GOOGLE'S PROJECT SOLI BAFFLES

More and more technology is changing our lives into something like that from a sci-fi movie. Soon flying cars, hover-boards, and robots will be an everyday part of our daily lives. Google is doing some amazing things to get us there too. It's very exciting and Google's Project Soli is one of those ideas that could catapult us into the realm of Star Trek or Back to the Future.

Project Soli is a new interaction sensor that uses radar technology to capture finger motions at 10,000 frames per second and it's unbelievably accurate. So accurate, that you could operate any device that's been fitted with this chip, without ever having to touch it.

The sensor is approximately the size of a small computer chip and it will transform your fingers into a virtual dial. You could control something as mundane as turning the volume up or down on a speaker, to something more advanced like  turning your fingers into a virtual touchpad for a smartwatch or smartphone.

The chip is actually a miniature gesture radar and captures incredibly complex hand gestures at close range at mind-blowing frame rates. Given the nature of how small this chip really is, it's suitable for almost any device or any computerized machine.

The future is here, and it's friggin' cool!

TECH'S BIGGEST NAMES CREATE NEW VIDEO FORMAT

Some of the biggest names in tech are teaming up to revamp the way video works on the internet. The roster includes Amazon, Cisco, Intel, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Netflix. Interesting that Apple and Facebook are not on that list. Perhaps they will be at some point. The companies have come together to create the Alliance for Open Media. The group includes all three major web browser makers, of course excluding Apple and their Safari web browser.

The new format has yet to be named, but could make it easier for web giants to move away from using the antiquated Adobe Flash. It seems the world has been calling for it's death for some time, but Rocky Balboa, it just keeps getting up. There's more to this new concept than just being a replacement. It will be designed specifically for streaming video over the web with the idea being that it's suitable for low power devices. Again, interesting that Apple isn't on board with this yet, because for a while they didn't support Flash on their mobile devices saying that it was a power hog. The new format will also support copy protection. This makes perfect sense for companies like Netflix. The cherry on the top is that it will be royalty free. Open source and royalty free? Huzza!

The risk overall is that this creates confusion with yet another standard for companies and developers to handle. Adoption rate will likely be slow, the haters will hate, and the general public may not know the difference except when they go to view a video and receive the error that says the format is not supported. Could be worse, I suppose. The concept does make sense though. Finding a way to implement a new standard that is advancing along side of the ever-changing tech is the only way to go. Only time will tell.

ALPHABET IS GOOGLE'S NEW NAME

Here's a kicker. Google is changing their name. No joke.  Yep, our favorite verb is no longer the name of a very forward thinking company. On Monday Google announced that it was changing it's name to Alphabet, a name that encompasses a company that's made up of so many parts. Fear not though, the search engine will remain separate.

So, why the move? Google has become so much more than just a search engine. They are a massive conglomerate that has their hands in everything from drones to pharmaceuticals to even venture capital. Google seems to have their hands in almost everything. And it makes sense. The company is like a mad scientist in his lab dreaming up crazy ideas and then making them real.

The name Alphabet is meant to allow all the separate parts to be independent and develop their own brand. Over the years the world has come to recognize the Google banner as just the search engine. It would be hard for the robotics and artificial intelligence devisions to do that because they may never be consumer oriented. Google's co-founder, Larry Page, wanted an umbrella company that gave the individual parts the freedom to fly.

If you want to take a peek at the company's new site, you won't find it at alphabet.com. That site is owned by BMW and as of Monday evening, the site was very slow to load. I'm guessing that was because of all the new traffic. People Googling to find it. You'll have to surf on over to abc.xyz to find the new company site. Also, it would seem that the owner of @alphabet on Twitter is probably receiving a bunch of new friends. Looks like his Monday went very well.

You have to hand it to Google, they like keeping it fresh. And if you don't believe me, you can Alphabet that.