Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 14: Other Cool Things You Can Network
Now you can say, “Beam me up Scotty!”
Every once in a while, technology meets our
imagination and you’re ecstatic. It didn’t happen
for us with any of the Star Wars light-saber
toys — “Lighted clear plastic tubes not laser
beam be,” as Yoda would say. Nor can any of the
existing robotic dinosaurs really shake the earth
yet like a true Tyrannosaurus Rex. (We actually
think this is coming soon: A life-sized Jurassic
Park has to appear sometime in the next
decade.)
But we were awed into silence with a working
Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) “communicator”
that allows us to send and receive cellular
phone calls. These are rare — each is custom
made from Star Trek toy parts by a guy who, at
the time of this writing, sells them only on eBay
for around $350. It pairs with any Bluetoothcapable
phone, allowing you to make calls
like any member of the Enterprise crew. It even
is voice controllable — “Contact Starfleet
Command, Uhura!”
A button on the back turns it on/off, accepts and
rejects calls, and initiates voice commands. The
two buttons on the control panel, under the grill,
turn the volume up and down. The blue LED indicates
pairing, the red LED indicates battery
status, and the green LED illuminates whenever
the grill is open. You get 8 to 10 hours of talk time
and 400 hours of standby.
But what’s really cool is that when you flip it
open, you hear the familiar grill opening chirps,
just like on the show! Star Trek purists will
be upset to know that the moiré in the middle of
the device does not spin. Apparently, it was
impossible to include the motor with the
Bluetooth electronics and speaker.
Working tricorders and communicator pins (Star
Trek: The Next Generation) must be right around
the corner. Sorry, these are available only in
Federation Territory. (We can hear the Klingons
shouting “ghuy’cha’” now!)
Don’t be misled and think of this as a cute expensive toy — this is one incredible
robot. If you don’t know much about the AIBO, check out its Web site
(http://support.sony-europe.com/aibo/) to find out about this robotic puppy.
It’s neat how Sony has wirelessly enabled its robo-dog with an AIBO wireless
LAN 802.11b card. Your pooch roves about, constantly linked to your wireless
home network. With AIBO Messenger software, AIBO can read your e-mail
and home pages. AIBO tells you when you receive e-mail in your inbox. AIBO
reads your e-mail messages to you. (“Hey, Master, you got an e-mail from your
girlfriend. She dumped you.”) You can send an e-mail to AIBO asking it to
take a picture on demand and send it back to you via e-mail. AIBO can read
as many as five preregistered Web sites for you. And AIBO reminds you of
important events.
With AIBO Navigator software, your computer becomes AIBO’s remotecontrol
unit. From the cockpit view on your PC, you can experience the world
from AIBO’s eyes in real time. (You know, there are just some things that a
dog sees that we would rather not see!)
Through the control graphical user interface on your PC, you can move your
AIBO anywhere you want. By using the sound transmission feature, you can
make AIBO speak from a remote location.
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