The fourth generation mobile systems claim to achieve few Gbps of data rates on short ranges. This means that you can download an entire movie in less than a second. There is a lot of research going on ad hoc networks.
Idea : Imagine an environment where you have wireless connection to Gbps internet all the time. This can be achieved by carefully placing small 4G devices distributed throughout the place. These devices cooperate among themselves similar to sensor motes do. They are finally connected to a central server that connects you to internet.
Challenges : 4G is still in embryonic stage. Routing in sensor nets is largely at theoretical level. At least 10-20 years are required to make a commercial system, though test systems can be made with current technology.
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Animations
With increasing technology, it is possible to make images in photoshop that look almost real. If you don't believe me, just have a look at this http://www.bertmonroy.com/fineart/text/fineart_damen.htm.
Idea : Imagine animated movies that look as real as normal movies. And normal movies putting in a lot of special effects looking as unreal as animated ones. Soon the two will be indistinguishable. And you can see all your favorite actors again - imagine seeing movies of Kishore Kumar or Charlie Chaplin using mobile phones and computers. Since normal filmaking is a costly project involving a lot of people management, the industry will gradually move to animations until finally all you see will be animations stuffed with all your favorite actors looking as real.
Challenges : The pace at which technology in film industry moves seems to be really slow. Increasing realism in animations is a very difficult task. Also the best animations available like Final Fantasy and Animatrix (first story) are actually far from real. Atleast 10 years till they start looking real and another 5 till industry actually accepts this as a cheaper form of production - maybe more.
Some more di : 3 LOTR movies incurred a production cost of $300 million. Compare with a huge company having 2000 animation engineers @ $10000 per month for an year (a rather overpaid and hence dedicated team; salary of $240m), 100 managers @ $15000 pm ($18m), hi-fi computers @10000 for each employee and 500 extra machines ($25m, not considering the fact that most computer parts do not become outdated in an year) plus overheads(marketing etc) of as much as $25m, totalling to $300m, can produce a superb movie, atleast 10 yrs down the line if not earlier (figures ignore the inflation rate).
Update in Apr 2009: Looks like this one is coming true. For one, the number of animated movies has increased tenfold in just 4-5 years. Further, digitally engineered characters are no longer a fantasy. The movie "X-men Origins: Wolverine" shows a young Charles Xavier, a digitally modified Jean-Luc Picard. Also an all digital Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in Terminator Salvation.
Idea : Imagine animated movies that look as real as normal movies. And normal movies putting in a lot of special effects looking as unreal as animated ones. Soon the two will be indistinguishable. And you can see all your favorite actors again - imagine seeing movies of Kishore Kumar or Charlie Chaplin using mobile phones and computers. Since normal filmaking is a costly project involving a lot of people management, the industry will gradually move to animations until finally all you see will be animations stuffed with all your favorite actors looking as real.
Challenges : The pace at which technology in film industry moves seems to be really slow. Increasing realism in animations is a very difficult task. Also the best animations available like Final Fantasy and Animatrix (first story) are actually far from real. Atleast 10 years till they start looking real and another 5 till industry actually accepts this as a cheaper form of production - maybe more.
Some more di : 3 LOTR movies incurred a production cost of $300 million. Compare with a huge company having 2000 animation engineers @ $10000 per month for an year (a rather overpaid and hence dedicated team; salary of $240m), 100 managers @ $15000 pm ($18m), hi-fi computers @10000 for each employee and 500 extra machines ($25m, not considering the fact that most computer parts do not become outdated in an year) plus overheads(marketing etc) of as much as $25m, totalling to $300m, can produce a superb movie, atleast 10 yrs down the line if not earlier (figures ignore the inflation rate).
Update in Apr 2009: Looks like this one is coming true. For one, the number of animated movies has increased tenfold in just 4-5 years. Further, digitally engineered characters are no longer a fantasy. The movie "X-men Origins: Wolverine" shows a young Charles Xavier, a digitally modified Jean-Luc Picard. Also an all digital Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in Terminator Salvation.
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Pocket PC
Have you seen those keyboards made of light that detect your finger movements. If you have not, you are surely behind the times. A small laser projects the image of a keyboard on a nearby flat surface. When a person types into it, the movement is detected and converted to signals about which key the user was pressing. There are plans to integrate this system into cell phones in 1-2 years.
Projection of a screen on a nearlby flat dark surface is even easier there is no great DSP required. But projection of a touch screen works will with similar technology.
Idea : We just eliminated three perpherals of a PC : screen, keyboard and mouse. Imagine carrying a cell phone sized PC (I call it pocket PC) on which you can do anything ranging from watching movies to downloading pirated episodes of Scrubs to doing day to day job like emailing and reading news.
Progress : The light keyboard has already been invented. A light touch screen works on the same prinicple. However, a mobile phone sized device housing memory, a powerful processor, atleast 128MB RAM, efficient cooling device and wireless antenna is surely out of the world for atleast 4-5 years (10 years to be realistic). Even if the size gets reduced to this extent, the power consumption required will be humungous. Unless there is a revolutionary battery invented within this time, users will have to re-charge their PPCs every hour which sort of defeats the purpose.
Projection of a screen on a nearlby flat dark surface is even easier there is no great DSP required. But projection of a touch screen works will with similar technology.
Idea : We just eliminated three perpherals of a PC : screen, keyboard and mouse. Imagine carrying a cell phone sized PC (I call it pocket PC) on which you can do anything ranging from watching movies to downloading pirated episodes of Scrubs to doing day to day job like emailing and reading news.
Progress : The light keyboard has already been invented. A light touch screen works on the same prinicple. However, a mobile phone sized device housing memory, a powerful processor, atleast 128MB RAM, efficient cooling device and wireless antenna is surely out of the world for atleast 4-5 years (10 years to be realistic). Even if the size gets reduced to this extent, the power consumption required will be humungous. Unless there is a revolutionary battery invented within this time, users will have to re-charge their PPCs every hour which sort of defeats the purpose.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Voiceless Phones
Do you know that there is activity in your vocal cord even when you are talking to yourselves. Its like talking quietly so that no one listens.
Idea : This activity can be detected using some sensors (eg:a miniature MRI) placed on a collar a person is wearing. Connect this to your cell phone and you can now attend to calls without disturbing anyone around. Isn't it great!
Challenges : Sensors for this detection are easy to make. The real challenge is DSP. First of all signals are feeble. This is a problem because there are noisy signals coming from the movement of the person himself, which may interfere with this signal. Secondly, the normal voice which we speak is a combination of our vocal cord as well as tongue and lip movements. Focusing entirely on vocal cord means that the DSP in the system will have to somehow differentiate between sounds that are based on lip movements alone.
Idea : This activity can be detected using some sensors (eg:a miniature MRI) placed on a collar a person is wearing. Connect this to your cell phone and you can now attend to calls without disturbing anyone around. Isn't it great!
Challenges : Sensors for this detection are easy to make. The real challenge is DSP. First of all signals are feeble. This is a problem because there are noisy signals coming from the movement of the person himself, which may interfere with this signal. Secondly, the normal voice which we speak is a combination of our vocal cord as well as tongue and lip movements. Focusing entirely on vocal cord means that the DSP in the system will have to somehow differentiate between sounds that are based on lip movements alone.
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