XDA III WISHLIST

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Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
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I purchased the original O2 XDA as soon as it was released and some of my wishlist has been fulfilled by HTC with the XDA II. With MSN Messenger, Outlook and Pocket Word I found that there was little need for a laptop and use of my desktop also reduced... equally there are numerous reasons why I am glad to find some dedicated XDA developers...

Wishlist for XDA III starts with:

1) UMTS... 3 should contract HTC to do this as soon as a dual tranciever becomes small enough, the XDA would make a great video phone platform and would give 3 the best PDA phone on the market. I would immediately choose 3 over 02 (or any non-3G operator) if this were the case... however O2 wins at the moment as GSM/GPRS are ample for email and IM.

2) Video out (so I can hook it up to eyewear or an external screen) my next goal when I upgrade to the XDA II. Also... it should be video out at higher resolutions such as 640x480 enough for XDA III and ideally later to 800x600 ++ etc... :) and why not ask for firewire NVidia style graphics processing, a few gigs of RAM and a Lenslet optical DSP too while on my long term wishlist!

[okay update is scrap the Lenslet Optical DSP - it turned out to be a TI DLP essentially] - And guys I like the new look but you have squished some of the message topics so where does this belong - Hacking it isn't quite right - I'm talking rebuilding it, I only got one reply this month and it wasn't really relevant

[Actually scrap PDAs altogether... with eyewear (and a wearable PC) looking at a piece of Augmented Reality (AR) paper and holding an e-pen is going to be better than anything a PDA can ever offer (sorry HTC) e.g. 24 bit colour with 3D graphs and images that rise out of the page on a full A4/Letter sized PDA that folds up and fits in your pocket and cost $5 for 500 sheets. No contest]

Anyone feel free to send on the XDA III ideas to HTC though... the glasses may be many years away :-(

3) The usual form-factor miniturization requirements... HTC have done well to get slightly smaller with the antenna and still pack so much more punch. Equally though when this device's width and height can be miniturised to approach the screen size it won't have any trouble competing in the regular handset market (and should clean up [okay I take that back too] - so this should be a key goal). Actually Microsoft should simply dump Stinger and put the money into R&D at HTC and its component suppliers to get the components and the XDA smaller quickly.

4) A flip up phone numeric/alpha keypad that covers 80% of the screen while in phone mode showing just phone status and number dialed on the screen *and* that then flips back about 180 degrees and perhaps folds out left and right to reveal a good qwerty keypad on its reverse... this would be most useful for speed/finger dialing in the numeric mode (which is impractical/slow on the original XDA) and also is necessary for texting with SMS and on MSN Messenger (something I think the device will increasingly be used for by corporate users now that Microsoft has released its real time communications server products)

This keypad should also fold fully back another 180 degrees into the back of the XDA III and automatically disable the keys in this configuration so the device can still function as a normal pen based PDA without anything activating or getting in the way. Would need some re-engineering to work with the current location of the ports and MMC slot etc... and may need to fold left or right etc... instead of up/down but I will leave that up to the HTC engineers to work out. I am sure it can be done and other phones are already doing at least part of this function. Also may need to create a special TFT that allows partial back-light to save power when in 'phone' use mode and the rest of the screen is covered and not in use (or maybe not?... expect it will depend on battery useage/production cost vs benefit user scenarios and testing - again over to you HTC).

5) Ability to replace the face-plate covers to style the device would be good but ideally will be best done when the form-factor reaches a stable size if want to make a recurring consumer market/revenue from them as Nokia does... so may be best to leave this one to XDA IV or V. (I came up with a way to prevent 3rd parties from creating unlicensed face-plates and make them much more valuable but that is another story and best left out of the wishlist at the moment for IPR/legal reasons).

