Consumer Gadgets 2003

Praise for Consumer Gadgets

“This book is perfect for the technologically curious—those wanting to know about the technology behind the thingswe call gadgets. As a technologist specializing in telematics, Iwas delighted reading about the technology behind other con-sumer gadgets.”

—Dave Acton, Director, Global Telematics Portfolio Plan-ning, General Motors Corporation

“...Nick Evans covers a lot of technical subject matter andat the same time makes it understandable for the everydayconsumer. It is a great ‘how-to’ resource for every house-hold….”

—Jerry Grossman, Vice President, Marketing ConsumerDigital Products & Compact Cameras, Nikon, Inc.

“Nick Evans’ insights into current and future applicationsof technology are second to none. With the visibility he hasinto the uses of leading-edge technology among the biggest andbrightest corporate technologists, he has built up an impres-sive level of knowledge and expertise. It is this experience andinsight that lends great credibility to his latest work on some ofthe most compelling technology advancements for consumers.This book is authoritative and comprehensive, but it featuresan appropriate level of skepticism to prevent consumers fromrushing headlong into purchasing the latest gadgets withoutunderstanding some of the challenges that come with them.”

—Tom Smith, Editor, CMP Media, InternetWeek.com

“Many gadgets can complicate life with technology fortechnology’s sake. But some can add real value, simplicity, andease of use. Nick Evans’ new book points out some of today’sand tomorrow’s winners in this must-have, benefit-orientedread for the gadget-inclined.”

—Carl James Yankowski, Former President of Sony Elec-tronics & CEO of Palm, Inc.

Consumer Gadgets50 Ways to Have Fun and Simplify Your Life with

Today’s Technology . . . and Tomorrow’s

In an increasingly competitive world, it is qualityof thinking that gives an edge—an idea that opens newdoors, a technique that solves a problem, or an insight

that simply helps make sense of it all.

We work with leading authors in the various arenasof business and finance to bring cutting-edge thinking

and best learning practice to a global market.

It is our goal to create world-class print publications and electronic products that give readers

knowledge and understanding which can then beapplied, whether studying or at work.

To find out more about our businessproducts, you can visit us at www.ft-ph.com

Consumer Gadgets50 Ways to Have Fun and Simplify Your Life with

Today’s Technology . . . and Tomorrow’s

Nicholas D. Evans

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data

A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book can be obtained from the Library of Congress.

Editorial/production supervision: Nicholas RadhuberCover design director: Jerry VottaCover design: Talar BoorujyInterior design: Meg VanArsdaleManufacturing buyer: Alexis Heydt-LongExecutive editor: Jim BoydEditorial assistant: Linda RamagnanoMarketing manager: Laura Bulcher

© 2003 Pearson Education, Inc.Publishing as Financial Times Prentice HallUpper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Business and TechnologySarv Devaraj and Rajiv Kohli

The IT Payoff: Measuring the Business Value of Information Technology InvestmentsNicholas D. Evans

Business Agility: Strategies for Gaining Competitive Advantage through Mobile Business Solutions

Nicholas D. EvansBusiness Innovation and Disruptive Technology: Harnessing the Power of Breakthrough Technology…for Competitive Advantage

Nicholas D. EvansConsumer Gadgets: 50 Ways to Have Fun and Simplify Your Life with Today's Technology…and Tomorrow’s

Faisal HoqueThe Alignment Effect: How to Get Real Business Value Out of Technology

Thomas Kern, Mary Cecelia Lacity, and Leslie P. WillcocksNetsourcing: Renting Business Applications and Services Over a Network

EcommerceDale Neef

E-procurement: From Strategy to Implementation

EconomicsDavid Dranove

What’s Your Life Worth? Health Care Rationing…Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Decides?

David R. HendersonThe Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey

Jonathan WightSaving Adam Smith: A Tale of Wealth, Transformation, and Virtue

EntrepreneurshipOren Fuerst and Uri Geiger

From Concept to Wall StreetDavid Gladstone and Laura Gladstone

Venture Capital Handbook: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Venture Capital, Revised and Updated

Erica Orloff and Kathy Levinson, Ph.D.The 60-Second Commute: A Guide to Your 24/7 Home Office Life

Jeff Saperstein and Daniel RouachCreating Regional Wealth in the Innovation Economy: Models, Perspectives, and Best Practices

FinanceAswath Damodaran

The Dark Side of Valuation: Valuing Old Tech, New Tech, and New Economy Companies

Kenneth R. Ferris and Barbara S. Pécherot PetittValuation: Avoiding the Winner’s Curse

International BusinessFernando Robles, Françoise Simon, and Jerry Haar

Winning Strategies for the New Latin Markets

InvestmentsHarry Domash

Fire Your Stock Analyst! Analyzing Stocks on Your OwnPhilip Jenks and Stephen Eckett, Editors

The Global-Investor Book of Investing Rules: Invaluable Advice from 150 Master Investors

Charles P. JonesMutual Funds: Your Money, Your Choice. Take Control Now and Build Wealth Wisely

D. Quinn MillsBuy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble

John Nofsinger and Kenneth KimInfectious Greed: Restoring Confidence in America’s Companies

John R. NofsingerInvestment Blunders (of the Rich and Famous)…And What You Can Learn from Them

John R. NofsingerInvestment Madness: How Psychology Affects Your Investing…And What to Do About It

LeadershipJim Despain and Jane Bodman Converse

And Dignity for All: Unlocking Greatness through Values-Based LeadershipMarshall Goldsmith, Vijay Govindarajan, Beverly Kaye, and Albert A. Vicere

The Many Facets of Leadership Frederick C. Militello, Jr., and Michael D. Schwalberg

Leverage Competencies: What Financial Executives Need to LeadEric G. Stephan and Wayne R. Pace

Powerful Leadership: How to Unleash the Potential in Others and Simplify Your Own Life

ManagementDr. Judith M. Bardwick

Seeking the Calm in the Storm: Managing Chaos in Your Business LifeJ. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen

Leading Strategic Change: Breaking Through the Brain BarrierWilliam C. Byham, Audrey B. Smith, and Matthew J. Paese

Grow Your Own Leaders: How to Identify, Develop, and Retain Leadership TalentDavid M. Carter and Darren Rovell

On the Ball: What You Can Learn About Business from Sports LeadersSubir Chowdhury

Organization 21C: Someday All Organizations Will Lead this WaySubir Chowdhury

The Talent Era: Achieving a High Return on TalentJames W. Cortada

Making the Information Society: Experience, Consequences, and PossibilitiesRoss Dawson

Living Networks: Leading Your Company, Customers, and Partners in the Hyper-connected Economy

Robert B. Handfield, Ph.d, and Ernest L. NicholsSupply Chain Redesign: Transforming Supply Chains into Integrated Value Systems

Harvey A. HornsteinThe Haves and the Have Nots: The Abuse of Power and Privilege in the Workplace…and How to Control It

Robin MillerThe Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits

Fergus O’ConnellThe Competitive Advantage of Common Sense: Using the Power You Already Have

Richard W. Paul and Linda ElderCritical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life

Matthew Serbin Pittinsky, EditorThe Wired Tower: Perspectives on the Impact of the Internet on Higher Education

W. Alan Randolph and Barry Z. PosnerCheckered Flag Projects: 10 Rules for Creating and Managing Projects that Win, Second Edition

Stephen P. RobbinsThe Truth About Managing People…And Nothing but the Truth

Ronald Snee and Roger HoerlLeading Six Sigma: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on Experience with GE and Other Six Sigma Companies

Jerry WeissmanPresenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story

MarketingMichael Basch

CustomerCulture: How FedEx and Other Great Companies Put the Customer First Every Day

Deirdre BreakenridgeCyberbranding: Brand Building in the Digital Economy

Jonathan Cagan and Craig M. VogelCreating Breakthrough Products: Innovation from Product Planning to Program Approval

James W. Cortada21st Century Business: Managing and Working in the New Digital Economy

Al Lieberman, with Patricia EsgateThe Entertainment Marketing Revolution: Bringing the Moguls, the Media, and the Magic to the World

Tom OsentonCustomer Share Marketing: How the World’s Great Marketers Unlock Profits from Customer Loyalty

Yoram J. Wind and Vijay Mahajan, with Robert GuntherConvergence Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the New Hybrid Consumer

Public RelationsGerald R. Baron

Now Is Too Late: Survival in an Era of Instant NewsDeirdre Breakenridge and Thomas J. DeLoughry

The New PR Toolkit: Strategies for Successful Media Relations

StrategyThomas L. Barton, William G. Shenkir, and Paul L. Walker

Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off: How Leading Companies Implement Risk Management

Henry A. Davis and William W. SihlerFinancial Turnarounds: Preserving Enterprise Value

xi

Contents

Preface xviiAcknowledgments xxi

Part I Today’s Technology 1

1 Getting High-Speed Connections: Broadband Internet 4

2 Getting Wireless Connections: Wireless Local Area Networking 8

3 Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): Toshiba Pocket PC 13

4 Combining Mobile Phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): Smartphones 18

5 Personalizing Your Cell Phone: Ring Tones and Images 23

xii Consumer Gadgets

6 Keeping One Phone Number across the Globe: World Phones 27

7 Single Log-In and Profiles: Microsoft .NET Passport and the Liberty Alliance 32

8 Increasing Your Security: Fingerprint Readers and Facial Recognition 37

9 Remote-Control Software for Your PC: GoToMyPC 41

10 Using Voice-Activated Services: PCS Voice Command from Sprint 46

11 Communicating via Instant Messaging: Nokia Communicator 50

12 Receiving Alerts and Notifications: Microsoft .NET Alerts 55

13 Using Voice over the Internet: Groove Networks 59

14 Video Conferencing with Your PC: WebEx 63

15 In-Car Safety and Security: OnStar 68

Contents xiii

16 In-Car Information and Entertainment: OnStar and MobileAria 73

17 Finding Your Way: Magellan Meridian GPS Receivers 77

18 Tracking the Kids: Wherify GPS Personal Locator 81

19 Taking Digital Photos: Nikon Coolpix 86

20 Viewing Digital Photos: Microsoft TV Photo Viewer 92

21 Filming with Digital Video 96

22 Camera Phones: Sprint PCS Vision 100

23 Sharing Images, Audio, and Video over the Web: Kazaa 105

24 Making Your Own Digital Recordings: CD and DVD Recorders 109

25 Listening to Digital Music: MP3 Players 113

26 Tuning in to Satellite Radio: XM and Sirius 117

27 Watching Digital Television: HDTV 123

BookFileTOC.fm Page xiii Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:27 PM

xiv Consumer Gadgets

28 Digital Video Recording: TiVo, ReplayTV, and UltimateTV 128

29 Multiplayer Online Gaming: PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox 132

30 Printing from Your Mobile Device: ThinMail and PrintMe Networks 136

31 The Next-Generation Laptop: Tablet PCs 140

32 Simplifying Convenience Payments: ExxonMobil Speedpass 145

33 Securing Internet Shopping: American Express Blue 150

34 Shopping with Your Mobile Phone: Digital Wallets 154

35 Simplifying Shopping with Self-Checkout: NCR FastLane 158

Part II Tomorrow’s Technology 162

36 Connecting Your Home: Internet Home Alliance 164

37 Networking Using the Phone Line: HomePNA 169

Contents xv

38 Networking Using the Electrical System: HomePlug Powerline Alliance 173

39 Using Many Devices with One Connection: Personal Mobile Gateways 177

40 Talking to Your Mobile Device: Spoken Language Understanding 181

41 Using New Visual Interfaces: 3D Desktops 184

42 Artificial Intelligence and Computers that See: Intelligent Messaging 189

43 Digital Pen and Paper 193

44 Using Virtual Tours: Augmented Reality 197

45 Your Own Personal Robot: Honda ASIMO 201

46 Working with Virtual Keyboards: Electronic Perception 206

47 Objects that Communicate: Smart Labels and Electronic Product Codes 210

48 The Personal Transporter: Segway Human Transporter 215

xvi Consumer Gadgets

49 Fuel Cell and Drive-By-Wire Cars: General Motors Hy-wire 219

50 Next-Generation Transportation: The Moller Skycar 223

Appendix: References and Web Sites 227

Index 239

About the Author 250

BookFileTOC.fm Page xvi Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:28 PM

xvii

Preface

espite the rapid rise and fall of the Internet economy, one thingis certain: Today we are seeing more and more tech gadgetsbeing made available to inform us, entertain us, help us com-

municate with one another, and generally assist us in our daily living.

We are experiencing the rise of ubiquitous computing. Computersare becoming embedded in everyday objects, and the personal com-puter is moving from the office into almost every other room in thehouse. Computers are helping us achieve more with our televisions,with our entertainment systems, with our cameras and videos, andwith our personal digital assistants (PDAs). They are becomingembedded in our cars as well as our homes, helping us stay informed,be entertained, or be more productive with work.

A decade or so ago, the only challenge for consumers in the worldof technical gadgets and gizmos was to figure out how to program theVCR, set the date and time on digital watches, or install Microsoft’sWindows on a personal computer. Today, there are gadgets for keep-ing track of the kids, for communicating wirelessly, for navigating in

D

xviii Consumer Gadgets

the car, for shopping without cash or credit cards, for securing Inter-net payments with smartcards, for typing without a physical key-board, for digitally rewinding TV shows, and much more.

Many of these gadgets are so new that most of us don’t evenknow they’re available. We may be masters at some of these tools viaour hobbies, but we’re often unaware of the others, or have becomeslaves to them because of their novelty. Keen photographers knowabout digital cameras and digital video recorders, but do they knowabout voice-enabled PDAs, multimedia messaging or virtual key-boards? Keen music fans know all about MP3 players, but do theyknow about radio frequency identification key tags for making wire-less purchases at convenience stores? Heavy computer users knowabout collaboration over the Internet and about wireless local areanetworks (LANs) but do they know about handheld global position-ing system (GPS) receivers?

This book was written as a way to help address this problem, toexplore the benefits behind some of the new consumer gadgets on themarket and to provide a glimpse of some of the ones to come. Ratherthan a product review or technical discussion, however, the goal ofthe book is simply to explore the merits of some recent innovations ofwhich we may not be aware, but that can help us in our daily livesand activities. The book takes an activity-centered approach to showhow you can have fun and simplify your life by using some of thesenew consumer gadgets.

The basic philosophy of the book, therefore, is to explain whatthe activity is, what the relevant gadget is, and how you can benefitfrom it. I also touch on how the gadget works, but more at an opera-tional or process level with step-by-step instructions rather than at atechnical level. For example, if you want to know how you can keeptrack of the kids, there’s a section in the book on how to do this, whyit may be beneficial to you, what gadgets are available, and where toseek further information.

The book is divided into two major parts. The first part, “Today’sTechnology,” describes consumer gadgets that are commercially avail-able now. These are 35 activities that can help you have fun and sim-plify your life by using new gadgets or by using well-known gadgetsin new ways. The second part, “Tomorrow’s Technology,” describessome consumer gadgets that will appear soon in a store near you.

Preface xix

These are some of the technologies coming out of research labs, or arein prototype stages or in early adoption, that may soon becomeembedded in everyday devices and objects.

Each profile within the book is self-contained, so if you see a topicthat catches your eye, you can jump right to it instead of having toread through the prior topics. If you want to read from cover to cover,however, you’ll find that the book starts out with the essential com-munications capabilities, such as broadband Internet and wirelesslocal area networks, and then works progressively through variousthemes related to digital content, collaboration, and commerce.

There’s a lot of ground covered in the book, and choosing the topfifty activities and their related gadgets and services was a hard task. Ihope that you find value in many of the activities discussed and areable to benefit personally from the glimpse into the advantages andcapabilities that these new solutions can provide. If any one of thesesolutions helps you save time or money, or simply helps you havemore fun, then this book has served its purpose.

xxi

Acknowledgments

I owe a great deal of thanks to the people and products that haveinspired me in the world of consumer gadgets—the executives andmedia relations contacts, some old friends and some new acquaintan-ces, who have expressed interest and enthusiasm for this project andhave provided trial devices for review.

In particular, I’d like to thank (in alphabetical order by company)Michael Merrick and Terry Sullivan (General Motors); May Baccari,Maureen Farley, Eric Horvitz, and Peter Wootton (Microsoft); Caro-line Leigh (NCR); Meredith Gordon and Amy Podurgiel (Nikon);Keith Nowak (Nokia); Carla Vallone (Segway); and Nancy Sherrerand Cindy Voss (Sprint PCS).

I’d like to thank Jim Boyd, Executive Editor at Financial TimesPrentice Hall, for his interest in bringing this idea to fruition and forhis wise advice and support every step of the way. I’d also like to thankTalar Boorujy, Scott Carter, Gail Cocker-Bogusz, Nick Radhuber, andJerry Votta for their great work on the production side.

xxii Consumer Gadgets

Finally, I’d like to thank my wife, Michele, and my sons, Andrewand David, for their patience with me and for allowing me to takefamily time on evenings and weekends in order to put this booktogether. Without your encouragement and support, this book wouldnot have been possible.

Readers who would like to correspond with the author can contact him at [email protected].

Part I

1

Today’s Technology

oday’s technology includes a wealth of products and servicesthat are often even more amazing than some of the gadgets wesee in the movies. These products and services are also readily

accessible to us as consumers, often as close as our nearest electronicsstore or a few clicks on the Internet. Although we are well familiarwith many of these products and services, such as digital cameras,smartphones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), many otherproducts and services are less familiar or are used by just a fraction ofthe population.

Examples of items gaining visibility and strong interest amongconsumers include in-car telematics systems for safety, information,and entertainment; global positioning system (GPS) receivers and per-sonal locators for determining your location or the whereabouts ofyour kids; satellite radio stations providing commercial-free CD-qual-ity programming; high-definition televisions providing high-resolu-tion images free of distortion; digital video recorders providing theability to fast-forward through commercials; multiplayer online

T

2 Today’s Technology

games taking video gaming to the next level; tablet personal comput-ers providing increased mobility and ease-of-use; and various wirelessdevices for more convenient payments while we are on the go.

Part I of this book aims to walk you through the highlights andbenefits of this broad and diverse collection of today’s consumer tech-nology, from the basics of services such as broadband Internet andwireless local area networks, to the wide range of devices and servicesavailable for online collaboration, working with digital content, andconducting electronic commerce in the home, at the office, and evenin your car.

We start off with a look at how to get connected and explain thepros and cons behind broadband Internet and wireless local area net-working for the home or office. For the frequent traveler or mobileprofessional, we look at some of the latest PDAs, smartphones (whichblur the lines between mobile phones and PDAs), and world phones,which allow you to keep one number across the globe.

Next we look at how to secure your connections by usingadvanced techniques such as biometrics and single sign-on, technolo-gies that employ devices such as fingerprint readers, facial recognitionsystems, and services such as Microsoft’s .NET Passport for managingyour online profile. If you need access to a remote computer whenaway from the office or traveling, the discussion on remote-controlsoftware for your PC will be of interest. Other communication-relatedcoverage includes using voice-activated services with your mobilephone, communicating via instant messaging, receiving alerts and noti-fications, using voice over the Internet, and video conferencing withyour PC. In this section, we’ll look at various offerings from compa-nies such as Sprint, Nokia, Microsoft, Groove Networks, and WebEx.

Our section on location-based services includes a look at servicessuch as OnStar from a safety, security, and information and entertain-ment perspective, and also examines the offerings of companies such asThales Navigation and Wherify related to GPS positioning. These GPSdevices allow you to determine your location to within a few meters atany point on the earth. They can also be used to help monitor thewhereabouts of your kids should they become lost or require assistance.

Our look at digital content includes sections on the benefits, usagescenarios, and considerations related to digital photography, digitalvideo, camera phones, peer-to-peer Internet file sharing, making digital

Today’s Technology 3

recordings with CD and DVD recorders, digital music and MP3 play-ers, satellite radio, digital television, digital video recorders, and multi-player online gaming. Some of the companies covered in this sectioninclude Nikon, Microsoft, Sprint, Kazaa, Apple, XM and Sirius Satel-lite Radio, TiVo and Xbox. We also look at how digital content suchas documents and images can be printed and faxed directly from wire-less devices by using services such as ThinMail and PrintMe Networks.

Part I concludes with a look at the new breed of tablet PCs andsome of the electronic commerce mechanisms available to makeonline or physical shopping more convenient. Tablet PCs may one dayreplace the traditional laptop and provide a superset of the laptopfunctionality that we enjoy today. They offer increased ease-of-useand portability, allowing the tablet PC to accompany us while on theroad and in meetings, and to support a wider range of ways to inter-act with our machines by using digital pen and ink. On the electroniccommerce side, we take a look at the ExxonMobil Speedpass, theAmerican Express Blue credit card, various forms of digital walletthat simplify purchases made via your mobile phone, and the self-checkout registers appearing at many of our familiar retailers.

By the end of Part I, it should be clear that today’s technology istransforming how we collaborate, how we capture and exchangeinformation and multimedia content with one another, and how weconduct business and go about our daily lives. The convergence of allthese devices and services is already happening, and you’ll see manyexamples of cameras that are also phones, phones that are also PDAs,entertainment systems that are also computers, and much more. Thislook at the latest in today’s technology will help to prepare you forPart II of the book, which describes some of the even more excitinggadgets to come.

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4

1 Getting High-Speed

Connections: Broadband Internet

vital part of being able to use some of today’s hottest technol-ogies and gadgets is a broadband connection to the Internet.Although getting connected is a somewhat mundane topic, we

start here because it’s a basic requirement for us to get the most out ofthe more sexy gadgets that I profile in the upcoming pages. Having abroadband Internet connection will enable you to communicate andcollaborate more easily with friends and business associates, and sendand receive emails, photographs, music, videos, and other new formsof information with ease.

We also begin here because many of us are still tied to slower dial-up connections and may be looking to evaluate the best options forbroadband service. Three of the most popular forms of broadbandconnection are cable modem, integrated services digital network(ISDN), and digital subscriber line (DSL). With any of these, you getthe benefit of a faster connection plus always-on connectivity to theInternet. The benefit of this always-on connectivity is that there’s no

A

Getting High-Speed Connections: Broadband Internet 5

waiting for dialups to get connected; you simply open your browserand begin accessing the Internet. In terms of access speed, a broad-band connection is generally defined as one that runs at over 200kbps (kilobits per second) in both directions for uploading and down-loading. This is a significant improvement over standard dialup con-nections which go up to only 56 kbps.

How It Works

Cable modem is a popular choice for broadband Internet service. Itruns over the standard coaxial cable that delivers cable television toyour home. The cable modem converts the cable connection from thecable wall outlet to a standard Ethernet connection for your com-puter. Cable modem service is offered by cable providers such asAT&T Broadband and Cox Communications, and has download andupload access speeds of 1–3 megabits per second (Mbps), and 500kbps to 2.5 Mbps, respectively.

DSL is a high-speed Internet service delivered over your existingphone line. It is offered in a variety of packages that have differentservice levels in terms of their downstream (download) and upstream(upload) access speeds. Downstream access speeds, when you pullcontent down to your computer, are typically 384 kbps to 1.5 Mbps.Upstream access speeds, when you post information back up to theInternet, are typically 128 kbps to 768 kbps.

ISDN is a technology older than cable modem or DSL and is typi-cally more expensive. It runs over the standard telephone line and canbe either a dialup connection or always connected. Connection speedsrange from 64 kbps upwards depending upon the number of lines youset up. Typical ISDN connections are either 64 kbps or 128 kbps.Each phone line is able to carry 64 kbps, so to gain 128 kbps, youneed two separate phone lines into your house from your local tele-phone company. To connect your computer to ISDN, you need anISDN router such as the Lucent (Ascend) Pipeline.


Benefits

The general benefits of cable modem, DSL, and ISDN are faster Inter-net access and always-on connection. This can help you be more pro-ductive when accessing the Internet and allow you to downloadstreaming media such as audio and video files. For example, viewingmovie trailers online, which is almost impossible over a dialup con-nection, becomes an easy task over broadband.

One of the specific benefits of DSL is that it uses your regularphone line and splits it into a line for voice and a line for data. So ifyou currently have two telephone lines, one for voice and another fordialup access to the Internet, you may well be able to save money bycanceling one of the lines and setting up DSL service on the other.

Features and Considerations

One of the benefits of cable modem over ISDN and DSL is that youcan often use just one full-service provider such as AT&T Broadband.Prices for cable modem service are typically $40 to $60 per month,which includes a small monthly rental fee for the actual cable modemdevice. You can also buy your own cable modem to eliminate thisadditional rental fee. Cable modems are available at most major high-street electronics retailers.

For ISDN and DSL service, subscribers typically require a phonecompany to provide the telephone line plus an Internet Service Pro-vider (ISP) to provide the Internet connection. These are often twoseparate companies. ISDN in particular can be very expensive becauseof the ISP costs. A dedicated 128 kbps ISDN connection often can be$250 per month.

DSL service, on the other hand, is much more affordable and hasbandwidth superior to ISDN. It is available only in certain areas,however, because homes must be within three cable miles of a partici-pating phone company’s central office. The static Internet Protocol(IP) addresses provided by DSL makes it also suitable for Web sitehosting. The same is true for ISDN connections, but because cable

Getting High-Speed Connections: Broadband Internet 7

modem connections do not use static IP addresses, they cannot beused in this manner. Costs for DSL typically fall in the $60 to $120per month range depending upon the service level you choose.

If cable modem or DSL is not available in your area, there is onemore alternative. Satellite broadband offers one-way or two-wayaccess to the Internet for people in very remote areas. The one-wayservice uses a standard dialup line for the upstream direction and asatellite for the downstream direction. The two-way service uses thesatellite communications for both upstream and downstream. One ofthe limitations of the service is that atmospheric conditions such asheavy rain can interrupt the connection. Access speeds are typically60 kbps upstream and 600 kbps downstream.

Contact Information

Service Providers

AT&T Broadband, www.attbroadband.com

BellSouth, www.bellsouth.com

Earthlink, www.earthlink.com

MSN Broadband, http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/broad-band/default.asp

Verizon, www.verizon.net/

Modem Manufacturers

Lucent (Ascend), www.lucent.com


8

2 Getting Wireless

Connections: Wireless Local Area Networking

nce you’ve set up broadband Internet access for your home oroffice, you may want to add the additional convenience ofwireless connectivity. With a wireless connection you can roam

around from room to room, or even from floor to floor or outside,without being physically tethered to a particular connection point. Ifthis sounds attractive to you, then you’ll want to look into getting awireless local area network (LAN) setup.

What you need for a wireless LAN is basically a wireless card foryour laptop or PDA plus a wireless access point (Figure 2-1). Thewireless card is a small card that plugs into your laptop’s personalcomputer memory card interface adapter (PCMCIA) slot or into yourPDA’s sled. The wireless access point takes your wired network andextends it by forming a connection point for any number of wirelessdevices to hook into. For example, you may want to extend yourbroadband Internet connection from just your desktop computer orserver to other wireless devices as well. In this way, family members

0

Getting Wireless Connections: Wireless Local Area Networking 9

can all access the Internet via your broadband connection withouthaving to fight over a single machine.

How It Works

To set up your wireless LAN, one of the first steps is to install yourwireless access point. A wireless access point serves as a bridgebetween your wired network and the wireless network. It can also beused in a stand-alone manner to set up an ad-hoc wireless networkwithout the need for any wired network at all. In terms of physicalpositioning, the wireless access point should be mounted as high aspossible for best antenna coverage although placement at any locationworks well.

After you’ve set up the wireless access point, the next step is toplug in your wireless card into your laptop. The steps involved arelisted in the following scenario; basically, they involve plugging thecard into the laptop’s PCMCIA slot, then simply running through theprompts once Windows 2000, or another suitable operating system,has detected a new hardware device. After that, Internet access isimmediate, and you can begin surfing the Web or sending email as

Figure 2-1 Symbol wireless LAN PC card and Access Point. (Source: Symbol Technologies)


needed. You can be up and running in a matter of minutes, assumingyou have a wireless access point to connect with.

Sample Scenario: Installing a Wireless Card

1. Insert the wireless LAN PC card into your laptop.2. If you’re using Windows 2000, you’ll get a Found New Hard-

ware dialog box.3. Using the Found New Hardware wizard, search for the appropri-

ate driver for the device and click Next to continue.4. Select CD-ROM and Next to continue (assuming the driver soft-

ware is located on CD-ROM).5. Allow Windows to find the driver, then click Next to continue.6. Enter the appropriate ESSID (an identifier that tells your wireless

card which wireless network to connect with) in the dialog box and click OK to continue.

7. Click Finish to complete the installation.

This example assumes you are using Windows 2000 on your lap-top and are installing a Symbol Spectrum24 High Rate Wireless LANPC Card. The process will be very similar for other types of wirelessLAN PC cards as well. Wireless LAN cards typically use the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b open standardfor wireless local area networking. Typical ranges for wireless cardsusing this standard are up to 1,500 feet outdoors and 300 feet indoorsas measured from the wireless access point.

Benefits

The main benefit of having a wireless LAN is simply mobility. Itallows you to move around and conduct your work wherever youwish. In an office environment, that can be a large productivity boostwhen you need to get access to the corporate LAN from various meet-ing rooms or set up ad-hoc wireless networks with your coworkers soyou can share information. At home, it can mean the benefit of sittingout in the sun on your back patio, or sitting in the living room withthe kids.

Getting Wireless Connections: Wireless Local Area Networking 11

Another benefit with a wireless LAN is that the connection is veryfast. Wireless LAN’s typically provide a connection speed of 11Mbps,which is equivalent to most wired LAN speeds, and can even go up to54 Mbps by using the 802.11a standard. If you attend a conference orare at a hotel or other public area, such as an airport, you may wellfind that the facility provides wireless access points for you to tapinto. In a hotel setting, these can be very useful for high-speed Internetaccess as opposed to the slower dialup lines often available within thehotel rooms. If your hotel offers this type of connection, you can bemuch more productive when accessing the Internet and working onemail. Many hotels also offer wired broadband connections in therooms, so you’ll want to check for that option as well.


To ensure that you get compatible 802.11b products, look for the Wi-Fi logo on the cards and access points that you purchase. This Wi-Filogo is an official “seal of interoperability” granted to select productsby the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA). You shouldalso check that your card supports your own operating system onyour laptop or PDA. Most cards will support the typical flavors ofWindows, including Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows CE2.11 and 3.0, Windows 2000, and Windows ME.

An often-mentioned technical consideration for wireless LANs istheir security vulnerabilities. Without the right level of access control,authentication, and encryption, anyone in range of the wireless sig-nals’ dispersion pattern can get onto the network and access yourdata. The best way to prevent this is to ensure that you turn on thesecurity settings within the wireless access point. These typically canbe configured by using a browser and entering an address that corre-sponds to the wireless access point itself. This is often something suchas http://192.168.1.1 and is specified within the manufacturer’s instal-lation instructions. Using the administrative Web pages within thebrowser, you can then turn the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) set-ting from its default “disabled” setting to “mandatory.” WEP is aform of encryption that can be used to encrypt your data while intransit over the air. As an additional security consideration, be sure to


change the wireless access point password from its default setting ofsomething like “admin” to a password that is more secure.

Many wireless access points now include built-in routers withfour-port switches. The built-in ports allow you to connect a numberof standard wired connections via Ethernet in addition to your wire-less devices.

Contact Information

Wireless LAN Cards & Access Points

D-Link Systems, www.d-link.com

LinkSys, www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=22

Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/hardware/broadbandnetworking/products.aspx

NETGEAR, www.netgear.com

Nokia, www.nokia.com/corporate/wlan/index.html

Symbol Technologies, Spectrum24 High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card and Access Point, www.symbol.com


13

3Personal Digital

Assistants (PDAs): Toshiba Pocket PC

ost of us already own desktop computers and laptops, andmany own PDAs such as Palm Pilots. In the last couple ofyears, another version of the PDA has crept up on Palm’s

market share and is becoming widely available across a number ofname-brand manufacturers. The Pocket PC is offered by companiessuch as Audiovox, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard (HP), NEC, Toshiba,and ViewSonic. The Compaq iPAQ and HP Jornada are prime exam-ples and have become highly popular devices in recent years. In thisprofile, we’ll take a look at the Toshiba Pocket PC e310 with itsPocket PC 2002 software suite. For those of you hanging on to anaging PDA, the goal here is to show some of the new functionalitynow available in these popular devices.

How It Works

The Toshiba Pocket PC e310 (Figure 3-1), in common with otherPocket PCs, runs a version of the Microsoft Windows operating sys-

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tem called Windows CE. It includes software such as Pocket Outlook,Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, File Explorer, and Internet Explorertogether with applications such as Microsoft Reader, MSN Messen-ger, Terminal Services, various games, a calculator, and data backupcapability. In addition, it features Windows Media Player for playingWindows Media and MP3 files.

The device itself is approximately five inches high by three incheswide, and has a depth of less than half an inch. The color display isthree and one-half inches in height and offers 240 x 320 pixel resolu-tion. A built-in microphone, speaker, and stereo headphone jack meanthat you can record memos or listen to music. In terms of processingpower and memory, the e310 comes equipped with an Intel Strong-Arm 206MHz processor and 32MB of main memory.

The Pocket Outlook application, much like the version of Out-look that you find on your desktop, includes applications for manag-ing your calendar, inbox, contacts, notes, and tasks. Data from yourdesktop can be synchronized with data on your Pocket PC by usingthe Microsoft ActiveSync software provided with the device.

Figure 3-1 Toshiba Pocket PC e310 (Source: Toshiba).

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): Toshiba Pocket PC 15

Sample Scenario: Synchronizing the Toshiba e310 Pocket PC with Your Desktop PC

1. Install Microsoft ActiveSync on your desktop PC by using theCD provided with the Toshiba e310.

2. Connect the e310 to your computer by using the Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable and device cradle provided.

3. Install the device drivers for your e310 hardware.4. Choose the partnership model to use between your computer

and your device. A standard partnership keeps items up-to-date in both places, whereas a guest partnership just copies and moves data instead of keeping data synchronized.

5. Select the synchronization settings in terms of which applica-tions, such as Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer favor-ites, should be synchronized.

6. Microsoft ActiveSync will automatically connect and synchro-nize the requested applications with your device.

Benefits

The benefits of a PDA include being able to catch up on email, readthe latest news, listen to music, chat with friends, do your expensereport, and work on various office documents—all while traveling oraway from your desk. The synchronization capability means that youcan also keep your device up-to-date with the data and files on yourdesktop PC and even use the PDA as a backup device for your variouscontacts, calendar items, notes, and tasks.

Today’s PDAs have far more functionality than they had severalyears ago, when they were simple devices for personal informationmanagement. Today, they can serve as MP3 players, email devices,word processors, Web browsers, document readers, and much more.In terms of document reading, the Toshiba device offers theMicrosoft Reader application, which can be activated to downloadand install eBooks that have been packaged for secure distribution.Electronic versions of popular books and magazines, eBooks areavailable for sale on sites such as Amazon.com. Prior to downloading


an eBook, you’ll need to activate your reader via a Web site and aMicrosoft Passport account so that the version of the reader on yourdevice can be associated with your Passport account. In this way,publishers of copyrighted materials can download their content toyour device knowing that their material is copy protected and yourdevice is registered.

The Pocket PC 2002 also supports the beaming of business carddata to and from Palm devices. A Secure Digital (SD) slot allows youto add additional memory to your device or to add a Bluetooth cardfor wireless connectivity. Going wireless, of course, is one of the mainbenefits of PDAs, and companies such as Symbol Technologies offer anumber of rugged PDAs that support either the Palm or Windowsoperating systems. Mobile workers or field service professionals usingPDAs can capture their information at the point of business activity inthe field and then synchronize their devices with the network oncethey get back to the office.


The latest generation of PDAs, such as the Toshiba e310 runningMicrosoft Pocket PC 2002, have a tremendous amount of softwareand functionality beyond the traditional contacts and calendars thatyou may expect. Successive generations of these devices have madethem lightweight, powerful, and easier to use. Wireless connectivityvia Bluetooth or 802.11b means that they can connect to your homeor office network and access the Internet with ease. The Pocket PC2002 also offers virtual private networking (VPN) support for accessto corporate networks, and a number of companies offer accessoriessuch as biometric devices for fingerprint verification to keep the dataon your device secure in case of loss or theft.

If your PDA is showing signs of age, it’s definitely worth checkingout some of the latest models. Given their current range of functional-ity, these devices may well become one of your most prized and mostoften-used consumer gadgets.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): Toshiba Pocket PC 17

Contact Information

Compaq, iPAQ, www.hp.com

HP, Jornada, www.hp.com

Microsoft, Pocket PC, www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc

Palm, www.palm.com

Toshiba, e310 Pocket PC, www.toshiba.com


18

4Combining Mobile

Phones and Personal Digital Assistants

(PDAs): Smartphones

ow you’ve got your home network up and running withbroadband Internet access and perhaps a wireless local areanetwork (LAN) on top, you’re probably ready to take your

mobile communications to the next level as well. One of the ways todo this is via one of the newer models of smartphone, a combinationmobile phone and PDA.

Although smartphones have been with us for several years, theyare continuing to improve in functionality and usability. They offer away to combine the benefits of a mobile phone and a PDA into a sin-gle device. Some of the earlier devices were good at being one deviceor the other but weren’t good at both. PDAs tried to add phone func-tionality, and phones tried to add PDA functionality. The latestdevices are now mature enough that they succeed in both functions.They now offer the expected mobile phone and PDA functionalityplus color screens, familiar and easy-to-use operating systems,advanced messaging options, and features such as the ability to listento music, take digital photos, and download and view video files.

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Combining Mobile Phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) 19

Smartphones provide a way for you to combine all your commu-nication needs into one device so you don’t need a PDA for your cal-endar and contacts, a mobile phone for voice calls, and a pager forinstant messaging. One of the recent smartphones to appear on themarket has been the SPV (Sound Pictures Video) launched byMicrosoft and Orange in the fall of October 2002. This smartphone,the world’s first powered by Windows, was manufactured by HighTech Corporation (HTC), the makers of the Compaq iPAQ. In thisprofile, we’ll take a look at the SPV (Figure 4-1; Plate 3) to under-stand some of the latest functionality and benefits packed into today’ssmartphones.

How It Works

The SPV features a Microsoft Windows-powered user interface andprovides access to applications such as Pocket Outlook, Pocket Inter-net Explorer, and Windows Media Player. Using Pocket Outlook,

Figure 4-1 Microsoft SPV Smartphone (Source: Microsoft).


users can synchronize with their Windows-based desktop PC to gettheir email, calendar, contact, and task information. This synchroni-zation can be achieved over the air without having to connect thephone to the actual desktop.

The device also supports the addition of a clip-on camera forphoto messaging and the ability to play single- or multiplayer games.The Smartphone runs the Windows CE 3.0 operating system, which isthe same operating system used by Microsoft Pocket PC devices suchas the Compaq iPAQ. The difference between the Pocket PC devicesand the Smartphone is that the Smartphone is a voice-centric handsetthat has additional data capabilities. Most Pocket PC devices,although they may have wireless modems for Internet and emailaccess, do not support voice calling and are not voice-centric.

