Last Wednesday, the Utah Department of Transportation presented a new piece of technology that will allow crossing guards to add an extra 10 or 15 seconds to the amount of time that pedestrians have to cross the street using a specially engineered key designed specifically for signal boxes.This new technology was created so that children walking to and from school on busy streets would have more time to get across before the heavy traffic flow started again. It also allows the crossing guards to have a little bit extra time to get back to the opposite corner to help more children that are waiting to cross. Heather Childs, a crossing guard for Hawthorne Academy and Westvale Elementary School, said that “When you have 50 kids crossing this busy intersection at one time, a 30-second light is very hard for the kids to get across and for us to get back. That extra 15 seconds doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a huge difference.”

Aside from its original purpose of helping children get to school safely, I also think that it could be a great asset to the elderly and people that are handicapped. Often times, it takes older people much longer to cross the street and the short amount of walk time might not be enough. One potential way that we could build off of this new technology is by putting them on street corners and having a separate button that says “extra walk time.” Then, if you need extra time to cross the street, the option will be available to you.

I hope that this new piece of technology will be a great contribution to reducing the number of fatalities in cross walks and help better the traffic flow. I also hope that these “extra time buttons” that I mentioned will be available in cities for elderly and handicapped people to use in the future. I think that it would make crossing the street much easier and also keep people that are driving cars from getting angry because an elderly person is taking up 10 seconds of the green light because they can’t cross the road fast enough.

Here is the link with more information about the new crosswalk technology:

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=41478675&nid=148

New wristband technology allows surfers and wake boarders to create the perfect wave. The Surf Band is a new wristband created by Malibu Boats that allows users to change the size, length, and shape of a wave that is being generated by a boat. The wristband has 3 buttons that allow you to make changes to the waves which are speed, wedge and surf controls. Then, using Bluetooth technology, the wristband will communicate with a command center on the boat that will alert the driver when the rider has made any changes. Check out this video by Malibu Boats that introduces their Surf Band.

I love that inventors and engineers are creating devices with intuitive interfaces that almost everyone can use, but soon we are going to run out of wrist space. We need to see some new technology that isn’t a band for your wrist because soon enough, our arms are going to look like this:

Ideally,  we should come up with wristband technology that can combine all of our favorite smart bands together. Apple Watch is starting to do this by combining a smart watch that can connect to your phone and also keep track of your steps and workouts like the Fitbit does. However, I think that the most ideal wristband would be one that could link all of the technology into one. Even if you still have to buy the rights to use Fitbit’s software for example, it would be much easier if we could program one watch to suit all of our needs. We simply do not have enough space on our wrists to continue adding new technology to wear on our arms.

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/riding-the-wave-new-technologies-makes-surfing-possible-even-miles-from-the-ocean/

I am sure that many of you have looked up your home on Google Maps Street View. However, did you know that while they were taking 3D pictures of houses and cities all around the world, they were also taking our personal information? This incident occurred between 2007 and 2010, but I feel that it is worth sharing in this class because I had no idea this even occurred and it really caught my attention.

The Google Street View cars were supposed to be driving around taking 3D pictures of cities and towns for Google maps, but secretly, they were collecting information such as browsing histories, text messages, and personal emails from people’s unprotected WiFi networks in the process.

Originally, Google denied that they meant to take this information. They claimed that “gathering the information was a “mistake” and vowed that the data would never be used.” ( DailyMail.com) But who is going to believe that? You don’t just hack someone’s WiFi by mistake. The programs and software to do this would have had to been set up in advance. The engineer that designed the program eventually shared that the information was going to be used offline for other initiatives. Google managers knew that they would be in serious trouble and completely denied knowing any of the engineer’s plan.

After being investigated by the FCC, Google was fined $25,000 for obstructing the inquiry, but not charged for breaking any laws ( DailyMail.com) . It is quite alarming to me that Google could take so much information from private WiFi networks and only be charged with obstructing the inquiry. $25,000 means nothing to Google who is a billion dollar company. The FCC did not say that Google was breaking any laws by taking all of this information from our home WiFi networks.

With technology booming like it has been in the past decade, we have to be aware of the information that we are putting online and even what we are saving in our phones that we think are protected. This incident with Google has made me realize that it is so much easier for companies to get private information about people than I thought it was. Keep your WiFi networks protected, apparently if you don’t, anybody has the right to take all of your information.

Here is the link to some of the information I sited and also another with more information on this topic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2137145/Google-KNEW-harvesting-emails-passwords-Street-View-drive.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/15/google-admits-storing-private-data

Getting low on toothpaste? Running out of toilet paper but don’t have the time to go to the store this week? Amazon has you covered! Amazon has come up with this new technology called Amazon Dash. Basically, when you are getting low on your household items, you can press the dash button and Amazon will ship the exact same item to your house the next day.

This seems very practical and helpful for those busy weeks when you just can’t seem to find a moment to rest, but eventually I would get tired of receiving the same product over and over and over again. When I run out of something, let’s say coffee, I like to try something new the next time I go to the store. The Amazon Dash buttons don’t provide you with the option to purchase a different brand. You currently have Maxwell House coffee in your cupboard? That is what you are stuck drinking every morning for the rest of your life. 

Also, the Amazon Dash would not mix well with all of those couponers out there. Being a poor college student,  I am really into using coupons and buying what is on sale.The Amazon Dash button wouldn’t allow me to use my coupons or select the product that is on sale that week. With that being said, if Amazon could come up with a Dash button that would find the brands that were on sale for a certain product that I needed, I would be more inclined to use it. I enjoy going to the grocery store and looking at all of the different products that are out there. Amazon has not yet convinced me to wake up to the same coffee for the rest of my life, even if it may be a little less work than going to the dreaded grocery store.

Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3766130/Run-washing-powder-Just-push-button-Amazon-launches-technology-instantly-send-household-essentials.html

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-horror-of-amazons-new-dash-button