Cyborg Technology

This week in class we have been discussing cyborg technology and its implications. I found it very interesting that we can implant devices into human brains so that a person with no arm could now have a mechanical arm that he/she could control by just thinking of that process. Furthermore, It is remarkable to think that thought process could be sent via Internet to control a mechanical arm thousands of miles away. This technology is not limited to just a mechanical arm but the five senses. In theory, we may be able to feel, smell, hear, taste, and see things thousands of miles away. Mind blowing right? I am very interested in where this technology will take us and how it will impact society.

Hydrogen Powered Phone

Yes... I know this is the second week in a row that I have blogged about phones but when doing research for the Droid I came across this phone. A company called Angstrom has produced a hydrogen fuel cell phone that runs off what is essentially water. This is an advantage because instead of plugging your phone into a standard charger that we are used to today, you can pour water into a hydrogen generator that is ran by solar panels. This eliminates the use of electricity and makes it a 100% green phone. I hope to see this take off in the future. Our society has used electricity and fossil fuels far too long and it is time to find alternative sources such as hydrogen.

Droid Phone

This week we have been working on our technology pitch as well as presenting it yesterday. The presentation seemed to go very well and I think we did a great job by the judges reaction. We chose the Droid phone because our group wanted to choose something that was relatively new and also something that people could relate to. Droid has been blowing up the advertisement scene recently with its ad campainge "Droid Does" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52TSXwj774). This phone is designed to compete with the iPhone and I am curious to see how it does. I think it has all of the capabilities of accomplishing such a task, however, it will be a difficult journey that only will tell. I hope to see this phone do well and take the monoply-like status away from Apple.

Sony OLED display

Once again, This week we talked about politics and nothing technological really sparked my interest. After doing some searching, I ran across Sony's new OLED screen. OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. This new screen is literally paper thin and is embedded into plastic which allows for it to be bent and not break. Sony has already used this new technology in some of their new television which are no more than an inch think. I found this to be amazing due to the fact that we can fit screens in just about anything now. We can embed screens into wallets, shirts, even into pages of books!

Microsoft Surface

This week I began looking for new technology to blog about since nothing really sparked my interest in class. I started my search by going to Youtube and typing in "new technology". The first thing that came up was Microsoft's new "Surface". Surface is a new technological table that works as a giant touchscreen computer. The sheer sight of this thing is amazing to me but when you see it's capabilites it is mindblowing. With Surface, users and shop for products online and with a simple selection of the product and laying down your credit card on the table, the product is purchased. Surface actually takes a picture of your credit card with cameras that are placed underneath. Also, data and other files can be transfered wirelessly by sitting your device on the table. This technology is aboslutely amazing and we should be seeing Surface poping up in bars, nightclubs, malls, and casinos very soon. Home use will soon follow. Since Blogger won't let me post Youtube video's, check this link out if you get the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKQNwqNLLk

Technology in the Airport

For fall break I went on a vacation out to California to visit some friends. It has been since 2007 since I was last at the airport and I began noticing a few changes in terms of technology at the airport. First of all the Indianapolis airport, where I generally fly out of, was a completely new structure that amazed me right off the bat. Once past security, I began to notice signs that read "Wi-Fi Hot Spots" and I eventually pulled out my iTouch to see how effective this Wi-Fi was. Once connected, I found out that you had to pay for these hot spots which is very frustrating. Luckily I have a cell phone service with internet so it wasn't hard to get around. As if this isn't enough. Once we boarded the plane, they now offered Wi-Fi on the plane! Of course it was at an unreasonable price but this new technology amazed me. It is truly astonishing to me how far our society has come within the last few years and also excites me of what's to come.

This week in class we were introduced to a gentleman who was a graduate student who worked with the library. He was our guest lecture and did a nice job explaning to us the ideas behind geocaching. I found it very interesting that people actually participate in this activity. I also though that it would be pretty fun to interact in this activity myself. Luckily we will be doing a little bit of geocaching ourselves this week in our lab. I feel like this will be alot of fun and I am really looking forward to it.