As Dmill Yantis walked into the restaurant...
(Wow, HerbVic. I should have let you write this stuff! Here are a few examples used in one of our original presentations...)
*An Air traffic control operator in the control tower looks out across the congested field and sees that a light-plane has jumped the takeoff queue. The plane's registration number, as well as its destination and pilot's name appear. Not his first offense it appears. She smiles as she picks up the microphone...
*A concert-goer arrives half an hour late, but within seconds, zeros in on her friend in a sea of 50,000 faces...
*A man arrives at a restaurant, only to find it's closed for repairs. He pulls out a pen and writes a WorldMail message addressed to his friends, leaves it at the location -- and goes in seek of an another place to dine. His friends arrive 15 and 30 minutes later, see the message floating in front, and follow the electronic "breadcrumbs" to another restaurant...
*A mother leaves her kids in the toy section of the store as she goes to check prices on lingerie. Within moments she's alerted to the fact that the the kids (and their Mickey Mouse "watches") are moving at high speed relative to her. An overhead map of the store shows her position, as well as the position of the kids - who are obviously heading to the arcade center. The map is orientated with respect to the direction she's facing, so she knows she's heading the right way. When she's within a few dozen meters, a box shows the location the kids and their range superimposed over her field of view. "Mom-inator" has arrived...
*A Firemen finds his way through a smoke filled building to a victim, using dynamically-updated local positioning. His natural sight is obscured, IR nearly useless, but the building's floor-plan, downloaded to the on-site command & control center, is presented to him as a rich 3-dimensional environment. As he makes his way forward, he see that the team on the floor below him has mapped out a path around the weakened beams...
*A women heading up 34th Street glances up at the sign for Macy's. While looking at the sign she sees that there's yet another sale going on and a QuickTime Audio message associated with it. Instead, she skips down to the daily specials menu, and (surprise) finds something she can actually use. She accepts this selection, and path guides her into the store, and the shortest way to the item - while making only a "slight" detour past some related, but non-sale, items...
*A sergeant in the field looks up from his position and notes the locations of his men and other friendly assets. Intelligence actively gathered from remote and local sensing equipment have already shown him the buried mines. Distant weapons emplacements with their shadowy domes of effective range, and projected enemy positions are superimposed over his field of view. Two diamonds, identified as friendly A-10's appear on the horizon, their projected courses arcing across the sky. A secure communication from his commander flashes up, apologizing for conducting these exercises in the middle of the night...
Ian Bruce
New York, NY |
