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Tag Archive for Science Fiction

Human Interface

May 4, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Human Interface

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/204547-android-exploits-with-implanted-nfcs-whats-next

I’m not sure we will ever go to hard-core implantable/bionic tech without medical cause.  I’ll be honest about that.  I think the number of people who would be willing to lop off a limb or a leg to get better traction on a mountain, or a more perfect baseball swing, I think those people are going to exist, but as a small percentage, especially the way our current culture thinks and breathes.  It would take a major cultural shift to get bionics and bionic replacements in non-medical circumstances, to become commonplace.  (But since I write science fiction, I can imagine a world where exactly that has happened).

That said, I think that smaller implantable elements like these, ones that can simply be injected under the skin are going to become commonplace.  Right now one of my parents has no fewer than four separate “dongles” for work, each of which generates a unique, rotating passcode.  That parent also has keychain tabs for various reward accounts at specialty stores, a coded key for their car and an NFC tag for their office building.  Basically it’s about as awkward as trying to shove a baseball in your pocket.

Now imagine, if you will, a single chip, implanted under the skin, that can handle all of those.  You have an app on your phone that can generate the pass-codes if and only if the NFC chip agrees, pass your hand over the NFC reader at work and voila, the door opens for you.

The problem with these scenarios lies in the software, not the hardware.  Everyone who needs security also insists on proprietary setups.  This is why you need four different dongles, each custom dongle is from a different manufacturer and links to a different system of software.  Every company, every provider of security has their own tech, their own solution, so at the end of the day, you either need an all-in-one solution (like Mint does for your banking/investments, or ICQ used to do for your social media communications) or you’re going to end up riddled with tiny holes as each and every one of these companies injects you with their own (probably difficult to remove) custom NFC implantable.

Old Dinosaur, New Tricks

May 2, 2015 future Comments Off on Old Dinosaur, New Tricks

http://gizmodo.com/its-microsoft-build-day-2-live-streaming-hot-1701224950

What the h*ll, Microsoft!

After dancing the dance of the dinosaur’s graveyard for decades now, you give us this.  The HoloLens.

There are a metric *ss-load of VR devices and Apps in the works right now.  Everyone is hunting the killer app (I think VR App companies outnumber hardware companies by, like, 20 to 1).  Everyone is hunting the one cool thing that will finally make VR and AR mainstream products.

Microsoft may have done just that.

The key difference in what Microsoft is pitching is not the one coolest game you’ll ever play (like Magic Leap’s video) or the ultra-minimal camera on ur face (the public perception of Google’s Glass).  Instead they are showing us an integrated world.  They are pitching a lifestyle, one limited to inside your home to be sure, but a functioning, useful product that integrates your screens with your life.  You have the option of attaching stuff to your walls, to having apps and objects appear and disappear in-situ, rather than carrying them with you all the time.

And I think this is the big perceptual difference.  Having VR elements situationally popping into and out of existence requires a kind of constant mental engagement.  It makes you want to put the headset down and go to the kitchen for a soda, just to get a break from all the micro-attentions.  But by having those apps and objects stay static, have them fully integrate with the environment around you, like actual physical objects, you give the user the ability to walk away at any time, then come back to find everything where they left it.  It allows the VR to be a part of your life, rather than a novelty item.

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