Siri

I got rather excited reading information on and watching the video link, about Siri.
It looked like fun!
Siri lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. You can ssk Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk and Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it.



As I mentioned in my previous post, my fiance has an iPhone 4S and we are always discovering new things that it is capable of doing so I couldn't wait for him to come home so I could play with Siri.
Have to report that I am somewhat disappointed with it, maybe its that we are not doing it correctly but every time we try it decides to dial someones phone!
Are we doing it wrong?
Anyone else played with Siri and gotten results?

iPhone

Only this year, when my fiance got given one for work, did I become a big fan of the iPhone. All the stuff it can do, continues to amaze me and we are still stumbling across ways we can use it. I can no longer look at all phones in the same way.

So to find out how much it costs to make stunned me at first and then I found the following chart on How Much does it Cost to Make and iPhone?


and then I became stunned at how much they were able to buy an iPhone for in the US as here, for a 16GB iPhone 4S, we pay $1,029 (I am now thinking I need to get someone who is going to America to pick me up one).
They are obviuosly making a profit by selling to an overseas market as it costs them $196 U.S. Dollars to make a 16GB iPhone but they retail at $199 U.S. Dollars making a profit of only $3 U.S. Dollars.

The Technology Life Cycle

Its not surprising to know that technology has a life cycle.
Pretty much as soon as you go and buy something new, whether its a phone, tv or car, its guaranteed that there is already something new being thought of and created.
It can be very expensive trying to keep up to date with all the latest technology that comes out.
So it is very important that organizations examine the life cycle, of any new technology, to help them predict how it will progress. These findings can help them decide if they need to take advantage of the new, emerging technology and also whether the technology may be nearing the end of its life cycle.
If an organization makes a small mistake it could cost the big time. But on ther other hand if they read the life cylce correctly the organization would be ahead of its competition.

Will NFC or RFID replace QR?

It seems New Zealand is only just starting to use the QR (Quick Resonse) codes on their smartphones. We have all seen the funny looking barcode for the past few years but have never really known what it was for untill recently. They are now on just about everything, from magazines to dvds and even at  Napier's National Aquarium of New Zealand as snippets of information or a virtual guide and  NZSO has used them on concert posters for more than a year, so people can link to sound files to be able to preview their music. The possibilities and potential for using QR are endless.

But now that New Zealanders are only just clicking on to, and know how, of QR is it about to change and be replaced by NFC (Near Feild Communication) or RFID (Radio Frequency ID)?

NFC is already being tested by New Zealand banks as a way of making payments by using a phone.
The benefits of using NFC consumers and businesses:

• Intuitive: NFC interactions require no more than a simple touch
• Versatile: NFC is ideally suited to the broadest range of industries, environments, and uses
• Open and standards-based: The underlying layers of NFC technology follow universally implemented ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards
• Technology-enabling: NFC facilitates fast and simple setup of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.)
• Inherently secure: NFC transmissions are short range (from a touch to a few centimeters)
• Interoperable: NFC works with existing contactless card technologies
• Security-ready: NFC has built-in capabilities to support secure applications

The RFID tag can be affixed to an object and used to track and manage inventory, assets, people, etc. and offers advantages the use of bar codes. The tag can be read if passed near a reader, even if it is not visible. For example, if it was inside a case, carton, box or other container, and unlike barcodes, RFID tags can be read hundreds at a time. Bar codes can only be read one at a time.
RFID can be used in a variety of applications such as airport baggage tracking logistics, tracking of goods, people or animals and even to track sporting memorabilia to verify authenticity.

Or will NFC, RFID and QR be used along side each other?

Historical Technology

The following is my three examples of historical technology. I have chosen these three as they are ones that effect me on an almost daily basis.

1. The Sewing Machine
This is an important one for me as I like sewing and without the invention which led to the modern sewing machines we use today which makes it much easier and quicker than sewing by hand.
The sewing machine was first invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Which was considered to have been the work of Englishman Thomas Saint in 1790.

 An image of the original.

This led onto many different sewing machines being invented, which are used for sewing a variety of different materials. We now have domestic sewing machines, industrial ones and overlockers.

2. The Coffee Machine
Making coffe has been around for hundreds of years. Roasted and ground coffee beans were placed in a pot or pan, to which hot water was added, with a lid placed on top, to commence the infusion process. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was considered adequate to add ground coffee to hot water in a pot or pan, boil it until it smelled right, and pour the brew into a cup.

The first coffee machine was made in 1818 by Mr Laurens of Paris, France. His machine was a percolator type coffee machine.


The espresso machine was first invented in 1822 by a French man named Louis Bernard Rabaut.


Today’s modern espresso machine was invented by Achilles Gaggia in 1946.


3. The Vacuum Cleaner
Another invention which I couldn't live without today as before vacuum cleaners, rugs were hung over a wall or line and hit repeatedly with a carpet beater to pound out as much dirt as possible. This is something I am glad I do not have to do today although it may make me fitter!
I was surprised to find that the first attempts to provide a mechanical solution to floor cleaning were begun in England in 1599, although I could not find out what these attempts actually were.