6) A thumb control panel on the side of the device that is interchangeable left or right to cater for left-handed/right-handed 'one-hand' operation. This is something Sony has done relatively well with their jog-dial on phones which I understand they hold a patent on... it serves the same function as the wheel on a standard Microsoft intelli-mouse (spelling?). However most other manufacturers seem to have missed that a wheel is not optimal for a thumb to move and a four way tilt-switch (sort of like a better Toshiba laptop pointer) with the appropriate software controls to handle 'acceleration' through a list would work equally as well as a wheel... best shown diagramatically (hoping font is fixed width - ok ignore dots as the message board has removed spaces and I have dinner waiting so aren't going to bother putting nbsp HTML tags in):

Handset (e.g. XDA III) as seen profile from the right hand side standing vertically (e.g. screen to the left):

...........................Scroll UP list
...................................../\
Back/Cancel/Left........< X >...........Right/Forward
.....................................\/
.........................Scroll DOWN list

X - marks the Activate/Call/Fire key (e.g. push in/down)

Ugly but makes sense hopefully.

(controls would flip when the attachment was slid/plugged in on the lefthand side for left handed use)...

(Also thinking that using the two sides of the XDA to slide different control panels in would achieve what the iPaq tried to do but which was too bulky with the 'sleeve'. E.g. someone might want to put a thumb-print reader on it etc... actually that should just go as standard where the X button is above!!! That should give HTC some fun!)

The side-panel 'pointer' idea above is a carry-on invention from a controller I came up with back on the Amiga 500 which I called a Turtle (it simply combined a tilting shell - the joystick - on top of a mouse. It was more to stop having to change plugs at the back of the Amiga than for any other reason back then but I realised later it would have allowed the same control as an intelli-mouse (if Workbench had had the software controls built in...) for scrolling based on rocking the shell forward/back/left/right). For a phone the concept is slightly different but I have tested out all usable scenarios on paper with the 4 way tilt-switch plus 'click' push for one-handed phone operation and it would be a very useful addition to the side of the XDA to allow scrolling up and down and moving left and right (particularly when using Pocket Internet Explorer since most websites are not optimised for it yet and the width of the page does not fit on the screen requiring excessive pen based scrolling. Also Back/Foward and Up would allow page/folder browsing controls similar to those on IE and Windows Explorer). Also I think it would be most handy for getting through contact/number lists rapidly when needed in one-hand operation just as the Sony phones allow now. When voice commands are added that will allow the XDA to browse say to a given URL hands free but it will still need a one-handed control button like this as it would be a pain to keep having to say 'scroll down', especially on a bus or in a public place (noting that the current multi-directional controller allows this but is not ideally located for one handed operation).

7) Secure authentication at the hardware level and a smart card reader slot to allow bank and payment cards to be used for direct debts. This would allow something for O2 or 3 that I originally thought of in Cambridge for Rational to reduce their licensing costs... but it works equally well the other way around and involves charging for the use of applications on a per-use or per-feature use basis rather than as a package. This would provide operators with the incentive to pre-load the XDA with the very best software available and to do OTA updates of it to ensure users were always happy... I would like this mostly because it would allow some predictability in the size of the bill at the end of each month, traffic seems like a primitive way to charge and per-useage/feature would be preferrable... 'User Pays' is probably the best term... (equally well if you don't use it because a given piece of software sucks, I don't want to have to pay a software license fee to find this out). In any case it should force the right motives for mobile/PPC software vendors and could create a 'best-of-breed' software product set for the XDA based on the financial incentive of getting the best software for each user so they 'want' to run up a bill (sic). It could be done with both Java based and MS/PPC based products and it is probably best done in partnership with Microsoft at the OS level as I heard they are working on some kind of billing system already and didn't want to work with Geneva on it.

