You Just Said the Same Thing (over and over again)

What are the benefits?
Microsoft surface is changing the way people will interact with all kinds of everyday content, including photos, music, “a virtual concierge” and games. It’s a new, exciting technology.

What are the problems with this new technology?
It is not available to the general public yet and could possibly be quite expensive.

How does your new technology work?
Surface uses cameras to sense objects, hand gestures and touch. This is processed and the result is displayed on the table top using “rear proection.” According to Microsoft.com:

• Microsoft Surface uses a rear projection system which displays an image onto the underside of a thin diffuser.
• Objects such as fingers are visible through the diffuser by series of infrared–sensitive cameras, positioned underneath the display.
• An image processing system processes the camera images to detect fingers, custom tags and other objects such as paint brushes when touching the display.
• The objects recognized with this system are reported to applications running in the computer so that they can react to object shapes, 2D tags, movement and touch.

Do I use this technology?
No, as it isn’t available to the general public yet.

What is the future of Microsoft Surface?
To make a commercially available product for the general public. Microsoft are also working on the second generation Second Light which will be able to “overlay secondary images above those on the screen – such as satellite imagery over a street map, or more detailed contextual data on top of images.”

What are the benefits?
Often, bloggers decorate and add pictures to their blogs to give their pieces personality. Vlogging “allows you to interact with your readers to not only put a face to the blogger, but also show them even more personality” (http://blogaboutyourblog.com/2008/05/01/is-vlogging-the-best-way-to-blog/) Vlogging also saves time, especially for slow typists. You can say what you want, for how long you want – there is no word limit, as there are with some blogs.

What are the problems with this new technology?
Vlogs can take a while to download and can seem to go on forever – remember there’s no word limit. But this isn’t the only reason vlogs can seem to go on forever. When writing a blog you have to think about what you’re going to say, type it in and then read over it. Vlogging, in some cases, is instant and vloggers may not always think about what they’re saying or what they’re going to say beforehand. “Some vlogs seem like a waste of time. Get to the point; I really don’t have 10 minutes to spend just listening to ramblings.” And for some, vlogging doesn’t give you the anonymity

How does your new technology work?
Video blogging (or vlogging) is a form of blogging, where the medium used is video. The vlogger records a video, either with a camera or webcam, and then uploads it to the internet. You can do this a number of ways by posting it on Youtube or Google Video. In addition, you can copy the embedding code and show your vlog on your own webpage or blog. Vlogs incoprate titles, cound clips, music and editing.

Do I use this technology?
No I don’t. I’m not really interested in posting vlogs on the internet, mainly because I’m wouldn’t really have anything interesting to say. 

What is the future of vlogs?
According to http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/youtube.com on average 18.25% of global internet users visit YouTube each month. Judging by YouTube’s popularity, vlogging is becoming much more common and familiar. Videos can be recorded with camcorders, mobile and digital cameras making vlogs easier to make, even when out and about. Katlyn Ziegler from http://brandingbrand.com/blog/the-future-of-blogging-video-blogs/ says “video blogging is important in enriching the content of websites and making them more appealing to viewers.”