Handheld Sensors

Sensors can help us “listen to color”

alex — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:33:52 +0000

Close to 10 million Americans, 99.2% of whom are male — either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently from most people.

Currently, it’s a difficult problem to solve. A couple days ago I was interviewing a 38-year old man who told me, “take for instance when I have to buy pants; I have to take a picture of the pants, text it to my wife, and then wait for her to tell me what color the pants are before I can buy them assuming an attendant isn’t around.”

Here in his TED Talk, Neil Harbisson presents a “a device attached to his head turns color into audible frequencies.”

Could handheld sensors someday help address this pain point with the 1 in 12 colorblind men in the world?

alex — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 09:30:52 +0000

(Source: TED.com, http://bit.ly/NGiv4u)

$10M Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE Launch at C.E.S.

alex — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:56:32 +0000

“Imagine a portable, wireless device in the palm of your hand that monitors and diagnoses your health conditions. That’s the technology envisioned by this competition, and it will allow unprecedented access to personal health metrics. The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where, and how they receive care.”

The Qualcomm Tricroder X Prize is a $10 million competition.

(source: http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/)

The Tricorder Project, a gadget for science fiction fans

alex — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:41:47 +0000

While it may be a fun toy for Star Trek fans and hobbyists, in my opinion I think that’s all The Tricorder Project will ever amount to.

That is, of course, unless CBS decides to sue for trademark infringement, especially given the direct Star Trek reference?

Mass consumers aren’t interested in purchasing more hardware — why not just make sensor data compatible with already preexisting smart devices?

The operating system for The Tricorder Project runs on GNU/Linux and can display spatial, atmospheric, electromagnetic data.

The “Mark IV” version is still in development and is intended “to be mass-produced at low cost.“