Google TV

Google TV first launched in October of 2010. It was a big bust due to lack of cooperation from TV networks and content providers. Google is ready to try again, they announced on their TV blog that they will upgrade to Android 3.1. “One welcome improvement will be an easier ability to search across all the TV shows at your disposal” (CNN). Being that I own an Android phone and often wish I could watch my TV shows on it, this is exciting news. I can wait to see if it works and when it will launch. Being able to watch scenes or most of a show on youtube doesn’t cut it. To be able to watch a stream of a full show from the actual network would be awesome.

Personal Dynamic Media

“Imagine having your own self-contained knowledge manipulator in a portable package the size and shape of an ordinary notebook. Suppose it had enough power to outrace your senses of sight and hearing, enough capacity to store for later retrieval thousands of page-equivalents of reference materials, poems, letters, recipes, records, drawings, animations, musical scores, waveforms, dynamic simulations, and anything else you would like to remember and change” (pg. 4). Such a device would make things so much easier. I have had eye issues for a long time now, and am recently starting to have hearing issues. Of course I would want something that could help amplify both senses. To have the ability to reference many different topics would help give relevance to a conversation , help with projects when you do not have access to the internet, and much more. Not only would it be useful to any person, but also children. This simply just reminds me of an iPad.

Navigating Technomdeia

“It is common knowledge that the modern or “developed” nations in the world show high levels of technological diffusion” (pg. 2). It has been this way for the longest time. Always in a race to outdo and be better than the other. The United States for as long as I can remember has been on top of many things. When we think of cell phones and signals, it’s pretty obvious that certain areas have better service than others, and that all comes from the geography. So, not only is there a difference between nations, but all within the nations. “According to scholars, print emerged in Korea sometimes between 1234-1241” (pg. 5). I never knew that fact about print. It seems like The U.S., Russia, China, Japan, and Korea always are the main nations to come up with great things and who try to out eat beat the others. Whether it be weapons, space race, technology, and more.

Ping Pong playing robots

            Robots have taken over the workforce in factories, now are they ready to take over the ping pong tables? A University in China created robots in which their arms have seven directions of range of motion. “Key to their ability to serve and return balls with forehands, backhands, and stoic focus are eye-mounted cameras that predict the path of the ball so the robot get can ready for the next shot. Each camera captures 120 images per second, which are transferred to the robots' processors that calculate the balls' position, speed, angle, landing position and path.” It takes the robots between 50 to 100 milliseconds for them to respond to the ball. They do have the ability to play against humans, but they lack certain playing qualities. Such as, trickiness, and aggressive play. I think it would be cool to play against a robot, but it sucks that they aren’t able to play as well as a human. With time, I am pretty sure that they can be built up to play with even better quality.