function getElementsByClass( className ) {
    var all =
        document.all ? document.all : document.getElementsByTagName( '*' );
    var elements = new Array();
    for( var e = 0; e < all.length; e++ ) {
        if (all[e].className == className) {
            elements[elements.length] = all[e];
        }
    }
    return elements;
}

This function basically checks the string that is entered into the class attribute for each HTML element and returns all elements where there is an exact match.

This method will fail however if we're trying to select elements that have multiple class associations. We need to use something more complex when, for example, creating a list of items that are filterable by class when arranged in overlapping groups. Splitting the class attribute on space characters will allow us to check for matches in these cases:

function getElementsByClass( className ) {
    var all =
        document.all ? document.all : document.getElementsByTagName( '*' );
    var elements = new Array();
    for( var e = 0; e < all.length; e++ ) {
        var classes = all[e].className.split(/\s/g);
        for( var c = 0; c < classes.length; c++ ) {
            if( classes == className ) {
                elements[elements.length] = all[e];
            }
        }
    }
    return elements;
}

The function above does pretty much the same as the first one, however splits the class attribute string on the spaces and loops through them, trying to match the parts individually. This should match on elements with singular and multiple class names associated with them and solve any problems with multiple classed elements.
- Chris ]]> http://chris-miller.org/archives/2008/10/02/get-multi-class-elements-in-javascript/feed/ 0 http://chris-miller.org/archives/2008/07/01/suse-tips/ http://chris-miller.org/archives/2008/07/01/suse-tips/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:59:26 +0000 Chris http://chris-miller.org/?p=182 I’ve been using Suse at work now for over a year. Once in a while I’ll find a shortcut or a handy little thing that I’ll find useful. This blog post outlines a few of the handy shortcuts and tips that I’ve picked up and never readily knew.

Workspace Switcher

The Red Hat Workspace Switcher is one of the Linux tools I use all the time. I have two screens at work, however it still isn’t enough room to keep all my documents open, read mail and so forth. For this reason I use the workspace switcher with 4 workspaces, one for my work, another for email, one for FileMaker (the system we use for breifs and work management) and another spare. One of the most useful key combos, not a particularly hard one to find – but perhaps the one I use the most heavily, is Ctrl + Alt + [Arrow Key] which allows me to move back and forward between each of these workspaces.

Another handy tip for using the workspace switcher is that you may move an window from one workspace to another simply by dragging it on the workspace switcher – simple as that.

Command Line Applet

Command Line is a GNOME Applet that sits on a panel at the top of my screen, from here you can quickly launch applications or kill processes as necessary – pretty much anything you would do in a terminal that doesn’t require feedback.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking but it’s handy if you need to quickly launch gedit, gftp or the likes to do something quickly.

Scrollbars

Scrollbars, a really common UI element, yet there were a few things I was surprised to find when using them in Suse. Clicking one of the up or down arrows at either end of the scrollbar will tab the handle up or down as you would expect. Right clicking on the up or down arrow on the other hand will scroll you to the top and bottom of the scrollable area respectively.

View Desktop

I’m a messy git, I open windows and don’t close them, layer them up and not bother to sort them in any way shape or form. Given that, the view desktop shortcut is always useful to minimise all the active windows on the workspace you are in: Ctrl + Alt + D

Tips?

Ok, so they’re not great tips, they’re handy for saving a bit of time here and there. I do, however, use these all day at work and so the time saved adds up. Gimme a shout if there’s any other decent tips that you know of.
- Chris

The first Mac I ever owned, a PowerBook G4 which has served me very well over the past 5 or 6 years, is pretty much blitzed. My PowerBook and I visited Matt in Edinburgh on Saturday to see if we could revive it to it’s previous glory. We managed to pull all the stuff I needed from the hard disk, but that was all the good fortune we had.

It turns out the hard disk was suffering from a S.M.A.R.T. failure and locked up Matt’s computer when mounted as a target drive. We eventually managed to format the drive via Matt’s old PowerBook and everything looked good, but alas it was not to be – we received kernel panics when trying to install Mac OS X on the drive.

So it looks as if I’ll have to fork out for a replacement hard disk, which isn’t too big a deal at about £50 for 100Gb which would suit me. Until I manage to get one and install it my PowerBook is out of service.

