Symbology is a term used in automatic identification (barcodes, biometrics, RFID, and etc.) to describe a process nature of communication and recognition. This process nature of DIGITAL communication and recognition is also used in every day life and aids in the immediacy of communicative understanding. Symblogogy attempts to share stories of this DIGITAL communicative understanding, found on all levels (including AI tool modified), that may enhance communications in everyday life.
Consumers with analog televisions who tune in using antennas will need a digital converter box, left, once television stations stop broadcasting in analog Feb. 17. Image Credit: Bebeto Matthews -- Associated Press
Build A Digital Antenna/Converter Box For $8.00
The federal government's TV converter box program runs out of funding!
Is anyone surprised? Give the government something to manage and they will manage to mess it up. Hey, why don't we have the government fix our economy that had been sent into a tailspin through the promotion of JUNK MORTGAGES backed by organizations create by .... the government? - oops!
Maybe the government can free up some of the 750 billion dollars that was supposed to be used to buy back JUNK MORTGAGES so that people in our society don't miss the new gameshow program, Million Dollar Password.
This excerpted and edited from the Washington Post – TV Converter Program Runs Out of Funding By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 The government's billion-dollar program to help people prepare for the transition to digital television has run out of money, potentially leaving millions of viewers without coupons to buy converter boxes they need to keep their analog TV sets working after the switch.
As of this past Sunday, consumers who request a $40 coupon to help offset the cost of a converter box are being placed on a waiting list. They may not receive the coupons before Feb. 17, when full-power television stations will shut off traditional analog broadcasts and transmit only digital signals.
Members of Congress are now scrambling to find ways to allocate more money to the program. Reference Here>>
Check out the video ... the one that teaches someone on how to build an analog to digital antenna for about $8.00, build an antenna, then watch Million Dollar Password!
Japanese commuters while away the journey by watching TV on their mobiles. Image Credit: David Sacks/Getty
The Image Of A Mobile (phone) World
Portable programmable electronic communication devices, which received their birth forty years ago with the release of the T58 & T59 by Texas Instruments, have come a long way and there is no better place in the world than Japan to judge and assess how far.
The key to this evolution comes down to having the handheld cellphone be an on-the-fly, symbology decoding, self-programming computer. A cellphone with a good processor, a camera, a printed symbology (ie. slang: barcode) and a strong infrastructure can deliver more interaction and information than a WiFi internet connection HotSpot on many applications.
The most amazing application that can be delivered through these means is that a person with a properly programmed cellphone can scan a “3D Barcode” (a colorized QR Code) and the phone decodes the image taken with the camera and delivers to the cellphone screen 20 seconds of video communication to the user. That’s right! … 20 seconds of the latest DVD release from “The Bourne Ultimatum” that might help one to decide to buy this DVD gift for Christmas – for example.
PM Code - Colorized QR Code that can deliver a 20 second video to the users phone screen without the need to be hooked-up to a WiFi HotSpot or incur cellphone call minutes. Image Credit: Content Idea of Asia (CIA)
Furthermore, the cellphone user did not have to use the cellphone radio towers or a WiFi Hotspot to have the handheld perform this amazing feat. The 20 seconds of video came directly from the “Barcode” that the user’s phone took a picture of … and decoded to display.
More mobility application news happening in Japan from The Guardian Unlimited -
Why mobile Japan leads the world A combination of an urban lifestyle and infrastructure advantages mean that the fixed internet is being left behind by the mobile Michael Fitzpatrick - The Guardian - Thursday, September 27, 2007
Yasuko San is aiming her mobile at a small, square tattoo on paper, clicking a little and peering happily at the result. Her prize? The latest novel written for the mobile, entitled "Teddy". Such serialised novels for mobiles are just the latest phone application that has caught the Japanese imagination, but - apart from neighbouring South Korea - few others.
Those printed square icons, however, made their debut in the UK earlier this month (to promote the DVD of the film 28 Weeks Later). Known as QR (quick read) codes, they have aided Japan's mobile revolution by making it easy to access a web page via mobile. Users can be directed to sites by snapping the codes printed in magazines, posters and even on biscuits.
PM Code Image as captured via the cellphone camera. Image Credit: Content Idea of Asia (CIA)
Mobile subscribers
Their British outing is a full four years behind Japan's adoption. In fact, we lag Japan in nearly every aspect of mobile use - except possibly in annoying other commuters on trains.
Lost in Japan? Let your mobile's GPS guide you. Bored? Download the latest manga comic or an e-book to read on the train, or go shopping and pay by swishing your mobile in front of the till, because the phone is also an electronic wallet.
You can also collect e-coupons, pay bills, play Final Fantasy, update your blog and pay and check into hotels wirelessly. Soon the airport check-in will be history in Japan, too, as the e-ticket in your phone becomes your boarding pass.
