For most, AT&T is simply seen as the company that delivers phone and internet and TV service to the US masses. But they also have a full-fledged R&D program, which spans multiple countries. Today they offered a glimpse into the fruits of those AT&T labs, with innovations ranging from clever to “OMG I WANT THIS NOW”. Here are the three best things AT&T had to share.
The money of the future won’t be cash, or even sliding plastic — it’ll just be a wave of the hand, we’re all told. RFID-enabled credit cards sound great, but add an unprecedented theft risk. So how about an on/off switch?
RFID chips are super cool because those little buggers can beam things wirelessly. The guys at Mythbusters totally thought so too and wanted to make an episode about how trackable and hackable RFID chips were. Sounds amazing! Everyone would’ve learned more about the technology that’s invisibly invading our lives. But, nope. Credit card companies banned ‘em.
Shopping is about to hit the 21st century. IGA stores in NSW and Victoria have been trialling the infrared enabled trolleys for the past few months, but next month the Carindale IGA in Brisbane is getting the new trolley for real. And it will blow your mind.
They’re slowly taking over our world, but the one skillset that robots and computers haven’t mastered yet is sportscasting. Keeping track of every single player on a basketball court is a real challenge for an artificial intelligence, but researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland may have developed a system that could finally let the machines excel at even play by play commentary.
It’s easy to avoid pushy sales clerks when shopping for new threads. So a department store in Japan now uses inescapable RFID-equipped clothing hangers that try to sell you other products and accessories when you take a garment off a rack.
Sony’s Tokyo HQ houses a floor that’s just for product demos. Very cool product demos. For their own strange reasons, Sony’s happy for me to write about it — but wouldn’t let me take photos, or even tell you what they name it.
