Otaku No Zoku

At the recent BayCon Science Fiction & Fantasy convention held in San Mateo California I had the pleasure of being moderator on several panels, one of these, which took place on Sunday afternoon, was “The Top Ten Gadgets That Changed The World.”

The debate was lively and at times, loud with full audience participation.

I captured notes on my laptop and audio with my Olympus DS-40 voice recorder. I apologise but the batteries ran down on my DS-40 ran down a few minutes before the end of the panel so we are missing the final debate. I’m missing the last ten minutes of the panel unfortunately.

The notes below are direct from the ones I took at the panel with no editing, so it includes spelling mistakes and poor grammar.

If you want to sweat about your typing and spelling, try typing live on to a video display projected in front of 200 people whilst holding down a conversation too.

Download the audio of the panel. (22.6MB)

Philip Gust - CEO of software co. Inventor/Gadgeteer
Lee Felsenstein - Designer of lost computers.
Jay Freeman - Scientist and player
Justin Lloyd (moderator) - video game developer.

The “aye, “no” and “on the fence” at the end of each entry were added in the last few minutes using a democratic process of getting the audience to shout out whether they thought the gadget was worthy of being in the top ten list. Unfortunately we ran out of time to actually sort the list into a top ten.
Transistor - aye (Jay Freeman)
Wright Flyer - aye (Jay Freeman)
Apple II - on the fence (Jay Freeman)
Portable Phone - yes (Jay Freeman)
AK47 - on the fence (Jay Freeman)
Credit Card - no (Jay Freeman)
Television - yes
Movies -on the fence
Model T - yes
Meteorological Satellites - yes
Liquid Fueled Rocket Motor - on the fence (Jay Freeman)
Flip-flop - on the fence (Lee Felsenstein)
Cell phone/Mobile Phone - yes (Justin Lloyd/Lee Felsenstein)
Bloody PC - on the fence (Lee Felsenstein)
Raster Scan CRT - huh? (Lee Felsenstein)
Electronic Hand Calculator yes (Philip Gust)
VCR/Tivo - yes (Philip Gust)
Answering Machine - on the fence (Philip Gust)
Car Radio - no (Philip Gust)
Univac 1 - no (Philip Gust)
GPS - yes (Philip Gust)
GPS - yes (Justin Lloyd)
iPod - no (Justin Lloyd)
Air Conditioner - yes (Justin Lloyd)
Candidate- “Aluminium based anti-perspirant”, aerosal can - on the fence
Candidate - photocopier - yes
Candidate - Post-It notes on the fence
Candidate - RADAR - yes
Candidate - Search engine “Altavista” - no
Candidate - White out/Tippex/Liquid paper - no
Candidate - Super glue - no

Lee Felsenstein - What is a classic design?
Where is the gee whiz factor?

Definition of PC/Univac/Apple II

Candidate - Scanning Tunneling Microscope, precursor to molecular microscope - on the fence
Candidate - Apollo programme - no
Candidate - Atomic bomb - yes

Is a transistor a gadget? But the transistor radio?
Pentode tube - huh
Candidate - Heterodyne Receiver - on the fence

Model T - First breakout automobile product, like the iPod.
Car Radio - made family road trips practical and tolerable, radio was their entertainment, larger captive advertising audience.
Liquid Fueled Rocket Motor - It lead to the Apollo programme.
GPS - changing the future, guided bombs, UAV, cell phone location spam

Candidate - Microwave oven, LCD, LED - yes
Candidate - Nylons, synthetic fabrics, “ropes” - on the fence
Candidate - LASER - yes
Explanation - AK47 - enabling tech for revolution

Is 100 years enough?
Candidate - Portable PC - yes
Candidate - CNC - yes
Candidate - Carbonless copy paper - no
Candidate - Autonomous and industrial robots - yes

What will be the future gadgets?
Digital paper
Batteries that never discharge

Audio recording & notes will be available at http://www.otakunozoku.com/

Suggestions
What ten gadgets changed the fannish world?
What are the best ten gadgets of all time?

Download the audio of the panel. (22.6MB)

Driving back from a commencement address I had just given I was intrigued by how long it would take for eInk to become so ubiquitous that we will no longer think about.

How long until we start seeing eInk everywhere?

1. Bumper stickers on vehicles.
2. Road signs, especially freeway signs and construction signs.
3. Credit cards and debit cards showing your balance.
4. Telephone handsets and cell phones.
5. Store rewards cards.
   1. Virgin Megastores already have a system similar to this with a rewards card that offers a re-writable surface to display your rewards points and what you will get next.
6. NASCAR race vehicles.
7. Computer keyboards.
8. Bus stop bench advertising.
9. Restaurant menus.
10. Vehicle dashboards for speed, RPM, oil temperature, etc.
11. Directly attached to exercise equipment to monitor your progress.
    1. A simple RFID embedded in an ID badge you wear whilst at the gym could be picked up by a localized sensor in the exercise machine that will then add your repetitions and weights used to your workout total score, and show the score on an eInk display attached to the exercise machine.
12. Apartment complex signs indicating apartments for rent.
13. Apartment & office directory listings in the lobby showing who occupies which office or apartment.
14. Magnetic swipe cards for office buildings.
    1. It can show your picture, security clearance, room access numbers.
15. Though these are adequately serviced by custom printed swipe cards as used by most big businesses.
16. Alkaline & NiCad and whatever other technology batteries may use, fuel cells and other types of power sources showing capacity remaining.
17. Vehicle tyres showing air pressure and tread wear and the next time you need to have them rotated and serviced.
18. Fan run convention ribbons.
19. Price tags on items in stores.
    1. Especially clothing garments or anything not generally displayed on shelving.
20. Tattoos.
21. Hotels.
    1. Changing the display of programme items at a conference or convention, changing the names of rooms and the panel listing of what takes place in the room and when.
    2. Hotel room key cards which can show your name, room number and a map to the room. Though there is a security concern here, but after it is swiped through the door for the first time it can erase the display.
22. Gas station pump prices at the large overhead billboards and prices of motel rooms along the freeways.
23. Furniture upholstery, drapes and wall paper.
    1. Furniture can make use of a similar technology to eInk to change colour, patterns, etc.
24. The surface of CD-Rs & DVD-Rs to describe the contents.
25. Clothing.
    1. Every day wear could well adopt an eInk style technology to change a logo on a t-shirt or the colour of a clothing item.

