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Quote:Three analysts speculate that for the near future no new consoles will be released. Colin Sebastian and David Cole state that by 2012, Microsoft and Nintendo will release new consoles. Michael Pachter disagrees and says with the exception of an upgrade to the Wii, software developers will not support new consoles due to the costs of producing content. All three agree that the earliest for a new Sony console would be 2014, Wikipedia~

So it seems that Gen7 will have a longer run then the previous generations,It will sort of be like a repeat of the 2nd generation back in the 1980's.

I've just bought a wii and it wasn't easy finding a store that still had hardware in stock given how well its selling, I am having a trouble finding the New super mario bros as well.

:mario:
What's the wikipedia source? Further, what page of Wikipedia is that even from?

At any rate, none of that is news or even as reliable as the original source, the developers themselves. Both MS and Sony are on record saying that they don't intend to release a new system for another 5 years (Sony stated they intended for their PS3 to have a 10 year life cycle, and MS just recently announced they are perfectly content with where the 360 is sitting and don't intend to bother with a new system for 5 years). Nintendo, I've yet to find out about. They don't seem to reveal their longterm plans often.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:What's the wikipedia source? Further, what page of Wikipedia is that even from?

At any rate, none of that is news or even as reliable as the original source, the developers themselves. Both MS and Sony are on record saying that they don't intend to release a new system for another 5 years (Sony stated they intended for their PS3 to have a 10 year life cycle, and MS just recently announced they are perfectly content with where the 360 is sitting and don't intend to bother with a new system for 5 years). Nintendo, I've yet to find out about. They don't seem to reveal their longterm plans often.

I can see them doing upgrades and add ons.

The extended run means that software makers will have more time to master the machines and use their full potential.

What else is there left to improve upon?
Plenty... though yeah, because of costs and the recession this generation is almost definitely going to be longer than the average one. Still, consoles have definitely started to look outdated compared to higher-end PCs, as always happens, and that gap will just keep to get larger... maybe it's too late for that to help PCs any, but we'll see. We obviously will eventually see more powerful consoles, but yeah, particularly due to costs, it could be a while. Developers can barely afford (or can't afford) to develop for the PS3 and 360 as it is, much less even more powerful systems.
That development issue isn't limited to PCs. As you mentioned PCs have been getting steadily more powerful, but have the games actually been making use of that? Not many compaired to the ones being made for the lowest common denominator, consoles. Part of that is just that it's cheaper to produce the same game, but another part is very likely the same reason a new generation isn't good right now, costs in developing for the latest and greatest video cards to take full advantage.

One thing I'm looking forward to is the upcoming big push to merge GPUs with CPUs. Right now, video cards are practically computers unto themselves that you stick in your machine. Just about everything in modern games is being shunted off to functions being replicated on the video cards. It started with giving video cards their own RAM to speed up access, then they started adding logic processors to remove the bottleneck of communicating with the main processor, and so on. At this point, the difference between a computer running different processors is not nearly as noticable, in games, as a difference in video cards.

Video card makers are realizing that this is a pretty stupid and wasteful state of affairs. There's all this RAM and a whole processor being almost ignored in favor of shunting it all to the video card, and they basically realized that the easy solution is to reverse the trend by just putting all those subroutines onto the main processor. Since main processors, just like video card GPUs, are now sporting multiple processing cores, this is a transition that should be pretty easy, as the typical processing will not be hindered with a different core or cores managing video processing. Since "physics processing" has already been shoved into video cards, that too will be getting merged with CPUs. Another big advantage is the removal of the need for special "video RAM" as it'll have the CPU's extremely fast access to standard RAM. Aside from all this, this will make computers run cooler, with less energy, and it'll take up a lot less room. All they need to do is design motherboards with this in mind, which they are already starting on. Oh, and it needs to be said that for games, this will mean no more worrying about making sure that the images are synched up with whatever logic processing the CPU is doing. Being all on the same processor means a lot of the timing issues can be more automated, and much more quickly communicated between cores so there should be noticable performance increases.

All I'm waiting for is for Creative to get in on the act and work to merge sound processing subroutines into the main processor so that high quality sound processing will just mean dedicating one of the CPU cores to the task, and again speedy communication between what sounds need to be played and what's going on in the game logic will resolve certain timing issues. Both AMD-ATI, Intel, and Nvidia are involved in this push.

