Researchers are developing a new brainwave technology which would make troublesome computer passwords a thing of the past for users

Charles Mandel
Sun

Digital security researchers at Ottawa’s Carleton University are proposing a new biometrics system for computer security using “pass-thoughts.”

Users would employ their brain signals as passwords, transmitting thoughts to their computers to verify their identification.

The researchers say pass-thoughts could help defeat so-called shoulder-surfers — people who watch others punch in computer passwords in order to steal them.

“We’re in the process of doing a proof-of-concept right now,” said Carleton researcher Julie Thorpe in an interview Friday. “We’re just experimenting in the lab and seeing what we can get.”

In a recent paper titled Pass-thoughts: Authenticating with Our Minds, Thorpe, Paul van Oorschot and Anil Somayaji — researchers in Carleton’s Digital Security Group in the School of Computer Science — write that they’ve outlined “the design of what we believe to be a currently feasible pass-thought system.”

The system builds on current brain-computer interface (BCI) research used in areas such as prosthetics for disabled patients. Thorpe notes that with BCIs scientists have made it possible for the disabled to control computer cursors on screens and use rudimentary spelling devices.

Pass-thoughts could consist of words, images or even music.

Users would wear a headphone-like device featuring external electrodes attached to their heads. They would press a computer key, causing some sort of stimulus such as an image to be flashed at them. Their response to that stimulus would be the pass-thought, unlocking their computer.

Thorpe said an alternate pass-thought system might involve thinking a specific thought in response to the stimulus.

The researchers believe electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, which represent electrical activity in the brain, have potential as thought-passes because the “alpha frequency (a signal feature in an EEG signal) has been found to have considerable variability between subjects.”

Just don’t expect to wrinkle up your brow and beam thoughts at your computer any time soon.

Several challenges exist before thought-passes become an everyday technology.

The toughest problem is separating the pass-thought from all other brainwave activity.

“There’s a lot of things going on in your brain at any one time,” Thorpe said. “You want to be able to isolate one piece of that. That’s the part you want to be repeatable for your pass sign.”

Thorpe said even if the scientists arrive at their proof, it will likely be decades before pass-thoughts are commercially available.

David Lie, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, believes engineering such a device might be difficult but not impossible.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Peter Wilson
Sun

It has a 17-centimetre screen, can be carried in the palm of your hand and weighs nearly a kilogram.

It allows you to watch videos, listen to music, upload and look at your photos, send e-mails, type with your thumbs on its screen, enter information with a stylus, attach a GPS device to aid you in navigation, use common software like Microsoft Word, connect to WiFi to make Internet phone calls and send instant messages.

As if that is not enough, it also has Bluetooth and Ethernet connectivity, and even lets you play most of your PC games.

Okay, so it doesn’t have a built-in camera yet, but that could be coming soon.

Microsoft — which came up with the concept — calls its device the UltraMobile PC, (UMPC) although it once was known by the much more memorable name, Origami.

In May, Samsung Canada will have its very own version, on the market, in about the $1,000 price range, hoping to catch technology enthusiasts with their tongues still hanging out.

Other manufacturers will follow, despite the fact that many techheads have been hugely underwhelmed by the UMPC because of its size (about that of a paperback), weight and battery life of under three hours.

And so here we go again into another move towards convergence — a field already filled with the likes of phones that play MP3s, take and show snapshots and download live video while you’re sending instant messages and transferring your photos to that pretty girl across the room who is playing a video game on her own phone.

Samsung itself just came up with a phone that has a whopping 10 megapixel camera built in.

Meanwhile there are companies like Apple that so far haven’t jumped into the game wholeheartedly.

Take the iPod — and 14 million did in the last quarter of 2005 — which has been shrinking in size and weight while doing little, until recently, in the way of adding bells and whistles.

Now, of course, upper end iPod models allow you to download and view your photos and download videos — which you can buy from the iTunes store — for viewing on its six-centimetre screen or showing on your TV set.

So far, however, the iPod doesn’t have a still camera, or allow you to play video games or let you send instant messages or listen to FM radio. Maybe that’s coming, but, if it is, usually tight-lipped Apple isn’t saying anything about it.

There are, however, always rumours predicting the imminent arrival of iPods with WiFi and Bluetooth connections. There are also whispers on the Net that iPods may soon have the ability to run small versions of Apple’s web browser Safari.

