From: "Jani PATOKALLIO" <jpatokal@iki.fi>
> Jani PATOKALLIO wrote:
> > Douglass Turner wrote:
> > > - You pick up a Pokeman toy and click your mobile at it.
> > Yes, I understood this much, but *how are you going to get this to
work*?
How about slightly reducing the scope, and slightly increasing the effort
required? Simply limit applicable objects to those that happen to be
barcode-labeled, and require the interested user to scan the barcode with
the mobile.
Gee, I wish Abbie Hoffman was still alive, we could use him in
Barnes & Noble TV spot: "Swipe this Book!"
After all, it's hard to find a product these days that *doesn't*
have the required "affordance" and I'm sure equipping a mobile
phone with an optics head is a trivial matter - it might not even
increase the bulk or weight appreciably. Nor is touching a
specific part of the item so much more difficult than pointing
at it. Small prices to pay for a Magic Wand for the Masses.
No, this isn't the information-about-absolutely-anything-you-point-at
techno-Valhalla capability. Is there really going to be such huge
demand for that, though? The security considerations in ubiquitous
line-of-sight object browsing are slightly troubling, too - do you
want larcenious teenage hackers scoping out the wiring diagram
of your house just in passing? Yikes!
Barcoding product labels, bank statements, bills, flyers, clothing tags,
anything that is typically printed, is established technology - and
barcode *did* take its licks getting established. Back in the Computers-
Are-Taking-Over-the-World days, people *noticed* barcode;
some felt threatened, even demeaned. It was Ted Kaczinski's Mark
of the Beast, no doubt.
Well, the Sixties are dead, and computers *have* taken over the
world (over which there is much rejoicing, ironically enough), and
nobody even sees poor old barcode anymore - they're too busy
sneering at the URLs plastered over everything now, especially
since the dot.coms started plummeting to earth like shotgunned
sparrows. Barcode is still there, though, lurking in corners, a grizzled
old ex-con in-law, relegated to the back of the basement by those
graphic designers with their exquisite hair. Barcode is the family
embarassment, one who would have been sent packing long ago
except that he's quiet, doesn't eat much, and is handy with tools.
Barcode (and code-scanning in general) is a mature technology with
a user-base that happens to be mostly limited to inventory clerks and
grocery store cashiers; in other words, job categories with a premium
on speed of data entry and low-wage employability, and with a
corporate data link assumed. That doesn't mean it can't be mainstream
consumer mobile technology as well; simply substitute personal
convenience for the productivity/hireability criterion, and the wireless
personal net connection for the corporate one. Maybe all that's
been lacking is some palmable unit we'd be carrying around anyway,
bidirectionally connected to the world of data. And we have that,
now, with digital mobile.
World Wide Wand (TM), here we come.
Optical encoding need not be limited to barcode. In cases
where barcode would be unacceptably obtrusive or unesthetic,
highly redundant steganographic encoding of URLs into product
logos, and indeed, across the whole surface of anything printed,
shouldn't be too hard to pull off. Imagine the convenience!
Can't get the cocktail waitress's attention across the noisy room?
Too smashed to make out the barcode strip in dim light? Just
swipe your mobile across the bottle label at random, thumb in
a drink count, and the next round arrives (for which you've
already paid, needless to say.)
Further out, consider the textures of molded plastic, metal finishes,
and textile weave as steganography palettes. Asking "How much
did you pay for that fabulous leather jacket?", that perennial fall-
season awkward question, could become entirely unnecessary;
just wait 'til your friend's back is turned, and, while staging some
elaborate pretense of checking your phone messages, swipe that
product data right off his collar! Swipe the paint job on his motor-
cycle for good measure.
Yes, I know what you're thinking, now, but....
www.ifyouhavetoswipeyoucantaffordit.com is already taken. By
me. Sorry.
Steganography has so far found only limited use outside cryptological
circles. Digital water-marking of photos comes to mind, and some
music copy-protection schemes; and these are arguably *anti*-
convenience technologies for consumers. But that doesn't mean
steganography couldn't be widely deployed in high-turnover
consumer goods almost overnight if there proved to be some
demand. How about for determining if somebody's designer-label
purse is a Hong Kong knock-off? Now *there's* a killer app.
(Genetically engineering fruits and vegetables for a more
informative skin might be going a little far, though. Don't
even get me started about tattoos.)
Of course, there might be some residual blue- and pink-collar stigma
attached to waving this wand in this particular way - at least for
some of the stuffier high-end consumers. But that, too, should pass.
In the meantime, Bruce Willis can hand his mobile to his personal
assistant when he's shopping Rodeo Drive. (Oh, his assistant is
*already* carrying it? His assistant *always* carries it? Mr. Willis
never *touches* his mobile, except when it's his *agent* on
the line? Um, sorry...Yes, I know who his agent is....yes, yes,
I'm leaving now...no, no, I haven't been taking any pictures....no,
there's no camera built into my mo--HEY! gimme that back!...)
Make no mistake: URLs In Everything is a phenomenon waiting to
happen, considering that they are already putting cameras in
keitai-size units, label scanning is a good low-end starter candidate.
It once it gets going, it could spread very fast. Into security,
shopping...even politics....
With luck, by November 2004, the only people left chanting
"WWW" will be the folks trying to get that whisky-swillin',
coke-sniffin', cowboy-boot-wearin' dyslexic (re)elected.
The rest of us will be swiping our mobile phone scanners over
the *other* guy's picture in the voting booth (you know, the
one who invented the Internet?), all room for witless error
finally banished. We'll be swiping early. And often. And
we'll be using as many hacked mobiles as we can lay our
hands on.
-m
www.idiom.com/~turner
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Nov 20 14:18:25 2000