Category: Current and Future Trends

Set-top boxes to increase the richness of additional information for video content

Article

Freebox Révolution - courtesy Iliad.fr

Freebox Révolution – – to have a better integrated information system for video content

Les fiches de films et séries sont de retour sur Freebox Révolution | Freenews.fr (French language / Langue française)

My Comments

Free.fr have integrated Gracenote’s video-information resource in to their latest firmware for the Freebox Player which is part of the Freebox Révolution.

This is a sign where companies like Gracenote and Rovi create data storehouses of information about every movie, TV show and key celebrity. This accurate information is provided as a service to set-top box manufacturers and TV service providers so that viewers can bring up this information on the big screen relevant to the programme they are watching or are showing interest in on the EPG. These are also designed to be “source-agnostic” so you can link to shows available on air, on a video-on-demand or catch-up TV service and held on your PVR or home network.

For films and TV shows, you have access to rich synopses, cast / crew lists, mood information, genre information and the like. As well, you could bring up information about a celebrity’s biography or their filmography – which films or TV shows they were involved with. You could do this with IMDB on your smartphone or tablet. But these set-top-box / smart-TV solutions are more about having the information one click away from what you are watching or showing interest in while some implementations have the ability to work across two screens – your mobile device and the main screen.

They would also allow for the ability to highlight “like content” that is currently available to view so you can discover what else is worth watching. But a lot of these services don’t really support any externally-curated watch-list functions where a film critic, radio personality or similar person can supply a list of shows worth viewing. This is more so with people who follow sources of quality journalism like public broadcasters, broadsheet or “compact” newspapers or the good newsmagazines; along with those of us who follow blogs about films or TV content.

Personally, I would have this function based around a Webfeed that you can “send” across your home network or the Internet to your set-top box so you can see what shows to search for based on that film critic you are following.. It would also play hand in glove with movie reviewers who want to simply provide supportive reviews to these information services.

What I see of this is the ability to pull up more about what you are watching, especially when you are watching the content with someone who is a “walking encyclopedia” about films or you see someone in that show whom you remember seeing in other TV shows.

The BBC Model B computer returns with a pocket-size vengeance

BBC Model B microcomputer By Soupmeister (Acorn BBC Model B) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

BBC Model B personal computer – the core of an original computer-education project that took place in the UK during the early 1980s

Article

BBC reveals Micro:bit, a programmable PC that fits in your pocket | PC World

Micro:bit : la BBC veut distribuer des nano ordinateurs aux enfants britanniques | ZDNet.fr (French language / Langue française)

From the horse’s mouth

BBC

Press Release

Microsoft

Press Release

TouchDevelop Website

Video

Bluetooth SIG

Blog Post

My Comments

In the early 1980s, the BBC undertook a computer-education project which was based around a series of television programmes along with a specially-commissioned computer. This computer, known as the BBC Model B computer and built by Acorn who were a relatively-new home-computer manufacturer in the UK, was sold to schools so that students can work along with the TV programmes which explored, amongst other things, coding in BASIC and interfacing and controlling other devices.

One feature that the BBC Model B had was an 8-bit user port which was used for directly interfacing digital circuits along with a “game port” typically used for analogue joysticks and knob-style “paddles” but serving as an analogue input. Some of the printed and visual courseware associated with this computer was dedicated to teaching how to use these “real-world” interfaces.

This system was Acorn’s main founding stone and Acorn evolved to become a company who sold RISC-based microprocessors and defined the ARM microarchitecture used in most of today’s smartphones, smart TVs and similar devices.

But Acorn had clawed back to their roots with an ARM-based pocket-sized board computer similar to the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. This computer has been developed in conjunction with the BBC in order to continue on the legacy left by the original BBC Model B computer.

It has 25 LEDs that can be programmed to light up and flash messages, 2 user-programmable buttons and sensors in the form of an accelerometer and compass along with input-output connections for users to connect to other circuits. It uses Bluetooth Smart (BLE) technology to interface with other devices including regular and mobile computer devices. As well, it can connect to a computing device via USB and be programmed via a browser-based software development kit called TouchDevelop which Microsoft worked on.

The TouchDevelop setup uses the Web-based interface along with a choice of programming languages as a way to program the device. It also involves two-stage compilation with the Block Editor script being compiled to turn out C++ code which is then subsequently compiled and linked to turn out machine code to be downloaded and flashed to the BBC Micro Bit.

