Accelometers

New Technology

'I wanted to do something that no one knows about and that is in use in most daily used equipments... so, ACCELOMETERS'

First, What is accelometers? What does it do? When did it start?

Tiny new technology which helps iphone, digital cameras do wonders.Have you ever wondered how iphone’s cool features works ? How new laptops can protect their hard disk when it falls down ? How we get crisp images from a cameras even if we shake the device ? The answer is accelerometer.

Accelerometer in essence is not a new technology. Its been on the desk of researchers and scientists well from 1990s, but only recently with the help of latest technologies small scale accelerometers were made so that it can be used in the devices above mentioned.
Accelerometers are a special kind of device called MEMS- Micro Electro Mechanical System. There are various types of accelerometers. A simple one is having a cantilever beam which is suspended and some complex sensing circuitry. It converts the acceleration (force) to displacement which is then measured. New technology accelerometers looks nothing but like an IC (Integrated Circuit). It consists of a bubble producing system. It heats the gas bubble and another system senses the location of the hot bubble as the accelerometer is accelerated or tilted.

How and where does these accelometers are used?

- Apple Iphone uses accelerometer to sense the tilt of the phone, so that it can switch from portrait and landscape modes.

- New phones from Nokia such as 5500 uses accelerometers for many things. A small tap on the phone can control the music in phone. Nokia N95 and N70 also uses accelerometers. N95’s accelerometer function can be accessed even by third party software, but in N70 they use it only for tilt sensing in camera mode.

- Sony Ericsson use accelerometers in a wide range of phones. In their phones you just need to shake the phone to change tracks. There are J2ME games incorporating accelerometer functions.

- The Wii was a headache for the big players like Sony (PS) and Microsoft (Xbox). The Wii remote incorporate accelerometer for measuring tilt and movement so that it can be complemented on the screen.

- Famous shoe brands such as Nike uses it to determine speed, distance of the runner. They attach the accelerometer in their shoes which does the sensing part. The result is shown on some device such as watch, which are also produced by Nike.
- Leading laptops have a security feature that claims it uses new technology to protect the data at all cost, even if the laptop falls down. How? when the laptop falls down, the accelerometer picks the motion and the write current is turned off, so that the disk remains scratch free.
Cam coders and digital cameras use accelerometers for image stabilization and anti-blur capturing. They “snap” the CCD sensors in the cameras if they detect a movement.

Second Life:-

'Residents and avatars'

(Main article: Resident (Second Life))

In computing, in the context of Second Life, the term Resident is applied to "people who have a stake in the world":-

“It was pretty early in the development of Second Life. One of my jobs was to come up with the different words we wanted to use, including the name! The naming discussions were usually between me, Philip, Hunter and Peter (both of whom aren't here any more) with feedback from everyone else.
When it came to what to call the people in the world, we knew we didn't want to call them 'users', although that would be the most typical thing for software. However, the word 'users' doesn't do a very good job of describing the two-way nature of Second Life, where the people involved are providing content and contributing to the experience.
We also thought about 'members' (boring!), 'citizens' (too political!), and 'players' (too game-y).
'Residents', however, seems most descriptive of people who have a stake in the world and how it grows.” Robin Harper (aka Robin Linden)

The term is not generally applied under the following conditions:
-People who have only created an account, but never logged in
-People who have had accounts created on their behalf for promotional events
-People who have created an account, and logged in a few times then stopped using the account.
A slight exception to the application of the term would be when referring to a person who holds multiple accounts. In this case, their primary account is referred to normally with the others interchangeably referred to as Resident or Alt. No exceptions are made for those with Basic or Premium accounts, however Residents who have held active accounts since the beta or periods and have purchased Lifetime subscriptions for US$225 are referred to as Charter Members.

What is '2nd life'?

A 3d virtual world where people all over the world (Real world) could gather around VIRTUALY to socialize, chat and interact in many ways. I wasn't able to get into 2nd life because of MANY technical problems. But i did my research, and at first it reminded me so much of the game The Sims. Although maybe there is a huge difference between the features and benifits of 2nd life over the sims, but the common image to me was how you could dress and arange you character (or avatar in 2nd life) to do as if you were living virualy inside the computer (or internet).

Second Life:-

Second life, a new and very exciting way to meet with friends and strangers all over the world virtually in a 3d world on the internet. I was very excited when i heard about it and was even more when i read about the features. This very developed way of interacting with other people is also a fun way to spend your time on the internet. 2nd life allows you to even create your own character and make him/her look as much as you as possible (If you want!). I was hoping to try the 'game' for myself and experiance this new technology, but unfortunatly i encountered many problems while downloading the application. I was able to create and an avatar (personalty or charachter) but i couldnt go beyond that. Hopefully i will fix this problem in the upcomind days.

Ghyna.

What are the relations between CYBERPUNK and STEAMPUNK?

First what are 'Cyberpunk' and 'Steampunk'?


Cyberpunk:

According to Lawrence Person,
"Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." Lawrence Person.







A science fiction genre noted for its focus, which also is a sub genre for industrial rock music. The name comes from Cybernetics and which was put out by Bruce Bethke in his short story "Cyberpunk" (1983).

Another definition for cyberpunk: A hacker.

Steampunk:





A type of science fiction, or a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction, set in Victorian times when steam was the main source of machine power. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style.


NOW! To the relation between 'Cyberpunk' and 'Steampunk':-






Steampunk is a part of cyberpunk and shares fanbase and theme of rebellion, but was actually developed as a seperate movement. Although they both influence on each other. A difference between them is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk.