Slashdot Mirror
Real-World Hyperlinks
RunAmuk writes "Wired is reporting about being able to "Point and click your mobile phone at a poster in London movie theaters this July and you'll be able to directly access the movie's Web page." While there are many practical uses for this technology, like in museums as the article suggests." I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews.
A long-range Cue Cat!
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Send pictures, check your e-mail, surf the Internet, and instantly pull up movie reviews!*
...
*Note: Requires $10 activation fee, you must upgrade to the $59.99/month package, and you will be charged $0.39/minute for every minute you go over your already worthless amount of daytime minutes.
Is it me or does this seem like nothing more than making a movie poster an RFID and a cellphone a portable reader?
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
or does this resemble cuecat quite a lot?
While there are many practical uses for this technology, like in museums as the article suggests.
The submitter's phone must have rang while he was typing and hit the submit button prior to sentence completetion. That, or he has ADD.
I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews.
You must be new to the Internet.
I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews.
But would you be willing to pay for that kind of data? I know I would not...
For example, it could be used in museums and galleries, where visitors could download high-quality audio and visual content about exhibits.
.02
Will this hinder museums from adding both visual and audio cues to their exhibits? I personally think that cell phones should be banned in public places such as museums and this will just encourage Joe to hop on his cell phone and chat with Mary while I am trying to enjoy some peace and quiet.
I saw some really interesting usages of computers in museums (like here, I realise this is more of a piece of art, but you get the idea).
Keep the cell phones out and enjoy getting away from things that you see and use everyday.
Just my worthless
Oh this would be such fun to hack..
Child: Daddy, what's that "Finding Nemo 2" about?
Father: Let's look on our phone, son.
>clicky click click
Father: Hmm.. it appears to be about a man stretching his bottom wide open.
Trolling is a art,
It'd be kind of interesting (particularly at conventions like H2Kx or Defcon) to pull up a person's chosen public information or web site.
"I can't remember that info right now. Click on me to see my blog." You could also figure out who in the room has an interesting role or get public encryption keys, etc.
You could have all kinds of fun with this.
Join Tor today!
Point and click your mobile phone at a poster in London movie theaters this July and you'll be able to directly access the movie's Web page.
Is some guy wearing a sign going to jump in front of me and start blathering on about casinos or cheap travel discounts?
There reaches a point (for everyone) eventually where enough is enough! My tolerance ends well before something like this.
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
You would see phone bills of 10 bucks monthly then.
Put a readable tag on yer clothes Women will zap it. Instant romance! ZING! I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.
And you can point your phone at women in the bar
and get her bio, likes and dislikes, and the statistical probability of her going home with you...
I'll commit suicide before then...
If you've been to Borders lately, you may have noticed a device that you can scan a movie or cd and get a sample of the media. How is this very different? (Other than getting to the web)
Perhaps if there were reviews, but what keeps a company from only showing you the positive reviews?
The flip side is also true, if you open it up to everyone to comment on, the media or movie, then there's a greater chance that someone will post a spoiler and ruin it for you.
However, not to write the whole thing off, if there was a system of reviews like Amazon, and the reviews were handeled by a third party, this could be quite nice to have as a general consumer.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
*points cellphone at The Animal*
Cellphone: That is excellent. May I also suggest you buy the movies on either side of it. They are also wonderful. In fact, I think you would enjoy every movie on the shelf. You should buy them all.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Anyone else notice how that last sentence is half italicized, half normal?
I saw the *applications* described in the articles, but reallistically, how much time does that save? Yes, you are taken directly to the web page, thus providing a measure of convenience of not navigating to the page yourself, but I can't see widespread use of this technology for the applications mentioned. To me, any review of a movie, which you are sent to by those advertising the movie, has to be at least a bit biased.
.who wants more ads?
Besides. .
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
-Thomas Paine
This idea has been around for quite a while. I remember several years ago a mobile phone company had a system in which users could buy a song online upon hearing it on the radio.
Wouldn't it be easier to visit a website set up for this purpose and send the locational data to get a lookup of everything posted for those coordinates?
That way, we wouldn't be limited to the information that was paid for in the case of a movie theater being linked to the "official" site.
Actual reviews could be posted, dare I say, moderated upon as well?
Could you point it at a cute chick and get her phone number?
Would make a trip to the bar way more efficient. No need for all that drink buying and small talk.
My motto is: Never give up - unless it's harder than you want it to be.
But when I leave the computer I don't really wanna take it with me. I don't wanna phone that can get internet. I want a phone that is simple... I have a dad that has a pda, digital camera, gps. Its beyond annoying when you have to stop because someone in your group has to check the gps corodanites for the place you are at. Technology is great, But so is this world. Lets enjoy the world and technology, But make sure that we have a balance. If your balance is take your pda everywhere with you then thats your choise.
Is this the return of the CueCat, but for the physical world outside of magazines? We'll not be restricted to pointing at magazine articles and ads this time. Wow! Remember how successful that was?!?
Will its use be expanded to the singles scene, building security, etc.?
... soon, you will be able in pointing and clicking on your mobile phone towards any item (movie poster, game, application ad, ...) to get a XDCC/ed2k/torrent/FTP link/address to download that item before that the item is available.
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
I wonder if there is a market out there for such 'convergence' devices?
I'm gonna have a transmitter on me so that whenever someone points their mobile phone at me, it'll say "Take the red pill". :)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I'd like to use it to point at a CD and get it queued in Kazaa.
