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Multi-touch display can 'see' objects tooMicrosoft labs in the UK has developed a POC LCD screen with multi-touch, infrared and low resolution scanning capabilities. In an article for NewScientist.com, Tom Simonite writes:
Sharp LCD screen doubles as a scanner
A recent article posted on Newlaunches.com reports that Sharp created a nice Proof of Concept LCD screen which could doubble as a scanner or as a method of capturing multi-touch input. "It's all of 3.5-inches but this LCD Screen from Sharp features an integrated optical scanner that could be used to scan business cards, but also be used as a method for multi-touch input. The prototype was seen at the Ceatec exhibition. Possible uses include the ability to recognize fingers or other objects and as biometric lock on your phone. And since each pixel has a scanner it may as well be a multi-touch screen." 500GB DVD Sized Discs on the horizonIn a recent article for ars technica by Todd Haselton, Todd writes that a group of scientists working with the Institute of Optics and Optical Technologies at the University of Berlin have come up with a way to store up to 500GB of data onto a DVD sized disc. Todd Writes:
"The Project aims to implement a microholographic recording techniques which record data to nanostructures in the recording process. By combining multilayer storage and holographic multiplexing, "microholography" allows data to be stored in three dimensions. The technology works by replacing the two-dimensional pit-land structures currently found on CDs and DVDs with microgratings, which are "holographically induced" using two laser beams. In other words, instead of recording to a series of bumps and pits like standard CDs, the new technology creates three-dimensional holographic grids that can be used for reading and writing data throughout the physical structure of the disc.
In order to store data in multi-layer form, the beam is "focused to different depths inside the photopolymer layer," which means that the beam can actually be raised and lowered to write to different altitudes of the three-dimensional holograohic grid. As you might expect, the project is bullish on its prospects. The discs are predicted to be inexpensive to produce, which the project hopes will translate into manufacturer interest. Of course, there's no word on what the recording devices would cost, and that's a major part of the equation. Blu-ray discs currently store 50GB of data on a dual-layer disc, whereas HD-DVD can store 30GB on its dual-layer offering. Both formats have greater storage potential thanks to the possibility of adding additional layers. By 2010, we expect to see 100GB and 60GB Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (respectively) available for recording use on PCs. Microholographic discs (MHD) are transparent and are the same physical size as CDs and DVDs, but the discs being created by the Microholas Project effectively have ten layers with five different wavelengths. The "prototype" discs are recordable and sport a 50Mb/s data rate, but the group expects an "Advanced Device" with 1TB of storage and data transfer speeds in excess of 200Mb/s by 2010." How Big Will the Apple iPhone Be?In an article for Business Week, Peter Burrows writes, "Few stocks trade on emotion the way Apple Inc. does. Its rip-roaring initial public offering in 1980 created the template for modern tech mania, while making Steve Jobs a gazillionaire. When the company fell on hard times in the mid-1990s, no amount of good news could pierce the cloud of doom hanging over investors. Now, with the launch of the hugely hyped iPhone in a few weeks, momentum investors are driving Apple (AAPL) shares to unexplored territory. The stock has doubled in the past year, to 122. Apple's market cap recently topped $100 billion for the first time.
