Haptic Touch Screen

From a recent blog post in Technology Review: Prototypes

Touch screens greet tourists at museums, shoppers at checkouts, and even drivers on dashboards. In spite of the name "touch," though, they don't feel like much--just flat, boring glass or plastic.

But press a virtual button on a screen from San Jose, CA's Immersion, and you'll feel the same satisfying clack you'd feel pushing a key on a keyboard. The device works by tricking your sense of touch. Precise motors vibrate the top layer of the display. The vibration varies depending on which graphic you touch--a car's thermostat, say, or its radio tuner--creating a distinct sensation for each. An on-screen visual response and an audible click or buzz add to an illusion that overrides your perception of the display's hard surface. Immersion is currently licensing the technology and shipping demonstration models to automakers, display manufacturers, and other companies.

Mighty Mouse

Innovation in scrolling: $49
Slavish devotion to symmetry and simplicity at the expense of ergonomics and usability: priceless.

The Button That Wasn�t

Alas the fate of the one-button mouse in today�s multibutton world. Who has time for intuitive, elegant design when there is so much clicking to do? Thanks to a smooth top shell with touch-sensitive technology beneath, Mighty Mouse allows you to right click without a right button. Capacitive sensors under Mighty Mouse�s seamless top shell detect where your fingers are and predict your clicking intentions, so you don�t need two buttons � just two fingers. Click on the left side to use Mighty Mouse in its simplest, single-button form. Click on the right to access contextual menus within applications and edit, copy, label or download from your mouse. It�s simple sleight of hand.

My guess is that with the use of capacitance sensors you can't have one finger resting on one sensor and click with the other finger on the other sensor, but would have to have only one finger in contact with the shell to execute a click. fannnntastic.

30GB head-mounted surveillance camera

[Via Engadget]


Yo. Tripp?





We�ve wanted a camera that we could take everywhere to record everything we see from our POV ever since we saw Edison Carter doing it back in the day. Of course, his rig was way too bulky and cumbersome to really carry around for any length of time. Fortunately, now that we�re living 20 minutes in the future, all that has changed, and there are setups like the DoubleVision series from the U.K.�s Second Sight Surveillance (not to mention other POV-cams from outfits like Viosport). The DoubleVision Pro is particularly sweet, combining a head-mounted camera with a pocket 30 GB HDD that can store as much as 46 hours of video. While Second Sight markets the unit as a mobile surveillance device, we could easily see ourselves donning this and zapping our raw footage up to Bigtime TV.

Slash of reality

Computer graphics lab creates the visual and the visceral...

Montreal Gazette (10/04/04); Bruemmer, Rene
Montreal is expanding as a center of academic and commercial activity in the area of computer graphics, a field that has exploded in recent years thanks to the increasing popularity and profitability of video games and computer-animated films. Over 700 people in Montreal are employed by video game makers Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, while students at the Universite de Montreal are developing new algorithms and software directed toward the more realistic and speedier rendition of computer-generated imagery. The school is often one of the select few to publish papers at ACM's SIGGRAPH, the leading forum for computer graphics research. Designers and academic programmers are pursuing the development of tools and methods that are published and adopted by the film or gaming industries, or are built upon by other researchers. Victor Ostromoukhov with the Universite's computer graphics lab notes that their work is released into the public domain, while professor Pierre Poulin explains that students and professors may be awarded private or government funding and fellowships. He also notes that students could secure a fruitful career in computer graphics based on the merits of their work. "Computer graphics is one of those rare fields where students are coveted," Poulin says. "Where computer science has been slowing down in the last few years, computer graphics is speeding up." Getting published is more complicated now thanks to the computer graphics boom, which has spawned fervent competition; this makes true innovation all the more prized, according to Poulin.

full article

Received via ACM Tech News.

