Reality Mining

An emerging area of research should help tracking the real social interactions of people - the so-called “Reality Mining”. With Reality Mining the “stupid” IT infrastructure gets automatically taught about our social behaviour.

Functioning
With a variety of sensors, each person carries around, data gets collected. Using Reality Mining, patterns in our life are detected. This information is used by the IT systems for different things. So it should be possible to share specifically information with other persons, or notice them that we are in their vicinity, and much more.

With cell phone already possible today
Is Bluetooth activated, the phone could recognize other devices or could be “seen” from those. If these data gets recorded, the system knows with what frequency the phone of another person is found.
The iPhone also has a built in acceleration meter. So the system knows whether one sits or moves. The microphone in a cell phone could be used to analyze our voice, or how long a person speaks.

Impact on the office work
Using Reality Mining in organizations and companies, it is possible to analyze group behaviour. It is conceivable that with the help of this data, the cooperation and the work efficiency of employees could be improved. But Reality Mining is also useful for new approaches, for example with spam mail filters. Messages from people that I have never met in real could get filtered. The system would almost fall back on the experience that you gathered in real life.

Data protection concerns
Using Reality Mining the world gets much more transparent. In any case it has to be ensured that data is used, but not abused. A possible approach could be that the user of such a service itself decides when and what is being recorded.

A detailed interview with MIT professor Sandy Pentland, who coined the term Reality Mining, could be found at Technology Review.

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3M and TI present pico projector at CES

In early November last year we reported on the pico projector from Microvosion. At the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas 3M and Texas Instruments presented their tiny projectors. Enormous market potential of the devices is in prospect.

3M pico projector

According to the manufacturer, the projector provides a brilliant image in VGA resolution up to a diagonal of 40 inch. 3M uses the LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicone) technology. While LCD projectors use transmissive LCD chips, allowing light to pass through the liquid crystal, in LCoS, liquid crystals are applied directly to the surface of a silicon chip coated with a highly reflective aluminized layer.

3M pico projector

At 3M they are particularly proud for the fact that the technology is available now. With existing partner companies 3M expects the first projector-equipped mobile phones in early 2008.

TI pico projector
Texas Instruments showed at CES an improved version of its pico projector prototype. Based on the TI developed DLP technology the device fits into a mobile phone dummy in the size of an iPhone. TI sees first applications in mobile devices in the course of this year.

TI pico projector

Microvision pico projector
Technical facts of the Microvision projector were posted by us in November.
Microvision showed at CES the first prototype of an independent pico projector unit in the size of an iPod Classic with WVGA resolution. Under the code name "show" the unit was presented to the public. The internal battery allows an operation time of up to 2.5 hours. The projector should hit the consumer market by the end of 2008.

Microvision pico projector (youtube video)

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Displays getting thinner and thinner

A major trend is visible at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas - all renowned Plasma- and LCD-screen manufacturers are presenting very thin devices.

New lighting method of LCD screens

According to JVC, technical innovations in back lighting of the LC display brought this remarkable reduction in depth. With the help of new light-diffusion layers, the fluorescent tubes move closer to the LCD screen. Detailed information at gizmodo.com

Conventional LCD compared to the new, slim version

At CES all major display manufacturers showed new LC displays in the range of 20 to 40mm thickness. Both the weight and power consumption should therefore also be reduced. The integration into a wall should get much easier in future.

Also Plasma-screens getting thinner
Pioneer presented a just 9mm thick plasma screen at CES. In the middle section the concept device is a bit thicker with 18mm. There is no launch date for this device till now.

The 9mm plasma-screen study by Pioneer

More pictures at gizmodo.com

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