Hawaii's Science, Technology and New Media Community
Ken Berkun's Groups
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Gadgets
35 members
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Information Security C...
3 members
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Crypto & Security
22 members
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Nerdy, Healthy & Fit
41 members
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Healthcare IT
20 members
Ken Berkun's Discussions
Looking for consultant to write a white paper on security
1 Reply
Started this discussion. Last reply by Ken Berkun Sep 30.
Ken Berkun's Events
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iPhone Developers Meetup
December 2, 2009 from 6pm to 7:30pm – Manoa Innovation Center
Ken Berkun's Page
Latest Activity
No disagreement here, Jim. But PhoneGap sure looks interesting.
Ken
Jim, the Blackberry has dropped off our radar screen for now, but I'll keep you in mind for the future.
Thanks,
ken
Gadgets of every kind, Household, Mobile,
Computer, Electronic, High Tech, Science
iPhone Developers Meetup at Manoa Innovation Center
December 2, 2009 from 6pm to 7:30pm
Presentation by Rama McIntosh: Release early, release often, and App Store's release date craziness.
Please contact us if you would like to present.
Reasonable overview of Go and its purposes:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10393210-264.html?tag=rtcol;pop
Good reply Dan. It pains me to think that I've fallen into a niche where I don't have the time or need to explore new technologies. I have to remind myself that I am learning other things...
Ken
Dan,
I enjoy all these articles about languages, but, and this is a serious question, why do we care? Who has time to evaluate a new language when there is so much work to be done and the current tools, if not perfect, are adequate?
Ken
Profile Information
- Occupation:
- Executive, Software Developer
- Company:
- Lables That Talk
- Areas of Interest (Robotics, Software Architecture, Green Energy, Web 2.0, etc.):
- Machine Vision, Image Processing, C, C++, Embedded Software, Consumer Electronics, Bar Codes, Audio Codec
- Software Language Proficiencies / Interests:
- C, C++
- About Me:
- I am the President and Founder of Labels That Talk. We print audio on paper as a very high density 2 dimensional bar code. I am always on the lookout for local people with image processing, machine vision, DSP, audio codec and related skills. We are an early stage company, still in product development. We are based in Kailua, Oahu.
- Website:
- http://www.lttaloha.com
Ken Berkun's Blog
Vote for Hawaii to receive 50,000 new books for children in need
Go to this page:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/friend.php
You can fill in optional fields, or just hit submit. Winning state gets 50,000 new books for children in need. Hawaii is currently in third place, so we have a fighting chance. You can vote once a day - multiple votes are encouraged. The site appears to be legitimate with other opportunities to help as well.
Vote early and vote often! And don't tell your friends in other states :-)
Ken
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/friend.php
You can fill in optional fields, or just hit submit. Winning state gets 50,000 new books for children in need. Hawaii is currently in third place, so we have a fighting chance. You can vote once a day - multiple votes are encouraged. The site appears to be legitimate with other opportunities to help as well.
Vote early and vote often! And don't tell your friends in other states :-)
Ken
Posted on September 14, 2009 at 7:24pm — 5 Comments
Further evidence that the state of Hawaii is not business friendly
http://www.kitv.com/news/20161762/detail.html
Outdoor Circle Wants Wienermobile Banned
Group Says Vehicle Violates Billboard Law
HONOLULU -- The Outdoor Circle wants the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile's trip to the islands to be its last, saying it violates the state's billboard law.
Add A Comment | Images: Wienermobile On Oahu
The 27-foot fiberglass vehicle shaped like a hotdog on wheels just wrapped up a three-week tour on Oahu.
"It's not a heinous crime, but in Hawaii our beauty is so importan… Continue
Outdoor Circle Wants Wienermobile Banned
Group Says Vehicle Violates Billboard Law
HONOLULU -- The Outdoor Circle wants the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile's trip to the islands to be its last, saying it violates the state's billboard law.
Add A Comment | Images: Wienermobile On Oahu
The 27-foot fiberglass vehicle shaped like a hotdog on wheels just wrapped up a three-week tour on Oahu.
