Hide and seek
Dave finds out how technology can help you keep track of your keys, make keyboards out of fruit and solve the mystery of a stolen phone
There was good news for anyone who's prone to mislaying their keys, phone, wallet, guinea pig or youngest child this week as two US computer bods revealed they've developed depth-based camera technology that can keep track of your prized possessions.
Developed by Shahriar Nirjon and John Stankovic of the University of Virginia, the Kinsight system combines Microsoft's Kinect cameras with a PC running the techie duo's specialist software. Kinsight works by tracking the movement of humans and monitoring which objects around them may have moved. (I don't have the foggiest either.)
Early trials attempted to track the location of a selection of typically mislaid items including cutlery and a Rubik's cube. Right you are. According to the New Scientist, the gadget can accurately "locate fist-sized objects with an accuracy of 13cm".
I'm not sure what this means, but it sounds like the technology might come in handy on a night out in Dagenham.
A key development
Sometimes you come across an innovation so plainly wonderful that it reminds you why you work in the technology sector.
I had one of those moments this week, dear reader, when the first line of a BBC News story informed me that "two students have managed to develop a banana piano". Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
have developed the MakeyMakey system, which can turn any object that can conduct
a small electric current into a touchpad.
The student duo, both aged 32, (living the dream, fellas!) have developed a system
using a circuit board, a USB cable and some alligator clips.
According to the techie twosome, the uses for the technology are virtually limitless, including making your cat into a musical instrument, using broccoli to host a Skype call and turning a beach ball into a games controller. All of which can presumably be done from your parents' basement or the spare room of your rather tolerant girlfriend.
Just the job
A friend was telling me this week that his noble belief that honesty is the best policy resulted in him recently talking himself out of a job at a services player.
The hotshot sales goon had been headhunted due to his impressive contacts book. But, coming from a public sector-focused environment, he was swiftly asked a question about his aptitude for the enterprise-centric role when he went in for a chat.
"On a scale of one to 10, how comfortable are you working in a commercial environment?," asked the interviewer.
"I would say... about two out of 10," came the confident reply.
A bold move from my unabashed pal, to be sure. A bold, bewildering move. He asked me, on a scale of one to 10, what I thought the chances were of him landing the job. I didn't have the heart to be as honest as him, and decided to sugar-coat my reply a little.
"About two out of 10," I told him.
Phone home
Amid all the security concerns about moving stuff into the cloud, it was heartening this week to see a story in which the cloud actuÂally helped an unfortunate tech user increase the security credentials of their device.
Katy McCaffrey took a holiday on a Disney cruise earlier this year. As if that wasn't a traumatic enough experience, she had her iPhone stolen while on the cartoony ship. Serendipitously, the phone features Photostream, which automatically sends
all pictures taken on the device to its owner's iCloud account.
When McCaffrey saw a series of photos featuring the adventures of a chap whose Disney badge identified him as "Nelson", she took the step of outing the snap-happy cruise worker on Facebook.
Nelson has now been placed on administrative leave while Mickey Mouse and co investigate the matter, and McCaffrey has been promised her phone will be returned once the good ship Disney docks in Blighty again. But, in worse news, she may yet be given free tickets for another Disney cruise.