As Published In September/October 2003

Tunes, Tubes, and Trenches

Identifying music with mobiles, 3-D sans spectacles, and electric attire

Song Sleuth
Music-Identification Service
If you enjoy sitting around the pub, buying rounds based on who can most quickly identify a tune on the jukebox, you may have an ally in England's Shazam Entertainment. The company has created a music-identification service that works with the help of a powerful database and a cellular phone. When you hear a song you'd like to identify, punch 2580 into the phone, point it at the music source for 30 seconds, and wait for Shazam to send a text message that includes the song's title and artist information. Shazam does its job through comparative analysis of the sampled song with the audio signatures of songs stored in its database. It's available only in England, but Shazam hopes to make the service available in the United States in the next 12 to 18 months.

Web Locator Shazam Entertainment www.shazam.com Dynamic Digital Depth Group www.ddd.com No-Contact Jacket www.no-contact.com

I Want My 3-D TV!
Three-Dimensional Television
The future of television may lie in the past—specifically, in the 3-D technology that found movie audiences of the 1950s donning uncomfortable cardboard spectacles to view such headache-inducing wonders as Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space. Companies such as the Dynamic Digital Depth Group (DDD) are working on technologies that will bring 3-D viewing to television without the need for special eyewear. DDD takes the frames of 2-D movies, analyzes the distance of objects from the camera, and creates a "depth map" that places each object on a particular plane. The movie is then encoded so that a compatible television beams different information to each eye—thus creating depth.

Shocking Apparel
The No-Contact Jacket
Women concerned about personal safety will soon have a wearable alternative to pepper spray and whistles. The No-Contact Jacket, designed by Adam Whiton and Yolita Nugent, is a stylish coat that can deliver a nonlethal 80,000-volt charge. An attacker touching the jacket will get the shock of his life—temporarily disrupting his plans and allowing the wearer to escape. The jacket, made of a conductive fiber, sports an inner rubber layer that protects the wearer from electric shock. Powered by a standard 9-volt battery, the jacket must be armed before it can release its powerful payload.