Other features available in this device include a programmablehome screen; personalized capability for ring tones, color schemes,images, and Web favorites; an ActiveSync capability to keep informa-tion up-to-date with your PC; MSN Messenger functionality forinstant messaging; and additional services provided by the wirelesscarrier. One of the interesting features offered in the United Kingdomby Orange is the ability to back up contacts and calendar informationon the Orange network so that it is safe and can be restored to a newdevice should you lose your original device.

Benefits

One of the benefits of the SPV and the smartphone in general, in addi-tion to it being a combination device, is the ability for users to multi-task. Users can perform data operations such as checking theircalendar or reading emails while speaking on the phone; a speaker-phone makes this possible so that users don’t have to alternatebetween holding the device up to their ear for voice calls and holdingit at waist height so they can navigate data.

The inclusion of Windows Media Player means that users candownload and play video clips, listen to MP3 music files, listen tomusic from wireless carrier services, and even listen to Internet radio.Device and software management is another benefit particularly rele-vant for business users who may wish to manage a large number ofdevices and applications within their environment.

Combining Mobile Phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) 21

One benefit that will affect the bottom line is that by using asmartphone, you may well be able to leverage just one, instead of twoor even three, mobile devices to conduct your business or personalcommunications. Not only will this cut down your initial purchasecosts, but it will also change your monthly service fees, providing youwith a single bill for all your voice and data communications.


Additional manufacturers for the Windows-powered smartphoneinclude Compal, Mitsubishi, Samsung Electronics, and Sendo Ltd.Mobile operators working with Microsoft as trial partners includeAT&T Wireless, Telefonica Moviles, Cingular, T-Mobil, Vodafone,Verizon Wireless, Orange, and Telstra. The phones run on Global Sys-tem for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) and General Packet RadioService (GPRS) networks, and some, such as the SPV, offer tri-bandfunctionality for use across Europe and in the United States. As weshall see in a later profile, this tri-band functionality means that thephones can function as world phones by supporting the 900 MHz,1800MHz, and 1900MHz bands of various GSM networks through-out the world. Other profiles later in the book cover other aspects ofsmartphones, including their personalization, instant messaging, pho-tographic, document printing and faxing, and wireless commerce capa-bilities. Because most of this functionality is finding its way into next-generation mobile phones, a good smartphone will also come equippedwith these kinds of features in addition to its PDA functionality.

Contact Information

Smartphone

Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/mobile/smartphone/default.asp

Device Manufacturers

Compal, www.compal.com

HTC, www.htccorporation.com


Mitsubishi, www.mitsubishielectric.com

Samsung Electronics, www.samsungelectronics.com/mobile_phone/index.asp

Sendo Ltd., www.sendo.com

Wireless Operators

AT&T Wireless, www.attws.com

Cingular, www.cingular.com

Orange, www.orange.com

T-Mobile, www.tmobile.com

Telefonica Moviles, www.telefonicamoviles.com

Telstra, www.telstra.com

Verizon Wireless, www.verizon.com

Vodafone, www.vodafone.com


23

5 Personalizing Your Cell

Phone: Ring Tones and Images

any of today’s newer cell phones can be personalized bydownloading ring tones and images to the handset. Ringtones are typically several bars of popular or classical music

that play when someone calls your phone. Images can likewise bedownloaded and set to display when a particular person within yourphone list calls you or when you initiate a call yourself.

To get set up, you’ll need a ring-tone-capable mobile phone andaccess to text messaging, the Internet, or a phone in order to selectand purchase your ring tones. Most major wireless carriers, such asAT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Sprint PCS, and Verizon, offerdownloadable ring tones from their Web sites, as do some specializedproviders such as YourMobile. Phone manufacturers such as SonyEricsson and Nokia offer ring tone downloads from their sites as well.

On Internet ring tone sites, you can preview ring tones by listeningto them prior to downloading, select from hundreds of ring tones, oreven compose your own custom tunes. Once ordered, the ring tones aresent directly to your mobile phone via the Short Message Service (SMS)

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text-messaging protocol. This is the same two-way text messaging tech-nique that you can use to send messages to friends over your phone.

You can directly order ring tones and images from your mobilephone by sending certain codes via SMS to ring tone and image pro-viders such as AT&T Wireless. The codes can be used to request listsof available ring tones and images, or to order specific items. Ringtone provider YourMobile allows you to purchase your ring toneseither at their Web site or via phone. To make a phone purchase, youcall a 900 number and then enter a special code for the tune thatyou’d like to download.

How It Works

Sample Scenario: Ring Tone Access with Nokia 3360

1. Go to AT&T Wireless Web site (www.mobile.att.net/ringtones/).2. Enter mobile phone number on Web site, have the phone turned

on and displaying AT&T.

Figure 5-1 Nokia 3360 Mobile Phone (Source: Nokia).

01to10.fm Page 24 Friday, February 28, 2003 9:26 AM

Personalizing Your Cell Phone: Ring Tones and Images 25

3. Code is sent to the mobile phone (e.g., 1113484).4. Enter the following on the Web site and register: code, username,

password, verify password, secret question/answer.5. Gain access to ring tones page: The latest and greatest, Ring tone

library, Top ten ring tones, Ring tone composer, Ring tone search.

6. Search for ring tones.7. Listen to ring tone.8. Buy ring tone (99 cents plus tax).9. Choose to bill to monthly invoice or e-wallet.

10. Ring tone is sent.11. Ability to resend for up to 72 hours.

Note: The Nokia 8260 supports ring tones and graphics, but theNokia 3360 and 5165 support ring tones only.

Benefits

Some of the benefits of using personalized ring tones and images onyour mobile include being able to recognize your own phone when itrings, which is very useful in public spaces, and being able to hearsome of your favorite tunes. Additionally, having an image displaywhen a friend calls you can be a quick way to recognize that it’s theircall. The good news is that once you’ve purchased a ring tone, you getto keep it forever unless you have limited storage on your phone andcan only store ten or so ring tones at a time. In this case, you mayhave to discard some of your least favorite downloads in order to pur-chase and install new ones.


When purchasing a mobile phone with ring tone and image capability,be sure to check the number of ring tones and images that the devicesupports and whether or not the device will support color images.You can find this information on the manufacturer’s Web site or insome of the periodicals listed in the resources section at the back ofthis book.


When purchasing the ring tones or images, you’ll need to decidehow to pay. Typically, you can choose to pay with prepaid cards suchas Club Nokia credits or credit cards, or to have the charge added toyour monthly wireless bill.

Typical charges for ring tones are about $1 per tune, with freedownloads of the ordered tunes for a period of 72 hours or so. Thistime period helps to ensure that you can successfully obtain the ringtone and get it set up on your mobile. There is also a market developingfor premium ring tones, which are priced slightly higher around $2, butwhich are associated with certain well-known brands such as Disney.

Contact Information

Ring Tone Capable Mobile Phones

Motorola, www.motorola.com

Nokia, www.nokia.com

Panasonic, www.panasonic.com

Sony Ericsson, www.sonyericsson.com

Ring Tone Web Sites

AT&T Ring Tones, www.mobile.att.net/ringtones/

Sprint PCS, www.sprintpcs.com

YourMobile, www.yourmobile.com


27

6Keeping One Phone Number across the

Globe: World Phones

f you’ve ever tried to place an international call on your mobilephone from within the United States, you’ve probably heard amessage saying that “your account is not authorized to make

calls to this phone number” or something similar. The majority ofmobile phones in the United States work well within the countryitself, but have no capability or are not enabled for international call-ing. For people who have business relationships or friends and rela-tives abroad, this can be an issue. Additionally, frequent travelersabroad may wish to use their own mobile phones and their ownphone numbers to make and receive local in-country calls or calls toand from the United States. There is an answer for both of these situ-ations, and there are many different phones and service plans avail-able from which to choose.

The whole issue around international calling stems from thedivergent and incompatible wireless communication standards thathave evolved over the last 20 years or so, particularly within theUnited States. One of the problems with wireless communications

I


within the United States is that the technology has grown using stan-dards that are very different from the rest of the world’s. While manyof the countries within Europe and elsewhere have standardized onthe Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM), the UnitedStates has adopted a variety of standards including Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA),and Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD). For this discussion, theacronyms and the details behind these standards aren’t all that impor-tant, other than illustrating that each standard is different and incom-patible with the other. In the United States, each wirelesscommunication standard was developed by a competitive wirelesscarrier or network equipment provider, so each carrier pushed theirown technology over the years.

The solution for these differing wireless standards across theworld is to purchase a phone that has built-in support for multiplestandards and which can provide seamless switching between them asneeded. For example, many world phones have dual-band or tri-bandcapabilities and support GSM frequencies of 900 and 1800MHz, or900, 1800, and 1900MHz respectively.

Because GSM is offered by more than 400 operators in more than190 countries around the world, GSM is the way to go if you want tomake frequent international calls. In fact, GSM accounts for 71.2 per-cent of the world’s digital market and 69 percent of the world’s wire-less market according to the GSM Association, an organization thatpromotes the adoption of GSM standards.

The dual-band features are useful for other purposes as well. TheNokia 6650 camera phone supports simultaneous use of WidebandCDMA (WCDMA) and GSM bands so that end users can use itsbuilt-in camera features to take and transmit digital images whiletalking on the phone. In addition to still images, this phone also sup-ports up to 20 seconds of continuous video recording.

How It Works

The two problems we’ve discussed, making international calls fromwithin the United States and making international calls or local callsfrom within another country, can be solved in two different ways.

Keeping One Phone Number across the Globe: World Phones 29

For the international calling feature from within the United States,you can simply contact your wireless carrier and request that theinternational calling feature be enabled for your phone. In this case,you don’t actually need the dual-band or tri-band features, and youcan use your standard phone.

For the international or local calls from within another country,you’ll need a phone that supports the local communication standard,which is typically GSM. These world phones can be purchased orrented from your wireless carrier before you leave on your trip. Typi-cal manufacturers of world phones include Motorola, Nextel, Nokia,Panasonic, and Sony Ericsson.

Another option that can simplify things for you when using aworld phone is to use your own Subscriber Identification Module(SIM) card and place it into your new phone. This way, you can keepyour original account information such as your phone number andyour address book, because both of these items are stored in memoryon the card and move with you from phone to phone. The SIM card isa small removable card that sits inside your phone under the battery.You can check with your wireless carrier to determine if your currentphone is equipped with a SIM card.

Benefits

The benefits of getting a world phone are that you have only onedevice and one phone number throughout your travels. You’ll alsofind that the costs for making calls are significantly reduced if youpurchase a local prepaid SIM card, which contains prepaid minutes ofairtime in addition to a local number. In that way, you’ll be makinglocal calls within the country you’re visiting.

Depending on the number of calls you make internationally andthe number of overseas visits you take per year, you’ll be able to find aphone and service plan that is right for you. Some of the carriers, theirrates, and their supported world phones are listed in the table withinthe Contact Information section at the end of this profile.



When you’re choosing an international wireless plan, look at the cover-age in terms of the number of countries supported, the activation fee,the flat-rate fee per minute to or from the countries you wish to call, themonthly service charge, and any additional toll charges. Each wirelesscarrier offers a different type of service plan. For example, T-Mobilecharges flat-rate fees and no activation fees, monthly service charges, ortoll charges for their “WorldClass Service” plan.

Most wireless carriers also offer rental options so that if you don’town an international-capable device, you can rent a device for theperiod you wish to travel. The rental unit will typically be a tri-bandGSM handset and will come with accessories such as additional bat-teries, a car charger, an international travel adapter, and a carryingcase. Rental agreements are typically offered for up to 7 days, between8 and 30 days, and on a monthly basis. Additionally, you can purchaseloss-protection agreements in case you lose the device during travel.

The rental fees from T-Mobile at the time of writing were $29 forup to 7 days, and $49 per month. If you have your own SIM card andjust wish to rent the handset, the monthly rental is lower at $40 permonth. To get service in Japan, you’ll need a phone that supports thePersonal Digital Cellular (PDC) standard, such as the Panasonic J-P02.

A final option for the frequent world traveler is to purchase a sat-ellite phone. These types of services are offered by companies such asIridium and Globalstar. Their coverage spans the entire globe, makingthis an ideal solution for people who live, work, or travel in remoteareas outside of landline or cellular coverage. These services typicallyhave required higher-priced handsets and higher per-minute chargesbecause of the level of infrastructure required to provide the service,but per-minute charges are decreasing to become more competitivewith the traditional cellular services.

Contact Information

Satellite Phones

Globalstar, www.globalstar.com

Iridium, www.iridium.com

Keeping One Phone Number across the Globe: World Phones 31

Wireless Carriers

AT&T Wireless WorldConnect Service, www.attws.com/personal/intl_calling/world_connect/index.jhtml

Nextel Worldwide, www.nextel.com/services/worldwide/index.shtml

T-Mobile International Services, www.t-mobile.com/international/

Verizon Wireless International Traveler (service provided by Rent-a-phone Limited), http://internationaltraveler.verizonwire-less.com/default.asp

Wireless Carrier Countries

Rates Per Minute (When outside the U.S.) Sample Phones

AT&T Wireless

120 $0.99 (plus monthly fee and card fee)

Ericsson T18, T39Nokia 3310, 3210,

6150, 3330, 6310Motorola StarTAC,

Timeport 250, V50

Nextel Over 80 countries

$1.29 to $5.99 Nextel i2000plus, Motorola P280, V60

T-Mobile Over 90 countries

$0.99 to $4.99 Motorola P280, V60

Verizon Wireless

Over 130 countries

$1.49 to $2.49 (plus monthly fee)

Nokia 3310, 6310Motorola Timeport

T280Panasonic J-P02


32

7 Single Log-In and Profiles: Microsoft

.NET Passport and the Liberty Alliance

f you’ve ever been frustrated by having to register your name,address, and contact information to make a purchase or toreceive personalized content at almost every Web site you visit,

there are now some solutions available that give you a single place tostore your profile and to maintain your username and password. Asingle username and password can now give you personalized accessto a growing number of Web sites.

The Internet is rapidly becoming a “business operating system”for the entire universe of Internet users, devices, applications, andWeb sites. Initiatives such as Microsoft’s .NET Passport and the Lib-erty Alliance Project founded by Sun Microsystems and others arecalling upon consumers and business users to use their own network-resident authentication services as a universal gateway into thiswealth of applications and Web sites. The concept of single sign-onauthentication for a multitude of applications and Web sites acrossthe Internet is highly attractive but will need to be adopted carefullyon the part of consumers and businesses alike. The term “single sign-

I

Single Log-In and Profiles: Microsoft .NET Passport and the Liberty Alliance 33

on,” by the way, means the method of logging in once and having thatusername and password automatically log you in behind the scenes toa number of applications and Web sites from different providers. Asan example, with this type of functionality you’ll be able to log in toyour favorite airline site and then automatically log in to your favoritecar rental site with just one click; one login will do it all.

As the benefits of single sign-on authentication beckon us, weneed to be careful to understand the tradeoffs. The single sign-on ser-vices offered by the industry on this Internet business operating sys-tem are visionary but require some trust. Trust has always been one ofthe main barriers to adoption for businesses and consumers to lever-age the Internet. Security is only a piece of the trust equation, but it isclear that security will play a key role in deciding the eventual take-uprate for these emerging solutions such as single sign-on. Its success orfailure will rely upon how much we trust it. The era of “build it andthey will come” passed many years ago, and today’s era is more likelycalled “trust it and they will come.”

It is perhaps with this trust factor in mind that Microsoft Chairmanand Chief Scientist Bill Gates wrote a memo to employees in early 2002calling for a shift from focusing on software functionality to a newfocus on security and privacy—something he called “TrustworthyComputing.” In this profile we’ll look at both the Microsoft .NETPassport service and the equivalent service named the Liberty AllianceProject from Sun Microsystems and others. Both aim to give consumersand businesses single sign-on capabilities and secure, private profiles.

How It Works

Single sign-on in the case of the Microsoft .NET Passport systemworks by providing a user with a place to manage his or her profilethat is associated with a specific username and password. On the.NET Passport Web site (Figure 7-1), you can currently store yourfirst and last name, email address, country/region, state, zip code,time zone, gender, birth date, and occupation. These are the types ofinformation that most people do not mind providing, because itavoids more personal information such as address, social security


number, or credit card numbers. Microsoft uses your email as yourusername and allows you to use any password of your choice.

You also can specify on the .NET Passport Web site how much ofthis profile information can be shared with other participating Websites or services when you log in. By sharing your profile in this man-ner, you can register on new Web sites and gain access to personalizedservices more easily and more quickly. The .NET Passport site lists thenames of participating sites including a number of MSN sites (such asMSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger), eBay, Expedia, Monster.com,RadioShack, Starbucks, Bombay, Costco Online, Fossil.com, Gymbo-ree, Hilton.com, OfficeMax.com, Oshman’s, Ritz Camera, The SportsAuthority, and many others.

The .NET Passport service was originally launched in 1999 and isthe largest online authentication system in the world, with more than200 million accounts performing more than 3.5 billion authentica-tions each month.

Figure 7-1 Microsoft .NET Passport Profile screen.

Single Log-In and Profiles: Microsoft .NET Passport and the Liberty Alliance 35

The Liberty Alliance Project was formed in September 2001.Some of its founding members include American Express, AOL, Citi-Group, GM, HP, MasterCard, Nokia, Sony, Sun, United Airlines, andVodafone. The Liberty Alliance Project has issued specifications thatwill allow federated single sign-on so that consumers and businesescan link their profiles across different providers and benefit from sin-gle sign-on across these provider Web sites from any device.

Although the two initiatives may seem competitive, as long asthey work together and sites that use .NET Passport can communi-cate with other sites that use the Liberty Alliance specifications, allwill be seamless for the consumer.

Sample Scenario: Sign-In and Purchase for .NET Passport

1. Get a .NET Passport from a participating site, such as MSN Hot-mail, by visiting the Web site and registering. At a minimumyou’ll need to enter your email address and password, but youcan also enter more detailed profile information at this time.

2. Log in to a participating .NET Passport site by clicking on the Sign In icon and then entering your email address and password. If the site has stored a cookie on your machine and is able to rec-ognize you, it may just prompt you for your password.

3. The site may also prompt you to register in its own database so that it can collect its own information from you and associate your Passport login with this database profile. The site may also want you to accept their own terms of use for their Web site.

4. Access other participating .NET Passport sites by following the same procedure.

5. Access shopping sites by clicking on the Passport Express Pur-chase icon.

Benefits

The Microsoft .NET Passport single sign-in service offers benefits intwo areas: streamlined sign-in for a number of participating Web sitesand services, and streamlined purchasing on a number of Web sites.Sites enabled for these services show either the Sign In logo or thePassport Express Purchase logo (Figure 7-2).


The benefits really become noticeable once you have registeredand stored your profile on a number of these sites and have chosen tolink your accounts and use the same login. After the initial informa-tion has been collected, you’ll be able to move from one site to theother much more easily using the same username and password.


One of the considerations when using single sign-on is that the Websites you visit may support this feature but will still want to capturetheir own set of information about you. Although the single sign-onmay speed registration by providing the basics of your profile, such asyour name, birth date, state, and zip, you’ll still have to complete theremaining information that they require in order to register. So you’llstill need to half-register on all these other Web sites before you canstart using the single sign-on to jump from site to site using the sameusername and password. Additionally, the site you jump to will stillrequire you to enter your password. For example, logging on to MSNHotmail and then going to eBay, you’ll still need to enter your MSNHotmail password in order to log in to the “my eBay” section of thesite. One of the benefits, though, is that you end up having fewer user-names and passwords to remember.

Contact Information

Liberty Alliance Project, www.projectliberty.org

Microsoft .NET Passport, www.passport.com

Microsoft .NET Passport, Directory of Sites, www.passport.com/Directory/default.asp?lc=1033

Figure 7-2 Microsoft .NET Passport Sign In and Passport Express Purchase logos.


37

8Increasing Your

Security: Fingerprint Readers and Facial

Recognition

ne of the issues faced when dealing with an ever-increasingnumber of personal computing devices, and software applica-tions on those devices, is security. When we access an applica-

tion or an online service, we want to ensure that the system knowswho we are and that there is no chance of others stealing our identityor our data. Although there is no such thing as absolute security, wecan apply some techniques to safeguard our security and our privacy.These techniques typically fall into access control, authentication, andencryption. The username and password has been the mainstay forauthentication, but for sensitive applications, it can be insufficient asthe only security mechanism.

Recent techniques for improved authentication include what isknown as biometrics. These offerings support the recognition of avariety of human physical attributes such as voice recognition, facialrecognition, fingerprinting, hand geometry, and iris recognition. Aswe conduct more and more of our personal and business time online,these improved authentication offerings can help us feel more secure

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about using these applications and services and conducting electronictransactions.

Facial recognition and fingerprinting are two of the most widelydeployed biometric techniques currently available for consumers andbusinesses. Companies in the facial recognition field include ViisageTechnology and Identix. On the fingerprinting side, a number ofhardware companies, including Compaq, Key Tronic, Targus,Toshiba, and Identix, make readers. By adding these low-cost devicesto your list of personal computing accessories, you can substantiallyincrease your level of protection from unwanted access.

How It Works

Viisage’s technology was originally developed at Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology and translates facial characteristics into a uniqueset of numbers that they refer to as an “eigenface.” Their technologycan be applied for one-to-many identification processes that searchlarge databases of millions of faces for a rapid match within seconds.It can also be applied for one-to-one verification of identity processessuch as verification at automatic teller machines. Viisage has theworld’s largest installed facial recognition database of over seven mil-lion images. Their current customers include federal governmentagencies; casinos; and local and state police, corrections, and socialservices departments.

Identix offers a number of biometric solutions including their Fin-gerPrinter CMS live-scan fingerprinting system and FaceIt face-recog-nition technology. Within the public sector, the FingerPrinter CMSsystem can capture, print, and transmit fingerprints electronically tothe Office of Personnel Management, where they are submitted forsearching against the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identifi-cation System database. The system can be used for a variety of back-ground investigation purposes. For example, the Transportation andAviation Security Act of 2001 mandated fingerprint backgroundchecks on all airport employees by the end of October 2002. A num-ber of airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, haveadopted the Identix FingerPrinter CMS systems for this purpose. TheFaceIt face-recognition technology has been deployed in casinos, soc-

Increasing Your Security: Fingerprint Readers and Facial Recognition 39

cer matches, and town centers, and the U.S. Army military police hasused it as part of a wearable, hands-free, facial surveillance system.

Biometrics is also starting to find more mainstream applications.IBM offers the FaceIt face-recognition software when customers pur-chase their UltraPort Camera for ThinkPad A, T, or X Series laptops.The software is part of a screensaver that can restore access to the lap-top when the authorized face appears in view of the camera.

On the fingerprint side, Targus makes a fingerprint authenticatorthat can be plugged into the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port of a desk-top or notebook for improved authentication. Other manufacturers,such as Compaq, Identix, Key Tronic, and Toshiba, offer fingerprintreaders that use PC cards or can be plugged in to your parallel port.Plate 5 shows an example of the Identix BioTouch PC Card Finger-print Reader.

Benefits

These types of systems are relatively inexpensive and provide a higherlevel of security for your computing devices, whether they are desk-tops, laptops, or personal digital assistants. This is because the stron-gest form of authentication occurs when systems combine techniquesin order to achieve what is known as “three-factor” authentication.This technique combines what a person knows (such as a usernameand password) with what they have (such as a hardware key fob) andwho they are (obtained via biometrics).

However, not all security applications require this three-factorauthentication or even a two-factor authentication. Facial recognitionby itself can be applied to a wide variety of scenarios ranging from theidentification of known criminals in public spaces like airports andshopping centers to being used as part of a broader verification mech-anism for high-security corporate or government applications. If youwant to move beyond one-factor authentication using just a usernameand password, the best bets are either to add a hardware key-fob,which comes with many virtual private networking products such asRSA SecurID, or to add biometrics.



If you’re looking for a personal security solution for your variouscomputing devices, look for something that you will use on a regularbasis. If you buy something that is too large or too heavy to carryaround in your laptop case, the likelihood is that you won’t use it.Many vendors offer PC card fingerprinting systems that simply slotinto one of your PCMCIA slots on your laptop. The reader actuallypops out when you’re ready to be authenticated and can be pushedback into the slot when you’re finished. These devices typically workon Windows operating systems such as NT 4.0, 95, 98, and ME.

Contact Information

Compaq, www.compaq.com

Identix, www.identix.com

Key Tronic, www.keytronic.com

Targus, www.targus.com

Toshiba, www.toshiba.com

Viisage Technology, www.viisage.com


41

9Remote-Control

Software for Your PC: GoToMyPC

f you’ve ever left your laptop at home while you’ve been on abusiness trip and needed to get a file on your hard drive or get onyour network, then this next solution may well be for you.

There’s a variety of services on the market that now make it easierthan ever to access your home or office desktop remotely from anyother computer connected to the Internet by simply using a standardWeb browser interface.

One of the companies in this space is Expertcity. Their GoTo-MyPC offering is a hosted service that enables secure, browser-basedaccess to any Internet-connected Windows computer (Figure 9-1;Plate 6). Their functionality includes screen sharing, file transfer,remote printing, guest invite, and chat applications. They also providea Universal Viewer, which allows you to access a Windows host PCfrom any Internet browser running on a Windows, Unix, or Macin-tosh operating system.

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How It Works

Setting up remote access with GoToMyPC takes just a few minutes.The host computer requires software to be downloaded and installed,but the remote computer just needs to load a plug-in within a browserwindow. Both PCs need to be connected to the Internet, of course, atthe time of remote access. Even the software download for the hostcomputer is just 1.4MB, which is substantially less than other remote-access software solutions such as virtual private networking (VPN) orproducts such as pcAnywhere.

Sample Scenario: Remote Access

1. Register for the free trial by going to GoToMyPC.com and enter-ing your user information including your name, email address,and password.

2. Check your email account and click on the activation link sent to you.

Figure 9-1 GoToMyPC remote access.

Remote-Control Software for Your PC: GoToMyPC 43

3. Enter your credit card information and click on Get Free Trial.

4. Go to the host computer you wish to access remotely and click on the link to install the GoToMyPC software.

5. The software installation on your host computer prompts you to create a nickname for your computer and to create an access code.

6. Go to another computer, log on to the GoToMyPC Web site withyour email address and password, and connect to your hostcomputer over the Internet.

When you launch the remote session, GoToMyPC launches a win-dow with a view into the desktop on your remote computer. If youhappen to have both machines side-by-side, which is not typical inreal use, but is good for trying out the functionality, you can actuallysee the screen changes and the mouse movements on the host com-puter as you navigate via the remote computer. If you work on thehost computer, you can also see the screen changes and the mousemovements on the remote computer.

Within the window that GoToMyPC launches on your remotemachine are a couple of useful menus. A View menu allows you to setthe size of the window you want to work in, and a Tools menu allowsyou to chat, go into draw mode, transfer files, or set up your printer.Chat mode opens a chat dialog box on both machines, and two userscan easily conduct a real-time chat session. Draw mode allows you todraw on a presentation and have the drawing show up on the screenof the host computer. The transfer files option opens a window thatenables you to move files intuitively between the host and the remotecomputer. In addition to performing file transfers, you can also create,delete, or rename folders, and delete or rename files on either machine.Although much of this functionality is reciprocal, it is only the remotecomputer that has the overall menu bars and menu items to controlwhich functions are initiated. So, for example, the user (if any) on thehost computer cannot initiate a file-transfer session until the user onthe remote computer has selected this function from the menu.

If you’re at your host computer, you can tell if someone is con-nected using GoToMyPC because the icon in the system tray at thebottom of the screen will be green instead of white, meaning that asession is in progress. Of course, the user will most likely also noticethe screen and mouse movements occurring on the desktop.


Benefits

Remote access using software such as GoToMyPC is much easier toset up and operate than other solutions on the market, such as VPNs,and products such as pcAnywhere, which are aimed more at the cor-porate market. GoToMyPC can be a simple and effective way to getonto your home network, assuming that you have a host computerthat is permanently connected to the Internet over a broadband con-nection such as cable modem or DSL. The client-side requirement ofjust a Web browser means that you can easily launch a session fromany computer connected to the Internet without having to installsoftware and perform extensive configurations as you would with aVPN client.

Some of the potential applications for remote control of your PCinclude working on your office PC from home, accessing your homeor office PC when traveling, accessing your office desktop after hoursfor working on email, or remotely accessing and managing multiplePCs. If you have a corporate plan with GoToMyPC, you also gainaccess to a variety of administration and management tools so thatyou can monitor usage and add or remove users on your account.


One thing to keep in mind when you use GoToMyPC is that you mustremember your email address and password to log into their Web site,plus you must remember your access code to access your host com-puter once you’re logged in to the Web site. Both of these passwordsmust be eight characters or more for security purposes, so keep a saferecord of them or memorize them.

In terms of security, the service uses 128-bit Advanced EncryptionStandard (AES) encryption to protect the data stream passing over theInternet containing file transfers, chat, keyboard input, and mousemovements. This, combined with the passwords and access codes,makes the solution highly acceptable for most levels of collaborationand file sharing that you may want to perform.

Remote-Control Software for Your PC: GoToMyPC 45

The GoToMyPC free trial includes unlimited remote access to asingle computer for up to 60 minutes of connection time or up to 30days. After the trial period, the service is available for $19.95 permonth or $179.40 per year for a single computer. The company alsooffers discounts for two or more computers, and a special corporateplan for remote access for ten or more employees or for access to tenor more computers.

Contact Information

GoToMyPC, www.gotomypc.com


46

10Using Voice-Activated Services: PCS Voice

Command from Sprint

any of today’s wireless service offerings from the majorcarriers such as Sprint PCS, Verizon, AT&T Wireless, andT-Mobile offer voice-activated services. These voice ser-

vices allow you to use your voice, rather than keys on your mobilephone, to initiate phone calls and access Web-based information suchas news, stock quotes, sports scores, and more.

As an example of this service, we’ll look at the PCS Voice Com-mand service offered by Sprint.

Using voice services can make calling people or accessing Web-based information much more convenient and safer when you’re onthe go. For anyone driving a car, voice–activated dialing is a must-have feature for safety whether it is provided via a traditional mobilephone or via an onboard service such as OnStar.

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Using Voice-Activated Services: PCS Voice Command from Sprint 47

How It Works

The two categories of voice services within the PCS Voice Commandoffering include voice-activated calling and voice-activated informa-tion access. The following two sample scenarios illustrate how thesetypes of activities are conducted using a PCS phone such as the Sam-sung A500.

Sample Scenarios: Voice Services

Using Your Voice to Dial

1. Press “*” and “Talk” or press “*” and “Ok” and speak thename of the person you wish to call. For example, “Call JimBoyd at home” or “Call Jim Boyd at work.”

2. The system automatically dials the number for you and connects.

An address book allows you to store up to 500 names with up tofive phone numbers each. To add names to your personal addressbook, you can use one of four techniques:

1. Press “*” and “Talk” or press “*” and “Ok” and say “Add aname,” then say the name and phone number you wish to add.

2. Use the www.talk.sprintpcs.com Web site to create and update contact names and numbers.

3. Use Sprint Sync services to merge contact information from per-sonal information managers such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes.

4. Call PCS Directory Assistance and ask them to look up and addup to two numbers per call into your address book.

Using Your Voice to Access Web-Based Information

1. Press “*” and “Talk” or press “*” and “Ok,” and say “Call theWeb.”

2. Choose from a listing of information categories such as email, news, weather, sports, driving directions, stock market informa-tion, TV updates, traffic reports, horoscopes, flight information, lottery, package tracking, movie guides, restaurants, tipping guides, and measurement conversion.


3. Some of the categories are grouped into broader categories within the main menu. For example, “Entertainment” on the main menu contains TV updates, lottery, movie guide, and restaurants.

4. Each menu option then has its own series of prompts to provideyou with the information you need. For example, the movieguide option asks you for the zip code you are in so that it cannarrow the choices of available movie theatres. Once you havechosen the theatre you desire, you can hear the show times forall the movies playing there.

Benefits

One of the main benefits of voice-activated services is the safetyaspect when you are on the go. Another advantage is that if you aretraveling and do not have time to stop to read your email in the tradi-tional manner, you can use a voice-activated service to read youremail to you while you’re going to a meeting or driving home fromwork. In this way, the service can help you to make the most of whatis typically unproductive downtime while still providing a level ofsafety and allowing you to focus on the task at hand.

Another benefit to voice-activated access to the Web using yourmobile is that it can be quicker than using a PC or laptop, whichrequires waiting while the machine boots and perhaps while dialing inover a phone line. For example, movie show times can be quicklyaccessed from your phone once you’re familiar with the voiceprompts to get to the right section in the menu.


You can subscribe to PCS Voice Command from your PCS phone bypressing “*” and “Talk” or by pressing “*” and “Ok” and followingthe instructions. Once the service is activated, you can use it rightaway. The address book is automatically populated with a number ofairlines, hotels, and car rental numbers.

Using Voice-Activated Services: PCS Voice Command from Sprint 49

The most efficient way to use voice services is for executing simplecommands and for listening to information. If you have a lot of infor-mation to put into the system, such as several contacts you wish to beable to voice dial, the best way to do bulk data entry is to go to theprovider’s Web site and enter the information there. Adding a contactname and phone number via voice can be tricky, so the best bet is toload all your contact names into the system from the comfort of yourPC or laptop.

Most voice-activated systems have a set of keywords that theyunderstand. A good way to become productive quickly with yourvoice-activated services is to print out this set of keywords and memo-rize some of your most frequently used activities such as placing a callor listening to your email. For the Sprint PCS service, it’s also worthremembering that “Call the Web” is the way to access the menu forWeb-based information.

One final consideration about voice-activated services is that it maystill take several minutes and a lot of repetition to get the informationyou need. Please note that Sprint’s Voice Command service does notuse speech recognition. It is phonetically based. These types of systemsare still not perfect at speech recognition; depending upon your accentand your timing when using the system and answering the prompts,your experience may vary considerably. Although the first few experi-ences may be somewhat stressful, the good news is that over time,you’ll get better at navigating quickly and easily to what you need. Aswith any new technology, there is a learning curve even when, in thiscase, we use our natural voice.

Contact Information

PCS Voice Command, www.talk.sprintpcs.com

Sprint, www.sprintpcs.com, 1-800-480-4PCS (4727)


50

11Communicating via Instant Messaging:

Nokia Communicator

nstant messaging is the ability to instantly communicate withsomeone over the Internet via voice or text. It differs from tradi-tional email in that instant messaging operates in real time and

you can actually see when your friends are online. There is no waitingfor a response, because if your friends or colleagues are online, theywill be instantly notified of your message and will be able to replyright back to you.

Some of the types of instant messaging available include the ShortMessage Service (SMS), which is the instant messaging protocol ofchoice for wireless devices, and proprietary instant-messaging proto-cols from companies such as AOL, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. These pro-prietary messaging protocols typically operate between desktopcomputers and require the installation of client-side software on thePC. The service offerings for these three vendors are named AOLInstant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger, respec-

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Communicating via Instant Messaging: Nokia Communicator 51

tively. These offerings include functionality for seeing who’s onlineand exchanging messages, making worldwide phone calls over theInternet, carrying out voice conversations using your PC’s micro-phone and speakers, paging your friends on their cell phones and pag-ers, and participating in chat rooms. These computer-based servicesalso let you know how many new emails you have and may evenallow you to share files such as pictures or digital music and to inviteyour friends to play online games.

In this profile, we’ll take a look at the messaging capability of theNokia Communicator 9290 (Figure 11-1; Plate 8). The Communica-tor is Nokia’s combination mobile phone and personal digital assis-tant. Most people are already very familiar with the PC-based instant-messaging solutions, so a look at the solutions from a mobile devicecontext should show some of the more interesting features and sce-narios. It’s important to note, however, that the PC-based and mobile-based instant messaging solutions are converging. For example, theMSN Messenger service from Microsoft allows you to message notonly to other PCs, but also to Pocket PC devices such as the CompaqiPAQ and even to television sets that have Microsoft TV Messengerenabled set-top boxes.

Figure 11-1 Nokia 9290 Communicator (Source: Nokia).


How It Works

In terms of messaging, the Communicator is able to send emails,faxes, or SMS messages. The following scenario describes how tosend an SMS message. SMS messages can work across different wire-less carriers. So, for example, if your Nokia Communicator is runningon the T-Mobile network, and you wish to send an SMS message to afriend who is using the AT&T Wireless network, this is no problem.In this example, you could simply enter the 10-digit wireless phonenumber of the AT&T subscriber. The same principle also works forany other wireless carrier such as Sprint PCS or others. So in much thesame way that the wireless carriers have established roaming agree-ments with one another for voice calls, they’ve also established thesame kind of relationships to ensure that SMS messages can passbetween their networks.

Sample Scenario: SMS Messaging Using the 9290 Communicator

1. Turn on the phone by using the outside power button.2. Open the Communicator and select the Messaging button.3. Choose “Write Short Message” from the menu.4. Enter the address of the recipient in the “To:” field.5. Enter the body of the text message.6. Choose “Send” from the menu.

As you can see from this scenario, using SMS messaging on theCommunicator is very simple. What’s more, the built-in standard key-board means that you don’t have to struggle with the numeric keypadthat you would find on a traditional mobile phone, which is time-inten-sive because each number represents up to three alphabetic characters.

Benefits

The benefits of instant messaging include the ability to communicatewith friends, family, or business associates in real time and to see whenthey are online. When you receive an SMS message using the Commu-

Communicating via Instant Messaging: Nokia Communicator 53

nicator, the device beeps and indicates “1 message received” on thefront black-and-white display. You can view and respond to the mes-sage by opening the device to reveal the larger color display and key-board. To reply to an instant message, you can either reply with anotherSMS message, or, with some devices, you can select a hyperlink that isadded to the message in order to instantly call the sender via voice.

An additional benefit of instant messaging is that these servicescan be used to reach people over any device including pagers, PDAs,mobile phones, and PCs. Where traditional email is asynchronous,instant messaging fills the gap for synchronous communications andallows you to communicate in real time. Services such as the Black-berry service from Research In Motion (RIM) also tell you when yourmessage has been sent, delivered, and read by providing a status mes-sage next to each message. Of course, these status messages only workwhen you’re messaging to someone who is also on the Blackberry net-work. If you send a message from your RIM to an email address,you’ll just get a “sent” message indicating that your message went out.


One of the key considerations when selecting an instant-messagingservice is whether it is readily available for the people with whom youwish to communicate. PC-based instant-messaging solutions fromAOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are all free, and it is almost guaranteedthat your friends will be able to use these types of services. You’llwant to choose a solution that works for everyone on your contactlist, or at least those with whom you want to communicate frequently.