I'll be happier when they come up with uses for technology like this that don't involve trying to make advertising more efficient. Minority Report, here we come!
Maybe in a few more years it'll be nice, when you can point your phone at a movie poster and watch the trailer for the film, but for now it's just going to be another gimmick used to sell phones.
How are the phones choosing what to "receive", point and "click"? thats a little vague. And what happens if someone slams a bunch (of different ones) up on a wall, which tag, or do you get them all? Who will administer all these tags? Can coke go around and plop them on pepsi billboards? Can a prankster (heheh) make some to well, in essense spam users with their messages? It sounds like a cool idea, but the implementation issues sound potentially horrible.
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
I'd like to point and click on a girl walking buy, and having www.XXXgirlnextdoor.com or www.milf.com pop up, showing the nekkid details.
Just what I need, people turning their phones ON in the theater. The last thing we need is encouragement to bring more phones.
So that we can read painfully from our cell phone screens instead of reading the printed material? Hmm.. Wonder how further they think they will go..
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
You'll be able to point your cell phone at a woman and call up all the online pr0n she appears in.
This sounds like an interesting technology, especially in the cd/video store settings.
:-)
Beyond product reviews, it would be nice to have access to sample clips and/or movie trailers. I can just imagine, back when I worked in a record store, the help that this would have been every time some random customer came in looking for the ubiquitous "that one song by that one guy with that line that goes like..."
Seriously, though, with the widespread adoption of PDAs and cell phones nowadays, this could be a very powerful selling tool in the hands of a retailer savvy enough to make proper use of it.
AT&T UK's research division (the same people who took over the VNC project) have been exploring similar ideas within buildings in the Sentient Computing Project.
No longer would consumers be fooled by packaging and out-of-context reviews! All the crap merchandise would have to be reduced to their actual value. "Top Gun" will sell for $3 on DVD.
Blar.
I'd like to be able to point it at CDs and DVDs in stores and with a click have my home computer download them as warez.
[humor]
That's the sequel:
Finding Nemo 2: Elbow Deep
or is it
Fondling Nemo
Or better yet, a wireless internet connection directly to your brain. Why not just go all the way?
Yesterday's article on RFIDs talked about how RFID tags would be used to keep track of inventory, etc. People were concerned that they would hurt privacy, as locations of RFID tags could be traced. What the article never talked about yesterday was the infrastructure that would be needed to actually keep track of the individual tags.
The IRID guys have taken this a step further, by moving out of the Walmart-warehouse like location, and developing servers to track the tags, and beam information to and from the cellphones. With all the emphasis on locating the devices, the same sort of privacy issues that apply to RFIDs would apply here too.
But the positive point is, that users would actually be able to opt-in for these devices, if they find them desirable, rather than the RFID idea which was more opt-out (subtle reference earlier spam article :).
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Then when you go shopping, you can get Consumer Reports info, or in the grocery store, you can get specific dietary information.
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
I'm sure that the rollout of that would never involve the media companies signing on (or walking across the hall) with the phone companies to control that content.
"This 'Cell-O-Matic' review of this fine MGM movie, brought to you by...MGM"
You know what?
Howzabout I point the thing at a pretty girl, and it reads her RFID tags and tells me what her blog URL is...now *that's* an 'enabling technology'! :)
It's hard enough
to read the current
text on my cell phone
that has a screen no
wider than this mess
age. I can't imagine
reading lengthy discuss
ions of art works and
paintings on a cell
phone. I think my thumb
would break from hitting
the scroll button const
antly.
Put one of these on a shipping container, a box, or a pallet and then tie the returned webpage to a back-end database and you could have a killer app for transportation manifests and shipping invoices.
What would that be?
First of all, near movie theaters you can most often watch trailers playing on the television screens around the theater. But let's pretend I manage to look over that. Then:
Point & shoot with my mobile to a movie poster near my favourite theater, and pray to be lucky enough that it is one that responds with sending a URL back to my phone? A one-in-a-thousand chance. And I am already getting annoyed when a url in my browser does not work. This will not encourage its use.
But suppose I get lucky. Download a movie trailer on my 28k8 bps mobile phone which may take 30 minutes even for a low resolution one? I think not.
Ok, suppose we go this far. But, watch a movie trailer on a 220 x 160 (at most) pixel display? No thank you.
Now let's say am a person with no life, that got lucky enough to be able to download a trailer. What's that you say? I have to pay $$$ for the mb's I've downloaded? Oh I see, I guess that made me a loser now as well in front of my buddies.
I am somewhat sceptic. Also for its other uses ($$$).
(And why use expensive, unreliable infrared transmission? I'd say put RFID-tags into posters etc. instead, no power required and much cheaper. If this is such a good idea, mobile phone makers will be sure to make their phones able to read . But I'm not holding my breath.)
My karma ran over your dogma
Get pr0n via strip club adverts.
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
Yeah, I hate that Joe. He's really an inconsiderate bastard!
Sinepaw.org: Grape Winos
Why would they have to charge for this? With this new technology, Spam and popup ads will finally be able to escape from the computers into the community at large where they can really wreak havoc.
People think billboards are sight pollution, well, we ain't seen nothing yet. Ten years from now, you won't be able to walk down a city street without a bombardment of media messages.
Just like the Internet, all these media messages will be free!!!!
