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The Chicago Tribune Gadget Adviser Column

Posted on: Sunday, 4 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Eric Gwinn, Chicago Tribune

Dec. 4--Never a dull moment. That should be the cry of the nascent multitasking generation.

Technology has changed us, and we're changing technology. Digital music, video and the Internet make up our entertainment cocktail, and the Internet is the straw we use to drink it. Fast, broadband connections have made the straw bigger for most Internet Americans, so instead of sipping entertainment and information, we now gulp it. That has only increased, not sated, our thirst, and not just through the Web.

Many of us didn't know we wanted our friends' constant attention until cell phones let us keep our friends in our hip pockets. Many of us didn't know we wanted our music everywhere until Apple showed us how cool that would be. Many of us didn't know we wanted to watch TV with our laptops close by until broadband Internet connections showed us it's possible.

Technology doesn't just mean fun and games. It means a surgeon can wear special eyeglasses that display a patient's vital signs, so the surgeon doesn't have to look up from the operating table. It means a motorized wheelchair that uses gyroscopes can navigate its user up stairs.

With so much within easy reach, we're learning to multitask so we can have it all, and all at once.

We can talk on the phone and drive. Curling up with a good laptop, we can play video games and listen to RealPlayer and surf the Web and chat with friends and watch our new big-screen HDTV.

And as we learn to multitask, our machines are evolving with us. New computer chipsets won't even hiccup while we simultaneously surf, play games, listen to music, chat, watch videos and more.

Our stoves and cars will become so smart that we can preheat the oven while we drive home from work. Another idea is to have our cars warn us when another car gets too close-and warn the other car as well to take evasive action.

All of this will come at a price: threats to privacy and civil liberties. Computers can talk to others, as well as to us. As cars roll off assembly lines with on-board navigation systems, their GPS devices could be monitored by authorities seeking to trace our whereabouts. As we rely more on the Internet, we open ourselves to hackers who can recruit our computers to steal personal information from the companies hired by banks and credit card firms to protect sensitive data.

Those scenarios make diligence as important as getting the latest Ciara tune on your iPod and in your phone as a ringtone. While our ever-increasing abilities have made those tasks a cakewalk, we still can't fathom the simple act of protecting our personal information.

Recently, an Internet security firm hired people to pose as tourism survey-takers in New York's Central Park. The idea was to see how much personal information consumers would give out, the kind of information that could be used to guess their passwords and access their credit card and banking information.

According to RSA Security, more than 70 percent revealed their mother's maiden name; more than 90 percent provided birth dates and birthplaces; more than half explained how they devise their online passwords.

That kind of laxness indicates we need to be as smart about our responsibilities as we are about shopping for the hottest new cell phone.

We aren't the only ones doing ourselves in: The makers of computers and consumer electronics also can drive us to distraction.

For one thing, the industry's battles over standards slow innovation. As companies differentiate their devices from their competitors', they try to make their formats the standard that everybody else must follow, hoping to emulate the astronomical success of Bill Gates with Microsoft Windows.

The downside is that few companies want to sign on to another's standards. So competing standards hit the market, and the superior product does not always win out. Ask a Sony Betamax user what he thinks of VCR quality.

The good news is that there is enough agreement to give us a lot of cool toys to play with. No, we can't easily download a movie and burn it to a DVD that plays in every DVD player as easily as we download an MP3. But that day is coming, as is the day when computers will easily download all the digitized news, gossip, video, music and sports highlights we want, and serve it all up on our living room screen or the large-screen cell phone we'll be carrying around.

When that day comes, the products highlighted on the following pages will seem rudimentary. But in the meantime, we can fill every minute with music and video and conversations with our friends. Never a dull moment.

FANTASY? REALITY: The stuff of science fiction often comes true. From the practical to the sportive, these products are fresh from the lab and on their way to the marketplace.

-- Eric Gwinn

1. YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT I SEE

MicroOptical's vision of the future includes eyewear that projects a screen in front of you, for watching video clips downloaded to and projected from your cell phone. While surgeons now use MicroOptical heads-up displays, such as this MD-6 model, to monitor a patient's vital signs during an operation, the Massachusetts company is about to see its use broaden: European wireless company Orange SA will bundle extremely slim MicroOptical glasses (binoculars) called Lunettes Video with a phone as part of its mobile video package. Set to debut in Europe early next year at $300 euros, the eyewear creates a foot-high image in front of the wearer but still allows sight around the image to avoid running into trees. (microoptical.net)

2. CALLING THE SHOTS

Controversial soccer calls at the goal line may never be challenged again, with the help of Adidas and Cairos Technologies. They are testing an "intelligent" soccer ball embedded with a microchip. When the ball, dubbed "Pelias 2" (not pictured), crosses the goal line or goes out of play, refs wearing earpieces hear a beep. The ball may see action at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

3. UP THE DOWNSTAIRS

The iBot 4000 Mobility System (the newest model) is not just another motorized wheelchair. Its wheels rotate up and over each other, Slinky-style, to carry its user up and down stairs. Meanwhile, gyroscopes in the $26,100 chair adjust to the user's center of gravity to tilt back so the user doesn't tumble out of the chair. (ibotnow.com)

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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