Another rumour is that Apple will soon unleash a true video iPod with a 10-centimetre-wide screen.

Right now, according to Vancouver’s Simply Computing the tiny iPod nano out-sells the full-size version by three to one.

Certainly, what the iPod has done, in its various incarnations, including the super-popular nano, is spawn a flourishing industry of independent companies that provide add-ons including clock radios, eye-popping cases, FM radio transmitters, headphones and cases (of which Simply Computing carries more than 130).

Apple itself has just started selling its own high-end (at $429) iPod Hi Fi, a speaker system — in addition to at least 14 by other manufacturers — for those who either have no stereo themselves or can’t figure out — even though it’s incredibly simple — how to connect their iPod to an existing system.

And it has joined with Motorola to issue phones that use the iTunes site to download music, but it hasn’t made any such devices of its own.

So, what we have here in gadget and gizmo land is a two-pronged approach, sometimes even within the same company.

First, there are products, like the iPod or upper-end digital cameras and laptops that do one or two things incredibly well.

Then there are others, like the UltraMobile PC and the latest in cellular phones that try to provide a little bit of everything for everybody.

Even Apple, with its Front Row computers (complete with a remote device) is constantly upping the ante on what it does with its desktop units.

Tony Barker, manager of administrative services at Simply Computing has his Mac Mini (one without Front Row capabilities) hooked up to his high definition TV set so he can use it as a DVD player. He also has an external drive plugged in for his 30 gigabytes of music.

“I converged my home stereo, my DVD player all into one,” said Barker.

But on the totable device front Apple appears to have left that field, for now, to the likes of Microsoft (which provides the software with an edition of its XP) and manufacturers such as Samsung.

As you might expect, Microsoft Canada’s senior product manager for Windows clients, Elliot Katz, is enthusiastic about the potential of the UMPC.

However, he does say that Microsoft has been surprised about the amount of media attention with which the first-generation product has been greeted.

“It’s actually generated a lot more interest than we anticipated,” said Katz. “We did a viral [Internet word-of-mouth] campaign and that campaign was very successful.”

The initial product, said Katz — which still needs to lessen weight and up battery life — will likely catch on with two types of what he calls the “technology-enthused person.”

The first of these will be the executive who travels for work.

“The ones who want to take with them all the portability and all the capabilities of their notebook can do that with this device,” Katz said. “They can go to a hotel room, they can connect to the high-speed Internet in that room or to the WiFi in the airport.

“They can connect back to their office. They can sit in a customer’s office and show them Powerpoints on it. They can do e-mail and all those great things.”

Secondly, there are those tech enthusiasts who, while travelling for pleasure, don’t want to be hefting along a laptop or notebook.

They can download their photos at night, use the GPS capability to map where they are, surf the Net to find tourist attractions and e-mail and instant message back home.

As well, younger people might want to carry it with them in their backpacks, Katz said.

“The real key to the device is to get it lighter and get the battery life up,” said Katz. “And I think that will be the main focus of the second-generation devices we’ll see out there.”

As well, Katz said, emphasizing that this was his personal opinion and not that of Microsoft, that the device will also have to have GPS included in the UMPC itself, rather than as a capability through other devices.

Katz doesn’t believe, however, that there will ever be a universal converged device that does everything for everybody.

“As we move forward, it’s certainly the ultimate goal of the industry to have a single converged device, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get there,” Katz said. “But you may get down to two devices, both of which are converged and both of which give you the best of class in most areas.”

One of the problems is, said Katz, that once you take a device like an MP3 player down to a tiny size then the screen becomes too small for most people to want to view videos.

“If I want to look at pictures on my movie player a one-inch or one-and-a-half-inch screen is not going to cut it,” Katz said. “So those are the kinds of challenges we have, but I think we’re going to get better and better at it.”

Andrew Thompson, Samsung Canada’s product manager for audio and digital video system said that the consumer feedback his company gets is that devices have to be easy to use.

“So my feeling is that this ubiquitous device that combines your Palm Pilot, MP3 player, camera, cell phone, toaster, everything isn’t going to happen,” Thompson said. “I think the more gadgets you put into a device, the more complicated it becomes.

“Consumers generally want something that’s easy to use and that’s going to give them one or two functions.”