/me salutes PowerBook, when my copy of the Necronomicon arrives I will bring you back!
- Chris

The specs are as follows:

• Processors: Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• RAM: 2GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3
• HDD: 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• Optical: Two 16x SuperDrives
• Connectivity: AirPort Extreme Card (Wi-Fi) & Bluetooth
• Peripherals: Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse & Apple Wireless Keyboard

It should arrive later in the week, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
- Chris

This is the remedy.

In terms of the actual feel of the mouse when using it, I’ve never used a mouse that’s so comfortable to push around a table. Multiple pads on the underside of the mouse provide a much better glide on any surface making it effortless to use.

I’ve never used one of these fancy ergonomic style mice before but the benefit is immense, your hand just molds into the shape of the mouse and can easily sit there for hours on end whilst browsing the web or killing something in your preferred online game (*ahem* World of Warcraft).

The only areas lacking are the software, which isn’t too much of a problem, and the short battery life which is around a whole day’s usage. The battery life doesn’t effect your usage at all as the mouse comes with a second battery that can charge in a base station whilst you’re draining the first. A low battery warning can be gotten rid of in about 15 seconds!

All in all, a good solid mouse for any user, especially ones who sit all day, and sometimes night, playing games or looking at questionable websites on the Internet. 10 out of 10.
- Chris

After a few attempts to clean the contacts and eventually breaking the somewhat brittle metal I decided that an upgrade was the only sensible course of action – also owing to the fact my current mouse is as ergonomic as a brick!

A quick look around on eBuyer threw up several options of which I chose the Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse.

I’m not sure what the difference having a laser mouse has compared to a good old fashioned optical mouse, but anything with a laser built in is obviously superior! The mouse itself boasts 2 Li-Ion battery packs which charge on a base station provided with the mouse, meaning that there’s no downtime when one battery runs out, and some pretty nifty looking battery indicators to tell you when the current one is running low. The mouse can also be programmed with variable resolutions from 400 dpi to 2000 dpi, this can be switched on-the-fly whilst using the device, apparently allowing you to jump “from pixel-precise targeting to fast-twitch maneuvers, without pausing the action”.

Below are some of the images of the device from the Logitech website, expect more to follow and a review when I actually receive the device.

Much World of Warcraft will ensue when the mouse actually arrives (although no more than before it arrives)!
- Chris

Also on the agenda has been getting a new mobile phone, after looking around for a while I found the perfect (or so it seems) fusion of the two: the XDA Exec.

The Exec is the O2 version of the i-mate JasJar and boasts the same list of impresive features. I managed to pick mine up with a contract for less than a quarter of the £600+ that would be required to buy a JasJar alone.

It should hopefully arrive on Tuesday morning and I can have a play around with it then. I’ll post more about the workings of the device then. For now look at the purty pictures above.
- Chris

The rubrik of this exam was 7 questions out of 7, so no room for breathing space.

Question 1

• A – Easy question outlining the three driving factors for integration driving factors and tactical vs. strategic initiatives
• B – Another easy question to indicate the level of integration that should be used in three different companies, giving justification for each

Question 2

• Seemed initially an easy question, although upon reflection may have been harder than I thought. Basically give reasons why using a MOM and integrated enterprise would be better than the existing system. The part I was unsure of was the discussion of “integration facets”, a term which I don’t remember ever hearing – hopefully it just refers to the properties and isn’t something I’ve totally missed

Question 3

• Discussion of a paper by Nicholas Carr called IT Doesn’t Matter, just mentioning the main points of the paper and explaining your standpoint

Question 4

• A – Discussion of how to integrate legacy systems
• B – Legacy system maintenance, wasn’t quite sure how to answer this question, ended up reiterating parts from A

Question 5

• Another tricky question, in two parts to discuss the use of either interoperability, federation, consolidation or integration with respect to two companies. For a total of 8 marks there didn’t seem that much to say.

Question 6

• Easy question to discuss the issue of performance in Internet-Based systems and to draw a couple of failsafe devices used for the hardware

Question 7

• Another simple question to write a small essay based upon parts of the course, I did the essay on EDI vs. XML as a method of data exchange

All in all not a bad exam, one of the nicer ones to have as the first anyway.
- Chris

Research Journal

On the MSc course at Glasgow we have all been asked to buy a hardback ledger in which we are to keep a diary of what we are doing in our research. That’s fine, but I’m a computing scientist, writing things down goes against the grain – I want a computing related solution to this problem.