Things are sure to get interesting. Oh, and I'm sure that there will still be stripped down cheaper CPUs intended purely for typical work that don't have these pathways installed, so that's not really a concern. Really I'm surprised it's taken so long, but then again it took this long for the situation of modern GPUs to get so ridiculous as to seem like a second computer attached to your actual computer.
They need to get away from sound sampling and get in to dynamic effects. I cant tell you how annoying it is that the sword always sounds the same on every surface or the gun shot is echoed or not echoed, whether or not it's in front of a person, firing at a distance or while moving. Sound becomes higher pitched and faster as it approaches you, then slower and lower pitched as it passes away from you, why is that so hard to do? They get lazy and get sampled sound effects, I hate it.

My prediction has been the same for a while. I think Nintendo's next console is going to be a portable one, a DSi XL that can sit on top of your TV and act like a console while sitting in a cradle or be taken straight to portability to resume play, all the while effortlessly transitioning from wii controls to handheld controls. But Nintendo has a ton of work to do to get the market back while retaining their new market.

I also think Apple is going to do something very similar and it's going to be funny to see who gets it out first. Then you have all the walk of the MMO's approaching consoles and thats going to change a lot of things. You can look at pie charts all day but the only system that actually matters right now is the 360 which is slowly becoming a PC, its next step is integration and portability as well. MS is just biding its time to announce a Zune/Box hybrid. The tech wasn't there a year ago but its ready now.

I expect the 362 to be a somewhat upgraded unit, Natal infused and looking to be the one stop all in one hub. 4 years from now, you can turn on your XBox, draw in a photoshop like environment while cam chatting, downloading free movies to your 100 gig online storage space and browse IGN in a different tab for when Halo: Reach Around releases its Horse Armor patch. While you're waiting in the lobby for a game to start, of course.

It's strange, but I think we're leading towards a market where PC's as we know them dont really exist and that void will be filled by the consoles which wont even be permanent structures by our televisions, but rather a portable console, oh and it's going to be a phone too, as long as you're calling other Nintendo or Microsoft subscribers. Sony will follow suit as usual.

Having said that, Nintendo's next whatever it is will be released along side the Wii, not to replace it.
I would prefer to see consoles cease to exist in multiple proprietary formats and take an approach similar to the PC market, in which there's (for the most part) a single, open-end system which can be customized to your heart's extent.

I really don't have any patience anymore for having to own three separate machines to play five different games. Let's conform to a single system and let anyone manufacture hardware. Design it so that it can be upgraded incrementally. Let's eliminate the horse shit of proprietary hardware (and the hundreds of dollars involved in supplementing proprietary hardware with proprietary peripherals). There's no technological impediment forcing the current system to exist as it does. It's exclusionary business practices, and it not only retards development to an awful degree, but it costs gamers a lot more money than it should.
We already have that Weltall, it's called a PC. That customization is part of the problem. Game designers need to take into account a huge multitude of possible configurations, and keeping "up to date" not only requires lots of research on the part of the consumer, but a lot more money.

Consoles being standardized? I'm behind that. However the model shouldn't be the PC, because that just makes consoles another PC. I say copy the model of DVD players and TVs. A big consortium comes up with a standard everyone can agree upon, and everyone just makes sure to make a system that conforms to that standard.
That's been tried, DJ. 3DO, remember? Didn't work too well... :)

Anyway, no, I don't think all consoles are going to turn into handhelds (or vice versa), or that PCs and consoles are going to merge, or that PCs are going to go away anytime soon. Each of them are just too different for them to merge compeltely. Maybe someday they will, but in the forseeable future, no way.

Computers need to be larger to hold the additional, changeable parts. They are important as they are and their place is definitely not going away. iPads do not replace computers.

Handheld consoles... well, they've done fine against phones so far. Maybe if phones had physical games sold in stores, decent controls for games, and didn't cost so much money they'd compete, but as is, they're no replacements for anything beyond occasional casual play -- and that's exactly what most of the games on cellphones are for. They need to be small, you know... how exactly would a handheld become a major console too? It's just not going to work, sorry. Nintendo is not going to release just one next-gen system, they are going to have two, a handheld and a major console.
Programming in Doppler Effect is a nice idea there lazy, and I've played a few games that actually do try to emulate that effect. The problem is making it accurate requires a lot of extra processing power. It's the same reason why 5.1 speakers exist. It's just easier to program in 5 different channels to simulate it than actually calculate the difference that one sound should come from the left or from the right and add that timing in (which in actuality would be far more accurate and only need two speakers if done right).

