I'd like to ask you a simple question. How do you get internet? How do you access a webpage in Europe or Asia? Its all satellites right? I mean, we have about 40+ U.S. satellites in space hovering around and transmitting signals and such, right? Partially.
Today, I'm going to take a look at an intriguing way of connectivity that might make you re-think what it takes to display a web page or image in China or Iran. If you don't know by now, the backbone of internet connectivity is all done with wired connections. But how could you possibly have a connection from here to China or Europe? You would have to run a cable the length of the entire ocean! Absolutely.
That really sounds expensive if not impossible! Sure.
You would have to map the entire ocean floor and make a special cable and make it really really long! Yup.
Take a gander at this popular picture below aptly titled "The Internet's undersea world."
So what does this picture show? Well for one thing, it shows all the cables that currently run under our seas and oceans to keep us connected to the entire world. Think about that for a second. If you are on amazon.com and you order a book or something from the UK, that information travels from your computer through your router (if you have one) and to your internet company and then to the operator of the undersea cable which routes your data through one of the cables that runs all the way from the U.S. to the U.K. at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean and to the Amazon servers there. The return trip is about similar too. The best part is that all this happens in the blink of an eye.
Fiber optics works by transmitting light, which travels through a fiber optics cable like as if its going through a big tunnel. Imagine you took a crazy bounce ball and throw it into a tunnel. It will bounce off a bunch of surfaces as it travels through the tunnel. Thats the same way light travels through fiber optics cable. However, if you can decrease the size of the tunnel, the ball will bounce much more often and go through the tunnel faster. Same concept, except that in fiber optic cables, the "tunnel" is about 8-10 microns small which is about 0.00031 inches in diameter which essentially gives light a straight clear path of travel. From what I remember in my Science classes, light travels through a vacuum at 300,000 kilometers per second.
What does that mean? It means that data can make a two way trip from the U.S. to the U.K. and back in less than half a second.
Wrap your head around that little bit of knowledge and I bet the next time you go to a website, you will be thinking about how much the data had to travel to get to your computer. Nifty.
Cable Tech
No Lamp is a Good Lamp
We have lamps, lights, tube lights, bulbs, and other lighting devices everywhere. Look around you and I bet you will be able to see at least two or three such fixtures. What can be done about the lights and lamps we use that just end up in landfills. How many times have you driven past houses where someone is throwing away an old lamp? How about if we just make them all disappear? Oh, I like the sound of that. No more freakishly tall and skinny light posts that seem to stand over us and mock our very existence...more on that later, maybe.
What if the ceiling or a wall became a large flat light? You flick a switch and the entire ceiling surface area will light up. What if that could be your light source and what if it can be 50% more efficient than the regular lights we now use. Introducing Lumiette an energy company that claims to create "efficient, cost-effective lighting."
s These lights are based off External Electrode Fluorescent Lamp technology which was originally used as a backlight in liquid crystal displays. Coupled with dimming technology, these new lights can not only save a ton of money and CO2, they can also be implemented almost anywhere. New houses or apartments can have these built into their walls or ceilings. Utilize an intelligent lighting system which can turn on or turn off lights by detecting the presence of a person and you can expect even greater conservation of electricity.
Now if only they can fetch me a cold beverage from the refridgerator...
Gaming Tech Part 3
From the most recent posts, I've been discussing one and only one thing, the Microsoft Natal. The current codename for Microsoft's new interactive, gaming "controller" that requires no controller (try wrapping your head around that one). Today, we will look at some of the technology in the Natal from the hardware and software aspect and see how they have been combined to create a one of a kind device. For Natal to detect the presence of a person coming towards it, a simple motion sensor would do the trick just fine. Hopefully, the entire system can recognize the difference between a dog running around the house every 5 minutes versus a person. On the other hand, if you get the dog intrigued, then who knows? Maybe man's best friend can become the non-complaining warthog driver in Halo while you tear through the Covenant!
Now, "facial recognition, voice recognition, skeletal mapping" are all things that Microsoft Research have been working on, according to Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios (1). Essentially, the offerings of Natal are more software based than hardware.
As you can see, the two eyes, or cameras in this case would most probably provide the depth as they work in unison, much like a normal person's eyes. The video would need to be processed in real time to figure out skeletal structure and set points of motion for the knees, wrists, head, torso, elbows, etc. These points of motion would be used to figure out how the body is moving and as a result, how the character moves in the game. Skeletal mapping in real time, would be one of the more challenging aspects of Natal for the software developers at Microsoft. However, facial and voice recognition has been around for a while and would be easier to implement.
With regards to price, the hardware of Natal might most probably comprise of two really good cameras, a motion sensor and a microphone. Produced on a mass scale and it will be easy to bring the cost down to under $200 as the reports have been suggesting. Combine that with Microsoft's policy to make a loss on every console, and you have further price cuts that should make the Natal a very intriguing device and at the least, a "game changer."
1 - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2009296568_e3_new_info_on_microsofts_nata.html