8) Okay, some other simpler ideas... the controller mentioned above could act as a good volume control during a call or during music playback as it is more 'analogue' to touch and control (don't know why Microsoft still hasn't put an analogue twist-style 'digital potentiometer' on the PC keyboard for volume and similar functions) however it is preferrable to the pointer finger located click-button approach on many phones which is distracting to use during a call. I should have mentioned above the four-way thumb-push/tilt thing needs to have a nice 'feel' - it could concievably be a graduated push/pull/tilt control that startes with easy movement (for gross initial control) and then becames harder for precision... I think though it might be too small for force-feedback :lol:

9) So that is a requirement also - XDA III should come pre-loaded with good software... taking the per-usage billing model (and interchangeable or pre-built on multi-coloured face plates) it should be possible to brand the XDA as more than just a silver corporate device. I think it has the potential to be *the* key device leading on to becoming a wearable PC. One version should also be branded as a games machine with all the latest games on it and little features in the game like buying an upgraded weapon could make the operator a tiny fee, another device aimed at corporates (with partnership deals to allow for per-industry/company specialisation) and why not do a household style one for men/women to use in the kitchen to get recipies, as a shopping list to get groceries etc... Thinking about it probably the biggest market would be to do a stripped down version that focuses on MSN Messenger and sell it to school-kids charging 2-5 pence/cents per message... it would save parents from having to buy a separate PC for the kids. Or keep it full-featured and tailor it to school work so that it becomes a must-buy for all kids and gets part funded by the govt... pre-configured with maths/homework programs, teacher contacts and course calendar etc... Could actually be good at University level also since my XDA was the first device I have had that actually did handwriting recognition to the point I could take proper notes. In any case ... 'pre-configured' is a term that should be applied to XDA III.

10) Thinking of uses once it has UMTS... it could become *the* key platform for interactive TV around the house and office... after all interactive TV is valuable only when you want to 'do' something and most of the time I'm doing things I am not in front of a TV set. It would be great for example to have a 'ruggardised' version of the XDA that I could use in the electronics workshop, dad's wood workshop or in the garage... actually the more I think about it Microsoft needs to do something to get integrated video in the Internet Explorer window rather than on Media-player on the Pocket PC... plus with schematics (SVG) etc... so someone can get an engine assembly diagram etc... or more relevant here, I'd like to get an XDA 3D cut-away, schematic and wiring diagram so I can make my own video-out now.

11) That also means the little camera on the XDA II should really next time be mounted on the top of the XDA III with a swivel camera that 'flips' the picture depending on whether it is facing towards the screen and user or away from it towards an object. My Sony Vaio (PC1XA model if I recall correctly) had this and it was a great feature allowing recording of the other participants at meetings or self-videoing for conferencing with Netmeeting.

12) The addition of the camera in this swivel configuration would also allow gesture based controls now that the xScale processors are getting suitably fast enough to allow such recognition tasks - ideally I'd rather have a 3D version of myself sent across on a video conference based on a model that was adapted to match my facial expression but that was looking awake and good no matter what hour it was... :shock:

Bar-code recognition software could be added to the household version when adding up the shopping or equally for the supermarket themselves to do stock and inventory control, etc... That was another thing the Sony Vaio had in a rather primative form... perhaps also the res of the camera would need to go up for XDA III.

Any other ideas for the XDA Wishlist please post them here and we can trade them with HTC in return for them opening up their data on the device...

Also I am interested to hear from anyone who is working with configuring the XDA I or II as a wearable with alternative I/O. Goal: eye-glasses mounted screen and to take the infrared detection used on some video camera eye-pieces (I read about this in popular science in the 80's so the patent must be close to expiring) to detect where the eye is looking and mount this on glasses along with a screen... I have a couple of ideas to act as left/right mouse click and have found some ways to make it practical such as using ultrasonic sound emitters instead of having to have those terrible little buds in my ear all the time for hands-free. These aren't really 'speakers' as the ear lobe will hopefully act as the speaker where the ultrasonic waves hit it and (entirely depending on how small these emitters can me made) I am hoping that they can also be mounted on the stem of the glasses frame just in front or behind the ear (or both to do some 3d fx). As such the emmitters will ideally not need to go inside the ear and will act as the replacement of an earpiece. Ultimately I would like to get this also detecting incoming sound and perhaps working as a selective noise-reduction device by using the processing power of the PPC (oh yeah that was the other thing... better DSP capabilities in the XDA III - using DSPs more may also help reduce the form-factor as Sony did with the Clie).

I've got to go eat dinner, upon re-reading some of the above may need clarification. Please post any replies or queries here... Keen to hear from software/hardware developers who might want to work on wearable I/O based applications that push the current hardware...