 A manual model.

The first manual models, using bellows, came in the 1860s (the carpet sweeper), and the first motorized models came in the beginning of the 20th century (the manual vacuum cleaners).

 A vacuum cleaner most people would have in their home today.

Over the years there has been many types and models of the vauum cleaner, some successful and some not so successful and even today the tv and infomercials are advertising all different types of vacuum cleaners. You can get ones with bags, ones without bags, ones which can wash your floor, ones for cleaning cars and ones for commercial use. There is a vacuum cleaner for every type of situation.

The Telephone

The telephone has come along way since Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. Doing my own research I have found that Alexander Graham Bell may not have actually been the first to invent it. Antonio Meucci has also been recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives for his contributory work on the telephone and in Germany,Johann Philipp Reis is seen as a leading telephone pioneer who stopped only just short of a successful device. But becuase Alexander Graham bell was the first to patent the telephone, as an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically". So it seems the modern phone, we have today, is the work of many.

I found the following timeline, which is a brief history of the development of the telephone, in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone ):

• 1667: Robert Hooke invented a string telephone that conveyed sounds over an extended wire by mechanical vibrations.
• 1753: Charles Morrison proposes the idea that electricity can be used to transmit messages, by using different wires for each letter.
• 1844: Innocenzo Manzetti first mooted the idea of a “speaking telegraph” (telephone).
• 1854: Charles Bourseul writes a memorandum on the principles of the telephone. (See the article: "Transmission électrique de la parole", L'Illustration, Paris, 26 August 1854.)
• 1854: Antonio Meucci demonstrates an electric voice-operated device in New York; it is not clear what kind of device he demonstrated.
• 1861: Philipp Reis constructs the first speech-transmitting telephone
• December 28, 1871: Antonio Meucci files a patent caveat No. 3353 at the U.S. Patent Office for a device he named "Sound Telegraph".
• 1872: Elisha Gray establishes Western Electric Manufacturing Company.
• July 1, 1875: Bell uses a bi-directional "gallows" telephone that was able to transmit "voicelike sounds", but not clear speech. Both the transmitter and the receiver were identical membrane electromagnet instruments.
• 1875: Thomas Edison experiments with acoustic telegraphy and in November builds an electro-dynamic receiver, but does not exploit it.
• 1875: Hungarian Tivadar Puskas (the inventor of telephone exchange) arrived in the USA.
• April 6, 1875: Bell's U.S. Patent 161,739 "Transmitters and Receivers for Electric Telegraphs" is granted. This uses multiple vibrating steel reeds in make-break circuits, and the concept of multiplexed frequencies.
• January 20, 1876: Bell signs and notarizes his patent application for the telephone.
• February 11, 1876: Elisha Gray designs a liquid transmitter for use with a telephone, but does not build one.
• March 7, 1876: Bell's U.S. patent No. 174,465 for the telephone is granted.
• March 10, 1876: Bell transmits the sentence: "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" using a liquid transmitter and an electromagnetic receiver.
• January 30, 1877: Bell's U.S. patent No. 186,787 is granted for an electromagnetic telephone using permanent magnets, iron diaphragms, and a call bell.
• April 27, 1877: Edison files for a patent on a carbon (graphite) transmitter. Patent No. 474,230 was granted on May 3, 1892, after a 15-year delay because of litigation. Edison was granted patent No. 222,390 for a carbon granules transmitter in 1879.
• 1877: First long-distance telephone line.
• 1915: First U.S. coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call, ceremoniously inaugurated by A.G. Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas Augustus Watson in San Francisco, California.

Looking at this timeline I can't help but feel that it is Robert Hooke who should be credited with how we came to have the modern phones we use today and not Alexander Graham Bell as if it were not for Robert Hooke inventing the string telephone in 1667 then Alexander Graham Bell may not have been awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876.

I also found, on Wikipedia, a timeline of the telephone, which you can find here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone - It shows from 1884 right up to 2010 and tells of the first phone to the iPhone.

The following images show how the look of the phone changed from the original till now:


This phone is similar to one I remember from my own childhood as it was on the wall of a house we lived in when my dad was a dam keeper and he use to use it to ring through to the power station.

 And who wouldn't remember this phone?

The phone most of us have in our house holds today if we are still use a landline phone.

And just for fun, the following image is one that has been on Facebook showing a Cellular family potraiat, of a few generations:

Car Assembly Lines

The car assembly line was developed by Ford Motor Company between 1908 and 1915. It made assembly lines famous in the following decade through the social ramifications of mass production, such as the affordability of the Ford Model T and the introduction of high wages for Ford workers.



Henry Ford was the first to master the moving assembly line and was able to improve other aspects of industry by doing so (such as reducing labor hours required to produce a single vehicle, and increased production numbers and parts).

