When we think of the future we imagine flying cars, teleportation and floating cities — all high-level advancements that will make everyday life easier. But did H.G. Wells ever predict we would need to relearn how to type?

http://youtu.be/RPNlZwLCLLs

A growing population believes in 10 years we’ll be saying goodbye to the QWERTY keyboard and hello to lasers, touchboards and orbs.  Good thing you can start practicing with your new keyboard today.

Marks Technology News describes the features of the Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard:

“With a detection rate of up to 400 characters per minute, it will keep up with even the fastest typists among us – rapidly transmitting as far as 9 meters from your device. The unit includes simulated key-click sounds for feedback during use and its built-in lithium-ion battery is good for up to 120 minutes of solid typing, so you can use it on the go without needing to be tethered to a wall.”

According to Web magazine Yanko Design:

“Glass surface inputting is the new hotness for almost every gadget maker today. From from the iPhone to Microsoft’s Surface technology, flat is where it’s at. Introducing the flattest full size QWERTY keyboard to date, “No-key Keyboard” by Kong Fanwen. Consisting of just a glass surface, camera and lighting, this alternative keyboard concept will use the latest motion capture technology to watch your fingers nervously select just the perfect smiley for your online bantering.”

The Optimus Tactus is a full touchscreen keyboard that can be programmed to show you whatever keys you need at the moment. You can even eliminate entire keys in ‘movie mode.’

Quick to dismiss the inconvenience of learning a new keyboard system?

Cult of Mac says:

“I believe Apple deliberately used its red-hot iPhone product to force the world to accept and learn to appreciate on-screen keyboards, and break them of their physical keyboard habit. When Apple released the iPad a year ago, it was usable with two Apple keyboards (the standard Bluetooth keyboard and a new cradle keyboard). But no matter. The on-screen keyboard idea had already been accepted by a critical mass of users.”

So the next time you think your touch screen keyboard skills are up to par, think again.  The keyboard revolution is coming.

Copyright Davison 2013

Images:

http://showgadget.blogspot.com/2009/02/bluetooth-laser-virtual-keyboard.html

Sources:

http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=8&from=en-us_msnhp#/video/ecd37bde-9401-f5ac-73c2-7b41a13d7c1a

http://www.markstechnologynews.com/2009/04/bluetooth-laser-virtual-keyboard.html

http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/06/12/lights-camera-glassaction/#mtCYDYRmHaQYVmMj.99

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/tactus/

http://www.cultofmac.com/88879/how-apple-made-the-world-safe-for-the-future-of-keyboards/#qvdVCXx5DiLeMmB8.99

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Gone are the analog days of getting noticed on your bike. Today’s riders know that getting noticed on your bike takes more than putting baseball cards between the spokes. That’s why a variety of companies have created LED light systems for your bike wheels.

Companies like Nite Ize, MonkeyLectric and Revolights market LED lights that turn your bike wheels into glowing images of your choice.

Wired explained how Revolights work:

The white-and-red lighting setup comprises a ring of LEDs that you install around the entire edge of each of your bike rims. Using a pair of clever devices, only the forward-facing lights (or backwards, in the case of the rear wheel) illuminate when the wheel spins. The result is beautiful arcs of light that make you visible from all angles, an effect that Revolights’ co-founder and CFO Adam Pettler says came by accident.

Check out how bike LEDs work in this video.

So what is the future of LED bike wheel utility? Certainly advertising agencies have seen the eye-catching value of promoting a product on a glowing bike.  Anvil.com, for example offers LEDs featuring Pepsi and Coke logos.

Most wheel LEDs only turn on at night, are easily installed and are waterproof. Here’s how a company called Mathmos describes their lights:

Easily screw directly onto your bike wheel valves and create circles of light when you cycle. The lights use high quality LEDs with light/motion sensors, which mean they will only come on at night when you’re on the move. They are great fun lights but also aid visibility and therefore safety. They should only be used in conjunction with standard bicycle lights and not on their own.

Copyright Davison 2013

Image:

http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Monkey-Light-Pro.jpg

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2013/05/27/monkey-light-pro-bike-wheel-leds/

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/05/led-bike-wheel-revolights/

http://www.anvii.com/store/CoolStyle_wheel_AD/blue/index.php

http://gizmodo.com/159380/do+it+yourself-led-bike-wheels

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Ever since Diners Club International became the first independent credit card company in 1950, banks have continued to dream of different ways of paying for goods and services. But maybe the future of transactions isn’t in the hands of the banks. Maybe it’s in the hands of software engineers.