Like the previous BBC Model B computer, this will be delivered in to UK secondary schools and students will have their own Micro Bit computer so they can learn how to program the Internet Of Everything as part of their computer education.

The goal is to have this computer replicate what the BBC Model B computer had done for British computer education and the success in bringing about a UK-based software industry. Here, they want to have Britain putting a clear foot in the door for Internet Of Things.

FIDO Alliance to encompass U2F authentication to Bluetooth and NFC setups

Articles

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 8" business tablet press picture courtesy of Samsung

Bluetooth and NFC will allow keyfobs, cards and mobile devices to work as authentication devices for each other

FIDO Alliance adds authentication support for NFC and BLE | NFC World

From the horse’s mouth

FIDO Alliance

Press Release

My Comments

Soon it will be feasible for Bluetooth and NFC “touch-and-go” authentication to play a part in open-frame multiple-factor authentication thanks to FIDO Alliance. This is primarily to court those of us who are using mobile devices and want the same level of security as valued with regular computers.

The main goal of the FIDO Alliance was to get the USB transport interface working properly but then to have it work across other transports like Bluetooth and NFC? This is due to most mobile devices including an increasing number of laptops and “2-in-1” computers, coming with Bluetooth including Low-Energy (Bluetooth Smart Ready) and NFC functionality along with Android and Windows exploiting NFC functionality fully at the operating system level.

Example applications made feasible with Bluetooth and NFC in the second-factor authentication sphere include:

  • use of a “touch-and-go” card or a Bluetooth keyfob as your second factor for authenticating to a service from your regular computer or your mobile device – the device doesn’t need a standard USB socket
  • a smartphone that uses a software “second-factor” authentication program like Authy could transmit the second-factor code to your regular computer or tablet by Bluetooth or NFC “touch-and-go”.

As well, the fact that smartphones have a hardware (SIM-based) or software secure element means that they can become as much a strong partner in your data-security arsenal. The concept is also being extended to the idea of devices like smart locks and cars having the Bluetooth and / or NFC abilities along with an onboard secure element of some form.

Similarly the U2F and UAF specifications could earn their keep as a transport for other dedicated-purpose devices like smart locks which typically are implementing Bluetooth Low Energy and/or NFC technology as part of their presence in the Internet Of Everything. This can open up paths of innovation for integrating such devices in a personal-security web of trust.

Wi-Fi now the expected feature for digital cameras and camcorders

Wi-Fi as a feature for digital cameras and camcordersRecently, I have been going through news articles about the digital cameras that are being launched or premiered this year and most of them are offering a common feature. What is this feature?

It is Wi-Fi wireless-network connectivity which allows you to link your smartphone or tablet with your camera using the same technology that is used to link these devices to your home network and the Internet when you are at home.

One of the key advantages that Wi-Fi wireless connectivity offers is that it offers a wider bandwidth than Bluetooth which would earn its keep with transferring the high-resolution RAW or JPEG pictures to your computer or mobile device.

Camera set up as access point

The camera serves as an access point for the smartphone or tablet

The typical situation is that you have to install software on your smartphone, tablet or computer that is written by the camera’s manufacturer to take advantage of this feature. This software would allow you to transfer photos and video from your camera to your computing device or have the computing device’s screen work as a viewfinder for the camera. In a lot of cases, it could serve as a remote control for your camera such as to be able to trip the shutter remotely. If the computing device is a smartphone or tablet, you may have the ability to geotag the shots you took using your camera with the smartphone’s GPS sensor providing the information. As well. some Panasonic camcorders use this software to create a multiple-camera setup using your smartphone’s camera along with the camcorder’s own camera function.

Using your smartphone's wireless-tethering feature as an access point

Using your smartphone’s wireless tethering feature as an access point

As I have highlighted before, Ricoh uses an integrated Web page rather than a client-side app for their GR II digital camera when it comes to remote control. This would appeal to those of us who use regular computers or Windows smartphones as partner devices for our cameras.

In some situations, the camera may offer an “on-ramp” to a manufacturer-hosted Web gateway which allows you to upload and share the pictures using the Web. As well, some of these Web gateways may offer a further “on-ramp” to social-network, image-sharing or file-exchange services that you have accounts with so you can take advantage of these services.

Using an existing network

Your Wi-Fi-capable camera as part of an existing home network

But how can these cameras work with Wi-Fi? Most of these cameras can be their own access point, typically serving one device like a smartphone or laptop. But they also have the ability to connect to an existing access point. This can be of benefit when you use a phone with Wi-Fi-based tethering, a “Mi-Fi” router or your existing home or small-business network.