Ideally down the line we'll be able to do that without much extra processing cost, but that'll mean taking sound processing to a new level, and Creative, aside from being the only contender these days, seems perfectly content with their several year old X-Fi sound cards. It'd sure be nice to say goodbye to the ever increasing number of speakers and just directly do what our two ears use naturally. Not like ears can tell the difference between above/below and front/back anyway.
Quote:We already have that Weltall, it's called a PC.

PCs are totally what I'm not talking about. PCs are used for many activities completely unrelated to gaming.

Quote:Game designers need to take into account a huge multitude of possible configurations, and keeping "up to date" not only requires lots of research on the part of the consumer, but a lot more money.

It is possible to control the rate of expansion. No such control exists in the PC universe.

I would still rather spend the money to upgrade a machine that would still be able to play anything, rather than spend the money to get a new machine that only plays two games I care about.
The thing is, what you are suggesting sounds like a PC with all it's inherit issues, but less useful.

Also, the sad reality is the "advantage" of cheap upgrades has vanished over the years. At this point, as it ever was, every few years in order to actually get an upgrade you need to replace practically the entire computer to eliminate bottlenecks defeating upgrading just one part. I have no reason at all to expect this not to be the case with a game specific PC model. In fact, such a model would more or less just overfill an already flooded market.

As for controlling the rate of expansion, which is it? Will it be unregulated ability for 3rd party companies to make whatever addons possible, or only possible for pre-approved upgrades handled through whatever company would be in charge of that? The latter pretty much defeats the point of upgrades. We already have that with current consoles. Remember they all have expansion ports to allow for upgrades, but as they've ever been, they always pace those VERY slowly because of slow adoption and the added problems with segmenting the market between different addons.

You really need to commit wholely one way or the other or it just doesn't work. Countless "in between" systems running the whole range have already shown this pretty well.

I still think the only way to make this work is just do the DVD/TV model with a standard that people stick with for 5-10 years before a new one is adopted and agreed upon. Interfaces will vary to be sure, and there's plenty of room for innovative use OF the standardized features, as well as additional special controllers, but people wouldn't need to split the market so much like this. PCs can remain as they ever were.

This would solve your problem of costly upgrades pretty well yes?
Here are the factors that I look at

- People buy a PC to go online, the web, music, entertainment.

- Cellphones (in America) are hindered by slow networks, but that will change soon. The cellphones coming out today have HD graphics and run 3-D games that look as detailed as say, a premium 3-D XBLA game, or first gen 360 graphics.

- The portable market showcases units that record video and pictures, allow access of email and web browsing. Touch screens had added a whole new dimension to it creating an even more PC-like experience.

- The market for MP3 players is basically nonexistent in the US outside of the Ipod line and Zune, even they are becoming more than meets the eye with cameras, touch screens, web browsing and the like.

- People look at a PC as: That is where my music library is, that is where my games are, that is where my school work is. That is where my porn is. My privacy, my online addendum. The only barrier between that and a fully portable market is space. If I handed you a 600gig touch screen device that ran Windows XP/7 why would you need a PC? No really, why?

Trust me, if an iPhone ran Windows 7 and you could download whatever you wanted as if on a PC at home, the market for PC's would all but die. Once that benchmark is reached PC's and desktop units will phase out like its 1993 all over again. The only people who will be up in arms are the technophiles who want their liquid-cooled quad-core blabidy blab so they can argue over differences in graphical detail or who's got the machine that can run the latest and greatest experiment at photoreal graphics. While that's cool, there's no market for it beyond a handful of people and the fun speculation and screenshots online. They're the people who actually bought the Alienware 75lbs laptop but other than playing Crysis its still for typing documents, looking at porn, reading the news and illegally downloading movies and music.

When you strip a computer down to what people want, it's less than 300 brand new and that blows people away. The normal consumer thinks a computer should cost at least a grand, otherwise its 'no good' or 'too slow'. But they dont realize they're buying a work horse when all they want to do is water their flowers.

There are custom cabs needed for film and video editing, sound engineering, all of those fun things. But those aren't consumer platforms. And no, pro-tools or any PC version of Avid does not make you a producer dammit! On the subject of sound, I see some people getting sound systems for their PC - 2.1 or 5.1 systems or higher.

