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"Concepts of religion may now be goals of science and engineering."
- Bart Kosko
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| Spot-Wavex Scrambler | ||
| Provides a more personalized experience of television, by letting the announcers talk to you personally. |
Mass media is fine, as far as it goes; certainly there are products that we all need to know about. But wouldn't it be better if my television talked to me, called me by name? In fact, personalization of that kind might be enough to get me to watch regardless of the quality of the programming.
| Montag turned and looked at his wife, who sat in the middle of the parlor talking to an announcer, who in turn was talking to her. "Mrs. Montag," he was saying this, that, and the other. "Mrs. Montag-" Something else and still another. The converter attachment, which had cost them one hundred dollars, automatically supplied her name whenever the announcer addressed his anonymous audience, leaving a blank where the proper syllables could be filled in. A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully. He was a friend, no doubt of it, a good friend. |
| From Fahrenheit 451,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Although there is no equivalent product (as far as I know) a company called face2face has a product that allows very easy synchronization of a computer graphic character to lip synch with a real-time narration by an actual person. I've seen this technology demonstrated, and given the increasingly realistic CGI effects in movies like Final Fantasy, it won't be long before the characters in your TV will call you by name.
This item is an accessory for the parlor walls, the original big screen TV that we can't do without.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Fahrenheit 451
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Bradbury
Tech news articles related to Fahrenheit 451
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Bradbury
Spot-Wavex Scrambler-related
news articles:
- Spice Girls Live Digital Enhancement
- Interactive TV Patent From Sony
- Face2Face Is Bradbury's Spot-Wavex Scrambler
- Researchers Make You Say Anything in Videos
| 'Courier Commons' By Tomorrow Lab, From Karl Schroeder (and Bruce Sterling?) |
| Mouth Haptics Invented By Frederik Pohl In 1965, CMU Now Has Prototype |
| True Crime Live Podcasting In Fiction |
| Zoom Adds Real-Time, Live Translation |
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'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