After a while contemplating I concluded that alternatives to having a hardback book would be:

1. blogging software (i.e. WordPress)
2. wiki software (i.e. MediaWiki)

Blogs

Blogs lend themselves to chronological recording of data, after-all they are in necessity online diaries. Blogs can be a simple way to record ideas, dates of events and so on.

Wikis

Wikis, although not strictly ordering entries by time and date, allow for very easy addition and formatting of new content. Most wikis will allow you to create categorised or special pages. For example in MediaWiki pages can be prefixed when naming them, this can be used to categorise the pages.

Combinations

Both blogging software and wikis can be used in combination of course, blogs giving the chronological progression between different research papers and wikis showing the resulting thoughts, summaries and so on that you generate.

Why do it?

Keeping a digital version of this information means we don’t have any issue with loosing the research journal or spilling coffee over it (note: don’t spill coffee over your computer either).

Project co-ordinators can see how you are progressing, comment on what they think of your research via comment mechanisms in a blog and talk/discuss pages on a wiki.

Collaborations

Online versions of research journals can help in collaborative projects – the research journal becomes a platform for collective reasoning, interaction, and the sharing of ideas.

If you don’t want to do it electronically

The real lesson to take away from this post is that a research journal is a good thing to have, be it a bound book, wiki, blog or whatever combination.

My Wiki usage

I am currently doing research on my project for the year, which is what sparked this article, SonG. For the project I use a wiki to manage my research, post ideas, and transcribe meeting minutes to mention a few things. I thought it may be useful to share the page title formats I use for doing so.

Meetings:

• Index: Meetings
• Meeting: Meeting:[YYYY][MM][DD]
• YYYY = year, MM = month and DD = day

Papers:

• Index: Papers
• Paper: Paper:[KEY]
• KEY = the bibliography key for the paper

Project specific:

• Title: [Project]:[Title]
• I.e. SonG:Links

I hope this is useful to anyone doing a project involving any type of research, although this type of journal is not restricted to only research based projects.

- Chris

Media

First get a good .PDF or .PS copy of the paper in question. Print the document, I usually go for double sided to save space and 2-up if it’s a particularly long paper.

If the paper has a lot of pictures or diagrams take the time and expense to print it in colour. You’d be amazed at how much more a colourful document will hold your attention over a grayscale one, also detail will not be obscured due to poor colour choice from the author.

Meta

If you’re using any sort of bibliography database, and you really should be – BibTeX is my preference, then you’ll be generating keys for all the documents you enter into it. Write the paper’s key on the top of the paper along with the year it was published.

This saves time if you’re citing the paper later, rather than having to search though the database, usually a flat file, to find the title or author of the paper, you simply have to glance at the first page.

Leave space at the top of the paper for any general comments you have about the paper overall. Don’t write a critical review, just a quick note which you will be able to use to identify the contents of the paper quickly. Another useful thing to add to any paper is a list of keywords. Many conferences and journals add these to papers but your own keywords will have more meaning to you than the general ones produced by the publishers.

Once you have read the paper look through the list of references, highlight any that you think are potentially useful and try and find them, this is possibly the path your research will follow and maybe the next paper you should read. Once you have a copy and thus a key for the paper, due to your corresponding bibliography entry, note the key next to the reference. This allows you to quickly find out if you have the paper at a later date for example when rereading the paper for other research and allows you to quickly assess which paper it is.

Reading the paper

Something we’ve had knocked into us on the MSc course at Glasgow is how to read a research paper. The general consensus is a 5 stage process:

1. Read the abstract – this should roughly tell you what the paper is about, what the problem addressed is, what the authors did and what they found.
2. Read the introduction and conclusion – skipping to the end of a book usually gives away the plot, skipping to the end of a research paper will help you understand the ideas in the paper as it will contain a concise version of everything the author has said. You should have a fair idea of what’s coming from reading the abstract anyway. Reading the start and end of the paper will give a better insight into what the paper is about and help you decide if it applies to your area of research or not.
3. Read the whole paper – jumping past anything which you get stuck on. Read all the details quickly, glance at figures, tables and equations but don’t over invest time in trying to understand them. Reading the whole paper quickly will give you an overall feel for the argument put forward in the paper.
4. Re-read the paper – this time going into the fine details and trying to understand the parts of the paper which eluded you the first time round. If necessary look at some of the supporting material, consult books, websites, peers, colleagues and so forth.