[changed to - keen to hear from anyone who wants to build new hardware designs since the current lot a too slow]

Buchanan
 

bamse

Senior Member
Mar 10, 2003
375
2
If only they could skip the STUPID integrated f***ing camera!!! I'll have to stick with the my XDA I until there's someone smart enough to skip the camera as most of the companies I work for will not let me carry a camera on their premises.

Why not fill the space with a few hundred megs of RAM, a wifi and UMTS circuits instead?

/b
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
Detachable Camera

Bamse... good point the camera in the XDA III wishlist *should* be a 'detachable' rotating camera (shipped as standard) and then problem solved. Also someone in another discussion mentioned varying quality of cameras in an unrelated example but equally it would be nice to be able to upgrade to a better quality CCD if one wanted... there must be an aftermarket accessories opportunity here for HTC.

Equally oneday there will need to be some form of corporate over-ride to switch camera functions off as you walk into restricted R&D/IP areas etc... but probably have to wait for more refined CPS technology or some kind of agreed standard to activate/deactivate it before this is feasible. Ok big-brother or not, add in a GPS to my XDA III wishlist and link it up to things like the clock so when I get out of the plane in a different country it automatically (or upon prompt) changes the display clock to match the current zone (keeping me a link to 'home time' as well).
 

gazzaman2k

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2003
605
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38
Leicester
www.gazzasgsm.com
having detachable cameras are crap as you have to plug them in and then take photos meaning you cannot capture a thing in an instant and also it means you might loose it hence it being built in makes life more simple!
 

ntabikha

Senior Member
Aug 9, 2003
193
2
Denver
...ok!! here is what I want...
i want a MICRODRIVE slot!!
if not, somethin with 10+gigs of storage!

lots of music and videos and games u know! :twisted:


oh! and since the DO make a small (pda size) printer via IR.
why not a scanner!? just as small, for business cards, this way i can scan all my contacts, on the go. without having to carry all them business cards with me.

and... maybe a joystick? thru the com port?? for my Arcade Style games :p u know... TURJAH 2, SIBERIAN STRIKE X, RAY MAN :D
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
You got a point also Gazzaman2k - HTC will just have to ship one with and one without... hence request to sell 'Pre-configured' to match different users needs as mentioned above... optimal would be to put it in a different face-plate... you don't lose those too easily...

Still think it should be rotating though and at the top... 3rd and 4th option on rotating would be a folded away position so no one could see the camera and facing 'up' to the top of the device so it could take video of meetings (like the Vaio) if the device was lying flat on the table top.
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
Cheers Ntabikha

> i want a MICRODRIVE slot!! if not, somethin with 10+gigs of storage!

Yes, I was thinking that something that could store video is a must. Last night I was thinking more about the ultimate eye-glasses... two other ideas that have probably already been thought of elsewhere are... camera to go on the bridge of the glasses or could have two for 3D recording with one on each side of the rims. Also could have stereo mic setup in the same way... but key really is to then be able to store a whole day of events so 10gigs plus is needed and a really good DSP geared to towards realtime AV compression (see Lenslet for the ultimate DSP - it needs miniturisation but doesn't everything).

[Change - Lenslet Optical DSP (www.lenslet.com) is actually not ultimate but they still have a good idea and optical DSPs will be good eventually. However the current implementation is really dependent on Texus Instruments technology. If Lenslet focused on building the inverse chip to the DLP - e.g. a DLD or Digital Light Detector of the same scale as the DLP then that would give them a sustainable market... to do this the energy of the reflected laser could be used to charge a small plate coupled to the silicon (e.g. activate one transistor) and then have a digitally controlled 'earth' (a second transistor) to clear the result at high 'clock speeds' (their terminology not mine - but idea is 'synchronization with the laser array' to allow energy reduction to avoid unwanted activations). With the DLP as the reflector (the digitally controlled 'lens' in their diagram), a DLD and smaller laser arrays a large array Digital Optical DSP will be feasible (and Lenslet will have something long lasting to sell)]

> lots of music and videos and games u know!

