Peter Coffee

California Institute of Technology researchers are teaching computers to notice and recognize human faces in scenes, not just in mug-shot poses but in arbitrary orientations. This photo shows corner and circle feature identifications in a hallway display for the project trippingly titled “Viewpoint-Invariant Detection and Learning of Human Heads,” fittingly found while I was taking […]

When I begin a document with Microsoft Word 2000, menus like Edit and Format are mercifully short. Commands that I rarely use dont appear unless I summon them—or briefly wait for the full-length list. But if I dig down to an obscure command, it will be on the short list thereafter: The software smooths the […]

As handheld devices hold more personal data and become the entry points to hosted financial and medical services, users will be increasingly concerned about the personal loyalty of these digital assistants. Authentication must be tied to the user, not to the device, if loss or theft is to be an annoyance, not a catastrophe. Passwords […]

The PC is the least efficient way to access the internet,” National Semiconductor Chairman, President and CEO Brian Halla said in his keynote speech at Comdex earlier this month. Among many PC alternatives on view at National Semis Comdex pavilion was IBMs NetVista I30 thin client, making its first public appearance. The IBM system is […]

When a perfect technology comes along, I may be willing to let it protect me from myself. Until that happens, Ill insist that every black box has to give me a way to look inside. What got me going on this subject were two comments by a software developer during a Spring Comdex panel discussion. […]

Literally penned up in chain-link enclosures, harried teams of hardware hackers labored to produce a working PC from a collection of components during the WinHEC Wars competition at WinHEC last month. As PCs increasingly come to market as sealed-box appliances, the WinHEC Wars, which were held in Anaheim, Calif., reminded IT buyers that the open […]

Twenty-five cents wont buy you a decent cup of coffee, but it will cover the license fee for putting an IEEE 1394 connection in a digital device. Thats a good deal. The high-speed serial connection of IEEE 1394a carries up to 400M bps; the forthcoming 1394b will deliver 3,200M bps over either a 4.5-meter cable […]

Shipping this month, Motorolas Bluetooth Phone Module looks like nothing more than a slightly thicker battery cover for the companys Timeport cellular phones. The Bluetooth transceiver concealed therein will let the phone serve, for example, as a relay node for Internet access: The phone will make the Internet connection, but the user will be able […]

I recently challenged the continuing relevance of the “waterfall” model of software development in a column for our eWeek Labs e-mail newsletter (enewsletters.ziffdavis.com). An old friend and fellow LISP hacker fired off a rebuttal that began, “I guess the industry will just never learn.” Can he persuade you? My friend objects to the suggestion that […]

Network convergence will be driven to its next level by the profit potential of high-value applications, not by network cost reduction. So said Intel Vice President and Dialogic President Howard Bubb in his keynote speech at this months Computer Telephony Expo in Los Angeles. “If you just tie things together with gateways,” Bubb told his […]