   Make notes in the margins of the paper, most papers are typeset in either one or two columns, this gives space on either side of the text to annotate it – make
   notes, reference other works, point out problems e.t.c.. This is where it is useful to have a physical copy of the paper. Highlight key areas of the paper using whatever means you wish, I will go on to talk about this in the next section.

5. Summarise – write your blurb on the front page of the paper and then try and write a page summary of the whole paper. Aim to include the main points of the paper, the arguments, methodologies uses, results and conclusions which you feel relate to your research or may do in the future.

   This is useful if you need to grasp the idea of the paper quickly at a later date, don’t rely on remembering about the paper – you will forget the details.

Highlighting content

Everyone has a different method for marking parts of the paper they are reading. I prefer to use highlighter pens as they do not obscure the detail or text in the document unlike circling or underlining.

Most papers, I find, tend to break down into four main sections:

1. Introduction and related work
2. Problem definition and intended methodology
3. Experiment details and results
4. Discussion and conclusions

Each of these sections I match to a different coloured highlighter pen, the same for every paper to make it easier to find sections of the document. I use:

Yellow

Introduction

Orange

Problem definition

Green

Experiment details

Red

Conclusion

Obviously some papers don’t follow this general pattern, such as survey papers, in this case I use the yellow and red pens as before, for the introduction and conclusion. I then alternate between the orange and green highlighters for different sections or ideas within the paper body.

Storage

I urge you to keep all research papers after you’ve read them. Keep a digital copy, but also keep the printed copy which contains your annotations. It is also useful to keep a printed copy of your page summaries with the corresponding papers for a quick reference to the paper.

As the physical copy of the paper is likely to be the only annotated version of the paper you have make sure you don’t loose it. As I’ve mentioned you will forget the details and annotations can be a low cost solution to jogging the memory.

Get a box file, put the papers and summaries into it, organise them in any manner you wish but just keep them.

Re-visiting

All this seems a lot of work just for reading one research paper, but the this time is an investment which will be paid back in droves later.

Whenever you are required to cite papers or give related/supporting work sections in reports or your own papers the page summaries will provide you with the textual descriptions of the content that you will likely use. Re-writing a section on a particular paper five times, and consequently re-reading the paper five times, will take up more time than annotating and summarising the paper originally.

Enjoy!

I enjoy reading research papers, as long as they’re not too technically heavy, but reading research papers can take a long time. I’ve found that using a formulated and structured approach to reading, annotating and summarising the papers make the process easier and quicker, this is why I’m sharing my guide with you.

That’s all I have to say, if anyone has anything to add, or their own unique style for reading papers, feel free to add a comment detailing it.
- Chris

The project I’m undertaking is entitled 3D Sonification with Gestures. It is a self proposed project which myself and Steve Brewster came up with, and thus Steve will be supervising the project.

I wrote a small blurb (below) which presents the main idea of the project, which was then submitted to the projects coordinator (who this year happens to be David Watt) and it was accepted.

There has been a lot of work over recent years into the use of gestures with computers, work in this area continues and is constantly being integrated with different technologies and other types of interactions to create new and more sophisticated interactions between humans and computers.

The project proposed here is to combine gestures with sonification on a handheld device such as a PDA for an application such as the browsing and selection of music through the use of 3D spacial audio.

The research would study the effectiveness of use of 3D spacial audio for the selection of items which are placed around a user at different angles and distances, the study would specifically look into the way in which users would use such a system and any possible implications in the area of handheld/mobile devices.

My project proposal has to be finished and in for the 2nd May and the whole project and dissertation finished for the 11th September. Hopefully I’ll get a fair bit of reading done over Christmas (but is that really likely?).
- Chris

I used to do all my LaTeX writing under Windows XP, using a program called WinEdt with the MiKTeX version of LaTeX.

