Just Outta Beta
2 + 2 is Loud
Microsoft's new Franken-toy, an ActiMates version of the popular cartoon character Barney, comes installed with 2MB of memory- not to mention a 2,000-word vocabulary, plus sensors in the doll's feet, hands, and eyes. Wirelessly connect the beast to your PC and increase its knowledge to 14,000 choice words. If you could only teach Barney to curse, your kids wouldn't be the only ones having fun.
Release: September. Microsoft: +1 (800) 426 9400.
Body Language
Visionics' latest software, FaceIt, uses a monitor-mounted camera to identify an owner and allow access to a computer. Version 3.0 features the FaceIt Cipher, an encryption program that turns camera portraits into crypto keys.
Release: September. Visionics: +1 (212) 327 7421.
Macro Machines
Activision is taking dead aim at MechWarrior 3 and Earthsiege 3 with its new game, Heavy Gear. The title sports smaller, faster robots capable of carnage in intensely tight environments. The anime-style story should help Heavy Gear emerge victorious in the Robot Game War of 1997.
Release: Fall. Activision: +1 (310) 255 2000.
Ain't Rocket Science
NASA scientist Doctor Robert Mah has crafted a tiny robotic brain probe. The micromachine employs neural net software to locate abnormal colors and feel different textures in brain tissue. If development tests later this year prove successful, a surgeon using the device would be able to detect cancer in a patient within one second.
Release: Late 1997. NASA: +1 (415) 604 5026.
Ready, SET, Then Go
Have you heard of the Secure Electronic Transaction protocol? This standard portends the beginning of full-scale ecommerce. IBM will complete SET's first North American test, and the result will be an online version of America's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, available to the public this fall.
Release: September. IBM: +1 (703) 205 6338.
Whack the Wonks
In the book The Gordian Knot: Political Gridlock on the Information Highway, professors W. Russell Neuman, Lee McKnight, and Richard J. Solomon detail the insane history of US communications policy, which is still based on 19th-century railroad regulation. Except for broad goal setting and antitrust enforcement, the authors would just as soon take government out of the regulation biz.
Release: September. MIT Press: +1 (617) 253 5249.
Must-See Digital TV
Stare into your idiot box and imagine the changes digital TV will herald. What do you see? More channels? HDTV-picture quality? These advances make good use of digital pipes, but there are other compelling apps besides more and prettier programming. ACTV, a New York-based one-to-one television programming company, plans to exploit digital feeds by approaching the long-forgotten promise of interactive TV, but in a smart and practical way.
The company's InSports technology allows cable viewers to seize control of sporting events. Couch potatoes need only upgrade to a digital set-top box and a remote control with four new, brightly colored buttons. Then, by subscribing to a US$9.95 premium channel offered by Fox regional affiliates Sports West and Southwest, aficionados can switch camera angles, cue up instant replays, and call for stats during live baseball, basketball, and hockey games.
ACTV's software works within the set-top box itself. The company sends four digital video streams to the TV through one regular cable channel. Viewers pick the feed they want- a desired camera angle or a particular instant replay- with the remote control. There's no need for upstream bandwidth with InSports' programming- save from the remote control to the cable box- thus the problems that plagued earlier attempts at interactive TV have been eliminated.
"The problem with interactive TV services was that they were predicated on technology that didn't exist," says company CEO William Samuels. - We're a content - not technology - company. All we need to do is deliver four separate video feeds, and we can do this for every cable operator at no cost to them."
By 1998, between 12 and 15 million households will receive digital cable signals. If you've ever listened to an armchair quarterback yell at a referee, then you've heard the demand for individualized sports. Just think how much money ACTV could make if it could teach InSports to grab a beer out of the fridge.Jesse Freund Release: Late 1997. ACTV: +1 (212) 262 2570.