You have to remember that Amazon couldn't patent the one-stop checkout [too much prior art], but they could patent the one-click checkout on a computer. So... you need to try to think outside the box.
Like, patenting the one-stop-checkout using the US Mail and Fax, or using a digital cellular phone, or the one-stop-checkout using computers to find victims I mean to umm find customers), or some combination of any of the above.
Then you'll be able to get your patent, and sue other prior I mean infringing one-click-operations into the dirt.
I say go for it, if you can ever find something to patent.
...because everyone should leave his GSM online when in the cinema.
Assuming the technology can be implemented without problems (which it should), I still see tons of launch problems.
Unless this can be launched in a big way, it won't be very useful. Users with enhanced cell phones / other viewers, will be frustrated with a lack of content to browse, and much content will go unviewd by people lacking compatible browsers. Even if the people have usable browsers, and the content is available, most of the population won't bother to learn how to use it. I mean, how many people are just getting around to setting their VCR/DVD clocks? (Not the slashdot crowd, of course! But they are more than us)
Plus, how many people are willing to look like a geek in public pointing their cell phone at a poster, while mashing on some "browse" button, because the bottom of the poster states "Hypertag Enabled, Point Here for More Information!"? If this is to succeed, that's what many, many people need to do.
Are you kidding? Why on earth would they provide anything but a glowing review? Do you think the reviews would be independent? Of course not! Besides, only the /. crowd is geek enough to carry a device around to read product reviews, when simply looking at the box could provide the same content. Again, to provide enough content for it to be useful, the manufacturers themselves would have to provide the content.
As a few funny posts have pointed out, you'll never see reviews for products in the stores, and if you /do/ see them, you aren't going to see the really terrible reviews--accurate, perhaps, but still bad, so their accuracy is irrelevant--in the store next to the aisle where you'll find said reviewed product.
Not to take the opportunity to take a shot at Microsoft (seriously), but IE does something in the same mindset. Rather, it doesn't do something:
It doesn't block pop-up windows. Why? Advertising is what would be blocked, and Microsoft wants more people to advocate its browser. If company A has a product that company B is going to hide or recommend you don't touch, company A won't care about company B's method of delivery.
Capitalism(tm): Pro-consumer all the way!*
*void in the real world
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
It looks like a dead chicken
There is an interesting system just launched in the UK where you dial a number on your phone, then hold your phone up to the source of the music for thirty seconds. It hangs up, and then messages you back with the name of the song, if it can work it out. This return message then costs you 25p for the trouble.
:-)
It's automated, but gawd knows how it does it. That has to be some seriously clever software doing music detection. Either way, I figured it's yet another 'real world' hyperlink example.
Unfortunately the name of the service escapes me, although it's advertised regularly on London's KISS FM. Does anyone else here know about this? I believe you can access the service by 'using the numbers down the middle of your phone..' 2580, perhaps? Just goes to show how good radio advertising really is! Ha!
This technology will be useful after all people get chip implants.
Imagine being able to point and click at a woman and get information about her on your mobile device, like age, sexual preferences, medical history, likes/dislikes, etc. Ah, the future looks bright indeed!
is that this doesn't require a separate piece of equipment.
I'm sure people saw CueCat as a kind of specialty market, so there was reluctance to invest time or money in it.
You're in Blockbuster, right? Odds are you're going to be renting a video. It doesn't matter to them which video you rent, just that you rent a video, so they'll let the customer rent the good video.
Anyway, sites like Amazon.com do give you customer reviews, which are relatively unbiased.
I'm going to hell, aren't I...
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Quick, somebody patent it!
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
I can see it now. As soon as you point and select something, your cell # is saved to a database, and you start getting deluged with cell-spam for various items, i.e. " If you liked *movie name here* we're sure you'd like to rent these other fine movies at Blockbuster(tm)!" ad naseum... ( no pun intended )
of this article.
They change the words and no one catches it..
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
would everyone rush to point-and-zap at it?
And would subscribers get to zap it before the rest of us do?
h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-org
In addition to Cuecats, this also seems similar to Digimarc's Mediabridge
in which you point a webcam at an ad in a magazine (they put a special symbol on the ads that work) and the software redirects your browser to the company's website.
[rimshot]
Bah! Here's an application for it.. You point it at the movie poster, it calls home, and has your TiVo schedule a Wishlist for the movie for when it finally comes out on HBO/Cinemax/Showtime/etc.
(Or using the video store example, you point it at a cassette and it does the same thing.. That way you schedule a whole bunch of movies you [I]also[/I] want to see, but you still rent the one you're in the store to get that night.)
Then again, what TiVo owner is in a video rental store?
p.s. This is all easy to do already, except the real-world hyperlink devices part.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
get product reviews
Forget product reviews, comparing prices are the application.
[shopkeeper]
So, I am going to let you into my store with your mobile, so that you can check to see if my prices are lower two doors away...
Riiiiiiight.
[/shopkeeper]
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
Walk down the street and point and click at every attractive woman you meet...
click > Married
click > Single but attached
click > Looking for an orgy with the next man that asks
Now we know what was on the mind of the guy who created this....
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
Hell, you could shape it like some animal so it'd look cute next to your mouse; say... a cat.
Hey, wait a minute......
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...
Sincerely,
Hillary Rosen
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Wasn't cancer cured years ago, but the treatment is more profitable so nobody knows about it?
No wait, Medicine Man flashback...nevermind.