Since changing to Mac OS for writing LaTeX I’ve been looking around for some good tools for managing and writing anything I have to and here’s what I’ve found:

TeXShop

Good, free tool for editing and typesetting LaTeX documents. Comes complete with BibTeX integration as well as a lot of useful templates and shortcuts (a very nice feature is an automatically updating .pdf viewer), the inclusion of syntax highlighting and auto completion is very useful. I’ve been using this for the past few months and have found no flaws in it.

Here’s some speel of the site:

TeXShop is a TeX previewer for Mac OS X, written in Cocoa. Since pdf is a native file format on OS X, TeXShop uses “pdftex” and “pdflatex” rather than “tex” and “latex” to typeset; these programs in the standard teTeX distribution of TeX produce pdf output instead of dvi output.

TeXShop uses TeXLive and teTeX, standard distributions of Tex programs for Unix machines. The distributions include tex, latex, dvips, tex fonts, cyrillic fonts, and virtually all other programs and supporting files commonly used in the TeX world. These distributions are maintained for the Mac by Gerben Wierda, and available below.

The latest TeXShop release requires System 10.4 (Tiger). Users with systems 10.2 or 10.3 should use TeXShop 1.40, also available on this site. Users with systems 10.0 and 10.1 should use TeXShop 1.19, available here.

TeXShop is distributed under the GPL public license, and thus free.

Here’s the links to:

• the developer site, and
• download page

I’d recommend trying it out if you’re likely to be writing any serious documentation.

BibDesk

Another really useful tool which I’ve found for academic use. It’s basically a BibTeX organiser with a lot of addons.

As well as allowing you to add, edit and organise BibTeX entries it allows you to:

• locally link papers or articles,
• self-organises these linked articles if you wish (much like the iTunes music folder will if you ask it to),
• URL linking of articles,
• drag and drop LaTeX citation code for entry into .tex documents (in a variety of formats, i.e. \cite{Miller:2005}, \citet{Miller:2005}, …),
• auto cite key generation from BibTeX entry (based upon a user specified pattern},
• searching of BibTeX entries,
• import and export of the BibTeX file in a variety of formats (XML, RSS and Atom included among others), and
• previewing specific or ranges of entries as they would appear in a LaTeX document.

This is the kind of tool I’ve been looking for ages for, not only does it hold the details of the articles for referencing in reviews/papers, it holds and organises the articles themselves. This tool has made using BibTeX with LaTeX a hell of a lot easier for me, I’d highly recommend this to anyone who is ever going to keep a record of the papers that he/she has read.

The definition of BibDesk on this site is given as:

BibDesk is a graphical BibTeX-bibliography manager for Mac OS X. BibDesk is designed to help organize and use bibliographic databases in BibTeX .bib format. In addition to manual typing, BibDesk lets you drag & drop or cut & paste .bib files into the bibliographic database and automatically opens files downloaded from PubMed. BibDesk also keeps track of electronic copies of literature on your computer and allows for searching your database through several keys.

BibDesk integrates well with TeX for creating citations and bibliographies. This integration includes a Citation search completion service, and drag & drop (cut & paste) support for adding citations to TeX files.

Here’s the links to:

• the developer site, and
• download page

So not only can you generate nice looking, transferrable documents; but you can do so on a good OS with some great tools, making the LaTeX experience (not the rubbery kind!) much more stress free and enjoyable for all!
- Chris

I’ve only been playing with it for a short while, but my initial impressions are that it’s pretty damn sweet.

It allows you to post things straight from flickr, downloading your photo stream and showing it to you, so there’s no need to go to the flickr site and grab the photo url or the code you want to paste into your post, you simply have to drag in the photo!

Anyway, I’m impressed and you should get yourself a copy to try it out.
- Chris

What I would like is some sort of system wide change dependant upon the network location I’m in.

For example, when in a networked area I always run a few widgets to pull things off the web, like flickrframe and a wikipedia widget. What would be nice is when I switch to a non networked location, these widgets would disappear off my dashboard until I get back onto a network.

Another issue I have is with Safari, whenever I launch it I am always taken to this site, which is fair enough if I’m on a network. But wouldn’t it be better to take me to a different location when there’s no network available (such as http://localhost), I do a lot of work on the train and it annoys the hell out of me when I launch Safari to be presented with a page telling me I’m not connected to the Internet – no shit, that’s why I changed the location in the first place!

