martinmurphy.com - Martin Murphy

Wow, this is the second movie reference in 2 posts.

You may have guessed that I’m interested in security and alternative computer input/output systems. This morning, I saw this post “Voice biometrics: coming to a security system near you.” about banks using voice print technology.
Interesting discussion about using voice to combine 2 id methods, something you have: voiceprint, and something your know: security question. The usual concerns about “Big Brother” are also mentioned.

Humorous, even if not politically correct, referring to some users as “goats”

Interesting story about a camera that can count eyes. They suggest that it might be used by advertising companies to count the numbers of eyes that have looked at particular ads. Eyeball-tracking camera could change real-world ads
Getting closer to the ads in “Minority Report”
This might be interesting for anyone researching computer vision or pervasive and ubiquitous computing.

Very funny video: YouTube - Microsoft oPhone

[link via Furrygoat]

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Smart dust’ to explore planets
I just noticed this on BBC News. I’ve obviously heard of smart dust but I hadn’t thought of it in the context of interplanetary exploration. Interesting stuff!

Recently I had been thinking about various output media (including Braille and Text to Speech) for computer systems.  Today I noticed this story on the BBC about RoboBraille. They’re currently testing an email service that converts text to contracted Braille or MP3 and emails the result back to you.  Seems like a good idea.  (You still need a Braille output device to “read” the resulting Braille.)

Just noticed this story (via a link from LifeHacker)

With desktop camera, your face can be your password | CNET News.com

The company produces a 3D desktop camera that can be used for authentication. So instead of entering a password, smartcard or fingerprint, your face can log you into a computer (or open a door). Interesting for anyone working in the field of computer vision.

After months of pondering, I eventually ordered a Macbook Pro. I went for the “low-end” model, 2.16GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. €450 didn’t really make sense for the next model up, and a 17inch screen is just too big for a laptop (in my opinion). Now I just have to wait until it arrives trying to supress the urge to check the UPS tracking website every 5 minutes.
When it does arrive I’ll have a bit of learning to do to get use to the Mac way of doing things. Talking of such things, if you’re a Mac user, what software do you use for email, spreadsheet, wordprocessor? I just noticed that Openoffice only runs in X11 for Mac at the moment - which would probably be fine for me anyway.

I’m not entirely sure about the iPhone, seems to be quite big for a phone. However this is a really good idea:
Introducing iPhone Shuffle. Life Is Random.

Thanks to the folks at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) for the link.

Just saw this report from CES by Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service about powering devices wirelessly.

I saw this sort of technology proposed years ago, where you have a pad the size of a mouse mat and you just place your mobile devices on it to charge them. I’d find that extremely useful for all the devices that I currently have different chargers for at the moment (phone, pda, camera, gps, laptop, etc). A single charging point for all devices. It’s a pity that it takes so long to get a product like this released. (I’m sure that it’s a nightmare trying to get manufacturers to standardise)

I was just notified of this today.  Probably of use to people planning on postgrad research.

IRCSET - Embark Initiative - Grant Schemes

Post Graduate Research

The Embark Initiatives Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme is designed for either Masters or Doctorate level researchers in the sciences, engineering or technology.

2007 Programme [First Call] NOW OPEN

The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology invites applications for funding from intending postgraduate researchers under the Embark Initiative Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme 2007.