If you’re looking at wireless solutions, the next consideration is thecoverage provided by the service. If you and your colleagues are typi-cally mobile, you’ll want to find a wireless instant-messaging solutionthat is reliable and has good geographic coverage in the areas you typi-cally visit. This type of solution will be either a proprietary wireless pag-ing solution such as that provided via RIM’s Blackberry service or it willuse an SMS service over a wireless carrier network as described previ-ously in the Nokia scenario. Some of the newer RIM products now alsosupport SMS in addition to their proprietary paging networks.


Contact Information

PC-based Instant Messaging

AOL Instant Messenger, www.aim.com/index.adp

Microsoft .NET Messenger, messenger.msn.com/

Microsoft TV Messenger, www.microsoft.com/TV/

Yahoo! Messenger, messenger.yahoo.com/

Wireless Instant Messaging

RIM, Blackberry Service, www.rim.net

Nokia, Communicator, www.nokiausa.com/communicator


55

12Receiving Alerts and

Notifications: Microsoft .NET Alerts

lthough alerts and notifications are not gadgets in and ofthemselves, receiving them on gadgets such as mobile phones,pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), traditional desktop

computers, and laptops can be an excellent way to stay connected tokey items of information like news and weather updates, financialinformation, calendar events and appointment reminders, travel noti-fications, and shopping and auction alerts.

Along with instant messaging, alerts and notifications havebecome one of the early killer applications on wireless devices forconsumers and businesses alike. They have all the characteristics to besuccessful in the mobile medium. They are short in terms of contentlength (and therefore can be read easily on handheld devices), theycontain important and timely information, and are able to be actedupon by the recipient.

Alerts and notifications can be distributed over several types ofmessaging protocol, such as email and instant messaging, and can be

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sent to virtually any device type. Users can also specify preferences interms of what types of information they would like to subscribe toand how and when they wish to be notified.

The service we’ll look at for this profile is the Microsoft .NETAlerts service. This service is part of their family of .NET Services,which also includes the .Net Passport service discussed in an earlierprofile. The .NET Alerts service is free and provides end users withaccess to alerts from a large number of service providers.

How It Works

To sign up for the .NET Alerts service, you’ll want to get a .NET Pass-port. Once you have a login, you can go to the Microsoft .NET Alertssign-in page at http://alerts.microsoft.com. This Web site allows youto manage alerts, add new alerts, view your alert history, set alertpreferences, and turn alerts on or off. Although your alerts will bereceived on a variety of devices that you specify, this centralized alertsWeb site is the place where you administer overall preferences andalert subscriptions. Figure 12-1 shows the .NET Alerts Web site.

To add a new alert, you click on the Add Alerts menu item and selectfrom a number of alert providers. These providers include companiessuch as Credit Suisse, eBay, ESPN Sports, Expedia.com, McAfee.com,MSN Autos, MSN Calendar, MSN eShop, MSN Money, MSN Music,MSNBC News, Nasdaq.com, uBid Online Auctions, and weather.com.You can also see alerts available in countries outside of the United Statesby selecting your country from a drop-down listbox.

Sample Scenario: Adding an Alert on Nasdaq.com

1. Go to the Microsoft .NET Alerts Web site.2. Sign in by entering your .NET Passport email address and password.3. Choose “Add Alerts” from the menu.4. Select Nasdaq.com from the alert providers list.5. Choose where your alerts are delivered.6. Enter a stock symbol and the percentage change up or down on

which you wish to be alerted. You can also enter an alert for an up target or down target for the stock.

Receiving Alerts and Notifications: Microsoft .NET Alerts 57

7. Select the time of day for which this alert is valid. This can be either premarket, regular hours, or after hours.

8. Click on Add Alerts and then Finish to complete your setup.

Benefits

In general, alerts and notifications can provide you with key informa-tion that you may need in real time in order to make decisions. Stockalerts are a typical example of when timeliness is everything. You mayalso wish to take advantage of less time-sensitive but equally impor-tant alerts related to upcoming calendar events and appointments.

The benefit of a service such as Microsoft .NET Alerts is that itcan help you to simplify your management of alerts and notificationsvia a single, centralized Web site. Instead of having tens of differentWeb sites to log in to (most likely using different usernames and pass-

Figure 12-1 Microsoft .NET Alerts Web site.


words, and having to enter and update preferences for each and everyWeb site), you can maintain these preferences at a single site.

Your preferences can include a list of your wireless and desktopdevices and a routing order of how you wish to be notified basedupon your status. For example, if you are online on your desktop, youmay well wish to receive alerts via an instant messenger product suchas MSN Messenger. Conversely, if your instant messaging status isoffline, you may wish to receive alerts via your regular email inbox.


One of the key considerations when setting up alerts is to get thenumber of types of alerts and the frequency of these alerts configuredto a manageable level. Too few alerts may cause you to miss criticalupdates, and too many alerts may cause you to be bombarded withless critical information. If you receive too many alerts, you may alsofind that your wireless phone bill is affected. For example, receivingdaily weather notifications or infrequent but large messages can addto your data charges on devices such as RIM pagers. You’ll probablyfind you’re paying a fee per kB of data transferred, so watching thesize of the alerts and their frequency can help you balance their bene-fits versus their costs.

Contact Information

Microsoft .NET Alerts, Home Page, www.microsoft.com/netser-vices/alerts/default.asp

Microsoft .NET Alerts, Login Page, http://alerts.microsoft.com/Alerts/Default.aspx


59

13Using Voice over the

Internet: Groove Networks

any of us use the Internet for collaborating with friends andfor telecommuting with fellow employees, customers, andbusiness partners. Although we use the Internet for the

email part of the equation and perhaps for online application sharingvia products such as Microsoft NetMeeting or WebEx, we oftenresort to the plain old telephone for the voice part of these meetings.This can be costly and can also be difficult to juggle unless you’reequipped with a headset or speakerphone.

The solution to this problem is close at hand. Products such asGroove from Groove Networks feature built-in support for voiceover the Internet. Groove provides knowledge workers with the abil-ity to create and manage ad-hoc groups to conduct business pro-cesses in a far richer, collaborative environment than the disjointedphone, email, and fax interactions typical of today’s home office andwork environment. As Groove Networks states it, the technologyhelps people in different companies or different divisions reduce their

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“cost of connection” in collaborating with one another and perform-ing their work.

Groove Networks, based in Beverly, Massachusetts, is one of themajor companies in this collaborative computing arena. The companywas founded in October 1997 by Ray Ozzie, the initial creator of LotusNotes. Groove’s product is a collaborative peer-to-peer technology thatincorporates most available communications technologies, includinglive voice chat over the Internet, instant messaging, text-based chat,document-sharing, threaded discussion, and many other tools.

How It Works

One of the most interesting aspects of the Groove platform is that it isbased upon a peer-to-peer architecture using technology based onextensible markup language (XML). The platform acts as a client-sideor “personal” portal. End users download and install the Groove cli-ent on their desktops and are able to create their own “shared spaces”and invite others to join. They can select from a variety of tool sets,such as a calendar, contact manager, discussion, files, notepad, orWeb browser, to place into the shared space. A conversation toolallows end users to engage in live voice chat, which runs over theirstandard IP network connection. Joint activity tools allow cobrows-ing of PowerPoint presentations and coediting of Microsoft Worddocuments. The Groove software also tracks who is online and who isactive within a shared space.

Figure 13-1 shows the Groove Project Toolset Space and the voicechat controls in the lower-left corner. Once your colleagues are onlineand active in your space, you can chat with them on the Internet bysimply clicking on the Hold-To-Talk button. This button works like awalkie-talkie. You hold it down to speak, and then release it to hearyour colleagues respond. If you want to talk for an extended period oftime, you can click the Lock option next to the Hold-To-Talk button.The options for live talking include a default one-to-all setting wherethe user who presses the Hold-To-Talk button first can speak toeveryone, and a conference mode that allows all users to talk simulta-neously. You can adjust speaker volume via the control below theHold-To-Talk button. An audio tuning wizard helps you to adjust

Using Voice over the Internet: Groove Networks 61

your speaker and microphone volume to their optimum settings foryour equipment.

Sample Scenario: Conducting a Voice Over IP Conversation

1. Download and install Groove on your desktop.2. Launch the Groove application and click on Create Shared

Space… to create a shared space for online collaboration.3. Select the software components, such as calendar, contact man-

ager, files, notepad, and browser, that you wish to use within your shared space.

4. Enter a name for your shared space and enter the names of peo-ple you wish to invite to the space.

5. Click Finish to create the shared space and invite your partici-pants.

6. Once people are online and active within your shared space, use theHold-To-Talk button to use the Groove audio chat functionality.

Figure 13-1 Groove Project Toolset Space showing the Audio Chat buttons.


Benefits

Groove’s voice over IP functionality means that you can save the costfor long-distance telephone calls by using your existing Internet con-nection to carry the voice communications instead. In addition, theoverall Groove collaborative platform can help to increase your pro-ductivity over traditional email, phone, and fax-based techniques bybringing everything together under one roof, or one application.

Beyond the collaborative functionality, some of the platform fea-tures that make Groove suitable as a robust business tool include itsability to automatically traverse enterprise firewalls by tunnelingusing standard Internet communication protocols, to encrypt databoth over the wire and on disk to keep data confidential, and to pro-vide an open application programming interface for custom enhance-ments. The platform also supports online and offline usage andsynchronizes with other peers when reconnected. Groove’s customersinclude consumers and small-to-large businesses. Some of its largercorporate customers include GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever.


The Groove product is currently a free download from the company’sWeb site if for personal use. A free CD is also available. You can startcollaborating with friends and business colleagues right away bydownloading and installing the Groove client software, which takesjust a few minutes to configure. The free download is for personal useor for a 90-day business evaluation. Business users who wish to pur-chase the product can select either a standard or professional editionof the software for $49 or $99 per user, respectively. Both of these edi-tions utilize the Groove hosted relay and management services. Enter-prises wishing to deploy these servers internally within their corporatefirewalls can buy these services for an additional cost.

Contact Information

Groove Networks, www.groove.net


63

14Video Conferencing

with Your PC: WebEx

veryone who conducts business with customers and partners inother parts of the country or other parts of the world knowshow expensive today’s travel can be. In addition, simply getting

to and from meetings can take half a day each way, if not longer. Forclosing a key deal and getting to know customers, there’s really nobetter way than meeting in person and getting the face-to-face time,but for many business meetings with well-known customers, partners,or work colleagues, holding a meeting over the Internet can be ahighly productive use of time and highly cost-effective.

One of the companies that offers these types of online collabora-tive services is WebEx. The company offers data conferencing, tele-conferencing, and video conferencing services over its global WebExInteractive Network (WIN). Some of the features available include theability to share any application and any document, to share yourentire computer desktop, and to use live video conferencing. You canalso record an entire meeting for later use. Being able to share yourdesktop and applications means that you can conduct events and sem-

E


inars, product demonstrations, training, and even sales and customersupport functions by walking your customers through an interactivedemo over the Internet.

How It Works

WebEx services are grouped into four main offerings: Meeting Center,OnStage, Support Center, and Training Center. All four have manyfeatures in common but also add their own unique features and bene-fits specific to the particular purpose. The WebEx platform supportsnumerous industry standards for collaboration, including instant mes-saging/presence protocol (IMPP), extensible markup language (XML)for access to various application program interfaces (APIs), H.323 foraudio and video communications, and T.120 for real-time multipointdata communications.

Meeting Center is used for running online meetings where youwish to make a presentation and walk your customers through a pre-sentation, such as Microsoft PowerPoint or any other applicationdemonstration. Online meetings can be held in either of two ways.They can be conducted instantly, or they can be scheduled for sometime in the future. If a meeting is scheduled, participants are first noti-fied of the meeting via email. The email provides them with a meetinginvitation that includes a link to the WebEx Web address for the meet-ing, plus the appropriate telephone dial-in information. Participantsalso receive a meeting password in order to log in to your meeting.Meetings are conducted inside standard Web browsers on your desk-top, so most office PCs or laptops are suitable for either hosting orparticipating in a meeting. The following features and considerationssection provides some additional information on these technicalrequirements. You can even attend a meeting by using a wirelesshandheld device, such as a Palm V or VII equipped with a wirelessmodem. The solution itself is fully hosted, so there’s no requirementon your part to set up anything other than the actual meeting logis-tics. All the IT requirements and functionality are provided over theWeb as a hosted service. Figure 14-1 shows a typical WebEx meetingin progress.

Video Conferencing with Your PC: WebEx 65

Sample Scenario: Hosting a Meeting

1. Register and log in to WebEx.2. Click Host A Meeting in the menu bar.3. Click Schedule a Meeting in the menu bar and enter your meet-

ing’s date and time.4. Enter additional meeting information, such as the topic of the

meeting and an optional meeting password.5. Enter attendee names and whether or not you want to require

registration.6. Select the meeting features you wish to utilize within the meeting,

such as desktop sharing, application sharing, and so on.7. Enter an optional agenda for the meeting.8. Select Schedule to submit your entries and schedule the meeting.

You can also schedule meetings through Microsoft Outlook.

Figure 14-1 WebEx Meeting Center showing a meeting in progress (Source: WebEx).


OnStage is focused on events and seminar presentations. It allowsfor presentation and application sharing, and it adds a number of fea-tures, such as voice over IP, question and answer capabilities, pollingfor instant feedback, and replay recordings after the event.

Support Center is targeted at customer-support representatives(CSRs) and enables them to take remote control of a customer’s systemor application to make fixes once they have the customer’s approval.The product also enables files to be uploaded or downloaded betweenthe CSR’s system and the customer system. In this way, CSRs caninstall software upgrades or bug fixes without having to be physicallypresent at the customer site. Additional functionality within the Sup-port Center solution includes the ability to invite more CSRs or cus-tomer staff to the meeting, to redirect printouts from the customer’ssystem to the CSR’s system, to record support sessions, and to workacross a number of platforms, including Windows and Sun Solaris.

Training Center has many of the features of the other offeringsand includes unique features such as integration with learning man-agement systems, session registration and reporting, threaded Q&A,testing and grading functionality, breakout sessions for collaborationon a remote application or document, and the ability to deliver multi-media training content.

Benefits

Benefits of online collaboration services such as WebEx include thetime and cost savings of being able to conduct meetings remotely plusthe depth of functionality provided. These services provide a wealthof features that can help small or large businesses with their sales,support, and training activities, and can add an extra level of profes-sionalism to business presentations.

Another benefit is the fine-grained level of user access that can begranted to each meeting and the level of access to documents andfiles. For example, you can use a WebEx meeting center to provide apresentation to clients while keeping your actual files and data secure.When you configure the initial meeting, you have the option of speci-fying attendee privileges, such as the save, print, and annotate permis-sions for your documents. With the Internet and email meaning that

Video Conferencing with Your PC: WebEx 67

business plans and other sensitive information can be distributedaround the world within seconds, having the security of being able topresent a PowerPoint document without having to send out the actualfiles can be a valuable capability.


When using a service such as WebEx, consider your organization’s fre-quency of usage and number of participants. You’ll typically pay permonth for a bundle of services, or per user per minute on a pay-per-use basis. WebEx offers several payment plans that include a pay-per-use program starting at 45 cents per minute per user, and a businesssubscription service requiring a monthly fee. The Conference Centerservice from PlaceWare, another provider in the same software cate-gory, starts at 35 cents per minute per user, and offers monthly usagerates of $375 for a 5-seat license or $750 for a 10-seat license.

The WebEx business subscription service offers additional func-tionality not present in the pay-per-use program. This additional func-tionality includes customized corporate branding, more customer andtechnical support, higher levels of security, a dedicated account man-ager, and WebEx APIs for integration with your enterprise applica-tions such as learning management systems.

In terms of system requirements, WebEx supports most flavors ofdesktop operating system, including Windows, Mac OS, Solaris, andLinux. Most recent versions of Netscape and Internet Explorerbrowsers are supported and your Internet connection can be 56K orhigher. Broadband connections are the preferred types of connection,because meeting presentations typically involve a number of screentransitions as the moderator moves from slide to slide or across appli-cation windows.

Contact Information

PlaceWare, www.placeware.com

WebEx, www.webex.com


68

15In-Car Safety and Security: OnStar

ne of the first words that comes to mind when we think aboutin-car safety and security is OnStar. The company is a whollyowned subsidiary of General Motors and is the nation’s lead-

ing provider of in-vehicle safety, security, and information servicesusing the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network and wire-less technology. The service was launched in fall 1996 and is nowavailable on all Cadillacs, Buicks, Saabs, and Saturns, all GM minivansand sport utilities, and a large range of midsize sedans from Chevrolet,Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. In fact, for 2003, GM is offering OnStar ser-vices in 44 out of its 53 models. OnStar currently has over 2 millionsubscribers and has handled over 10 million responses since 1996.

The service provided by OnStar includes automatic notification ofair bag deployment, stolen vehicle location, emergency services, road-side assistance with location, remote door unlock, remote diagnostics,route support, OnStar concierge, and convenience services. Two addi-tional services, introduced in 2001, include Personal Calling, whichprovides hands-free, voice-activated phone calls, and Virtual Advisor,

O

In-Car Safety and Security: OnStar 69

which provides access to personalized Web-based information in ahands-free, voice-activated manner. We’ll look at Personal Callingand Virtual Advisor in more detail in the following section on in-carinformation and entertainment, but for now we’ll focus on the safetyand security aspects of the service.

How It Works

The OnStar service works by combining GPS satellite and wirelesstechnology with personal assistance from OnStar advisors. The advi-sors work in the OnStar Center, which runs 24 hours a day, 365 days ayear. In situations such as an air bag deployment, an advisor is auto-matically notified and will call you in your car to see if you need help.If you don’t respond, they’ll immediately dispatch emergency assistanceto your vehicle and provide them with your vehicle’s exact location.

Inside a vehicle equipped with OnStar, all you’ll really notice fromthe front seat are the three buttons located just below the rear-viewmirror, on the overhead panel, or mounted on the dashboard (Figure15-1; Plate 9). These buttons are the blue OnStar button for connect-ing to the OnStar Center, the red emergency button for emergencies,and the white dot button for OnStar Personal Calling or for access tothe Virtual Advisor service.

Once activated, the buttons all work in a hands-free manner. Anintegrated microphone picks up your voice, and an OnStar advisorcan speak to you through your audio system speakers. There are nodisplays that could distract you from driving.

Sample Scenario: In Case of Accident

1. Driver presses OnStar red emergency button, or OnStar is auto-matically notified in the event of an air bag deployment.

2. An OnStar advisor is notified at the OnStar Center via a wireless call from your vehicle.

3. Advisor calls you in your car to see if you need help.4. If you request assistance, or if you don’t respond, OnStar advisor

dispatches emergency assistance to your vehicle.5. Your exact location is determined by GPS positioning, which is

part of the OnStar service.


Benefits

The benefits of the OnStar service over traditional mobile phoneusage for emergency or roadside assistance calls are obviously safetyand ease-of-use. Pushing one button is a lot safer than fumbling for amobile phone and trying to dial for help in the event of an emergency.

The GPS satellite technology means that the OnStar advisors willknow exactly where you are and will be able to remotely unlock yourcar doors or remotely perform diagnostics on your vehicle as necessary.The automatic notification in the event of an air bag deployment isanother benefit to the system. The stolen vehicle tracking feature meansthat OnStar can inform the proper authorities of your car’s where-abouts in the event of theft. Roadside assistance and accident assistanceare two other features that can also help to bring added peace of mind.

The OnStar MED-NET service allows authorized medical person-nel access to your personal medical history so that they can get infor-

Figure 15-1 OnStar Service (Source: OnStar).

In-Car Safety and Security: OnStar 71

mation such as your physician’s name, your blood type, allergies, andmedications. This information is kept secure and confidential and ismade available only in an emergency.


One of the considerations when evaluating the OnStar service is thetype of package you want to select. Three packages are offered basedon your interests. The Safe & Sound Plan offers the safety and secu-rity features, the Directions & Connections Plan offers everything inthe prior plan plus some informational services, and the Luxury &Leisure Plan offers everything in both prior plans plus concierge ser-vices. The Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor offering are availablewith all three plans.

According to OnStar, the Safe & Sound plan costs $199 per yearor $16.95 per month. The Directions & Connections plan costs $399per year or $34.95 per month. Luxury & Leisure costs $799 per yearor $69.95 per month. Signing up for a two-, three-, or four-year planwill lower those yearly payments.

Safe & Sound PlanDirections & Connections Plan

Luxury & Leisure Plan

• Automatic Notification of Air Bag Deployment

• Emergency Services• OnStar MED-NET• Roadside Assistance• Stolen-Vehicle

Tracking• AccidentAssist• Remote Door Unlock• Remote Diagnostics• Online Concierge• Remote Horn and

Lights

• Safe & Sound Plan plus:• Route Support• RideAssist• Information /

Convenience Services

• Directions & Connections Plan plus:

• Concierge Services


Contact Information

OnStar Service

OnStar, www.onstar.com

OnStar Subscriber Assistance, 1-888-4-ONSTAR

OnStar General Information, 1-800-ONSTAR-7 (1-800-667-8277), or visit your nearest General Motors Dealer.

OnStar Availability

BuickCenturyLeSabrePark

AvenueRegalRendezvous

CadillacCTSDeVilleEldoradoEscalade

EXTSeville

ChevroletAvalancheImpalaMonte CarloSilveradoSurburbanTahoeTrailBlazerTrailBlazer EXTVenture

GMCEnvoyEnvoy XLSierraSierra DenaliYukonYukon DenaliYukon XL

Denali

HummerH2

OldsmobileAuroraBravadaIntrigueSilhouette

PontiacAztekBonnevilleGrand PrixMontana

Saab9-39-5

SaturnVUE


73

16In-Car Information and Entertainment: OnStar

and MobileAria

he range of products and services now available for in-carinformation and entertainment is substantial. Today’s choicesinclude services such as satellite radio from XM and Sirius,

telematics services from OnStar and MobileAria, and many consumerelectronics capabilities such as in-vehicle DVD players, MP3 players,and other types of entertainment systems. The satellite radio servicesfrom XM and Sirius are covered in another profile, so in this sectionwe’ll focus on some of the telematics features from companies such asOnStar and MobileAria.

In the information and entertainment category, OnStar offers twoservices called Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor in addition totheir three types of OnStar packages. Personal Calling allows you toinitiate voice-activated calls and to receive calls in your car. VirtualAdvisor provides the ability to access personalized Web-based con-tent, such as news, stocks, entertainment, and weather (Plate 10). Vir-tual Advisor can also read your email to you. In terms of content

T


providers, Virtual Advisor includes content from Fidelity Investments,ESPN.com, Disney.com, ABCNEWS.com, Wall Street Journal online,CNN and CNNfn.

To initiate either of these two services, you simply press the whitedot OnStar button and wait for the “Ready” prompt, which is spokenvia the vehicle’s speakers. The service then operates via a series of spo-ken keywords that inform OnStar of the action you require. Both ofthese services are automated, and you do not need to speak to a liverepresentative. For example, to hear your personalized weather, yousay “Get my weather”; to hear your stock quotes, you say “Get mystocks”; and so on. The nice thing about the weather forecast is thatit’s based upon your vehicle’s current position as determined by theGPS system that is part of the OnStar service. So instead of just hav-ing a personalized weather forecast based on your home address andzip code, you can get detailed weather for your current location—whether it is hundreds of miles from your home or just a few milesdown the road.

If you require live assistance, you can press the blue OnStar but-ton and contact the OnStar Center. This can be useful for requestingdriving directions or other types of information requests, such as con-cierge services. Because the advisors know your vehicle’s position,they can give you step-by-step directions to find the location or ser-vice you seek. For example, when I evaluated OnStar in a 2003 Cadil-lac DeVille, I requested directions to the nearest FedEx drop-offlocation. The advisor provided me with detailed directions to a loca-tion that was just a few miles from my current position and also had aSaturday pickup. Despite living in the area for several years, this wasa new location I had not previously discovered.

MobileAria offers functionality similar to OnStar Personal Call-ing and Virtual Advisor; it includes voice-activated services for phoneand voice mail, email, traffic and directions, a business finder, andnews and information. MobileAria is also part of the Delphi Corpora-tion’s TruckSecure solution, which helps to keep commercial truckscarrying dangerous materials within predetermined routes and awayfrom areas such as airports and power plants. If these vehicles doenter a protected area, the trucks will automatically slow down grad-ually and come to a stop.

In-Car Information and Entertainment: OnStar and MobileAria 75

How It Works

Sample Scenario: Personal Calling with OnStar

1. Press the white dot button to connect to Personal Calling.2. Say “Call” to call a contact by name, or say “Dial” to call a con-

tact by number.3. Say the name of the person to call, such as “Jim at home,” or say

the number to dial one number at a time.4. The Personal Calling service will place your call.

When you receive an incoming call, your current radio program-ming will be interrupted and you’ll hear the ringing tone. You answerby pressing the white dot button from the three OnStar buttons (Fig-ure 16-1) that are typically mounted below the rear view mirror invehicles such as the 2003 Cadillac DeVille, and you can then conductyour conversation in a safe, hands-free manner. To hang up onceyou’ve finished, you simply hit the white dot button again.

Sample Scenario: Virtual Advisor with OnStar

1. Press the white dot button to connect to Virtual Advisor.2. Say “Virtual Advisor” to connect to the service.3. Listen to the menu of choices and then speak the service you

require, such as “Get My Financial Services.”4. Listen to your personalized financial services report.

You can personalize your Virtual Advisor settings by visitingwww.myOnStar.com from your home computer. For example, you canenter specific company stocks that you’d like to have tracked by theservice and read out to you when you call Virtual Advisor. You can alsospeak a particular company name or stock symbol on the fly if there’s astock you want to research but have not entered in your profile.

Figure 16-1 OnStar buttons (Source: OnStar).


Benefits

The benefits of in-vehicle information and entertainment includesafety, convenience, and productivity. For commuters, sales people,and busy moms, hands-free, voice-activated phone calls and informa-tion access is far safer than having to fumble for mobile phones or per-sonal digital assistants. Services such as Virtual Advisor can alsopersonalize content so that these people have access to the informationthey care about rather than having to listen through lengthy newscastsor weather forecasts until they get the information they need.

In the case of in-vehicle DVD and MP3 players, back-seat passen-gers can be kept occupied and the driver is more able to focus on theroad. In-vehicle GPS navigation systems such as those found on manyof the 2003 models from Ford and GM can help drivers get safely totheir destinations even when driving in unfamiliar territory.


For Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor, you pay by purchasing prepaidminutes of airtime. The packages range from 30 minutes to 1,200 min-utes and are available for one-, two-, or twelve-month periods. Whenyou need more minutes, you can simply press the white dot OnStar but-ton and say “Units” then “Replenish” to connect to an OnStar advisorwho can download additional minutes for you and have them billed toyour credit card. The wireless service across the United States is providedby Verizon Wireless and is competitive with other prepaid plans.

Contact Information

OnStar, www.onstar.com

OnStar Subscriber Assistance, 1-888-4-ONSTAR

OnStar General Information, 1-800-ONSTAR-7 (1-800-667-8277), or visit your nearest General Motors Dealer

MobileAria, www.mobilearia.com


77

17Finding Your Way:

Magellan Meridian GPS Receivers

or anyone who is an avid outdoors type, handheld GPS devicescan be great companions. These products are lightweight,robust, and can provide your geographic location to amazing

levels of accuracy—often to within three meters or better. In addition,whether you are on land or at sea, they can help you plot your courseand track your position by providing you with a wealth of data,including your heading, bearing, speed, direction, estimated time ofarrival, nearby points of interest, and much more. Many productsallow you to upload detailed regional maps onto the device so thatyou can see your position in relation to major and minor roads andpathways, vertical topographies, and points of interest such as cities,airports, major waterways, and political boundaries.

One of the major manufacturers in this field is Thales Navigation.The company offers a number of models, all designed with a slightlydifferent end user in mind, such as outdoor enthusiasts, road war-riors, or mariners. Their consumer brand of GPS receivers are theMagellan series, of which the Meridian Platinum is one of their mostadvanced models (Figure 17-1; Plate 11).

F


How It Works

GPS receivers work by connecting to satellites orbiting the Earth aspart of the global positioning system (GPS). The United States GPSsystem is actually just one example of what is known as the GlobalNavigation Satellite System (GNSS). Another example of a GNSS isthe Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONAS), and athird, named GALILEO, is scheduled to begin service in 2008.

The United States GPS system uses a network of 24 satellitestransmitting high-frequency radio signals that are picked up by thehandheld GPS receiver. Because these satellites are distributed aroundthe world, any receiver will typically pick up just a few of these sig-nals, but enough to determine an accurate positional fix for the user.

Originally, the GPS system was operated with Selective Availabil-ity (SA) by the U.S. Department of Defense in order to prevent non-

Figure 17-1 Magellan Meridian Platinum GPS Handheld (Source: Thales Navigation).

Finding Your Way: Magellan Meridian GPS Receivers 79

military applications from gaining access to the high levels of accu-racy that the system provided. In the wrong hands, GPS systems couldbe used for missile targeting purposes. This SA setting meant that thesignal was purposefully degraded for consumer applications so thatpositional information was only accurate to within 100 meters. In2000, the SA degradation was turned off and consumers can nowgain an accuracy of 15 meters using standard GPS devices. Additionalsignal correction techniques, such as Wide Area Augmentation System(WAAS) or European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service(EGNOS), can enable today’s GPS receivers to gain accuracies ofthree meters or better. WAAS was developed by the FAA and providesnavigation correction and validation to improve the accuracy of a fixby at least five times. It does this via monitoring stations and WAASsatellites that can send the GPS error correction information to aWAAS-capable handheld GPS receiver.

Benefits

Besides safety, GPS receivers provide increased recreational benefitsfor outdoor enthusiasts and navigational benefits for shipping. Thesehandheld units can tell you your current location; can track yourcourse, direction, and speed; and can help you reach chosen destina-tions. The Meridian Platinum has seven navigation displays thatinclude a map screen, compass screen, speedometer, and text displaysfor heading, bearing, speed, direction, and estimated time of arrival.Additionally, a satellite status screen provides information on the sat-ellites that are in view, their location relative to your position, andtheir relative signal strength.

The number of different screen displays are of great benefit to suita variety of usage scenarios. For example, if you’re boating and havea receiver mounted to your boat, the large data screen display typecan provide essential information such as heading, bearing, speed,and distance in a large font for easy viewing. The speedometer screencan be useful for a road style display with a speedometer and a graph-ical road that actually turns when you need to make a change in direc-tion. Most of these screens are customizable so that you can have thepositional information you need added to any of these screen styles.



Several considerations are necessary when you select a GPS receiver.Some of the main considerations include horizontal and vertical accu-racy; battery life; number of configurable navigation screens; numberof routes, waypoints, and track-points that can be stored; and thetypes of maps that can be uploaded. Some of the newer devices, suchas the Magellan Meridian Color, also offer full-color displays. TheMeridian Color has a 16-color, 120 x 160 pixel display. Battery life istypically up to 14 hours and is provided via two AA batteries.

Waypoints are map locations you can store in the device to chartyour route. A multileg route would have multiple waypoints includingthe starting and ending location. Most receivers have plenty of stor-age space for these waypoints and routes. The Meridian Platinum canstore up to 20 routes, 500 waypoints, and 2,000 track-points.

The amount of data you can upload is dictated by the amount ofmemory supported. Most receivers support anywhere from 2MB to128MB of storage via a standard Secure Digital (SD) memory card.Data can be uploaded by connecting the receiver to a standard PC viaa special cable, which is typically provided when you purchase thedevice. The Magellan MapSend software comes on a standard CD-ROM and provides an application for you to select the portions of themap that you wish to upload to your device. When you select a rect-angular portion of the map by using the MapSend software, the pro-gram tells you the size of data that will be uploaded. In this way, youcan upload the appropriate amount of data to your device while stillstaying within the size constraints of your SD memory card.

Contact Information

Thales Navigation, www.thalesnavigation.com

Magellan GPS, www.magellangps.com


81

18Tracking the Kids:

Wherify GPS Personal Locator

ave you ever wanted a way to track your kids? A LoJack forkids perhaps? Well, this very type of device is on the markettoday. Wherify Wireless makes a GPS personal locator for

children that is a wearable tracking device (Figure 18-1; Plate 12).Kids wear the device around their wrists, like a wristwatch, and par-ents can track them by either calling a telephone number or using theInternet. The locator relies on GPS technology for position determina-tion plus a wireless network for transmission of that location infor-mation to the Wherify location service center. Beyond being a locator,the device also functions as a pager and a watch. The device isdesigned for children who are four to twelve years old and comes intwo colors and two wrist sizes.

H


How It Works

Sample Scenario: Locate Function

1. Go to WherifyWireless.com, enter your user ID and securitycode, and click on Locate.

2. Click on Locator Functions.3. Select the locator (the device you want to track). 4. Select an action to perform (this can be Perform Locate, Perform

Breadcrumb, View Location History, or Send Page).

To locate someone wearing the device, Wherify provides twooptions. You can either call a special telephone number provided byWherify when you sign up for the service, or you can use the Internet.

Figure 18-1 Wherify Wireless GPS Personal Locator (Source: Wherify).

Tracking the Kids: Wherify GPS Personal Locator 83

For the Internet option, you go to WherifyWireless.com and log in asdescribed in the sample scenario. A series of menu options allow youto perform various locator functions on the device. If you select Per-form Locate, you can view your child’s location on either an aerial-photo-style map or on a traditional street map. A Locate means thatthe device is requested to take a GPS position fix and send that infor-mation over the wireless network back to the Wherify location servicecenter, where it is made available via phone or the Internet; you’rebasically using remote control to request the device to take a positionfix and send it back to you. This locate process typically takes aboutone minute to complete. On the Web page, zoom features allow youto pinpoint your child’s location on the aerial map or the street map.The nearest street address, along with the date and time that the loca-tion fix was taken, is provided as part of the Web page.

A View Location History feature allows you to view a group ofprior locates on the aerial map or street map. The system allows youto view up to 30 days of prior data that has been captured. A PerformBreadcrumb feature allows you to perform periodic, automaticlocates instead of having to initiate each one manually. Finally, a SendPage feature allows you to page your child on his or her device bysending a short text message.

The device itself is lockable to ensure that it won’t get lost, and isalso tamper and cut-resistant to make it harder to be removed force-fully. The device can be unlocked remotely either over the phone orover the Internet. A button on the device can be pressed in order tolock it, and a key fob can be used to lock or unlock the device in amanner similar to the way you lock and unlock your car.

Benefits

Obviously, the main benefit of this device is that it helps ensure yourchild’s safety. With a variety of features on the device, you’re able tolocate people remotely and allow them to send out their own distresssignals in case of emergency. The user can simply press two buttonson the locator simultaneously for three seconds to have their locationand direction passed on to the Wherify emergency operators. Once


they have validated the emergency, they can dispatch local authoritiesdirectly to the wearer’s location. In this regard, the device functionsmuch like the emergency call button on the OnStar system that welooked at in an earlier profile.


If you’re contemplating this type of device for your children, there area number of things to consider. If the cost and monthly service fee arenot an issue, then the next consideration is whether or not your kidsare willing to wear the device, and then how effective and reliable itwill be in everyday use. Wherify seems to have thought about most ofthe practicalities concerning the use of these devices by young chil-dren. For example, if you are worried that your young child mayaccidentally set off the emergency response request, you can deacti-vate this feature as part of your preferences setup on the Internet. Ifsomeone tries to cut or tamper with the wrist band when the device isin locked status, an alarm will be activated at the Wherify locationservice center. The device is water resistant, but should be removedfor swimming.

The only apparent weakness for the device, in terms of its reliabil-ity in case of emergency, appears to be the wireless network coverageitself. This, of course, is an issue even with standard wireless phones.If the device is inside a building or in a poor wireless coverage area, itmay not be able to send a locate request back to the location servicecenter. The wireless connection is a vital part of the entire solution;without it, the service does not work. Another consideration is bat-tery life. The built-in battery enables the device to work for close to60 hours of standby time, and to perform up to about 40 locateswhen fully charged.

If you intend to purchase this or a similar device, check that youhave good cellular coverage in the areas where your child typicallyfrequents. Wherify provides a way to check for coverage by inputtingyour zip code on their Web site. You’ll also want to spend some timetraining your child on how to use the device and ensure that you havethe discipline to keep the device regularly charged. Although it isobviously not a guarantee of safety—and should not be used to leave

Tracking the Kids: Wherify GPS Personal Locator 85

your child unattended or as a virtual babysitter—this service can pro-vide vital information about your child’s location in the event thatthey require assistance.

The GPS Personal Locator sells for $399.99 plus a monthly ser-vice charge. The monthly charge is for the wireless service to thedevice plus the various locates, pages, and remote unlocks that youperform. A variety of plans offers varying numbers of locates andpages per month. For example, the base plan offers up to 20 locatesand pages per month, whereas the highest level plan offers up to 80. Ifyou go over the limit for these locates and pages, you pay a per-usefee, which is typically under a dollar. Live operator-assisted locates,pages, remote unlocks, or 911 panic alerts are charged at a higher feeof $5 to $15.

Contact Information

Wherify Wireless, www.wherifywireless.com


86

19Taking Digital Photos:

Nikon Coolpix

lthough digital cameras have been around for a while andmay seem fairly mainstream, the fact is that they are rapidlygaining features and popularity and are dropping in price. If

you’ve ever scanned your traditional print photos and stored them asimages on disk in order to email them to friends and relatives, digitalcameras can streamline the process and make photography literally asnap—if you’ll excuse the pun!

Emailing photos to friends and relatives can now be as simple astaking the picture with a digital camera, plugging the camera into aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) port on your computer, clicking a down-load button within a software program on your PC to send the pic-tures to your hard disk, and then clicking an email button within thesame program to launch your email program. Cameras such as theCoolpix 4500 from Nikon provide everything you need to achievethis, including all the necessary cables and software (Plate 21). Thiscamera also supports viewing of your digital photos on your televi-sion set. All you need to do is plug in the audio/video cable provided

A

Taking Digital Photos: Nikon Coolpix 87

with the camera and use the camera’s playback button to displayyour pictures.

Many cameras like the Coolpix offer the ability to add audiocommentary up to about 20 seconds long to your photos, and mayeven include the ability to record movies for a short time. TheCoolpix 4500 can take up to 35 seconds of film at a rate of about 15frames per second. In this particular example, the movie is recorded inQuickTime format.

With digital cameras you get the ability to preview your photoson an LCD display on the camera, annotate them with audio com-mentary; download them to your PC for viewing, editing, archiving,printing, and emailing; and view them as slide shows on your PC ortelevision. As mentioned, you may also be able to shoot short movieswith your camera. Gone are the days of having to wait hours or evendays to have your pictures processed at the local store. Once you’vepaid for your digital camera, the rest is mostly free! Because there’s nofilm, all you need to buy are the memory cards to store your pictures.These are relatively cheap and can store tens or even hundreds of pho-tos at a time.