Wanna see something really stupid? People who have a PC with a 5.1 system and a living room equipped with a (usually higher-end) 5.1 system. Why/how does this happen? its like some weird paradigm where we want to center our entertainment around the living room, but also around the office (or our room) and do everything double. In a portable market, that WindowsiPhone docks with your living room and the WiP becomes your controller to navigate the windows on your (1080p) television screen. Now its all brought back to the living room, central, economical and smart.

Why people want to spend 200 on a shitty sound system for their PC when that 200 will buy them top quality headphones that reproduce sound almost exactly as it was intended is beyond me. If its because they want to blast some music, then what better way than with the living room's sound system? Even wirelessly so the music is transmitted.

Then of course you have the 'kids room' mentality. Well, Johnny needs a computer in his room for homework, looking things up, etc. That's going to be Johnny's focus for all of middle school and high school, glued to it. The market of the near future means Johnny always has it, wherever he goes. When he comes home and goes to his room, it docks with his 1080p (or higher) monitor where he also watches TV and plays Halo: Adjective. But what wont be in his room? a desktop PC.

Everything in this market points to portability, the countless online instructionals of how to use your Ipod to transfer files, the plethora of various thumbdrives and the all-inclusive devices that do everything except let you download like you would at home are taking over everything, medium-less multi-media devices. Even the DS and DSi as it is right now is overpowering the PS3, XBox360 and Wii and definitely PC. Every technophile website has people trying to find the do-all gadget they know they already want but no one's hit the market with it. But when it does, try as you might, there is just no future for desktop PC's. In the coming years, entire states will be Wi-Fi, networks will run off satellites instead of towers and playing (illegally) downloaded SNES roms while hearing (illegal) 24-bit music off of Winamp while talking on the phone, streaming your built in webcam with your out-of-state sweety and talking on AIM about where to download Avatar 2 on a 5 inch 16:9 HD touch screen all while taking a shit is the future. Like it or not.

Oh, actually, this is relevant too. Mini-projectors are becoming more and more feasible, there is even a camera and a cellphone out right now with it. Once the lumens get high enough on these mini-projectors to see clearly in well-lit rooms and they figure out image-stabilization so i can type on the same device i'm projecting the images out of, why even buy that expensive 40"+ 1080p monitor? When I bout the device, it came with a highly reflective roll-out screen to project on, too. It can be rolled out to 8 feet (diagonally), but it works on any surface like a regular projector as well. All I have to worry about is battery life, and the new batteries coming out tackle that issue at the cost of an arm or a leg, but that will go down soon as well.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Programming in Doppler Effect is a nice idea there lazy, and I've played a few games that actually do try to emulate that effect. The problem is making it accurate requires a lot of extra processing power. It's the same reason why 5.1 speakers exist. It's just easier to program in 5 different channels to simulate it than actually calculate the difference that one sound should come from the left or from the right and add that timing in (which in actuality would be far more accurate and only need two speakers if done right).

Ideally down the line we'll be able to do that without much extra processing cost, but that'll mean taking sound processing to a new level, and Creative, aside from being the only contender these days, seems perfectly content with their several year old X-Fi sound cards. It'd sure be nice to say goodbye to the ever increasing number of speakers and just directly do what our two ears use naturally. Not like ears can tell the difference between above/below and front/back anyway.

Very true, have you seen those weird mini woofers? If they could get low tones out of tiny speakers, that would change everything. They (yunno, THOSE people) developed a screen that's actually a speaker, there's also these bizarro speakers that are as thin as paper and will be used in movie posters to catch your ear before it catches your eye. But the whole poster is a speaker, it just sounds like krap, no low tones. There was an experimental accordion style subwoofer that was actually just a tiny amplifier with a 'vacuum seal' accordion that you pull out, creating the space to generate resonance to produce low tones, but i've also seen tiny, like smaller than a computer mouse, cardboard boxes that house two tiny speakers and actually produces low tones. That would be perfect for hand held devices.

I suppose I could see a device that you pull out like an accordion when you want to play music and then push it back together for portability. But would it be worth it to have such a goofy thing so you can have full-range audio?