Can you point it at a cute girl on the street and have her name automatically searched for in Google? Instant digital stalking!
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Damn them all to hell.
"Hey let's go to the movies!"
"Good idea, don't forget your cellphone!"
Remember, only 5% of the population is capable of turning their cellphone sounds/ringers off. Encouraging people to bring cellphones into movie theaters, museums, etc., is about the dumbest idea I've ever heard. But it might sell a product, so there's no stopping it.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
(Pardon if any of these links are going stale.)
[
No, but at the zoo you'll now be able to punch the monkeys and win a prize!
IAALS.
I see the future now... Walking down the street and people beaming popups at me.. This is interesting technology but just think about it.. if not isn't controlled well it could get quite dirty.. Everytime you walk past a store you cell would be going to that companies website. That being said I'm sure you'd have the ability to allow and disallow this feature.. right..
They're record stores, Taco....
Records....
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
HP CoolTown
If I point the phone at CmdrTaco, will it link me directly to his website (www.goatse.cx) ?
Wake me up when there are realworld symbolic links!
I'd only be interested if you could point the thing at a hot chick, and it would show you the nudie pics her last boyfriend took of her and then posted on the internet when they broke up.
Consensual sex is boring.
If you're using a computer at CMU (or one of Telerama's wireless hotspots in Pittsburgh), you can find out when the next bus comes near you at bus.maya.com. Perhaps it's not as glamorous as streaming Quicktime movies to your phone, but it's probably more useful ;-)
That said, I hope someone solves the location-based services infrastructure problem. The bus hack depends on mapping IP addresses to lat/lons, which is incredibly brittle and evil.
I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews.
You mean to say yer buying movies and music these days, Taco? Shame on you!
illegitimii non ingravare
Great now I can get commercials for movies on my cell phone. Isn't TV commercials and previews of other movies taking up 10 minutes of you time when you pay to see another movie enough. The day I can point and Click my cell phone at a Ferrari, BMW, Corvette or any Hot Blonde Woman and receive an instant test drive then I will be impressed. For know I guess I'll use it for it's intended purpose as a phone.
See, what made it funny (note the moderation) is that you don't GO to the rental place anymore, you just use P2P to download it! Ha! Get it?
The real world hyperlink is great, but they still have to work on presentation for the web. I've yet to find more than a handful of sites usable on my phone, and even fewer that have worthwhile content in that category.
Meanwhile, we still have creative directors and PHBs who insist on designing non-liquid websites for IE6 at at least 800px width.
Tweet, tweet.
"I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews"
I don't understand. Most reviews on any website attached to such a service would be biased. Places like Amazon, its hard to get credible reviews since you don't know the history of the reviewer or have any idea what their motivation is for writing there. The reviewer could be a corporate shmo who's writing the review from an internal memo, never having seen/heard the movie/CD. They could be an incredibly articulate and pursuasive 9 year old with 9 year old taste. Or it could be HAL9000 (though some people here might like its taste).
I think music/movie reviews are worthless. Thumbs up or thumbs down are just as useless. The best way to discover a new movie or CD is to meet a person, get to know them, and find out what they like; try watching the movies they like, and try listening to the music they like. Why don't you go to shows?
You'll be happier. Have a friend. And a reference point for what you are going to fill your ears/eyes with.
For a bunch geeks, a bunch of people hear such do seem to be hating a potentially cool new technology.
Sure, maybe these things would hijack your cell-phone, and then the world would end. Somehow I doubt it.
I think the power would be more in the hands of the consumers. The article talks about infrared communication, not radio frequencies. This means that you would have to establish a direct line of sight link. If I have to point the IR port on my phone at something, I have a great amount of control over that.
I think a potential area of trouble is who gets to control what links get displayed. But I could see myself walking into a Barnes&Noble and browsing some books. One looks interesting; so I scan the "WebCode" or whatever with my phone. A couple links pop up on my screen, one to the reviews section of B&N.com for the book and one to the publisher.
Maybe I'm being too trusting, but this idea sounds pretty cool to me.
Will this hinder museums from adding both visual and audio cues to their exhibits?
Unfortunately, most people never go to a museum anyway, so I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend an extraordinary amount of money updating a museum that only a very few enlightened souls will see.
I personally think that cell phones should be banned in public places such as museums and this will just encourage Joe to hop on his cell phone and chat with Mary while I am trying to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Who said you had a right to peace and quiet? Are you trying to take away Joe's right to talk to Mary? Are you trying to take away Mary's right to hear Joe's description of the sculptures and paintings, since Mary's at home taking care of the kids?
Generally, public places are pretty big. If Joe is bothering you that much, you can most likely go somewhere you can't hear him, and enjoy the peace and quiet... or, if you're the kind that thinks everyone else should respect your rights, and not the other way around, you could ask (or tell) Joe to go somewhere else while he talks to Mary. Either way, in the end both parties get what they want, and everyone is generally happy.
I saw some really interesting usages of computers in museums...
Ironically, I think computers are the primary reason museums aren't popular (if they ever were) anymore. With computers comes The Internet. People can look at their favorite works of art on the internet (as you have ironically demonstrated) rather than expend the time and energy it takes to visit them in person (especially since you can't touch a lot of the higher-end pieces). Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing some cutting-edge 3-D holographic pictures in a museum either...