How to get the most out of this technology

Interlinking with your smartphone

Facebook and Dropbox desktop

Facebook and Dropbox can benefit here

If you use your smartphone or tablet to post pictures on Facebook, Instagram and the like, you can take the pictures you want to post using your Wi-Fi-capable camera rather than the smartphone’s rear-facing camera and these pictures could impress people more. This is because the good digital cameras implement optics that are better than what would be integrated in a smartphone’s integrated camera.

Instagram Android screenshot

… as can Instagram

Similarly, when you take those holiday pictures, you can take advantage of your smartphone’s GPS to geotag the pictures and use them as part of an interactive map that a social network may offer.

Here, you use the camera for most of the photography while your smartphone’s camera can work as a fallback if your application calls for something small and light and you don’t care about the quality. Similarly, your smartphone’s camera would earn its keep with video-conferencing.

The best network setup for the job

The Wi-FI feature along with the “remote-control” functionality will come in to its own when you dig out that tripod. Here, you could be able to interact with the subject yet keep tabs on how it will look in the viewfinder and how the exposure will come off using your smartphone.

An existing network served by a powerful router could earn its keep here if you need to be further away from the camera such as filming a presentation or interacting with a subject. If you are “out and about”, a Mi-Fi could serve this role easily because of it working as an access point on its own battery rather than you finding that the battery is being depleted very quickly during a long shoot.

What needs to be done

DLNA integration

Once you have NAS units, especially mobile NAS units being equipped with the Upload and Download functionaliy for their DLNA MediaServer functionality, these cameras would have to support DLNA MediaUploader functionality to allow you to deliver the pictures you took on to these devices.  Similarly the idea of “throwing” images and footage you just took to a DLNA-capable smart TV via your home network would need to be investigated as a feature for these cameras.

Here, this could be approached through identifying standards and specifications that apply to the photography and videography ecosystem. As well, this concept could be taken further to allow different software to gain access to the camera’s sensor or controls for different applications.

Wi-FI Passpoint support

Another area that may need to be worked on for these digital cameras and camcorders is support for WI-Fi Passpoint. This allows for a simplified yet secure login experience when you use these cameras with a public-access Wi-Fi hotspot like what your favourite hotel or café provides. Here, you are not dealing with a login Webpage which would be difficult, if not impossible, to use with a digital camera because of the absence of a Web browser and reliance on “pick-and-choose” data entry.

The concept of a “trusted device cluster” could be looked at in the context of Wi-Fi Passpoint so you can provide a surefire “local-network-link” between two or more devices that are using a public-access network. Here, it would earn its keep when you are controlling your tripod-mounted camera from your smartphone during a presentation or downloading those pictures to your Ultrabook or tablet while you are in your hotel room.

Wi-Fi as another path to control lighting and other peripherals

Serious hobbyists and professionals will be dealing with advanced lighting setups in order to get the best out of their photographs and footage. This may involve continuous-light devices like video and photo lights along with flash-based devices like Speedlites or studio flash units. LEDs are also making it more feasible to vary the lighting colour of a particular lamp at an instant.

Here, Wi-Fi along with some of the “Internet Of Things” proposals being put forward by the UPnP Forum and AllSeen Alliance could open up the ability to use your smartphone or camera as a control surface for your lighting setup. This would also include being able to trigger flash units manually or in sync with the shutter.

For video applications, Wi-FI technology could also earn its keep with picture-sound synchronisation by working as a “common path” to transmit SMPTE synchronisation data between audio recorders and video camcorders. This could allow for “best-quality” sound recording and multiple-camera setups with devices having their own recording transports.

Conclusion

What I see of this year’s trend for cameras and camcorders to have Wi-Fi wireless network abilities is something that will make them increasingly capable.

Rollei sells slide scanners suitable for large slide collections

Article

Rollei DF-S 290 slide scanner press picture courtesy of Rollei Gmbh

This slide scanner can scan 10 of the old memories at a time to an SD card

Diascanner: Negative und Dias digitalisieren | Netzwelt.de (German language / Deutsche Sprache)

From the horse’s mouth

Rollei

DF-S 290 HD Product Page

My Comments

Those of us who lived through the 1950s to the 1970s often dealt with 35mm photo slides being par for the course for family photography. This was most often through people keeping large collections of these slides or sitting through many evenings where it was time to drag out the slide projector and show these slides on a screen. It was infact the kind of activity that tended to take place once someone came back from a long trip overseas.