There is a really elegant solution for delivering this but at the moment it is being badly (and illegally) implemented and I am not going to advertise the guys who are doing it. Needless to say it is still cheaper to ship 10 gigabytes of data around the world with a postage stamp than through any wireless network.

> oh! and since the DO make a small (pda size) printer via IR.
> why not a scanner!? just as small, for business cards, this way i can scan all my contacts, on the go. without having to carry all them business cards with me.

Or combine the idea Ntabikha... make a miny inkjet and scan head that works as the user rolls the device across a piece of paper :D Nah... actually I can see the smudges already!

[Got the ultimate fix to this - no need for a flat scan head again]

> and... maybe a joystick? thru the com port?? for my Arcade Style games

USB drivers for games... will probably need standardizing by MS... you could just use a standard USB joystick then (pending standard slot configurations)... However I would rather have a data-glove and head orientation 8) I will need to find space now for where to put a gyro on my glasses.

[removed the tilt switches - gyro can easily be configured to do same function digitally]

Cheers
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
Ntabikha - just thought... if the CCD is good enough on the camera you don't need a scanner to capture your business card information... OCR off a bitmap image of the card might do it.
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
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0
> yea, but is there OCR for pda??

Someone is bound to be working on it somewhere... just checked Omnipage (now scansoft) they show mobile text-to-speech etc... so they are bound to port Omnipage eventually... perhaps if they aren't onto it yet then someone has just won themselves a job at Scansoft!... guess the main thing preventing it so far is that up until the XDA II the RAM and processor requirements were possibly limiting factors... although omnipage ran fine on a 486 DXII 66 so???
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
A few more thoughts for the XDA III+ Wishlist...

i) Improvement of pen digitiser over original XDA... pressure sensitivity to allow Fractal Painter type drawing.

ii) Again not yet sure what the XDA II has as a belt attachment clip but the XDA I case I got was much too bulky... the good part was the clip that was quick release but secure the rest of the time. So less bulk (may have already been solved).

[found a really good way to mount wearables that is comfortable and ideal for the centralisation of processing 'on the body' - The XDA and all other formfactors I've seen are way off base]

iii) I mentioned video out but better I/O all round is going to be the key to this becoming a good wearable [sic].

On the subject or wearables I have been trying to envisage life once 'augmented reality' is possible through having an inline screen on my glasses. Essentially a walkman/iPod is already augmented reality in the audio senses however I think this whole field is going to be able to be moved forward much further and could create a whole range of jobs for many web/tech workers who are currently feeling the pain after the dot.com bubble.

Firstly I was in the kitchen and imagined the information that could be made available when doing cooking or cleaning tasks... if the cameras had detection of other spectrums beyond that of our eye we could perhaps view where the bench needed cleaning most or when pots can detect the properties of food reporting things like 'too sweet' - 'just right' etc... there is also the standard stuff like bringing up iTV video of recipies being prepared and also I realised warning lights and those sort of things become less necessary on devices since if one looked at the kettle it could simply show a status with the words 'on' or 'hot' or 'off' etc... above it. Of course this would either need the recognition of the kettle or some way to know where the kettle was in relation to the user but the possibilities are there and potentially [definitely] life improving.

I also remembered where I had seen the camera on the bridge of the glasses before... it was in Mission Impossible when Ethan Hawke showed that Jim was still alive in the train and at some time earlier in the movie was used too [have moved to stereo - bridge now houses other things]. I was thinking of uses for this sort of eyewear too when I was on a bushwalk yesterday and climbed up onto a cliff overlooking the interior of the gorge but still within it. I really wanted to know what was behind the next hill and thought that with digital terrain modelling if I had been able to see an overlay semi-tranparent picture (augmented reality) of the view 'through' the hill it would have made my sight-seeing all the more enjoyable. I also thought as it was dense bush climbing up the hill that it would be cool to have the gyro/compass on the headset provide bearing data across the top of the virtual screen (of course GPS could do the same but perhaps not perfectly in real-time) and track markers could also pop up [found out these are not really necessary] when and where the path changed. It would be neat also for recognising features as one passed through the geography, telling the history of the place in the period one wanted to know about or providing details of the local amenities upon demand/command. In any case the need for the eyewear is enormous and would render most screens obsolete... or provide a screen wherever one wants one like wherever a picture frame is a different picture could be provided for each viewer, etc... (Bill Gates ought to like this because he owns the digital rights to many pieces of art - give me a call Bill :) ).

