Singapore scientists looking for ways to transmit the sense of touch over the internet have devised a vibration jacket for chickens and are thinking about electronic children's pajamas for cyberspace hugs.
A wireless jacket for chickens or other pets can be controlled with a computer and gives the animal the feeling of being touched by its owner, said researchers at Nanyang Technological University.
The next step would be to use the same concept to transmit hugs over the internet.
"These days, parents go on a lot of business trips, but with children, hugging and touching are very important," associate professor Adrian David Cheok said.
The university is thinking of a pajama suit for children, which would use the internet to adjust changes in pressure and temperature to simulate the feeling of being hugged. Parents wearing a similar suit could be "hugged" back by their children.
Filtered freedom: The owners of file-sharing network Kazaa are working to install filters aimed at preventing users of the software from swapping copyrighted material.
Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox ordered Kazaa's owners to install the new filters last week as part of landmark music-piracy litigation between Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, and the Australian record industry.
Wilcox gave Sharman until next week to develop a new version of its Kazaa Media Desktop software with a new filtering system built in that will include 3,000 so-called keywords, most likely the names of popular recording artists.
Any searches containing those keywords will be blocked by the filter, in a move aimed at stopping their copyright material from being swapped by Kazaa users.
Wilcox also told Sharman to use dialog boxes to urge Kazaa users to download the new software.
"There will have to be filters in place by Dec. 5 or Kazaa will be shut down," Stephen Peach, chief executive of the Australian Record Industry Association, said.
However, it is unlikely Kazaa could be shut down as any order would only cover Australian users and the software is used by millions of people around the world to exchange files containing music, movies and other material. Also, users of older versions of the Kazaa software are unlikely to be unaffected by the new version.
Empowered parents: Sony has become the latest of the video-game console makers to announce parental controls in it newest machine. Now, all three major console makers are promising parents the means to help restrict their children's access to violent video games.
Sony (SNE) will place the controls on its forthcoming machine, PlayStation 3. Users of PlayStation 2 could limit access, but only to movies, not games.
Microsoft (MSFT) had already placed parental controls in its new Xbox 360, which debuted last week. The machine lets users restrict access to video games and DVDs that carry certain ratings, such as "T" for "teen" or "M" for "mature." It also offers parental controls on the company's Xbox Live online gaming service, limiting who their children can interact with.
Earlier this month, Nintendo announced similar plans for its next-generation machine, Revolution, due out in 2006.
Finally, the ads I want: TiVo, the company that made its name by letting users skip television commercials, said it is working on technology that lets viewers search for specific advertisements.
The technology, which is expected to launch in early 2006, is the latest sign of the advertising industry's efforts to reach consumers who are taking advantage of high-tech products to escape the traditional ad pitch.
TiVo (TIVO) said it is working with several large advertising companies on the feature, including Interpublic Group's (IPG) Interpublic Media, Omnicom Group's (OMC) OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, the Richards Group and Comcast's (CMCSA) Comcast Spotlight advertising sales division.
The advertising service will let subscribers search for a product by category or keyword, then TiVo would deliver matching commercials to the consumer's set-top box.
Hostages held at patent-point: The U.S. Supreme Court said that it would consider an appeal by online auctioneer eBay in its patent battle with MercExchange, a developer of e-commerce technology.
In 2003, a federal court ordered eBay to pay Virginia-based MercExchange $29.5 million for infringing two e-commerce patents that MercExchange charged were key to eBay's "Buy It Now" feature, which handles fixed-price sales.
Such sales accounted for about 31 percent of the total value of goods sold on eBay in the fourth quarter of 2004.
In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled one of MercExchange's patents was invalid and trimmed the damages against eBay to $25 million but reversed the lower court's denial of MercExchange's request for a permanent injunction against eBay.
At issue for the justices is whether an appeals court erred in finding that a permanent injunction barring use of a technology must generally be issued once infringement of a valid patent has been determined.
In its appeal, eBay said the ruling reduced a trial court judge's discretion to exceptions involving national health and handed a club to companies that buy patents to make infringement claims. The eBay case has attracted interest among those who believe it has become too easy to hold businesses hostage through patent suits.
A group of 35 patent law professors filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that an entitlement to an injunction allows unscrupulous patent owners to threaten products that are predominantly non-infringing. A computer chip, they noted, might include 5,000 different inventions.
Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
