Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Science fiction operates a little bit like science itself, in principle. You've got thousands of people exploring ideas, putting forth their own hypotheses. Most of them are dead wrong; a few stand the test of time; everything looks kind of quaint in hind"
- Peter Watts
 |
| Talking Tape | ||
| Adhesive-backed network connection, global positioning, voice synthesis and speakers. |
I love this idea. Just take a small strip of this, and put it on a piece of prepared building material. Thanks to elaborate software and network connections, this object now "knows" what it is, and where it goes in the larger scheme of things.
| Oscar peeled a strip of tape from a yellow spool and wrapped the tape around a cinder block. He swept a hand-scanner over the block, activating the tape... "I'm a cornerstone," the cinder block announced. "Good for you," Oscar grunted. "I'm a cornerstone. Carry me five steps to your left." The construction system was smart enough to manage a limited and specific vocabulary. Unfortunately, the system simply didn't hear very well. The tiny microphones embedded in the talking tape were much less effective than the tape's thumbnail-sized speakers. Still, it was hard not to reply to a concrete block when it spoke up with such grace and authority. The concrete blocks all sounded like Franklin Roosevelt. |
| From Distraction,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by Bantam Spectra in 1998 Additional resources -
|
It doesn't seem completely impossible to believe that you could combine a speaker, microphone, and a wireless connection in a relatively small, cheap form. The real problem is how to determine position.
Since you would need very high confidence in the location, and since GPS is only accurate to about 10 meters in latitude and longitude and only about 20 meters in altitude, you would need something administered by the local network.
Sterling couldn't have made a better choice on the voice for the talking tape. My grandfather hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Not just because of his policies. My grandfather hated Roosevelt because once he started talking on the radio, he was so convincing (and authoritative) that you started to agree with him no matter what you thought.
Take a look at the Arcology Now Construction Set which uses scannable bar coded instructions on building materials.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Distraction
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruce Sterling
Tech news articles related to Distraction
Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling
Talking Tape-related
news articles:
- The Smart Construction Site Of The Future
- Flexible Fabric Speakers Are Coming
- Carbon Nanotube Speakers Are Flexible, Transparent
- Flexible, Transparent Speakers From Graphene
| Burner Generates Temporary Phone Numbers |
| HushMe Bluetooth Device Reinvents The Hush-A-Phone |
| Ubiquiti FrontRow Camera Records Your Life |
| SmileCloud Bubloons Are Custom Clouds |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Very tiny pseudo insects that... can unite to form a superordinate system.'
Great, an autonomous slamhound. It is cute, though.
'The smoky globe, hung in the vault, was shot with colored light...'
'The electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.'