Nearly all are services based on the success of the mobile web in Japan, where in a nation of 127 million the number of mobile internet subscribers recently passed 100 million. Not for nothing are the Japanese now known as the Thumb Tribe - a tribe who, for the most part, prefer their mobile to the fixed internet.
Apart from the killer application - email - 80% say they use other functions too. Downloading music is popular (80% have tried it), as is TV for mobile - half of its subscribers use it regularly. Three quarters of users say they enjoy online clothes shopping with their mobile at least once a month. What they are less keen on is video calling: in Japan, as in the UK, 90% say "no thanks, never". And as for using the mobile as a modem - to link to the internet - that's very expensive in Japan.
It is no wonder those touting m-commerce as the next big web thing tell us Japan is the future blueprint. "Japan is the world's high-tech testbed for a wide range of consumer electronic devices and systems - many of which never see the light of day in overseas markets," says Daniel Scuka, keitai guru and consultant for publishers Wireless Watch Japan. "So keeping up with developments here is vital to knowing what's going to hit Europe and the US 24 months in the future; doubly so with respect to mobile and wireless."
By offering the Japanese a multiplicity of services - and, very importantly, some very cool handsets to use them on - the operators have created what every western mobile service provider is dreaming of: a mobile lifestyle culture that keeps millions reaching for the mobile rather than the fixed internet. But it does have its disadvantages.
Most us would feel miffed if we lost or damaged our mobiles. The Japanese would be paralysed without theirs: nearly half of Japanese confess to being obsessed with their mobile phones.
But why is such technology such a hit in Japan and not in other mobile-savvy nations such as Finland? According to the man who kickstarted the trend - the father of i-mode, NTT DoCoMo's Takeshi Natsuno - it is because of the Japanese genius for designing new technologies that can be adopted by anyone, especially techno-phobes. It's not about "bandwidth, nor standards, nor unique Japanese culture", he says. It is about "fun and convenience". ---- Demanding consumers
The Japanese are blessed with some of the best-looking technology in the world. It has to be intuitive, simple and high-quality, not because the Japanese are so tech-savvy, but because they are the most demanding consumers in the world.
According to Scuka, more than 100 new phones hit the Japanese market last year as manufacturers tried out new ideas on the public. Some cultural factors, as with any other country, do play a part in Japan's willingness to take up some technologies such as TV on the mobile.
As in Europe, this was at first a washout, but as watching TV in public becomes more socially acceptable in Japan, the number of subscribers is rising. Au, the second largest mobile network in Japan, recently signed up its five millionth subscriber to the service. ---- It is this urban lifestyle where convenience is the key which has necessitated the rise of the all-in-one mobile plus those very funky handsets. By comparison Apple's iPhone is a mere 2.5G plaything. In Japan, which is already into 3G and heading towards 4G, they make mobiles look good and work hard.
How the client works: 1) Wireless device receives signals from Wi-Fi sites in range 2) Skyhook software compares these signals to its database of geographically known locations 3) Location data is used to direct safety services, provide driving directions and local information etc. Image Credit: Skyhook Wireless
Global Positioning “Goes To Ground”
In a “complex technology made simple” scenario, one does not need specialized GPS Satellites and the systems that pick up their signals in order to determine a specific location in most cities in the United States.
All one needs is a computer (or Wi-Fi PDA phone), some software that detects and factors in known Wi-Fi hot spots and … BINGO, wherever one goes, there one is here on the Oblate Spheriod.
This from Skyhook Wireless Inc. website -
At a time when the number of mobile devices is increasing into the billions, the connectivity and processing power of these devices is also increasing greatly. This is providing business with productivity gains and enabling consumers greater freedom in how they interact. Additionally, adoption of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology by consumers and industry has proceeded more quickly than the most aggressive predictions. Today, more than 10 million Wi-Fi access points have been deployed in both public and private networks resulting in a ubiquitous cloud of radio signals in the metropolitan areas of the United States. ---- Skyhook Wireless provides a software-only positioning system that leverages a nationwide database of known Wi-Fi access points to calculate the precise location of any Wi-Fi enabled device.
The demand for location-based services has been stifled by the lack of an affordable and reliable positioning system for highly populated areas of the country. The Wi-Fi Positioning System from Skyhook Wireless brings accurate positioning capabilities in real world situations to tens of millions of existing devices.
---- Technology
The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) from Skyhook Wireless is the first outdoor positioning network to utilize Wi-Fi rather than GPS or cell tower systems to determine location. Building on the explosive growth of Wi-Fi, WPS includes a nationwide network of access points used to accurately pinpoint a user’s position.