Simply Computing’s Barker –who, at 25, would seem to fit into the demographic of those who would be among the most adept at using converged devices — does find, however, having various elements of the digital life at his fingertips very appealing.

“One of our sales reps, who lives in Coquitlam, subscribes to a couple of podcasts that are based on video,” said Barker. “And when he takes the West Coast Express he just pulls out his iPod and watches that for 20 or 25 minutes.”

For himself, however, Barker would like to see Apple come out with a tablet PC, a device with handwriting recognition.

“It would be kind of like an iBook with a broken hinge,” said Barker. “I’d like to be able to take notes with that, the way that I did in school.”

If there’s one thing that consumers will likely want in whatever device they have in the near future, it’s video on the go, Thompson said.

“People might not even know they want that now, but that’s the future direction,” Thompson said. “I think that people are just starting to get it. They’re just starting to understand what that application will do for them.”

Thompson said that when he looks at Samsung’s future product roadmap he sees that the draw will be video, once the product is readily available, which he believes will be about next Christmas.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of very secure content sites that where you can go to fill up your video player. Within the next year, for sure, there will be a lot more content out there.”

Commuters will be among those most drawn to the video on the go technology.

“From a commuter standpoint I think it would be fantastic if I could get my Windows portable media player plugged into my computer at home, and then when I leave in the morning to take the train I’ll have the morning news. I think that’s golden.”

As well, Thompson sees a lot of the product being provided very cheaply by people who never before would have considered themselves television producers.

“A thousand bucks gets you a great video camera. You stick it on the web and all of a sudden you’ve got [your own program.]

For this to happen, said Thompson, screen sizes are going to have to increase in size.

“Come July, we’ll actually be introducing a 2.5-inch screen on a flash-based device, and that’s a fairly decent size. I wouldn’t sit on an airplane and watch Star Wars on it, but it’s still going to have much better uptake than a 1.8-inch screen.”

Despite all this enthusiasm Barker worries that perhaps we could all become just a little too connected.

“You’ve got to be careful when you’re wired all the time. You can be flooded with too much information.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Alex Strachan
Sun

We have seen the future of TV and it is mobile. If what is happening in the U.S. is any indication, you may soon be watching TV on your iPod or cellphone.

You can’t watch The Office while at the office on these devices just yet, but a combination of technological advances and growing interest in “TV on the go” in the U.S., Japan and Europe means that day may not be far away.

A recent ratings survey of TV episodes available on the U.S. iTunes store found The Office landed in 15 of the top 40 spots that week.

One major U.S. network, ABC, will offer ad-supported, full-length episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy free of charge at www.ABC.com, beginning in June. The entire season of Alias will also be available.

Fox and Toyota will team together next month to produce Prison Break: Proof of Innocence, a series of two-minute “mobisodes” spun off from Fox’s Prison Break. Each mobisode will open with a 10-second spot for Toyota, and will be seen exclusively on cellphones.

Similarly, NBC is planning to air 10 exclusive, online-only “webisodes” of The Office over the summer, starring some of the show’s lesser known, supporting players.

Weekly 30-second promos for 24 are already available for download from Canada’s iTunes. Full-length episodes of TV shows are not available here yet, but if CTV, Global and iTunes Canada decision-makers have their way, they soon will be.

Mobile TV, the latest in a long line of promises of TV interactivity, is no longer a pipe dream. The prospect of being able to watch that lost episode of Lost on a cellphone or iPod while standing in line at the bank is too good a deal to turn down for many TV consumers.

TV content is supported and paid for in large part by the advertising industry. Increasingly, however, viewers complain it is being delivered in a way that is incompatible with their lives. The traditional television industry — the mainstream broadcast networks and the cable specialty channels — is in danger of being “Napsterized,” some analysts believe. Despite generating $60 billion US in ad revenue, these analysts insist, TV will have to adapt or eventually die.

“If you’re a marketer, you need to be where the eyeballs are,” David Katz, head of sports and entertainment for the Yahoo Media Group, told reporters earlier this year at a conference in Pasadena, Calif.

“And that goes for network television programmers as much as any other product or service.”

But being able to watch Desperate Housewives on the go will not spell the end of traditional viewing as we know it, says Albert Cheng, president of ABC-Disney Television’s digital division — the same studio that produces Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy.

