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Sept 14, 2000
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John
Gage on the Future of Computers
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Biometrics |
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Mobile Commerce
Technology |
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M-Commerce |
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Did you know you
could be standing at the right place, at the right time, and not
even know it?
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Emotion Mouse |
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"Perhaps 20 years from now, a computer
will not be the box under your desk, but rather the desk, the chair you
sit on, or the coffee cup you hold."
- John Gage,
- Chief researcher and
director of Sun's Science
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| Biometrics
| Biometrics
refers to the use of biological identification technology. It runs the
gamut from fingerprints, retinal and iris scanning, hand geometry,
voice patterns, facial recognition and other techniques.
| CyberSister's
Comment
I believe
biometrics is here to stay. Get used to the idea of using your voice or your
fingerprint to access your computer or your online bank account or to place
orders with your smart card or credit card. I think the more fascinating
question is how do companies apply biometrics – the measurement of
physiological and behavioral characteristics to verify the identity of an
individual – to create more intuitive and less intrusive products? Why
not use biometric research to design machines that would be more
approachable, to make content more understandable, and interfaces more
sensible?
The last decade has
witnessed enormous progress in interface design and in the interaction between
people and machine. The Internet defines new dimensions of user-friendliness
every day. For those of us who are Star Trek fans, think of how easily the crew
interact with the computer, like it was a friend, philosopher, helper and
guide. There is a lot of research ongoing in this field, not just on the
use of biometrics for security, but to understand and help computers act more
"human-like". For example, the European Initiative for Intelligent Information
Interfaces (i3), includes 300 researchers from 100 organizations, and is working
on a number of biometric related projects to improve how we interact with
computers and the Internet.
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DCT Looks to Mobile
Commerce
Digital Courier
Technologies Inc., hoping to cash in on the projected growth of Internet-enabled
wireless devices, is extending its fraud-detection service to make purchases
over mobile devices more secure. DCTI's plug-in software facilitates real-time
authorization and settlement with banks and major credit card networks such as
Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
Market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., predicts the
wireless data market will grow from 170 million subscribers worldwide this year
to more than 1.3 billion in 2004.
As a result, the number of handsets, PDAs,
and Internet appliances equipped with wireless capabilities is expected to reach
more than 1.5 billion in four years.
Mobile commerce is expected to grow with the proliferation of devices, and
Digital Courier (stock: DCTI)
is making its first move in the market by extending its Payment Protection
System to any device that uses WAP, a
standard for Internet access.
Source: Techweb
Cybersister's Comment
This news article ties in well with our themes over the last few issues and
shows you where things are going. Notice that this an e-commerce service
provider that is now announcing support for WAP protocols (see last issue for details).
WAP is a standard for wireless Internet access. It is becoming an m-commerce
(mobile commerce) provider. Smart companies see the writing on the wall for
support of this technology.
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| M-Commerce
Using smart phones and handheld computers with
wireless connections to place orders over the Web.
Mobility delivers ubiquity, reachability
(particularly important in business-to-business usage), convenience and
security. Now, combine this with the increasing localization of services
and applications, the personalization of services, the growing availability
of network speed and the "always-on" Internet connectivity, you can see why
the growth of "m-commerce" is expected to be huge. What industries and
services do we expect to see take off with mobile-commerce? - Financial
services, such as mobile brokerage, mobile payment and mobile banking,
advertising, and applications such as business, customer care, entertainment and
security. M-commerce revenue may be negligible now, but it isn't expected to
remain that way for long. In the next four years, U.S revenue is expected to at
least double, and in some cases rise by as much as 400 percent annually, as the
related services and hardware are deployed. (Source: Merrill Lynch, New York).
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| Did you know you
could be standing at the right place, at the right time and not even know it?
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Digital Ripple, authors of the Ripple Effect newsletter, are a group of
strategists and business people specializing in helping technology
companies who want to:
- sell their company or technology
- re-vitalize or re-direct the company towards electronic commerce or
Internet related projects
- evaluate/assess purchases or aquistions of technology or technology
companies
- look for strategic partners
We are aligned with merchant banking companies, sales management
consultants and technologists. Call us at (604) 215-0216 or email us at dcurrie@digitalripple.com if
you think you are in the right place & time, but don't know if you
know it.
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| | What's a Ripple Effect Rock? Well, think of a rock thrown in a lake, and
how the water ripples outward. This section of the newsletter covers
developments and technologies that we think might soon cause a "ripple effect"
in business or society.
Emotion Mouse
IBM's Almaden Research group is working on a method and system for
correlating physiological attribute including pulse, temperature, general
somatic activity (GSA), and galvanic skin response (GSR) to the emotion of
someone touching a computer input device, such as a mouse. By simply touching
the mouse, the computer will be able to determine a person's emotional state.
Cybersister's Comment
Read our "quote
of day" again. IBM estimates that within five years at least 30% of new
household appliances will interact with humans through body sensors or speech
recognition technology. A new study by tech consultancy IDC predicts that the
worldwide market for smart appliances (like phones, cars, keychains, jewellery
and coffee cups :) will reach $17.8 billion in 2004, up from $2.4 billion in
1999. Some of these new i-appliances will be given a dose of emotional
intelligence, too. Through arrays of sensors that monitor a person's body
language, these appliances will be able to anticipate and respond to a user's
needs before he or she can even express them.
So, this means if
the mouse detects you are feeling stressful (maybe you have sweaty palms or a
higher heart rate), it can start playing soothing music or adjust its responses.
Hmm... I'm
starting to think about the possibilities here.... What if the entire office was
linked up with emotion mouses? If the boss was irritable, there could be a
general system warning, and you could re-schedule the meeting when you were
planning to ask for a raise. I don't need a mood ring, I'll just get an emotion
mouse!!!
That's it for now! Have a great week!
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