Word: sensor
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...SUNSHINE It's hard getting out of bed on a chilly winter morning. So the folks at Oregon Scientific are giving you a new way to greet the day with a smile: their $100 ExactSet Projection Clock projects both the time and the outdoor temperature (provided by a remote sensor) in big red letters on your wall or ceiling. If that doesn't get you going, then there's always a backup: an 8-min. snooze button keeps lazybones on a short leash...
...because the stylus that operates the thing works by constantly beaming low-frequency radio signals to the computer, telling where it is. That way, Windows knows where you want the cursor to be even before you touch the screen. Once you do put pen to virtual paper, a pressure sensor starts the flow of digital ink. Journal takes note of the pen's position 133 times a second, so the line looks very smooth...
Here's how it works: Farwell fits a suspect with a sensor-filled headband. By flashing a series of pictures on a screen, he can read the subject's involuntary reactions to them. When there's something familiar about an image, it triggers an electrical response that begins between 300 and 800 milliseconds after the stimulus. Scientists have studied these "p300 bumps" for years. Farwell believes that, combined with other measures--he has patented which ones he looks at--he can determine if a subject is familiar with anything from a phone number to an al-Qaeda code word...
...Mont d'Or, a medieval village 9 km north of Lyons, and you come upon a fortress-like compound straight out of a James Bond movie. Built in the 16th century as a way station for horse-drawn carriages, the three-hectare domain features a helicopter landing pad, a sensor-based thermography security system, 130 computers and seven plasma screens for videoconferencing...
...time that whole trophy thing changes. It's kitsch. They're functionless things." Rashid was asked to design a trophy for the DaimlerChrysler Design Awards (he's a past recipient). "I was going to make it electro-luminescent. When the lights go out, it has a sensor so it turns on," he says. But the trophy-as-night-light, a reminder of one's worth in the darkest hours, didn't impress Chrysler's people. He never heard back...