The typical cost items related to taking photos with digital cam-eras come on the printing side, because you’ll need to buy glossy photopaper and expensive ink if you wish to print your pictures. Whetheryou’re printing photos or simply plain text, ink is always expensive ifpurchased from the manufacturer, and some new alternatives includethe ability to purchase refill kits from third-party suppliers.

How It Works

The resolution of today’s digital cameras can easily equal that of tra-ditional 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. Professional photog-raphers are able to enlarge prints of their digital photos, even toposter sizes, and still have them indistinguishable from equivalent-sized prints from 35mm film. For digital cameras, the measure ofimage resolution is the number of pixels contained within the image.A pixel corresponds to a single “cell” or element on a computerscreen. Digital cameras typically range from about 2–6 megapixels


and even higher. The higher the number, the better the image resolu-tion and the better suited it is to enlargement without becominggrainy and losing resolution.

Entry-level cameras are often 2 megapixels, intermediate camerasare about 4 megapixels, and more advanced professional cameras are5 megapixels and higher. As an example, a 640 x 480 pixel (VGA)computer screen image would be composed of 307,200 pixels, whichis just 0.31 megapixels. A picture 2,272 x 1,704 pixels in size, such asthat taken by the Nikon Coolpix 4500, is 3.87 megapixels and pro-vides a much finer resolution.

When printing a digital photo, there’s a simple formula you canuse. By dividing the pixel resolution by the number of dots per inch(DPI) with which you intend to print your photo, you can determinethe size of print that you can create.

Print Size = Pixel Resolution of Image / Dots Per Inch of Print

For example, the 2,272 x 1,704 pixel image taken by the Coolpix4500 would be approximately 7.5 x 5.5 inches when printed at 300dpi. So this type of camera is great for 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 prints. In con-trast, a 640 x 480 pixel image would be satisfactory for viewing on asmall VGA computer screen or for sending via email, but it would notprint well at all.

When you take photos, the images are typically stored on a mem-ory card that is slotted into your camera. Cards come in capacitiesranging from about 16MB to 1GB. The amount of memory taken byeach photo depends on the resolution of the image. A 2,272 x 1,704pixel image would take up approximately 800kB of disk space, so youcould fit approximately 20 pictures on a 16MB card, 40 pictures on a32MB card, and so on.

Sample Scenario: Transferring Pictures to Your Computer

This scenario is specific to the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and theNikon View 5 software that is provided with the camera, but othermakes and models typically follow a similar process.

1. Take digital photos using your Coolpix 4500 camera.2. Install the Nikon View 5 software provided on CD onto your PC.


3. Turn off your camera and connect the camera to the PC by using the USB cable provided.

4. Turn on the camera and click the Transfer button on the Image Transfer pop-up window (Figure 19-1).

5. Images are downloaded from your camera to your PC, and the Nikon Browser software is launched automatically.

6. Using the Nikon Browser software, you can view the photos andoptionally print them out, display them in a slideshow, email them,or publish them to NikonNet or to a personal digital assistant.NikonNet is a Web site where you can upload photos, arrangethem in an album, and invite family and friends to view them.

The whole process can be accomplished in just a couple of min-utes and is easy to do. The photos also transfer quickly to your PCover the USB cable. Most recent PCs have a USB port that you can usefor this purpose. Earlier PCs have serial connections, which can beused instead of USB, but the drawback is that they provide a slowerdata-transfer speed.

Figure 19-1 Nikon Image Transfer software.


Finally, some other techniques for transferring your photos fromyour camera to your PC include the use of memory card readers andalternative storage media. Using a memory card reader, you canremove the memory card from your camera and plug it directly intothe reader connected to your PC. This can help to avoid the use ofcables for serial or USB connections. Alternative media types includestandard 1.44MB floppy disks, and CD and DVD disks. Many cam-eras allow you to write to these media onboard the camera and theninsert directly into your PC.

Benefits

The benefits of digital photography include those mentioned previ-ously together with more real-time image-distribution capabilities.This can be particularly important for photo journalists who need toget a story into circulation quickly for breaking news events, or forrealtors and field service workers who need to get pictures back totheir home base for posting on the Internet or for equipment mainte-nance approvals.

You can edit digital photos on your PC to resize or crop theimage, to take out red-eye, or to make other image enhancements. Ifyou want to convert digital pictures back to print medium, you canalso buy specialized printers that print your photos on glossy paper instandard print formats. Some examples of these printers are listed inthe contact information section below.


When you evaluate digital cameras, some of the technical features toconsider include the image resolution (in megapixels), zoom capabil-ity, audio and video capability, and software for downloading to a PCand managing your images once on disk. You can also look at manyof the features that apply to traditional 35mm SLR cameras, such aslens quality; battery life; size and weight; general ease-of-use; and themodes supported, such as manual, shutter-priority, aperture-priority,


and fully automatic. The manual modes give you a way to customizeyour picture taking to ensure depth-of-field, sharp focus for fast-mov-ing shots, or proper exposure. Although automatic modes typically doa decent job of this, manual modes provide you with ultimate controlin harsher situations where you need to override standard settings.

Some drawbacks to digital cameras are that it is harder to accu-rately compose a photo unless you have a through-the-lens view-finder, the battery life is not as long as in a traditional camera, and theshutter often experiences a short delay in firing. For these reasons,serious or professional photographers will feel more comfortable withthe upper-end digital cameras that have more SLR-like functions interms of accuracy and responsiveness.

Contact Information

Digital Cameras

Canon, www.canon.com

HP, www.hp.com

Kodak, www.kodak.com

Minolta, www.minolta.com

Nikon, www.nikon.com

NikonNet, www.nikonnet.com

Olympus, www.olympus.com

Sony, www.sony.com


Photo Printers


Epson, www.epson.com

HP, www.hp.com

Lexmark, www.lexmark.com


92

20Viewing Digital Photos:

Microsoft TV Photo Viewer

nce you have purchased your digital camera and have down-loaded several photos to your PC, you may wish to view yourphotos in the comfort of your living room to show friends

and family. Connecting your digital camera to your television is oneway to run a slide show, but the problem is that your slide show onlydisplays the latest pictures stored on your memory card. Additionally,these pictures may not be in any particular order or theme unless youhave arranged them on your PC, reloaded onto your memory card,and reinserted the memory card into your camera.

One new way to easily display your photos on your television isby using the Microsoft TV Photo Viewer (Plate 22). The PhotoViewer allows you to organize photos into an album format on yourPC, load them onto a standard floppy disk, and then display them onyour television. You can even use a remote control to browse throughyour album from the comfort of your couch!

In addition to photos, the TV Photo Viewer also allows you toimport Microsoft PowerPoint files for display on your television. Youcan either create TV Photo Viewer–compatible floppy disks directly

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Viewing Digital Photos: Microsoft TV Photo Viewer 93

from your PowerPoint presentation, or you can import the files intothe TV Photo Viewer software to edit or rearrange them prior tosending the files to floppy disk.

How It Works

When you buy the TV Photo Viewer, the package contains a sleek floppydrive unit that connects to your television via your audio/video cables, aremote control to page through your photos, and some software foryour PC that you can use to create albums and load them to diskette.

Sample Scenario: Using the TV Photo Viewer

1. Install the TV Photo Viewer software on your PC.2. Launch the program and create an album from photos on your

PC (Figure 20-1).3. Create a floppy.

Figure 20-1 Microsoft TV Photo Viewer software.


4. Connect the TV Photo Viewer unit to the audio/video connection on your television.

5. Select video input on your television.6. Insert your floppy disk into the TV Photo Viewer.7. Turn on the unit by using your remote control and start viewing

your photos.

Benefits

The TV Photo Viewer is a simple way to quickly create small photoalbums, load them to floppy, and display them on your television. Theremote control is a great bonus for moving forward and backwardthrough your pictures or for automatically running a slide show.

Another benefit is that you can add text titles to your photos toprovide additional information when they are displayed. This is partic-ularly handy for creating an opening title for your slide show and formaking a record of the date and location where the photos were taken.

The TV Photo Viewer unit can stay connected to your television,and insertion of new diskettes with new albums is straightforward. Asan indication of how easy this is, my seven-year-old was able to runthe slide show with a few simple instructions provided over the phonewhile I was away on business.


One minor drawback when viewing photos is that you may notice aslight delay in displaying the next photo if the image has to be readfrom the floppy. This is similar to the delay you may notice whenviewing the same images on a floppy drive connected to your PC.Once the images are loaded, however, the forward and backward nav-igation controls on the remote give you the ability to move almostinstantaneously through your photos onscreen.

When files are stored on disk, they are stored as .PVA files. This isthe photo viewer album format that Microsoft uses to create your

Viewing Digital Photos: Microsoft TV Photo Viewer 95

albums. When you import PowerPoint files, they are also saved in this.PVA format. The Preview Album feature allows you to preview eachphoto or PowerPoint slide, and it duplicates the functionality avail-able via the remote control. In this way you can check your slide showbefore copying the files to floppy.

Contact Information

Microsoft TV Photo Viewer, www.microsoft.com/hardware/tvphotoviewer/


96

21Filming with Digital

Video

ust as digital photography is changing the photographic worldand replacing traditional 35mm film, digital video is doingsomething similar in the world of video. Instead of using stan-

dard-size VHS cassette tapes, VHS-C compact cassette tapes, or eventhe old 8mm film within your camcorder, you can now use a smalldigital format known as Mini-DV. The Mini-DV format offers betterimage detail and color accuracy than traditional camcorders do, andit is a much smaller tape. Due to the digital nature of Mini-DV, or theother digital format known as Digital 8, any copies made retain thesame quality as the originals. If you’ve ever made copies of VHS,VHS-C, or other forms of analog tapes, you’ll know that with eachcopy you make, the picture and sound quality is degraded.

In addition to superior image quality and perfect reproductioncapability, digital video recording provides you with a way to performadvanced editing by downloading your movies from your camcorderto your PC. Using PC-based software tools, you can edit the footage,add music and titles, and even send video clips via email. If you have a

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Filming with Digital Video 97

CD or DVD writer as part of your PC, you can also store the footageon these media for distribution or archiving.

Like digital photography, once you’ve tried it, it’s hard to go backto the analog formats because of the ease-of-use and control it provides.

How It Works

Digital camcorders have many of the features of traditional video cam-eras, such as zoom, auto-focus, auto-exposure settings, audio and videoinputs, remote controls, and rechargeable batteries. In addition, digitalcamcorders have flip-out LCD viewers that can aid in shooting fromcertain positions and provide an excellent way to play back footage.Most digital camcorders also feature an electronic viewfinder similar tothose found on traditional camcorders. How you view and shoot yourmovies is really just a matter of personal preference; the electronicviewfinder and the flip-out LCD viewer do the job equally well.

Two additional features of digital camcorders are their digitalzoom capability and their image stabilization functionality. The digi-tal zoom is not as good as a true optical zoom, because it simplyenlarges your picture by interpolating between pixels and does notkeep the true image resolution constant. It’s really just performing adigital sampling between the true pixel information within eachimage. The image stabilization functionality can help to smooth outyour video shots even if the camcorder is shaking slightly from beinghand-held. The best bet, however, is to develop a video-taking stance,either hand-held or on a tripod, where you can minimize camerashake and compose your pictures carefully.

Like digital cameras, digital camcorders use charge-coupled device(CCD) sensors to capture their images. The resolution of these sensorsis determined by the number of pixels supported per CCD. Many ofthe newer camcorders are designed to work in a video mode and a stillphotographic mode. For good-resolution stills, you’ll want at least 2megapixels if not more. As described in the profile on digital cameras,the precise resolution to look for depends upon your specific usagerequirements. If you want to print 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 prints, however,


you’re probably better off purchasing a digital camera with 4 mega-pixels or higher resolution instead of trying to use a digital camcorder.

To transfer your video shots to PC, you’ll need a connection suchas FireWire, also known as i.Link or IEEE 1394 depending uponwho’s marketing it, which provides a high-speed digital video anddata interface between televisions and computers and other peripher-als, such as digital camcorders. The FireWire link can transfer videoto your PC at up to 400 Mbps and is the preferred method for trans-ferring your data because of this speed advantage over other tech-niques, such as via the USB port or video capture cards.

Benefits

Improved image resolution and color accuracy, the ability to makeexact copies with no loss of quality, and the more compact storage formovies via Mini-DV cassette, or via CD or DVD, when compared toVHS or VHS-C cassette storage are all provided by digital camcord-ers. The ability to work with your movies on your PC can add tre-mendously to your editing and production capabilities. In terms ofimage resolution, digital camcorders can give you up to 500 lines ofhorizontal resolution and are often around 1 megapixel in overall res-olution per image.


When selecting a digital camcorder, look for one that supports bothvideo capture and still-image capture. The still-image capture can behandy if you do not own a digital camera and want to have the deviceserve both purposes. Camcorders from manufacturers such as Sonyinclude an expansion slot for a memory card to capture your photosand transfer them to other devices. For this function, Sony uses theirproprietary Memory Stick, which can be inserted into certain Sonytelevision models for immediate viewing of your photos onscreen.

Filming with Digital Video 99

Other important considerations for selecting a digital camcorderinclude the sensor resolution, zoom capability, size and weight of thecamcorder, support for both manual and automatic operation, andthe amount of accessories and software provided. You may also beinterested in the number of digital image effects supported, the qualityof the sound recording, the size of the flip-out LCD viewer, and thebattery life.

In terms of software, be sure that your computer meets the mini-mum hardware and software requirements of the video editing pack-age supplied with the camcorder. If the camcorder doesn’t supply thissoftware, there are many products available as accessories from lead-ing retailers that can add FireWire capability to your PC plus providethe video-editing software all-in-one package.

If you want to turn some of your older analog videos into digital,you can purchase hardware that takes an RCA connection from yourcamcorder or VCR and connects to your computer’s USB port.

Contact Information

Digital Camcorders


JVC, www.jvc.com


Sharp, www.sharpelectronics.com

Sony, www.sony.com

Accessories & Video Editing

ADS Technologies, www.adstech.com

Creative, www.creative.com

Dazzle, www.dazzle.com

Pinnacle Systems, www.pinnaclesys.com/


100

22Camera Phones: Sprint

PCS Vision

ave you ever wished you had your camera with you when anunexpected photo opportunity arose? Well, with the newbreed of camera phones emerging, chances are that you’ll

have that camera ready very shortly. Manufacturers such as Nokia,Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Sharp, and Samsung have all recentlyreleased mobile phones with integrated digital camera capabilities orwith snap-on support for these capabilities.

Mobile phones with this functionality allow you to take a colordigital picture, view it on a color display, and send the picture tofriends with a similar device or via standard email. Additionally, someof the mobile phones feature a built-in photo album so that you canstore several images at once on your phone or use the photos as wall-paper or for caller ID.

Camera phones open a new world of possibilities for communica-tions. Instead of just voice and simple data such as text messaging,

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Camera Phones: Sprint PCS Vision 101

they provide the opportunity to send voice, text, photos, and evenvideo all in a single message. They actually combine two technologiesin one. The first is the integrated digital camera and the second is thesupport for the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

An example of one of the new digital camera phones is the7650 from Nokia. This phone first became available in Europe,Africa, and in Asia Pacific in 2002 and is now available in theUnited States. The camera can take photos with a VGA resolutionof 640 x 480 pixels and display them on a color LCD that supports176 x 208 pixels. The Sony Ericsson T68i and P800 are otherexamples. The T68i mobile phone supports MMS and uses a snap-on camera, the CommuniCam MCA-25. The P800 was featured inthe recent James Bond movie “Die Another Day” and is shown inPlate 2. The model we’ll take a look at to see how this all works isthe Samsung A500 together with the Sprint PCS Vision Camera(Figure 22-1; Plate 7).

Figure 22-1 Sprint PCS Vision showing Samsung A500 mobile phone and Picture Inbox.


How It Works

Taking pictures with the Sprint PCS Vision Camera and the SamsungA500 mobile phone is fairly straightforward. The following scenarioillustrates the basic steps involved in taking a picture and sending it toa friend or colleague as an email message.

Sample Scenario: Taking and Sending a Digital Photo with Sprint PCS Vision

1. Take photos with the Sprint PCS Vision Camera.2. Attach the camera to your Samsung A500 (or N400) mobile phone.3. On the phone, choose Menu, Pictures, and then Camera to view

and scroll through your photos on the phone.4. Use the Menu button on the phone to upload some or all of the

photos to your Pictures Inbox at http://pictures.sprintpcs.com. Uploading photos to the Pictures Inbox typically takes about 20 to 30 seconds per photo. Other options on the menu include the ability to erase some or all of the photos or to page through them.

5. The next step is to share your photos. Share your pictures either from the Pictures Inbox on the Web, or directly from the phone by choosing Menu, Pictures, and then Album.

6. To share a photo, either enter a Sprint PCS phone number to send the message to, or enter an email address.

7. The email message contains a link to the Pictures Inbox, wherefriends and colleagues can view your photos.

The messaging functionality for camera phones is handled byMMS, an industry standard that allows for the instant delivery oftext, data, images, audio and video in the same way that SMS handlesthe delivery of text and data. The benefit of MMS is that it providesinstant delivery of these rich media types from mobile to mobile,mobile to Internet, and Internet to mobile devices. Instead of the storeand retrieve mechanisms used for email and unified messaging, MMSprovides instant delivery. This makes it an ideal candidate for bothpull and push types of communications. For example, MMS canallow you to receive a breaking news item, complete with audio andvideo from the announcer, on your mobile phone.

Camera Phones: Sprint PCS Vision 103

Benefits

The benefits of camera phones extend well beyond the ability to senda color postcard at any time and any place. Think of how this mighthelp you improve shopping decisions if your spouse or significantother can view your potential purchase. The instant delivery capabil-ity can also be useful for small businesses and especially for repairwork. You may be out of town or in the office and want to use multi-media messaging to have your service technician show you a photo ofthe problem with your car before you give approval for a repair, oryou may want to see the repair prior to pickup. The immediacy ofbeing able to send a live picture to someone can help ensure that workis done properly the first time to avoid costly return trips to resolveoutstanding issues.


When selecting a digital camera phone, one of the key features is theamount of memory supported by the phone. This determines howmany photos you can store on the phone before having to uploadthem to the Web, erase them, or transfer them to a PC to free upspace. The memory storage space is either on the phone itself, if youhave an integrated digital camera, or on the snap-on camera part ofthe device. As an example, the PCS Vision Camera from Sprint PCSholds up to 15 pictures with VGA resolution. After this number ofphotos have been taken, you must plug the camera into your mobilephone and either erase some of the images or upload some to yourPictures Inbox on the Web.

The other alternative for storing photos is the portable flash mem-ory sticks. As an example, wireless carriers such as NTT DoCoMo inJapan are using memory sticks from Sony for their i-shot digital cam-era phones.

If you’re looking for good image quality, look at the type of sensorthat the device uses for digital photography. Charge-coupled device(CCD) sensors are preferable over complementary metal-oxide semi-


conductor (CMOS) sensors, and you’ll want at least 640 x 480 resolu-tion to create pictures suitable for emailing or viewing on the Web.

Other modes of picture taking may also be desirable, includingsupport for video capture and for other modes of image quality capturethat can help you take more pictures. For example, the Sharp J-SH09can take up to 1,000 photos in its low-image-resolution mode.

The size of the LCD display is also important. Some cameras mayoffer a single LCD display for you to preview photos, but others mayoffer an additional display, perhaps on the outside of the phone. Inaddition to the size of the display, be sure to check the number of col-ors that each display supports; 65,536 colors is typical.

Finally, the weight and form factor of the device are always con-siderations, as is battery life for talk time and standby mode.

Contact Information

Digital Camera Phone Manufacturers

Nokia, 7650, www.nokia.com/phones/7650/index.html

Samsung, A500, www.samsung.com

Sharp, J-SH09, www.sha-mail.com/lineup/list/j_sh09/voice/flash.html

Sony Ericsson, T68i, www.sonyericsson.com/T68i/

Sony Ericsson, P800, www.sonyericsson.com/P800/

Wireless Carriers

Sprint PCS, www.sprintpcs.com

Sprint PCS Vision, Pictures Inbox, http://pictures.sprintpcs.com


105

23Sharing Images,

Audio, and Video over the Web: Kazaa

nternet file sharing is a way for Internet users to exchange varioustypes of computer files, and it typically uses what is known as apeer-to-peer architecture. The concept of peer-to-peer computing

was popularized by companies such as Napster, with their controver-sial file-sharing community for the exchange of MP3 music files.Recent entrants in the post-Napster world have included Kazaa, Bear-Share, WinMX, LimeWire, and many others.

Each of these companies offer a way for Internet users toexchange media files with one another by sharing file folders on theirdesktops and using software that enables distributed searching anddownloading. The controversy around these types of services arisesbecause users are able to share files for which they do not own thecopyright; therefore, they are violating the rights of the original artistsand the recording companies. This profile aims to explain the conceptbehind peer-to-peer and describe the operation of a typical file-shar-ing Web site such as Kazaa for users who intend to use these servicesin a manner that does not breach the rights of the copyright owners.

I


One warning about some of these consumer-oriented sites is that theyoften include spyware and mandatory programs that must beinstalled. There is also potential for downloading files infected withviruses. It’s worth reading the fine print prior to installing any of theseprograms, and you should ask friends and colleagues about their ownexperiences before deciding to proceed.

How It Works

The peer-to-peer concept has actually been around for decades. Inthe early days of corporate networking, it was used extensively inlocal-area-network products from companies such as Microsoft,Novell, and IBM. Peer-to-Peer computing is now becoming anincreasingly important technology within both the consumer and thebusiness community. It basically leverages computers on the net-work’s “edge” (desktops) instead of centralized servers for perform-ing various content, collaborative, and resource-sharing functionsbetween client, or peer, computers on the network without the needfor a centralized server.

The Kazaa Media Desktop is the client software that you down-load and install on your desktop. Once installed, it lets you connectwith other Kazaa Media Desktop users and search for and downloadfiles. When searching through music files, the searches show the artistand title plus a number of items related to the quality of the file andthe speed of the download. This helps you locate a high-quality audiofile, such as 128 kbps, that is on the desktop of a user with a fast con-nection to the Internet. Once you’ve downloaded a particular file, youcan play it on your computer by using your own jukebox software orthe software provided by Kazaa.

Benefits

Internet file sharing enables users to share their original content, suchas their own music, with millions of people around the world. As such,it can be an excellent way for emerging artists and bands to be heardand to distribute their music to others. Kazaa has had more than 179

Sharing Images, Audio, and Video over the Web: Kazaa 107

million Media Desktop applications downloaded, and the file-sharingphenomenon seems to be showing no signs of slowing down.

In addition to consumer applications for image, audio, and videofile sharing, peer-to-peer computing has the potential to address manyof the knowledge management and information sharing pain pointswithin businesses. It can help to leverage distributed computingresources, such as disk space and CPU cycles, for the searching andsharing of business information and for richer forms of collaboration.Some of the vendors and products in the peer-to-peer space on thebusiness side include Groove Networks, NextPage, OpenCola, andOmnipod.

One of the business benefits of peer services is improved employeeproductivity through the use of peer-to-peer collaborative platforms.These platforms allow groups to conduct business processes in a farricher collaborative environment than the simple email, phone, andfax interactions typical today. Business processes that can beenhanced and extended through the use of peer-to-peer collaborativeplatforms include purchasing, inventory control, distribution,exchanges and auctions, channel and partner relationship manage-ment, and customer care and support. Additional benefits of peer-to-peer computing include the ability to better utilize computing cycleson workstations across the business, and the ability to better searchand share content residing on knowledge worker desktops.

Examples of peer-to-peer for distributed computing include theIntel Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program, which focuses on a varietyof scientific research efforts, including cancer research and theSETI@home program, which focuses on processing data from theradio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. SETI, (Search for Extraterres-trial Intelligence) is a scientific program seeking to detect signs ofintelligent life beyond Earth


Current initiatives in the world of peer-to-peer include Intel’s Peer-to-Peer Working Group and Peer-to-Peer Trusted Library, and Sun’sProject Juxtapose (JXTA). These initiatives aim to help build stan-dards, protocols, and best practices so that corporate developers can


focus on business applications for peer-to-peer technologies ratherthan building the infrastructure themselves. Some of the issues theseinitiatives currently address include the increased requirements forsecurity, management, and interoperability that peer-to-peer requiresas opposed to the standard client-server model. Business users areunderstandably nervous about opening their personal computers toresource sharing and for others to search and access.

The same issues apply on the consumer side as well. The mainbarriers around peer-to-peer are the copyright issues and the securityand trust issues that come with exposing one’s desktop to the world.Peer-to-peer can be a highly beneficial application that can enableproductivity and enhance collaboration. The challenge is to do so in amanner that is legal and which respects your privacy and security.

Contact Information

Consumer Peer-to-Peer

BearShare, www.bearshare.com

Kazaa, www.kazaa.com

LimeWire, www.limewire.com

WinMX, www.winmx.com

Business Peer-to-Peer


NextPage, www.nextpage.com

OpenCola, www.opencola.com

Omnipod, www.omnipod.com


109

24Making Your Own

Digital Recordings: CD and DVD Recorders

lthough most of the world is well aware of CD and DVDplayers by now, many have not yet been exposed to the worldof CD and DVD recording. To make copies of data, we’ve

typically used floppy disks and other solutions such as Zip drives andmagnetic tape backup, or in the case of audio, we’ve typically usedregular cassette tapes. CD and DVD burners open up a whole newrealm of possibilities for the recording, archiving, and playback of avariety of media content types and offer tremendous storage capacityas well. Although most older laptops and PCs offer drives that sup-port viewing movies on DVD or accessing music or data on CD, thenewer internal and external drives support actual recording to bothCD and DVD. These burners are available either as stand-alone play-ers or as peripherals for your computer or laptop.

If we look at it from the computer-centric viewpoint as opposedto the stand-alone players, the evolution to CD and DVD recordinghas occurred in three phases. First, we had the plain CD-ROM drive,

A


which offered the ability to access music or data on a CD. Second,some of these drives included on the latest desktops and laptopsoffered CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-ROM capability, which enabled the userto view DVD movies and to read or write to CD. The latest genera-tion of offerings are combo drives that can both read and write to CDand to DVD formats. With CD and DVD recording, you can makebackups of your data on CD and you can burn movies in DVD formatfor later playback on your laptop or even on your television.

How It Works

The first step in understanding CD and DVD recording is to get ahandle on the acronyms used to describe the read and write capabili-ties of the device drives and the media formats they support. Theseacronyms may at first appear confusing, but the terminology is actu-ally fairly straightforward once you are introduced to it. One caveat isthat the DVD world still has a large number of varying and compet-ing standards that add to the confusion. Basically, the two major for-mats for data storage are Compact Discs (CDs) and Digital VersatileDiscs (DVDs). Each of these formats has varying standards for infor-mation storage and retrieval, such as read-only disks, recordable (orwrite-once) disks, and rewritable disks.

Read-only disks are called CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs (read-onlymemory). These are the disks that you can buy in the store and whichtypically contain a music CD or a DVD movie. DVD movies are actuallystored in the DVD-video format, which can be read by a stand-aloneDVD player or by a computer with a DVD-ROM drive plus suitableMPEG-2 decoding support in terms of hardware and software.

With regard to the writable disks, if a disk can be written to onlyonce, it uses an “R” designation, such as CD-R, DVD-R or DVD+R.If a disk can be written to multiple times, it uses an “RW” designationsuch as CD-RW, DVD-RW or DVD+RW. Once you understand thisconvention, choosing an appropriate CD or DVD burner becomesquite simple, although the DVD-R and DVD+R, and DVD-RW andDVD+RW formats are competitive. The “+” designation relates to the

Making Your Own Digital Recordings: CD and DVD Recorders 111

newer standards for recordable DVD formats and, although they area faster format for recording, they are not recognized by all DVDdrives and players.

Benefits

CD and DVD burners are a great way to make backups of your data,music, and videos. The extra capacity of the DVD format over the CDformat makes it useful not only for recording digital music, but alsofor backing up large amounts of data. Whereas CD formats offer upto 700MB of storage capacity, the DVD formats offer close to 5GB ofstorage for photos, video, graphics, data, and various other mediatypes, including MP3.

If you already own a digital camera or digital camcorder, a DVDburner can be a useful addition that allows you to permanently storeyour photos and videos and to make them playable on the home DVDplayer in your living room. Manufacturers of DVD burners includeHP (Plate 24), Panasonic, Philips, and Samsung among many others.


Beyond selecting the right type of CD or DVD burner in terms of itsread and write capabilities and supported formats, you’ll also want tolook at its speed of operation, form factor, connectivity, and addedsoftware. In terms of speed of operation, if a burner copies at a real-time speed, then its speed is designated as 1X. In general, this meansthat if you copy a three-minute song, it will take three minutes tomake the copy. Most CD and DVD burners operate at speeds up to12X for writing and up to 32X for reading, but this will vary basedupon the specific type of format being read from or written to andwhether the format is recordable (write-once only) or rewritable.

In terms of connectivity, an external CD/DVD burner will typi-cally support USB 1.1, USB 2.0, FireWire, or a PC card interface. USB2.0 or FireWire are the preferred options if your laptop or PC sup-


ports them due to their speed of data transfer. USB 2.0 transfers dataat 480 Mbps, and FireWire transfers data at 400 Mbps.

A combination CD and DVD burner can be an excellent additionto your home electronics whether you use it for music and videorecording or simply for data backup and storage. Costs of both thedevices and the media have dropped considerably over the past fewyears; you can purchase drives for well under $500 and media for afew dollars or less.

Contact Information

HP, www.hp.com


Philips, www.philips.com

Samsung, www.samsung.com

Sony, www.sony.com



113

25Listening to Digital Music: MP3 Players

P3 players are a new way to listen to music. Basically, MP3files are digital audio files that can be created on your com-puter’s hard disk by either copying from a commercial CD

or downloading from the Internet. Once you have the file on disk,you can play it back using a software program known as a jukebox,or you can use the jukebox to transfer the file from your computer toa portable MP3 player.

The jukeboxes allow you to create your own playlists and burnyour own CDs with selections of music from a variety of sources.Playlists are collections of songs ordered according to your own pref-erences. The jukebox software is often downloadable for free over theInternet, and many Web sites are available from which to downloadactual MP3 music from thousands of artists. There are even MP3radio stations that stream MP3 music files for you to listen to via yourjukebox. What’s more, software is also available to help you createyour own MP3 radio stations and broadcast your own programming.

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If you need more mobility than simply listening to MP3 files on yourcomputer or laptop provides, you can purchase an MP3 player. This is aportable device with headphones similar to a portable CD player. MP3players are available in most consumer electronics retail stores and arecurrently priced just higher than CD players, with the top-end devicesgoing even higher into several hundred dollars. The difference betweenthe MP3 player and the CD or tape player is that the music is stored indigital format in the device’s internal flash memory or internal hard driverather than being played from a physical media source such as CD ortape. MP3 players are available from a large number of manufacturers,including Apple (Plate 23), Archos, Creative, Panasonic, and Samsung.

How It Works

MP3 files are based on the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)format. MPEG is the working group in charge of the development ofstandards for digital audio and video. MP3 files are highly compactcompared to other audio formats. In terms of sound quality, the mainfactors are the quality of the original source file, the bitrate of therecording, and the quality of the output sound card and speakers. Thebitrate determines the number of bits of information transferred persecond. Bitrates can vary from 8 kbps to 320 kbps or so. Typical CDquality bitrates are 128 kbps. Below this bitrate, the sound qualitycan become degraded.

The jukebox programs, such as the MusicMatch Jukebox, providean easy way to play, rip, and burn MP3s and CDs, and to transfer thefiles to portable MP3 players. “Ripping” is the term used to describe theprocess where a song is copied from a commercial CD in your CD-ROM drive and converted to an MP3 file on your hard disk. The wholeprocess can take just a few minutes per song and is accomplished via aneasy-to-use graphical user interface much like a traditional jukebox. Fig-ure 25-1 shows a screen capture of the MusicMatch Jukebox in action.

Sample Scenario: Ripping a Song from CD to Hard Disk Using MusicMatch

1. Click the Record button on the MusicMatch player.2. Insert your music CD into your computer’s CD-ROM drive.3. MusicMatch reads the CD and display the artist, album, and

track names.

Listening to Digital Music: MP3 Players 115

4. Check the boxes next to each track you wish to record.5. Click the Record button on the MusicMatch Recorder.6. The Recorder rips your chosen songs from CD to hard disk.

To transfer MP3 files to a portable MP3 player from your com-puter, you can use the same Jukebox software in conjunction with asuitable connection between the two devices, such as a FireWire port(IEEE 1394) or USB cable. Using FireWire, transfer speeds can beamazingly fast. For example, the Apple iPod advertises downloads ofan entire CD in 15 seconds or less.

Benefits

One of the benefits of MP3 is the high level of file compression achievedvia this standard. Earlier audio formats, such as .WAV, required a largefile size to store just a few minutes of music. Because of their small filesize, MP3s are ideal for downloading from the Internet, storing on yourcomputer’s hard disk, and transferring to MP3 players. A typical musicfile of approximately five minutes duration occupies just 4.5MB of diskspace even when recorded at a CD quality bitrate of 128 kbps.

The subsequent benefits that arise from this high level of file com-pression are the speed of data transfer between computer and MP3player, and the amount of music that can be stored on the player at

Figure 25-1 MusicMatch Jukebox.


any one time. A 20GB hard disk, available on many players, can storeabout 400 CDs, which is equivalent to 4,000 songs.


When purchasing an MP3 player, one of the primary considerations isthe amount of storage space you’ll need for your files. MP3 playersare available with everything from just 32MB of internal flash mem-ory up to 20GB or more of internal hard drive storage. This is one ofthe main drivers of their price. The more you pay, the more disk spaceyou’ll be able to purchase for your music.

Other features to look for include battery life, the amount of skipprotection, the number and type of accessories provided, and the abilityto store data and use the device as a backup hard disk. The Apple iPod,for example, offers up to 10 hours of battery life when used for contin-uous playback. In terms of skip protection, the iPod has up to 20 min-utes of skip protection provided via a 32MB solid-state memory cache.This means that if you’re walking or running, or the device is generallybeing bumped around, your music will play seamlessly because it’s buff-ered in memory rather than being read in real time from the hard disk.

Contact Information

Jukebox Software

MusicMatch, www.musicmatch.com

MP3 Players

Apple, www.apple.com/ipod/

Archos, www.archos.com/

Creative, www.nomadworld.com/

Panasonic, www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/portable_audio/default.asp

Samsung, www.samsungelectronics.com/digital_audio_player/index.html


117

26Tuning in to Satellite Radio: XM and Sirius

f you’ve ever been fed up searching the radio bands for yourfavorite category of music, or have been frustrated by the poorquality of the reception once you find something you like, satel-

lite radio could well be for you. Satellite radio provides a large num-ber of digital channels that are mostly commercial free. It is one of thefirst major advances in radio technology since FM appeared about 40years ago. The two main providers at the present time are XM Satel-lite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. XM first launched on September25, 2001 and Sirius on July 1, 2002.

Both companies provide digital-quality music, news, and entertain-ment directly from their satellites to cars and homes in the UnitedStates. XM uses two Boeing 702 satellites, one named “Rock” and theother “Roll,” to beam their service directly to listeners. Their program-ming includes 100 channels in categories such as decades, country,hits, rock, urban, jazz and blues, dance, Latin, world, classical, kids,news, sports, comedy, talk and variety, and premium (Table 26-1).Sirius also offers 100 channels in similar categories.

I


Table 26-1 XM Satellite Radio – 100 Channel Listings

DecadesThe 40sThe 50sThe 60sThe 70sThe 80sThe 90s

CountryAmericaNashville!X CountryHank’s PlaceBluegrass

JunctionThe Village

HitsTop 20 on 20KISSMIXThe HeartSunnyMTV RadioVH1 RadioCinemagicOn BroadwayU-PopSpecial XThe TorchThe Fish

RockDeep TracksBone YardXM Liquid

MetalXMUFredXM CaféTop TracksEthelThe LoftXM Music LabUnsigned

UrbanSoul StreetThe FlowBET UptownSpiritThe GrooveThe RhymeRAWThe City

Talk & VarietyDiscovery

RadioE!

Entertainment Radio

Sonic TheatreRadioClassicsAsk!Buzz XMBabbleOnThe PowerFamilyTalkOpen Road

DanceThe MoveBPMThe SystemChrome

LatinAguilaCariciaVibraTejanoCaliente

WorldWorld ZoneThe JointNgomaAudio VisionsFine Tuning

ClassicalXM ClassicsVoxXM Pops

Jazz & BluesReal JazzWatercolorsBeyond JazzFrank’s PlaceBluesvilleLunaOn the Rocks

NewsUSA TodayFOX NewsCNN Headline

NewsABC News and

TalkThe Weather

ChannelCNBCCNNfnBloomberg

NewsCNET RadioBBC World

ServiceC-SPAN RadioCNN en

Espanol

SportsESPN RadioESPNEWSFox Sports

RadioThe Sporting

NewsNASCAR Radio

ComedyXM ComedyLaugh USAExtreme XM

KidsRadio DisneyXM Kids

Tuning in to Satellite Radio: XM and Sirius 119

How It Works

XM Satellite Radio uses a broadcast center in Washington D.C. touplink programming to their two satellites (Plate 25). The satellites,which are positioned in geostationary orbit over 22,000 miles above theEarth, then transmit the signal across the entire United States and use anextensive repeater network on the ground in order to ensure completecoverage to cars and homes subscribing to the service (Figure 26-1).

Figure 26-1 How the XM Satellite Radio works (Source: XM Satellite Radio).


In your vehicle, satellite radio appears much like any other radioband, such as AM or FM, in that it is integrated into your car’s audiosystem. You can also see the XM channel name and number, the artist’sname, and the song title in the audio system’s display (Figure 26-2).You can cycle through these descriptions by pressing a button on theradio, such as the MSG button on the Cadillac sound system. Your carwill also be equipped with a special antenna, either fixed or detachable,to pick up the satellite transmission. On the 2003 Cadillac DeVille, thisis mounted at the top of the rear window near the OnStar antenna sys-tem (Plate 26).

Benefits

The benefits of satellite radio include the near-CD-quality sound, theamount of diverse programming available, the lack of commercials,and the ability to see items such as the artist’s name and song title forthe track playing. For many people who spend a lot of time in theircars, any one of these features is well worth the monthly service fee.During my trial service, in a 2003 Cadillac DeVille, the quality ofsound was highly impressive. The programming was also a refreshingchange from traditional AM or FM stations, and I was able to listen tokids’ channels such as Radio Disney (to keep the kids amused) or newschannels such as the BBC World Service or CNN Headline News.

