White Stripes musicians Jack & Meg White have accused the Air Force Reserve of ripping off one of their songs in a Super Bowl ad.
The White Stripes – New Music – More Music Videos
In a scathing statement on its official website Tuesday, The duo warns that it is planning “strong action” against the Air [...]
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News
A replacement for the black and white stripes of the traditional barcode has been outlined by US researchers.
Bokodes, as they are known, can hold thousands of times more information than their striped cousins and can be read by a standard mobile phone camera.
The 3mm-diameter (0.1 inches), powered tags could be used to encode nutrition information on food packaging or create new devices for playing video games.
The work will be shown off at Siggraph, a conference in New Orleans next week.
"We think that our technology will create a new way of tagging," Dr Ankit Mohan, one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers behind the work, told BBC News.
‘Look at me’
The Bokodes currently consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens.
Information is encoded in the light shining through the mask, which varies in brightness depending on which angle it is seen from.
"It is either bright or dark depending on how we want to encode the information," said Dr Mohan.
The researchers believe the system has many advantages over conventional barcodes.
For example, they say, the tags are smaller, can be read from different angles and can be interrogated from far away by a standard mobile phone camera.
"For traditional barcodes you need to be a foot away from it at most," said Dr Mohan.
The team has shown its barcodes can be read from a distance of up to 20m (60ft)
"One way of thinking about it is a long-distance barcode."
Initially, said Dr Mohan, the Bokodes may be used in factories or industrial settings to keep track of objects.
However, the team also believe they could be used in consumer applications, such as supermarkets, where products could be interrogated with a shopper’s mobile phone.
For example, they could be used to encode nutritional information or pricing offers.
"One to the side may say ‘hey, look at me, I’m a dollar cheaper’," said Dr Mohan.
Taking a picture would also allow people to compare lots of different products quickly.
A similar system could be used in a library, said Dr Mohan.
"Let’s say you’re standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books."
"You could take a picture and you’d immediately know where the book you’re looking for is."
However, the team also believes the tags could find their way into places not normally associated with traditional barcodes.
For example, the system’s ability to read angular information would allow its use in motion-capture systems used to create videogames or films, the team said.
Dr Mohan said they could also be used to augment the information incorporated into Google Streetview, a service which allows users to browse a selection of pictures taken along city streets.
At the moment the images for Streetview – accessible through Google Maps – are collected by trucks and cars fitted with several cameras.
"Shop and restaurant owners can put these Bokodes outside their stores and as the Google truck is driving down the street it will capture the information in that."
For example, a restaurant could put menu information inside the tag.
When the data is uploaded to Google Maps, it would automatically be displayed next to the image of the restaurant, said Dr Mohan.
Colour code
Currently the tags are expensive to produce – around $5 (£3) each. This is in part, because the early prototypes require a lens and a powered LED.
However, the researchers believe the technology could be refined so that tags were reflective and require no power.
"We already have prototypes which are completely passive," said Dr Mohan.
In this form, they could cost around 5 cents each, they said.
It is not the first time that companies or researchers have suggested replacements for or enhancements to barcodes.
For example, in 2007 Microsoft launched its High Capacity Colour Barcode, a series of coloured geometric patterns.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology – essentially tiny electronic tags that broadcast encoded information – were also touted as a barcode replacement.
Although they are now used in many applications, such as library books, passports and travel passes, they have yet to displace the familiar black and white stripes of the barcode.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Taylor Swift has expressed her interest in collaborating with rocker Jack White on her next album.
The ‘Love Story’ hitmaker has said that she dreams of teaming up with the rocker on her next album because she a big fan of his talents.
White fronts ‘The White Stripes’ and ‘Raconteurs’ and performs with ‘The Dead Weather’.
“I”d love [...]
By: Brian Gearing
The last word from Jack White was that the next album from the White Stripes was still in the works, and that was before The Dead Weather came along. For those who hold Meg’s place on the drum stool as sacrosanct, Jack’s newest project is either pure heresy or the next best thing. Rather than filling Sister White’s place with another luminary to round out his new supergroup, Jack picks up the sticks himself and pounds the skins with a ferocity and proficiency that might send little sis to her room to soak her pillow. Horehound (released July 14 on WEA/Reprise) rocks more raw power than anything he’s done since Elephant and his sexy swagger is back after his turn with The Raconteurs‘ pop-geek boys club.
Maybe it’s something to do with having a woman around. Along with Queens of the Stone Age‘s Dean Fertita and The Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence, The Kills‘ Alison Mosshart joins White, and he’s gentlemanly enough to share the mic, though their voices are so similar one wonders about the health of his ego. Psychobabble aside, the two compliment each other so well it’s hard to imagine why they would have chosen “Hang You from the Heavens” as the first single. It’s a decent enough introduction, but rather than pound you into submission like the rest of the record, it jerks you around like a rag doll, and though Mosshart’s voice stands on its own, it stands taller on White’s shoulders.
The two come together on “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” which sways around like a dominatrix stripper on 4-pound, 5-inch platforms, and the hip hop stomp of “Treat Me Like Your Mother” knocks the garage door off its chain. Though The Dead Weather’s two main vocalists draw the spotlight at center stage, the other half provides the voltage. Guitarist and keyboardist Fertita hangs around the basement with bassist Lawrence and White’s right foot and only lets the guitars out to screech through a few wailing garage solos.
Aside from “Rocking Horse” and “Bone House,” which fill in the space between, most of the album alternates between the aforementioned heavy blues tracks (including a genius reworking of the obscure Dylan song “New Pony”) and the slow, haunting, deep cut Zeppelinism of opener “60 Feet Tall” and the instrumental “3 Birds.” Not every track is a home run, but Horehound notches another one in the win column for Jack White. And if The Dead Weather can pick the second single better than the first, their debut is likely to win over a few classic rock listeners who shied from The Raconteurs’ pop edge or the White Stripes’ garage slop. That Jack White can continue to produce superior work in such a variety of settings is a testament to his talent and evidence that whatever direction he may choose it will always be forward. Sorry, Meg.
JamBase | Jack’s Beanstalk
Go See Live Music!
If sources are to be believed, supermodel Kate Moss will is keen to join her beau Jamie Hince’’s band The Kills and is set to audition for him later this week.
Jamie is currently looking for a new singer to perform with after 30-year-old rocker Alison Mosshart left the duo to focus on her other [...]
