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Smart Tags Add Touch Controls To Ordinary Objects (ieee.org)
The idea of an inexpensive tag capable of transforming any object into a smart device is not necessarily new. But most cheap smart tags that lack batteries or complicated electronics can only perform simple functions, such as passively storing and sharing identifying information about an object. A new technology promises to change that. From a report: By comparison, new LiveTag technology allows for interactive controls or keypads that can stick onto objects, walls, or even clothing, and let people remotely operate music players or receive hydration reminders based on the amount of liquid remaining in a water bottle. "These tags can sense the status of everyday objects and humans, and also sense human interactions with plain everyday objects," says Xinyu Zhang, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Zhang and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison developed the LiveTag technology after brainstorming about ways to easily incorporate ordinary objects into the Internet of Things without adding costly hardware and batteries. Their LiveTag designs and early prototypes are detailed in a paper [PDF] posted on the University of Wisconsin website. The basic LiveTag technology seems deceptively simple: copper foil printed onto lightweight paper-like materials without any batteries or discrete electronic components. The key is in the geometric copper foil patterns that are designed to absorb Wi-Fi signals of specific frequencies, even as the overall tag generally reflects 2.4/5 GHz signals from nearby Wi-Fi device transmitters.
Zhang and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison developed the LiveTag technology after brainstorming about ways to easily incorporate ordinary objects into the Internet of Things without adding costly hardware and batteries. Their LiveTag designs and early prototypes are detailed in a paper [PDF] posted on the University of Wisconsin website. The basic LiveTag technology seems deceptively simple: copper foil printed onto lightweight paper-like materials without any batteries or discrete electronic components. The key is in the geometric copper foil patterns that are designed to absorb Wi-Fi signals of specific frequencies, even as the overall tag generally reflects 2.4/5 GHz signals from nearby Wi-Fi device transmitters.
It's not their fault, Google is making them dumber.
#DeleteFacebook
Something everyone has been asking for: even more e-waste for the landfills!
#DeleteFacebook
If I stick one to my penis will it tell me when I have to go?
I'm reading your post in the bathroom after holding it too long because I was was very focused on some code I working on.
This isn't nearly sophisticated enough to connect to a LAN. It's just a colored sticker, which might change color wheel it gets wet, or when it gets hot, or whatever.
The only thing "new" about this idea is the colors of the stickers would be far outside the range of wavelengths human eyee can see. Way down into the wavelengths a WiFi radio can see. It's still just reflecting a color, though, the sticker doesn't DO anything or connect to anything.
" receive hydration reminders based on the amount of liquid remaining in a water bottle."
I am all for convenience, but really?
I just want to know if they read as half-empty or half-full.
So the facility management company won't have to send a guy with a scanner every quarter to scan every tag of every computer, keyboard, screen, chairs and all the rest of the equipment in all the 2000 offices anymore?
...incorporate ordinary objects into the Internet of Things...
Will there be enough room in the cloud for all the data that is being sucked up by the IoT devices?
A new meaning to the expression "That guy really punches my buttons"
1 How will I secure these devices. Will each require a dongle?
2 How long until these get hacked?
Smart tags? I'm sorry? If you need a reminder to refill your own water bottle (or even a pet feeder), that's proof that you're negligent at your responsibilities. A smart tag will only help a dumb person stay dumb. Dumb tags.
what could possibly go wrong.
People are seriously over hydrated. Some myth comes out about 8 glasses of water a day and suddenly people go nuts. To waste technological resources on such fluff is bizarre. Drink when you're thirsty, don't drink when you're not thirsty, we don't need some fad to tell us that.
It's darn confusing code. It has a ton of indirection - indirection piled on top of indirection calling more indirection. Arguably that much indirection makes sense for this code, which is basically a compiler, but here's the thing:
The author re-invented and reimplemented, ad-hoc, all the capabilities of object oriented programming. Function tables pointing to functions that take callbacks as arguments, to make a very powerful system in which one function can be a subtype of another function. The language already has that, though - it's called "inheritance". Homeboy literally wrote code for everything C++ can do, without ever declaring a friggin object.
The original Zork was written in an object oriented style, in a Lsip like language. It was ported to Fortran where it became popular because it was available on many more systems. However, that object oriented stuff in Fortran was a particular challenge to figure out...