Creating immersive virtual reality experiences.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
New Scientist Tech - Premium- Change your appearance, not your shirt - Technology
New Scientist Tech - Premium- Change your appearance, not your shirt - Technology: "HAVE you ever wished you could vanish into the background? Doing a disappearing act could soon be as simple as flicking a switch, thanks to chameleonic clothing that mimics the patterns and colours of its surroundings.
Greg Sotzing of the University of Connecticut in Storrs has developed threads of electrochromic polymers, which change colour in response to an applied electric field. The knittable, washable thread could be used to create T-shirts that change colour or pattern to suit your mood or outfit.
A mixture of differently coloured threads would be knitted or woven into a T-shirt or blanket, along with a small number of thin metal wires connected to a battery pack and a microcontroller. The criss-crossing wires effectively divide the shirt into pixels (see Diagram).
Each coloured thread changes its state at different voltages, so by varying the voltage between different pairs of wires you can change the ..."
Greg Sotzing of the University of Connecticut in Storrs has developed threads of electrochromic polymers, which change colour in response to an applied electric field. The knittable, washable thread could be used to create T-shirts that change colour or pattern to suit your mood or outfit.
A mixture of differently coloured threads would be knitted or woven into a T-shirt or blanket, along with a small number of thin metal wires connected to a battery pack and a microcontroller. The criss-crossing wires effectively divide the shirt into pixels (see Diagram).
Each coloured thread changes its state at different voltages, so by varying the voltage between different pairs of wires you can change the ..."
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Photos: The $100 laptop on Linux | News Images on ZDNet
Photos: The $100 laptop on Linux News Images on ZDNet: "Photos: The $100 laptop on Linux "
Steve's Commentary
Here are some nice pictures of the $100 laptop developed by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. His "One Laptop Per Child" organization has plans to distribute 5-10 million of these systems to children in developing nations to improve education.
Steve's Commentary
Here are some nice pictures of the $100 laptop developed by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. His "One Laptop Per Child" organization has plans to distribute 5-10 million of these systems to children in developing nations to improve education.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Gates lays out future for enterprise apps - Computerworld
Gates lays out future for enterprise apps - Computerworld: "
...
In the keynote address at Convergence, an annual conference for users of Microsoft Corp.'s business software, the Microsoft chief software architect [Bill Gates] also shared his vision of a world of work in which 'smart' tables will function as ad hoc screens for mobile devices.
He barely touched on the company's announcement today of its increased push into facilitating hosted versions of its CRM software and providing new integration capabilities for its Dynamics GP ERP product (see 'Microsoft tweaks CRM to improve hosting').
Instead, Gates spoke in more general terms about the ongoing coming together of the 'structured' world of financial and human resources applications with elements of the Internet world, including the ability to do 'mashups' -- the blending of data and tools from different sources.
...
Looking ahead, Gates said Microsoft is working on a 'missing piece of software' that would use rules to determine how to respond to people trying to contact an individual. Instead of sending out a generic 'out of the office' message, the software would instead use the caller's identity to determine how to answer the call.
...
Gates also demonstrated a workday in the future, using technology under development by Microsoft Research on a stage rigged out in three sections to resemble a home, an office and an airport lounge.
At home, he accessed a large wall-hung touch screen containing a mix of family and work information, including a combined calendar and data on where family members were, using GPS devices. The screen also displayed news feeds, and after identifying a story of particular interest, Gates was able to track its development via his mobile and office computing devices.
Once in the office, he was surrounded by three large free-standing touch screens, with secure access to his work computer provided by fingerprint identification. In the middle of a meeting, he received an alert from his calendar about road traffic delays, recommending that he leave the office shortly to ensure that he made his flight.
In the airport waiting lounge, Gates placed his mobile phone on a "smart" table that used a camera and software to become a display for his phone. He logged into his computer via fingerprint recognition. The table was able to recognize information from a business card he placed on it and enter that data into his digital contacts list. The moment he removed his phone from the table, he logged out of his computing environment."
...
In the keynote address at Convergence, an annual conference for users of Microsoft Corp.'s business software, the Microsoft chief software architect [Bill Gates] also shared his vision of a world of work in which 'smart' tables will function as ad hoc screens for mobile devices.