After watching both of the following video links: -
Ford Model T - which shows the old assembly line for making cars.
and New BMW 5 Series Sedan - which shows a modern version of a car assembly line.
I couldn't help but notice that the second one (the BMW assembly line) was missing people. The car assembly line was run by machines, whereas the old Ford assembly line showed people assembling the new cars from start to finish. This shows how much technology has changed how people run their factories. They are able to rely on machine power rather than people power, which is probably the more cost effective and reliable way to run a factory.

Printing Press

 The printing press is a machine that transfers lettering or images by contact with various forms of inked surface onto paper or similar material fed into it in various ways. It is used for printing many copies of a text on paper.



The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenburg around 1440 and became widely regarded as the most influential events in the second millennium as it changed the way people conceive and describe the world they live in. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledged-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
The printing press allowed for mass production of books which had previously been done by hand.

To think how far we have come since then. We now have technology like the kindle, which is fast becoming the most popular way to read books and instaed of doing research, at the library, by reading through books and encyclopedias, we just turn on the computer and explore the web to find all information we need.

What will someone come up with next?

Robots

Robots have definately come a long way since Automaton, which could draw 4 pictures and write 3 poems (One in English and two in French), was built around the 1800's by Henri Maillardet.



I wanted to see if I could find the latest robot to be created, to compare it with Automaton, so I wrote in google "the newest robot" and got 40,300,000 results!
There seems to be a wide variety of robots being created from robotic birds, snakes and fish to the AIBO robot which plays with cats and Aldebaran Robotics' Nao which uses senses and picks objects up off floors.
There are robots which look like robots but there are also robots, being made, which are very human like.
I came across a website Robots.net which has an article about researchers at Osaka University who are making a life like robot of a 1-2 year old child, which will be used to study of human social development that can't otherwise be documented from the perspective of the child by eliciting natural responses from human caregivers.
Robots are being used and designed for many different purposes from being made for pure entertainment to be being made to be useful. For example, to study human behaviour like the robot I mentioned above and the ones being created to help armies carry weapons.
With looking at and reading about, all the things robots are capable of doing, are we really that far away from creating the likes of Bicentennial Man?

Rapidly Changing Technology

Sinclair C5


The Sinclair C5, a battery assisted vehicle, was launched in the UK on January 10th, 1985. It had a top speed of 15mph and could be driven without a drivers licence.
By looking around on the web I found the original advertisement for the Sinclair C5.

Why wasn't the Sinclair C5 successful?

There were a number of reasons why the Sinclair C5 did not succeed.
The first being the bad press it received the launching disaster as they held it in the middle of winter and the body of the Sinclair C5 skidded on the snow.
Another reason being design problems. The battery on lasted a short time in the winter, the driver was exposed to the weather,  lack of seat-to-pedal adjustment, lack of gears, short pedal cranks, and that it was unsuitable for any type of hill, all meant that the Sinclair C5 was impracticable.

Maybe it would have been more successful if it was launched in the summertime?
Maybe it would have been more successful if the ads for it had been more fun like the ones for Segway and Skyrunner/Jump Stilts?

Skyrunner/Jump Stilts etc



Skyrunner, or Jump Stilts, has many different names depending on the company making them, which really shows how popular they actually are.
They are basically spring loaded stilts which give you the ability to jump approximately 2 metres high and run up to 32km/h.
It has also been used for extreme jumping, running and acrobatics is known as 'Bocking' or 'PowerBocking'.
This became popular because it looks like fun. The You Tube clip we were given to look at definately made it look appealing and all the other ones I also looked at looked fun as well.

Segway



The Segway is a two wheeled  self-balancing battery powered electric vehicle and can drive up to 20.1 km/h. It has computers and motors in the base of the device to keep it upright when powered on with balancing enabled. A user can command the Segway to go forward by shifting their weight forward on the platform, and backward by shifting their weight backward. To turn, the user manipulates a control on the handlebar left or right.
When trying to find information on the Segway 2i & X2 I came across alot of links to where I could go to buy one. I wanted to find press releases to get an idea on how popular they actually were as I remember when the first Segway PT was launched but then I don't remember seeing much about them until the Segway tycoon,Jimi Heselden, died while riding one. But it seems, in America they are hugely popular and by watching the You Tube clip given to us to watch, the off road version look like fun.

All three of these technologies I have discussed must be of ongoing thought to many as there are many different versions to be found on all of them and I am sure there will be many more, improved versions in the making and to come.

Weekend Thinking

I have just looked at the links our tutor, John Green, has sent to us to think on over the weekend.
Some of the stuff people design and create is really amazing.
I really loved what Regina Dugan asks "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" (BBC)(Sorry still do not have the hang of referencing!)
The answer to that question would be a lot!
I know I would do a lot more if I knew I could not fail. I think even to have the confidence in doing something knowing you could not fail would be a great thing to have.
So what would you do?




(BBC, Future, TED quotes,(June 2nd, 2012) Retrieved July 7th, 2012, from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120528-mach-20-gliders-and-tiny-drones)