I’m sure they’re are other arguments for and against doing this, but it would be nice to have something available to do it for you.
- Chris

The .dmg for the program is available by clicking the icon below:

Download GrabPhotos

Any questions or greviances can be directed to chris@chris-miller.org. Enjoy,
- Chris

The .dmg for the program is available by clicking the icon below:

Download PhotoArchive

Any questions or greviances can be directed to chris@chris-miller.org. Enjoy,
- Chris

I have been hoping to work in the department after doing so last year, and heard of a scholarship that was up for grabs to do with olfactory tagging of photos.

Anyway, I applied a while ago and managed to get an interview yesterday (after my last exam and before the pubbage). I heard back earlier today and I have been offered the job, it’s a ten week scholarship in the department which pays £240 a week. The main idea is to tag photos with smells, much in the same way that flickr.com uses words to tag photos. I’m not set to start until the 1st of July but thought I would post some early details I have on the project.

Below is an extract from the outline of the project, defining exactly what it is about:

In order to investigate the use of olfaction as part of HCI, the work undertaken during the studentship will centre on the construction of an application which will be intended to both exploit the advantages of olfaction (memory and learning), and apply these advantages to a current problem in human computer interaction – the browsing of large non-textual media collections such as digital photographs. The design and construction of this application will contribute to the general aims of the studentship to improve our understanding of olfaction in HCI and the expected outcomes which are described in detail in the following sections.

The problems of browsing large collections of non-textual digital media are well known, with ineffective tools currently available for browsing and searching such collections. Most of the proposed methods to overcome the problems of browsing and searching involve the tagging of individual, or groups of photographs, with keywords which can be later used for retrieval. However, other research has found that many people find such tagging of photographs inconvenient and many do not store digital photographs in any systematic way. In any event, such a system may still break down if inconsistent labels are given to different photographs.

The application to be constructed as part of this studentship will build on existing research with Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), to allow users to build search queries over digital photograph collections via RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags attached to “smell cubes” (small plastic cubes containing a fragrance impregnated in a cotton wool pad – www.daleair.com). This would allow users to associate smells easily and quickly with collections of photographs by moving the appropriate cube close to the RFID tag reader, and would help to make the process of recall easier by using the powerful memory effects of smell to remind users of the environment in which they took the photographs and thus aid their recall. For example, photographs of a holiday in India may be quickly associated with the smell of spices. In years to come the user may be looking for a particular photograph of a friend. The user can remember the friend was standing outside a building but cannot quite remember where or when the photograph was taken (such attributes being the current way in which images are tagged). To find the photograph the user would waft each smell cube under their nose. On using the spice smell cube, the user is transported back to their holiday in India and can remember where the photograph was taken. On passing the smell cube (with attached RFID tag) over the RFID sensor, the system filters the photographs on screen to show only a small subset, one of which is the photograph desired by the user – the user’s friend standing outside the building.

The work will be broken down in the 10 weeks as follows:

• Weeks 1 – 3
  The student will carry out a literature review into olfaction. Additionally the student will begin to elicit requirements for the photo browsing application. Participants will be recruited and categorisation of photographs will be undertaken.
• Weeks 4 – 7
  The student will construct the photo browsing application based on the literature review and derived requirements.
• Weeks 8 – 10
  The student will carry out an evaluation of the photo browsing application to determine the usefulness of the incorporation of olfaction. The student will produce a report on the design and evaluation of the photo browsing application that will form the basis of a paper submission to the ACM SIG CHI conference.

Anyway, I’m quite pleased with getting the scholarship and look forward to an interesting summer working on it. Sorry to the other guys who were in for it (Dave et al), I’m sure you’ll all find something soon enough.
- Chris

The guy who is on is an IT consultant and around 25 years old. Chris Tarrent is sitting talking to him after he has reached £1,000 and was saying about how much the guy was wanting to win. He says:

Well you’re young, and single I presume.

Chris Tarrent just assumes that this guy is single, it’s true of course but it doesn’t hold much hope for any of us!
- Chris

Some of the concepts described here were taken from a comment I made in response to what Iain had to say about my idea.