New Sony TV Chips

WSJ.com - New Sony TV Chips Give Viewers Control; Can 'Pan and Scan'

TOKYO -- New technology unveiled yesterday by Sony Corp. lets television viewers manipulate the images broadcast to their screens, allowing them to zoom into and pan around the picture as well as sharpen the resolution..snip..Still in the experimental stage are other features that let viewers zoom in on bits of a TV broadcast -- such as a pitcher's face in a baseball game -- as if they were using binoculars. Sony's new chip can digitally fill in details of the picture to keep the image sharp, and lets users pan that enlarged view, as if they were controlling the video themselves.

An Automobile With Feelings

A drawing of a car with facial expressions. Inventors said they wanted drivers to have more than a horn and headlights to signal other drivers.

Read the Article

Japan: Schoolkids to be tagged with RFID chips

The rights and wrongs of RFID-chipping human beings have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school.

read the brief article

Gattaioh: Moving Transformers with Anime instructions

Saw this amazing transformer made by Takara Toys at Kiddyland on Omotesando last January and couldn't resist getting it for my son's birthday this week (4 years!). Collectively called Gattaioh, the characters start as vehicles moving along separate tracks, transform into robots, and then converge to make one huge robot. Videos here (6.2M) and here (10M). Was very impressed by the incredible engineering but then also discovered that they included a 30 min. Anime on VHS tape that effectively combines the instruction manual and also the backstory for the toy - pretty great concept.

Humanoids for the Home

From an amusing article on entertainment robotics in Technology Review:

Help in negotiating the complex environment of a modern home, enthusiasts argue, will come from a network of tiny radio frequency identification chips. At the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, scientists are training robots to sort and wash dishes by combining visual data with RFID input. If a robot sees something round and platelike, it scans the object. The plate's RFID chip reports, in essence, I'm a plate! I get washed and put in the corner cupboard, second shelf!

Pentagon Robot Race

The pentagon-sponsored robot race aimed at identifying a robotic vehicle capable of maneuvering through a battlefield environment on its own is happening this weekend (the qualifying race actually) - "To win the $1 million, a vehicle must complete the desert course, expected to be as long as 200 miles, in less than 10 hours."

FONTANA, Calif., March 9 - A robotic vehicle designed by a team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday became the first driverless contestant to navigate a 1.36 mile test course in preparation for the Pentagon's $1 million robot race this weekend. [their website here]

article here

Captian Power Redux

Holy Bat-Ray! New Batman Toys Receive Signals From Your TV
By QUEENA SOOK KIM and MERISSA MARR ,Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The upshot is a toy Batmobile that will vroom at the exact moment the cartoon car pulls onto the television screen; an action figure that picks up and mimics phrases spouted on TV by an animated Bruce Wayne, aka Batman; and a hand-held device that has games unlocked by television signals.

The new Batman products are part of a slew of toys at next week's International Toy Fair in New York that use technology to revive childrens' interest and compete with videogames and other media. Ohio Art Co. is unveiling an electronic version of its classic Etch-A-Sketch, which uses the television set as its sketching canvas. Fisher-Price's new Winnie the Pooh is voice activated; the stuffed animal walks when toddlers call it. And LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. is enhancing its electronic book LeapPad with a new line of cartridges that include a handwriting-recognition program.
Mattel's new Batman action figure uses video encoded invisible light technology.
Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. is hoping the Batman toys will revive interest in the aging superhero in time for its next "Batman" movie in 2005. Unlike other superheroes, Batman doesn't have any innate powers but relies on gadgets to fight villains. "Of all the super heroes out there, Batman is the most 'toyetic,'" said Dan Romanelli, President of Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products. "Batman needs gadgets to get around."

The key gadgetry in the new Batman toys is its use of a special process called Video Encoded Visible Light, or VEIL, which Mattel is licensing from closely held VEIL Interactive Technologies, of St. Louis. Through VEIL, the Batwave Batmobile, the Batwave Batman Action Figure and Batwave Communicator Handheld Device, will interact with any TV set and respond in certain ways during the program.

VEIL works inside a cartoon by altering the light levels in its pixels, or elements of an image. Humans can't see this changing light. But an electronic "eye" on the toys picks up the signal prompting the toys to make sounds, movements or, in the case of the hand-held, play games in response.