"It's not a heinous crime, but in Hawaii our beauty is so importan… Continue
Posted on July 23, 2009 at 9:42pm —
Comment Wall (15 comments)
- At 8:41pm on October 1, 2009,
Robert Coulson said…
- Hi Ken,
A little late, but I was able to post the E-waste collection event for this Sunday's
Youth Day at the State Capitol. I posted it in the events section of techhui.com. Thanks again for the introduction to techhui, excellent site!
- At 6:28pm on September 4, 2009,
Vladimir Shvets said… - Hi Ken,
Thank you for your comment. I graduated in 2008 and currently I’m not a student. However, I would welcome an opportunity to get more experience in engineering. I would like to learn more about your company and ways I can get involved.
- At 6:25pm on August 10, 2009,
Roger Garrett said… - "The Menace of the Micro World : Another look at the world of artificial intelligence", Interface Age, March 1977, by Ken Burkun.
Yup, I found it. I had an article in the same issue, called "The Cube". In fact, I think it may have been my first article, before I became the Northeast Regional editor and had the "The Inventor's Sketchpad" column each month.
I don't have a scanner, but if I can find one I'll scan the whole article and send it to you. Otherwise, I'll bring the issue along to some TechHui meeting so you can reminisce about those days of long ago. :)
- At 9:04pm on August 9, 2009,
Roger Garrett said…
- Hey Ken,
I actually have a lot of the Interface Age issues. I'll have to look through and see if I have that article.
- Roger
- At 7:33pm on July 26, 2009,
Peter Kay said…
- Thanks Ken, much appreciated!
- At 8:21pm on July 3, 2008,
Ken Berkun said…
- Yes, a menu might be a dandy application, especially for the blind. Of course you'd have to record it in each language as we don't do translation (but conceivably could as the technology improves).
Currently high end smart phones have chips powerful enough to do the encoding/decoding, but this technology will move down the chain so that more and more phones will have the capability. But we don't expect to be in cell phones for a few years. We have other nuts to crack first.
We have already signed a letter of understanding with our first licensing customer and are working towards a definitive agreement - so far so good! (Sorry, not free to name names yet.)
Ken
- At 9:57am on July 2, 2008,
Dave Takaki said… - So someone could scan a menu with bar codes and hear the listing in his/her language? And one can rely on the dsp chip sets in a phone to record for a barcode?
Do you have licensing plans in place?
Dave Takaki at SDC Hawaii LLC, dave.takaki@chi.mp
- At 6:29pm on April 9, 2008,
Ken Berkun said…
- Daniel,
Things are pretty good, knock on wood! I'm on the mainland right now meeting with prospects and potential funders and we are being very well received.
I'm very familiar with the mobile barcodes that can be read by cell phone (there are several including QR code, dot code, semacode as well as the UPCs referenced in the blog entry. But all of these, at best, simply take your browser to a web page or display rudimentary information. It's not a great user experience because it is slow. Of course the carriers like it because it brings them traffic.
I hadn't seen ColorZip before, but it is still a low capacity barcode. Of more interest is Microsoft's High Capacity Color Barcode (http://research.microsoft.com/research/hccb/). This has some potential, but a) we want our product to work with cheap black and white printers and b) we'd have to pay a license fee to Microsoft!
Again, the beauty of our technology is that the sound is encoded right in the barcode, no need to access a computer or the internet.
Thank you for your continued interest. If I don't respond right away it's because I'm on the road and only have time to catch up in the evenings.
Ken
- At 5:23pm on April 9, 2008,
Daniel Leuck said… - Hey Ken. How are things at Labels That Talk?
You might find this blog entry from Gene Phillips of interest.
I was wondering what you thought of ColorZip? Do you think its going to take off in the US?
- At 8:48am on January 2, 2008,
Ken Berkun said…
- Sorry for the delay in answering, I was on vacation. We expect that the retail price of a scanner/recorder (no printer) will be $150 or less. But ultimately you won't need a dedicated scanner because your camera phone will be a scanner. All it needs is our software (if it has a reasonable camera and processor, think smart phone, iPhone, etc.).
© 2009 Created by Daniel Leuck