These people valued the slides as a photographic medium because they were compact and you could either show them to many using that projector or view them personally using a handheld viewer.

WD MyCloud EX2 dual-disk NAS

A fast-track path for your old photographic memories to end up on that DLNA-capable NAS

There have been some unsatisfactory attempts to get these slides along with 35mm negatives on to a computer form. This typically involved a very expensive process of sending the pictures out to a digitizing service who would scan them to a CD or you were dealing with a scanning device that would turn out low-resolution images of these pictures and allow you to handle up to five of them at a time.

Rollei have raised the game with this class of device by selling a range of standalone slide / film scanners that had a 10-slide “continuous-feed” tray as standard. Here you could place 10 slides in this tray and work a lever to feed each slide through the machine once you scan them using the machine’s control surface.

Here, you could scan the slides stored in one of those classic yellow Kodachrome slide trays with very little fuss and is an improvement on similar scanner devices and multifunction printers that have transparency-scanning abilities because you don’t have to place slides in to a carrier like ducks in a row. It can also be of benefit to those of us who have limited dexterity, something that will come about as we get older.

Where do the images end up? They end up on an SD card that you provide and you transfer this card to your laptop to download the images. There is the ability to correct exposure or colour balance using the Rolei slide scanners’ controls, along with the ability to correct slides or negatives that were put in the scanner the wrong way. Some of you may find these options superfluous if you use software on your computer like iPhoto or Windows Live Photo Gallery to adjust the picture quality as part of using your computer to add metadata to your image scans. But this can come in handy if the goal is to have those memories appear on an electronic picture frame or similar device, or simply to “dump” them to a DLNA-capable NAS to be available on your home network or a Dropbox folder that you share with your family .

As well, the Rollei DF-S 290 also has an HDMI connection so you can use your large-screen TV or computer monitor as a preview screen or as a playback screen for showing those slides.

Of course, there is still a gap in the marketplace for certain “off-the-film” image-scanning jobs.

One of these is handling large slide collections that are stored in slide-projector magazines like the Kodak Carousel. This is because most of the scanners that support these magazine systems tend to fetch premium prices and are typically designed to work as peripherals for computer systems.

Another gap is being able to reliably scan film that isn’t held in a carrier that is supplied with a film scanner. This is of annoyance for people who deal with long flimstrips such as slide film that is “strip-processed” or negatives that you developed in the darkroom but didn’t cut in to the standard strips.

Yet another gap is being able to handle film formats other than the common 35mm film. In the consumer space, these surface as the 110 or 126 “Instamatic” cartridge films whereas in the hobbyist and professional space, these surface as the 120 or 220 “medium-format” roll films. It also is true for people who use equipment that uses variants of the 35mm film format like half-frame or panorama cameras.

Here, a scanner design could answer these needs through the use of optical zoom or digital zoom with a high-resolution imaging device. As well, for “on-device” editing, there could be the ability to crop to various aspect ratios supported by these films or stitch together panorama images taken by multi-frame panorama cameras.

At least someone is taking a proactive step towards providing affordable equipment for scanning those large slide collections and making them available to view on our home networks.

The connected wearable concept now embraces personal safety

Article

Can Wearable Tech Combat Sexual Assault? | FastCompany

From the horse’s mouth

Roar

Product Page

Video

Safelet

Product Page

Video

My Comments

The concept of connected wearables has primarily focused either on smartwatches that serve as an auxiliary control surface for your smartphone or fitness bands of the Jawbone or Fitbit ilk that measure how you are performing on your workout.

Now three companies have focused on personal safety as an application for the connected wearable. This is in the form of personal alarm or “panic-button” devices that interlink with your smartphone.

They are not your garden-variety attack alarm which was typically a white box which had a built-in battery-operated alarm with a loud piezo sounder that you activated by pressing a button or pulling a cord. Rather they communicate by Bluetooth with a special app on your iOS or Android smartphone to contact a predefined list of contacts if you press a panic button on the wearable. This is in addition to the ROAR Athena having their own alarm and flashing light.

These devices place emphasis on elegant style that underscores the value women place on aesthetics and designed to be pieces of jewellery that they can wear. The Safelet is styled to look like a silver bracelet while the ROAR Athena is styled like an attractive brooch that can be attached to one’s clothing.

