Proton
Here is some more info on XYBR
and Ford at auto show.....Look at last
paragraph........
Banchee
01/17 16:28 @@@@Ford's "Live Bots" Guide Auto Show Tours 01/14/00
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 2000 JAN 14 (Newsbytes) -- By Steven
Bonisteel, Newsbytes. Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] will be unleashing
Internet- connected guides it calls "live bots" to help explain
goings-on at the upcoming North American International Auto Show
(NAIAS) to consumers at the exhibition in Detroit and on the Web.
The auto show, which runs from Jan. 15 to 23 this year, attracted
nearly 700,000 visitors in 1998. Ford says information-hungry attendees
at the 2000 edition will be able to approach the cyborg- outfitted
fashion models it has hired as live bots and whose wearable computers
give them access to the company's online data.
Patrick Sarkissian, managing director of Eye4U Active Media, lead
developers of Ford's Web efforts for the auto show, told Newsbytes that
the live bots will also be capturing video that will be streamed from
the company's Web site (http://www.ford.com ).
Each live bot wears a chest-mounted video camera, a wrist-mounted
touch-panel LCD screen and a hip-mounted central processor and power
pack. Sarkissian said the equipment, from wearable computer company
Xybernaut Corp. [NASDAQ:XYBR], links the bots to central computers via
a high-speed wireless network within some 70,000 square feet of
exhibition space.
"They look pretty cool," Sarkissian said. "Very 'cyborgic.'"
Ford's own Website will cover the auto show with what it calls 50
views of the exhibits that the live bots have captured and which users
may access on demand. Each day of the show, users will be able to vote
on which parts of the show they would like to see that are not already
available for viewing. Votes will be tallied, and the winning view will
be taped and available at the site the following day.
Sarkissian said Web-site visitors will not be able to ask
questions of the live bots. He said Ford was wary of creating a system
that could generate more requests than the live bots could handle.
However, attendees will be able to approach the bots for access to
information that might be found on the company's Website.
A special live-bot sneak preview will take place this evening,
beginning at 6 p.m., when a pre-show charity dinner is expected to
attract industry executives, sports figures and other celebrities.
Earlier this week, Ford announced that it would put systems in
some 2001-model-year vehicles to provide voice-activated access to
personalized Internet information such as news, stock quotes and
weather. These new systems will be standard on select Lincoln luxury
vehicle models, and optional on Ford Focus in Europe.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com
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(19990114/Press contact: Kat Song, 313-337-8694 /WIRES ONLINE, PC,
BUSINESS/FORDCYBORG/PHOTO)
Information provided by DTN.IQ... |