Hard as it is to believe, all the excitement surrounding Jobs and his new toy may actually understate the impact of this device on Apple's fortunes. Beyond the hysteria surrounding its June 29 launch, the iPhone has the potential for adding a totally new, $10 billion-a-year business within just a few years. If Apple can expand so-called smartphones from a luxury carried by corporate road warriors into an everyday tool for the masses—combining the functions of a BlackBerry and an iPod—Apple could soon see a new growth tear." Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29, 2007. The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular. Microsoft Surface (a.k.a. Milan) and Similiar Touch Sensitive Applications
Similiar products have been developed or are being researched but have not received anywhere as much press - so for the sake of comparison and to help provide a bigger picture as to what is possible, here are a handful of links and resources to check out: Reactable | Wiki | Press Release | Demos
Peronsally, I'd love to see something like this integrated with an existing home theater system. Imagine an always on server networked with terminal emulations for both PCs and embeded extenders which could be installed behind bathroom mirrors, kitchen countertop surfaces, refriderators, etc.. Also imagine how much money your going to have to spend on Windex and paper towels! 100Mbit Bluetooth Coming in 2008The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) on Tuesday paved the way for the next-generation of Bluetooth, which will be capable of transferring data over 100 times faster than current devices. The wireless technology will be used for the streaming of audio and video in the home. The WiMedia Alliance's multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) version of ultra-wideband (UWB) was chosen for the new Bluetooth standard. Tech industry heavyweights such as Intel, Microsoft, Sony and Nokia are among those supporting the effort. Despite the upgrade, Bluetooth will retain its current low-power uses in devices such as cell phones, keyboards and mice. The updated technology, which will operate at frequencies above 6 GHz to avoid regulatory issues, will remain short-range at 10-15 meters and serves a different purpose from Wi-Fi. | Source: BetaNews Sony sets date for rollout of next-generation DVDsSony Pictures on Tuesday said it aims to deliver its new Blu-ray DVD format to U.S. stores on May 23 to coincide with the entry of compatible disc players, a new step in an industry war for control of home movie viewing.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment will first release eight Blu-ray titles, followed by another eight in mid-June. The first movie titles include "50 First Dates," "The Fifth Element," "Hitch" and "House of Flying Daggers."
Blu-ray is locked in a multibillion-dollar standards war against a rival DVD format known as HD DVD. The technology companies supporting HD DVD, championed by Toshiba Corp. (6502.T), plan to start rolling out movie titles and disc players in March. Each side hopes to reignite a sagging $24 billion home video market with new players and discs that offer greater capacity and interactive features. [ more... ] New Microchips Shun TransistorsFor the first time researchers have created a working prototype of a radical new chip design based on magnetism instead of electrical transistors.
As transistor-based microchips hit the limits of Moore's Law, a group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame has fabricated a chip that uses nanoscale magnetic "islands" to juggle the ones and zeroes of binary code.
Wolfgang Perod and his colleagues turned to the process of magnetic patterning (.pdf) to produce a new chip that uses arrays of separate magnetic domains. Each island maintains its own magnetic field.
Because the chip has no wires, its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices. And it won't be nearly as power-hungry, which will translate to less heat emission and a cooler future for portable hardware like laptops.
Computers using the magnetic chips would boot up almost instantly. The magnetic chip's memory is non-volatile, making it impervious to power interruptions, and it retains its data when the device is switched off.
The magnetic architecture of the chip can be reprogrammed on the fly and its adaptability could make it very popular with manufacturers of special-purpose computing hardware, from video-game platforms to medical diagnostic equipment. [ more... ]
ATI All-In-Wonder X1900ATI's latest All-in-Wonder card, the AIW X1900 uses the company's latest and great GPU, borrowed from the X1900 series gaming cards, and includes video capturing and editing capabilities as well as an integrated television tuner complete with PVR and TV On-Demand functions. The X1900 GPU is a remarkable processor that performs extremely well in 3D environments; perfect for gamers. We have always been impressed with the premise behind the All-In-Wonder philosophy and we are still surprised to see ATI the only video card company to implement a product-line behind a video card that basically does everything. Previous All-In-Wonder cards that we have reviewed have pretty much been hit or miss, so we are excited to see what ATI has brought to the table this time around. [ more... ] IBM produces new high-bandwidth wireless chipIBM has produced a wireless chip based on the evolving 802.15.3c specification, which is capable of passing high-definition files and other content at distances of up to 10 metres.
Current samples of the chip now run at more than 600 megabits per second (mbps). IBM said it aimed to get these speeds up to 1.5 gigabits per second (gbps). [ more... ] Sharp develops 'two-way viewing' LCDTOKYO — Will the digital age bring an end to squabbles over which TV channel to watch? Sharp Corp. is coming out with a new product that may help. The Japanese electronics firm has developed a liquid-crystal display that shows totally different images to people viewing the screen from the left and the right.