The ROAR Athena also works with a Web-based intelligence database about those areas that are safe and those that aren’t. Here, people can identify and report areas that are potential troublespots as far as personal safety is concerned like streets that are poorly lit or known troublemaker hangouts.

It’s early days yet but I would like to see these device able to integrate with related applications like workplace personal-safety systems or home security so that they can “map” to these systems when one is in their scope.

What I see of this is the concept of wearable technology and platform-based computing encouraging innovation for the common good.

Panasonic launches network-capable stereo equipment with full multiroom streaming

Article

Panasonic SC-ALL5CD CD/FM/DAB+ AllPlay-capable one-piece music system press picture courtesy of Panasonic UK

Panasonic SC-ALL5CD CD/FM/DAB+ AllPlay-capable one-piece music system can stream CDs or the radio to AllPlay-capable wireless speakers via your home network

Panasonic has a second go with multi-room, streams CD and radio | Gadget Guy Australia

From the horse’s mouth

Panasonic Australia

Press Release

My Comments

Panasonic SC-PMX100 CD/FM/DAB+ AllPlay-capable 3-piece music system press picture courtesy of Panasonic UK

… as can the Panasonic SC-PMX100 CD/FM/DAB+ AllPlay-capable 3-piece music system

Panasonic has pushed on the Qualcomm AllPlay specification as a way of having your favourite music or TV audio streamed around the home network to AllPlay-compliant Wi-FI wireless speakers. This takes advantage of new functions added to this specification such as streaming Bluetooth, line-in or other local audio sources to these setups or setting up a group of speakers for stereo or surround-sound reproduction with improved separation.

Panasonic SC-ALL70T AllPlay soundbar press picture courtesy of Panasonic UK

Panasonic SC-ALL70T soundbar can stream TV audio to your AllPlay-compatible wireless speakers via your home network

They have released the SC-ALL70T soundbar and SC-ALL30T TV speaker base which enhance your flat-screen TV’s sound but they can do more than what a soundbar or speaker base can do. If you use the newer SC-ALL2 wireless speakers, you can upgrade these speakers to become a full 5.1 surround-sound system with the front left, front right and centre audio channels coming out of the soundbar or speaker base. As well, if you connect your flatscreen TV’s headphone or analogue line-out jack to the soundbar’s or speaker base’s AUX input, you can set it up to stream the TV content’s sound to all of the AllPlay-compliant wireless speakers on your home network.

Panasonic SC-ALL2 wireless speaker courtesy of Panasonic UK

Panasonic SC-ALL2 AllPlay wireless speaker

Those of you who love local broadcast radio or buy your music on CDs can have these sources streamed around your home network to AllPlay-compliant wireless speakers courtesy of two new stereos that Panasonic has released. Here with these systems, you don’t have to be in a hurry to “rip” that new CD you bought from Amazon or JB Hi-FI to have it come through your wireless speakers around the house.

These are the SC-ALL5CD single-piece music system and the SC-PMX100 premium three-piece micro system, which have a CD player, FM and DAB+ broadcast-radio tuners along with Bluetooth connectivity and an aux input all able to be streamed across your home network. Most likely, you would use the Panasonic iOS or Android remote-control app on your smartphone or tablet to change tracks or stations that you hear when you listen from other speakers.

Let’s not forget that the Panasonic SC-ALL2 speaker, which has an integrated alarm-clock display, can be paired with another of these speakers for improved stereo separation. Here, it is pitched for bathroom, bedroom or similar “auxiliary” speaker use, but shows that Panasonic could take this concept further.

For example, they could pitch a three-piece micro music system similar to the SC-PMX100 but equipped with a Blu-Ray player. Then an AllPlay-compatible wireless subwoofer and the SC-ALL2 speakers could make for a surround-sound system for a master bedroom or small lounge area with the SC-ALL2 speakers able to provide “close stereo” sound suitable for listening to music in bed.  Similarly, these could go with a Smart TV like one of the Panasonic VIERA models, offering to provide increased stereo separation or a full surround-sound setup again suitable for the small lounge area.

These stereos and speakers will still play music from the online music services of the Spotify ilk, the “new short-wave” that is Internet radio as well as music that is piled up on a NAS and made available via its DLNA media server.

What is showing is that Panasonic, a mainstream consumer-electronics brand, is still demonstrating faith in the Qualcomm AllPlay network-based wireless sound distribution platform rather than going for systems that are totally focused on equipment sold by that same vendor.