WPS is designed for the millions of laptop, tablet PC, PDA and Smartphone owners that have Wi-Fi capabilities and would like to generate driving directions, utilize proximity systems, implement vehicle/asset tracking and communicate location information to friends and coworkers. With WPS, users can easily take advantage of location-based services that are already widely available, without having to purchase additional hardware.
WPS can also complement other location technology, because unlike traditional systems, WPS has no line of sight requirements, is accurate to within twenty meters and can be used indoors or outdoors to determine location in seconds. WPS is compatible with 802.11 devices, integrates with all GPS designed applications and covers metro areas of the United States. ---- Location Client
The WPS Location Client contains intelligence, which when coupled with the Location Database, calculates a precise location. The client works by scanning the airwaves for 802.11 signals then comparing observed access points against a known database of access point locations. The client features a patent-pending location algorithm that calculates real-time position, speed, and heading. The client also includes advanced filtering and database optimization techniques to continually improve the overall system. WPS can operate on any device that supports 802.11. It can be configured to operate like a virtual GPS device so that any GPS enabled application can begin to use WPS immediately. The client also includes an SDK to allow third party application developers to more tightly integrate location capabilities into their location-based service.
Location Database
The Wi-Fi Positioning System features a location database that contains the world's most comprehensive listing of geo-located Wi-Fi access points. The Location Database is continuously updated with new regions of the country and with new data from existing coverage areas. Employing patent-pending techniques, the Location Database computes the precise location of each access point using hundreds of observed readings. The Database also determines the propagation characteristics for each access point based on its unique local environment. Each access point can perform differently depending on its location within a building, the position of other buildings on a street, the physical topography of the area and a host of other environmental variables. All of these factors are taken into consideration by the WPS location algorithms. With this level of sophistication, WPS is able to produce reliable and accurate readings throughout our coverage areas.
Device Centric
With the device centric model, the database and client are both installed on an individual device. The Location Database is compressed using a patent-pending algorithm resulting in a minimal storage requirement for the device. Positioning is calculated on the device and is then communicated to other applications (e.g. mapping) via a set of API's. With this model, no network connectivity is required which is preferable for many applications. Data on the device is refreshed on a regular basis and can be segmented (e.g. by city, state, region) based on individual customer needs.
Network Centric
With the network centric model the Location Database resides on the Skyhook Wireless servers and only the thin location client resides on the Wi-Fi enabled device. This configuration is optimal for toolbars or other applications that assume a network connection. The Skyhook server can communicate the location back to the client over the network or to another server based application such as a fleet monitoring system.
Coverage map by Google - Link ---- System Requirements · Skype version 1.2 and above · Windows XP · 802.11 adapter · Call from Skyhook Coverage area Installation Instructions · Download Skype E911 Plug-in · Extract to a temporary directory · Run setup.exe (make sure your Wi-Fi adapter is enabled during installation) · The installation will also install the Skype COM API. Be sure to follow all the instructions · The last screen will ask you to start the plug-in
How to Operate
By default the Skype E911 plug-in will be configured to start whenever Windows starts. You should see the target icon in the taskbar. When you place a call using Skype, the E911 plug-in will initiate once the receiver of the call has picked up the call. You will see a message from the taskbar letting you know that your current location has been calculated and sent to the other party. The other party on the call will receive a chat message (below) that includes the nearest street address to your current location plus a link to Google Maps to see your current location plotted on a map. The same process will occur when you receive a call as well.
At Symblogogy, we ask if Wi-Fi signals are good, why not other fixed position broadcast signals?
This excerpt from a press release issued by Boeing Engineering, Operations & Technology –
Boeing-Led Team Developing Surface Navigation Concept for DARPA Boeing Press Release - ST. LOUIS, April 18, 2007
How would U.S. ground troops navigate precisely and effectively if signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) were not available? Boeing [NYSE: BA] and an industry team are getting the chance to tackle that problem under a concept development contract awarded recently by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The objective of the Robust Surface Navigation (RSN) program is to develop technologies that can exploit various "signals of opportunity" -- electronic waves emanating from satellites, cell phone towers and even television transmission towers -- to provide precise location and navigation information to ground troops when GPS signals are being electronically jammed or blocked by natural or man-made obstacles, such as foliage or buildings.
"The challenge is to develop an integrated system that can use all available signals -- not just GPS -- to provide accurate navigation information through one small receiver, thereby eliminating the need for an expensive, fixed infrastructure," said Bart Ferrell, Boeing Phantom Works program manager for Precision Navigation Programs.
The Boeing-led Robust Surface Navigation team is beginning its 15-month Phase 1 concept development contract. Read All>>
Consumers with analog televisions who tune in using antennas will need a digital converter box, left, once television stations stop broadcasting in analog Feb. 17. Image Credit: Bebeto Matthews -- Associated Press