He barely touched on the company's announcement today of its increased push into facilitating hosted versions of its CRM software and providing new integration capabilities for its Dynamics GP ERP product (see 'Microsoft tweaks CRM to improve hosting').
Instead, Gates spoke in more general terms about the ongoing coming together of the 'structured' world of financial and human resources applications with elements of the Internet world, including the ability to do 'mashups' -- the blending of data and tools from different sources.
...
Looking ahead, Gates said Microsoft is working on a 'missing piece of software' that would use rules to determine how to respond to people trying to contact an individual. Instead of sending out a generic 'out of the office' message, the software would instead use the caller's identity to determine how to answer the call.
...
Gates also demonstrated a workday in the future, using technology under development by Microsoft Research on a stage rigged out in three sections to resemble a home, an office and an airport lounge.
At home, he accessed a large wall-hung touch screen containing a mix of family and work information, including a combined calendar and data on where family members were, using GPS devices. The screen also displayed news feeds, and after identifying a story of particular interest, Gates was able to track its development via his mobile and office computing devices.
Once in the office, he was surrounded by three large free-standing touch screens, with secure access to his work computer provided by fingerprint identification. In the middle of a meeting, he received an alert from his calendar about road traffic delays, recommending that he leave the office shortly to ensure that he made his flight.
In the airport waiting lounge, Gates placed his mobile phone on a "smart" table that used a camera and software to become a display for his phone. He logged into his computer via fingerprint recognition. The table was able to recognize information from a business card he placed on it and enter that data into his digital contacts list. The moment he removed his phone from the table, he logged out of his computing environment."
New Scientist Technology - Device warns you if you're boring or irritating
New Scientist Technology - Device warns you if you're boring or irritating: "A DEVICE that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.
One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them.'
The 'emotional social intelligence prosthetic' device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
...
The team will present the device next week at the Body Sensor Network conference at MIT. People with autism are not the only ones who stand to benefit. Timothy Bickmore of Northeastern University in Boston, who studies ways in which computers can be made to engage with people's emotions, says the device would be a great teaching aid. "I would love it if you could have a computer looking at each student in the room to tell me when 20 per cent of them were bored or confused.""
Steve's Commentary
What could this mean for the rest of us?
One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them.'
The 'emotional social intelligence prosthetic' device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
...
The team will present the device next week at the Body Sensor Network conference at MIT. People with autism are not the only ones who stand to benefit. Timothy Bickmore of Northeastern University in Boston, who studies ways in which computers can be made to engage with people's emotions, says the device would be a great teaching aid. "I would love it if you could have a computer looking at each student in the room to tell me when 20 per cent of them were bored or confused.""
Steve's Commentary
What could this mean for the rest of us?
Monday, March 20, 2006
CNN.com - Welcome to the Future
CNN.com - Welcome to the Future: "CNN TV: Special airs March 25 and 26, 7-8 p.m. ET.
CNN explores realities the future might bring in the areas of technology, health, entertainment and more.
Brain chip research 'moving' along
Doing by thinking? Research could make it possible.
Watch: Moving with the mind (3:11)
Gallery: From concept to reality"
Steve's Commentary
I just saw a clip on CNN of some 3D holographic conferencing technology developed at MIT. It was part of a segment called "Welcome to the Future". It looks like there will be a TV special this week. Don't miss it!
CNN explores realities the future might bring in the areas of technology, health, entertainment and more.
Brain chip research 'moving' along
Doing by thinking? Research could make it possible.
Watch: Moving with the mind (3:11)
Gallery: From concept to reality"
Steve's Commentary
I just saw a clip on CNN of some 3D holographic conferencing technology developed at MIT. It was part of a segment called "Welcome to the Future". It looks like there will be a TV special this week. Don't miss it!
� Wired and wireless at the same high speed | Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com
� Wired and wireless at the same high speed Emerging Technology Trends ZDNet.com: "The next generation of optical networks needed to satisfy our appetite for bandwidth is currently under development. And researchers from Georgia Tech have built a new architecture which delivers super-broadband wired and wireless service simultaneously. This hybrid system 'could allow dual wired/wireless transmission up to 100 times faster than current networks.' In fact, this optical-wireless network can carry as many as 32 different channels, each providing 2.5 gigabit-per-second service to your home or your office. And companies such as NEC and BellSouth are already working on such hybrid optical-wireless communications networks."