Imagine holding a DSi. Would it be worth it to you if the DSi was made thicker temporarily to allow for low tones, bass and a larger range? Then snap back together so it fits in your pocket. Like if the back of the top screen actually puffed out about two or three inches to create a subwoofer, or would that be incredibly goofy?

As far as getting doppler or any kind of radiant in sound, the answer is MIDI or computer generated sound effects. You can create a truly interactive sound effect, but the problem is that you have to sit down and code the damn thing. Would you actually need more processing power for that? Wouldn't it be just as intensive as MIDI playback in general just with added parameters of velocity, volume, pitch, etc?

But yeah, stereo low tone capable speakers on a portable system with proper timing to create surround would be amazing.
Quote:If I handed you a 600gig touch screen device that ran Windows XP/7 why would you need a PC? No really, why?

Yes, for two reasons.

1: I like being able to use a large screen, and applications such as web design and visual arts practically demand the largest screen area and resolution possible. Trying to design something in Photoshop on a 6 inch handheld device sounds as fun as tweezing your pubic hair with salad tongs.
2: A touch screen is useful for some applications, but horribly inadequate for tasks such as typing anything longer than a web address or a simple sentence.

Portable computing beneath the level of a netbook has its advantages, but it will never replace desktop computing until some very advanced (read: direct neural) interface is designed to overcome the limitations inherent in interfacing with portable devices.
1) Those screens are not better than monitors.

2) You can't use one of those things as you can a PC. Very important point.

3) You can't upgrade it, really. Hugely important point for PCs. 600GB? But my computer has 1TB of HDD space, and I'd like more... and a good graphics card, and more -- and it's three years old. What you want is to destroy PC gaming and replace it with the Apple Apps Store. This would be HORRIBLE.

4) You can't get it very powerful. You say this doesn't matter and obviously want PC gaming to just roll over and die, but I don't think it's going to do that... maybe eventually CPUs that can also do graphics will get better than they are now (right now they are horrible, and the fact that lots of people have those instead of graphics cards (which is what they actually should have, no one should have onboard graphics!) is one of the biggest things holding back PC gaming... and you want things to go full speed in the exact wrong direction. I could not possibly disagree any more.

5) VIRTUAL KEYBOARDS ARE AWFUL! Real ones are far better! Also, there is NO replacement for an actual mouse. Laptop touchpad things are awful, and touchscreens only a little better. Neither can match the convenience and ease of use of a mouse.

6) Battery life. And if you're using it on a wire, why use a small, gimped thing like one of those instead of an actual machine which will surely be much better and more powerful? There's no reason to unless you can't afford to have both!

Quote:When you strip a computer down to what people want, it's less than 300 brand new and that blows people away. The normal consumer thinks a computer should cost at least a grand, otherwise its 'no good' or 'too slow'. But they dont realize they're buying a work horse when all they want to do is water their flowers.

The problem is, that this is a self-fufilling prophecy -- people who get this thing might THINK that that's all that they want, but what they're actually doing is making it so that they can't get anything better... so then they go and play Xbox games instead of PC because they don't have a good enough PC... but they don't have a good enough PC because "how would it have been useful". Well, in having a good enough machine to actually run games, that's how... :)
Actually those extra parameters would be exactly what makes it more intensive. MIDI is, sorry to say, simply not used any more in modern games. It hasn't been in a long time. That's why to this day cheap pathetic "sound blaster 16" quality midi is considered acceptable for on-board sound, games just don't use it any more. Also, everyone's just used to sound sampling. Heck Nintendo kinda kicked off the dependance on it by impressing everyone with the sound effects in Ocarina of Time. Far better than what midi could provide. Heck for that matter voice synthesizing just isn't being used at all in modern games, even though it's a cheap answer to the issue of voice acting and dynamic NPC statements. People listen to fully orchastrated music and professional acting and asking them to take a step down to listen to synthesized stuff isn't very compelling. It's a catch 22 considering that no one's really bothering to invest in much higher tech versions of this stuff with the demand low, and the demand is low because it's not very high tech yet.

It's the opposite of the live action obsession that died a deserved death in the mid-90's.
Continuously upgrading PC's to match the demands of the latest cutting edge games is more costly and time consuming then buying three consoles,
I don't use onboard audio, I've got an Soundblaster X-Fi... :)

Quote:Continuously upgrading PC's to match the demands of the latest cutting edge games is more costly and time consuming then buying three consoles,

Somewhat true, but this generation less so than previous ones because of how expensive the systems are. PS3+X360+Wii at launch is like $1250 US plus tax... you could get a computer that'd be a decent gaming machine for several years for that.

