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Monday, January 16, 2017

Eyeglasses are not just for seeing

One of the most famous dictums associated with Modernist design is that "Form follows function."  Typically, what modernists mean by this expression is that the design of a product should be dictated by the job it is to perform for users—and nothing else!

However, Modernists tended to take a narrow view of what a function is.  In their view, this was limited to physical services that a product might perform for its users. 

For our first posting of 2017, consider a new fitness tracking device in the form of a finger ring.  The Motiv Ring tracks sleep patterns, heart rate, steps and other activities, all while looking chic.  It will officially debut at this year's Consumer Electronics Show and is priced at $199 (USD).

The Ring contains some technological innovations, including optical heart rate tracking and impressive miniaturization. 

One of the predicted consequences of the global village was the fading importance of place.  After all, if everyone can talk to and look in on everyone else regardless of location, through the miracle of telephones and TV and Internet, then location would become irrelevant.

We do not yet live in that world.  Many people continue to commute to work, for example, to be in the same building with their colleagues.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

AI, discovery, and censorship

My news feed put up an interesting pair of articles about applications of AI to what might be called knowledge discovery.

The first was an article by Adrienne Lafrance about the search for another Antikythera mechanism.  The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical computer made in Hellenistic Greek times and found in a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in 1901.