Some things that it wouldn’t be worth using eInk for:

1. Cheques.
2. Restaurant bills and receipts.
3. Business cards.
4. Regular street signs.
5. Vehicle license plates
   1. Unless you want to commit a crime or really hide your identity.
6. Identity cards or drivers licenses.
   1. Unless they happen to offer temporary security clearance or other benefits.
7. Concert/cinema/event tickets.
8. UPC/ISBN/Bar codes on general items.
   1. Though you may well find them in inventory tracking systems to present human readable version of an RFID tag tied to a database with a display that can be reprogrammed and change as the the item moves from warehouse/storage to final assembly, testing, and then in to stores.
9. Government forms or client contracts.
   1. But having dealt with some companies and clients I swear the contracts change on a minute by minute basis.
10. The Constitution of the United States of America.
    1. Though this point is debatable.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Westwood College to speak at this year’s commencement ceremony for their graduating class. I have to say, this will not only be my first commencement speech I give but also the first commencement address I’ve ever attended. It will certainly be interesting.

So why ask me to give a commencement speech? It is not like I’m particularly noted for my speaking skills, or my dazzlingly public life. What I am is someone who didn’t do at all well academically but figured out my way in life enough to get to a point where I’m running my own reasonably successful business.

The hardest part for me so far has been deciding on a focused topic. In my research over the past couple of weeks since I was asked by Westwood College, I’ve read a lot of commencement speeches. Some fun, some poignant, many self-indulgent, but very few of the speeches have any kind of overall theme or structure.

The best way I have decided to approach this problem is treat it like any other talk I’ve ever given and take away all of those lessons I’ve learned with my time being a Toastmasters member.

1. Pick a topic of focus. I’m reasonably well known for my work on video games so that is going to be my focus.
2. Keep myself to two or three major points. I’m going to talk about failure, educational adversity and finally, success through repeatedly trying again and again.
3. Find my style. Do I want to be humourous or profound or controversial?
4. Write my outline with topic of focus and main points at the top of the page.
5. Flesh out the speech with anecdotes or quotes from my life that will make the speech uniquely mine. Make the writing as tight or loose as I deem necessary depending on how comfortable I am with the topic.
6. Make sure I have a conclusion and definite closing remark to indicate to the audience that I am done.
7. Timing is everything. I need to get the delivery just right, practicing the timing until I feel comfortable with the pacing of the talk. This is especially important if the speech has humour to it.
8. Time my speech, make sure that I’m not running over time or worse, running out of things to say and have only “dear air.”
9. Keep practicing the speech until I have the timing and phrasing just how it should be.
10. Determine what “props” I will need to carry out my speech. This can be a printout of the speech, note cards with the main points I wish to make, or actual props if I am attempting to illustrate a point.
11. Prepare for the speech by ensuring I have everything I need long before I set out from the house. This includes not just writing the speech out and practicing it but all of those secondary items like directions to location, contact numbers of people in case things go awry, etc.

Because of my neurological makeup before I even thought about the subject I would speak on, I wrote out my checklist of things to ensure everything went smoothly on the day. The big things in life generally don’t stress me out, but the small things like being late, or something out of place, cause me no end of mental anguish.

1. Do I have my speech and speech notes with me?
2. Do I have directions to the college?
3. Do I have the correct start time?
4. Do I have my Dictaphone and lapel microphone with me to record my speech?
5. Do I have my wallet & drivers license with me?
6. Do I have the cell phone number of the two people I should call in case there is a problem en route?
7. Is my cell phone in vibrate mode?

Which is really point #11 in the list above, be prepared. It lets me relax knowing that I have everything under control and there won’t be any surprises I could have prevented. There will of course still be surprises, but like backing up my computer and financial planning, I hope for the best and plan for the worst.

A couple of weeks ago I was pondering this idea whilst cleaning out my ears in the shower. Is there a way, I am wondering, if it is possible to play a tone through an ear piece, and have a microphone, also embedded in the ear piece, monitor the reaction of the ear as it listens to the tone. And based on the response, perform an action such as navigating in a three dimensional space.

I am under an assumption here that the ear is not a passive listening instrument but can be directed, however subtly, by the brain to tune in to certain characteristics of sounds. It is well known that people are capable of focusing in on a single tone amongst a cacophony of background noise. How much of this processing is done in the brain and how much does the brain alter the “tuning” of the ear to achieve this “tuning in?”

Assuming that the ear is reacting in different ways to different tones, if a monitoring device, such as a highly sensitive microphone could detect the noise of the muscles or small hairs in the inner ear responding to these tones then it would be possible to use that as feedback to a software program to perform some other task.
There are definitely small muscles within the ear that are involuntarily controlled, so how much of them can be voluntarily controlled? Can a paralysed person make use of these inner ear muscles, which a sensitive, non-invasive monitoring device could pick up the movements of, and then the person could control devices simply by changing how they “listen.”