Geolocation and Psychogeography
Hackable RFID
By cdharris at January 17, 2006 | 2:30 pm | 0 Comment
Slashdot is hosting an interesting discussion concerning the likelihood that RFID is much less secure than thought, and describing the consequences if that turns out to be true. more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
Google Mashups
By cdharris at January 13, 2006 | 2:26 pm | 0 Comment
Google "mashups" are examples of creative uses of Google's API (application programming interface) along with its incredible mapping and GPS-data merge capabilities.? Although there are only about a thousand google mashups online at present,? most experts believe that the trend will grow smartly throughout the year as more people discover the uses of the mashup.?? The more...
Followit tracker device
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 8:12 pm | 0 Comment
The "Followit" Locator manufacturers claim it is the smallest GPS/GSM and GPRS location device on the market.? Very light and the size of a matchbox, it is designed to "track assets" as a portable standalone location device, without the intervention of "third parties."? It comes with access to mapping software. For example, it can be surreptitiously dropped into more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
Planned Obsolescence for Bus Drivers
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 5:54 pm | 0 Comment
The city of Cambridge,? UK,? will be testing a self-steering bus in 2006 that uses a camera mounted at the top of the windshield to follow painted lines on the road.?? Accurate to within only a few millimetres from its course, future bus lane using the self-steering buses could then be up to 5 feet narrower than those used by conventional buses.? An alarm sounds if the more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
Guerrilla Wi-Fi ?
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 4:04 pm | 0 Comment
Although "guerrilla" wi-fi solutions -- mostly low-powered and tough to setup -- have been around for some time now,? they are now going commercial.? A company called Raysat is introducing a new product at this week's Consumer Electronics Show which turns any vehicle into a personal wi-fi zone. The SpeedRay 3000 by RaySat is a round and relatively thin antenna designed more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , TechnoActivism , Technology and Art , Technology and Privacy
SMS Record!
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 3:52 pm | 0 Comment
BBC News reported today that a record number of SMS/MMS messages were sent on a single night -- New Year's Eve 2005. Over 6 million messages between midnight on December 31 and midnight, January 1, 2006. more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets
We are cell phone addicts
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 1:53 pm | 0 Comment
The worldwide number of mobile cell phone users is estimated at 1,6 billion people in 2004 (from 1,3 billion in 2003). 320 million of these users can be found in China. The global number will rise to 2,1 billion in 2009 (source: Ovum, July 2004). Close to 30% of all tweens (age 6-15) in Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and Singapore own a cell phone. This number is 50% for more...
Blog , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Art , Technology and Privacy
RFID, Privacy, and Jammers
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 1:44 pm | 0 Comment
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an item-tagging technology with profound societal implications. Used improperly, RFID has the potential to jeopardize consumer privacy, reduce or eliminate purchasing anonymity, and threaten civil liberties. RFID tags are tiny computer chips connected to miniature antennae that can be affixed to physical objects. In the most more...
Blog , Datamining , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
SWARM and Mobile peer-to-peer social computing
By cdharris at December 30, 2005 | 2:34 pm | 0 Comment
SWARM is a community based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) model, featuring Mobile Social Music Software. The system consists of a variety of devices that essentially link together into a shared network,?emphasizing?gesture recognition and ad-hoc shared music listening. The ?sensor subsystem? detects wearers' gestures while they listen to music. ?The Malleable Music Terminal? is more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Art
Mapping Companies asking users to contribute data
By cdharris at December 30, 2005 | 12:39 pm | 0 Comment
Online mapping is extremely competitive and popular with users. Nielsen/NetRatings recorded a 28% rise in visitors this year, with one-third of Web users visiting at least one mapping site in November 2005. Microsoft, Yahoo, MapQuest and Google Inc. get their primary data from only two companies, Navteq Corp. and Tele Atlas NV.? These companies are typically paid for more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Datamining , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
Your mobile phone knows you best
By cdharris at December 29, 2005 | 9:43 pm | 0 Comment
Celphones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you're going to do next. At least, these are the capabilities of 100 customized phones given to? students and employees at the MIT Media Lab --? and they may be coming soon to your cell phone. The Reality Mining Project more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography
(area)code project in UK uses SMS to map memories
By cdharris at December 24, 2005 | 12:30 am | 0 Comment
(area)code is an SMS mapping system which is intended to reveal, over time, personal memories and the?private ?histories associated with 5 key sites in the city of Manchester (UK.) (area)code invites individuals to collect and reflect upon their immediate surroundings during the course of day, and enables new forms of engagement and information exchange between person more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Art
Camphones seen as a security risk
By cdharris at September 15, 2005 | 4:13 pm | 0 Comment
Camera and video-camera phones already pose a security risk. Phones which run an OS and are essentially small computers escalate that risk. Recently, while visiting the Giza plateau outside Cairo, a device scanner somewhere in the vicinity of the guard booths detected my Treo, identified it as a mini-computer (distinct from the many cellphones in pockets all around me) , more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
