At the time of the interview, Jobs had been 10 years at NeXT, an object-oriented software firm that he had founded.

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It uses a vehicle-mounted camera, object-recognition software and satellite positioning to create detailed 3-D maps of roads, pinpointing features such as pot-holes.

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Mr Stilman said he planned to create software that first identified an object, then determined potential things that could be done with it, before turning it into "a simple machine" that could be used to complete an action.

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In a 2004 experiment, Kaye created a piece of software he called the "virtual intimate object, " or VIO.

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First, it has removed the physical impediment and refactored it with a combination of software and hardware that replicates the effect of the physical object at a higher level of functionality.

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You might object that nobody is going to stop buying iPhones, other gadgets, and software that is defended with inefficiently aggressive use of IP law, so consumers have nothing to threaten.

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With further modifications to the system's image-processing software, the team said it believed the same technology could be used to measure an object's speed and direction.

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Ayah's inspiration is not just LEGO, but object oriented programing languages that simplify building code, allowing developers to focus on the more creative aspects of software making.

ENGADGET

The Object Modeling System (OMS), recently launched by the USDA, allows people anywhere in the world to develop software applications for running complex computer models in the cloud.

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