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Mementos as Document Retrieval Keys
Dekaner writes "The BBC is running a story that BT has demonstrated a scanner that can be used to retrieve digital documents by associating them with a physical object. When the digital files are stored on the server, they are associated with a scanned image of the object, for example a seashell. Later, when the user wants to retrieve the files, the memento is again placed on the scanner. The resulting image is used as the retrieval key."
I can see a lot of people using their asses as the "memento"...
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Turning the paperless office into a huge junk bin!
"Mike, do you have the financial data for 2002?"
"Somewhere. Help me look for the squeaky red clown nose."
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
...Mentos. The Freshmaker.
Was the Marketing Plan associated with one of these seashells or one of these pebbles? Or maybe it was my coffee cup?
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
If they try to patent this idea, I'm citing Johnny Mnemonic as prior art!!!
Guess you could have actual keys for database access. Then you can put all the keys on a keyring...
This is more stupid than anything else I've heard this week.
...
Please put penis on scanner to locate pr0n
If ten years ago someone told me that in the year 2003 i would be using a seashell to retrieve data i would tell that person that he is fscking stupid.
Disco Stu was talkin' to you.
This situation seems much the same. Most of the files I save on a computer are NOT associated with some object I have lying around the house. For example, everytime I write a letter to Mom, I'm suppose to scan her picture? Why not just save it in a folder called, "Letters to Mom." Its easier, quicker, and I don't have to find Mom's picture. Similarly at work, most of my files are associated with some email telling me to do work on some project. Do I scan the email? Seems kind of pointless.
In my view, like metadata, this suggestion adds steps that the vast majority of users won't do.
... Uh dear.. well.. uh I need you to sit on the scanner... Please, don't ask.
"Derp de derp."
Next your not going to scan a picture of the object but actually drag the object to a special platform. "Mom where's my M16, I want to play American Army
God made the natural numbers; all else is the work of man - Kronecker
But that's NOT why I associate this with Johnny Mneumonic. I associate it because in the beginning of the movie, they're going to store 80 gigs of information (about as much as I have in /usr/home/) in Just Johnny's head. They use three random images from the television to associate with and encrypt the information. These images are then faxed to the recipient. Obviously the bits aren't being used because they would change in faxing. A more associative method is used, kind of like a human memory. I think that with time, more technologies like this will be used as our computational needs advance; That is, unless these multibillion dollar corporations have their way and our computers become merely vessels for receiving garbage information (valuable intellectual property) like the stupid movies and music being made nowadays, while "real" computers will be labeled as "professional equipment" and will cost five hundred times as much as they should so that only the corporations can afford them to keep us under control.
In the world of the future, it will be corporations, not governments, that will oppress the people. The governments will only serve as a tool to those corporations. Capitalism is fine; I just think that one change needs to be made: The individuals should have a much louder "voice" in government issues than corporations. In fact, the "voice" of any party should be inversely proportional to its size and power. The RIAA should not have enough voice to mail a letter to a senator, let alone do the evils that they are doing.
Use the Memento pattern when
Sincerely,
Letter
Using images of physical tokens to access documents is a really old idea. Of course, that won't stop BT from filing a patent.
Mentos as Document Retrieval Keys
which quickly brought to mind an image of people trying to stick them into various ports on thier PCs. This could create and a whole new industry dedicated to cleaning floppy drives.
"I went to retrieve the files, but in their place were these damn 3 seashells..."
"Hahahah...he doesn't know what the 3 seashells are for!"
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
When I lose an important memento, I don't have to worry because I kept all the serial number and insurance info in a file which... DAMN!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's really pretty neat. I can pickup old ticket stubs and remember things about concerts that I'd forgotten for years. An old T-shirt can bring back a memory of going shopping at Target with my sister while an old girlfriend was out of town. I've got a tie another old girlfriend gave me that brings back visiting her in the hospital. I could go on, but the really cool thing, is that I've figured out how to retrieve some of this information using abstract representations of things -- drawings or pictures -- or even sometimes simply writing some words about them. I don't have to keep the mementos around any more.
I'm thinking of maybe implementing a computer system for this, where I type in some small "key" representation, and get back some further "data" associated with it....
Kind of wish I could clean out and delete a few things from the brain system, tho'...
Tweet, tweet.
This is a sure fire recipe for data loss of critical data. All the server backups you can make would become worthless if the seashell/encryption key falls into the hands of a three year old with crayon or is lost/ruined in any other way.
It's a nice novelty for encrypting your digital little black book, but it's not going to be useful at all for business databases.
a piece of paper with the filename written on it.
Because, really, a box full of small objects is harder to associate with unrelated files than the filename is.
