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Highlights From Embedded Systems Conference
Tetravus writes "The Embedded Systems Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco is winding down. The finalists for this year's Best of Show include a Trek Style communicator that uses 802.11b, a home healthcare robot, and some crazy giant household remote."
"when home healthcare robots attack" On VHS or DVD....
They better hope that their web server won some kind of a "best in show", because here we come!!
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The Segway was, according to tech gurus and investors worth billions of dollars, going to be one of the greatest inventions ever, on pair with the wheel and the fire. Eventually we would design cities to fit the needs of the Segway, and not the other way round, we were told.
This was two years ago. Now that it's finally here it can't even claim the Best of Show prize at the Embedded Systems Conference, an honor that instead goes to some unheard of gizmo called the Vocera Communications badge, which appears to be nothing more than a wearable intercom telephone with built in voice recognition.
Makes you wonder...
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
"Trek Style communicator that uses 802.11b"
Beam me up Scotty. What! You aren't Scotty? Why the hell are you on my network!
Why slashdot? Why not?
The Vocera product is a Star Trek communicator! They even call their custom wireless TCP/IP protocol "Turbo Treck".
This proves my thesis that the kids who grew up watching Star Trek twenty years ago are out there by the thousands trying to build it today.
(Whadya know, a relevant post for once..)
Why waste 802.11b spectrum on voice communications? There are already many chunks of spectrum available for voice communications, but very little available for unlicensed digital use.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
You know, I've been wishing for something like this for a long time. I get bored out of my mind on traditional aerobic exercise equipment, and especially on days with crappy weather, I have no choice for getting a good aerobic workout indoors (except the obvious, uh...alternative, which is difficult when my fiance is several thousand miles away). For the same reason I enjoy playing DDR and Konami's excellent Mocap Boxing game. I play DDR at home as a workout alternative to treadmills, but Mocap Boxing is too expensive to do every day, but I still go play 5-6 games every once in a while. That game makes my arms really tired, but it's a great workout and really fun.
LinuxDevices.com has published a detailed SPECIAL REPORT on the Embedded Systems Conference which includes a summary of Linux oriented announcements, plus a story on the best-of-show awards, and also the PC/104 design contest winners, announced this morning. Its sister site, WindowsForDevices.com, has published a similar special report, but more oriented toward embedded Windows perspective -- that one includes a table of the awesome set of gadgets and devices on display in the Microsoft pavilion.
The problem I've seen in the past is that, in order to encourage pedalling/skiing/etc, the game invariably is a game where you make a character go faster or slower based on your exercise pattern. You know something? If I'm running in a hamster wheel, I don't want to see how my work is aiding a fictional character who is likewise running. I'm trying to ignore the drudgery of my workout, not be reminded of it! I'd rather watch the TV in the gym or read. At least then my mind is elsewhere.
Honestly, I'm amazed Konami hasn't leveraged its Dance Dance Revolution product line for gym use. Dance Dance Revolution is, thus far, the only video game I play where I get a workout and enjoy doing it. I could imagine that Konami could sell conversion kits for the aerobics rooms in gyms that would allow people to have an experience similar to DDR. There's such a strong culture built around that game series that I would think it'd be ripe for spinoffs in markets other than the pure video game market.
..Seattle Public Utilities loves them.
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I use "trade show loot" as a baromoter for how well the industry is doing. 3 years ago, I topped out at about 15 t-shirts for a single day at ESC.
This year, I only got one. And it was from Microsoft. Everybody else was giving away pens and candy and garbage like that. I guess we know who's dominating the embedded systems space nowadays.
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
This is much cooler than most people probably think at first glance. I'm pretty intimate with the Red Lake MotionScope series of cameras. And trust me, having that kind of resolution, speed, and robustness all at the same time is an incredible engineering feat.
For comparison, the MS-8000 is capable of 8000fps, and has a resolution of about 160x120. Don't even think about bumping it around. And it's quite a good camera! The HG-100K is just better.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
Does anyone else thing that the wakamaru looks a bit like a Dalek?
Someday, some hacker is going to reprogram these robots to run around screaming "Ex-Ter-Min-Ate" like a demented Hitler (until they fall down the stairs, at least).
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net