Function Fingers

This basically extends on from the use of RFID tags with touch screen monitor which has the capability of wirelessly uploading data to a memory module (via bluetooth, FM radio, other wireless transfer).

As before there would be an RFID tag installed in your finger. However this time instead of just in one finger, an RFID tag would be installed in all the fingers of one hand (left/right dependant upon your preference). These tags, instead of holding transferable data, would be programmed to execute certain commands on the computer.

Also as before we could transfer data and carry files, however the storage of the files would now have to be done via another means – i.e. a chip implanted into the hand, an attached device (such as a watch) or perhaps through the use of a glove (also removing the need for the RFID tags being inserted into the fingers).

The diagram below shows how this could be done with RFID tags inserted into each finger and a main memory repository into the hand (which would require more surgery than a simple RFID tag insertion).

As you can see each finger is assigned a function, when the screen is touched with that particular function finger (FF), that function is carried out on the selected application.

A user could for instance:

1. Use FF_CLICK to click on a specific application
2. Hold FF_CLICK on the application, invoking the drag functionallity
3. Drag the finger across a piece of text to highlight it
4. Hit the highlighted text with FF_CUT to cut the text from that application
5. The cut text would then be transferred to the paste buffer as well as the memory contained in the hand
6. From here the user could use FF_PASTE to paste the data back onto the same computer or could move to another machine and paste in the same way

Roaming Data

Having a data repository held in your hand (assuming that the data held is non-degrading) allows the use of cross computer profiling. Instead of having to set up a home computer, work computer and laptop all to work and look the same way; you could carry this data around with you in your hand!

A globally roaming profile could be established which would allow you to instantly gain access to the same desktop as you have available on your other machines (dependant upon availability of applications and media of course).

Logging into a computer could be made a lot simpler:

A touch of the screen within the box on the dialog will allow you to log into the system. There is no need for passwords as they are stored within your hand, no need to remember usernames or login IDs.

This can also be used for a range of data, i.e. your e-mail details, site logins, credit card information, pretty much anything, could be held within the memory in your hand. This eradicates the need for keychains or passwords to be stored on your computer – only you need the passwords so only you have access to them! There is an obvious need for backups and such but essentially the copy in your hand is the only available copy of the information.

You take your data with you, there is no unnecessary storage of your volatile information and only you (unless via a severed hand), have access to it. Take your bank details, profile, usernames, passwords, phone numbers, addresses, anything; with you wherever you go.

Forget remembering phone numbers because landline phones will be able to read them off your hand and will allow you to select who you want to call. E-mail addresses, no problem just check your roaming address book and find the person you want to e-mail.

Ok, so maybe I’m getting a bit carried away, but you get the idea.

The most handy accessory of all, your hand,
- Chris

I have had an idea which may revolutionise computing.

The main idea is the use of an RFID tag much like was proposed for clubs and bars in order to pay for drinks and build up a profile of drinking habits, allowing people to scan their arms or hands in order to pay for/order drinks.

The idea which I have uses this technology to provide a means of cross computer interaction with no physical connection between them (i.e. network). The idea is spawned from days in the lab, sitting with my PowerBook and desktop machine both running at the same time. My desktop has an Internet connection whereas my PowerBook however does not have a connection at university, this poses a problem whilst trying to exchange data (text snipits, files, URLs, etc) between the two computers.

The RFID tag is implanted into the forefinger of the user’s left hand, then when using a special keyboard with an RFID sensor underneath the user can copy data between the computer and his hand. From here the user will be able to use the data stored in his hand with other devices.

This would allow the user to say:

1. highlight a region of text
2. hit Ctrl + Shift + C (or some other shortcut) to copy the text
3. this would transfer the data to the RFID tag
4. then using a second keyboard they would hit Ctrl + Shift + V
5. this would paste the text into the foreground process on the second computer

This would solve all those niggling problems with transferring and copying data between two physically near computers without the need for e-mail, file transfers or other means of doing so. Obviously this is constrained by file sizes and the data held in the RFID tag would degrade over time, however as this is a local, quick exchange of data, that shouldn’t matter.

Essentially you would be transferring data in a Minority Report style of interaction (without all the cool hand gestures). You would carry the data from one terminal to another.

Stick a finger up at USB sticks,
- Chris