Wikipedia defines the Uncanny Valley as: “a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The “valley” in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness.”

Why am I bringing this up?  I don’t know, really just to link you to this site I found today that does more than freak me out.  Clearly I drove my car straight off the cliff and dove headfirst into the Uncanny Valley with this website visit, and I wanted you to as well.  In relation to technology, what does it all mean?  Simple really, it means we’re heading into a world where EVERYTHING is going to advance, Everything.  Already we are seeing new fuel opportunities arise, new ways of communicating, mice that fit INSIDE your computer and charge there…you name it, it’s either here, or on the way.

Head over, get properly freaked out, then head back to see how you can dip your baby toe into the future without all the “response of revulsion,” by getting your hands on one of your own aforementioned MoGo Mice.  How uncanny is your valley?  I guess time will tell.

Share This

According to their press release, Motorola and  Microvision signed a deal this week to implement projectors in the next generation of Motorola’s SmartPhones.

The technology will  project pictures and video on the wall.  On the road, this will mean a new tool for giving presentations and at home and in personal life - a way to share video and pictures without doing the ‘pass the phone’ dance.

Check out Microvision’s “Pico Projector Display” for details of their projector technology. Very slick.

The site quotes Rob Shaddock, CTO of Motorola Mobile; “Working together with Microvision, we are pursuing ways that projection technology can redefine how mobile consumers view and interact with the media they take with them.”

Already, seniors are pointing out that this technology will allow them a larger viewscreen for things like text and pix messages.

Microvisiondemonstrated its Pico projector in a mobile device  for the first time last May during the Society of Information Display conference in Long Beach, Calif.

Next up is a working model of the projector embedded in a Motorola phone. The partnership has not yet revealed the estimated time to arrival.

Share This

For Blackberry users, the world is about to get a lot simpler.

Research In Motion (RIM) rolled out the “BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS)” this week.

It is an integrated enterprise solution tthat allows corporations to covert their BlackBerry smartphone users to securely authenticated members of the the company’s PBX telephone system.

The new BlackBerry Mobile Voice System comes in 3 components:

• BlackBerry MVS Client (a component of BlackBerry Device Software)
• BlackBerry MVS Connectors (a component of BlackBerry Enterprise Server)
• Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite (a software suite that interfaces with heterogeneous PBXs)

Once all three are installed, BlackBerry smartphones will become, essentially, recognized extensions. They will be able to send, receive and manage enterprise calls from their handset. Users will have a single “Reach Me Anywhere” phone number that simultaneously rings their desk phone and BlackBerry smartphone.

For those mobile warriors who live on the road or in their home office, the application of this new suite has some nice benefits. A Blackberry synched to the company’s PBX will allow them to access desk phone functions such as transfer, park, and extension dialing on the BlackBerry. Plus, outgoing calls will displayed with the corporate identity on Caller ID.

The system comes completes with the sndard security features, IT policies and system management functionality provided within the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, including the ability to automatically authenticate mobile users to the PBX to help ensure that only authorized users and devices are accessing the corporate telephony system.

“RIM’s ability to deliver a robust, feature-rich platform that securely integrates with enterprise data systems has always been a major contributing factor to the success of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The ability to now deliver the same value proposition for both voice and data systems provides another unique dimension to the BlackBerry platform and presents another major opportunity for customers to maximize their return on wireless investments.”

BlackBerry MVS will be previewed at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2007 in Orlando, Florida and is expected to be available from RIM and Ascendent Systems later this month.

Share This

As recently as a few years ago, I had my name on cubbies in two different countries.

My position with a ranking IT firm had me assigned to several of our global customers. If it was Monday, I was in Richardson, Texas. If it was Thursday, I was in Ottawa, Ontario.

My ‘office’ was in a Chicago suburb, until a funny thing happened.    The same funny thing that is happening to thousands, and soon to be millions, of workers worldwide: I stopped going into the office.

When not on the road, I worked from home.   Cut off from the corporate high-speed network aand all it represented; gone were the ‘pushed’ security patch updates , endless data storage,   and easy access to the corporate intranet  and peripherals.

My technology needs evolved.  Like other members of this growing generation of ‘mobile workers’ .

From my hardware, I needed flexibility and durability.  My laptop, for example, became my sole processor. No longer was there a docking station connected to a beefy PC to do the heavy lifting back at the office.

My software needs evolved, too. I needed mobile real-time conferencing that included video, audio, o apresentation and whiteboarding -  all available from anywhere by anyone. Also part of the my Mobile Worker’s must-have software kit? Easily updated security software, globally available instant messaging, pack-aand-go presentation applications,  and email/intranet with web  availability.

On this  blog, I’ll be taking time out each week to talk about the technology for the Mobile Warrior - not just what works great on the road, but what also works for the home-based mobile worker. You can find these posts uner the new “Mobile Warrior” category.

And I’m inviting you to share with me - what do you want to know? What works or doesn’t work for you? What needs to get better? What wish-to-haves are we waiting for?  Drop a line,  I’m interested in what interests you…

Share This