Pre-baked operating systems to be the norm for the Internet Of Everything

Article

Google reportedly building an OS for the Internet of Things | Engadget

My Comments

As part of developing Windows 10, Microsoft released a variant of the operating system for small-form embedded devices such as what would represent the “Internet Of Things” or “Internet Of Everything”. Now Google has fronted up with a similar operating system that is pitched for the same purpose.

But why these operating systems? Designing a device that is to be “connected” typically requires the manufacturer to shoehorn a task-specific operating system for this device and typically these devices require one that has a small storage, memory and power footprint.  There is also the expectation that the device will have very limited user interaction capabilities, perhaps only a switch and LED.

These operating systems won’t require the manufacturer to reinvent the wheel for functionality like communications or power management. Rather they can concentrate on what the device is all about and build the code necessary for its functionality. This may also allow them to concentrate on differentiating the device they build from the “rest of the pack” and make it more compelling.

But could this bring forth a level playing field for the “Internet Of Everything” which assures connectivity and interoperability along with devices that are secure by design?

North American XBox One users can receive over-the-air TV via their console

Article

XBox One games console press photo courtesy Microsoft

The XBox One now to be DLNA-capable

Xbox One Digital TV Tuner hits the US and Canada today | Engadget

From the horse’s mouth

Microsoft XBox

Press Release

Hauppauge

Product Page

My Comments

Microsoft had integrated in to the XBox One software access to broadcast TV via add-on tuner modules or broadcast-LAN tuner devices as part of making it a general media hub rather than just a games console.

But, for a year, Microsoft offered a USB-connected DVB-T tuner module for XBox One consoles used in Europe and Oceania where DVB-T digital broadcasting is the norm for over-the-air TV broadcasts. This put its home market, the USA and Canada, at a disadvantage because these countries use ATSC for their over-the-air TV broadcasting.

Now Microsoft and Hauppauge have worked together to develop a USB TV-tuner dongle for the XBox One so it can work with over-the-air TV in North America. They are even offering a package with this tuner module and an indoor HDTV antenna so you can get ready to go if you don’t have an outdoor TV antenna.

Microsoft’s addition of TV-broadcast support allows for “picture-in-picture” viewing, an integrated program guide with social-media support, “pause-live-TV” functionality along with the ability to change channels by voice using Kinect. It cab also allow you to stream over-the-air TV to your smartphone or tablet courtesy of the XBox SmartGlass app for iOS, Android, Windows and Windows-Phone platforms. The current limitation is that it can’t work as a full-fledged PVR to record over-the-air content.

In the US, this feature has some appeal to the “cord-cutting” community who prefer to watch TV content from online sources or the over-the-air networks rather than cable TV. Similarly, this also may please those of us who have the XBox connected to an HDMI-capable monitor or projector and want to use this to watch broadcast TV.

It is furthering the idea that a games console can be used as an entertainment hub rather than just for gaming.

KFC puts forward the idea of a flexible Bluetooth keyboard as a tray-mat

Article

KFC Puts Keyboards In Trays So Greasy Chicken Fingers Can Keep Texting | Gizmodo

My Comments

The fast-food industry are always working on ways to promote their wares and one way they have always used is the “tray-mat” which is a sheet of paper with promotional material printed on it that is placed on the serving trays. In some cases, especially with McDonalds, this is also used as part of a sweepstakes or competition where you can win prizes and, of course, these end up as a take-home collectable or souvenir.

But the KFC franchises in Germany have taken this further by integrating a Bluetooth keyboard in one of these tray-mats. Here, they pitch the idea of keeping your greasy fingers off the smartphone screen while you type out replies to SMS, social-media or other messages. This exploits the standard Bluetooth HID Device Profile supported by the mobile operating systems and pairs with the host device when powered on.

Do I see this as being more than a promotional gimmick or toy? It can be an alternative to various’”laser-projector” ideas that project the keyboard to a surface like a table or desk and could have appeal for wherever you have to enter text in a dirty environment. It is also a way to prove that Bluetooth can be integrated in paper, flexible plastic, cloth and similar materials and can be implemented with these materials as a human interface device.

In this context, the flexible Bluetooth keyboard could work well as a “roll-up” keyboard or as part of a loose-leaf folder system whether as a binder, divider or a leaf. Use of different layouts could come in handy like a piano keyboard for music input or a group of buttons that work with particular apps.