He insisted at the same conference that, far from driving viewers away from the traditional networks, iPod downloads and so-called “podcasts” actually drive more viewers to the original network broadcasts.

“We’ve seen that already with things we’ve done for Apple iTunes, with Desperate [Housewives] and Lost,” Cheng said.

“It has not taken away viewers from our shows, not at all. It’s actually increased our viewership.”

Cheng said ABC-Disney embraced the iTunes concept to stymie what the company saw as unchecked piracy and file-sharing.

OPTIONAL CUT STARTS

“This technology is changing the way people are consuming media,” Cheng said.

“The company took a huge, bold step, but in a way it has made my job easier. We need to make sure we are where the consumers are, and deliver something consumers will value. The key message here is that we need to be forward-thinking about what consumers want.”

OPTIONAL CUT ENDS

Skeptics can be forgiven for wondering if mobile video is yet another example of gadgetry run amok, out of touch with the reality of people’s everyday lives, or pie-in-the-sky promises that don’t match expectations once they’re realized.

Brad Adgate, research director for Horizon Media, says it’s a generational issue: Young people get it. Older people are more resistant.

“Take the MTV Video Music Awards as an example,” Adgate said.

“They had 11 million downloads within two weeks of its air date at the end of August, and their ratings were down 22 per cent. The MTV Music Awards targets an audience that is 12- to 34-years-old. Last summer, the Live 8 concert on ABC had three million viewers, but a cumulative five million people downloaded the concert online. The tide is changing.”

Others wonder if people are really willing to watch TV on a two-inch TV screen.

Media analyst Mark Glaser, who supervises PBS’s technology-oriented MediaShift blog at PBS.org, has wondered himself.

“I asked this very question on the blog I started [at PBS],” Glaser said.

” ‘What would you watch on a small video screen, on an iPod?’ And people were saying, ‘If I was stuck in a line somewhere, I would watch anything.’ “

ABC-Disney’s Cheng concurred.

“With young people, screen size doesn’t really matter that much,” he said. “When you look at the demographic of the Apple iPod user, it tends to skew young, anywhere between 15 and 29.”

OPTIONAL CUT STARTS

Digital downloads and mobile video may eventually prove a boon for lesser-known, out-of-print titles, the way DVD has, said Glaser.

“In the past, moves, books, music — all those things that depended on distribution to retail outlets — had to deal with a finite amount of shelf space,” he said.

“The Internet and new distribution avenues like mobile video are opening it up to the point where you can have an unlimited amount of inventory. If you can pull out all your old TV shows, all the books that are out of print, all the old music that’s gone out of print, and somehow make that available online, this pent-up demand for out-of-print media could create a million little niches.

“What that means to a big media company is that you can do just as well with all these little niches as you do with your big, mass market hits.”

Companies like Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner are betting big on new delivery technologies.

“They are investing billions of dollars in this,” Adgate said. “I don’t think this is something they would be investing in if they didn’t think it was going to happen. There’s too much riding on this.”

Young consumers are the future of any large corporation, he insists.

“The big media companies understand that to stay relevant to younger consumers . . . they’re going to have to embrace this new technology.”

For now, it’s a generational issue. But it may not stay that way, Adgate believes.

“As prices come down, I think it will get more mainstream. But it’s not going to happen overnight. As it stands right now, $60 billion is spent on TV. And if you look at mobile video and broadband video, it’s under a billion dollars. There’s a lot of room there for growth.

“But if you look at Korea and Japan, where the technological infrastructure is a lot better than it is here, for any number of reasons, you’ll see it’s a lot more commonplace than you might expect. And it’s embraced by all generations there. I think, some point down the road, it’s going to happen here.”

Almost everything with a screen will be competing with your family-room television for your viewing time. Some content isn’t even available on cable or satellite any more.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Nanometre-sized light-emitting devices can be printed on thin sheets of material and applied to any surface

Charles Mandel
Sun

American researchers have seen the light — and it is good.

Working with organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), scientists from California and Michigan have developed a white light that potentially can be incorporated into virtually any surface, is bright, and could last as long as two years.

OLEDs are nanometre-sized semiconductors that are printed on layers of organic materials — frequently carbon. They emit light through a process known as electrophosphoresence, which involves injecting electrons into the organic material and exciting the molecules into creating luminescence.

