There seems to be a new biometric scheme that is suddenly in vogue. The last few weeks I have been seeing advertisements from NEC in the international magazines about using your face as the new password. The notebook or desktop will scan your face and will recognize whether you are allowed entry or not. Then last week, I saw a similar demo in a new Lenovo notebook which also has a built in video cam and software to do it. Last week during the exhibit from Changchun China in SM City Cebu, I also meet with a local Chinese software developer who is also developing similar software. I think that is about the most natural interface you can get – you open your notebook, and the video cam scans your face and grants you access. I have the software, and I will try to report in future how accurate it is. Of course, the question is what if you grow a mustache, or you didn’t shave, or you gain some fat on your face? What if you use contact lens?
There is also something that I finally tried last month on my own that I am really excited about – this is a real time GPS mapping system that I was able to finally use for myself during last month’s visit to the United States. This is not something new – four years ago, on a trip to Japan, I saw that in various cars, and last year I saw that also in a couple of my friends car in LA. But last month, I bought a copy of Microsoft’s Streets and Maps 2007 software with a GPS locator. I was able to try it in the United states myself using notebook computer.
Previously, when you visit the US, and have to drive, it was already quite convenient. All you have to do usually is to go to MapQuest, and type out where your origin and target address, and the software will automatically give you driving directions ( even down to which street is only one way or left turn only, and which street is under repair). However, it is no fun knowing the directions if you don’t know exactly where you are, so a street map real time driving directions coupled with GPS ( Global Positioning System) indicator is actually even more advantageous.
Here, you punch into your car or notebook computer where you want to go, and the GPS will automatically calculate for you where you are, and in real time will inform you the driving directions including speech directions, like turn right after twenty meters. If you choose not to follow directions, it will automatically sense that you did not follow, and then recalculate a new route for you to follow. It is really cool – after understanding your driving patterns, it will even tell you how long it will take you to arrive, and with how much gas you will consume.
Unfortunately, I am not aware whether there are available map of Cebu, and therefore could not use it here. While the GPS locator can tell you the longitude and latitude of your location, and also your speed and altitude, it could not map it into the software because it does not have that data. Last year, I also tried a local application called TrackMe which uses the HP Ipaq to give you a real time map in Manila, but never got around to making it run properly. From what I know, this uses , instead of the orbiting satellite to let you know where you are, it uses the GSM cell phone towers to inform you of your location.
I’d like also to crow a little on the results about the Philippine Blog Awards 2007 which was held last March 31 at the RCBC Theater which was attended by well over a hundred of the most prominent and active bloggers in the Philippines. There were two Cebuanos I know that were nominated as amongst the best - My blog in www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife that was a finalist for the entrepreneur/business blog, and fellow Sunstar columnist Max Limpag’s blog, Leon Kilat: Cybercafe Experiments at www.maxlimpag.com that was a finalist for the best technology blog. Fortunately, both of us won our respective categories, and we are talking now to initiate some events that will encourage blogging more here in Cebu.
Wilson Ng
Pls. viist my blog at www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife