Tech show features snapshots of future
By Peter Svenson
Associated Press
NEW YORK — An odd-looking van sprouts 13 digital cameras that its builder wants to use to photograph 50 million buildings in the country while driving, taking pictures every 15 feet.
The van's drive-by snaps would be matched against GPS satellite positioning data and aerial photographs in a database. Police, insurance agents and others then could call up overhead and street-level views simply by entering an address.
The setup from Imageos Inc. was one of the security-related exhibits at this year's CeBIT America technology trade show, which opened last week. Other companies were showing software tools to secure wireless networks, monitor employee surfing and protect users from viruses and spyware.
The main market for Imageos' photographs would be insurance appraisals, but the Boulder, Colo., startup is also touting the pictures for "homeland security" applications, law enforcement and emergency services.
Imageos' Paul Jurasin said that thanks to the aerial photos, the database can show whether a house has a swimming pool or a fence in the back, details that could be of interest both to insurance companies and police.
"It gives them more information than they would get by driving up to a house, before they get there," Jurasin said.
So far, Imageos has photographed only Orlando, Fla. If it gets financing, it plans to photograph the 25 largest cities in the country over the next five years using more than a dozen vans.
Elsewhere on the convention floor, Hewlett-Packard Co. showed a laptop computer that is secured against non-computing attacks, namely water, dust and physical impact. The nr3600 is HP's first "rugged" laptop, an entry into a market dominated by Panasonic's Toughbooks.
The nr3600, on sale now for $4,099 and up, meets military specifications for shock resistance and sealing against the elements. It is joined by a keyboard-less ruggedized "tablet" for $600 less.
The nr3600 has a large carrying handle, but for portability, it can't beat the OQO, an "ultra personal computer" about the size of a paperback book. The small LCD screen slides away to reveal a tiny keyboard intended for thumb-typing. It has most of the functionality of a full computer: The Windows XP machine has a hard drive, built-in wireless networking and a USB port.
Mark Dineen, the show's managing director, acknowledged some U.S. companies have "pulled away" from trade shows.
However, Microsoft Corp. and enterprise software giants PeopleSoft Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc. were added to the roster of exhibitors this year, and organizers expected up to 50 percent more attendees than the 8,500 last year.
CeBIT America is an offshoot of the world's largest technology fair, which is held Hanover, Germany, in March.