Because OLEDS are printed on thin layers of plastic, glass and metal hundreds of times thinner than a human hair, they have the potential to be used in large panels applied to any flat or curved surface, including walls, ceilings and tables.

But Stephen Forrest, vice-president of research for the University of Michigan, said at least initially people may prefer to see them in the shape of an old-fashioned light bulb.

“People like what they have, so why not just have a piece of plastic that you screw in, looks exactly like a light bulb, and you turn it on,” Forrest said in an interview Thursday.

Forrest and Mark Thompson, a professor of chemistry at the California-based USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, report on their invention this week in the journal Nature.

One of the biggest challenges with OLEDs to date has been the creation of a pure, strong, energy-efficient white light.

White light is formed from the correct ratio of phosphorescent red, green and blue. According to Ted Sargent, a University of Toronto professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology, it’s easier to produce one of the colours than all of them. Scientists have previously tried to produce white light by first creating the blue light and then mixing it with the other colours. While that technique works, it is not efficient because creating the blue light adds an extra step to the process, and the blue light lacks longevity.

Instead, Forrest and Thompson manipulated a blue fluorescent dye to work in conjunction with red and green phosphorescent materials.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Firms such as Telus, Bell and Rogers won’t face Canadian content rules

Marke Andrews
Sun

A Wednesday decision to exempt television programming on wireless devices from government regulation was greeted enthusiastically by one wireless service provider.

“We are very pleased,” said Janet Yale, executive vice-president of corporate affairs for Telus. “It’s a really good decision, not just for those of us delivering television over our cellphones and other wireless handsets, but for consumers.”

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled Wednesday that television content on cellphones and other wireless devices falls within the CRTC’s New Media Exemption Order, which was issued in 1999. That means that companies like Telus Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility will not be subject to Canadian-content guidelines the way network television is monitored.

In an interview Wednesday, CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said the commission had the same choice it faced in 1999 regarding the Internet — either rule that mobile television must be licensed, or exempt it from regulation.

“We chose the latter because we didn’t know enough about it, we didn’t know where it was going to go as a service, and we didn’t know what impact it would have on broadcasters,” said Dalfen, who added that mobile TV has not yet had an adverse impact on broadcasters.

“Mobile TV falls within that new media exemption order based on the fact that it is delivered and accessed through the Internet,” said Dalfen. “But even if technology moves and they decide they are not going to use the Internet, we’re still not going to license it until further notice because, again, we don’t know where it’s going, what services it will be capable of, what the [receiver] sets are going to be like, what the viewer habits are going to be, when is prime time.”

Said Dalfen: “It’s important not to chill the technology, because we want to see innovation and we didn’t want to limit it by non-market forces until we found that viewing was drifting over to it. There is little sign of that happening.”

Dalfen said that if the CRTC finds that mobile television is having an impact on broadcasting “we may well revisit it.”

People with concerns can contact the commission through its website at crtc.gc.ca, until May 12.

Telus’s Yale agreed with Dalfen’s statement about leaving new media alone.

“This sends a signal that all service providers have real flexibility to experiment and innovate and invest, without fear of regulatory impediments that are going to jeopardize our ability to use this new technology to deliver innovative applications to consumers,” said Yake.

Consumers with Telus Mobility, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless are offered a selection of news and information packages (which include CBC Newsworld and The Weather Network) for their phones. Thus far, people are not downloading network dramas and sitcoms on to their cell phone screens.

Dalfen said the CRTC consulted with broadcasters before today’s ruling, stating the broadcasters suggested mobile providers could be exempt, but that they would like to see an exemption done “in a much more narrow way” than the 1999 Internet exemption.

“They established concern that there may be an impact, and that’s very similar to what the industry said in 1999,” said Dalfen

No one at Global Television or CTV was available for comment by press time.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Delayed launch puts pressure on publisher

Jim Jamieson
Province

REDMOND, Wash. — Last month Microsoft Corp. delayed the launch of what may turn out to be the most important software-product transition in the dominating technology company’s history.

This week, at its global headquarters here, Microsoft attempted to show a group of journalists that the wait may be worth it.

Microsoft was set to make Windows Vista, the successor to its flagship Windows XP operating system, available to consumers for the crucial Christmas season, but backed off when “quality” concerns arose.