“Bitcoin is an experimental, decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network.

“The original Bitcoin software by Satoshi Nakamoto was released under the MIT license. Most client software, derived or ‘from scratch,’ also use open source licensing.

“Bitcoin is one of the first implementations of a concept called crypto-currency which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list. Building upon the notion that money is any object, or any sort of record, accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context, Bitcoin is designed around the idea of using cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money, rather than relying on central authorities.”

But having trusted and relied on our banks, credit cards and cash for generations upon generations, can Bitcoin ever become relevant?

According to Gigaom.com: “Technically speaking, Bitcoin is very smart indeed, as it’s the first currency that removes the need for a trusted third party – usually a bank – in financial transactions.

“That said, however, it’s crazily volatile at the moment. At the start of 2013, one Bitcoin was worth around $13. Things went nuts with the Cyprus crisis in March, and right now the price is bumping up and down around the $137 mark. It certainly looks like a bubble at this point, although the huge amount of interest Bitcoin is getting at the moment could lead to an uptick in use, which would in turn legitimize it as a viable currency. Either way, the current volatility will probably dissuade people from spending their Bitcoins right now, and make life hard for vendors setting prices in Bitcoin.

“Then, despite the supposed inviolability of the Bitcoin itself, there are multiple security issues. Before we even consider nefarious activities such as hacking, an interesting wrinkle in the Bitcoin methodology is that, if you lose your Bitcoin wallet, the money is lost forever, to everyone. If you lose your bankcard, it doesn’t wipe out the money in your account, and your bank will issue you a new one. There is no such mechanism in place here; losing Bitcoins is effectively like burning banknotes.

“Similarly, if someone steals your Bitcoin wallet by hacking into your computer, there is no heavily-insured bank to absorb the loss. You’re on your own. This happened to a user named “allinvain” back in 2011, costing him 25,000 Bitcoins. You can even get Bitcoin wallets for smartphones these days, but then you’re running a big risk if you lose your phone. As for cloud-based wallets, well, Instawallet has just suspended operations after being hacked.”

So, the question isn’t whether Bitcoin is the future, as that future is here. The question is whether citizens will accept the Bitcoin as viable currency.

Images:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/455992/20130411/bitcoin-bubble-bursts-mt-gox-gold-rush.htm

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/05/13/these-new-hampshire-entrepreneurs-are-building-a-bitcoin-atm/

Sources:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

http://gigaom.com/2013/04/04/yes-you-should-care-about-bitcoin-and-heres-why

The post Future Friday: The Bitcoin appeared first on Davison.

Like the interactive glass from Tom Cruise’s blockbuster “Minority Report,” the newest product from Google – Google Glass – offers customers information presented right before their eyes on a pair of glasses.

The future is here. Or is it? Google Glass could be as successful as something like the iPhone or as big of a bomb as the Segway. Only time will tell, but pundits are already weighing in. Currently only a chosen few have been allowed to buy Glass:

The Huffington Post notes:

In February, Google launched a contest inviting U.S. residents to submit applications detailing how they’d use Glass for a chance to join Google’s Explorer Program. Glass Explorers would be able to buy an early version of Glass for $1,500, months before the product’s forthcoming release to the public at large. General sales for Glass are expected to start in late 2013 or early 2014.

So how does Glass work? According to The Verge:

Glass’ basic paradigm is one of a ‘timeline’ full of ‘cards.’ Each card, when tapped, can reveal more cards, or present actions like ‘reply’ or ‘delete.’ Some cards can be ‘pinned,’ which places them to the left of the home screen. Otherwise, cards are sorted chronologically to the right of the home screen.

While Glass’ best known interaction method is the verbal “Okay, Glass” prompt, most of the UI can only be operated by swipes and taps. Outside of the homescreen, the only time you’ll be speaking is when you’re composing a text reply to a card in your timeline (like an email message, or a tweet). While voice might seem like a gimmick, it’s actually preferable to the hypersensitive touchpad at times — we’ve accidentally tapped to share a photo with the wrong Google+ contact a dozen times, simply because Glass registers a tap instead of a swipe. At least when you’re talking you get a chance to cancel the action if you’re misheard.

Glass’ very simplicity means there’s actually a steep learning curve: You have to use Glass how Google wants you to use Glass, or it just doesn’t work. Also, you have to be really good at swiping and tapping.

