Cyber-Goggles Record and Identify Every Object You See 108
RemyBR writes "Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a smart video goggle system that records everything the wearer looks at, recognizes and assigns names to objects that appear in the video. Advanced programs then go back and create an easily searchable database of the recorded footage. Designed to function as a high-tech memory aid, these 'Cyber Goggles' promise to make the act of losing your keys a thing of the past, according to head researcher professor Tatsuya Harada. 'In a demonstration at the University of Tokyo last week, 60 everyday items -- including a potted begonia, CD, hammer and cellphone -- were programmed into the Cyber Goggle memory. As the demonstrator walked around the room viewing and recording the various objects, the names of the items appeared on the goggle screen. The demonstrator was then able to do a search for the various items and retrieve the corresponding video.'" Add in facial recognition technology and this would make for a great aid at conferences and family reunions.
Are you sure about that? (Score:2, Interesting)
How would it recognise everyone's faces when they're all wearing the goggles?
Snow Crash (Score:5, Interesting)
But the next time the laser darts into his face, it scatters off a million tiny, ashy particulates and reveals itself as a pure geometric line in space, pointing straight back to its source.
It's a gargoyle, standing in the dimness next to a shanty. Just in case he's not already conspicuous enough, he's wearing a suit. Hiro starts walking toward him. Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider, these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society. They are a boon to Hiro because they embody the worst stereotype of the CIC stringer. They draw all of the attention. The payoff for this self-imposed ostracism is that you can be in the Metaverse all the time, and gather intelligence all the time.
The CIC brass can't stand these guys because they upload staggering quantities of useless information to the database, on the off chance that some of it will eventually be useful. It's like writing down the license number of every car you see on your way to work each morning, just in case one of them will be involved in a hit-and-run accident. Even the CIC database can only hold so much garbage. So, usually, these habitual gargoyles get kicked out of CIC before too long.
This guy hasn't been kicked out yet. And to judge from the quality of his equipment -- which is very expensive -- he's been at it for a while. So he must be pretty good.
Re:Pointless project (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously though, imagine we could get the size of that thing down. Substantially. Like, totally. There are several possibilities:
a) implant to the retina. Make the goggles go away, wire it directly to the brain. Like Terminator's interface, only this one makes sense!
b) get it down to a size where it would at least fit into glasses. What about making blind people 'recognize' what they can't see? All you need is some glasses with this technology and a bud in your ear that would tell you: 'street' or 'car, incoming, rapidly' or 'woman, age: mid-30, attractive, married'. OK, the system would need a great deal of sophistication for the latter...
This project is all but pointless! You can enhance a human's possibilities, whether they're impaired (visually or otherwise) or not!
Sounds promising for Alzheimer's sufferers.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Transmetropolitan (Score:4, Interesting)
Her name's Yelena Rossini. Anglo-Russian-Italian. Old Heath Road. Her family are so old money they're prehistoric-riche.
I fucked my editor's niece and she says nothing happened. But I know it did. Because I'm clever.
And because I left my shades on. And my shades' defence system thought all the falling down and rolling around and stuff was an assault.
And what does it do when there's an assault? I'm glad you asked.
It takes PICTURES.
-- Spider Jerusalem, Transmetropolitan, 'Year of the Bastard'
Another 5 minute job.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sure, by humans.
When we talk of software, "very easily" is something a programmer hears when someone who has never programmed is talking.