Sensor technologies are all the rage right now, and for good reason. As a kid one of my favorite watches was a Casio with a temperature sensor in it, yet my iPhone 5 has to traverse a network of hardware devices to tell me the temperature, and even then the sensor is miles away. If we want our devices to be smarter, they’re going to need more sensory input about our surroundings. I interviewed Dr. George Yu, the man behind the Node, a platform for sensory input which happens to work with iOS devices.
Today there’s news of the Lapka set of sensors for your iPhone, and a few days ago I read news of the SCOUT, a sort of personal medical Tricorder (although nowhere near as powerful as the ones featured in Star Trek). While Lapka looks nice, how many people really need to measure radiation on a regular basis? Also, logging your EM field for the day is great, but what’s the practical use?
What’s been lacking in the past has been a sort of basic utility device with attachments that you can add as needed, all of which enable your iPhone to “see” the world around it. As if the iPhone were compatible with Batman’s utility belt. Enter Node, a sort of Wiimote-meets-Tricorder device that’s more of a platform than iOS accessory. It’s designed to be functional, has high-grade equipment inside and is hacker friendly.
Text by Victor Agreda, Jr via Tuaw. Continue HERE
Images via Variable Technologies
Filed under: Design, Digital Media, Education, Technology Tagged: iphone, scanner, Sensing, translation, utilities