This is definitely a consumer technology that you’ll miss if youdon’t have it readily available to you after you’ve first experienced it.My trial service was for just a few days in the Cadillac, and after justa few hours of listening I was hooked on satellite radio and wishing Ihad it on my own vehicles.


Your choices for obtaining satellite radio depend on whether youwant to simply upgrade or replace your current car audio system, oryou want to get the service in your next new car.

Tuning in to Satellite Radio: XM and Sirius 121

In April 2002, Cadillac was the first automotive brand to offerXM Satellite Radio on all of its 2003 models. The service is also avail-able on 25 of the 2003 GM models. Nissan, Infiniti, Isuzu, andHonda also offer select 2003 models with XM as a manufacturer-sup-ported option. Manufacturers of XM-capable radios include DelphiDelco Electronics Systems, Alpine Electronics, Clarion, Audiovox,Visteon, Pioneer, Panasonic, Sanyo, and Motorola. If you want a ver-sion that can work both in your car and in your home, you can alsotake a look at the XM Digital Audio Receiver from Sony.

Although XM is predominantly available in GM models, Siriushas taken the Ford lineup. Their service is available in Ford, Chrysler,BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Dodge, Jeep, Volks-wagen, Audi, Nissan, and Infiniti vehicles, as well as Freightliner andSterling trucks. For Sirius-capable radios, you can look to manufac-turers such as Kenwood, Panasonic, Clarion, Audiovox, and Jensen.

Most major retailers offer both XM and Sirius radios and arelisted in Table 26-2 that follows. Pricing is $9.99 per month for XMSatellite Radio and $12.95 per month for Sirius Satellite Radio.

Figure 26-2 Cadillac’s premium XM sound system (Source: XM Satellite Radio).


Contact Information

Service Providers

Sirius Satellite Radio, www.sirius.com

XM Satellite Radio, www.xmradio.com

Radio Manufacturers

Alpine, www.alpine.com

Pioneer, www.pioneerelectronics.com

Sony, www.sony.com

Table 26-2 XM Satellite Radio – Retail Outlets

Retailers Auto Dealers Online

Best BuyCar ToysCircuit CityPep BoysSearsTweeterUltimate ElectronicsWal-Mart

BuickCadillacChevroletGMCInfinitiIsuzuNissanOldsmobilePontiac

RetailersAbt ElectronicsAmerican SatelliteC. Crane CompanyCrutchfieldOrbit

Communication Corporation

Sony Style


123

27Watching Digital

Television: HDTV

elevision is another area embracing the change from analog todigital. The current analog standards for television broadcast-ing and display have been around for decades; for this reason,

they provide image quality that is actually comparable to the lowestresolution now available on your computer screen. With all theadvances in other areas of consumer electronics and in wireless com-munications, it’s no surprise that the television standards are beingupgraded as well.

The most exciting new standard for digital television (DTV) iscalled High-Definition Television (HDTV). Digital television actuallyhas 18 formats, 6 of which are HDTV formats and 12 of which arethe lower resolution Standard Definition Television (SDTV) formats.Both standards are digital, but HDTV provides the highest resolution.The HDTV standard provides roughly twice the number of verticallines and twice the number of horizontal points onscreen when com-pared to the current analog television standards, such as NTSC

T


(National Television Standards Committee) in the United States orPAL (Phase Alternating Lines) in Europe.

Another aspect of HDTV is that the aspect ratio (width of the dis-play to the height of the display) of the picture is changed. HDTV hasan aspect ratio of 16:9, which is a lot closer to the aspect ratio usedwithin the movie theater. Current television aspect ratios are 4:3,which is why movies must either be cropped on both the left and rightsides of the picture or formatted in letterbox to display on your stan-dard TV screen.

A final feature of HDTV is that it supports the transmission andreproduction of Dolby Digital sound. This type of sound has sixchannels instead of the two provided by the NTSC format, plus thesecond audio program (SAP). The Dolby Digital sound allows you tohave a surround-sound effect with any of your HDTV broadcasts.

So the most exciting features of digital television, particularly theHDTV formats, are increased picture quality, movie-theatre-like for-matting, and Dolby Digital sound. A digital television can help yourliving room catch up to some of the innovations occurring in the gad-gets within other areas of your home. Figure 27-1 shows some of thelatest high definition televisions from Samsung.

Figure 27-1 Samsung digital televisions (Source: Samsung).

Watching Digital Television: HDTV 125

How It Works

Digital television requires a digital broadcast and an HDTV televisionfor proper viewing. If you watch a conventional television broadcaston an HDTV set, you won’t see too much improvement, because theoriginal signal cannot be enhanced by the set. Even if it is displayed attwice the resolution on your new screen, there is still only so muchinformation embedded into the picture in the first place. Conversely,if you watch a digital broadcast on a regular set, your set will discardthe additional picture resolution provided within the signal. The onebenefit you will receive is a reduction in snow and other distortionsthat are sometimes present in analog broadcasts. So by watching adigital broadcast on a regular set, you’ll increase the sharpness of thepicture, but you won’t see an increase in the picture detail.

The answer for optimal viewing, of course, is to have a digitalbroadcast and a digital television. Buying the digital television is theeasy part if you have the money to spend. Getting the digital broad-casts is harder; only a few stations currently broadcast in this mannerbecause of the costs of migrating all their equipment. The good newsis that the major networks are already broadcasting and are increas-ing the amount of programming delivered in this manner.

Table 27-1 shows the 18 formats of digital television that includeboth the HDTV and SDTV standards. In the table, these 18 formatsare comprised of unique combinations of the aspect ratio and thescan rate. Because the highest standard HDTV format contains1,080 vertical lines and 1,920 horizontal pixels, it has a total of overtwo million pixels per image. The current NTSC format achieves480 x 720 pixels for a total of 345,600 pixels. The HDTV formattherefore contains six times the amount of information per image.The “i” and “P” identifiers within the table indicate whether thestandard is for interlaced or progressive scan formats. Interlacing isthe older television scanning technique, which paints odd-numberedlines in one pass and then even-numbered lines in the second pass.Progressive scanning paints each horizontal line consecutively in asingle pass.

There are three ways to receive a digital signal: TV antenna, cable,or satellite. If you use the antenna option, your signal will either come


in strongly or it won’t come in at all. Digital transmissions suffer froman effect known as the “cliff effect,” in which the signal propagatesfrom the transmitter and maintains its strength until, when a certaindistance is reached about 50 miles from the transmitter, the signalcompletely drops off.

Benefits

The benefits of digital television over conventional viewing are sev-eral. First, you have increased picture resolution and sharpness. Asnoted earlier, the image quality is over twice the resolution in both thevertical and horizontal dimensions, making it contain approximatelysix times the amount of information per image.

Second, you can view movies closer to their original aspect ratio,thereby seeing the picture as it was originally intended to be viewed inthe movie theater. You can also get closer to this original movie expe-rience thanks to the support for Dolby Digital surround sound.

Third, digital television can take advantage of new formats suchas progressive scan DVD. On a final note, the FCC has mandated thatanalog television signals are to be completely replaced with digitalbroadcasts by 2006. At that time, you’ll need to replace your analogtelevision or convert it to digital via an external converter. If you’rethinking of buying a new television anytime soon, you can future-proof it by purchasing an HDTV set and enjoy all the added benefitsat the same time.

Table 27-1 Eighteen Digital Television Formats (Source: Samsung).

ClassVertical Lines

Horizontal Pixels

Aspect Ratio Scan Rate

HD 1,080i 1,920 16:9 30i, 30P, 24P

HD 720P 1,280 16:9 60P, 30P, 24P

SD 480 704 16:9, 4:3

60P, 30i, 30P, 24P

SD 480 640 4:3 60P. 30i, 30P, 24P

Watching Digital Television: HDTV 127


When you shop for a digital television, you’ll notice that sets arelabeled as either HDTV ready or HDTV capable. An HDTV-ready sethas a built-in tuner to accept digital signals, whereas an HDTV-capableset requires an external set-top box to do the conversion of the signal.

Because most broadcasts are currently over the air, you’ll also needan antenna. To find out which stations carry HDTV programs, youcan check some of the links below. The networks typically provide alist of the stations and cities where HDTV is available and will also tellyou what format is used and whether Dolby AC-3, which is the DolbyDigital surround sound, is supported. For example, ABC is broadcast-ing in most major cities using the 720P format and Dolby AC-3.

Contact Information

HDTV Manufacturers

Mitsubishi, www.mitsubishi-tv.com/

Panasonic, www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/tv/default.asp

Samsung, www.samsungelectronics.com/tv/index.html

Zenith, www.zenith.com

HDTV Broadcasters

ABC, www.abc.abcnews.go.com/site/hdtvfaq.html

CBS, www.cbs.com/info/hdtv/

FOX, www.fox.com

NBC, www.nbc.com/nbc/footer/FAQ.shtml

PBS, www.pbs.org/digitaltv/


128

28Digital Video Recording:

TiVo, ReplayTV, and UltimateTV

igital Video Recorders (DVRs) are the digital equivalents ofVCRs but without the tapes. They work by storing the pro-gramming on a digital hard disk inside the unit instead of on

video cassette tape. These digital hard disks often can store up to 80hours of programming, thus eliminating the need for a large numberof bulky cassette tapes.

Being digital, they are capable of much more functionality than atraditional VCR. They can record live television just like a normalVCR, but they can also pause, rewind, slow-motion, and instantreplay live TV. What’s more, they have advanced features for record-ing content based upon your favorite actor, director, genre of show,keywords, or show titles.

For example, if you want to skim through the commercials in a60-minute “live” program, you can sit down 20 minutes past the starttime and then use the remote control provided with the unit to skipthrough the commercials (already recorded on disk) at a variety of

D

Digital Video Recording: TiVo, ReplayTV, and UltimateTV 129

fast-forward speeds. By the end of the show you will have caught upto the “real” live portion of the program.

On the content side, you can set up the DVR to record your favor-ite shows every week, even if the time slots change from one week tothe next or from one show to the next.

How It Works

DVRs work by plugging into your television in much the same way asa VCR system. They can work with a variety of setups, including TVantennas, digital or analog cable systems, and satellite systems for theinput video signal. They may also use your regular telephone line inorder to download daily programming information for advancedrecording functionality.

The DVR units themselves look much like traditional VCR unitsbut have additional outlets in the back of the device for the phone lineconnection and ports such as Ethernet for broadband Internet connec-tivity. The audio/video ports are used for connection to your televi-sion and for optional VCRs, camcorders, and microphones which canbe connected as necessary.

In addition to your DVR, a standard VCR system can be a usefuladditional device for storing your video content. Once you haverecorded a show, you can either save it for a certain time on the inter-nal hard drive of the DVR or you can transfer it to a normal videocassette for more permanent storage if you have your VCR systemattached. Content management on the DVR itself is simple since todelete a show and free up your hard drive space you simply press abutton on your remote control.

Benefits

The benefits of a DVR over a traditional VCR include convenienceand higher levels of personalization in terms of the content that isrecorded. The convenience comes from the elimination of VCR clutter


in terms of the physical tapes and the speed with which you can movethrough your recorded programming. An additional benefit, notfound in VCRs, is the ability to watch a prerecorded program whileyour DVR is recording a live program. You may also be able to setparental controls, lock certain channels, or set ratings limits on pro-grams. If you live with young children, this latter feature could be astrong plus.

Finally, for those of us who have struggled in the past with settingVCR timers to record shows, or whose parents or relatives have hadthese epic battles, the DVR technique for accomplishing the sameobjective is far simpler. You simply select your shows at the touch of abutton—no clocks or timers to worry about!


There are typically two costs involved when purchasing a DVR. First,you have the one-time cost of the unit itself. These usually range $199to $599, depending upon the manufacturer and the amount of harddisk storage capacity you decide to purchase. Second, there is themonthly service fee, which allows you to receive the daily program-ming updates over your phone line in order for the service to behighly accurate when searching for your preferred content.

These daily phone calls are made automatically by the DVR anddo not interfere with your incoming or outgoing calls. You can use astandard phone line, and most DVRs come with an RJ-11 phone jackfor easy connection. Monthly service fees are usually around $12.95per month.

The TiVo DVR Series2 includes two USB expansion ports forfuture support of other forms of digital content from devices such asdigital cameras, MP3 players, Internet radio, or even from other TiVoDVRs (Plate 27). The service is available in the United States and inthe United Kingdom.

If you’re a DIRECTV customer, there is a DIRECTV Receiveravailable that includes the TiVo unit built-in. This way, you have thefunctionality of both devices rolled into one convenient box. Another

Digital Video Recording: TiVo, ReplayTV, and UltimateTV 131

advantage of this box is that you can record two shows at once andeven watch a third prerecorded show, because the unit has a dualtuner feature.

Two other DVR products and services are the UltimateTV servicefrom Microsoft and the ReplayTV service from SONICblue. TheReplayTV DVR features up to 320 hours of recording space. Since allof these products have different features and capabilities, the best wayto make a comparison is to visit the various product Web sites listedbelow and to read some of the product comparisons.

Contact Information

Manufacturers

SONICblue, www.replaytv.com

TiVo, www.tivo.com

UltimateTV, www.ultimatetv.com

Retailers

Abt Electronics (U.S.), www.abtelectronics.com

Amazon.com, www.amazon.com

AT&T Broadband, www.attbroadband.tivo.com

Best Buy, www.bestbuy.com

Circuit City, www.circuitcity.com

DIRECTV, http://directv.tivo.com

Good Guys, www.goodguys.com

Tweeter, www.tweeter.com

Ultimate Electronics, www.ultimateelectronics.com


132

29Multiplayer Online

Gaming: PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox

p to now, computer gaming has been confined to the desktopPC or the television. You can either buy a PlayStation, Nin-tendo, or Xbox gaming console and attach it to your televi-

sion, or you can purchase games on CD-ROM to play on your PC. Ineither case most of the gaming is played either individually or withtwo, three, or four players at most. Today, gaming is entering anexciting new era. As the worlds of the PC and the television collideand both devices gain Internet connectivity, a new form of gaming isemerging: massively multiplayer online gaming (MMOG). This formof online gaming essentially takes players out of their living roomsand connects them to a world of other like-minded gamers locatedacross the country or around the globe.

This evolution of gaming has been no accident. When Microsoftlaunched their Xbox gaming console in late 2001 (Figure 29-1), theymade the Xbox Live service part of the initial design by incorporatingsupport for an Internet connection in the back of the box. On Novem-

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Multiplayer Online Gaming: PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox 133

ber 15, 2002 they launched the Xbox Live service, which allows gam-ers to take advantage of online gaming with a large number of newtitles specially designed for multiplayer scenarios (Plate 28).

How It Works

We’ll take the Xbox Live service as an example of multiplayer onlinegaming. The service requires a standard Xbox gaming console plusan Xbox Live Starter Kit. The Starter Kit includes a one-year sub-scription to the service and a Communicator headset and a mini-game. The Communicator headset allows players to communicatewith one another across the Internet while playing. It includes fea-tures for voice masking, global muting, and parental control foraddressing various privacy concerns that may naturally arise.Another part of the overall Xbox Live service are the four data cen-ters that Microsoft uses to manage the hosting, networking, security,and billing. This allows game developers to focus on creating contentfor their games without having to worry about the infrastructureitems to support the games. For consumers, the benefit of the datacenters and the service as a whole is that they can receive a single billfor all their game play.

Figure 29-1 Xbox game console (Source: Microsoft).


Sample Scenario: Setup for Xbox Live

1. Connect your Xbox to a broadband Internet connection using anRJ45 Ethernet cable. You can either connect directly to yourcable or DSL modem, or you can connect through your cable/DSL router.

2. Get an Xbox Live subscription and insert an Xbox Live Starter Kit disk or a game disk into the disk tray of your console. Make sure the game supports Xbox Live play.

3. Select the option for Xbox Live from within the game. The con-sole will attempt to go online. Once you get online, you can cre-ate your Xbox Live account and enter your subscription code.

4. If the console cannot go online for some reason, you may need toenter some of your network settings in the Xbox Dashboard.You can contact your broadband service provider if you don’thave this required network information.

Benefits

The benefits of multiplayer online gaming include a totally new expe-rience that includes the ability to play with friends across the countryor around the globe, to communicate with other players while gamingvia special headsets, and to find players with skill levels similar toyours. You can invite friends into a game at any time, and you candownload new game features, such as characters and missions, ontothe hard disk of your gaming console. To date, the multiplayer gam-ing concept has been highly popular, with over 100,000 gamers sign-ing up for the beta test of the Xbox Live service.


For parents of young gamers, one of the concerns related to onlinegame playing will be privacy. Gamers could well enter an online gam-ing situation and be talking with complete strangers. Even with voicemasking or muting, these strangers will gain access to young gamersand be able to interact with them and potentially compromise their pri-

Multiplayer Online Gaming: PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox 135

vacy. At the time of writing, the service was only recently released, so itis hard to comment on the exact details and scenarios that are possible.The best option for parents wishing to use these types of gaming ser-vices is to evaluate them thoroughly to feel confident about safety andprivacy aspects before handing over control and access to these servicesto your younger dependents. The parental control features on some ofthese systems may help to alleviate some of your concerns.

Another interesting issue will be the matter of gaming etiquette.When playing video games or other games with friends and family,the etiquette is obviously to be a good sport and to finish playing agame whether you’re winning or losing. In the online world, whenyou’re playing with strangers, you may well find that they lose inter-est and abandon a game while in progress if they find that they’rebehind. This pattern of behavior has been apparent in the Internetgaming world on simple kids games, so it’s likely that it can happenwithin richer, more sophisticated multiplayer online games as well.The good news is that because gamers are paying to play, some of thispoor behavior may be stifled, but it’s probably worth going in know-ing that this type of thing may happen.

All in all, the rich, new gaming experiences that these MMOGsolutions provide far outweighs some of their issues. But you shouldknow about some of the risks and be prepared.

Contact Information

Microsoft Xbox, www.xbox.com

Microsoft Xbox Live, www.xbox.com/live

Microsoft Xbox Customer Support, 1-800-4MY-XBOX (1-800-469-9269)

Nintendo, www.nintendo.com

Sony PlayStation, www.playstation.com


136

30Printing from Your

Mobile Device: ThinMail and PrintMe

Networks

ne of the problems with receiving email with attachments(such as Microsoft Word or Excel documents) on your PDA,mobile phone, or two-way pager is that you typically have no

way of printing out the attachment while you’re on the road. Some-times you can’t even view the attachment unless you have a Pocket PCdevice or a special viewer software program. Even if you do have asolution for printing, it’s likely the solution involves cables and a lot ofconfiguration to make it all work. For mobile professionals, dealingwith email attachments and printing them can be a real hassle and canoften force them to make extra trips back to the home office wherethey can get to a suitable printer or transfer the files to their laptops.

Several solutions that enable you to send your attachments to aprinter or a fax machine anywhere in the world directly from yourwireless device are now on the market. These solutions take advan-tage of a centralized server, accessible via the Internet, that is used tostore your documents. When you wish to make a printout, you caninstruct this server to send the document to a printer, which is also

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Printing and Faxing from Your Mobile Device 137

connected to the Internet, or to a fax machine by specifying its uniquenumber. In this way, your mobile device actually acts like a remotecontrol, instructing the centralized server about where to print or faxyour documents.

Some of the service providers offering this type of solution includeThinMail and PrintMe Networks. ThinMail offers a number of solu-tions for mobile professionals, including a solution for sending emailto fax machines (ThinFax) and a solution for sending email to phones(ThinPhone). PrintMe Networks offers a solution for sending email tofax machines or to printers that are part of the PrintMe network.

How It Works

The ThinFax solution works by allowing you to email your messageplus the attachment to a special email address by using a special sub-ject line in the message. The ThinFax solution then uses this informa-tion to print your message and your attachment to the fax machinethat you’ve specified through their addressing scheme.

Sample Scenario: Sending a PowerPoint File to a Fax Machine Using ThinMail

1. Register with ThinMail at their Web site (www.thinmail.com).2. Send your message with the attached PowerPoint file to

[email protected]. Put the number of the fax machine you wish to use in the subject

line of the message, e.g., Subject: 8005551212.4. Use your wireless device to send the email message.5. Once the fax has been sent, you’ll receive a confirmation message

informing you if the message succeeded or failed.

When faxing from your wireless device, you can also place thenumber of the fax machine you wish to use in the email addressinstead of the subject line by using the naming convention of <10 digitfax number>@thinmail.com. This is useful for situations where you’reunable to modify the subject line of the email when forwarding fromyour device.


In addition to faxing from your wireless device, ThinMail alsoallows you to use their Web site for general file management and forfaxing your documents. In this case, you simply log in to the Web siteand click a checkbox next to each file you wish to fax. AdditionalThinMail services include ThinPhone and Identity Services. Thin-Phone lets you send email to a specific phone number and have themessage read over the phone using text-to-speech conversion. Thetext-to-speech conversion even works on attachments such asMicrosoft Word, HTML, and .TXT documents. The recipient of theThinPhone message has the option of replying to the message bypressing the “2” button. They can then record a response that isemailed back to you as a WAV file. If you receive the message on yourtext pager, which does not have a built-in speaker, you can forward itto a phone so you can hear it.

The Identity Services allow you to replace your “From” addresswith a “Reply-To” address. This enables you to reply to someonewith one of your wireless devices, but to have a “Reply-To” addressthat is your formal company address or some other address youwish to use.

Benefits

The ThinMail and PrintMe solutions come in handy when you’redealing with a variety of file types while on the road and have accessonly to your wireless device. These solutions increase the power ofyour wireless device by giving you a number of ways to communicateand to deliver these documents. Particularly powerful is the conver-sion capability of these services to translate proprietary documentformats into readable text or graphics that can be sent to anotheruser with a wireless device, a printer, or a fax machine. Another ben-efit is the centralized storage and file management capabilities thatthese services provide for your files. Using this location for your doc-uments, you can attend meetings and sales presentations with justyour wireless device and be able to use it like a remote control to pullup the appropriate documents on demand. This can be much easierthan lugging around a laptop and searching for a printer while atyour client’s site.

Printing and Faxing from Your Mobile Device 139


When you sign up for one of these services, the first items you shouldcheck are the devices and file formats supported, and how the usagefees are assessed. Table 30-1 shows a comparison of these featuresbetween ThinMail and PrintMe Networks. Both companies offer afree trial service to evaluate their offerings. If you have a fax machinehandy, you can try out a few scenarios and see if this solution makessense for your needs.

Contact Information

PrintMe Networks, www.printme.com

ThinMail, www.thinmail.com

Table 30-1 Comparison Table for ThinMail and PrintMe Networks

Company Devices SupportedFile Types Supported

Usage Fees

ThinMail Palm VII, Palm V/Omnisky, Visorphone, Treo, Blackberry Wireless Handheld, Motorola Pagers, Cell phone with two-way messaging

.TXT, .HTM/HTML,

.DOC, .XLS, .PPT,

.VSD, .PRE, .PRZ,

.123, .LWP, .WK4,

.PS, .PDF, .EPS,

.WPD, .WPG, .WB3,

.JPG/JPEG, .GIF, .TIF,

.PCX

75 cents for fax calls up to 10 pages

PrintMe Networks

Mobile phone, PDA, BlackBerry, and two-way pager

.DOC, .XLS, .PDF,

.PPT, .TXT, JPEG$9.99 per month


140

31The Next-Generation

Laptop: Tablet PCs

ou may intuitively think of tablet PCs as providing a subset ofthe functionality offered by a traditional laptop and beingmore closely related to handheld personal digital assistants. In

fact, the opposite may well be closer to the truth. Tablet PCs arebecoming a superset of the traditional laptop, providing all the fea-tures you expect in a laptop together with powerful new features suchas digital pen and ink, and speech recognition. Digital pen-and-inkcapability means that these tablet PCs can be used to record your ownhandwriting directly onscreen by using a special pen, and the tabletPC will render your writing in a digital ink on the surface of thescreen. What’s more, when compared to a traditional laptop, theyoften have longer battery life, are lighter weight, and feature built-inwireless capability. Their hot-docking functionality means that theycan be quickly docked and undocked from standard keyboards, mon-itors, and mouse products at your desk.

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The Next-Generation Laptop: Tablet PCs 141

Many tablet PCs are offered in a “clamshell” variety, in whichthey include attached keyboards and offer displays with a swivelcapability, in which the display attaches to the keyboard base. Forlaptop-style functionality, you simply open the clamshell tablet PCand swivel the display around horizontally so it is on the inside of thedevice above the keyboard instead of facing outward. The other typi-cal form factor is the “slate” variety, in which the display faces out-ward the entire time and a detachable keyboard is required for dataentry purposes (other than using the pen).

Microsoft, together with support from a number of hardware,software, and microchip companies, officially launched their own ver-sion of the Tablet PC at the end of 2002. Some of the manufacturersof these devices include Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu, Motion Computing,Toshiba, and ViewSonic. Figure 31-1 and Plates 29 and 30 show theTablet PC from Fujitsu.

Figure 31-1 Fujitsu Tablet PC (Source: Fujitsu).


How It Works

Microsoft Tablet PCs run a superset of the Windows XP operatingsystem called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. This version has all thefeatures of Windows XP Professional plus additional features uniqueto the Tablet PC, such as a software program called Windows Journal(Plate 30). The Windows Journal allows you to take notes in yourown handwriting by using the tablet pen to write directly on thescreen. It functions as an electronic writing pad and includes a num-ber of different background templates, including ruled sheets, blanksheets, sheets with grids for drawings, and even music sheets.

To edit your handwritten notes, you can use what are known asgestures. Gestures are shapes that you draw using your tablet pen tosend commands to the Tablet PC. Gestures include symbols for stan-dard keyboard actions such as backspace, space, enter, and tab. Theseare unique symbols that the tablet PC can readily recognize as instruc-tions rather than written text.

A good example of a gesture unique to the Tablet PC is thescratch-out gesture, which allows you to erase previously writtencharacters or words within the Windows Journal. To do this, you sim-ply use a horizontal erasing action in the same way that you woulduse an eraser with a regular piece of paper, starting from left to right,over the characters or words you wish to erase. The tablet PC alsofeatures handwriting recognition software so that you can convertyour handwritten notes into typed text, and speech recognition soft-ware in case you want to dictate your notes.

Benefits

Three of the main benefits to using a tablet PC include mobility, versa-tility, and productivity. The tablet PC enables greater mobility byallowing you to hot-dock in and out of your desktop peripherals, suchas keyboards and monitors, in a matter of seconds. If you’re rushingto a meeting, you can quickly undock the tablet PC and take it withyou without having to worry about shutting down and rebooting, andcarrying your mouse and power cord. The other features that enable

The Next-Generation Laptop: Tablet PCs 143

mobility include the longer battery life, the wireless connectivity, theonscreen keyboard, and the generally lighter weight of the devicewhen compared to traditional laptops. Tablet PCs commonly weighjust three pounds or less, and battery life is often up to eight hours.For example, the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4000 Series Tablet PC weighs 3.2pounds and has a battery life up to four and one-half hours.

On the versatility side, the tablet PC provides two new ways tointeract that are more natural than the traditional mouse and key-board interaction. You can use a digital pen and write directly ontothe screen, use speech recognition to dictate your comments, or acombination of both. You can also use an onscreen keyboard asanother data entry method if you’re away from your regular key-board and don’t want to use the handwriting or speech recognition.

With regard to productivity—although we all use laptops or desk-top PCs, we still take meeting notes on paper. We often do thisbecause taking notes directly into a laptop can be regarded as impoliteduring an interview or working session and can distract you fromfocusing on your audience. In situations like this, the folks on theother side of the interview may feel like they are being audited as well!Using a tablet PC and taking handwritten notes can increase yourproductivity in this case because it can be done in a meeting settingwithout offending the attendees, and can save you considerable timein having to type up your paper-based handwritten notes afterward.Another productivity boost provided by the tablet PC is that it canresume from a standby mode in a matter of seconds.


The tablet PC is intended to be a user’s primary business computer andpricing for the systems is typically a few hundred dollars higher than atraditional laptop. The Fujitsu Stylistic ST4000 came in at around$2,199 at the time of writing. For this small additional cost, users getthe benefits of a computer that is more portable and usable across avariety of daily tasks and activities. For users who like to take frequenthandwritten notes, attend regular meetings, or like to add their ownhandwritten annotations to existing documents, the additional porta-bility and versatility of a tablet PC will be a powerful advantage over


the traditional laptop. Annotation can be performed within a numberof Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, and Power-Point as well as within emails using Microsoft Outlook.

To use the handwriting feature within these Office applications,users must download the free Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PCfrom the Microsoft Web site. Developers can take advantage of thesoftware development kit (SDK) for the tablet PC in order to writeapplications that leverage the platform’s ink and speech capabilities.

Although there’s a slight learning curve in getting up-to-speedwith tablet PCs and in using them for note taking, they could well endup being your next laptop in just a couple of years.

Contact Information

Acer, www.acer.com

Compaq, www.compaq.com

Fujitsu PC Corporation, www.fujitsupc.com

Motion Computing, www.motioncomputing.com


ViewSonic, www.viewsonic.com


145

32Simplifying

Convenience Payments: ExxonMobil Speedpass

f you’ve ever wanted to fill up your car or truck with gas andmake convenience-store purchases in a hurry, lines at the cash reg-ister and fumbling for change or for credit cards can be a real has-

sle. The ExxonMobil Speedpass can help you avoid many of thesesituations. It automatically links to a standard credit or check cardthat you specify during enrollment and allows you to make paymentsfor gas and other convenience-store items. The Speedpass system usesa 1.5-inch tag that attaches to your key ring. It uses radio frequencyidentification (RFID) technology to communicate with a special readermounted in the gas pump or near the cash register. To make a gas pur-chase, you simply wave the Speedpass tag at a reader on the pump,and then you’re authorized to begin fueling. What could be simpler?

The interesting thing about the Speedpass system, and aboutRFID tags in general, is that they are starting to be utilized for cus-tomer identification to enable an even wider variety of conveniencepayments. The ExxonMobil Speedpass can also be used for makingcar wash payments at company stations in the Chicago and Orlando

I


area. At McDonalds, Speedpass can be used at more than 400 loca-tions in the greater Chicago area (Plates 31 and 32). In addition, Stop& Shop Supermarkets will accept payments using the Speedpass andis linking its loyalty-card program to the Speedpass. This means thatStop & Shop customers gain all the discounts and rewards by usingthe Speedpass that they would by using their normal loyalty cardwithin the store. Finally, Speedpass is also testing a Timex watch thatcontains a built-in tag. The watch can be used instead of the Speed-pass key tag to make gasoline purchases and at the checkout counteror drive-through window at select McDonalds restaurants in the Chi-cago area.

How It Works

The Speedpass system uses radio frequency identification (RFID)technology from Texas Instruments. The tag is actually a computermicrochip that stores a unique identification code. When the tagcomes within the proximity of a reader, it is energized by the radiofrequency transmitted by the reader and transmits its unique codeback to the reader. No personal or financial information is stored onthe tag, so there is no risk of interception while the tag is in use. If thetag is lost or stolen, however, you will need to immediately report it toExxonMobil in much the same way that you would report a lost orstolen credit card. Transactions appear on your credit card statementin the same way that they appear for other merchants.

Figure 32-1 Speedpass key tag (Source: Exxon Mobil Corporation).

Simplifying Convenience Payments: ExxonMobil Speedpass 147

To sign up for the Speedpass, you can go to the Speedpass Website and enter your name, contact information, and a suitable credit orcheck card for ExxonMobil to link with your account. At the timeyou submit your request, you can also select whether to have a receiptat the time of purchase, to not have a receipt, or to select a receipt ona case-by-case basis. This preference-setting at the time of registrationhelps to ensure a rapid transaction at the pump or at the checkoutcounter; the system knows your preferences and can act accordingly.

Sample Scenario: Purchase

1. Request and obtain the Speedpass key tag and/or car tag eitheronline or via phone.

2. Once you have received the key tag and/or car tag via mail, call 1-877-696-6245 to activate your tags by using an automated system. You’ll be prompted to enter your credit card number that you have associated with the Speedpass, plus your five-digit zip code.

3. If using a car tag, mount the tag in the lower inside area of your vehicle’s rear window on the side nearest to the fuel door.

4. Pull up to a pump at a participating Exxon or Mobil gas station. 5. Wave the Speedpass key tag in front of the “Place Speedpass

Here” panel, or drive up so that the car tag is within three feet of the pump in order to light up the Speedpass circle on the pump.

6. Select a fuel grade and begin fueling.7. Once you’ve finished fueling, you can collect your receipt and be

on your way

Benefits

One of the main benefits of the Speedpass is simply convenience. TheSpeedpass enables you to take the hassle out of fueling by allowingyou to avoid the line at the cash register and to avoid having to searchfor a credit card to swipe at the pump. During the winter months,particularly in northern climates, this can be highly beneficial becauseyou spend less time out in the cold and more time driving.

Beyond gasoline payments, the RFID technology in the Speedpassand similar systems promises a new level of convenience for making


purchases and is ushering in a new era in wireless commerce.Although this new approach is a simpler way of making payments, it’sstill vital to safeguard your tags and treat them as you would treatcredit cards and cash.

The Speedpass system is particularly convenient at restaurantssuch as McDonalds. As you go through the drive-through, you canorder your meal, pull up to the payment window, check your total,and then wave your Speedpass at the McDonalds logo on a specialboard placed just outside the window. This is much faster than fum-bling for the right amount of money or waiting for change.


Speedpass is available in two varieties: a key tag and a car tag. If youelect to use the car tag, you can mount it on the rear window of yourcar on the same side as your filling cap. The car tag uses the sameRFID process as the key tag and communicates wirelessly with thereader in the pump. One of the considerations to bear in mind whenusing the car tag is that you must place the tag in a position where thepump can read it; the tag must be within three feet of the pump for itto work. If the filling cap is at the back of your car by your licenseplate, you’ll want to attach your tag to the bottom of the car’s rearwindow. If the filling cap is toward the front of your car, you’ll wantto attach the tag to the bottom of the car’s windshield. The main ideais to ensure that the tag comes into range of the reader on the pumpwhen you pull up to fuel. Be sure that the tag is positioned on the cor-rect side of the vehicle so that it is as close as possible to the readerwhen you fill up. If the tag is beyond the working range of the reader,your purchase cannot be authorized. Just watch for the red Mobilpegasus logo or the Exxon tiger logo to light up, and you know thatyou’re within range; this happens as soon as you pull up next to thepump, and the light stays on until you replace the nozzle in the pumpwhen you’ve finished fueling.

If you have trouble getting the Speedpass to work at the gas station,the cause is most likely one of the following reasons: The Speedpass isnot activated, your credit or check card may have passed its expirationdate, or the key tag or car tag is not pointed properly at the reader.

Simplifying Convenience Payments: ExxonMobil Speedpass 149

In terms of the life expectancy of the tags, the key tags themselvesare passive devices that never expire because they are energized by theRFID readers in the pumps. The car tags, which are active devices withan internal battery, last three to five years, according to ExxonMobil.

One of the current drawbacks to Speedpass is that it has limitedavailability with regard to the types of retailers supporting it for wire-less payments. You can use it only at ExxonMobil stations and someselect restaurants, such as McDonalds. For price-conscious consum-ers, this may be a disadvantage because some of the lower-cost gasstations do not offer such a service and do not support Speedpass. Inthe end, you’re making a decision between price or convenience. Asthe Speedpass becomes more widely available, however, it willbecome more beneficial for the average consumer and will definitelybecome a better way to pay!

Contact Information

Speedpass, www.speedpass.com

Speedpass Service Center, 1-877-696-6245

Business Speedpass Account, 1-87-SPEEDPASS (1-877-733-3727)


150

33Securing Internet

Shopping: American Express Blue

merican Express Blue is a credit card that includes a built-inSmart Chip for Internet security. The built-in computermicrochip on the card holds a certificate of authenticity that

helps to provide added security when you make online purchasesusing your PC. Instead of using your actual credit card number tomake a purchase, you are given a unique, temporary card numberand expiration date to enter that provides added protection fromInternet fraud.

Internet purchases can be verified by something you have, such asyour card, in addition to something you know. This improves the levelof Internet security because would-be thieves would need to actuallypossess your card plus know your personal identification number(PIN) in order to make a purchase that is secured in this manner.

A

Securing Internet Shopping: American Express Blue 151

How It Works

American Express makes these secure Internet payments available onthe Internet via their Smart Chip Private Payments system. They pro-vide a Smart Chip Reader that can read your card and identify you tothe Private Payments system. Merchants can accept Private Paymentsin the same way that they accept regular American Express credit cardpayments. So in this way, it is transparent to the merchant. This isgood news for consumers as well, because you can immediately startusing the system and not have to wait for merchants to become partof the program.

The Smart Chip Readers are offered in three varieties: a serialreader, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) reader, and a keyboard reader.The serial and USB readers are stand-alone peripheral devices thatread your Smart Chip. The keyboard reader functions as both astandard keyboard for your PC plus as a reader for your SmartChip. American Express provides card members with one free stand-alone reader. Additional readers are $25 and the keyboard reader is$59.95.

The Smart Chip Private Payments system is actually an enhance-ment to the standard Private Payments system. Private Payments is afree service for all American Express cardholders. The Private Pay-ments system by itself allows you to obtain a secure, temporary trans-action number instead of using your actual card number to makepayments. Your purchases are still billed to your regular account inthis instance. The Smart Chip Private Payments system goes one stepbeyond this by locking access to Private Payments on your PC to justthe Smart Chip card holder.


1. Request and obtain the Blue credit card.2. Request and obtain a Smart Chip Reader.3. Install the Smart Chip Reader hardware and software on your PC.4. Access the Private Payments Web site and request a new number.5. Insert the Blue card into your Reader.6. Enter your PIN.


7. Choose your card that is registered with Private Payments.

8. Obtain your unique transaction number and expiration date.

9. Enter this transaction number and expiration date on the mer-chant Web site to make your purchase.

Benefits

Today, one of the main benefits of the American Express Blue card isthe added security that it provides for making purchases over theInternet. In the future, your Smart Chip Reader will be able to loadnew software applications to your Smart Chip as American Expressmakes them available.


To use the stand-alone reader or the reader keyboard, you need aPC running Windows 95, 98, or NT. You also need 5MB of diskspace and 8MB of memory available on your machine. To use thestand-alone USB reader, you need a PC that was built after 1997running Windows 98 with a USB port. You also need the sameamount of disk space and memory as required by the other readers.You can check whether you have the capability for USB by runningthe USB evaluation utility program listed later in the contact infor-mation section.

A nontechnical consideration when using Smart Chip Private Pay-ments system is to ensure that you use them only for one-time pur-chases and purchases that do not require reservations long inadvance. Because the temporary card number you are issued lasts foronly 30 to 67 days (based upon when in the month the number isissued to you), it will expire and become unusable after its expirationdate. To avoid problems, it’s therefore wise to just use the system forone-time, immediate purchases such as Internet shopping.