That wasn’t the first delay, and the pressure on Microsoft to deliver a product that shows major improvements on the security fiascos that dogged Windows XP is huge.

Peg McNichol, product manager for Windows Vista, said the new operating system will make it more difficult to attack different areas in ways the user doesn’t expect.

During her 45-minute demo, she showed numerous layers of protection built into Vista to thwart malicious software.

“We’re trying to educate users in what’s going on with their machines, tell them what we think they need to do to fix it,” said McNichol.

The Vista demo showed an interface that offers more intuitive means to organize and view data, including a new, ultra-comprehensive search capability.

As part of its security coverage, Vista also features beefed-up parental controls, which allow moms and dads to limit kids’ computer use even by the time of day, block specific programs, and offer reports on such activities as instant messaging, e-mail and web pages visited.

McNichol also previewed new, slick photo handling and media player capabilities, which are reminiscent of Apple’s iPhoto and iTunes.

Vista‘s delay will not affect the release of Internet Explorer 7. The web browser will be built into Vista, but will also be available for Windows XP in the second half of the year.

Earlier, Marg Cobble of the Internet Explorer group, highlighted the new browser’s improved security features, the addition of RSS feeds, more efficient printing and tabbed browsing (already an Apple fixture).

The enterprise version of Vista will launch on time in November, so businesses can get on with the job of updating their networks.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

TECH TEST I The Vancouver Sun

Jim Jamieson
Province

In what analysts characterized as an industry-changing development, Apple Computer has unveiled software to allow users of its new Intel-based Macs to run Microsoft Corp.’s rival Windows XP operating system.

When it introduced its first Mac/Intel models in January, Apple insisted it wouldn’t aid such efforts, but yesterday introduced Boot Camp, a test-version software available as a free download, which lets computer users with a Windows XP installation disk load that OS on the Mac.

The upside for Apple is obvious. Users who have a need for both a Windows and Macintosh computer can now get by with one machine. As well, it will allow Apple to attract loyal Windows users who are curious about trying the Mac OS.

“Windows users can try out the Mac without a heavy psychological impact on their part. They’re not breaking away from the Windows world completely,” said Stephen Gully, president of Vancouver’s Atimi Software, which does contract programming mainly in the Macintosh environment. “This allows them to take an interim step to get their feet wet.”

Gully believes Apple’s hand was forced by open-source coders who have been working on ways to accomplish the same thing since January’s product launch.

“This is an attempt to provide some control over the process and not let the market run wild and have people infringing on copyrights or using solutions that might damage a machine,” said Gully.

Simon Fraser University professor of communication Richard Smith agreed with analysts who predicted the capability would significantly increase Apple’s personal-computer market share — which is currently about four per cent globally.

“This is a real threat to Dell and HP,” said Smith. “People forget that Apple is primarily a hardware company, so this is just a way to sell more hardware.”

Smith said the most obvious customer for a dual-OS Mac is large corporate or academic deployments.

“It gives you a lot of flexibility if you want to change a lab full of computers,” he said. “Anywhere people use Windows, Unix and Mac, this is a great step forward.”

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

COMPUTERS I Apple

Keen or not, no company wants to be left out of citywide service

Gillian Shaw
Sun

One way or another, Vancouver is going to get a city-wide WiFi network, and that means that major players are already scrambling to position themselves to reap the spoils.

Those jostling to get into line range from Telus — which says the city doesn’t really need such a network but is willing to participate if it goes ahead — to feisty little wireless hotspot operator FatPort, which sees itself as the perfect company to run such an enterprise.

It’s a trend that has already hit other cities, such as Toronto. And San Francisco is even vowing to offer free WiFi service to all its residents. WiFi is a short-range technology that relies on multiple transmitters spread throughout an area and already is available in many hotels, coffee shops and other businesses

But offering WiFi wireless connectivity city-wide, either free or at a nominal cost, has the potential to cannibalize wireless network offerings from some of the bigger players.

That dilemma has not escaped companies such as Telus, which are trying to balance solidly on the fence. In one breath, Telus dismisses city-wide WiFi as unnecessary, given its high-speed paid wireless services; and in the next breath pledges its enthusiasm to be part of a solution should the city go the WiFi route.