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
How about pointing your cell phone at a gallon of milk in a grocery store and having it check against the items in your refrigerator to see whether you need more? Better yet, instead of cell phones, what about a device integrated into your clothing? It's very sci-fi, I realize, but isn't that where we're going?
I guess what I'm saying is that even though this seems silly to us now that doesn't mean it won't become very practical with the advent of more technologies. Sci-fi isn't all impractical, it's a view of a future that may be achievable. Don't knock it.
while (!sleep){
sheep++;
}
I agree entirely. I think cell phone conversations should be banned in public places such as museums. I don't care much for the cell phone being there or not, I just don't want to have to listen to someone talk.
Regardless, I wouldn't want this for a museum anyway. I don't want to have any insight, aside from maybe a bit of conversation from friends, regarding art.
I gain my own opinions, connotations, and feeling regarding art without anyone force feeding how I should feel. I honestly don't quite get an explination next to a piece either, I'd rather just explore what I think/feel about it myself, although understand others may be different.
Pointing your cellphone to a picture, and getting an idea of what you should have gotten from it kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.
http://use.perl.org
"Video taping/photographing of this image is unauthorized. Please point your camera away from the image. Shutdown begins in 15 seconds."
I posted something about this a long time ago, but I can't find it, even though... ;)
OT: I subscribed today and there is a mystical, magical world in here! I just watched a dupe disappear! It's almost like somebody *read the article*!!
While there are many practical uses for this technology, like in museums as the article suggests.
Yes.....? I'm still waiting for the rest of that sentence.
Oh, come on. Like women are going to advertise this. They'll all say "looking for a platonic life partner who also has Herpes" just to keep guys like us away.
I'll get to how this ties into the thread shortly... but: We vote on elections that have very little choice. But every day, we vote with our dollars, transferring our economic power to the company that makes/sells the product/service. Boycotts are a way to vote with your $, but here's a much more effective way to do it subtley and daily: Every store (grocery, clothes, car), can have a bar-code (or RFID, or infrared) tag on each item, (or MUCH better for our privacy, can have this tag on the SHELF that contains the item so we don't take it home). And it'd be great if we can point a cell/pda/hand-held device at the shelf, and pull up info on the product. We could each put this product ID into the lookup field on whatever info-providers' websites/db's that are in-line with our values. I.e...Some may choose to find out what the Sierra Club thinks about the product, others may care if the product uses child labor, gives money for or against political causes, etc... This is kind of like a hugely expanded product label explaining contents, etc, but is not limited to what the company wants you to know, but what other data is really out there that you care about. You wouldn't read the label every time you purchase something, but as you are constantly tweaking your purchasing habits, you switch to spending money on feeding businesses in line with your values just like you would tweak your habits to shift towards low-fat or other choices. It's been years that I've been thinking this would be a good idea, and since I don't have the money to patent it and lock out others, I'm putting this idea "open source" on slashdot so any greedy co-opter doesn't lock people out from doing this right. your thoughts?
Most museums I've been to prohibit the use of cell phones and if you get a call a guard will immediately walk up to you and tell you to hang up. So this really wouldn't be a problem.
But when I leave the computer I don't really wanna take it with me. etc.
This bugs me. If this technology doesn't interest you, why post in a discussion about it?
I mean, leading a balanced life is good, obviously. Of course, it's insightful. Maybe it's even "news for nerds," at least those nerds who have no life outside their nerd-life.
But I propose we avoid this kind of comment - it could be posted on almost every news story that comes up on Slashdot. It amounts to little more than "I hate this because I'm more than just a nerd!" Which only invites someone else to retort, "just because you hate it shouldn't mean I can't use it!" And that's a very, very, tired discussion.
Yes, it's "Insightful," but I almost feel that "Redundant" is more appropriate.
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
Of course this is just targeted advertising all wrapped up with a bow, disguised as a new consumer tool, a technological jump! Next up: targeted phone spam, you walk by Burger King and your cell rings and offers a coupon...
My memory may be fuzzy, but I thought I heard of cellphone app that vibrates a pager if you have matching search profiles with cell phone holders within a certain distance. I also heard of a pager toy in Japan that does this too. (What happen to "good old" flirting?)
This will be more interesting in the future when we all have mobile teleporters:
:D
Just click an image of [insert name of somewhere here] in your travel agency and you are there!
Warning: Do not click something that might contain a hidden goatse link! I would not even want to think of where you would end up. Stops thinking... there that's better, what did I just say?
Considering that we do not have teleporting just yet, this technology is still impressive. The police could use something like this, just point it at someone and it will bring up all his/her info.(Well... it would have to identify the person first... more non-existant technology... why am I not in the future yet? Can't I just go into a 19-year coma?)
Or maybe this: Point at computer and click! Power up!
*Note: Requires $10 activation fee, you must upgrade to the $59.99/month package, and you will be charged $0.39/minute for every minute you go over your already worthless amount of daytime minutes.
Spoken very quickly, so that no human can understand it, even the salesperson. And especially not you, the customer.
Id like to be able point-click at the poster and instantly buy tickets to the show at the nearest theatre to where I am, or give me the option of choosing which theatre I would like to view it at if I choose to do so.
There Was a Company that was sending out free webcams so that users could hold up magazines advertisements to the camera and it woudl navigate the user to the website of that paticular product.
