Digital aid for do-it-yourselfers
When Christmas comes, it's my wife who gets the Makita power tools. I get the socks and sweaters. That's because I'm notorious for using the wrong tool for every job, and for ruining saw blades as fast as you can replace them. But my camera phone may soon provide all the help I need to fix plumbing problems and busted garage doors on my own.
The business advisory firm Accenture is developing a "Personal Home Improvement Assistant," which will use camera phones to connect homeowners with contractors and salespeople at home improvement stores. Your camera phone becomes the eyes and ears of a remote home improvement expert (working from his own phone or a store kiosk) who can tell what part you'll need for a repair. Similarly, you could tap someone's expertise in real time if you get hung up on an installation.
Dadong Wan, senior researcher at Accenture Labs, said the service will be a boon to homeowners, who will no longer have to wait for contractors to show up at the door, only to reschedule because they've discovered they need to order a particular part.
One of Accenture's retail clients is interested in rolling out a version of the Personal Home Improvement Assistant, said Wan. (He declined to say which one.)
The Personal Home Improvement Assistant started out three years ago as an Internet-connected workbench that could read the RFID tags on tools and hardware. An advisor (human or digital, local or remote) could then tell whether you were using the right tools for a project. "But the RFID tag in the consumer space hasn't picked up as fast as we expected," Wan said.
Accenture is still working on the workbench, which has a built-in flat panel display (for instructional videos, for example) and a webcam if you prefer to have an expert watching over you.
Pocket PC Phones
Sprint's business traveler companion
I've only been knocking around my living room with Sprint's new "International Smart Device," the Samsung IP-830w. But I'm told it works in lots of other places, too. The Windows Mobile device runs on Sprint's North American wireless network, and lets you roam on other networks worldwide. It should prove a reliable friend to the international traveler, allowing you to keep up with e-mail and Microsoft Office documents during those long train rides between Wuhan and Shanghai.
The phone (about $500 after rebates) has a touch screen and stylus, and a slide-out QWERTY keypad.
Toys
A snuggly dino, emotionally intelligentPleo, the artificially intelligent dinosaur, is on a nationwide road tour this month. The baby dino's creators at Emory, Calif.-based Ugobe Inc. ( ugobe.com) claim its emotional range will make WowWee's RoboRaptor seem downright coldblooded by comparison.
Many toymakers claim their products are artificially intelligent. But Pleo, whose lead designer is Caleb Chung (co creator of the "emo-tronic" Furby doll), is a sophisticated creature, with sensor-laden skin and a personality that grows out of its many "emotional" experiences.
"[Pleo] is fully autonomous," wrote Ugobe chief technology officer John Sosoka in a recent e-mail. "He expresses emotion, he moves naturally, and he has a unique and evolving personality."
Ugobe's "Life Form OS" helps Pleo avoid obstacles and falls, so there's no need to chase it around with a remote control. The software also makes Pleo capable of expressing anger, boredom, or disgust.
In fact, making Pleo look like a baby dinosaur -- Ugobe used fossils as a blueprint -- must have been the easy part. Nobody knows for sure how dinosaurs behaved. For that, Ugobe looked to today's domesticated animals. The bored Pleo chases its tail. The waking Pleo does a "downward dog" stretch, according to the Ugobe website. The playful Pleo nibbles on your finger and wags its tail.
Ugobe will take pre orders for Pleo beginning on Dec. 24. But the toys ( manufacturer's suggested retail price: $250) won't start shipping until April 2007. 