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"There's a poetry in the materials we use to construct our world of artifacts; it speaks of our long history as a technological species."
- William Gibson
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| Phonographic Locks | ||
| Doors that open using voice recognition. |
This is a very early description of voice recognition, the first I know of for opening doors.
| “Wait until I open the door,” she cried. And then, slowly and distinctly she pronounced the words. “Open sesame!” At the sound of her voice, a door in the roof noiselessly opened, and the arm-chairs on which they sat automatically continued their journey. “Was it the sound of your voice that opened that door?” asked Silas, puzzled. ‘Why, certainly,” replied the young lady. “Almost all our locks are phonographic. We first make the record by speaking into the phonograph, and after that the lock will only open when the same voice repeats the same words, for unless the needle travels in the same groove, the electrical contact is not made, and the door will not open.” “But how do you manage when several persons are to use the same lock?” “Each person makes his own phonogram, and the lock will then open to any one of a dozen different voices, each repeating its own special words. When strangers are expected we use a broader needle in making the records. Then the lock will open for anyone who pronounces the given words. Or else we speak through a special horn that changes the voice, so that the lock is not set for an individual voice.” “But doesn’t your own voice change somewhat at times?” “Yes indeed. Once I came home so hoarse that my voice wouldn’t work the lock. In another case I had an attack of malaria and was shivering so hard I couldn’t articulate the words. In both cases I had to hire a room downstairs until my family returned. |
| Technovelgy from A Journey to the Year 2025,
by Clement Fezandie. Published by Science and Invention in 1921 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot door from Colony by Philip K Dick (1953), the self-satisfied door from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (1980) and the Mark IV Door Keeping Robot from The Man Who Could Not Stop by A. Bertram Chandler (1959).
The earliest reference to a face recognition lock is probably the Selective Electric Eye from Exiles of the Moon (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat).
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Journey to the Year 2025
More Ideas
and Technology by Clement Fezandie
Tech news articles related to A Journey to the Year 2025
Tech news articles related to works by Clement Fezandie
Phonographic Locks-related
news articles:
- Voice-Recognition Door DIY
| Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion' |
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
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'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'The Dillard people had performed a miracle and put all the works in a girl-modeled case.'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