Anyway, yes, PCs are more expensive, but you do get more for the money, I think.
Weltall Wrote:Yes, for two reasons.

1: I like being able to use a large screen, and applications such as web design and visual arts practically demand the largest screen area and resolution possible. Trying to design something in Photoshop on a 6 inch handheld device sounds as fun as tweezing your pubic hair with salad tongs.
2: A touch screen is useful for some applications, but horribly inadequate for tasks such as typing anything longer than a web address or a simple sentence.

A 5 inch high resolution screen running paint.net can already be done for consumer-level hobbyists since it has a zoom function. But instead of a mouse (or your finger) you can pop out a stylus. Even trace drawings on to the screen. How about take a picture and edit it to the full extent of photoshop all in one device? But if you really need it that bad, you can get the larger tablet model of the WindowsiPhone. Or, why dont we cut all the screen talk out all together and look at projectors? How about a device that you put down on your desk and it displays your desktop across your... desktop by projecting it down and at an angle, similar in function to the smart home's kitchen counter? You'd still use the 5 inch screen to move your windows, but i'm sure a special stylus that communicates with the device would allow you to 'draw' on the projected surface.

Quote:2: A touch screen is useful for some applications, but horribly inadequate for tasks such as typing anything longer than a web address or a simple sentence.


Portable computing beneath the level of a netbook has its advantages, but it will never replace desktop computing until some very advanced (read: direct neural) interface is designed to overcome the limitations inherent in interfacing with portable devices.

I wish that would happen, but until it does, what about an even more advanced version of this?


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Now imagine that kind of software integrated in to this:

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All they'd have to do is figure out the exact waves which is what they're doing now, and whoosh! you're typing at length using both your brain and a menu context. Your brain sends out the word, the menu deciphers, your brain chooses the word you want. Something to that effect, but a hands free effect at that. Not to mention voice recognition which could be a third tier to everything, if you're driving you could say "Open notes" or email, or what have you. Say the person its going to, say the body of text, then say send. It would also be great that if in the middle of your email and you forgot where to turn, you could just say "open GPS" and tell it the address. Those things exist right now, so it would be easy to stack it in to the brain wave and Swype messaging.

Of course, a thumbkey-pad, without out any special technology, can work quite well for typing at length. You just have to get used to a different method of typing. The Blackberry style phones used by businesses are a testament to that.

Then we go in a different direction, something more suited for a person who is so used to typing, that different methods are just too time consuming. How about that projected desktop? What if the WindowsiPhone shot a projection of the desktop above it, and a smaller projector shot a projection of a QWERTY keyboard below it? it could know what you're typing by where the light is broken by your fingers. This could be interesting but would present some problems, since pressing "Y" would mean that everything below it would disappear as your finger is blocking the light. But it would reappear as soon as your finger is raised. We can think more outside the box and imagine we place the device on its 'feet' about two or three feet in front of us on the desk, it would project the full screen and keyboard so that its situated right in front of you and able to grow and shrink depending on how much flat surface you have.

All of these things are available now, just incredibly expensive, you would need the deluxe model. But most people dont use photoshop, most people are not artistic, most people just want the music, games, movies and web experience. The hurdle of typing is something this generation has no problem with when it comes to different techs for 'texting'.
You're thinking something along the lines of Sixthsense:

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<object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZ-VjUKAsao&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZ-VjUKAsao&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>
... So no comment on the things I said, really?
Weltall Wrote:You're thinking something along the lines of Sixthsense


haha, I love how I just mash up some existing technology and pull it out of my ass and it actually exists. But yeah, that's a great example of what i'm seeing in the future. No more 'sitting', no more 'i'll have to check that out when i get home'. With that particular interface, imagine that as you pick up a coffee cup it tells you the temp of the coffee, projecting it on the mug. The device could communicate with your coffeemaker, know how much coffee is left and ask you if you would like more, with a yes/no question on your coffee cup. Select yes and your automated coffee maker begins to make a fresh pot.

You pick up a coke. It displays the wikipedia of coke, its history, its ingredients (except for the secret ingredients of course), and drink alternatives. What other drinks Coka-Cola provides, its like watching something on youtube and then getting recommendations!

