Tag Archives: GPS

Human-computer interfaces: Device tracks free-hand movements

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The point is that it’s contactless. (Photo: Gesturetek.)

From my Boston Globe column this week, another step toward into the “contactless” future.

Humans hardly touch each other as it is. (We’re being taught that touching is a “high-risk” behavior.) Machines have become an intermediary.

Now, you don’t have to touch the machine:

Think Minority Report: A new device from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Gesturetek lets you point at any screen to manipulate images and objects, just as Tom Cruise did in the mesmerizing film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story.

Gesturetek’s AirPoint System requires no tracking glove or remote control, as many tracking systems do. The company envisions its camera-based technology in hands-free (and thus germ-free) ATMs, and other contactless applications.

Also: Zoombak will track your wayward pooch with a combination of GPS and cell tower proximity readings–said to be better than using either technique on its own.

Dog, trackedZoombak alerts you when its water-resistant gadget, hanging from your dog’s collar, crosses over the boundaries you designate around your home. The service signals you via text message or e-mail of the escape.

Zoombak also offers a slightly more expensive car locator kit for tracking teens and the other high-risk drivers in your family.

2012: NASA sees start of "new solar cycle"

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A bumpy ride ahead for sats and power grids. (Image: NASA)

NASA today published a forecast for a “big and intense” new solar cycle in 2011 or 2012, which its suggests will wreak havoc on satellite GPS and telecommunications, power grids and air traffic.

NASA says the next solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, “could make itself felt as never before.”

We are now at the end of Solar Cycle 23 (see graphic, and excerpts, below), according to the U.S. space agency.

clipped from science.nasa.gov
Is a New Solar Cycle
Beginning
It may not look like much, but “this patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

2012: NASA sees start of "new solar cycle"

Posted on by
2

A bumpy ride ahead for sats and power grids. (Image: NASA)

NASA today published a forecast for a “big and intense” new solar cycle in 2011 or 2012, which its suggests will wreak havoc on satellite GPS and telecommunications, power grids and air traffic.

NASA says the next solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, “could make itself felt as never before.”

We are now at the end of Solar Cycle 23 (see graphic, and excerpts, below), according to the U.S. space agency.

\

clipped from science.nasa.gov
Is a New Solar Cycle
Beginning
It may not look like much, but “this patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.