Securing Internet Shopping: American Express Blue 153

Contact Information

Private Payments, www.americanexpress.com/privatepayments

Smart Chip Private Payments, www.americanexpress.com/smart-chipprivatepayments

Smart Chip Readers, www.americanexpress.com/igotblue

Reader Software, www.americanexpress.com/reader/download/

USB Evaluation Utility, www.usb.org/data/usbready.exe


154

34Shopping with Your

Mobile Phone: Digital Wallets

f you’ve ever tried buying something by using your mobile phone,the hardest part is any form of data entry other than simply mak-ing a selection from a set of menu choices or perhaps keying in a

few numbers. Any kind of text entry with alphabetical characters istypically tedious because of the 10-digit numeric keypad, which is theonly input means on many phones unless you purchase an attachablekeyboard. For this reason, many people avoid trying to make pur-chases using their phones and wait until they are online with a desk-top computer or laptop. For time-sensitive purchases such as tickets,or for purchases of services that are delivered directly to the phone,however, there needs to be an efficient way to conduct an electroniccommerce transaction over the phone.

A digital wallet is the answer to this dilemma. It can help to makeyour life easier if you ever wish to make a purchase on-the-spot byusing your mobile phone and wish to streamline your transactionsteps so you don’t have to spend several minutes fumbling with yourphone. The digital wallet stores all your personal and required finan-

I

Shopping with Your Mobile Phone: Digital Wallets 155

cial information so that making payments can be a lot easier andpainless. A one-time registration to set up your digital wallet allowsyou to enter your name, address, telephone number, email address,and a secret personal identification number (PIN), along with yourpreferred payment information. Of course, it’s best to do this one-time setup using a standard Web browser.

Payments associated with digital wallets can typically be linked toeither a credit or debit card of your choice. This information is keptsecurely on file in the form of a digital wallet so that future purchasescan be made by just entering your PIN or simply by using your user-name and password. Of course, you must be conducting the transac-tion with a merchant who supports your digital wallet whether youare on your mobile phone or conducting your transaction on a desk-top computer or laptop.

In this profile, we’ll use the e-Wallet service provided by AT&TWireless as an example of a digital wallet (Figure 34-1). Many othercarriers also offer digital wallets, but because we covered ring tonesusing AT&T as our example carrier for an earlier profile, we’ll con-tinue the coverage by looking at their e-Wallet offering.

Figure 34-1 AT&T Wireless e-Wallet.


How It Works

To make a purchase using a digital wallet, you typically must firsthave a general registration on the wireless carrier’s Web site, such asthe AT&T Wireless Ring Tones & Graphics Web site, then you mustregister for a digital wallet. The first registration gives you access tothe carrier’s Web site for making ring tone and image purchases thatcan be charged on your monthly bill or to your digital wallet. If youchoose to have the charges applied to your digital wallet, you’re thenredirected to a Web site where you can register further informationthat includes the credit or debit card you wish to have associated withyour digital wallet.

The AT&T Wireless e-Wallet shares the same username with theAT&T Wireless Ring Tones & Graphics Web site, but it uses a differentpassword. The different password is used for security purposes becauseyou have more confidential information stored within your e-Wallet.

Sample Scenario: Purchase Using a Digital Wallet

1. Go to AT&T wireless ring tone Web site (www.attws.com/ring-tones).

2. Log in by entering your username and password.3. Search for and select the ring tone you wish to purchase by click-

ing on the Buy icon.4. Select “Bill to my e-Wallet, or sign up for an e-Wallet account”

and click OK.5. After reviewing the charges, click Purchase.6. To review your order, click My Orders.

Benefits

The benefit of using an e-Wallet is that it can allow you to performtransactions much more quickly and efficiently. You also have a cen-tralized location to manage your profile and to view your transactionhistory. The AT&T Wireless e-Wallet site is at http://ecare.attws.com/

Shopping with Your Mobile Phone: Digital Wallets 157

ewallet. From here you can manage your credit card information, yourshipping address, your user information, and your PIN. You can alsoview your purchases and subscriptions from a purchase history menu.


If you sign up for a digital wallet, be sure to make a careful note ofyour username and password. In this case, you’ll have two passwords:one for the Ring Tones & Graphics Web site, and one for your e-Wal-let account. Keeping track of usernames and passwords can be one ofthe hardest parts about maintaining an e-Wallet because it adds to theexisting number of usernames and passwords you must maintain. Ifyou like to see charges on your credit or debit card, as opposed toyour monthly wireless statement, however, then e-Wallets can be agood way to separate the charges. This can be particularly useful ifthe phone is shared and one person pays the monthly bill and anotherwants to purchase the extras such as ring tones and graphics.

Be aware that on your credit card bill, you may see a merchantname other than your wireless carrier or the merchant from whom youmade the purchase. Many of the carriers use a third-party service pro-vider named Qpass for their digital wallet and credit card billing ser-vices, so this name may well be the one that appears on your statement.

Contact Information

AT&T Wireless Ring Tones & Graphics, www.attws.com/ringtones/

AT&T Wireless e-Wallet, http://ecare.attws.com/ewallet


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35Simplifying Shopping with Self-Checkout:

NCR FastLane

ou may have noticed that several of the large grocery stores,such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, K-Mart, and H-E-B, have startedto offer self-checkout lanes. In fact, according to the Food

Marketing Institute, nearly 20 percent of food retailers had self-checkout installed in 2001. These lanes are self-service lanes thatenable you to scan your own purchases and get out of the store faster.Because nobody likes to wait in line, stores with these types of check-outs can save you significant time.

As self-checkout evolves beyond grocery stores, other pilots havebeen conducted in home improvement stores, wholesale stores, andpharmacies, such as Home Depot, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Publix.Self-checkout is part of the retail automation trend that includes manyof the innovations that we described earlier, such as electronic tags.Once you get over the shock of doing this for the first time, it really issimple and convenient! Even the first time you ever check out this way,it is fast and easy—it just feels strange checking out on your own!

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Simplifying Shopping with Self-Checkout: NCR FastLane 159

How It Works

Self-checkout lanes work very simply. You just select your groceries orother items as you would normally and then proceed to the self-checkout line. Once you’re at the line, you simply scan and bag eachof your items and then pay by cash, credit, or check card. You caneven use coupons. If you pay by cash, you can get exact change. Somestores, such as Wal-Mart, place an employee in a nearby booth loca-tion to monitor several self-checkout lanes, often four lanes or so, andto offer assistance to anyone if needed. This can be useful if you needspecial attention, such as when purchasing tobacco products or alco-holic beverages. For reference, Figure 35-1 shows the self-checkoutequipment from NCR called the NCR FastLane.


1. Take your items for purchase to the self-checkout lane.2. Place the items on the checkstand or input conveyor belt.3. Scan each item and place it in the bagging area provided.

4. As you scan each item, the system may audibly tell you the price. The touchscreen interface may also show a list of scanned items, their prices, and your running total.

5. For items sold by weight, place the items on the built-in scale and use the touchscreen to tell the system what you’re buying by selecting the appropriate picture.

6. Once you have scanned and weighed all your items, push a but-ton on the touchscreen to show your purchase is complete.

7. You can now pay by cash, credit, or debit card. If you pay with credit or debit card, you swipe your card, then sign using the electronic pen and pad provided. If you pay using currency or coins, you’ll receive cash back as necessary.

8. Use coupons by inserting them into the coupon acceptor, and your total will be updated to reflect your discounts.

9. Push a button on the touchscreen to show that your payment is complete, then collect your receipt from the receipt printer.

10. Finally, bag your items, and you’re free to leave the store withyour self-purchased items.


Benefits

Although self-checkout initially can feel awkward for the average cus-tomer, many grocery stores feel that over time, this feature may helpthem to differentiate from their competition by giving their customersa way to speed though the checkout line and to move at their ownpace. Another benefit touted by the grocery stores is that it can add ameasure of privacy when purchasing personal items. For elderly peo-ple or those requiring attention to detail, it also allows them to scan

Figure 35-1 NCR FastLane self-checkout equipment (Source: NCR).

Simplifying Shopping with Self-Checkout: NCR FastLane 161

items at their own pace and to verify the price of each item as they go.This can be an advantage over having to read and validate the receiptline by line after going rapidly through a traditional checkout stand.

Even though self-checkout lanes are still a novelty, you’ll find thatyou can avoid queues and use them immediately even when the otherlanes, with cashiers, are backed up. Once people get over the adop-tion curve and become accustomed to using these lanes, you may findthat they’re as busy as the human-staffed lanes and have their ownqueues building up. So the message here is to take advantage of thisfeature at your local convenience stores as quickly as you can. It reallyis fast, simple, and fun if you don’t mind doing your own bagging!


What makes self-checkout so effortless is the human-factors engineer-ing that manufacturers such as NCR have placed into their design.Scanning is easy because there are often two scanners: one flat scan-ner and one vertical scanner. This way, your items are easily scannedvia the barcode laying face down or pointing away from you. Therange of payment options is also convenient, and support for couponsand produce items means that most transactions can be automated.

If you’re wondering about theft prevention, the machines haveseveral mechanisms to prevent theft, including reconciling the weightof an item with its product description to ensure that what’s scannedis really the correct product.

Contact Information

NCR Self-Checkout, www.ncr.com/products/hardware/sa_selfchk.htm

Part II

162

Tomorrow’s Technology

omorrow’s technology offers a glimpse into a number of newways to have fun and simplify your life. There are new ways toconnect to the Internet, new ways to interact with your laptop

and your personal digital assistant (PDA), new ways to network yourdevices, new ways for objects to communicate, and new ways totravel. All these techniques and devices will enable us to communicatemore easily and to be more productive in our day-to-day tasks andactivities. The overall theme here is that technology is becoming moreand more embedded in our daily lives. It’s becoming pervasive andalmost unnoticed. This is good news. When technology becomes invis-ible and just happens without us having to think about how to make itwork, it means that it is serving us rather than the other way around.It means that we have successfully adapted technology to meet ourneeds and have shaped it around us and around our environment. Fortoo long we’ve had to adapt our business processes and work habitsaround the requirements of these gadgets. We’ve been slaves to theirway of doing things and their way of interacting. Finally, we’re begin-ning to reclaim some of that lost productivity and to turn the tables.

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Tomorrow’s Technology 163

When we no longer have to worry about how to program the VCR,or how to send a text message on our mobile phone, or how to connectwirelessly to the Internet, we have achieved a significant breakthrough.We can focus on the task at hand, and the technology becomes a dial-tone or capability that is always on and ready to serve. What’s more,many of these upcoming technologies and gadgets are blurring the tradi-tional boundaries of product functionality and are offering completelynew ways to get things done. For example, it used to be that the phonesystem was separate from the electrical system, which was separate fromyour home computer network. As we shall see, you can now run yourhome computer network over the phone line or your electrical system.

Many of the technologies and gadgets in this section on tomorrow’stechnology are not yet in commercial production, but many others are;such products made it into this section rather than the Today’s Technol-ogy section because they are still in very early adoption. So althoughwireless networking can be considered close to mainstream by now,other techniques, such as networking using the phone line or network-ing using the electrical system, are still in the realm of the early adopters.How soon such technology moves into mainstream adoption dependsupon the value they are able to provide to the average consumer, theirindustry support in terms of compatible devices, and their ease-of-use.The companies that will be successful in this space, whether it is virtualkeyboards, personal mobile gateways, or other innovations, will bethose that carefully balance product or service innovation with practicalusability, a compelling value proposition, and a competitive price point.

Changing consumer behavior or introducing something new intothe consumer space is difficult. It’s like baseball; a company may hit ahome run or may completely miss the ball. Only time will tell, butthese innovations described within this section should provide aglimpse into what is coming soon to a store near you.

Gradually, the computing options available to consumers andbusiness users are becoming more flexible, more open, more intelli-gent, and more usable. The way in which we interact with computersand the way in which our customers and business partners interactwith computers is changing. We are finally gaining the ability todeliver the right information to the right person at the right time. Thisis a capability that will be a key competitive advantage for businessesand a key benefit to consumers in the future.


164

36Connecting Your Home: Internet Home Alliance

s more and more gadgets become digital and are able to com-municate with the network to share their data or to accessapplications, the next step is to apply these devices to control

the home. How many times have you left home and wondered if youactually set the alarm system, turned off the stove, or locked the doors?By connecting your home to the Internet and accessing it from yourdesktop computer, your car, or your wireless devices, you can haveinstant access to check out your home and determine what’s in orderand what needs to be corrected. For example, you might want toaccess your home via voice command from your car and instruct thehome to lock all doors or turn the air conditioning up or down. Addi-tionally, you may want to use your desktop computer or your tabletPC to actually view who is ringing the doorbell at your front door afteryou’ve received an instant message notification that you have a visitor.

All these scenarios and more are readily workable today, andorganizations such as the Internet Home Alliance are already con-ducting pilot programs and helping to accelerate the development of

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the market for these types of solutions. All that’s really required is acollection of smart devices within the home that are all connected toan always-on broadband Internet connection. The connected homecan include kitchen appliances, security systems, electrical and air-conditioning systems, and much more. If these systems are connectedto the Internet, it becomes possible to access and control them at anytime from any place by using any device.

The Internet Home Alliance comprises of a number of consumerproducts, retailers, and technology companies, including Best Buy, CiscoSystems, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Invensys, Panasonic,Sears, Sun, and Whirlpool. Their goal is to accelerate the process ofresearching, developing, and testing new home technology in terms ofproducts and services that require a broadband or persistent connectionto the Internet. By collaborating, these companies can share their experi-ences and help to ensure that their various offerings will be compatible.

How It Works

The Internet Home Alliance runs various pilot programs with consum-ers to evaluate market demand and perform technical testing for con-nected home services. Some of the recent pilots have included OnStarat Home, an Internet-Enabled Education Pilot, Structured WiringPilot, and an Energy Management Pilot. The OnStar at Home pilotwas launched in early 2002 and was led by OnStar, Invensys, Pana-sonic, Hewlett-Packard, and ADT Security Services. The objective ofthe pilot was to integrate OnStar’s Virtual Advisor service (covered inan earlier profile) with home security, control, and telecommunica-tions components. This provides homeowners with a way to remotelycontrol systems such as lighting, temperature, and home security byusing any PC, telephone, mobile phone, wireless PDA, or via theOnStar Personal Calling Service from their car or phone.

Sample Functionality within the OnStar at Home Pilot

1. Check security system status and remotely arm or disarm.2. Check primary home entry door status and remotely lock or unlock.3. Check garage door status.4. Check lighting status and remotely turn on or off.

166 Tomorrow’s Technology

5. Check thermostat status and remotely adjust.6. Monitor activity in the home via a Web camera that captures still

images.7. Instruct smart doorbell to call a phone number when doorbell is

rung and homeowner is away.8. Check full home status as a combination of the previously listed

statuses and remotely activate devices by using “quick commands.”

The pilot system works by routing all communications from thehomeowner through the OnStar platform at the OnStar data center.The OnStar customer interface server application provides the userwith a menu of services and performs voice recognition. When arequest is received, it sends the request to the Invensys back officeserver application at the Invensys data center. The Invensys applica-tion translates these requests so they can be understood by the devicesin the home. It forwards the requests to the Invensys home controlgateway located inside the home for the final execution of the request.Figure 36-1 shows the Internet Home Alliance Web site.

Figure 36-1 OnStar at Home architecture (Source: Internet Home Alliance).


Benefits

The benefits of an integrated service like this pilot are that you canmanage your home lighting, temperature, and security remotely overany type of access device. This can be particularly comforting ifyou’re going away on vacation or will be away from home forextended periods of time. Although lighting and temperature may beable to take care of themselves via timers or thermostats, the ability tosee who’s at the front door or to check that you locked all the doors isa definite benefit for peace of mind.

Another benefit, whether accessed and operated by the home-owner in-home or remotely, is the ability to consolidate all home-management functions into a single application. This way you canadjust your settings in one place instead of having to run all overthe house and adjust each device separately. With consumer-prod-ucts companies working together in alliances such as the InternetHome Alliance, the future vision of these integrated operations iswithin sight.


One of the barriers to adoption for the connected home to overcomeare the security concerns around connecting critical home functions tothe Internet. Computer viruses and unwanted email are already severeenough threats on the Internet, let alone having hackers attempt toopen your front door or play with your thermostat.

The question to ask yourself is whether you would feel comfort-able putting your home security and other controls on the Internet.For many, particularly the early adopters, the answer may be yes,but with considerable reservations. If the information is one-wayand provides alerts and notifications only, then security is less anissue; that is, unless the alert states that you’ve left your front dooropen and someone can also determine your home address from thesame message.

If the information is two-way and allows you to unlock your frontdoor or adjust your temperature setting remotely, then security


becomes a more serious issue. Strong security in terms of biometricauthentication in addition to high encryption may be one potentialsolution. Any systems offered on the market will also need to haveproven their reliability and ease-of-use. The research results from theOnStar at Home pilot will be interesting to see and will be availableon the alliance’s Web site.

Contact Information

Internet Home Alliance, www.internethomealliance.com


169

37Networking Using the

Phone Line: HomePNA

ith ever more devices and appliances becoming dataenabled, and with more and more computers appearing ineach home, one of the challenges for manufacturers, retail-

ers, service providers, and consumers is how to provide all thesedevices with an effective home networking solution that can tie every-thing together.

According to a Dataquest estimate, more than15 million homesin the U.S. have more than one computer. In fact, according to theanalyst group Cahners In-Stat, the home-connectivity market isexpected to reach $6 billion by 2004. Connectivity can enable device-to-device communications, such as for gaming applications, andcommunications with the Internet for remote monitoring purposesand data exchange. One of the biggest benefits for home networkingis the ability for all devices within the home to share a single broad-band Internet connection and to share peripherals such as printersand scanners.

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In the consumer home-networking arena, many techniques cur-rently exist for users to network their computers and peripherals. Inaddition to traditional wired, or Ethernet, connections, which operateat 10 megabits per second, consumers now have options such as wire-less networking via a variety of wireless standards, such as 802.11b(also known as Wi-Fi, which is the certification standard for 802.11bcompatibility) and Bluetooth, and even options such as connecting viastandard telephone lines. Given the fact that most homes have tele-phone jacks in many rooms, networking using the existing phonelines makes a lot of sense.

The HomePNA standard is the major standard that allows devicesto be networked across home telephone sockets. HomePNA standsfor the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, a nonprofit associationof industry companies such as 3Com, Agere Systems, AMD, AT&TWireless Services, Broadcom, Compaq, Conexant, Hewlett-Packard,Intel, Motorola and 2Wire. The association was founded in June 1998with 11 initial members and now has more than 150 member compa-nies offering more than 100 products that are HomePNA ready.

How It Works

Devices that are HomePNA ready simply can be plugged into a tele-phone socket to become a part of a HomePNA network. A networkcan be set up with or without an Internet connection. If you want toadd an Internet connection, you’ll typically plug your cable modeminto a HomePNA-compliant residential gateway. A gateway such asthe HomePortal 100 from 2Wire offers connections for your broad-band connection, phone line, and local Ethernet. It also offers a USB(Universal Serial Bus) PC connection so that one computer can beconnected directly to the HomePortal by using a USB port. Setting upa HomePNA network becomes as simple as connecting your broad-band connection to the gateway, connecting the gateway to one ofyour phone outlets, and then connecting any of your computers andperipherals to the other telephone outlets within your home. Othermanufacturers of these residential gateways include Hewlett-Packard(HP), LinkSys, NETGEAR, and Panasonic. You can also buy gate-ways with built-in broadband modems so that one box takes care of


both the modem function for your Internet connection plus the rout-ing function of your gateway.

HomePNA has released two specifications for home networkingat 1 Mbps and 10 Mbps via the standard RJ-11 phone jack. Theirthird-generation specification, version 3.0, targets multimedia appli-cations and supports networking at over 100 Mbps. Version 3.0 wasjointly proposed as a standard for HomePNA by Broadcom and Cop-perGate, and delivers data such as HDTV, digital audio, and voicesteams at a rate of up to 128 Mbps. Version 3.0 also supports theVoice-over-HomePNA protocol allowing up to eight simultaneousvoice streams within the home.

Benefits

One of the benefits behind HomePNA for home networking is its sim-plicity. The alliance’s slogan is, “if you can plug in your phone, thenyou can network your home.” The range of products available for thisnetwork include preconfigured PCs, network interface cards, routersand residential gateways, broadband modems, and Internet appliances.

The benefits of HomePNA as a choice for home networking arethat no wires are required so you don’t have to run Ethernet cableacross your home from room to room, you don’t need to have experi-ence in home networking or in setting up complex networks, and youdon’t need expensive equipment. HomePNA is actually one of themost simple and affordable solutions available, although wirelessLANs (Local Area Networks) also provide ease of setup and ever-reducing costs of ownership.


One of the challenges for HomePNA is that it’s not as readily knownas other choices for home networking, such as setting up a wirelessLAN. Although HomePNA is easy and affordable, Ethernet and wire-less LANs still rule the day for networking computers. As home net-working becomes more elaborate and other peripherals, such as


HDTVs and digital entertainment centers, become added to the net-work, HomePNA will see an advantage over wireless LAN. Mostmanufacturers of these entertainment centers are more likely to add aphone jack socket for network connectivity than to add a compara-tively expensive wireless adapter. Some of the Internet appliances thatsupport HomePNA include the HP digital entertainment center, theSONICblue RIO digital audio center, and the Turtle Beach Audiotron.

Contact Information

HomePNA

Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, www.homepna.org

Routers and Residential Gateways

2Wire, www.2wire.com

HP, www.hp.com

LinkSys, www.linksys.com



Internet Appliances

HP Digital Entertainment Center de100c, www.hp.com

SONICblue RioCentral, www.sonicblue.com/audio/rio/rio_audiocenter.asp

Turtle Beach Audiotron, www.audiotron.net/audiotron/producth-ome.asp


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38Networking Using the

Electrical System: HomePlug Powerline

Alliance

new alternative to Ethernet, wireless, and phone line networksis called powerline networking. This technology promises tooffer a new way to connect devices and appliances within the

home by using existing electrical infrastructure. It actually uses yourhome’s electrical wiring system to provide the network connection viaany electrical outlet. One of the benefits of this method is the ubiquityof connections already installed in the home—often two or more elec-trical outlets per room compared to just a handful of phone-line con-nections per entire home.

One of the challenges of delivering data over the power supply isthat these types of networks are very noisy and variable in terms ofinterference because they were not designed to carry digital datatransmissions. When electrical devices are turned on and off, they cancause spikes and other noise patterns that can distort the electrical sig-nal and the data signal riding along with it.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a consortium of companiesaiming to develop new standards for powerline networking, has over-

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come many of these original technical difficulties. The Alliance, anonprofit industry association comprising more than 90 companies,was formed in April 2000. Some of the original founding companiesincluded 3Com, AMD, Cisco Systems, Conexant, Enikia, Intel, Intel-lon, Motorola, Panasonic, S3’s Diamond Multimedia, RadioShack,and Texas Instruments.

Many of these companies also play a role in the Home PhonelineNetworking Alliance and are obviously hedging their bets as to whichwill generate the most traction in the consumer marketplace. Most ofthem will benefit from the adoption of either technology because theystand to sell more network interface cards and other forms of homenetworking equipment.

How It Works

Powerline networking relies on a specification developed by theHomePlug Powerline Alliance that enables data to be carried over theelectrical system, in conjunction with electrical power, by using signalprocessing techniques to remove noise and maintain the quality of thedata signal. The presence of the data signal on the line has no effecton the electrical service.

The HomePlug 1.0 specification, released in 2001, provides a datarate of 14 Mbps and supports products for gaming, consumer elec-tronics, voice telephony, and personal computing. The group hasalready conducted field trials in 500 homes within the United Statesand has confirmed that the specification is ready for market rollout.The next steps will be the introduction of further HomePlug-compli-ant products from its member companies and continued work toensure product compatibility.

To network your own home using this technology, all you need isa powerline router to connect to your existing cable or DSL modem.The Powerline router allows you to convert your Ethernet connectionto a signal that is delivered over your home electrical system. At anyother electrical outlet within your home, you are now able to plug in apowerline bridge that connects to your computer via Ethernet, or apowerline USB adapter that connects to your computer via USB cable.The overall networking solution is very similar to that of the Home-


PNA solution for phone lines except that you’re plugging into thepower outlet instead of the phone outlet. Manufacturers of thesepowerline routers, bridges, and adapters include IOGEAR, LinkSys,NETGEAR, and Samsung.

Benefits

For businesses in the consumer-electronics arena, the advent of pow-erline networking and other forms of networking within the homeopen new possibilities for providing service to consumers. If consum-ers have a cable modem or DSL router, they can connect a powerlinerouter and instantly have full Internet access across the home. Thismeans that intelligent devices and appliances are then able to beaccessed and connect with the Internet with ease if they supportHomePlug or similar solutions. Consumers can manage home securitysettings and lighting settings. Retailers can offer value-added data ser-vices for their smart appliances and can troubleshoot appliancesremotely, potentially eliminating the need for on-site service visits.

Some potential future scenarios for home networking in generalinclude refrigerators that can reorder supplies, music systems that canpurchase and play music downloaded from the Internet from musicsites, gaming systems that can purchase and install new games, and avariety of home systems, such as air conditioning, electrical, and secu-rity settings, that can be remotely administered.


In theory, the HomePlug networking option is generally a more secureapproach than wireless networking via 802.11b or Bluetooth becausethese wireless standards spread the data signal in an uncontrolled dis-persion pattern to anyone within the signal radius wishing to listen tocommunications—at least this can be the case if the security settingsfor wireless local-area networking are left open as they come out ofthe box. HomePlug (and also HomePNA) is somewhat more plug-and-play than wireless local area networks or standard Ethernet net-working, although they are not as ubiquitous right now.


If you’re deciding which home-networking solution to purchase,Ethernet will generally give you the best security but can be costly,especially if you’re running a lot of cable from room to room. Wire-less is good because there are no cables to run, but configuring thesecurity settings for a secure network can take some time to learn andimplement. HomePNA and HomePlug can be useful if you have alarge number of devices to network across the home and wish toleverage your existing phone line or powerline infrastructure. Thesetwo will also increase in value when compared to Ethernet and wire-less once more companies are providing suitable equipment and capa-ble products.

Connecting the home network to the Internet, however, can raisesome issues. One of the challenges is that with more devices exposedon the Internet, the potential for unauthorized usage can have farmore severe effects than the relatively benign email issues from virusesthat we see today. In the future, one can imagine alarms being deacti-vated, air-conditioning systems turned off, or ovens being set to hightemperatures. Any home-networking solution that enables homeappliances to be remotely managed via the Internet needs to havestringent controls for user authentication and access control. As thehome, in addition to the office, becomes increasingly connected, theneed for robust security will be a key requirement to spur user adop-tion. Without adequate security, these innovations may be relegatedto niche markets and miss out on widespread public acceptance.

Contact Information

HomePlug

HomePlug Powerline Alliance, www.homeplug.org

Powerline Routers, Bridges, and Adapters

IOGEAR, www.iogear.com

LinkSys, www.linksys.com


Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. Ltd., www.sem.samsung.com


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39Using Many Devices

with One Connection: Personal Mobile

Gateways

s our society becomes ever more connected, manufacturers areexperimenting with how all our consumer devices, such asphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), watches, and cam-

eras, may eventually connect to the wireless network. The connectionenables these devices to send and receive text, audio, and video dataand can significantly enhance the value of each device.

As the number of devices per user proliferates, each device havingits own built-in wireless networking capabilities becomes a redundantand costly proposition for end users. No one wants to pay for a wire-less connection and associated monthly service fees for each and everydevice they own.

A potential new solution is to have a networking device separatefrom the end devices themselves. In this way, the devices can becomesmaller, more functional, more fashionable (in the case of consumer-oriented brands), and less costly. The networking device performs therequired wireless connectivity on their behalf, and consumers just payone monthly service fee for the connection. The end devices simply

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communicate with this networking device via short-range wirelessprotocols such as Bluetooth.

An example of a company providing this type of solution is IXIMobile. The company offers a personal mobile gateway (PMG) thatacts as a bridge between the devices and the wireless network. ThePMG can be a stand-alone device or can even be incorporated into abattery pack or existing cellular phones. The interesting theme here isthat this concept separates the communications requirements fromthe form and functional requirements of the devices themselves. Ittherefore allows devices to be manufactured with lower costs and afaster time to market, and serves as the gateway between the short-range personal area network (PAN) between the devices that someonemay carry on their person and the wide area network (WAN) pro-vided by the wireless carriers.

How It Works

The IXI PMG solution consists of three portions: the PMG software,the client-device software, and the remote-management software forthe PMG (Figure 39-1; Plate 13). The three portions of the solutionare named IXI-Connect, IXI-Sleek, and IXI-Manage, respectively. IXI-Connect manages the connection between the wireless network andthe various Bluetooth-enabled devices in the user’s PAN. Wirelessoperators use the IXI-Manage software to manage the PMG deviceand to provision new applications over the air. Client devices run theIXI-Sleek software, which is the thin client-user interface that con-nects to the PMG. The PMG device acts as a pocket-sized microbridgeand microrouter between the PAN and the wireless network.

Benefits

The main benefit of a PMG is that you are purchasing a single connec-tion to the WAN as opposed to buying multiple connections with oneconnection charge per device. Although this may spell less revenues forwireless carriers, it makes a lot of sense for the consumer. The chal-


lenge this model will face is that once the WAN communication capa-bility is decoupled from the device itself, the device becomes dependenton the PMG for its full operation. In other words, the device wouldonly support short-range PAN communications with other similardevices. Wireless carriers may be unwilling to give up their service rev-enues by supporting such devices, because consumers could well pickother carriers to provide the main connection. But then again, perhapsif they don’t cannibalize themselves with this business model, someoneelse will! In the end, wireless carriers running the PMG may end upcontrolling not just a single wireless device as they do today, but theconsumer’s entire suite of personal devices. Their revenues will thenshift from connection service fees to higher revenues from the provi-sioning of a variety of applications and services to these devices.

Figure 39-1 Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG) solution (Source: IXI Mobile).



The IXI Personal Mobile Gateway is listed in the “Tomorrow’s Tech-nology” section because as of the time of writing, no devices are ship-ping. The company has an impressive list of technology partners thatinclude Texas Instruments and Duracell. It will be interesting to seehow their products evolve and come to market. The PMG is a highlydisruptive business model for consumers and the wireless industryalike. If this vision of tomorrow occurs, you’re likely to see a numberof innovative form factors and applications for devices such asphones, PDAs, watches, and cameras very soon. Perhaps the mostexciting thing is that all these devices will be able to communicatewith one another and the Internet, and you’ll only pay one wirelessconnection fee.

Contact Information

IXI Mobile, Personal Mobile Gateway, www.iximobile.com


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40Talking to Your Mobile Device:

Spoken Language Understanding

ave you ever wished that you could simply speak to yourmobile device instead of having to tap on menu items to nav-igate applications, and having to use the onscreen keyboard

or graffiti-style handwriting to enter text? Surely, a few spoken wordswould be a much quicker way to get your point across, particularly ifthe device could understand your spoken words and commands inaddition to simply recognizing them and converting them to text. Per-haps these spoken words could be used in combination with somemenu selections using the stylus for even greater productivity? What ifthe spoken-language engine was a service that could follow youaround from device to device and operate as your virtual assistant?

What we’re talking about here is the use of multimodal technologiestogether with spoken-language understanding. This combination is par-ticularly interesting because it can help to make a number of consumerdevices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphonesmuch more usable. The tablet PC is a good example of a consumer gad-get that already has some of this multimodal functionality via its speech-

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recognition and digital-pen-and-ink capabilities. Beyond the tablet PC,several research projects at companies such as Microsoft are taking mul-timodal interaction and spoken-language understanding even further togive us a glimpse into the future. Microsoft Research has a projectcalled Dr. Who that is investigating these types of opportunities by usingdistributed, continuous-speech recognition and spoken-language under-standing to enable new forms of human-computer interaction.

How It Works

Using the Dr. Who engine on a mobile device, end users can essen-tially talk to their devices and have the device understand the intendedmeaning of their commands and execute the requested tasks. Becausemobile devices are often too underpowered to perform continuous-speech recognition by themselves, techniques such as distributed-speech recognition can be applied to stream the audio signal back to aserver computer. The server computer performs the processing andinterpretation of the spoken command, then sends the resulting actionto be taken back to the mobile device for execution.

This type of technique can be applied for general dictation andmore advanced functionality such as meeting scheduling. Tasks suchas scheduling can be made more accurate by combining modalities.For example, a user can verbally request a meeting while simulta-neously tapping certain areas of their calendar onscreen to providemore guidance to the computer.

An interesting extension of speech technology and multimodaltechnologies is that they can be decoupled from the actual device inuse and become part of a computer-based service running on the net-work that can follow users around as they move from their homes totheir cars and offices. It becomes a virtual assistant that follows theuser’s context of activity and can aid with a variety of tasks regardlessof the current device being used.

Benefits

Microsoft sees the Dr. Who engine enabling a variety of Web servicesthat are specialized in particular domains, such as scheduling, andwhich can be looped into human conversations in order to execute


tasks. Web services are basically software programs residing on theInternet that can be accessed to carry out a particular business func-tion. For example, a Web service could be asked to find a certain typeof restaurant nearby. One can also imagine location-based servicesbeing applied to automatically determine the user’s current location.

It’s easy to see that when location-based services, Web services,multimodal user interaction, and spoken-language understandingtechniques are combined, they start to open up powerful opportuni-ties for computers to create new forms of value that can improve ourproductivity. Being able to speak to your mobile device and have itexecute your instructions is a powerful capability. Being able toextend this to other automated Web services on the network improvesthis capability even further.


Spoken-language understanding is a capability that finally allowscomputers to interact with us in a more natural manner. It allows usto speak to our devices instead of having to fumble to input text andcommands on small screens or keyboards. One day, natural speechcould well be the central interface for interaction with computers andmobile devices. If speech recognition and spoken-language under-standing can be perfected, users may well experience tremendous pro-ductivity gains and far fewer frustrations.

Speech engines such as Dr. Who could end up being the centralpoint of contact for access to a number of computers, devices, andhome appliances, and it could even end up being your PDA in the truemeaning of the term.

Contact Information

Microsoft Research, http://research.microsoft.com


184

41Using New Visual

Interfaces: 3D Desktops

he screen is the primary way in which we communicate with thecomputer in day-to-day activities. These activities typicallyinvolve actions such as reading, writing, managing and organiz-

ing content, interacting with others, and receiving notifications relatedto emails, instant messaging, alerts, and appointments. One of theissues over the past several years has been the ever-increasing stream ofinformation flow in the form of notifications that have the potential todistract us from our primary work activities. A constant flood of emailalerts and other forms of notification throughout the day can be a largedistraction for most knowledge workers as well as for general PC users.

Several major companies such as IBM and Microsoft, togetherwith numerous startups, are looking into new ways to present infor-mation onscreen and maximize the quality of information conveyedwhile minimizing end-user effort. If smarter visual interfaces that canpresent more information more rapidly, or in a more accessible man-ner, can be developed, productivity and general ease-of-use could besignificantly affected.

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Using New Visual Interfaces: 3D Desktops 185

Some examples that we’ll take a look at in this profile include theScope application and the Task Gallery from Microsoft Research, theScopeware product from Mirror Worlds Technologies, and the StarTree product from Inxight.

How It Works

The Scope application from Microsoft Research is designed to summa-rize a variety of notifications into a glanceable visualization tool. Figure41-1 and Plate 14 show a sample of the interface. Notifications aregrouped into alerts, calendar items, tasks, and inbox items such asemails. Objects near the center of the scope are the higher priority items.The notifications can be prioritized by using the Microsoft notificationplatform and priorities system. These systems apply artificial intelligencetechniques to determine the relative priority of one task over another.Users can select and zoom in on notifications by using the Scope anddrill down into them in order to gain more details. As we adapt ourwork habits around computing, research projects such as Scope have thepotential to help regain some of the time and attention spent in switch-ing between various activities and making decisions about priorities.

As another example of a new user-interface technique, we’ll nowlook at the Task Gallery, also from Microsoft Research. For manyyears, we have relied upon the desktop metaphor of Microsoft Win-dows and the Macintosh. These are two-dimensional metaphors formanaging documents and applications. Microsoft Research is lookinginto ways we can apply three-dimensional graphics to increase pro-ductivity around information management and to make the desktopmetaphor more intuitive. Their Task Gallery research prototype usesa three-dimensional office metaphor in which objects can be placedon the walls, ceiling, or floor of this three-dimensional space and canbe ordered by depth. The Task Gallery also provides an interestingtransition vehicle for migration from two dimensions to three for useradoption because of the ability to bring unmodified Windows appli-cations into the environment.

In addition to these applications from Microsoft Research, twoother companies, Mirror Worlds Technologies and Inxight, also haveinteresting innovations in the user interface arena.


Scopeware is a knowledge-management solution that locates andpresents business information in more accessible formats for endusers. One of the Scopeware products is Scopeware Mobile. The solu-tion provides mobile users with a “rolling window around now”—astream of their most relevant information, which is updated on a real-time basis. The core platform offered by Scopeware is their Informa-tion Management Infrastructure (IMI). This platform aims toincrease the value of information by making it more searchable andaccessible.

Inxight’s products aid in unstructured data management by pro-viding software for analyzing, organizing, categorizing, and navigat-ing information. Their Star Tree product helps companies navigateand visualize large hierarchies of information. Figure 41-2 shows asample Web site published as a Star Tree. Studies at Xerox PARC haveshown the Star Tree technology to be 62 percent more effective thanWindows tree controls when navigating collections of Web pages.

Figure 41-1 The Scope Glanceable Notification Summarizer from Microsoft Research (Source: Microsoft).

Using New Visual Interfaces: 3D Desktops 187

Benefits

For end users, the benefits of all these user-interface innovationsinclude faster access to information and faster ability to make deci-sions. Finding better ways to receive alerts and notifications, to orga-nize our desktops, or to browse through file structures and Web pagescan greatly enhance our productivity.


Although visual interfaces are often overlooked because of the domi-nance of operating system platforms such as Microsoft Windows andthe Macintosh, it is important for businesses and general consumers tostay tuned to some of these emerging developments and alternativesolutions. Although they may not replace well-established modes ofvisual interaction with Web pages and with the traditional desktop,

Figure 41-2 The Star Tree Viewer Technology from Inxight (Source: Inxight).


they can be applied in certain circumstances to enhance our experienceand to simplify our work. In certain specialty applications they can bethe most optimal solution for navigating and visualizing large amountsof data, thereby helping to turn the data into meaningful informationthat can enable business understanding and business decisions.