The "two-way viewing-angle LCD," announced by the Japanese consumer electronics maker Thursday, can send light from the backlight separately to the right and left. And so one person can be surfing the Internet, using the display as a PC screen, while another watches a downloaded movie or TV broadcast. It also works for watching two TV channels: one person can watch baseball while another watches a soap opera. The display, which costs roughly double the standard kind, will go into mass production this month. Sharp will offer the product for worldwide sale, but the Osaka-based firm will also supply other manufacturers with the new displays for various products expected later this year, said spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama. She declined to disclose specifics. Sony To Drop Home Router From PS3 Design"Sony Computer Entertainment head Ken Kutaragi has announced that the PlayStation 3 will no longer feature the ability to act as a home network router, with the functionality being dropped due to cost issues. Speaking with Japanese publication Nikkei Electronics, in remarks reported by website GamesIndustry.biz, Kutaragi has admitted that the use of the console's three Gigabit Ethernet ports as a home router would have made the console in general too expensive to manufacture. Kutaragi did not make it clear whether the extra Ethernet ports would now be removed, but additional peripherals using these ports, such as an IP-enabled camera, have already been hinted at." | Source: Gamasutra DVD Insider: Optical Storage UpdateWe have actually been keeping score on which Hollywood studio and which content owner "signed up" for the HD- (HD- DVD ) and Blu-ray Disc (BD) camps. We actually wondered which wanted to limit their creativity with 15GB (HD) or expand their horizons with 25GB (single layer) and 50GB (double layer) capacity for their fantastic next generation video content and extras. We thought about all the TV folks planning fantastic entertainment what they can beam to our digital TV sets with thrilling effects we can time-shift, copy and enjoy anywhere in the house or on the road. We studied the HD and BD format approaches and tried to see how Hollywood and the TV folks could force the two parties to the table and hammer out a compromise. As we slowly stepped back from our hours of research and stared at the papers strewn across the floor we had an epiphany: Those folks not only don't care which blue write-once and rewritable technology the industry delivers…they don't want either one! All they want is a high definition ROM – a disc you can buy, rent or borrow that allows you to view their movie, their TV series, their music audio and not copy. Does the consumer care? Sure, eventually. But at the present time a next-generation storage device/medium is low on his and her priority list because they need/want to buy new DTV sets, new cam-phones, new game systems, new PCs. Then they need to struggle to interconnect them to share devices/content…even if it is the use of the printer." [ More... ] Google, partners to back broadband venture - WSJ"NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Hearst Corp. are investing about $100 million in Current Communications Group, a start-up that offers high-speed Internet connections over electricity lines, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Current, a closely held company, offers its high-speed service in the Cincinnati area and is expected to use its new investment to expand, the Journal said." | Source: Reuters Chicago pairing surveillance cameras with gunshot recognition systems
"The police are watching. And in Chicago, they're listening, too. City officials are using new technology that recognizes the sound of a gunshot within a two-block radius, pinpoints the source, turns a surveillance camera toward the shooter and places a 911 call. Officials can then track the shooter and dispatch officers to the scene. "Instead of just having eyes, you have the advantage of both eyes and ears,'' said Bryan Baker, chief executive officer of Safety Dynamics in Oak Brook, which makes the systems. After a successful pilot program, Chicago officials have installed 30 of the devices alongside video surveillance cameras in high-crime neighborhoods, with 12 more on the way, and dozens more to follow, Baker said." | Source: Illinois Wire Digital TV Transmitter Using a VGA cardAn anonymous reader writes "Yet Another Project from Fabrice Bellard : with any PC and a standard VGA card, you can build a real Analog or DVB-T Digital TV transmitter by directly generating the VHF signal. The provided example shows a Lena picture transmitted as a real Digital TV channel." Hardware: Video for Skype UsersKozmik writes "Looks like the first of likely many video plugins for Skype has arrived. Dialcom claims the plugin which works with Skype, will provided end to end encrypted video that will work behind NATs, proxies and firewalls. Currently only supports Windows." Euro-TV tuner-peripheral does everything and will shortly be illegalHere's a fun new toy...
Link (via Red Ferret Journal) Iomega Patents 850GB DVD Nano-TechnologyMike writes "US Patent & Trademark Office recently issued a patent to Iomega Corp. for its work with nano-technology and optical data storage. New technology, called Articulated Optical - DVD will allow 40-100 times more data (upto 850 Gb) to be stored on a DVD with data transfer rates 5-30 times faster than today's DVDs, and at similarly low costs. AO - DVD is a novel technique of encoding data on the surface of a DVD by using reflective nano-structures to encode data in a highly multi-level format." Toshiba says: unifying DVD formats may prove too difficult
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This week several news outlets carried articles about 
* Supports any notebook PCs as well as desktop
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