New and Cool - Affordable Technology

On this page, I will illustrate or explore gadgets I think are cool, and new uses for technology. Reasonably soon, this will be converted to a blog so you can express your views or post questions etc. Although we will be under the hammer for some time yet (with more than a dozen applications on the drawing board for the Emotiv headset), I'll endeavour to add new items each weekend.

If you have questions about a new piece of technology, or simply want to know how it works, send me an email. If you see something you think should be included here, please let me know.

Cheers... Paul

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Emotiv EPOC Headset - Final Prototype

Tan Le - President & CoFounder of Emotiv Systems

Billion Dollar Idea - New Category of Consumer Device
The December 2008 edition of Inc featured Tan Le in an article entitled "How to Launch a Billion Dollar Idea".

while the Idea hasn't returned a billion dollars yet, it is certainly heading in the right direction.

This is one occasion where I hope I am right. It's my belief that we are witnessing the birth of an entire new type of consumer device that will for ever be a part of our lives, for the better. Until now, the only access we had to our own brain waves was in a medical environment. The Emotiv Epoc headset has changed that and I am confident that this technology will find many useful applications.

We have the great minds and determination of Tan Le (left) and Prof Allan Snyder to thank for this new technology. A late night discussion and six years hard work has seen the product become a reality.

When the first Home PC was released, I was very excited, but my friends couldn't understand why, and thought I was dreaming. Like then, I cannot forecast all the uses for this new technology beyond the obvious areas of assisting the disabled, and various self-help tools such as sleep therapy.

A Serious Instrument - Not A Toy
While the initial release of this product is aimed at the games market, it is far from being a toy. I've looked at the technical specifications and while it lacks a few of the capabilities of a $30,000 medical device, the specs are very impressive; for US$299, it's phenomenal.

At the end of the day, it's the creative minds of developers that will determine the future benefits of this technology.

Concerned About Big Brother?
Have you noticed how internet adverts are sometimes geographically specific to your location? Web providers can pin-point your location with ever increasing accuracy. However, there is nothing to fear as (currently) the location is your ISP's and not yours.

While, PDA and mobile phone browsers have the ability to track your exact location, your ISP cannot release this information without your consent. Over the next few years, this technology will offer us more and more nifty features, and as usual, we will have to trust 'Big Brother' to protect us from misuse.

Definitely Not New, But hey, it's "Super Cool"
For some time, I held off getting an Apple iPhone, mainly because my Palm Treo did everything I wanted, really well. For five years, I kept looking, but there was nothing that suited my needs better than 'old faithful'.

Then there was iPhone! - Despite the temptation, I waited for the 3GS models and wow, several months later and I am still like a kid with a new toy. I've never had 'gadget excitement' last longer than a week.

Forget The Specs, How Does it Feel?!
When it comes to purchasing hi-tech products, many shoppers make their purchase decision, based on the technical specifications. Sounds smart, but it's possibly the worst thing you can do.

If you purchased a car on the basis of technical specs, you would either end up with a dragster or perhaps a Formula One racer.

Great specs,, and fine if the kids can hang onto the
nose cone as you break the land speed record,
otherwise it's pretty useless!

So many iPhone users are delighted, simply because Apple produced a product that "feels good" to most people. What that really means is, it's exceptionally easy to use, so you can actually use all those great technical features that it has.

The other night, a group of us were debating an issue; One person said "I'll start-up my computer and look it up on the net" another person said "I think I might be able to do it on my phone", and started clicking keys like mad. Before he was able to get his browser loaded, I tapped the Google icon on my iPhone as said "thirtieth wedding anniversary" and had a list of pages within a second or two.

He did not realise what I had done, and everyone just watched as he kept tapping keys, correcting mistakes and swearing. Finally, he gave up, and said "I'm sure it can do it, but I can't get it to work"...

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