[Hidden-tech] need thoughts on future search tools for kid's book

[Chris Hoogendyk]

Reva Reck wrote:
> Has it occurred to any of you miniaturization proponents that looking 
> at anything on a 2x3 inch screen is less than ideal? How about the 
> fact that clothes, especially kid's clothes,  need to be washed 
> occasionally & that pockets loaded w. electronics will be a nightmare 
> for whoever's doing the laundry? Are these electronics going to be so 
> cheap that we won't care when our kids lose them or break them after 
> falling on the playground and/or tearing a pocket? Or are these going 
> to be classroom items that belong to the school, hopefully with 
> head-lice proof headsets? Pardon my cynicism, but I think it's 
> important to distinguish between virtual reality and the real world. 

The screen is an issue. There are people who are getting along with the 
iPhone while they are on the move. But you're not going to be reviewing 
a corporate spreadsheet or approving a page proof on an iPhone. This is 
why people are looking at foldable digital paper, further future contact 
lenses as binocular 3D displays, and lots of other ideas. It's also why 
some people have larger computer displays or living room oversize plasma 
displays. The iMac essentially is the display.

With sufficient miniaturization and intelligence, the contacts approach 
will be able to present essentially anything your eyes are capable of 
seeing. This is already being experimented with with goggles. It's just 
a question of continuing miniaturization.

Wearables and miniaturized portable devices are already around. I have a 
T-shirt that has a wireless display icon covering the front. As I walk 
around, it lights up a faint blue to indicate the signal strength 
wherever I happen to be. It's a purely geek thing, but there it is. If I 
wash it, I have to remove the emblem from the front, disconnect the 
interior wire, and remove the battery from an inside waist level side 
pocket. Wash the T-shirt, reassemble it, and go geek.

And, yes, prices are dropping. There is crazy geek toy stuff that 
wouldn't make sense if it wasn't dirt cheap to whack a chip into 
something and make it work. The first calculator that I bought cost a 
few hundred dollars and couldn't do what the $15 scientific calculators 
can do now. Heck, the first digital computers filled large rooms and 
could barely do what a $15 programmable scientific calculator can do 
now. Look how robust and ubiquitous cell phones are now. The first hard 
drive I got on my Mac Plus way back in 1986 was several times larger and 
multiples more expensive than a drive I can get now that has more than 
10,000 times the capacity and is much faster as well. The MacBook Air 
doesn't even have a disk drive. It uses a variant of memory chips as a 
solid state drive. I have a keychain fob that is an actually memory simm 
that I once paid hundreds of dollars for. Now it is junk, or geeky 
decoration, because we can get 1000 times that much memory in the same 
space for less money.

It's happening. And the speculation stuff is in labs being played with. 
People's imagination and genius will determine what becomes available. 
The market place and what the masses respond to will determine how 
things really turn out.


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Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

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Erdös 4