George Henny forwarded an interesting video a few weeks back. It was intriguing, as it left me wanting to know more about the interactive white board he had created using a Wii remote and a home grown electronics circuit. What George and his IT colleague, Wayne Jeffers devised was effectively an interactive white board that normally would cost thousands of dollars for about $60 in parts (including the Wii remote).
Henny explained that he was inspired by a video from a guy named Johnny Lee who came up with the idea and developed the software. Jeffers constructed an infrared LED pen, which provides positioning information to the Wii remote. Bluetooth connects the Wii remote to a PC and create an interactive white board or a low-cost tablet PC. Henny believes this could be a cost-effective solution for schools wanting the benefits of interactive white boards and has already presented it to his local school district.
George is speaking at next week’s IP Possibilities conference in San Diego and promises to bring this set-up with him. In the meantime, you can check George out in this video and the video that is within the video.
With 140+ million units in the field, the Sony PS2 has been a workhorse in the gaming world. Could a sub-$50 piece of software turn this consumer-owned device into a mechanism for pulling content off the Internet, as well as USB-enabled storage devices?
The above video, filmed at Digital Hollywood in August ’08, demonstrates an offering from Austin TX-based BroadQ which turns the ordinary PS2 into a fully-featured set-top capable of decoding various video formats.
Updated on 9/10/2008
[Subsequent to the above post, I was able to exchange emails with Stacy Cook, President & CEO of BroadQ, and he provided more detail as to BroadQ’s latest offering.]
Cook reports that they currently support most video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX (720P HD), WMV, XVid, MJPEG, MOV, H.264 and FLV. He also suggested that they will support Digital Rights Management and are determining whether or not they can use software decryption on the PS2. The other option they are looking at is a USB smart card that would perform a hardware decode, decryption and content caching. He suggests the trick is for the DRM is to be transparent so that it does not impact the user’s experience.
He says they are targeting the 25 million US households with a PS2 and broadband.* They intend on using channel partners and likened BroadQ’s distribution approach to what Netflix is doing with Microsoft’s X-Box 360. He says that they have, “had a great response from content providers,” and that they will be announcing their content partners in the near-future.
They will be rolling out the product in the next couple of months. BroadQ is accepting pre-orders for a 30 day free trial of the service and the pre-order price is $29.95.
* One report suggests there were 41 million PS2 households at the end of 2007, so it is not a stretch that some 60% of these would also be broadband capable
In the previous issue of the Viodi View, I expressed my frustration with the challenges of trying new technology. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of listening to Lynn Nelson of SRT, a North Dakota Independent Telco, discuss the importance of tailoring the marketing of technology to particular generations. That is, Millennials adopt technology different than Baby Boomers. So, maybe the problem is that I am just too old and the technology people need to do a better job of explaining their product to me; that’s my excuse, anyhow.
In addition to providing marketing tips, Lynn looked at some new technologies that telcos will need to embrace at some level. Fortunately, Roger Bindl’s roving camera caught up with Lynn and we put together this video that summarized his excellent speech.
The Jetson’s home of the 21st century may be here; cleverly disguised as a non-descript double-wide in the parking lot of HP’s Cupertino facility. This "Smart Home" showcases technology, available today, that features things such as home security, energy efficiency and advanced communications. Watch this video to see a 2 minute tour of this home of the present.
As a side note, this entire video was shot with a combination of Pure Digital’s Flip and Creative’s Vado video cameras.