Contact Information

Inxight, www.inxight.com


Scopeware, www.scopeware.com


189

42Artificial Intelligence and Computers that

See: Intelligent Messaging

rtificial intelligence historically has been focused on attempt-ing to make computers think like humans—giving them theability to learn, reason, and create. One of the best-known

examples from science fiction was the film 2001: A Space Odyssey,which portrayed HAL, a computer with artificial intelligence that wasable to see, hear, talk, reason, plan, and even read lips. Although thecomputer industry has not been successful in creating a computerwith such all-round capabilities as HAL’s, there have been many suc-cesses in focused areas where computers have applied their massiveprocessing capability. For example, IBM’s Deep Blue computer systemwas designed to play chess at the grandmaster level and defeated thereigning World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov in May 1997. TheDeep Blue computer was able to examine and evaluate up to 200 mil-lion chess positions per second.

Even though computers have not been able to think in the samemanner as the human brain, such as applying common sense and lan-guage understanding, they can be applied to use their own strengths

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and characteristics to solve a variety of everyday tasks. In this way,artificial intelligence is increasingly being applied in a number of busi-ness scenarios to improve productivity and decision-making ability.

A well-known example is the Microsoft Office Assistant, the ani-mated character that offers help when users perform various taskswithin programs such as Microsoft Word. Microsoft Office Assistantcan aid in troubleshooting by asking a series of questions related to thetask at hand. Microsoft Windows XP uses additional artificial intelli-gence capabilities, such as a tool called Search Companion that can aidwith searches on the computer, home or office network, or the Internet.

More recent examples can be found in some of the projects thatMicrosoft Research is conducting. The group is applying artificialintelligence for a variety of productivity applications, includingimproved search capabilities, email filtering and prioritization, systemtroubleshooting, meeting facilitation, data mining, multimodal inter-faces, and notification platforms.

Artificial intelligence can be applied to improve end-user produc-tivity when using email and other applications by helping to prioritizethe most important messages and tasks. Software can look at variousaspects of an email message, such as the subject line and text withinthe email, the relationship between the sender and the worker interms of the company organization chart, and the history of commu-nications between these individuals (including response times), inorder to determine how important a communication may be and thepotential costs of a delayed response.

Computer vision can play a key role in productivity applicationsof the future because it provides the computer with an additionalinput source from which to make decisions. In this section, we’ll lookat the Microsoft Priorities system and the computer vision techniquesapplied within this initiative.

How It Works

Microsoft’s Priorities system has the goal to help users get the rightinformation at the right time on the right device. The Priorities systemis part of a larger project named the Notification Platform. This plat-

Artificial Intelligence and Computers that See: Intelligent Messaging 191

form, being developed by Microsoft Research, is part of their Atten-tional User Interface (AUI) project, which focuses on attention- andcontext-sensitive costs and benefits of information and services.

The Priorities system goes well beyond analysis of an email mes-sage when determining a priority and deciding when to alert an enduser to the arrival of an incoming message. It actually uses a number ofHAL-like techniques to determine the user’s context and readiness tobe alerted to an inbound priority message. Beyond email, the inboundmessage could be a telephone call, an instant message, or an informa-tion feed. The system visually observes the user’s activity, listens to thesurrounding sounds, checks the user’s calendar, and makes decisions asto the appropriate timing and manner in which to deliver information.

In observing the user’s activity, the system uses a Bayesian visionsystem to determine the context of activity. Thomas Bayes was anEnglish mathematician in the 18th century who established a mathe-matical basis for probability inference. Bayesian systems are basedupon his theories of statistical probability. The context of the user’sactivity can be determined by observing where the user’s attention isfocused. If the user is looking constantly at the computer screen, thenit is likely he or she is working on some individual activity on thecomputer. If the user is away from the screen and the system observesseveral faces in the room, then it is likely the user is in some form ofmeeting and does not wish to be disturbed except in high-prioritycases. By adding information from the user’s calendar and audioinformation to this analysis, the system is able to make even better-informed decisions.

Benefits

Applying artificial intelligence together with new ways to sense theuser environment, computer systems can become more “intelligent”and be able to work on our behalf more accurately. They can betterunderstand when (and when not) to interrupt us and can deliver theirnotifications on the most appropriate device based upon our locationor preferences.

In this way, computer applications such as personal informationmanagement systems can become more like real-life butlers by politely


interacting with us when appropriate. By minimizing distractions,these systems can increase our productivity substantially. These intelli-gent applications can also help to give us peace of mind. For example,if you’re away on vacation and your virtual assistant, such as the noti-fication platform, hasn’t sent you anything, you can rest assured thatthere’s nothing so urgent that it can’t wait until you return.


Should these types of computer vision and artificial intelligence sys-tems become commercialized in the future, they will most likely havea substantial positive impact on our productivity. The challenge forbusinesses, however, will be to ensure end-user confidence in the pri-vacy of information observed. Employees may well fear that this typeof information could be used to report back to management on theirbehavior and general productivity.

Beyond the Notification Platform and the Priorities System,Microsoft Research is also working on a research project called Best-Com. BestCom aims to provide a best effort for interpersonal com-munications and has a number of interesting implications for how wemay collaborate in the future. One example is the program’s ability toallow users working on documents such as Microsoft Word to right-click on a revision area and immediately initiate a conversation aboutthis revision with a coworker. In this manner, they are collapsing thetraditional multistepped workflow around the revision of documentsand allowing users to practically grab the back of the screen and pullthrough the document for a coworker to see and collaborate on.

Contact Information



193

43Digital Pen and Paper

f you thought most computers were moving you away from tradi-tional pen and paper, you’re probably right. Personal computers,tablet PCs, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) all require us to

take notes by using the computer keyboard or via speech or handwrit-ing recognition, and then to read our notes on the computer monitoror screen. Even eBooks aim to reduce paper and replace conventionalbooks by giving us an electronic screen from which to navigate andread digital versions of our favorite books and magazines.

However, some of the technologies on the horizon actually seek togive us back our paper and pens. Technologies such as digital paperand pens allow us to use the familiar writing techniques that we grewup with and still benefit from numerous digital capabilities that areengineered into these familiar writing implements.

You might know digital paper as electronic ink. Companies suchas E Ink Corporation are creating electronic ink display technologythat can be applied to a variety of surfaces, including “active matrix”

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eBook and PDA surfaces, and to versatile and conformable paperlikesurfaces for the display of electronic text and graphics. Taking theopposite approach—using the pen instead of the paper as the intelli-gent device—companies such as Logitech and Sony Ericsson havelaunched digital pens that can capture handwriting, store the informa-tion digitally, and transfer it to a PC for later review.

How It Works

Electronic ink works by combining principles of chemistry, physics,and electronics. It consists of millions of human-hair-sized microcap-sules filled with black and white particles suspended in a clear fluid.The white particles are positively charged, and the black particles arenegatively charged. The capsules are all positioned next to oneanother between two layers of material in a thin film. The top layer istypically transparent for visibility and the bottom layer is typically alayer of circuitry that can generate positive and negative chargesacross a pattern of pixels. This electrical charge in the bottom layerpulls the positively charged white particles toward a negative charge,and the negatively charged black particles toward a positive charge.The result is that a user looking at the electronic ink from above cansee various patterns of black and white based upon the pattern of theelectrical charge. Figure 43-1 shows an illustration of this, whichshould help to clarify how it works.

The digital pen from Logitech, named the Logitech io, works byusing an optical sensor embedded in the pen. It stores up to 40 pagesof writing in memory and can transfer this information to a PC byusing a USB cradle. The pen also requires a digital paper notebook inorder to work. The digital paper, in this case, simply has a series ofpatterned dots spaced 0.3mm apart in order to aid the optical sensorin determining your pen’s position on the paper. The pen can be usedin “copy” or “standard” mode when performing a transfer of data tothe PC. Copy mode leaves a copy of the data on the pen, whereasstandard mode actually moves the data so that there is no copy left onthe pen. When you view your documents on your PC, you’ll find theyare stored as .PEN documents, which contain your written notes in an

Digital Pen and Paper 195

image format. The .PEN format can also be converted to formats suchas Microsoft Word, JPEG, or vector images. The technology behindboth the Logitech io and the Sony Ericsson Chatpen comes from acompany called Anoto.

Benefits

The benefits of electronic ink include new levels of versatility for com-puting. The thin display cells enable electronic ink to be placed insidea thin layer of film that gives it paperlike capabilities (Plate 4). A sin-gle sheet of this material would be able to display different content asneeded and would be completely reusable. A book made of this typeof material could be used to display any book desired with just theswipe of a wand or some other form of electrical charge scannedacross its pages.

The benefits of a digital pen are that you can capture everythingyou write, transfer it to your computer, and then organize, retrieve, orsend the information as necessary. It can be useful for mobile profes-sionals, attorneys, and graphic artists, in addition to general consum-ers who want to record everything they write down in certainsituations and be able to make copies and distribute them as neededwithout having to retype everything from scratch.

Figure 43-1 Electronic ink technology (Source: E Ink).



Electronic ink can be applied either as the top layer for eBooks, PDAs,and other such “active matrix” devices, or in more unconventionalmeans to a variety of surfaces such as glass, plastic, fabric, or paper. Ifthere is no active layer of circuitry below the electronic ink, then tech-niques such as swiping a statically charged wand over the digital papercan be one way to create an image. The wand must be electronic andcapable of creating the required detail level in terms of the location ofthe various static charges needed to produce a high-resolution text orimage display. You can think of this much like the number of pixelsrequired on the computer screen to display a high-resolution image.

Contact Information

Anoto, www.anotofunctionality.com

E Ink Corporation, www.eink.com

Logitech, www.logitech.com

Sony Ericsson, www.sonyericsson.com


197

44Using Virtual Tours: Augmented Reality

ugmented reality is a technology that may one day impact manyaspects of our lives. The technology sits on the continuumbetween real life and virtual reality. Whereas virtual reality

totally immerses you in a computer graphic animation and removes youfrom reality, augmented reality aims to simply augment, or overlay, dig-ital information on top of your vision of real-life objects around you.

In augmented reality, digital information is superimposed upon theview of our physical surroundings. In this way it enhances the physicalreality rather than trying to replace it with complete virtual reality. Theapplications for augmented reality are numerous, and academic institu-tions such as the Columbia University Computer Graphics and UserInterfaces Lab are creating exciting experimental systems such asMobile Augmented Reality System (MARS), which combines aug-mented reality and mobile computing. Applications for augmented real-ity can include military operations, field service and repair, medicine,and consumer-oriented applications such as virtual tourism, all of whichwould provide additional information about a user’s surroundings.

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How It Works

Because augmented reality must fit in with a user’s view of the worldand with the user’s movement through that world, the systems typi-cally require a specialized set of hardware and software to be worn bythe user. The MARS project uses a backpack computer, differentialglobal positioning system (GPS), a head-worn display, and a stylus-operated computer. The stylus-operated computer communicates withthe backpack computer and is able to control the view rendered onthe head-worn display. The GPS system tracks the user’s motion andadjusts the display so that the projected information stays in placewith respect to where the user is looking. For example, if the userlooks at a building and wishes to pull up information, this data can bedisplayed next to the building for the user to read by looking throughthe head-worn display.

One of the challenges with augmented reality is that for it to workwell, the display must react to adjust to not only the user’s movementsforward or backward, but also any head movements made to look invarious directions. When this ability is successfully accomplished, theuser sees tags of textual or graphical information superimposed overthe particular items of interest.

Another group attempting to associate digital information withspecific physical locations is the WorldBoard Forum. This groupbelieves that just as we place physical tools and information in certainlocations within our physical environment, so we might benefit fromplacing digital tools and information in a similar manner. This isequivalent to being able to place a digital Post-it note at a location oron an object anywhere in the world for others to discover and read.

Benefits

As we look at some of these augmented reality scenarios, two factorscome into play. One is the use of mobile computing and the other isthe augmented reality that these mobile computers provide. Themobile computing devices, and especially wearable devices such asheadsets, help to adapt computer systems around the way that we

Using Virtual Tours: Augmented Reality 199

naturally move and observe the world rather than requiring us toadapt ourselves and our movements around machines. In this mannerthey help to eliminate the additional process steps that take us awayfrom the point of business activity to perform data entry or lookuptasks. By taking the computer with us as we walk around a historicbuilding, we have a virtual tourist guide that can readily understandwhere we are looking and that can provide targeted information to usmuch as guide books do today.

Beyond virtual tourism, the combination of mobile computingand augmented reality can be applied to industries such as healthcareand manufacturing. In the healthcare industry, applications mayinclude enabling doctors to see x-rays or CAT scans superimposed ontheir patients. In the manufacturing industry, applications mayinclude helping plant workers to see assembly instructions next to theparts and equipment they are working on. Additionally, knowledgeworkers could be able to view and navigate three-dimensional imagesof information that is unconfined to the limits of their PC desktops.


The possibilities are limitless for augmented-reality applications. Onecan imagine walking down a high street and having information popup on your head-worn display advertising sales at the various storesyou pass and providing some background information on openingtimes and merchandise available. As you walk past a movie theater,you might see the movies playing and their show times. Just as withthe Internet world that we know today, some of the issues for the aug-mented reality worlds of tomorrow could well be related to informa-tion overload and the filtering of unwanted data. Although thetechnology may be able to handle movement and to keep the informa-tion superimposed on the correct object or place in front of the user,the main issue may be whether the user wants to see this additionaldata in the first place.

This technology could be the next generation of the Internet, help-ing to move the digital world into our physical world, but the issuesof privacy, security, and managing content will be magnified fromwhat are now desktop issues into issues that may literally affect our


entire view of the world. The likelihood is that the first applicationsof this technology will be in controlled settings where users want toaugment their view with supplemental information in areas such asmedicine, manufacturing, tourist spots, museums, and other well-defined spaces. Augmented commerce may be a bit further away.

Contact Information

Columbia University Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab, www.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/

WorldBoard Forum, www.worldboard.org


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45Your Own Personal

Robot: Honda ASIMO

erhaps the ultimate consumer gadget that most people canimagine is a personal robot—a domesticated robot that can helparound the house by doing chores and can also be a long-term

companion simply for entertainment. We’ve seen precursors for thepersonal robot appear in the entertainment arena to simply have funand in the utility arena to help you simplify your life. For entertain-ment, we’ve seen robotic pets such as the Tekno robotic puppy, Sony’sAIBO robot puppies, and the well-known Furby pets. On the utilityside, for practical assistance in and around the home, we’ve seenrobotic vacuum cleaners such as the Roomba from iRobot and theDC06 from Dyson, and lawn mowers such as the Toro iMow and theHusqvarna Auto Mower.

All these early generation robots provide a glimpse into how per-sonal robots may be able to serve us in the future. Another interestingand more humanlike robot is the ASIMO from Honda (Figure 45-1;Plate 15). ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobilityand was conceived to operate inside a typical home. The ASIMO

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robot is 1.2 meters in height, 43 kilograms in weight, and looks like achild wearing a spacesuit. In this profile, we’ll take a look at ASIMOas an example of the current state of the art in personal robots.

How It Works

ASIMO, which first appeared in late 2000, is a successor to priorrobotic prototypes from Honda called the P2 and P3, which debutedin 1996 and 1997, respectively. It is a working two-legged robot engi-neered to operate inside the home and designed to be easy to operateand user friendly. By creating ASIMO, Honda tackled and solvedsome of the complexities of autonomous walking using an intelligent,

Figure 45-1 Honda ASIMO robot (Source: Honda).

Your Own Personal Robot: Honda ASIMO 203

real-time, and flexible design. Even simple things like getting a robotto be able to walk on carpet, turn around, or walk up and down stairscan be quite a challenge for designers. So, before getting to the com-plexities of actually doing real work on behalf of humans, some ofthese more mundane challenges had to be solved so that the robot ofthe future will be able to move around with ease in a typical home.For example, the P2 and P3 robot predecessors to ASIMO actuallyused stored walking patterns, whereas ASIMO can actually change itsfoot placement, stride length, and turning angle in real time basedupon the feedback it receives from various sensors.

In addition to being able to walk with humanlike foot-and-legarticulations, the robot has humanlike joints for the head, arms, andhands. Its height allows it to operate light switches and door knobsand to communicate at the eye level of a sitting adult. The childlikesize makes it less intimidating than having a six-foot-plus robot star-ing down at you.

In terms of functionality, ASIMO can be operated from a portablecontroller and can be requested to make a variety of movements bypushing buttons on the controller. These movements include familiargestures such as grasping to shake hands, waving with both hands,waving goodbye, and responding with a bow.

A speech feature provides the robot with the ability to recognizeand respond to 50 different calls and greetings in Japanese, and tomove its body and arms to respond to thirty different action com-mands also spoken in Japanese.

Benefits

In the future, the benefits of robots such as ASIMO and its successorsmay well be the ability to perform a range of daily tasks to helphumans around the home. For now, ASIMO is being used as a proto-type to demonstrate its functionality and as an amusement for busi-nesses and museums to rent as a personal greeter for their variousevents. The robot rang the opening bell of the New York StockExchange on February 15, 2002 to mark the 25th anniversary of


Honda Motor Company’s listing on the exchange, and is also work-ing as a receptionist for visitors at Honda’s Aoyama Headquarters.

Robots are already proving themselves invaluable for conductinga range of military and scientific functions, such as helping to defuseunexploded bombs, helping to explore inaccessible areas within theancient pyramids, or in undersea exploration and salvaging opera-tions. In the home, the initial wave of robots are serving as amusingtoys or are helping us vacuum the house or cut the lawn. In the future,these domestic applications may move from a curiosity for enthusiastsinto more mainstream usage as their price point drops and their func-tionality increases.


Although humanoid robots may be too expensive for most people toown rather than rent, many of the utility-type robots, such as therobotic vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, are definitely withinreach. The Roomba Intelligent FloorVac, as it is called, can be pur-chased for a mere $199.95 from stores such as Brookstone, Hamma-cher Schlemmer, and Sharper Image (Plate 16). The Toro iMowRobotic Mower can be purchased for around $499 from a variety ofretail locations, including certain Ace Hardware stores. If you want totry building your own robot and experiment with various scenarios,Lego offers a number of products under their Mindstorms range.Their Robotics Invention System includes a microcomputer togetherwith CD-ROM software, numerous Lego elements, motors, touchsensors, and a light sensor and infrared transmitter. With these com-ponents you can build various “plug-and-play” robots including aRoverbot, which can move around, avoid obstacles, and follow astraight line, and an Acrobot, which can flip and dance. Additionally,you can write programs for your robot by using an RCX program-ming language from Lego and then upload these instructions to yourrobot by using an infrared transmitter. The RCX is the programmableLego brick which is used as the basis for the models. The RoboticsInvention System is aimed at children and adults of 12 years and upand is priced at $199.99.

Your Own Personal Robot: Honda ASIMO 205

Contact Information

Dyson, DC06, www.dyson.co.uk

Honda, ASIMO, http://world.honda.com/robot

Husqvarna, Auto Mover, www.husqvarna.com

Lego, Mindstorms, www.mindstorms.com

Roomba, www.roombavac.com

Sony, AIBO, www.aibo.com

Toro, iMow, www.toro.com


206

46Working with Virtual Keyboards: Electronic

Perception

he traditional keyboard has been with us for a long time as theprimary way to enter textual information into a computer. Ascomputers embed themselves into our daily lives and accom-

pany us outside the home and office, new input techniques are neededto support painless and efficient data entry while traveling. Mobilephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) still have limited data-entry capabilities when compared to the traditional desktop key-board. The currently available options for these devices include voicerecognition, hand-writing recognition, or input via a minikeyboard.The RIM Blackberry is an example of a device that has successfullyovercome many of these data-entry limitations. Its small keyboard isactually very usable for typing short email messages and for perform-ing basic calendar and schedule-type functions.

Voice-recognition applications, mobile phone data entry via thenumeric keypad, and PDA data entry via hand-writing recognition orfoldable keyboards have been less simple to pick up. For the mostpart, only diehard techies or business executives who are highly

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Working with Virtual Keyboards: Electronic Perception 207

mobile have persevered with these initial variants of data entry,although some of the newer incarnations of these technologies, suchas those found on the tablet PC and in the research labs, show muchmore promise and general ease-of-use.

Another emerging technology is presenting us with a new way tocommunicate with computers using the familiar keyboard layout butwith fewer of the physical limitations of having to carry the keyboardwith us. The concept involves either projecting a virtual keyboardonto a flat surface or having the user wear a type of glove that caninterpret finger motions when typing. Instead of carrying a bulkyattachable keyboard or having to struggle with limited form factorson mobile phones and PDAs, users can simply project an image of thekeyboard via a matchbox-sized device or can slip on a lightweightglove and type in the air.

How It Works

Some of the companies making these solutions and devices includeCanesta, Samsung, Senseboard Technologies, Virtual Devices (Figure46-1), and VKB. Canesta has developed an “electronic perception tech-nology” that can form electronic images of nearby objects in threedimensions. Instead of the flat, two-dimensional image created by digi-tal cameras and digital videos, the Canesta technology can determinethe distance of every pixel in the image in real time, giving it the abilityto “see” objects and to enable applications to take appropriate actionsbased upon this information. The solution has widespread applicabilitybeyond virtual keyboards; it could help computers see the physicalworld and react to it. Some sample applications include vehicle control,airport security, and national security, among many other possibilities.

In the virtual keyboard space, the Canesta keyboard perceptionchipset technology provides the sensors and image processing softwareto be able to detect typing motions and to interpret the key pressesmade by the user. It consists of three parts: the keyboard sensor mod-ule that serves as the eyes of the device by detecting finger movementand typing activity, the infrared light source that serves to illuminatethe user’s fingers, and the keyboard pattern projector that serves toproject a standard QWERTY keyboard layout onto any flat surface.


Virtual Devices, another virtual keyboard manufacturer, makes apen-sized device that can be used to project a full-size virtual key-board onto a flat surface. The product, called the VKey, also supportsmouse functions. The company plans to provide the device as a stand-alone component and also as an embedded component in smartphones and PDAs. The company sees applications of the product inharsh industrial environments and medical environments that requiresterile conditions not conducive to traditional keyboard use.

Benefits

The benefits of virtual keyboards are that they provide a way to havefull-size keyboard functionality while on the road without the need tocarry around an actual physical device. By detecting finger move-ments and interpreting keystrokes, these virtual keyboards help com-puters adapt around our natural or learned behaviors instead of ushaving to adapt around computer user input limitations such as textentry on mobile phones.

Beyond virtual keyboards, the applications of electronic-percep-tion technology reach across a number of industries and functionalareas including automotive, consumer electronics and video games,healthcare, and security. By adding the third dimension of depth per-ception to computer imaging, existing applications within theseindustries can be made far more accurate and intelligent. In the secu-rity arena, facial-recognition systems can be more accurate if lookingat the contour of a person’s face instead of just a two-dimensionalimage. Within the video gaming industry, game controllers could be

Figure 46-1 Virtual Devices’s Virtual Keyboard (Source: Virtual Devices).

Working with Virtual Keyboards: Electronic Perception 209

enhanced to allow the players to become more immersed in their gam-ing by using their hands and body movements in addition to the sim-ple game console actions. In the automotive industry, electronic-perception technology could well be used to “see” both inside andoutside the vehicle. Sensors could be used to observe blind spots andto warn drivers if anything is there when the driver starts a turn. Vir-tual projections of instrument panels could be used to help operatesystems such as radios and air conditioning, and could help driverskeep their eyes focused on the road.


Virtual keyboards will most likely find their first commercial applica-tions with the PDA manufacturers who want to offer data-entry alter-natives to their customers. In fact, the Canesta technology is due to berolled out by certain PDA manufacturers in 2003.

As applications such as Microsoft Pocket Word and Pocket Excelare offered on PDAs and smartphones running the Pocket PC operat-ing system, end users will want to start using these applications moreextensively and to use their device as an alternative to carrying arounda laptop. To accomplish this, they’ll want novel ways to enter dataquickly, and the virtual keyboard will be one of the options available.

As far as sensory feedback goes, users of virtual keyboards do not getthe tactile sensation provided by a traditional keyboard. This is one ofthe potential barriers to widespread adoption, because it hinders usabil-ity. To help get around this barrier, the Canesta solution enables PDAdevices to emit a click as each individual key is pressed on the virtualkeyboard. This is one ingenious way that the virtual typing experiencecan be made as close as possible to what users are accustomed to. Bymaking virtual keyboards function similarly to physical keyboards, thetransition between one and the other during everyday use—and the rateof adoption of the virtual keyboard—may be even faster than expected.

Contact Information

Canesta, www.canesta.com

Virtual Devices, www.virtualdevices.net


210

47Objects that

Communicate: Smart Labels and Electronic

Product Codes

e covered radio frequency identification (RFID) when wetook a look at the ExxonMobil Speedpass for making easypayments at the gas station and at an increasing number of

their partners such as McDonalds. These types of applications can allbe thought of as wireless commerce applications, allowing us to maketransactions more efficiently with less hassle. The RFID tag, attachedto your key chain, becomes a proxy for your credit card or other pay-ment device such as a check card.

In addition to wireless commerce applications, such as paying forgas at the pump, RFID technologies very soon will be reshaping theway you check out from the retail store in the high street. They’llalso be reshaping the way companies manage inventories and trackproducts as they move through the supply chain from manufacturerto distributor to retailer. RFID technologies will also be useful fortracking items within your home or garage, and even to their even-tual recycling.

W

Objects that Communicate: Smart Labels and Electronic Product Codes 211

How It Works

You’re probably familiar with the bar code scanners in the retailstores in the high street. These scanners are used by retailers to takeinventory of their items and also to scan your items as you check out.Bar code scanners do this by reading the printed bar code label oneach item. This is known as the universal product code (UPC).

RFID can be used as a way for intelligent objects to communi-cate. Rather than a printed UPC bar code, an electronic product code(ePC) comprising a tag or “smart label” containing an RFID chipcan be attached to an item and used to store its description and priceinformation. What’s more, the ePC can be written to and read from,so important information about the product can be updated withouthaving to attach a new tag or smart label. Retailers such as the Gapare even experimenting with attaching RFID readers to their storeshelving so the readers can interact with their merchandise, such aspairs of jeans equipped with RFID tags, on a continuous basis. Inthis way, they can monitor in-store inventory and also better under-stand buyer behavior as clothing is picked up, put back on the shelv-ing, or purchased.

RFID solutions are composed of two parts: the tag or transpon-der, and an electronic reader. Depending upon their usage require-ments, tags range in size and shape from that of a pencil lead orsmaller to the size of a credit card (Figure 47-1). The tag, or smartlabel, contains an electronic circuit that becomes operative when it isnear an electronic reader. The tag sends back a signal to the readerproviding its stored information. As mentioned, tags can be read-onlyor read-write, allowing the information stored on the tag to beupdated or replaced as dictated by business requirements related tothe device or object being tracked. Tags can be read from a distance ofone inch to about one hundred feet or more depending upon thepower output and the radio frequency used by the reader. They can bepassive or active. Active tags can be read from farther distances,require less powerful readers, and can store more information, oftenup to 1MB, which is just under the amount of storage on a typicalfloppy disk. The tradeoff is that being active, they are limited by their


battery life and have increased size and cost, but battery life for activetags can still be up to 10 years.

From a size perspective, RFID chips are already in the 0.3 milli-meter range in height and width and are in the 60 micron range inthickness. Hitachi Europe is one of the manufacturers of such chips.Additional manufacturers of RFID chips include Texas Instruments’sTI*RFID division, Phillips Semiconductors, Infineon, STMicroelec-tronics, and Alien Technology.

Benefits

The benefits for consumers are that we’ll be able to shop more easilyin the future and our household objects will effectively become more“intelligent.” Conceptually, when we’re in a store, we’ll be able topick up an item with an attached ePC and purchase that item by sim-ply walking off with it! An RFID reader in the store entryway wouldbe able to read not only the item description and price, but perhaps

Figure 47-1 Sample RFID tags from Texas Instruments (Source: Texas Instruments).

Objects that Communicate: Smart Labels and Electronic Product Codes 213

also your RFID tag linked to your credit card information. In thisway, a store’s point-of-sale system knows what you have purchasedand how to charge you.

Of course, the early implementations of such a scenario may be alittle more conservative. What we might see is a self-checkout areawhere you can scan your items, in much the same way that you canscan items using a bar-code scanner such as the NCR FastLane solu-tion in Wal-Mart and similar stores, together with an area for you towave your RFID tag.

The benefit of RFID over traditional bar-code scanning is that itdoes not require a line-of-sight reading. So the scenario of walking outwith your purchase is much more feasible using RFID techniques andePC smart labels than it is using bar-code scanning and UPC labels.


The adoption of the RFID tags within the retail industry is very muchdependent upon the price point of the tags and readers. Today thetags are in the 20 cent to $1 range, and readers are in the $100 range.As the price of tags comes down, they become more competitive withthe printed UPC barcode labels and become economically feasible forlabeling on low-priced items. Many experts agree that it will take a5-cent tag to really spur the adoption in the marketplace so that tagsbecome pervasive.

The promise for the general consumer is that once these tags areadopted, manufacturers and retailers will have better data about theirproducts and will be able to deliver better service. Healthcare compa-nies will be able to better manage their pharmaceutical supplies andto limit the amount of inventory that is beyond its expiration date.They will also be able to better match prescriptions with patients andminimize errors. Clothing retailers will be able to better understandcustomer demand and adjust their inventories and product assort-ments in close to real time within their stores.

There will even be applications such as smart money where RFIDtags will be embedded into the fibers of bank notes. This will aid incounterfeit prevention and in tracing notes as they cross predefined


checkpoints where readers are present. With tags becoming smallerand smaller and cheaper and cheaper, the possibilities are endless. TheInternet will become a connection and integration point not only forpeople and computers, but also for these millions or even billions ofintelligent objects—all carrying around their own unique digital fin-gerprints embedded into tiny RFID tags.

Contact Information

Texas Instruments, Radio Frequency Identification Systems, www.ti.com/tiris/default.htm


215

48The Personal

Transporter: Segway Human Transporter

or a long time, personal transportation has been mostly limitedto bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. These are highlyeffective for long-distance commuting and outdoor road use but

are often inappropriate for short distances, indoor transportation, ormaneuvering in confined or crowded spaces. This is where a newproduct from a company named Segway comes in. The Segway HT,which stands for Human Transporter, is a self-balancing humantransporter (Figure 48-1; Plate 17). The self-balancing feature is oneof the reasons the device can easily integrate into these transportationscenarios where the other machines cannot readily go. Driving a caror a motorcycle inside a building is usually out of the question unlessyou’re filming a movie! Riding a bicycle inside a building can also beproblematic, and is most likely prohibited, because of the difficulty inbalancing when maneuvering in confined or crowded spaces. TheSegway HT uses the self-balancing feature as both a way for users tocontrol the machine with minimal effort and as a way to make

F


maneuvering highly efficient and appropriate for these confined-spacescenarios. As an example, the turning radius of these machines iszero. You can turn completely in place, as you can on foot, becausethe Segway’s two wheels can turn in opposite directions. Try doingthat on a bicycle!

The Segway HT consists of two wheels, a platform about eightinches above the ground, and a set of handlebars mounted verticallyabove the platform at waist height. The rider stands upright on theplatform and holds the handlebars. To move forward or backward,all you do is lean slightly in that direction. To turn, there is a turningcollar on the left hand grip. The rider turns that collar to the left orright to move left or right. The Segway takes care of balancing foryou, so you don’t have to worry about any balancing acts in order tostay standing upright on the device.

Figure 48-1 Segway Human Transporter (Source: Segway LLC).

The Personal Transporter: Segway Human Transporter 217

How It Works

The Segway HT performs its self-balancing by using a kind of real-timesense-and-respond system that the company calls dynamic stabilization.Gyroscopes and tilt sensors are used to measure the tilt of the machineevery one-hundredth of a second. These sensors relay the information toa computer onboard the machine that then controls independent motorson each wheel. If the user tilts the machine forward by leaning forwards,then the machine moves forward slightly in order to keep upright. If theuser tilts the machine backward by leaning backwards, then the machinemoves backward as necessary in order to stay upright. If the user turnsthe machine using the handlebars, the machine will turn one wheelfaster than the other to initiate a turn, or it may even turn the wheels inopposite directions in order to turn while staying in precise location.

Benefits

The main benefit of the Segway HT and other types of personal trans-porter are the productivity gains in terms of time saved and distancetraveled when compared to walking. Many of today’s office com-plexes that are not located in high-rise structures are often spread outover a large campus. This is particularly true for the corporate head-quarters environments for many of the Fortune 500 enterprises. Inthese environments walking to a meeting can take five to ten minuteseach way. If we assume an average of two meetings per day over thecourse of a year, and 20 minutes spent on the round trip to and fromeach meeting, that’s 160 hours per year in lost productivity per per-son, or just more than 8 percent of their time. If the personal trans-porter can cut that lost productivity in half by moving people twice asfast as walking, then that’s a productivity savings of 4 percent.


At the time of writing, Segway HT transporters were available forboth commercial and consumer purchase. Some of Segway’s currentcustomers include the U.S. Postal Service, Amazon.com, the National


Park Service, Michelin, and GE Plastics. Segway offers their humantransporters to the general public via their Web site and via retailerssuch as Amazon.com.

The two models offered are the i-Series and the e-Series. The e-Seriesis optimized for cargo carrying and the i-Series is optimized for rangeand terrain. Speed is approximately 12.5 miles per hour for bothmodels, and average range on a full charge is 11 to 17 miles. Theweight of the machines is 95 pounds for the e-Series and 83 poundsfor the i-Series. If you’re wondering about the name “Segway,” thecompany chose it because their vehicles transform people to empow-ered pedestrians, thus providing them with a segue, or transition,from one state to another.

Contact Information

Segway, www.segway.com


219

49Fuel Cell and Drive-By-

Wire Cars: General Motors Hy-wire

f the Segway HT can be thought of as reinventing single-persontransportation, the GM Hy-wire can be thought of as reinventingthe entire automobile, and perhaps even the entire automotive

industry. Using hydrogen fuel cells for power combined with drive-by-wire technology for human operation, it is redefining what’s possiblefor tomorrow’s cars. This breakthrough technology will enable the carsof the future to be more environmentally friendly, safer, customizable,and easier to drive.

The Hy-wire was first introduced in late 2002 at the Paris MotorShow. With the two innovations of hydrogen fuel cells and drive-by-wire technology combined into a single working prototype, it radi-cally changes the game for consumer transportation (Figure 49-1;Plate 18). One of the first areas to consider is the actual layout of thevehicle. The hydrogen fuel cells and other drivetrain components aremounted in a skateboard-style chassis that’s only 11 inches thick andtapers down to 7 inches thick at its edges. Given this low profile andlow center-of-gravity chassis-type, various body styles can be literally

I


snapped onto the chassis based upon driver preference. To snap ondifferent body styles to the chassis, there are 10 mechanical attach-ments that serve to actually hold the chassis in place, and just oneelectrical attachment between the body and the chassis. This has theeffect of decoupling “form” and “function” for the vehicle. The func-tion of the vehicle is elegantly packaged and self-contained in theskateboard-style chassis, and the form of the vehicle is added as asnap-on extra based upon personal preference.

How It Works

The two main innovations in the Hy-wire are the hydrogen fuel cellsand the drive-by-wire functionality. The hydrogen fuel cells operatelike batteries via a chemical reaction. The difference is that unlike bat-teries, they never run out or require recharging as long as they have aconstant supply of hydrogen fuel plus regular air for oxygen. The out-put from these fuel cells is energy in the form of electricity and heat,plus water. Because each fuel cell produces only about 0.7 volts ofelectricity, they are stacked together by combining 150 to 200 cells inorder to produce enough energy to power the vehicle.

The benefits of this type of energy source are primarily sustainablemobility. Sustainable mobility means that this form of energy sourceis readily available and not subject to the limited lifespan of world

Figure 49-1 GM Hy-wire (Source: GM).

Fuel Cell and Drive-By-Wire Cars: General Motors Hy-wire 221

petroleum reserves. The fuel cells, together with the hydrogen storagesystem, controls, and heat exchangers, are all embedded within theHy-wire chassis. Also inside the chassis are electric motors at all fourwheels. Because this is an electrical system rather than an internal-combustion engine, items such as the engine, transmission, drivetrain,axles, and exhaust are all a thing of the past.

In terms of the drive-by-wire functionality, the driver uses a controlcalled an X-drive to operate the vehicle. The X-drive is an electronicconsole with two handgrips that allow the driver to steer, brake oraccelerate, and monitor and operate other important vehicle functions.What’s different about this system over traditional steering columnsand foot pedals is that it operates completely electronically and con-tains no mechanical parts or cables. There is no steering column andno foot pedals. To brake, the driver squeezes either of the two hand-grips. To accelerate, the driver twists either of the handgrips. Steeringis accomplished by sliding the handgrips either up or down. This is onemaneuver that’s obviously different from today’s vehicles. One of themost interesting features of the X-drive, besides that fact that there areno foot pedals to operate, is that the entire X-drive can be moved on ahorizontal bar across to the passenger side so that you can easilyswitch drivers without having to jump out of the car and trade places.

Benefits

The benefits of vehicles such as the Hy-wire with their fuel cell anddrive-by-wire technology include environmental, economic, and generalconsumer benefits. Because fuel cells produce zero emissions, they aremuch friendlier to the environment. The output from the chemical reac-tion within the fuel cell is simply electricity, water, and heat. Fuel-cellvehicles are also an improvement over battery-powered vehicles becausethey can travel farther between refueling, and they release fewer pollu-tants when considered across the entire system of fuel recovery, process-ing, and utilization. The economic benefits come from the ability ofcountries such as the United States to be more energy independent andnot have to rely as much upon imported petroleum products.

The consumer benefits include increased visibility in the vehicle andincreased passenger and storage space. With all the vehicle componentscontained in the low-profile chassis, the body style is able to be designedin an open, user-centric manner without the need for engine storage


compartments and other items that can limit driver visibility and acces-sibility. Being able to snap on different body styles means that consum-ers could switch from an SUV body style to a sedan body style or evenfrom a farm vehicle body style to a limousine body style as needed.


One of the challenges for mass-market development for these types ofvehicles is simply the development and general availability of an alter-nate fuel infrastructure. In the United States alone there are 180,000filling stations with their associated refineries and distribution net-works. Internal-combustion-engined vehicles and filling stations arereadily available across North America, Europe, and Japan. Migra-tion toward alternate fuels would require not only the new vehicles tobe produced, but also the fuel distribution networks to be put intoplace, and associated codes, standards, and regulations to be issued tosupport the safe and reliable handling of these fuels and vehicles.

In terms of when such cars will be available, General Motorsexpects that affordable and profitable fuel-cell vehicles will be on theroad by the end of the decade. The current challenges include thealready-mentioned availability of an alternate fuel infrastructure plusthe high costs of vehicle manufacture and the technical issues aroundhydrogen storage.