I also thought that the eyewear with knowledge of its location removes the need for holographic projection since if several people were looking at the same 'virtual object' through their eyewear then it could appear as solid as the projection onto the eye allows [came up with a great way to 'turn night into day and day into night' in effect].

So summary is I think augmented reality is going to be far more entertaining than virtual reality (sort of like that bit in The Beach were Leonardo is bounding through the forest in computer game mode) and the cost/benefit of eyewear is going to save the wasted production of millions of screens and create massive revenue potential for tourism and interactive TV applications that will have a real impact on quality of experience and quality of life. The educational possibilities are fantastic too... a child could learn three+ languages by having their portable recognise objects and teach them the name for it in each language etc...

[gone way beyond the above examples now - found out a health reason for AR too, kids under about 8 get alterations in their visual perceptive abilities if they spend too long in total VR emersion. AR solves this]

Two other things... if Microsoft doesn't move in this direction quickly and tries to slow down the release of such technology (as has been their strategy or default action with the release of the PC OS in some cases) then I don't mind if it is done on Linux... as long as it gets done. Any Linux or MS guys feel free to comment here too [no one has offered any comments in this area - I have moved on to find (better) mass parallel hardware, optics is not going to cut it in the next 5 years either].

Finally I think perhaps HTC could hold the key to moving these devices forward faster, just as Sony has improved the capabilities and usability of PalmOS... there is no point waiting for new OS releases if you can bundle other software onto a device with Telecom operators and move it forward faster... it will have to happen anyway because charging for traffic isn't going to be viable for long. [clarification - that was in reference to PDAs as becoming handsets - generally now thinking that silicon can't cut it for the uses I am now looking at with the glasses - that is not to say that handsets don't have a few years yet but the technology is dog slow and being painfully slowly released - Take the Mobile Explorer browser for example in WinCE, the programmable API version of this is clearly intended not to allow the same functionality as the Microsoft IE application itself on the PocketPC (I can see the devious thinking of separating it). This is just plain infuriating because if MS wasn't deliberately slowing down the development of the browser it could be modified to be the universal window on a PocketPC for any app - e.g integration with video overlays/3D/SVG etc, that's all a browser is, a window with greater API functionality - as such this restriction has forced me off the whole platform (early)... e.g. other factors such as output resolution/speed/memory are also looming]
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
Another thought just reviewing the posts above... there must be a massive incentive for 3G mobile operators in getting the eyewear working as well. And as regards the storage of video then if it was being transmitted from the glasses camera to the XDA and then to a 'video storage account' at the 3G operator then they will be making much more money than today and the Pocket PC won't need a massive harddrive... those 3G license costs may then well have been worth it. If the CCD on the glasses is good enough it would also provide the potential for billions of 'Kodak Moments' and solve the issue of the guy above who said he likes to just point and click (and spontaneous photos are often the best in my experience). It still leaves the problem of how to shut the camera off in sensitive environments in companies or like in Greece where you can't photograph airports and military bases but location based 'permission' (usually on in most places) would solve this... it could bring a whole new meaning to the words 'pay-per-view'.