If you can say to yourself, "lessee, did I use the blue pill or the red pill for 2003 Actuals?", you would get a lot further naming the file "2003 Actuals" and looking for that. Wouldn't you?
This might be somewhat cool if you could use a simple digital camera, and you didn't need to worry about angle (this would require an all-angles storage, of course)
Either way, it seems pretty useless for most people. As long as we can tell what an object is we could simply type it's name in and search that way. It could be useful for large museums and scientists, thought.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
So now I can lose all of my electronic files along with the physical ones in the piles of junk on my desk...
This is one of those inventions that makes technology easier a bit more fun and a lot more personal. It doesn't make sense for every day use - you wouldn't want to use it to store office documents or your taxes - but imagine the sentimental possibilities. Associating a ring that belonged to your mother with pictures of her and a slideshow, or the seashell in question with video and music from your romantic beach vacation.
So before you go off saying how complicated and pointless a system like this would be, remember that it won't just be geeks using it. But of course, it could make a very interesting password system in the right hands...
What Future?
If you stick a crystal on the scanner, a hologram of Marlon Brando will appear and tell you the secrets of the universe.
...of the file as my memento. To make the association more secure, each page will have it's own memento, consisting of the page printed out. That way when I need to retrieve the file on the computer to print out, all I have to do is scan each page, open the file, and print.
This technology has promise.
Using a tangible reference that can't easily be guessed/produced by a non-authorized party is a great idea in data security.
However, it seems flawed since you have to:
a) determine a method to reference the objects to their locked data if you use multiple objects as associations.
b) determine a method to securely store that object
c) Raise the question of the uniqueness of that object.
So for this to work, you'd have to create a secured storage location and a means to remember each items association.
And then each time you created a new object of association, you'd have to ask "Is this object unique or could someone easiliy go and obtain a comparable object to use in it's place?"
So while it's a novel idea and most worthy of continued R&D, it is not yet a practical solution as it only adds a layer of security that raises it's own potential security risks.
I could see an offshoot of this solution using imaging software to create complex patterns at the time of encryption that would be apparant noise to the human eye, but be read easily by a machine. These images could be small and stored on a memory stick. This method would be difficult to reproduce as the image itself would be based off the encrypted bits + the encryption key and stored on an external device. But unless they developed a biometric access mechanism(thumbprint scanning etc) on the access point or memory stick itself, there would still be the problems in secure storage/handling of the key.
But regardless, it is good to see new approaches to an age old problem.
Those of you being snide need to think again.
To you it sounds pointless and silly and wastefully kludgy. The same sort of snide remarks were made about graphical displays and color monitors and mice. Such attitudes overlooked that people LIKED working with computers that had those features.
The proposal is not a data retrieval system - it's a memory retrieval system. And it isn't oriented to bringing up that memo you wrote last week - it's to bring back your images of your wedding or vacation of 20 years ago. And just a data point - my wife think's it's a cool idea. So maybe this is one of those things that women will understand and want more than men. (You know - women - those odd creatures that press flowers, save invitations from weddings, make shadow boxes, save children's teeth, etc? A digital memory box may very well be a highly desirable consumer product.)
While this is true of the movie, this is not true of the original William Gibson story of the same name it was based on. There the mnemonic trigger was "Christian White and his Aryan Reggea Band."
>In the world of the future, it will be corporations, not governments, that will oppress the people.
Yeah, well, when you find a corporation which has killed 100 million people the way communism has, be sure to let us know...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
1. Just crumple up a piece of paper.
2. Trace the creases in pen.
3. Scan the piece of paper.
4. The image is the key to the document.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
It seems to me like this would be most useful for cataloging. A museum, for instance, could take a scan of each item in their collection, and then use that as one means of bringing up all of their data on that item. Or a stamp collector could use it to store information on each stamp in his collection. I think the stated uses in the article are kind of silly, but I can definitely see this having some value.
"If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for everyone else."
So now instead of looking through the my documents/history section on my computer for that paper on George Washington, I have to dig through all my old stuff to find his bust? Sounds like much more work with this "new" system. I think that if you organize your files in a logical manner, then it is very difficult to lose them. Personally, I would much rather have a faster/better search tool for Windows than having to dig up a physical object to look up my files.
SIGFAULT
Did anyone else misparse the article title and summary as Mentos?
I was visualizing someone putting a strawberry Mento on the scanner, and pulling up whatever.
Then I began to think -- well jesus, all the mentos look the same, how freaking secure is that? And, just what the hell do you do if you *eat* that mento? Your data is unretrievable!
da w00t. mtfnpy?
Communism hasn't killed anyone. Corrupt communist politicians have.
Genocide does not have political allies.