VEIL Technology says its signal is safe and that it has been used for years. For example, TV-ad tracking services use machines that rely on VEIL to verify that commercials actually run as scheduled in different markets. "The FCC knows that VEIL technology is in use and hasn't voiced any objections," said Edward Koplar, president and co-founder of VEIL Technologies.

Kids take the toy out of the box, set it in front of the related television show and press a button to activate the VEIL sensor on the toy. At designated times, the cartoon will tell the Batmobile to flash its lights or lift its fins. The cartoon also will transmit signals to unleash new villains in the hand-held gaming device. The toy will be compatible with any television, as the digital signals are emitted from the actual image, not the TV itself.

Mattel used similar technology in the late 1980s to link its Captain Power play set to the syndicated cartoon "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future." As the TV emitted a discernable flash of lights or certain targets, children could aim a spaceship at the screen and fire. The toy firearm kept track of the target score. The effort fizzled because the early technology was awkward and Mattel focused on the gadgetry rather than using it to enhance the plot line of the cartoon.

Mattel is using a technology resembling VEIL to tie a stuffed dog Serafina to a new Barbie DVD title "Princess and the Pauper." The pooch, selling separately from the DVD for $39.99, will say such things as, "Hug me Princess, I'm scared," just as the animated Princess is stepping into a suspenseful scene.

Many of the toys featured at the Toy Fair also rely on technology that isn't new but has just become affordable. The LeapPad's writing recognition program, for example, is used in electronic organizers. The voice-activation feature of Winnie the Pooh is found in many cellphones.

This most recent toy technology is notably sophisticated and easy to use. This wasn't always the case. One example is Hasbro Inc.'s interactive Furby, introduced during the dot-com boom. The owl-like Furby could sneeze, giggle and speak a language called Furbish. The stuffed toy posted impressive sales in the late 1990s, but lost favor with youngsters. One main problem was that it took as long as an hour to teach Furby its tricks by pressing different body parts.

"Furby had great technology and the 35-year-old guys were enamored by it," toy expert Chris Byrne said. "But they forgot how kids play -- they don't want to spend time programming a toy. If kids wanted to play with technology they'd rather pick up their dad's cellphone or get on the computer." Hasbro didn't return calls seeking comment.

Like many the newest crop of technology-enhanced toys, the Batman line makes the VEIL technology seamless. But success for Mattel will hinge on its ability to mesh the toys' features with the cartoon's storyline. Analysts say if the more expensive toys don't click with the TV shows, parents may hesitate to pay for them. The Batman action figure, for example, will retail for about $39.99. The toy is more than twice the cost of a conventional action figure and nearly 25% more than the more sophisticated Stretch and Roar Hulk action figure, which is pliable and emits a roaring sound when its limbs are stretched and pulled.

"The focus will be to make sure there's a compelling reason for the Batmobile to light up," says Scott Miller, the vice president of VEIL Interactive Technologies. "We need to make magical moments."

Write to Queena Sook Kim at queena.kim@wsj.com1 and Merissa Marr at merissa.marr@wsj.com2

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107646623410126556,00.html

Intel Chip Speed Breakthrough

"Intel scientists say that they have made silicon chips that can switch light like electricity, blurring the line between computing and communications and presenting a vision of the digital future that will allow computers themselves to span cities or even the entire globe."

-The New York Post

Optical Microscopy

synopsis of cnn article:

Michael Davidson, a scientist -- and fervent microscope buff -- at the National High Magnetic Field Labs at Florida State University received press recently for his site Molecular Expressions which features color photographs taken through an optical microscope (commonly referred to as "photo-micro-graphs") of just about everything from beer and cocktails to integrated circuits and ice cream.

"You get the pretty images due to the light hitting the defects in the materials," said Davidson.

