The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers... Sounds important, right? Like, the guys who REALLY know what's up with all the wires and blinking lights that run our lives. But let's be real, who actually cares?
They've got a board of directors, apparently. Antonio Luque, Ravinder Dahiya, Joseph Wei... names that scream "cutting edge" about as much as a rotary phone. Get to Know the IEEE Board of Directors. Luque's working on cybersecurity for IoT? Okay, cool. Dahiya's got bendable electronics? Sure, whatever. And Wei's mentoring startups? So what? Every dude in Silicon Valley with a pulse claims to be "mentoring startups."
Are they actually doing anything that matters, or are they just patting each other on the back and collecting participation trophies? I mean, Wi-Fi, okay, that's a win. Wei was involved with the IEEE 802.11 standard, we gotta give him that. But what have they done lately? Besides hold conferences and publish journals that nobody reads, ofcourse.
Speaking of things that might matter (or might not), these smart glasses are making a comeback, apparently. Remember Google Glass? What a joke. "Glass-holes," indeed. Now, Meta and some other companies are trying to convince us that strapping a screen to our faces is a good idea again. Give me a break.
Halliday's glasses give you a little AI companion in your field of view, while Xreal wants to replace your monitor. Which is less dumb? Hard to say. At least Halliday isn't trying to tether you to a computer. But do I really want some AI whispering in my ear all day? Nah.
Then again, maybe I'm just a grumpy old Luddite. Maybe these things will be the future. Maybe I'll be eating my words in five years when everyone's walking around with screens glued to their faces. But I doubt it.
And then there's this... pain-sharing tech. Seriously? NTT Docomo and PaMeLa are trying to "visualize" pain and then transmit it to someone else. What. The. Hell?
They use EEGs to measure brain waves and then calibrate a heat-based actuation device. So, they can give you a little burn? That's their big innovation?
I mean, even Carl Saab at the Cleveland Clinic is scratching his head. And if a professor at the Cleveland Clinic doesn't get it, you know it's bad. Saab's quote is telling: "When you say you’re measuring someone’s pain, you always have to be careful about what kind of dimension you are measuring." Translation: pain is complicated, and these guys are oversimplifying it to the point of absurdity.
What's the use case here? Torture? I honestly can't think of a single legitimate reason to share pain with someone. It's not like we're lacking in ways to inflict suffering on each other. We don't need a high-tech solution for that. Then again, maybe they're onto something. Maybe there's a huge market for this that I'm just not seeing... Nah, ain't no way.
Look, I get it. Technology is supposed to "advance humanity" and all that jazz. But sometimes, it feels like we're just inventing new ways to waste time and money. Smart glasses? Pain-sharing tech? Are these the best we can do? Maybe the IEEE should focus on something that actually matters, like, I don't know, fixing the damn power grid.