This article has been brought to you by duplicate
I think it would be a lot more appealing to actually touch these 'real world hyperlinks' with my finger and have them appear on my pda/phone. It's almost like clicking (wink). I guess I/we have to wait til radio chips get small enough (and batteries too) to fit in your pointer. Or, well, I guess you could wear some kind of special glove - but that kills the whole "point".
I don't want to read webpages or anything on my celphone. I don't even CARRY a cell phone. I do carry a PDA though. If I could point my PDA at one of these little tags, and have it capture the URL to a Mozilla bookmarked-tabs list that I could then pull up in mozilla when I get home, I'd be plenty chuffed. If something caught my eye through the day, I could just bookmark it and check it out later when its more convenient.
404 Error:
For those who didnt see or forgot, Minority report exploited two inventions: (1) "e-ink" or "paper-ink", i.e. video on just about any surface- walls , cereal boxes, newspapers, etc. (2) biometric ID, mainly IRIS, to detect who was walking by and tailor a message for them. These have great potential for 24/7 spam just about everywhere.
Reminds me of the Cue JACK scanner. You can scan barcodes of food products with this, but instead of returning price info to you, it looks up who he manufacturer is and tells you about their shadey side. Shadey side being environmental problems they caused, if they use sweat shops, how they treat animals, etc, etc. Corporate crime stuff.
we're just marketing. marketing our bad attitudes.
The funny thing is, they still think that their idea is going to fly. To quote their site(here):
The dream was to connect items in the physical world to the Internet, automatically. In January that dream hit a bump in the road and the servers were taken offline. They will scan again...
I can't wait...
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
hey, this is slashdot: shouldn't that be "yeah, i ahte that joe. he's really an insensitive clod!"?
ed
Perhaps it's a little starry-eyed for the Slashdot set, but check it out: www.headmap.com
There are lab prototypes of "flexible" computer screens, e.g. e-ink, organic LCDs, etc., that could rolled up into a pencil-size tube or folded into a pocket. "Mission to Mars" movie and "Earth Final Conflict" TV show used these.
Let him know
There are prototypes of eyeglasses with a lightpen laser scanner that draws images directly on your retina. This could display large images with a tiny device.
is a device that will allow me to point and click at mobile phone users and make them disappear.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Don't let the pride and stubbornness of man separate you from God's love for eternity. You are just a small mind trying to understand the universe.
I can't wait for Phone Pop-ups!
You walk close to a poster, and your phone suddenly starts ringing, you check it and you see that it has accesed a website with lots of animated GIFs, an annoying MIDI song, and an add for Orbitz promising low airfare anywhere!
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
For the same reason they charge you to talk on the local phone network, or to check your free hotmail account on your web-enabled phone, or .
The content will remain free (and probably even bring revenue, you're right), but the service used to access that content will still cost an arm and a leg.
no comment
How quickly we forget - this is already easily done through Amazon's programs :
7 25 7&mode=nested&tid=185
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/26/001
Not quite point and (one-)click yet, but with a little OCR recognizing the ISBN (so you don't have to tap it in), it could be done that way.
Dumb-ass pointless crap like this makes me long for the early days of the Internet, when sites like The Hampsterdance were still worth visiting.
(sigh)
Oh, well... at least we still have StrongBad.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
I think this idea could work, but only if the back end was a Google search, or something equally arbitrary and unbiased. After all, no one wants to trust the person trying to sell you something to give you unbiased information. Why would you trust them just because "ooh, it's on my cell phone!"?
Anyway, as is quite often the case these days, the difference between something truly cool and something we all mock and disparage comes down to the words "tied in", "proprietary", and "content control". How long until the corporations making these decisions realize that, with just a little less greed, they can reap fantastic financial rewards. (Greed meaning $$, but also tight control and lock out.)
...or does this sound a lot like WideRay? Hypertag is aimed (no pun intended) at a broader range of devices, though, which is very nice.
All I want is a kind word, a warm bed and unlimited power.
They have this at the EMP in Seattle. When you go in, they give you a handheld gizmo with headphones. You point the gizmo at special 'link' icons that are all over the museum, near exhibit items. When you 'click' on a link you get info about the item, or hear the associated band/instrument playing.
Mine went nuts and got stuck in perma-click mode. Everything I walked by started talking to me or playing something for me, until I went back to the base and got a new one. There's several links within range at any given moment, it was 'changing channel' every time I turned or moved at all.
I can think of plenty of times while shopping for things like stereo equipment or household cleaners where I wanted more context and had to make a return trip to the store after I learned more (i.e. what's the best quality receiver for the price point or does this toilet bowl cleaner have the bonus of deforming frogs and small children once it gets flushed into the watershed.)
If could have Googled the item while at the store by just pointing my cell phone, I could have saved a lot of time and made a more informed purchase.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I have been struck by recent commercials at how incredibly lame the examples phone companies give for using a camera/picture phone. This effort just continues in that tradition with another use for camera phones that possibly three people on earth might use.
The funny thing is, right next to those movie posters are probably papers offering a much cheaper way to get at reviews!!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nokia is so embedded there, that they pay for everything with their phone, subway, etc. They can even pay their rent with their phone. The US is so far behind with cell phone technology it isn't even funny. I mean really, we're still paying for incoming calls? What kind of crap is that?!?!?!?!
The Google translation of your sig into English is: "The scents of the breathing of my cat have taste of the food for cats."
I guess you're saying, "My cat's breath smells like cat food." Should this really come as a surprise?
Furry cows moo and decompress.
