TechFest: Stuff you didn’t know you need (2004)

coach — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 19:06:21 +0000

Seems Microsoft is dreaming about being in your pockets and around your neck, among other places. As if they’re not already? But MS means in a new and different way.

SenseCam, touted as a visual diary of sorts, is designed to be worn around the neck and can take up to 2,000 images in a 12-hour day without the wearer doing a thing. …

Some technology on display at TechFest could soon be available to the public. For example, Microsoft is looking to license technology for identification cards touted as “unforgeable” because they combine a regular picture ID with another, multicolored box that includes a compressed facial image. A card reader makes sure both the regular picture and the multicolored box match before granting access, meaning people couldn’t just simply swap out the photograph on an ID card.

Another project, developed by Microsoft Research’s Beijing office, converts a regular facial image into a low-resolution, cartoonish image. That animation can then be used with instant messaging, to convey whether the person typing a message is laughing, frowning or nodding. It could help solve the problem of understanding the nuance of people’s typed conversations, without requiring the computer and telecommunications power needed to use a Web cam.

Coaching moment: Sometimes it’s helpful to see (or hear) ourselves as others do. A recording of everything we do and say can be very revealing. However, I doubt that anyone wants to play back every moment of a day. We have “downtime” when we’re not at our best. Those may not be the best moments to share, even though they are part of who we are.

Mining the new Gold

Digital ID Coach » telecommunications power

TechFest: Stuff you didn’t know you need (2004)