Something that I realized this year is that I like pondering the future -- looking way out and imagining how the world will be different, what things people will be doing, etc. This probably stems from my interest in technology.
Wolfram Search
March 9, 2009
Along side Powerset comes Wolfram Search, due to launch in May. This is exciting stuff, and I can't wait to see what they've come up with. From the little I've read, it sounds as though they're actually modeling the knowledge and then using natural language parsing to allow the user to query that model. Very cool.
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Microsoft Research at TechFest 2009March 5, 2009
I was really pleased to read
this article yesterday detailing some of the interesting things that Microsoft Research is working on.
The thing that I was most interested in, personally, was
Commute UX which has a video on
this page. See also
this poster.
Basically, it's exactly the kind of use cases
I was working on this fall, but in the car rather than the kitchen. They've got a groovy little car simulator that they use to test the software out, which makes a lot of sense... testing it out in a real car would be a little dangerous!
Anyway, it's very cool to see Microsoft working on these problems, and I was impressed with their demo. The key thing for me is that it's
a natural language voice interface that actually works well. Some cars on the market today have voice interfaces, but you need to know the specific command language to make it work, and even if you take the time to learn it, it's easy to forget.
This stuff is similar to the local company here in Waterloo named
iLane.
Aptera: I just can't get enough of this thingMarch 4, 2009
Checkout Aptera's
latest newsletter. There are links along the left for various interviews and demos they've done with various news media, and in each one the promise of this vehicle shines. I hope this thing is a big success.
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