If we have devices in our home made to function with the 6th sense, turning channels, increasing volume, etc can all be done by just using your hands. You could look at the TV and get a rating on how good your picture is, then use software to adjust your color, contrast, brightness, etc to its peak quality levels all because the device can see the things you cant and measure it.

Just amazing, I cant wait to see this thing take-off in 3/5 years.

ABF/ Your points were also in Ryan's so they're spiritually included (aren't they?). But honestly I dont think you're going to listen to reason because you're so PC oriented you couldn't bear the idea that PC's, desktops in general, are going to be phased out. So instead of discussing, you would just yell your obscenities and shove your Scientology down our throats like you always do, Tom.
Quote:ABF/ Your points were also in Ryan's so they're spiritually included (aren't they?). But honestly I dont think you're going to listen to reason because you're so PC oriented you couldn't bear the idea that PC's, desktops in general, are going to be phased out.

I don't think there's much for me to worry about, it's almost certainly not going to happen. Yes, handheld devices are becoming more important. I'm not questioning that. But they are not, and will not, replace desktop devices.
Handhelds won't. Neural interface devices, however, will probably replace both devices within 20 years.
Me: But honestly I dont think you're going to listen to reason because you're so PC oriented you couldn't bear the idea that PC's, desktops in general, are going to be phased out.

You: they are not, and will not, replace desktop devices.

Me: *dances*

Ryan's neural devices are years away and probably not in our lifetime, its unfortunate but its not that technology wont be there, but the ability to guinea pig human brains and dissect human brain tissues to assimilate technology will be almost considered a form of crime against humanity. That's why I think the Twitter-Brain idea up there is so important, if we can pin-point those exact brain waves we can be psychically communicating in no time. Devices could send out the neural energy of sound so that your ears dont pick anything up, but your brain does, so the sound appears in your mind. Its limitless and that alone will be cause for alarm. Rape simulations, implanting memories, recording death so we can see what it feels like. What if sending the same brain waves of a person dying in to a healthy person actually causes their brain to shut down? A lot of worry there. It's been proven that a person can be hypnotized in to believing that they've been burned, even creating a boil on their arm, even though they were only touched with a pencil.

But keep in mind that hand-held and portability are one in the same. That 6thSense device is a portable hands-free system that looks incredible. The hologram/projector method makes so much more sense to me than the Star Trekian desktops, giant expensive touchscreens, the e-ink, the wi-fi-everything.

In that example such as with the book, you could create an e-ink book that changes and displays information. It (the book) would need a way to connect to the internet to receive updates on information, it would need the electronics neccesary to pacify the ability to display updated information such as wi-fi enabled or bluetooth. This book now costs upwards of 200 bucks... or it can be the normal 30 dollar book with all the ability to have updated information, look up the meaning of words, display other pictures or indirect information about the author, the characters, etc from the portable device displaying it on to the book from a button that we wear. That's the future.

Wireless, passive, full range headphones that allow to be turned down when a person is talking to you or even provide audible or visual warnings to loud sound around you. Built in microphone that even allows for whispering. It's the next generation's Star Trek communicator only more advanced. As a business, it would mean that people dont have to go to a particular building to work, just get hooked up to the network and do your work where ever you want. No more cubicals, no more office politics and ridiculous drama of stressed out people. The business could be monolithic in its proportions but have no actual office building. The implications of it all, in a more advanced form, are insane.
Quote:Ryan's neural devices are years away and probably not in our lifetime

Within 40 years, they'll be obsolete.
But I dont understand how can they get that far without the ability to even test the tech out on human brains. I'm super curious tho on what you've been reading, can you find a video or website that explains it in realistic form? ie: projects happening now to make it happen, corporations testing, etc.

When I google it (singularity) I only get excerpts of the theory itself, not the progression or grounded instrumentation happening now. I did however see a video about a man who had part of his brain removed and replaced with magnet-like devices to turn his brain in to a hard drive of sorts so information can be downloaded and uploaded but it was archaic to say the least and it didnt work beyond holding a few pages of data, such as text.
fuck
Okay, so what was the image supposed to be? I'm guessing Minority Report.
lazyfatbum Wrote:Okay, so what was the image supposed to be? I'm guessing Minority Report.

[Image: Shadowrun-Borg.jpg]
Hahaha Assimilate me, Cap'n!