Rome Built in a Day with 150,000 Digital Photos

Rome Built in a Day with 150,000 Digital Photos:

"The ancient city of Rome was not built in a day. It took nearly a decade to build the Colosseum, and almost a century to construct St. Peter's Basilica. But now the city, including these landmarks, can be digitized in just a matter of hours. A new computer algorithm developed at the University of Washington uses hundreds of thousands of tourist photos to automatically reconstruct an entire city in about a day.
The tool is the most recent in a series developed at the UW to harness the increasingly large digital photo collections available on photo-sharing Web sites. The digital Rome was built from 150,000 tourist photos tagged with the word 'Rome' or 'Roma' that were downloaded from the popular photo-sharing Web site, Flickr."

This is awesome!

iSniff: Pocket-Size Pollution Sensors Promise Big Improvement in Monitoring Personal Environment: Scientific American

iSniff: Pocket-Size Pollution Sensors Promise Big Improvement in Monitoring Personal Environment: Scientific American: "Once large enough to be mistaken for terrorist bombs, portable air pollution monitors are now being shrunk into smaller and smaller wearable devices that can be easily dispatched for environmental detective work: Is black carbon soot emitted by school buses contributing not just to warming global temperatures, but raising childhood asthma rates, too? These new pocket-size sensors could provide more practical and powerful detection of such potential public health risks."

Nikon announces new Coolpix S1000pj compact camera with built-in projector | Digital Cameras & Camcorders | ZDNet.com

Nikon announces new Coolpix S1000pj compact camera with built-in projector Digital Cameras & Camcorders ZDNet.com: "With new and improved point-and-shoot cameras announced at an ever more rapid pace, there are only so many ways camera makers can differentiate their new products. Well, Nikon has hit upon a pretty unique differentiator for its latest entry into the compact camera wars: Today’s announcement of four new Coolpix cameras includes the world’s first camera with a built-in projector, the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj."

Energy saving: Measure It To Manage It! - Sensors

Energy saving: Measure It To Manage It! - Sensors: "Today energy efficiency is paramount in the minds of most organisations. Yet most organisations have little idea of how they use energy, whether they are efficient, or what are the opportunities for improvement.
Because energy usage often represents a large proportion of an organisation's costs, any improvements in efficiency will benefit both the bottom line and the environment. Despite this fact, many organisations spend a large amount of time minimising equipment purchase costs, but pay little or no attention to the running costs. For equipment that consumes power this is a big mistake! For example, 95% of the costs of a motor may be the energy it consumes, with maintenance accounting for 3% and the motor's price accounting for only 2% of its total lifetime costs."

Aardvark: ask it anything, get an answer in 5 minutes [invites] | The Web Life | ZDNet.com

Aardvark: ask it anything, get an answer in 5 minutes [invites] The Web Life ZDNet.com: "San-Francisco startup Mechanical Zoo is trying to build the ultimate interactive knowledge base. And it’s kind of addicting. Once you get started, you will not want to stop.

To use Aardvark, simply ask it a question. You can interact with it in so many ways too: web, IM, email, you name it. You can even ask questions via Twitter."

A projector that fits in your pocket, remember not to sit on it. | CES 2009 - CNET Blogs

A projector that fits in your pocket, remember not to sit on it. CES 2009 - CNET Blogs: "I'm not certain if this has truly never been accomplished before, but BenQ is claiming that their new GP1 is the world's first LED pocket projector with an integrated USB reader. According to BenQ users will be able to run movies, slides or whatever they want simply by plugging a USB thumb drive in, with no need for a separate PC.
In addition, GP1 users will be able to connect digital cameras, PDAs, iPods, iPhones, Smartphones, gaming consoles and laptops for viewing projected from 10 inches, up to an 80-inch diagonal size and it will project sound through its integrated speaker.
If you're concerned about color accuracy (and really who isn't?), well BenQ seems to think they have you taken care of with a 120 percent NTSC color gamut. According to BenQ this is 40% higher than non-LED projectors.
Connection options include D-Sub (VGA), Composite, and USB inputs, and PC audio output as well as a detachable iPod docking station.
The GP1 will be available March 2009 through at an MSRP of $599."

RF Code Announces Wireless Environmental Monitoring System - Sensors

RF Code Announces Wireless Environmental Monitoring System - Sensors: "AUSTIN & DALLAS, TX /BUSINESS WIRE/ -- RF Code Inc., a leader in automating physical asset management using RFID-enabled solutions, announced the availability of a wireless environmental monitoring solution that provides real-time information about the temperature and humidity conditions surrounding IT assets. Ideal for monitoring environmental conditions in IT-dense areas, such as data centers and offices, the new R155 active RFID sensor (or tag) provides an affordable way for companies to implement eco-friendly monitoring easily. The announcement comes during the Active RFID, RTLS & Sensor Networks 2008 Conference, where RF Code is highlighting the sensor (Booth 7). The company will also be keynoting a session during the Active RFID in Asset Tracking track, along with IBM."

Gearworks Announces Appmosphere™ Application for Location-Based Mobile Health Care

Gearworks Announces Appmosphere™ Application for Location-Based Mobile Health Care: "OnCare by Gearworks™ allows home care and hospice organizations to increase productivity, ensure compliance and improve outcomes
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Oct. 14, 2008 — Gearworks, a leading provider of location-based mobile business applications, today announced OnCare by Gearworks™, a location-based solution for mobile health care, at the annual conference of the National Association of Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Gearworks expects to begin beta testing OnCare in Q4 with a commercial release in the first quarter of 2009.
Developed using Gearworks’ Appmosphere™ mobile application platform, OnCare simplifies management of care professionals in the field and allows organizations to focus on delivering quality patient care. OnCare represents a new set of wireless carrier-delivered mobile business applications designed using Appmosphere to explicitly match the unique needs of specific market segments — such as home health care."

The new employee connection: Social networking behind the firewall

The new employee connection: Social networking behind the firewall: "'The whole Web 2.0 explosion has moved from the consumer and college student world to professionals in the business world,' says Amy Shuen, author of Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide. (O'Reilly Media, 2008). 'Employees are seeing this as a way of enlarging their sphere and interacting with colleagues.'
It's more than an electronic water cooler, she says. Companies may start with the idea of helping employees feel more connected, but that's just the beginning. With easier and faster connections among people, suddenly cross-division collaboration happens more naturally, leading to greater innovation. 'People don't just chat; they connect with people and end up talking about things that have an impact on the business,' Shuen says."

Flock'n Sheep!: AirJelly

Flock'n Sheep!: AirJelly: "AirJelly houses two lithium-ion polymer accumulator batteries rated at 8 V and 400 mA, which can be completely charged in half an hour and are AirJelly's sole source of power. A connected central electric drive unit transmits the force to a bevel gear wheel and then to eight spur gears in sequence. These gears power eight shafts, each of which activates a crank; these in turn move the jellyfish's eight tentacles. Each tentacle is designed as a structure with Fin Ray Effect®- a construction derived from the functional anatomy of a fish's fin. The actual structure consists of two alternating tension and pressure flanks movably connected by ribs. If a flank is subjected to pressure, the geometrical structure automatically bendsin the direction of the applied force. Together, the tentacles produce a peristaltic forward motion similar to that of their biological model."