Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| GPS Sunglasses | ||
| Sunglasses that contain both global positioning system components and cell phone services. |
Okay, so your sunglasses ring, you open them up and put them on. You see, projected on the lens of your sunglasses, whatever the other person is seeing (and presumably vice-versa). Not only that, the other person knows exactly where you are thanks to the GPS device built in to the sunglasses.
| …She slipped him a pair of Brazilian GPS sunglasses, with inbuilt phone and AM-FM radio. |
| Technovelgy from All Tomorrow's Parties,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Do you need these? Maybe not. But the people in William Gibson's endlessly inventive novels, this is the sort of urban nomadic stuff you need. And, if you're a true urban nomad, knowing where you are with GPS is perfect.
You're an engineer and you want to know it works? By all means, read this dense PDF - GPS Signal Availability in an Urban Area Receiver Performance Analysis.
In a hurry and you'd prefer to cut to the chase? Okay, it turns out that in urban environments subject to lots of signal shading, GPS signal availability can vary by 60%. You want details: try this:
"The results demonstrate the effectiveness of narrow correlator spacing technology in reducing the position errors caused by multipath from buildings in urban canyons."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from All Tomorrow's Parties
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to All Tomorrow's Parties
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
| MIT Headset Lets You Communicate Without Speaking |
| Tongue Mouse Created By Valve Engineer |
| Skinput Uses Your Skin As An Input Device |
| AcceleGlove Open-Source Data Glove |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
