Wow!  It has begun!  Like.com is the start of a search tool that could become part of an emotional search engine.  Like.com is a search tool that uses an image reference to find images of items of similar shape, color, and pattern on the internet.  As described in the article,  it is a shopping aid that is intended to help users find items similar to the item they’ve referenced.  So imagine, now, that you’ve built up a collection of images you like and then sent them out through an avatar to find similar things, or, if such information were available to retailers, they could advertise to you items they have to sell that are similar to items you like.  Or, imagine if designers could have access to the likes of a certain demographic to guide the design of future products.  Nice … :).

It sounds like the search algorithm needs more work, but the idea is cool.  I hope the powers that be understand the possibilities of this type of search engine so development will continue.

LCD blackboards and a gymnasium floor that can instantly change configurations, these are some of the future innovations presented in the anime series, “Code-E.”  “Code-E” is an interesting and very pleasing anime about a girl who emits an unusually powerful EMF, and consequently, everywhere she goes she fries electronics.  This is a very inconvenient way to be in a world that is dominated by electronics and the everyday gadgets of life.   Her house is free of electronics, except in the basement where her father has built shielding to protect his computer.  She and her father plot ways to school and the food stores that avoid vital infrastructure (hospitals and the like) and places with high concentrations of electronics.  She doesn’t carry a cell phone or a bus pass because she will fry the phone and demagnetize the bus pass.  And when she gets to her new school, she fries the LCD blackboard and everyone’s cell phone.  Someone wrap a Faraday cage around her!

Anyhow, what’s interesting about the world of this show is the technology and the way the technology seamlessly integrates into life 20-years from now.  The LCD chalk board is pretty cool.  It’s touch sensitive so you can write on it like a chalkboard, but you can also display class materials from a computer on it.  You can almost imagine a central server from which school materials could be pulled from.  You could watch multimedia presentations or you could hold class with other students from around the world with a high speed internet connection.  The gymnasium floor has an array of lights beneath it that can be changed to alter the configuration of the lines on the floor, so the space can be turned from a basketball court to a volleyball court with a button push.  Nice.  Then there is virtual art and the advanced cell phones that everyone was either talking into or looking at.  It all seemed very normal.

It’s early in the series, so I look forward to seeing what more the storytellers of this show come up with.  Get on the Internet and check it out :).  It’s called “Code-E” and so far it appears to be 10+ years old friendly.