They have something like this new at the EMP in seattle. When you go get a ticket, they give you a PDA with a wand of some sort. You point it at one of the exhibits and it gives you info about it on the pda. Just dont go there on the weekends you'll be sitting in line all day long..
well the wireless part is pretty good, but the actual process has been in use for a while. for many years now at Walmart, you could take a video tape (then DVD) or a CD to a barcode scanner and get a sample of the video/music. This is the same thing....
.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
...what percentage of the mobile phones out there have InfraRed ports? None of mine have ever had this feature! Yes, there's a chance that some of them might have bluetooth, but I don't think that has significant market penetration yet either.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
The only thing you will get is pushy marketing, advertisements, and critical reviews by Joel Siegel (spelling ?).
Pardonne
If clicking on a link to an advert added another 10 minutes of talk time to my phone, it might be worth it.
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
can i point my antenna at any chick on the street and see naked pictures of her?
my blog
Its beyond annoying when you have to stop because someone in your group has to check the gps corodanites for the place you are at.
So don't stop. They can get 'em on the fly - and they'll be good enough to get back within eyeshot.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Simply passing by a pr0n shop on the street will set off your cell phone and flood it with text message ads.
Walk by a topless dance club and you get instant animated ads.
Browse in the local magazine shop and a text message ad directs you to the "back room".
Man am I glad I do not carry a cell phone...
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
It would be very nice to see if the local video place had Battlefield Earth or whatever available on DVD or VHS from your car. So, if whatever you want isn't there, you don't have to park, walk in, search for it, and walk out again.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
For pete's sake, go look at some porn or something. Some geeks can meet women the old-fashioned way. We talk to them.
I went to the Expenience Music Project in Seattle about 3 years ago, and they had a similar system.
They rigged you up with a little PocketPC-type computer and a set of headphones. As you walked through the music exhibits (there was some pretty cool stuff), you could point the PocketPC thing at "icons" that were next to the exhibits. A short write-up would come on the screen you were carrying, and you could listen to audio commentary or music that was based on the exhibit. It was some pretty cool stuff for 2000.
Of course, it wasn't networked at the time. They had you carry around a little case that the PocketPC was attached to. I think the case had a PC with a DVD drive in it or something like that, but it was still a cool demonstration of this type of tech.
Disclaimer: the EMP is very Microsoft-oriented, since it was founded by one of the MS guys (can't remember who it was). It was still a pretty cool place to visit in Seattle.
Not that I would want to do that, but I have heard of people getting their hands on those stickers that sets the alarms off in retail stores, and sticking them to the back of people browsing around so that when they walk out the exit it looks like they stole something.
Here a Sig There a Sig Everywhere a Sig Sig...
Ok, museums and galleries are NEVER the first users of some new tech. It's sex, sex, sex.
Aim your phone at a sexy ad and see that hot model move on your screen, holding the product strategically between her... Um...
It'll take 6 hours to read a Victoria's Secret catalog. A full day for Playboy.
I understand that there's already a dating service (in Japan?) that is somewhat similar:
- The subscribers fill out typical dating-service questionaires, and supply their cellphone numbers.
- The service tracks their cellphone locations.
- When two people with a sufficiently high compatability score are within a short distance of each other, BOTH their cellphones ring.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Whatever happened with their "audio ::Cue::Cat" that you connected your TV to your soundcard? Too much like popup ads?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
till they come up with some real life instant meta redirect tags.
Or maybe real life div's.. drool.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Yeah, but this time it is with Cell Phones!!!!!!
Some of the biggest bashing on CueCat was that it was connected to your computer, take away that and it could be a good idea.
I think this has some promise.
Great, now I can point my phone at a CD and get the same craptacular industry reviews that we get in newspapers, magazines, and tv already for cds, movies, and books that cover up how shitty the cd, movie, or book actually is. You know the ones I'm talkin' about: "This is the best [cd/movie/book] of the year!" or "A tour de force! Simply a great [cd/movie/book]!" or "This summer's hottest [cd/movie/book]!".
Except that now, there will be some additional options after the quote-whore's quote: "Press one to [listen to/read] a sample of this [cd/movie/book]." or "If you do not feel like buying this [cd/movie/book] press two to administer a small electric shock to stimulate your consumer chip implant, then press three to purchase this item."
It'll be like portable Madlibs for citizen-consumers.
I was in Malta recently, and their Vodafone - owned mobile operator has simply put stickers with four digit codes on important landmarks. Send an SMS to the code, and it'll ring you back with an audio recording of a description of the place - why it's important, that sort of thing. The infrastructure is already there, and there's no need for tags that could break / get stolen / cost a bomb. Simple and effective, and no need to rely on BT or IR. This seem to be an overly complex solution to the problem.
(or boyfriends)..while they're sleeping or during sex.
Then whenever some guy scans her, a webpage comes up describing his/her likes and dislikes, family photos, favorite head games, etc.
A very cool underground movement could start with this tech, like geocaching - individuals scattering access points around the city, like software easter eggs in real life
generic
Who cares about Hypertag? Wideray has been doing this sort of stuff since early 2001. Their device transfers content to the end user using IR, bluetooth, or 802.11b and talks to the backend using GPRS or FLEX (broadcast pager network).
Wouldn't it be easier if cell phones simply had bar code scanners and a server or proxy entry where the user could enter their database of choice?
