TECHNOLOGY TIDBITS
April 2000
Number 52
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TECHNO BRA
Designed to alert the police if the wearer is attacked, the Techno Bra is equipped with a gel pad containing a heart-rate monitor, global positioning system and the components of a cell phone. The heart-rate monitor is able to distinguish between the heart rate changes caused by normal physical activity and fear. The wearer has 30 seconds to deactivate the bra in the event of a false alarm. If the alarm is not disabled, the bra send a signal to a GPS satellite which determines the location of the assault and sends a text message to the local police or a friend. The gel pad can be removed, allowing the bra to be washed in a washing machine. Kursty Grove, the creator of the Techno Bra, is a graduate of London's Royal College of Art. (Source: CIO Magazine, 4/1/2000).

SMART WATCHES
Watches now longer just tell time. Swatch is expanding on its line of digital watches that can identify the wearer to other devices. The "Access" model, used since 1995 in 30 different countries, allows the wearer to load their paid passes for sports resorts, museums, public events and public transportation. Radio receivers detect the "paid pass" signal from the watch and allow the wearer to enter without having to present a ticket. Swatch also has the first set of watches that run on "Internet Time." Internet time is based on 1,000 "beats" per day and follows the meridian passing through Biel, Switzerland, the international reference point. Midnight Biel Mean Time (BMT) is referred to as @000 beats, noon is @500 beats.

Casio has several new watches that will soon be on the market. One watch combines a MP3 player that can play 33 minutes of music through headphones. The music files are downloaded from a personal computer. (Source: Wall Street Journal, 4/19/2000 and Fast Company, May 2000).
ELECTRONIC MAILBOXES
Worldwide, the number of email addresses has exceeded 569 million and is expected to reach 1 billion by 2001. At the end of 1999, the United States accounted for 335.7 million or 59% of the world's total. (Source: 4/17/2000).

WEB SITE OF THE MONTH
Looking for a picture of the Grand Canyon or your favorite movie star? Ditto.com is a search engine for pictures on the Internet. Navigation is fairly straight forward as the photos are broken into sixteen categories such as Arts, Architecture, Entertainment, Travel, etc. Each category is then broken into subgroups. According to the site, "Users are directed to the originating web site on which the pictures are located. Should you wish to use any picture, photo or artwork you see during the search process, you must obtain the appropriate permission from the owner of the material." (Source: Wall Street Journal, 3/30/2000).
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Technology Tidbits is published monthly by Jerry Price, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
© 2000 Jerry W. Price

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