His passion for detail led him to another discovery. While photographing the surface of tiny integrated circuits for a research project, the art-loving professor found miniscule silicon creatures embedded on the surface of hundreds of computer chips -- put there by engineers longing for a bit of recognition. Turns out that after spending several months or years designing a chip, some techies would get special pleasure from secretly stamping their creations -- even if those signatures could only be seen through a microscope.

"Scientific images are very artistic, and we wanted to present the artistic merit of science," Davidson said.

It's taken nine years and has cost more than $5 million to create the site. But it draws 40,000 visitors a day, swallowing up about a quarter of the university's Internet bandwidth, he said.

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status:

Ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them, but they did not receive expected scientific and engineering data during the rest of that Martian day.

However, the first of a series of high-resolution images were sent back to Earth with amazing clarity. The team is carefully examining these images and confirming that the apparent �narrative entities� do actually exist on the red planet.

It is rumored, but not confirmed, that Warner Brothers sponsored the mission.

Sharp unveils notebook with 3-D display

"Sharp Corp. has unveiled a notebook computer with a display that gives the illusion of depth and can display objects in three dimensions without the use of special glasses. The new notebook is scheduled to be on sale in Japan and the U.S. before the end of this year."
info here and here

Cellophane Turns LCDs 3D

From Technology Research News August 26, 2003

Sometimes ordinary items have more to them than meets the eye. For the past couple of decades research teams have worked to make various types of three-dimensional displays; most methods include fairly complicated hardware. A University of Toronto researcher has taken a different tack. As it turns out, a trip to the kitchen and a pair of crossed polarizer glasses can turn an ordinary laptop screen into a 3D display. The method could lead to extremely low-cost three-dimensional applications for scientific and medical imaging, and for games. The researcher's tests verified that a sheet of ordinary cellophane possesses the properties necessary to rotate the direction of white light polarization 90 degrees. It is possible to rotate the polarization of the light coming from one half of a laptop screen by simply covering that side with cellophane. Showing two copies of an image that are polarized differently through a pair of glasses that blocks light polarized in different directions for each eye allows a viewer to see a different copy of the image with each eye. This creates the illusion of three dimensions because the human brain judges distances based on the differences in the views seen by each eye. The colorless, 25 micron-thick cellophane was better than the commercial half-wave plates usually used for the job and 3,500 times less expensive, according to the researcher. The work appeared in the August 2003 issue of the Review of Scientific Instruments.

Office 2003 / XML

With Office 2003, Microsoft’s strategic direction for the suite has changed. Microsoft has moved away from adding “kitchen sink” features to Office and instead is focusing on connecting Office 2003 to other forms of data and applications through support of the XML format, Ken Smiley, director at Forrester Research, told NewsFactor. The upgrade is the first incremental step in turning Office from a set of individual desktop applications to a portal for Web services within the enterprise, Smiley said.

Office 2003 will enable enterprises to take data from backend systems and instead of trying to access it through a browser bring it directly into applications such as Word and Excel, manipulate that data, and save it in a format understandable to the backend system. “The XML data source will reside on the backend server and be subject to Web services calls,” Smiley said.

Latest SGI Products / Pre Siggraph Announcements

Desktop:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (July 14, 2003)-SGI (NYSE: SGI) today extended its workstation line with the new Silicon Graphics® TezroTM visual workstation, a powerhouse system that sets a new bar for desktop performance and reliability. TezroTM delivers leading-edge visualization, multiprocessing, and digital media to technical and creative users and is designed to help individuals and teams deliver cutting-edge results in ever-shorter production cycles.

Mountaintop:
The Onyx4 UltimateVision system raises the bar in visualization by delivering:
A system architecture that, in a single system configuration, scales from two to 32 graphics processors, or pipelines-more than twice the scalability over previous Onyx systems and 16 times over the nearest system competitor
Eight times the system performance of an Onyx® InfiniteReality®
Up to 80 times the pipe bandwidth over competing cluster solutions
Price points and configurations tailored to empower individuals, transform team productivity and scale to tackle the most extreme visualization challenges

robots

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58961,00.html