What is amazing is that, once these issues are addressed, hydrogenfuels could power not only cars, but also your home. The GM visionis that because existing distribution networks already deliver electric-ity and natural gas to home and businesses, these resources could beused as the source of hydrogen to power your car. Additionally, yourcar could be a source of electricity for your home, because a fuel-cellvehicle may produce 50–75 kilowatts of electrical power compared totypical household usage of 7–10 kilowatts at peak load.

Contact Information

GM, www.gm.com


223

50Next-Generation

Transportation: The Moller Skycar

erhaps one of the most futuristic items in the world of con-sumer gadgets is the flying car. The concept represents whatcould become the next generation of transportation; it has been

fantasized about for decades in science fiction movies, cartoons suchas the Jetsons, and popular culture in general. The components of anideal flying car would most likely be part automobile and part plane.The ideal flying car would provide the ability to drive on the freeway,plus as an alternate mode of transportation, to be able to take off,perhaps vertically so that a runway isn’t required, and then fly to thechosen destination at great speed. What’s amusing about the part-car,part-plane concept is that just as we have discussions today about“smartphones” that are either PDAs wanting to be phones, or phoneswanting to be PDAs, discussions in a few decades might well be aboutcars wanting to be planes, or planes wanting to be cars!

Although this all may still seem like science fiction, there is actu-ally a company that focuses on just this concept and has working pro-totypes that it someday hopes to launch into mass production. Moller

P


International, founded in 1983, has a goal to design, develop, manu-facture, and market personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) air-craft. VTOL is already in production in many aircraft such as theHawker Harrier, a “jump-jet” fighter bomber originally manufac-tured by Hawker Siddeley Aviation. The Harrier first flew in 1966and was used for military operations where conventional runwayswere not available on land, or for use from aircraft carriers. The verti-cal takeoff was achieved by using rotatable exhaust ports on theplane’s fuselage that could divert the engine thrust directly downwardto provide lift, and then swivel back to a horizontal direction for for-ward flight once airborne.

How It Works

The M400 Skycar is the latest personal aircraft from Moller Interna-tional, and limited numbers are expected to be sold in production withina couple of years for demonstrations and military sales (Figure 50-1;

Figure 50-1 Moller M400 Skycar (Source: Moller International).

Next-Generation Transportation: The Moller Skycar 225

Plates 19 and 20). It is powered by Rotapower engines, which can burna variety of liquid fuels. With regard to ground transportation, the Sky-car can travel 30–35 miles per hour on hard surfaces such as pavement,clay, or grass. Ground travel capability is designed for short maneuversbetween a storage facility and the actual takeoff location nearby.

In terms of flying capabilities, the Skycar is cabin-pressurized andcan fly up to 30,000 feet in altitude. It also has redundant backup sys-tems for safety, and even a set of parachutes in case of total enginefailure that includes these redundant backup systems.

Benefits

If such a vehicle as the Skycar eventually goes into mass production,the benefits include faster and more convenient travel for consumersand even lower pollution. The engines in these types of aircraftactually produce lower emissions than traditional automobiles,according to the company, and therefore contribute less pollution tothe atmosphere.

Given the gridlock that has plagued the world’s major cities interms of commuter traffic, taking to the skies could be the only long-term answer, assuming that all the safety issues involved with lettingthe general public loose in the skies can be resolved.

Just as buildings grew upward to become skyscrapers whendevelopers ran out of land within and around city centers, so com-muter travel could well take to the vertical domain. As the worldpopulation grows, after several decades we may have no choice butto take to the skies. If the Skycar and similar models can be provensafe and certified for consumer flight by the FAA and other appro-priate aviation bodies, and if the price point comes down to nearhigh-end automobile levels, then there could well be a market forthese vehicles. Initially, we can expect niche applications for themilitary and for trained pilots who use the vehicles in FAA-approved takeoff and landing locations. Ultimately, the vehiclecould land in the hands of the general consumer, but only after allthese various barriers to adoption have been diminished to makethe risks and rewards compelling.



The future concept for the M400 Skycar is that it will have computer-ized flight systems that allow nonpilots to ride in the Skycar simply aspassengers. The trip will be conducted using these automated flightsystems, and Skycars will all travel at the same speeds in the air and ata suitable distance apart, hence increasing safety via what’s known asseparation and sequencing. Government bodies such as NASA andthe FAA are already looking into safe air travel systems via researchprograms such as the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS).

This computerized air travel may be the critical element thatmakes flying cars an ultimate reality. The general public won’t need tobe trained as pilots, and safety will be managed with computer auto-mation and built-in safeguards such as the equivalent of traffic lanesin the sky.

Although much of this may seem like Buck Rodgers-style opti-mism, it pays to look back in history at what’s already been accom-plished but perhaps forgotten. The VTOL engine has already beenwell proven, even back in the 1960s, and at the same time, even “jet-packs” were fully functional gadgets of their day. As an example, a jet-pack was successfully used for the James Bond movie “Thunderball,”in which a stunt-double for Bond actually flew over a large chateau,landed gracefully under full control, then took off his backpack andjumped into the Aston Martin DB5. So perhaps the future of the flyingcar is actually more of a business challenge than a technical one, givenwhat has already been accomplished over the last several decades.Once someone gets the business model for personal aviation right, andthe government and aviation bodies provide regulatory approval, thetechnical details may well be less of an issue.

Contact Information

Moller International, www.moller.com

227

Appendix

References and Web Sites

Part I : Today’s Technology

Alerts & Notifications

Microsoft .NET Alerts, Home Page, www.microsoft.com/netservices/alerts/default.asp

Microsoft .NET Alerts, Login Page, http://alerts.microsoft.com/Alerts/Default.aspx

American Express Blue

Private Payments, www.americanexpress.com/privatepaymentsSmart Chip Private Payments, www.americanexpress.com/smartch-

ipprivatepaymentsSmart Chip Readers, www.americanexpress.com/igotblueReader Software, www.americanexpress.com/reader/download/USB Evaluation Utility, www.usb.org/data/usbready.exe

228 Appendix

Broadband Service Providers

AT&T Broadband, www.attbroadband.comBellSouth, www.bellsouth.comEarthlink, www.earthlink.comMSN Broadband, http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/broadband/

default.aspVerizon, www.verizon.net/CD and DVD RecordersHP, www.hp.comPanasonic, www.panasonic.comPhilips, www.philips.comSamsung, www.samsung.comSony, www.sony.comToshiba, www.toshiba.com

Digital Camcorders

Canon, www.canon.comJVC, www.jvc.comPanasonic, www.panasonic.comSharp, www.sharpelectronics.comSony, www.sony.com

Digital Camcorder Accessories & Video Editing

ADS Technologies, www.adstech.comCreative, www.creative.comDazzle, www.dazzle.comPinnacle Systems, www.pinnaclesys.com/

Digital Cameras

Canon, www.canon.comHP, www.hp.comKodak, www.kodak.comMinolta, www.minolta.comNikon, www.nikon.comNikonNet, www.nikonnet.comOlympus, www.olympus.com

Appendix 229

Sony, www.sony.comToshiba, www.toshiba.com

Digital Camera Phone Manufacturers

Nokia, 7650, www.nokia.com/phones/7650/index.htmlSamsung, A500, www.samsung.comSharp, J-SH09, , www.sha-mail.com/lineup/list/j_sh09/voice/

flash.htmlSony Ericsson, T68i, www.sonyericsson.com/T68i/Sony Ericsson, P800, www.sonyericsson.com/P800/

Digital Camera Photo Printers

Canon, www.canon.comEpson, www.epson.comHP, www.hp.comLexmark, www.lexmark.com Digital Photo ViewerMicrosoft TV Photo Viewer, www.microsoft.com/hardware/tvphoto-

viewer/

GPS Handhelds

Thales Navigation, www.thalesnavigation.comMagellan GPS, www.magellangps.com

GPS Tracking

Wherify Wireless, www.wherifywireless.com

HDTV Broadcasters

ABC, www.abc.abcnews.go.com/site/hdtvfaq.htmlCBS, www.cbs.com/info/hdtv/FOX, www.fox.comNBC, www.nbc.com/nbc/footer/FAQ.shtmlPBS, www.pbs.org/digitaltv/

HDTV Manufacturers

Mitsubishi, www.mitsubishi-tv.com/Panasonic, www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/tv/default.asp

230 Appendix

Samsung, www.samsungelectronics.com/tv/index.htmlZenith, www.zenith.com

Instant Messaging (PC-Based)

AOL Instant Messenger, www.aim.com/index.adpMicrosoft .NET Messenger, messenger.msn.com/Microsoft TV Messenger, www.microsoft.com/TV/Yahoo! Messenger, messenger.yahoo.com/

Instant Messaging (Wireless)

RIM, Blackberry Service, www.rim.netNokia, Communicator, www.nokiausa.com/communicator

Microsoft Xbox

Microsoft Xbox, www.xbox.comMicrosoft Xbox Live, www.xbox.com/liveMicrosoft Xbox Customer Support, 1-800-4MY-XBOX

(1-800-469-9269)

Mobile Commerce

AT&T Wireless Ring Tones & Graphics, www.attws.com/ringtones/AT&T Wireless e-Wallet, http://ecare.attws.com/ewallet

Mobile Printing

PrintMe Networks, www.printme.comThinMail, www.thinmail.com

Modem Manufacturers

Lucent (Ascend), www.lucent.com

MP3 Jukebox Software

MusicMatch, www.musicmatch.com

MP3 Players

Apple, www.apple.com/ipod/Archos, www.archos.com/

Appendix 231

Creative, www.nomadworld.com/Panasonic, www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/

portable_audio/default.aspSamsung, www.samsungelectronics.com/digital_audio_player/

index.html

Peer-to-Peer (Business Services)

Groove Networks, www.groove.netNextPage, www.nextpage.comOpenCola, www.opencola.comOmnipod, www.omnipod.com

Peer-to-Peer (Consumer Services)

BearShare, www.bearshare.comKazaa, www.kazaa.comLimeWire, www.limewire.comWinMX, www.winmx.com

Personal Digital Assistants

Compaq, iPAQ, www.hp.comHP, Jornada, www.hp.comMicrosoft, Pocket PC, www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpcPalm, www.palm.comToshiba, e310 Pocket PC, www.toshiba.com

Personal Video Recorder Manufacturers

SONICblue, www.replaytv.comTiVo, www.tivo.comUltimateTV, www.ultimatetv.com

Personal Video Recorder Retailers

Abt Electronics (U.S.), www.abtelectronics.comAmazon.com, www.amazon.comAT&T Broadband, www.attbroadband.tivo.comBest Buy, www.bestbuy.comCircuit City, www.circuitcity.comDIRECTV, http://directv.tivo.com

232 Appendix

Good Guys, www.goodguys.comTweeter, www.tweeter.comUltimate Electronics, www.ultimateelectronics.com

Remote Access

GoToMyPC, www.gotomypc.com

Ring Tone Capable Mobile Phones

Motorola, www.motorola.comNokia, www.nokia.comPanasonic, www.panasonic.comSony Ericsson, www.sonyericsson.com

Ring Tone Web Sites

AT&T Ring Tones, www.mobile.att.net/ringtones/Sprint PCS, www.sprintpcs.comYourMobile, www.yourmobile.com

Satellite Phones

Globalstar, www.globalstar.comIridium, www.iridium.com

Satellite Radio Manufacturers

Alpine, www.alpine.comPioneer, www.pioneerelectronics.comSony, www.sony.com

Satellite Radio Service Providers

Sirius Satellite Radio, www.sirius.comXM Satellite Radio, www.xmradio.com

Security

Compaq, www.compaq.comIdentix, www.identix.comKey Tronic, www.keytronic.comTargus, www.targus.com

Appendix 233

Toshiba, www.toshiba.comViisage Technology, www.viisage.com

Self-Checkout Registers

NCR Self-Checkout, www.ncr.com/products/hardware/sa_selfchk.htm

Single Log-In and Profiles

Liberty Alliance Project, www.projectliberty.orgMicrosoft .NET Passport, www.passport.comMicrosoft .NET Passport, Directory of Sites, www.passport.com/

Directory/default.asp?lc=1033

Smartphone

Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/mobile/smartphone/default.asp

Smartphone Device Manufacturers

Compal, www.compal.comHTC, www.htccorporation.comMitsubishi, www.mitsubishielectric.comSamsung Electronics, www.samsungelectronics.com/mobile_phone/

index.aspSendo Ltd., www.sendo.com

Speedpass

Speedpass, www.speedpass.comSpeedpass Service Center, 1-877-696-6245Business Speedpass Account, 1-87-SPEEDPASS (1-877-733-3727).

Tablet PC

Acer, www.acer.comCompaq, www.compaq.comFujitsu PC Corporation, www.fujitsupc.comMotion Computing, www.motioncomputing.comToshiba, www.toshiba.comViewSonic, www.viewsonic.com

234 Appendix

Telematics

MobileAria, www.mobilearia.comOnStar, www.onstar.comOnStar Subscriber Assistance, 1-888-4-ONSTAROnStar General Information, 1-800-ONSTAR-7 (1-800-667-8277),

or visit your nearest General Motors Dealer.

Video Conferencing With Your PC

PlaceWare, www.placeware.comWebEx, www.webex.com

Voice-Activated Services

PCS Voice Command, www.talk.sprintpcs.comSprint PCS, www.sprintpcs.com, 1-800-480-4PCS (4727)

Voice Over the Internet


Wireless LAN Cards & Access Points

D-Link Systems, www.d-link.comLinkSys, www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=22Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/hardware/broadbandnetworking/

products.aspxNETGEAR, www.netgear.comNokia, www.nokia.com/corporate/wlan/index.htmlSymbol Technologies, Spectrum24 High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card

and Access Point, www.symbol.com

Wireless Carriers (Camera Phones)

Sprint PCS, www.sprintpcs.comSprint PCS Vision, Pictures Inbox, http://pictures.sprintpcs.com

Wireless Carriers (World Phones)

AT&T Wireless WorldConnect Service, www.attws.com/personal/intl_calling/world_connect/index.jhtml

Nextel Worldwide, www.nextel.com/services/worldwide/index.shtml

Appendix 235

T-Mobile International Services, www.t-mobile.com/international/Verizon Wireless International Traveler (service provided by Rent-a-

phone Limited), http://internationaltraveler.verizonwireless.com/default.asp

Wireless Operators

AT&T Wireless, www.attws.comCingular, www.cingular.comOrange, www.orange.comT-Mobil, www.tmobile.comTelefonica Moviles, www.telefonicamoviles.comTelstra, www.telstra.comVerizon Wireless, www.verizon.comVodafone, www.vodafone.com

Part II: Tomorrow’s Technology

Augmented Reality

Columbia University Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab, www.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/

WorldBoard Forum, www.worldboard.orgDigital Pen and PaperAnoto, www.anotofunctionality.comE Ink Corporation, www.eink.comLogitech, www.logitech.comSony Ericsson, www.sonyericsson.com

Drive-By-Wire Cars

GM, www.gm.com

Home Networking

Internet Home Alliance, www.internethomealliance.com

236 Appendix

HomePlug

HomePlug Powerline Alliance, www.homeplug.org

HomePNA

Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, www.homepna.org

Internet Appliances

HP Digital Entertainment Center de100c, www.hp.comSONICblue RioCentral, www.sonicblue.com/audio/rio/

rio_audiocenter.aspTurtle Beach Audiotron, www.audiotron.net/audiotron/producth-

ome.asp

Personal Mobile Gateway

IXI Mobile, Personal Mobile Gateway, www.iximobile.com

Personal Robots

Dyson, DC06, www.dyson.co.ukHonda, ASIMO, http://world.honda.com/robotHusqvarna, Auto Mover, www.husqvarna.comLego, Mindstorms, www.mindstorms.comRoomba, www.roombavac.comSony, AIBO, www.aibo.comToro, iMow, www.toro.com

Personal Transporter

Segway, www.segway.com

Powerline Routers, Bridges, and Adapters

IOGEAR, www.iogear.comLinkSys, www.linksys.comNETGEAR, www.netgear.comSamsung Electro-Mechanics Co. Ltd., www.sem.samsung.com

Appendix 237

Routers and Residential Gateways

2Wire, www.2wire.comHP, www.hp.comLinkSys, www.linksys.comNETGEAR, www.netgear.comPanasonic, www.panasonic.com

SkyCar

Moller International, www.moller.com

Smart Labels

Texas Instruments, Radio Frequency Identification Systems, www.ti.com/tiris/default.htm

User Interfaces

Inxight, www.inxight.comMicrosoft Research, http://research.microsoft.comScopeware, www.scopeware.com

Virtual Keyboards

Canesta, www.canesta.comVirtual Devices, www.virtualdevices.net

239

Index

2Wire, 1723D desktops, 184–188

AABC, 127Abt Electronics, 131Acer, 141, 144Acrobot, 204ADS Technologies, 99Advanced Encryption Standard, 44AES encryption, 44AIBO robot puppies, 201alerts, 55–58Alpine, 122Amazon.com, 131American Express Blue, 150–153Anoto, 195, 196AOL Instant Messenger, 50, 53, 54Apple Computer, 116applications, sharing, 63–64Archos, 116artificial intelligence, 189–192

Ascend, 5, 7ASIMO robot, 201–204, 205AT&T Broadband, 5, 7, 131AT&T Wireless

e-Wallett service, 155–157purchasing ring tones from, 24–25, 26satellite phone service, 31smartphones, 21

Attentional User Interface project, 191audio files

file-size considerations, 115–116ripping, 114–115sharing, 105–108

augmented reality, 197–200AUI project, 191authentication

improved techniques for, 37–38single sign-on, 32–33three-factor, 39

Auto Mower, Husqvarna, 201, 205

240 Index

Bbackpack computers, 198backups, data, 111bar code scanners, 211battery-operated cars, 220Bayesian vision system, 191BearShare, 105, 108BellSouth, 7Best Buy, 131BestCom project, 192biometrics, 37–39bitrates, 114Blackberry, 53, 54, 206Blue card, American Express, 150–153Bluetooth, 16, 170Bombay Company, 34broadband Internet connections, 4–7, 8–9broadcasters, HDTV, 127burners, CD/DVD, 109–112business cards, beaming to/from Palm devices, 16

Ccable modems, 4–7camcorders, digital, 97–99camera phones, 100–104cameras, digital, 86–91Canesta, 207, 209Canon, 91, 99capture, video/still-image, 98car tags, Speedpass, 148–149cars

and electronic-perception technology, 209flying, 223–226information/entertainment in, 73–76, 117–

122safety/security in, 68–69

CBS, 127CCD sensors, 97CD burners, 109–112CD-ROM drives, 109–110CDMA, 28CDPD, 28CDs, 110, 114–115cell phones. See also mobile devices

combining PDAs and, 18–22making international calls on, 27–30personalizing ring tone for, 18–22receiving alerts via, 55shopping with, 154–157U.S. vs. European standards for, 27–28and voice-activated services, 46–49, 68

Cellular Digital Packet Data, 28charge-coupled device sensors, 97chat rooms, 51Chatpen, 195chess, 189Cingular, 22Circuit City, 131Code Division Multiple Access, 28collaboration services, online, 63–67collaborative computing, 60Columbia University, 197, 200Communicator, Nokia, 51–53, 54Compal, 21Compaq

fingerprint reader, 38iPAQ, 13, 17, 51and tablet PC, 141Web site, 40

computer gaming, 132–135, 208–209computer vision, 190–192Conference Center, WebEx, 67Coolpix, Nikon, 86–89Costco Online, 34Cox Communications, 5Creative Technology, 99, 116

DD-Link Systems, 12data backups, 111data conferencing, 63Dazzle, 99DC06 robot, 201Deep Blue, 189Delphi Corporation, 74desktop PC

new visual interfaces for, 184–188receiving alerts via, 55synchronizing Pocket PC with, 14–15

dialup Internet connections, alternatives to, 4–7

Digital 8 format, 96digital camcorders, 97–99digital cameras

drawbacks to, 91features to look for in, 90–91how they work, 87–89manufacturers of, 91popularity of, 86transferring photos to PC from, 89–90

digital music, 113–116. See also MP3 filesdigital paper, 193digital pen-and-ink, 140, 193–196

Index 241

digital photosadding audio commentary to, 87editing, 90enlarging, 87–88previewing, 87printing, 87, 90taking, 86–91transferring to computer, 88–90viewing, 92–95

digital television, 123–127broadcasters, 127features and benefits, 126–127how it works, 125–126manufacturers, 127standards, 123–124

digital videofilming with, 96–99formats, 96recorders, 128–131

digital wallets, 154–157Directions & Connections Plan, OnStar, 71DIRECTV, 130–131Dolby Digital sound, 124Dr. Who, 182–183drive-by-wire cars, 219–222DSL, 4–7DTV format, 123DVD

burners, 109–112formats, 110in-car, 76

DVD-ROMs, 110DVRs, 128–131Dyson, 201, 205

EE Ink Corporation, 193, 196e-Wallet service, 155–157Earthlink, 7eBay, 34eBooks, 15–16, 193EGNOS, 79eigenface, 38electronic ink, 193–196electronic-perception technology, 207,

208–209electronic product codes, 211email

contrasted with instant messaging, 53printing attachments to, 136–137sending photos via, 86sending to fax machine, 137–138

encryption, 11–12, 37, 44entertainment, in-car, 73–76, 117–122ePCs, 211, 212Epson, 91Ethernet, 5, 11, 171European Geostationary Navigation Overlay

Service, 79Expedia, 34Expertcity, 41ExxonMobil Speedpass, 145–149

Ffacial recognition, 37–40fax machine, sending email to, 137–138file sharing, Internet, 105–109Fingerprint Identification System database, 38fingerprint readers, 37–40FireWire, 98, 99, 111–112FloorVac, Roomba Intelligent, 204flying cars, 223–226Fossil.com, 34FOX, 127free trials/downloads

GoToMyPC, 43, 45Groove voice-over-IP product, 62

fuel cells, hydrogen, 219–221Fujitsu, 141Furby, 201

GGALILEO, 78game controllers, 208–209gaming, online, 132–135gasoline, using Speedpass to purchase,

145–149Gates, Bill, 33General Motors. See GMGeneral Packet Radio Service networks, 21gestures, tablet PC, 142Global Navigation Satellite System, 78Global Positioning System. See GPSGlobal System for Mobile Telecommunica-

tions, 28Globalstar, 30GLONAS, 78GM

Hy-wire, 219–222OnStar service, 68–76 (See also OnStar)

GNSS, 78Good Guys, 131GoToMyPC, 41–45GPRS networks, 21

242 Index

GPSand MARS project, 198personal locators, 81–85receivers, 77–78satellite technology, 68, 69, 70, 78–79

grocery stores, self-checkout, 158–161Groove Networks, 59–62, 107, 108Groove Project Toolset Space, 60–61GSM networks, 21, 28Gymboree, 34

HH-E-B, 158HAL, 189, 191handwriting recognition, 193, 206Hawker Harrier, 224HDTV, 123–127

broadcasters, 127features and benefits, 126–127formats, 123–124, 126how it works, 125–126manufacturers, 127

Hewlett-Packard, 13. See also HPHigh-Definition Television. See HDTVhigh-speed Internet connections, 4–7High Tech Corporation, 19, 21Hilton.com, 34Home Alliance, Internet, 164–168home networking

via electrical system, 173–176via phone lines, 169–172

Home Phoneline Networking Alliance. See HomePNA

HomePlug Powerline Alliance, 173–176HomePNA, 169–172, 174, 175, 176Honda ASIMO robot, 201–204, 205Hotmail, 34HP

Digital Entertainment Center, 172Jornada, 13, 17routers, 172

HTC, 19, 21Human Transporter, Segway, 215–218Husqvarna Auto Mower, 201, 205hydrogen fuel cells, 219–221

IIBM, 39, 106Identix, 38, 40IEEE standards, 10i.Link, 98Image Transfer software, Nikon, 89

images, sharing, 105–108iMow, Toro, 201, 204, 205IMPP, 64information, in-car, 73–76instant messaging, 50–54, 64Intel Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program, 107intelligent messaging, 189–192international phone calls, 27–31Internet

accessing PC remotely via, 44as “business operating system,” 32connecting home network to, 176downloading ring tones from, 23–24high-speed connections, 4–7holding meetings via, 63–64instant messaging via, 50–54monitoring home via, 164–168sharing files via, 105–108shopping via, 32–36, 150–153and single sign-on authentication, 32–33voice communications via, 51, 59–62wireless connections, 8–12

Internet Home Alliance, 164–168Internet Service Providers, 6, 7inventory tracking, 210Inxight, 185, 186–187, 188IOGEAR, 176iPAQ, 13, 17, 51Iridium, 30iRobot, 201ISDN, 4–7ISPs, 6, 7IXI Personal Mobile Gateway, 178–180

JJornada, HP, 13, 17jukebox software, 113–116JVC, 99JXTA, 107

KK-Mart, 158Kasparov, Garry, 189Kazaa, 105–106, 108key tags, Speedpass, 148–149Key Tronic, 38, 40keyboards, virtual, 206–209kids, tracking, 81–85Kodak, 91Kroger, 158

Index 243

LLANs, wireless, 8–12, 171laptops

and face-recognition software, 39installing wireless card in, 9–10next-generation, 140–144receiving alerts via, 55

lawn mowers, robotic, 201, 204Lego, 204, 205Lexmark, 91Liberty Alliance Project, 32–33, 35, 36LimeWire, 105, 108LinkSys, 12, 172, 176local area networks. See LANslog-in, Web, 32–36Logitech, 194–195, 196LoJack, 81Lucent, 5, 7Luxury & Leisure Plan, OnStar, 71

MM400 Skycar, 224, 226Magellan GPS receivers, 77–80MapSend software, 80MARS project, 197–198Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 38McDonalds, 146, 149MED-NET service, 70–71Media Desktop, Kazaa, 106–107Meeting Center, WebEx, 64–65memory cards, 88, 90, 92, 98Memory Stick, 98Meridian Platinum GPS receiver, 77–78, 79messaging

instant, 50–54, 64intelligent, 189–192

Messenger, MSN, 34Microsoft

eBook reader, 15–16instant-messaging protocol, 50.NET Alerts, 56–58.NET Messenger, 54.NET Passport, 32–36Office Assistant, 190Passport account, 16Priorities system, 190–191, 192smartphones, 19–20, 21tablet PCs, 141–144and Trustworthy Computing, 33TV Photo Viewer, 92–95UltimateTV service, 131

and wireless LANs, 12Xbox Live, 132–135

Microsoft Researchartificial intelligence projects, 190–192Attentional User Interface project, 191BestCom project, 192Dr. Who engine, 182, 183Notification Platform, 190–191, 192Scope application, 185Task Gallery, 185

Mindstorms robots, 204Mini-DV format, 96, 98Minolta, 91Mirror Worlds Technologies, 185–186MIT, 38Mitsubishi, 22, 127MMOG, 132MMS, 101, 102Mobile Augmented Reality System,

197–198mobile devices. See also mobile phones

avoiding multiple wireless connections for, 177–180

printing from, 136–139receiving alerts via, 55talking to, 181–183virtual keyboards for, 206–209

mobile gateways, personal, 177–180mobile phones. See also mobile devices

combining PDAs and, 18–22making international calls on, 27–30personalizing ring tone for, 23–26shopping with, 154–157U.S. vs. European standards for, 27–28and voice-activated services, 46–49, 68

MobileAria, 74, 76modem manufacturers, 7modems, cable, 4–7Moller Skycar, 223–226Monster.com, 34Motion Computing, 141, 144Motion Picture Experts Group, 114Motorola, 26MP3 files

ripping, 114–115sharing, 105

MP3 players, 113–116contrasted with CD/tape players, 114features and benefits of, 115–116how they work, 114–115in-car, 76, 108

244 Index

manufacturers of, 114, 116purpose of, 113–114

MPEG format, 114MSN

broadband service, 7Hotmail, 34Messenger, 34, 50

Multimedia Messaging Service. See MMSmultiplayer gaming, 132–135music

digital, 113–116 (See also MP3 files)via satellite, 117–122

MusicMatch Jukebox, 114–115, 116

NNapster, 105NBC, 127NCR FastLane, 159–161.NET

Alerts service, 56–58Messenger, 54Passport, 32–36

NETGEAR, 12, 172, 176networks

local area, 8–12, 171using electrical system for, 173–176using phone lines for, 169–172virtual private, 16, 44wireless, 8–12, 177 (See also wireless

connection)Nextel, 31NextPage, 107, 108Nikon

Browser software, 89Coolpix, 86–89Web site, 91

NikonNet, 91Nokia

digital camera phones, 104instant-messaging solution, 51–54mobile phones, 24–25Web site, 26wireless LAN equipment, 12

Notification Platform, Microsoft Research, 190–191, 192

Novell, 106NTSC format, 123–124, 125

OOffice Assistant, Microsoft, 190OfficeMax.com, 34Olympus, 91

Omnipod, 107, 108online gaming, 132–135online meetings, 64–65online shopping, 32–36, 150–153OnStage, WebEx, 64, 66OnStar

availability of, 72contact information, 72, 76in-car entertainment/information, 73–76in-car safety/security, 68–72and Internet Home Alliance, 165–166and voice-activated dialing, 46

OpenCola, 107, 108Orange, 19, 22Oshman’s, 34Outlook, Pocket, 14, 19–20Ozzie, Ray, 60

Ppagers, 51PAL format, 123–124Palm Pilots, 13, 16, 17Panasonic

digital camcorders, 99and HDTV, 127mobile phones, 26, 30MP3 players, 116routers, 172

PANs, 178–179Paris Motor Show, 219Passport Express Purchase logo, 35–36passwords, Web site, 32, 37PBS, 127PC card fingerprinting systems, 40pcAnywhere, 44PCMCIA, 8, 9, 40PCs

new visual interfaces for, 184–188playing games on, 132–135remote-control software for, 41–45synchronizing Pocket PCs with desktop,

14–15transferring digital photos to, 88–90transferring video to, 98video conferencing with, 63–67

PCS Vision Camera, 100–104PCS Voice Command, 46–49PDAs, 13–22

benefits of, 15–16combining mobile phones and, 18–22how they work, 13–15manufacturers of, 13, 17

Index 245

PDAs, 13–22 (continued)receiving alerts via, 55synchronizing with desktop PCs, 14–15talking to, 181virtual keyboards for, 206–209

PDC standard, 30peer-to-peer computing, 105–108Peer-to-Peer Trusted Library, 107Peer-to-Peer Working Group, 107.PEN format, 194–195personal area networks, 178Personal Calling, OnStar, 68–69, 71, 73–76personal computers. See PCsPersonal Digital Assistants. See PDAsPersonal Digital Cellular standard, 30personal identification numbers. See PINspersonal locators, GPS, 81–85personal mobile gateways, 177–180personal robots, 201–205personal transporters, 215–218pets, robotic, 201phone lines, networking via, 169–172phone number, worldwide, 27–31phones

camera, 100–104cell (See cell phones)satellite, 30world, 27–31

Photo Viewer, Microsoft TV, 92–95photos. See also digital photos

adding audio commentary to, 87emailing, 86printing, 87, 90, 91scanning, 86

Pinnacle Systems, 99PINs, 150, 151Pioneer, 122PlaceWare, 67playlists, 113PlayStation, 132PMGs, 177–180Pocket Outlook, 14, 19–20Pocket PCs, 13–17, 209powerline networking, 173–176PowerPoint, 95printing

email attachments, 136–137from mobile devices, 136–139photos, 87, 90, 91

PrintMe Networks, 137–139Priorities system, Microsoft, 190–191, 192

Private Payments system, American Express, 150–153

profiles, Web site, 32–36Project Juxtapose, 107.PVA format, 95

QQWERTY keyboard, 207

Rradio, satellite, 117–122radio frequency identification. See RFID

technologyRadioShack, 34RCX programming language, 204read-only disks, 110recorders, CD/DVD, 109–112remote-control software, 41–45ReplayTV, 131Research In Motion. See RIMresidential gateways, 172retail automation, 158RFID technology, 145–149, 210–214RIM, 53, 54, 206ring tones, personalizing cell phone, 23–26ripping, 114–115Ritz Camera, 34robotic pets, 201robotic vacuum cleaners, 204Robotics Invention System, 204robots, personal, 201–205Roomba Intelligent FloorVac, 201, 204, 205routers, 172, 176Roverbot, 204Russian Global Navigation Satellite System, 78

SSafe & Sound Plan, OnStar, 71safety, in-car, 68–69Samsung

digital camera phones, 104and digital television, 124and HDTV, 127mobile phones, 22MP3 players, 116powerline equipment, 176and virtual keyboards, 207

satellite communications, 7, 78–79satellite phones, 30satellite radio, 73, 117–122SATS, 226scanners, bar code, 211

246 Index

Scope application, Microsoft Research, 185Scopeware, 185–186, 188SD slot, 16SDTV format, 123Secure Digital slot, 16security

biometric solutions to, 37–39in-car, 68–69Internet monitoring of home, 165–168and Internet shopping, 150–153and PDAs, 16and single sign-on authentication, 33and three-factor authentication, 39and wireless LANs, 11

Segway HT, 215–218self-checkout shopping, 158–161Sendo Ltd., 22Senseboard Technologies, 207SETI program, 107Sharp, 99, 104shopping

securing Internet, 150–153self-checkout, 158–161single log-in/profile for online, 32–36

Short Message Service. See SMS protocolSign In logo, .NET Passport, 35–36SIM card, 29single sign-on service, 32–36Sirius Satellite Radio, 73, 117, 122Skycar, Moller, 223–226slide shows, 92Small Aircraft Transportation System, 226Smart Chip

Private Payments system, 151–153Readers, 151, 152, 153

smart labels, 211–214smartphones, 18–22, 181SMS protocol, 23–24, 50–53SONICblue, 131, 172Sony

digital camcorders, 99digital cameras, 91Memory Stick, 98robot puppies, 201and satellite radios, 122

Sony Ericssondigital camera phones, 104digital pens, 194–195ring-tone capable mobile phones, 26

Spectrum24, 12speech recognition, 181–183, 193Speedpass, 145–149spoken-language understanding, 181–183

Sports Authority, 34Sprint PCS

PCS Vision package, 46–49, 100–104ring-tone Web sites, 26

SPV Smartphone, 19–20spyware, 106Star Tree, 185, 186–187Starbucks, 34stock alerts, 57Stop & Shop Supermarkets, 146Subscriber Identification Module card, 29Sun Microsystems, 32, 107Support Center, WebEx, 64, 66Symbol Technologies, 12, 16

TT-Mobile, 22, 30, 31tablet PCs, 140–144, 181–182Targus, 38, 40Task Gallery, Microsoft Research, 185TDMA, 28technology. See also specific technologies

today’s, 1–3tomorrow’s, 162–163

teleconferencing, 63Telefonica Moviles, 22telematics services, 73telephones. See phonestelevision, 123–131

digital vs. analog, 123high-definition, 123–127playing games on, 132recording live, 128–130viewing photos on, 92–95

Telstra, 22Texas Instruments, 146, 214Thales Navigation, 77, 80ThinFax, 137–138ThinMail, 137–139three-factor authentication, 39Time Division Multiple Access, 28TiVo, 130, 131Toro iMow, 201, 204, 205Toshiba

digital cameras, 91fingerprint reader, 38Pocket PC, 13–17tablet PC, 141Web site, 40

Training Center, WebEx, 64, 66transporters, personal, 215–218TruckSecure, 74Trustworthy Computing, 33

Index 247

Turtle Beach Audiotron, 172TV. See televisionTV Photo Viewer, Microsoft, 92–95Tweeter, 131

UUltimate Electronics, 131UltimateTV, 131universal product codes, 211UPC bar codes, 211USB Evaluation Utility, 153USB port, 86, 89, 111–112usernames, Web site, 32, 37

Vvacuum cleaners, robotic, 201, 204VCRs, 128–130Verizon, 7, 22, 31vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, 224VHS-C cassette tapes, 96, 98VHS cassette tapes, 96, 98video, digital, 96–99video capture, 98video conferencing, 63–67video-editing software, 99video files, sharing, 105–108video recorders, 128–131ViewSonic, 141ViisageTechnology, 38, 40Virtual Advisor, OnStar, 68–69, 71, 73–76Virtual Devices, 207, 208, 209virtual keyboards, 206–209virtual private networks. See VPNsvirtual tours, 197–200viruses, 106vision, computer, 190–192Vision Camera, Sprint VCS, 100–104VKB, 207Vodafone, 22voice-activated services, 46–49, 68voice communications, using Internet for, 51,

59–62voice-recognition applications, 206–207VPNs, 16, 44VTOL aircraft, 224, 226

WWAAS, 79Wal-Mart, 158, 159wallets, digital, 154–157WANs, 178.WAV format, 115WCDMA, 28

Web, sharing files via, 105–108Web sites, registering with, 32WebEx, 63–67WECA, 11WEP setting, 11–12Wherify Wireless personal locator, 81–85Wi-Fi, 11, 170Wide Area Augmentation System, 79wide area networks, 178Wideband CDMA, 28WIN, 63Windows CE, 14, 20Windows Journal, 142WinMX, 105, 108Wired Equivalent Privacy setting, 11–12wireless access points, 8–9, 11–12wireless cards, 8–12wireless carriers, 104wireless commerce applications, 210wireless communication standards, 27–28wireless connection

and alerts/notifications, 55and instant messaging, 50–54and PDAs, 16sending faxes via, 137–138using many devices with one, 177–180

Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, 11wireless LANs, 8–12, 171world phones, 27–31WorldBoard Forum, 198, 200WorldConnect Service, AT&T Wireless, 31writable disks, 110–111

XXbox Live, Microsoft, 132–135XM Satellite Radio, 117–122

channel listings, 118contact information, 122features and benefits, 120–121how it works, 119–120retail outlets, 122

XML, 60, 64

YYahoo! Messenger, 50, 53, 54YourMobile, 23, 24, 26

ZZenith, 127

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Special interest areas offering our latest books, book series,features of the month, related links, and other useful information tohelp you get the job done.

User Groups Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference’sUser Group Program helps volunteer, not-for-profit user groups provide their members with training and information about cutting-edge technology.

Companion Websites Our Companion Websites providevaluable solutions beyond the book. Here you can download thesource code, get updates and corrections, chat with other users and the author about the book, or discover links to other websites on this topic.

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About the Author

NICHOLAS D. EVANS is a widely recognizedbusiness and technology consultant, speaker, andauthor. He has been featured in and has publishedover 100 articles for publications ranging from For-tune and The Financial Times to InternetWeek and.Net Magazine. Mr. Evans’ highly acclaimed InternetWeek column on Emerging Technology has been run-ning since 1997.

His books include Business Innovation and Dis-ruptive Technology and Business Agility: Strategies for Gaining Com-petitive Advantage through Mobile Business Solutions (FinancialTimes Prentice Hall) together with numerous other titles from pub-lishers such as Microsoft Press.

Mr. Evans holds a B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. from SouthamptonUniversity in England. He is a frequent advisor to the venture capitalcommunity and serves on several advisory boards.

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Consumer Gadgets 2003