“It is a matter of when and how, not if. And as always, who pays for it,” said city councillor Peter Ladner, who has requested a staff report on potential options.

Ladner realizes the prospect may be unsettling for wireless companies, but points out that it also may open new business opportunities.

“Maybe this is another reason people are so fascinated with all this,” he said. “It becomes a whole new business paradigm.

“It blows up all the old winners and losers and leaves you with a new world where everybody has to fight for position.”

Chris Langdon, vice-president of wireless solutions for Telus, is quick to point to that company’s EVDO wireless service offers close-to-broadband wireless speeds in major centres across Canada, including Vancouver. But he allows that Telus would be interested in any WiFi plans the city may have.

“We would certainly be interested in talking to the city to understand specifically their plan,” he said. “At this point, it would be hard to speculate on how they plan on rolling it out, and what they are planning on rolling out.”

EVDO and other wireless data transmission offerings from traditional carriers provide anywhere, anytime Internet connectivity in the areas they serve. However EVDO ranges from $30 to $100 a month, and comes with limits to its usage. It’s a built-in price barrier that puts it beyond the reach of many residents.

Google has already offered San Francisco a free WiFi service that would give residents a 300-kilobit a second speed. That’s considerably slower than EVDO — which can be up to 700 kilobits a second, a speed comparable to wired broadband connections.

In Toronto, Toronto Hydro is capitalizing on its wireless meter-reading capability to offer WiFi service across the city. Earlier this week, the corporation announced its telecommunications subsidiary Toronto Hydro Telecom was to install radio access points on streetlight poles throughout a six-square-kilometre area downtown.

For the first six months of operation, the service will be free. After that customers will be offered a range of access packages at what Toronto Hydro terms competitive rates.

So far, BC Hydro has said it is watching Toronto Hydro’s developments with interest, but it adds it is not moving ahead with any similar plans in B.C. due to economics. BC Hydro says the technology of automated meter reading still evolving.

TransLink is also dabbling in WiFi, with a traffic-signal priority system it is testing on the 98 B-line buses that can prompt lights to change or hold green lights for buses. However, TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said since this is only a test that uses WiFi, any speculation about a city-wide TransLink WiFi service “a little premature.”

Ladner said determining the objective of a city-wide system is part of the study, as is figuring out how best to deliver the service.

While one might expect a company such as FatPort, which offers paid WiFi service throughout the city, would feel threatened by the city’s proposal, that company’s reaction makes it clear it is nimble enough to recognize an opportunity.

“FatPort would welcome such a network in Vancouver. We’re obviously proponents of wireless technology, in particular public WiFi technology,” said Michael Kuhlmann, a co-founder and vice-president of business development at FatPort.

Although the company has only been around for three years, it is a pioneer in the WiFi hotspot business, and Kuhlmann is keen to be part of a city-wide solution. “At the end of the day we are entrepreneurs, so it has to be an opportunity for us,” he said.

Kuhlmann suggested the optimum solution wouldn’t be one in which one provider gets the go-ahead to provide a city-wide service, and he said FatPort would welcome being part of the project.

“There is no reason whatsoever we wouldn’t participate,” he said. “We have expertise built over the last three years that could facilitate such a network.

“It would be in everybody’s best interest if all the best players in Canada were at the table.”

A hybrid option, one in which various players take part, is one preferred by Matthew Asham, president of the British Columbia Wireless Network Society, a non-profit that builds local networks and content and promotes community wireless networks.

GET IN ON THE WIFI:

Here are some WiFi websites for further information:

– www.muniwireless.com

A portal for news and information about citywide broadband projects around the world.

– www.bcwireless.net

A volunteer, non-profit organization focused on building community networks using wireless technology.

– www.canadianhotspots.ca

A Web site endorsed by Canada’s four major wireless carriers that offers a guide to hotspot locations across Canada.

– www.fatport.com

A broadband wireless hotspot service that businesses can offer free to their customers, or can offer as a paid service with subscription rates that start at $9.95 for 120 minutes that can be used anytime over a 60-day period.

– www.wi-fi.org

The Web site of an alliance of more than 250 companies involved in WiFI, whether through hardware, software or connectivity. Canada ranks fourth after the U.S., the UK and Italy in the alliances top 10 countries for WiFi hotspots.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006