Any 3G people please comment also... propose doing the eyewear as 'open hardware' (like open source but with hardware). Contributions welcomed. [okay stuff 3G, no responses. I have found a much faster delivery mechanism in any case with no need for large scale base stations. Rupert Murdoch give me a call you will love this one :) ]

Where are the super techs on the photo at the front of this site (XDA electronics gurus) ???... please reply with thoughts and technical problems to achieving the above [that was in relation to original video out on the XDA - forget it]. I have a way to get a really high-res screen on the glasses but again will require miniturisation... am thinking that overall timeframe before these become mainstream cost effective is in the order of 10 years [7 years] but with HTC and 3G operator backing it could happen sooner as the cost of the device can be subsidised in return for long-term account sign-up. I am ready to sign up for 3G with this now... [if you want something done... you know the rest] there will be many others! Handsets will still be necessary [actually they aren't - people will be able to pick up a virtual phone from infront of them, no handset required] although under this model they will become 'part' of an 'on body network' [changed] (and perhaps it will be beneficial to move the high energy transmitters away from the head and down to the hip etc...) [solved].

Again thoughts called for on this and most welcome... [still are - please post here]
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
One more thing...

Upon reflection last night I also thought the ultrasonics on the ear piece mentioned at top are more likely going to have to come out over the ear with a small 'sub-stem' off the stem of the glasses but this will also help pre-detection of the sound to do noise cancelling (I had been thinking some kind of off-spectrum 'optical pre-detection' but it may not be feasible and may be possible and cheaper to achieve with a mic. Depending of course if the cancelling can be done with a DSP and still beat the sound to the ear lobe via the ultrasonic waves to achieve a cancellation on the ear skin itself [okay this is the way - it will work but serious miniturization of the emitters is required]). The theory is good but I still haven't found who is building the emitters [found] or how large they are [massive] and it will largely depend on that if the whole idea is feasible or not... otherwise the concept seems ok and would be much better than current bud earphones. If the 'sub-stem' and frames of the glasses were flexible it would also allow someone to have their head on the pillow and watch a movie/listen to music. Currently my bud-earphones cause my ear to get really sore when using my walkman to listen to the radio at night which is my favorite time as usually there are less ads (I really hate ads [clarification for Rupert :) - I hate pop up ads - I don't mind signage, packaging or sponsorship (especially in the arts) - not so sure about sponsorship in education but the jury is still out]

[Key factor is going to be safety - there is a cute ad on TV in NZ at the moment which I think was inspired by a music video I saw years ago... in the latter a milk carton went wandering around, in the ad a little yoghurt container greets the person when they come home and it is really cute... such things would be fine on the glasses where they don't make people trip up by appearing to scuttle under their feet but Saatchi and Saatchi or the real Saatchi's are going to love this medium better than TV - I'm imagining everything augmented now and traffic safety can be improved and all sorts of beneficial things - there will never be any need for interactive TV as it was envisaged in the late '80s early '90s and all this hype about WebServices is really a matter of just hooking up an improved Yellow/White Pages - or Universal Directory - and Digital Library to the glasses - of course you can read the output in a book and jump instantly to the right page).
 

rviloria

New member
Dec 19, 2003
1
0
Zaurus Competitor

Microsoft needs a competitor for the latest clamshell zaurus PDA as a realistic goal. Can someone argue for or against an XDA III that is basically a Zaurus running Windows 2003 with java and camera and GSM. Can anyone enlighten me on whats wrong with the latest zaurus and how MS can improve on that design? Thanks! :lol:
 

Ben Buchanan

Member
Nov 12, 2003
10
0
Lack of replies and needs a dedicated site

:x :idea: Moving sites... NE1 interested search Google :shock:

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Buchanan
 

mattwilkinson

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2003
60
0
UK
www.freefallsoftware.co.uk
bamse said:
If only they could skip the STUPID integrated f***ing camera!!! I'll have to stick with the my XDA I until there's someone smart enough to skip the camera as most of the companies I work for will not let me carry a camera on their premises.

Why not fill the space with a few hundred megs of RAM, a wifi and UMTS circuits instead?

/b

I thought I read somewhere that the xda 2 camera is removable - is this true?
 

Rudegar

Retired Moderator
Jul 16, 2003
12,494
53
48
DK
the motorola symbian 3g device have 2 wab one to use for video calls and one on the other side to take snaps with

would asume since cams are becomming more and more std
soon they'll be on milk!
it's not too expensive to put 2 in

what about 5.1 surround support! in xda3 ;)