BT's ambient WiFi orb
posted December 13th 2004 11:23AM
Maybe they've never heard of the Ambient Orb (or they have and are just copping its style), but BT's Research Labs has been showing off an ambient device that uses WiFi to wirelessly pull down data off of the Internet rather than a proprietary FM sub-carrier network that requires a subscription. Otherwise they're about the same, you can have information like the weather or stock prices or whether you have any new email represented by different colors. BT's device (which is still just a prototype, near as we can tell) also has built-in speech recognition software, so if you want it to pull down data about another topic, like say, the weather, you could just say the word "weather" and it'll grab that data for you, rather than force you to log on to the web and manually adjust its settings like you have to with the Ambient Orb.
wow, sciencefiction is here. Just out of curiosity does it only work with BT's email service?
I don't even see a digital readout or anything on this. What good is getting the weather if it doesn't tell you the actual temperature. OK pink means rainy. Thanks AmbientOrb, but I can look out the window and see that. The article says that it can use sounds, but does it talk or does the sound of a seagull mean its 67 degrees outside?
I think this could be cool, but the price would be the deciding factor. -- More than $50? I'll spend my money elsewhere, thanks.
You'd think someone would come up with something similar, but with a way to actually display useful info.
The same thing with a small screen would be really useful. With just a colored lamp, it's just a way to spend your money on something pretty.
Well, I don't know if I'd buy that BT device as it looks like an oversized hockey-puck, but I certainly don't get the problem you guys have with color as information.
The LAST thing I want it 10 more products that actually show me digits like "37 degrees" -- my house is already tech'ed out enough and I don't need 10 more screens around my house. However, if the color can mean something, actually be helpful, and actually fit in my living room then I think it's a great idea.
The main point you're missing here is that in the UK we can't get an ambident orb. Hopefully they'll release them and I can at last get my hands on one :)
Ive been reading about the ambient orb over at http://www.ambientorb.co.uk - it seems like a useful thing to have - ive signed up to find out when you can get them in the UK!
I'd love to get my hands on ambient orb/device - preferably wireless - so I could use it in a build process (http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/articles/169058.aspx).
Are there any devices available in the UK yet? AmbientOrb.co.uk's site appears to be down.
Does anyone know anyone within BT's research labs?! Perhaps they might demo?
Joe,
Dont think we were down:
www.AmbientOrb.co.uk - works for me now
Ill speak to Ambient Devices and get an update :)