Say what you like about Microsoft, but their Research arm certainly know how to put together an eye-catching demo. Chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie has been doing a tour of US colleges showing off a prototype next-gen computer – among other things – that has a transparent glass display and can be controlled by pen, voice, touch-free gestures and eye-tracking.
Obviously blind to the threat of robotic attack from the skies, MIT have developed an indoor helicopter that can not only automatically hover but intelligently navigate through a changing environment. The quad-rotor ‘copter has a laser-scanner and dual-camera array, which can build up a real-time map of its environment and identify small openings such as windows.
Video demo after the cut
Star Trek cosplayers take note: soon you may be able to have your own, functional communicator thanks to Patria Aviation Oy. The Finnish company has been developing flexible fabric antennas which, when tapped, link up with the Iridium satellite phone network; two-way voice and data communication is supported, while there’s also a GPS chip to report physical location.
MIT researchers have come up with a retinal implant that sends images from a glasses-mounted camera directly to the brain, via the optic nerve. Intended to bring some degree of vision back to the blind, the system should begin real-world testing in around three years time, according to MIT electrical engineering professor John Wyatt.
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We may well laugh about Apple addicts and their long-queueing ways, but when a survey finds more than a fifth of those asked would happily pay between $500 and $700 for an Apple tablet, sight-unseen, you have to admire the company's hype machine. Analysts RBC Capital Markets asked 3,100 people whether they were interested in buying the tablet, and 21-percent said yes; that contrasts to 9-percent of people asked in April 2007 whether they'd be interested in an iPhone, in a similar survey prior to the smartphone's launch.
Take one of the most iconic arcade games, mix it up with a classic real-world game, and you might be so lucky as to end up with Space Foosball. The DIY handiwork of Young J. Kim’s team at the Korean Ewha Women’s University Computer Graphics Lab, Space Foosball uses the familiar handle controls from a foosball table but encodes their movement digitally, with the university’s own Everyware physics engine used to power gameplay.
Video demo after the cut
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Occasionally arch rumor site Digitimes takes a break from speculation and leaks and does some research into PC hardware sales performance. Latest niche to come under their microscope is the "ultra-thin" notebook, generally based on Intel's CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) platform, and offering a middle-point between the battery longevity of netbooks and the performance of full-sized notebooks. Unfortunately for manufacturers, Digitimes claims the ultra-thins will only account for 4-percent of total global notebook shipments in 2009.
Researchers in Canada have concluded that the only intervention likely to be successful in the case of a zombie attack is to “hit them hard and hit them often”, after deeming that strategies of capturing or attempting to cure them would only result in a delayed takeover. The study was led by Professor Robert Smith? (yes, the question mark is part of his name) and teams from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, who draw parallels between their zombie infection modeling and more traditional infectious diseases.
If you’ve tried to use speech recognition to control your computer, then you may have experienced the frustration of finding “George, stop touching that!” transcribed into your letter to the bank since the system doesn’t differentiate between your dictation and your asides. Intel are hoping to put a stop to all that, with their integration of facial-recognition and speech-recognition; part of the company’s Research team experimentation, the prototype uses a webcam to track facial movement and only turn on speech-control when the user is facing their monitor.
Video demo after the cut
Scientists from the University of Tokyo have created what they’re calling an Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, that’s basically a touchable holographic 3D display. Integrating a concave mirror onto which an LCD projector creates the image part of the system, together with an acoustic radiation pressure generator, the display can generate the feel of coming into physical contact with projected 3D objects as the user moves their hand around.
Video demo after the cut
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