Sounds interesting, but not everybody is a fan. A recent Forbes article expounded on what Google needs to do better if Glass is ever going to take off, including:

The Glass camera lacks basic camera functionality. People are used to cameras on smartphone constantly improving. Glass bucks this trend. There are no settings of any kind and no live preview, so each shot is composed blindly. “After using Glass for the past few days now and taking hundreds of photos, I’ve gotten used to it,” writes Chris Chavez of Phandroid. “The camera shoots at a downward angle meaning you point your nose at what you want in the center (if that makes sense).” It does, but only if you are particular kind of gadget-loving masochist.

Given Glass’s limitations it seems like it’s only a matter of time before Google either releases a radically improved version of the product, or the hype plays itself out and Glass becomes a victim of its marketing success. Will Glass go down in history as one of the decade’s most innovative products or one of its biggest marketing flops? Today, either outcome seems equally possible.

As with most inventions in the tech world, the early versions tend to be the roughest around the edges.  As research is done and feedback from the industry starts to come in, changes are made and the product usually improves.  If you take a moment and look at the first version of the iPod and how ancient it may seem now, that same advancement that Apple has made could also be the road Google takes with Glass.  Color choices, partnering with titans of the glasses industry (Ray Ban, Oakley and others) and improving battery life are not too far away.

Google Glass might have early limitations but the idea is there and that should make anyone excited about what the future might hold.

Images:

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=13&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=(20130221.PD.%20AND%20Google.AS.)&OS=PD/20130221%20AND%20AN/Google&RS=(PD/20130221%20AND%20AN/Google)

http://gadget-tech.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/google-glass.png

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2013/05/22/google-glass-whats-not-to-like-quite-a-lot-actually/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/google-glass-winners_n_3321325.html

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/20/4339446/google-glass-apps-everything-you-can-do-right-now

The post Future Friday: Google Glass appeared first on Davison.

“Cars that can drive themselves, a staple of science-fiction, have started to appear on roads in real life. Google’s self-driving vehicles are the best-known, but most carmakers are also developing them. In 2011 BMW sent a robotic car at motorway speeds from Munich, the German carmaker’s hometown, to Nuremberg, about 170km away (with a driver on board just in case). Audi got a self-driving TTS Coupe to negotiate 156 tight curves along nearly 20km of paved and dirt road on Colorado’s Pikes Peak, with nobody behind the wheel. Proponents say that driverless cars would reduce road deaths, ease congestion, reduce fuel consumption, improve the mobility of old and disabled people and free up time spent commuting.” – The Economist

The benefits of self-driving cars go far beyond the pleasure of telling your friends “look, no hands.” Self-driving cars would give our nation’s disabled citizens the freedom to travel with ease. One would have to assume that drunk-driving accidents would flat-line, and these cars would grant a society hell bent on multi-tasking the freedom to do work, watch “Game of Thrones” and even discipline the kids without having to hold onto to a wheel and watch the road.

How does a self-driving car work?

According to the article from The Economist:

“In many ways self-driving cars are a logical extension of existing driver aids such as lane-keeping systems (which follow road markings and sound a warning and correct the steering if a vehicle starts to drift out of its lane), adaptive cruise control (which maintains a constant distance from the vehicle in front, rather than a constant speed), auto-parking systems (which can reverse a car into a parking space), emergency braking (which slams on the brakes if an obstacle, another vehicle or a pedestrian is detected in front of the car) and satellite-navigation systems. Computerized control of a car’s steering, acceleration and braking is already possible under some circumstances, in other words. For a car to drive itself, these systems must all be tied together using software, and supplemented with a set of sensors so that the software can tell what is going on around the vehicle.

“Accordingly, today’s self-driving cars are covered with sensors. Mapping nearby features, spotting road edges and lane markings, reading signs and traffic lights and identifying pedestrians is done using a combination of cameras, radar and lidar (which works like radar, but with pulses of light rather than radio waves). Ultrasonic detectors provide more accurate mapping of the surroundings at short range, for example when parking. Gyroscopes, accelerometers and altimeters provide more accurate positioning than is possible using global-positioning system (GPS) satellites alone. Google’s cars scan their surroundings to build a detailed 3D map of features such as road edges, signs, guard-rails and overpasses. Each time a car follows a particular route, it collects more data to update the 3D map.”

So don’t hold your breath for flying through your neighborhood and coming to an even more awkward 4-way, mid-air stop sign. The immediate future has more practical plans in store for automobiles.

Photos:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/10/self-driving-cars/

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/08/google-sees-self-driving-cars-in-3-5-years-washington-insurers/

Source:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-how-self-driving-car-works-driverless

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