight a few potential uses.  Unfortunately, this is the second time I am writing the blog post because the first one didn’t get saved.  Annoying!

Automobile Servicing

Instead of the sticker a car dealer, or your mechanic, may put in the top left hand corner of your window to remind you to change your oil at N miles or Z months, an NFC sticker can be encrypted with your car’s VIN number, the complete required and suggested maintenance for the vehicle, as well as when and by who these services were completed.  The NFC Sticker may be placed in the console where you might place your smartphone.

Food Storage, Food Savings

On your refrigerator, you may place an NFC Sticker, that is overlaid on a magnet.  Every time food is removed or placed in a refrigerator or pantry, you can swipe the food NFC tagged with the cooperation of the food manufacturer.  An average usage model can be derived and encoded on the tag, as well as a proximity timer.  If the food item, such as milk, is not returned to refregerator within a given period of time, a notification on your smartphone, and/or a depreciation counter can be reprogrammed on the NFC tag to indicate approximate usage.  Once the item needs to be restocked, or placed back, a notification may appear on your smartphone, and/or added to your shopping list.

Books, Music, and Movie Samplings from a Store

If you’re in a store, and pass by a book, music CD or movie DVD, an NFC tag may contain a URL to download a PDF sample of the book, a music track from the CD, only available in stores through use of the NFC tag, or bonus material from a movie that only can be accessed through the NFC tag in stores to drive traffic into a store.  I specified a URL to link to the content because the current specification seems to limit the amount of storage on the NFC tag, however, specs can change, and I might be a bit conservative on the amount of storage necessary, but with a ‘secure cloud’, the storage shouldn’t be a factor. Any information on the NFC tag can simply be pointers to unique keys to data in tables within the cloud, such as a VIN number, or other generated unique keys.

Accessory Matching

Imagine your in a store by yourself, and trying on an article of clothing, if the dress, pants or skirt contains an NFC tag, you can touch it with your smartphone, which links you to either advisors or AI,  perhaps sponsored by a fashion magazine, that may provide you with with ideas to match that article of clothing, such as complementary accessories.  This could be accomplished through a video camera, front facing camera, perhaps ads float across the bottom of the screen, and/or it could be a subscription service.

 Meeting People / Dating

If you find yourself in a crowed bar, or party, and want to exchange information with someone you just met,  you have an NFC tag or sticker placed on the back of your hand, or on your purse, when bumped, will automatically exchange a brief bio, picture, likes, interests, and an email address.  If your smartphone is GPS compatible, the data is loaded onto your smartphone with the captured NFC tag data in addition to the location, so you never ask, so where did I meet this guy again?

Supply Chain Management and Shortages

Every person in the supply chain from manufacturer to retailers may have an NFC tag embedded within their employee identification tag, and as each individual handles the product or package, they swipe their card to the other NFC tag, and their employee unique identifier, along with date time and location (optional) may be rewrite the tag to append the new information.  This may prevent product shortages, as well as help further optimize the supply chain.

 

Business, Mobility, Technology

Consumer Electronics Show Highlight: Plantronics Plus Innovation, Really? Yes!

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As I was walking by the Platronics booth, I noticed a friendly gentleman, and he turned out to me the product manager for the firm, and introduced me to two products.  I have used Platronics headsets over the years at many firms had have been extremely satisfied with the quality of the head sets, from my college days of telemarketing to help pay for college, to the never ending conference calls for meetings.  So I was quite familiar with the VoIP, as well as other explored avenues in this space, and quite honestly, I found very little, that might excite me in this space until I met, Platronics new Voyager Legend UC.  Actually, it was recently released, in October it became Generally Available; however, this CES show was the first time they were showcasing their device. It is an absolute necessity for anyone in the market for a Bluetooth headset.  The features are literally off the charts exciting, that I will have to bullet point them out.

  • The Voyager Legend UC is the first time the company is spreading it’s wings this year in the iOS,and Android application arenas.  They have two fantastic applications, which in my humble opinion, they are not touting enough: one is a Find MyHeadset app, not as exciting, but the other is an InstantMeeting app.  This application will be your assistant, who arranges your phone calls, she is fabulous.  The application reads your calendar for one or multiple numbers, and is capable of conferencing the numbers at the stated time in your Android or iPhone smartphones.
  • In addition to the Android and iPhone applications, this is the amazing part. Platronics has now created an SDK to allow Android and iOS developers to create their own applications, which can be quite numerous.  The internal team is apparently constrained in resources to develop a host of applications they visualize, so they are hoping the development community will take up the challenge, and if you will think about the potential applications, as I go through the power of this headset, you will jump onto your IDEs (Independent Development Environments), and start your venture into these applications.
  • This headset has voice recognition, so it will announce callers, and read off the caller identification, as well as provide battery life notifications.  In addition, I believe the unit is receptive to voice recognition commands.  Now with an API, one application I would LOVE to see in the market place as a project manager, is an application that will take meeting minutes for me, I proof read them, and send them out after the meeting.  Fabulous.  Everyone on a conference call wants a list of action items, you are furiously jotting down notes at the same time facilitating the call, and the two are sometimes challenging to perform.  If a keen app developer takes advantage of the Platronics API for the Voyager Legend UC, they can create variations of this application.
  • The headset fits into a case that actually charges the headset while not in use, and not plugged into any exterior source.  I am done talking and on the road, no need for a car charger for my phone and my headset, I just put the headset back in it’s compact case, and it’s ready to go for our next meeting, plus the headset and case have a magnetic lock, so it holds the headset in place.  Brilliant.
  • This rechargeable battery is amazing, the talk and standby time meets the top criteria in the industry.
  • Finally, it’s  Bluetooth, and may connect to either your phone or through a computer. The computer connectivity will get slightly higher quality, wide band verses narrow, however, Skype and Microsoft’s own solution have custom drivers to enhance the quality of the call with Voice over IP with this headset.

In short, for the business man, or anyone who spends a great deal of time on the phone, this headset is a must have, and for 199 USD, it is a steal.

Platronics Voyager Legend UC
Platronics Voyager Legend UC