Seems a heck of a lot easier. Pick up a book. Scan the UPC. The phone sends the UPC to the server of your selection, which then returns information based on settings (either set in the phone or when you got an account with the server). The information could be reviews, local showings, an internet comparison price check, Amazon sales ranking, etc.
Posters could have bar codes on them. GPS info could also be sent, to get more localized information (e.g. zip codes where the movie is being shown).
I work a company in the same building as this (it's an office block for startups). They have a demo outside the building in the form of an advertising poster. Unfortunately, the poster is for Attack of the Clones and is now well over a year old. The battery on the tag has run out and it's just a waste of space now.
Being named Joe, i take great offence at that.
Joseph Farthing
http://josephfarthing.com
I beta tested software that does something like that called Digimarc Mediabridge where you could hold up a watermarked magazine article to your webcam and the software would send you to a URL with more information on it. Wired and Popular Mechanics both used the technology for a while. It now is pretty much dead as far as I can see.
"And I'm right. I'm always right, but in this case I'm just a bit more right than I usually am." - Linus Torvalds
May I suggest my own ideas on this subject? They are summarized over at SemaCodes: WiFi + CueCat = UbiComp ... Tag the real world with semacode URLs
I kind of threw in UbiComp (ubiquitous computing) instead of location based computer (LBS) because they're basically the same thing, but the UbiComp people are cool, whereas the LBS people are all just chasing megabucks dreams.
IMO
simon
home page
Whoa, I just had this crazy idea. Why bother with Bluetooth or barcode scanners when you can use Camera Phones!! There's already a ton of standard two-dimensional 2d barcode standards. All the camera phones are running Symbian with Java, or maybe Linux with Java. Write a little open source image processing application and then ...
...there's your global namespace, your application platform is HTML or WAP or whatever. The whole network is already bootstrapped.
encode a URL into the barcode and take a photo of it
It would be like semacodes but without any nasty dangly scanners to carry around.
simon
home page
While this seems like a fine proposition, I have found that there is very little reception in many/most museums, especially those that delve underground with basement levels or have thick stone walls. Because of this, I think a lot of work would have to happen in order to make this work...
I think they're just beaming links for PalmOS machines. Check out their instructions for PDA users (basically 'Turn your damned beam-recieve on!')
Apparently they've found a way to implement BeamPro EXPO on a cheap PIC, and maybe threw in a few non-Palm OS beam standards into the repeat loop. I've been wondering how long it was going to take somebody to develop this.... The possible applications really are great:
Go to a restaurant, wave PDA at symbol, pick up an address book entry with their number, address, hours, and a concise version of their takeout menu.
See a movie you like, but it's not playing yet? [Wave] it offers to put the opening date in your calandar, then offers a ToDo link with the website address.
(For those of you who haven't used a PalmOS PDA, beamed events are cached with a 'Would you like to accept [...] into your datebook?', so you can turn down things you don't want.)
Okay, okay, so! I didn't read the article. Forum trolls will be creating hidden links to goatse in real life, too?!
That sounds exacly like Synapse to me.
" I'd like to use it at video rental places and CD stores to get product reviews. "
You browse aimlessly around video and CD stores? That's so 80's. Your best bet would be to read reviews at home, in the comfort of your desk and without distraction. Then, go to the store and pick the items up. Sometimes you can even check inventory before leaving your house. You could even take the low-tek approach and call them to see if the items are in stock.. If you ask nicely, they may have your merchandise waiting at the counter for you.
Plus, who wants to stand around in a store digging through a bunch of user reviews? Sounds like a waste of time. The retail establishment wouldn't do much to participate, as they prefer to control your shopping experience while on their premises.
Technology like this is just about getting the "whoa!" out of people. Then it fades away with the excuse "the market wasn't ready yet".
My point is, shopping is already easy enough of an experience. In the era of being able to get a car, Russian submarine, or house online, I just don't see it happening.
Say you point your cell phone at a person you see in public, and you get a readout of their social status and a rating of the match between your stored profiles. If you make the cut then you get the chance to place a call and have a brief conversation before waving like an idiot and meeting face to face.
Or, I guess, you could just walk up and say Hi.
So carry a beam transmitter that will bounce off various objects with a URL to "TURN OFF YOUR DAMN PHONE!".
Read?
This will truly be useful when you can point your cellphone at a chick's bottom and get her contact information entered into your cell phone :)
I'll take two!
---
"too lazy to look manage my passwords"
If your PDA is on the list, chances are good it's supported. You point your IR window at the gadget, it beams you a ToDo, or maybe a calandar appointment.
Hey you look attractive, can I bookmark you
or
can I link you ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
I personally think that cell phones should be banned in public places such as museums and this will just encourage Joe to hop on his cell phone and chat with Mary while I am trying to enjoy some peace and quiet.
I really hate annoying cell phone users as well, but it's not really the phone that's at fault: it's the person using it who (1) doesn't have a vibrate-only ring and (2) insists on TALKING LOUDLY WHILE ON THE CELLPHONE. If you can't talk at a reasonable level given your environment, and you aren't in private, move elsewhere.
I know people who TALK LOUDLY IN NORMAL SITUATIONS that become annoyances in the same way, and they're talking to someone right in front of them.
People need to exercise volume control.
click > I like you like a brother.
click > If you have to ask, you can't get it.
click > You pervert! I'm calling the cops!
click > [no response]
Great, rejection by proxy.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.