RFID tags vulnerable to viruses, study says - Computerworld
RFID tags vulnerable to viruses, study says - Computerworld: "MARCH 15, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Three computer science researchers are warning that viruses embedded in radio tags used to identify and track goods are right around the corner, a danger that so far has been overlooked by the industry's high interest in the technology.
No viruses targeting radio frequency identification (RFID) technology have been released live yet, according to the researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. But RFID tags have several characteristics that could be engineered to exploit vulnerabilities in middleware and back-end databases, they wrote in a paper presented today at a conference in Pisa, Italy.
'RFID malware is a Pandora's box that has been gathering dust in the corner of our 'smart' warehouses and home,' the paper stated."
No viruses targeting radio frequency identification (RFID) technology have been released live yet, according to the researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. But RFID tags have several characteristics that could be engineered to exploit vulnerabilities in middleware and back-end databases, they wrote in a paper presented today at a conference in Pisa, Italy.
'RFID malware is a Pandora's box that has been gathering dust in the corner of our 'smart' warehouses and home,' the paper stated."
Friday, March 17, 2006
Personal Tech Pipeline | Blog | Mini Displays Coming to Laptops
Personal Tech Pipeline Blog Mini Displays Coming to Laptops: "Most cool new clamshell cell phones these days have a big display inside, and a small one outside. The outside display shows the time, or Caller ID info. It's a great idea that people seem to like. Don't look now, but the same idea is coming to Windows-based notebook PCs!
This new capability is based on the combination of a hardware platform called Preface from a company called PortalPlayer, and a Microsoft software platform called SideShow."
This new capability is based on the combination of a hardware platform called Preface from a company called PortalPlayer, and a Microsoft software platform called SideShow."
Thursday, March 16, 2006
IEEEXplore# Integrating "smart" materials into a first-year engineering curriculum: a case study
IEEEXplore# Integrating "smart" materials into a first-year engineering curriculum: a case study: "Abstract
Developments in materials science are creating new possibilities for engineering designs. For example, multifunctional materials, such as shape memory alloys (SMA) or piezoelectric materials are referred to as 'smart' materials since designers can use properties of these materials to construct components of adaptive mechanisms. For example, researchers are using shape memory alloys (SMA) to build biomimetic systems that mimic the behavior of biological organisms such as fish or insects. The ability of SMA components to change shape in response to thermal or electrical stimuli considerably simplifies construction of biomimetic systems. As multifunctional materials are changing the practice of engineering, providing undergraduate students with exposure and experiences with these materials and their potential for new design options should be seriously explored. The proposed paper presents a narrative description of how material on SMA was integrated into a first-year engineering course and a first-year engineering project. Key partners, including an undergraduate engineering student working on a research experience and a first-year graduate student, describe their roles in integrating material into a first-year engineering course that was taught in Fall 2001. Also, data describing the impact on students and faculty will be presented. "
Steve's Commentary
This may be interesting to see if it would apply to introducing smart materials to companies that would like to utilize this technology.
Developments in materials science are creating new possibilities for engineering designs. For example, multifunctional materials, such as shape memory alloys (SMA) or piezoelectric materials are referred to as 'smart' materials since designers can use properties of these materials to construct components of adaptive mechanisms. For example, researchers are using shape memory alloys (SMA) to build biomimetic systems that mimic the behavior of biological organisms such as fish or insects. The ability of SMA components to change shape in response to thermal or electrical stimuli considerably simplifies construction of biomimetic systems. As multifunctional materials are changing the practice of engineering, providing undergraduate students with exposure and experiences with these materials and their potential for new design options should be seriously explored. The proposed paper presents a narrative description of how material on SMA was integrated into a first-year engineering course and a first-year engineering project. Key partners, including an undergraduate engineering student working on a research experience and a first-year graduate student, describe their roles in integrating material into a first-year engineering course that was taught in Fall 2001. Also, data describing the impact on students and faculty will be presented. "
Steve's Commentary
This may be interesting to see if it would apply to introducing smart materials to companies that would like to utilize this technology.
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