Researchers at Microsoft are working on ways to bring about any type of surface (in this case the skin) touch screen technology.
To achieve this goal, the researchers used a pico-projector and a special microphone that allows you to intercept the pressure on the skin through your fingers. The system is called Skinput.
The projector can display the user interface, while the microphone determines the position based on the physical principle of transmission of waves transmitted through the body.
The video below shows how to create touch screen interface using the arm of a person as a "screen" touch.
Kevin Warwick in this video talk about an interesting point of view about man-machine integration as a way to expand our knowledge and potentials. Human race can be more powerful and can see things in different way and with different perspectives if it accepts a mix artificial intelligence, robotics and implants.
Take a look at this fascinating video of professor Warwick at University of Reading's Cybernetics.
Texas Instruments has presented the new chip that will solve most problems of wireless connectivity for mobile devices: WiLink 7.0.
This is one of the first quad-chip for mobile devices that integrate WiFi (IEEE 802.11n), Bluetooth, GPS and Radio FM in a single chip so to decrease the costs of 30% and space occupied of the 50%.
Devices will have wireless capabilities without loosing performances. Analysts foreseen that within 2013 will be sold more then 4.5 billions of radio-combined chips.
Recently we witnessed the completion of the VOLTA by the GM, Fiat 500 and now the Venturi Voltage concept car presented at the NAIAS 2010 (image below).
All these cars have in common the use of more or less efficient batteries to power the electric motor.
I think the real revolution will happen when you do not think only to accumulate energy, but also how to produce it. A car can increase its autonomy in a much greater than the average current only if it is equipped with systems of energy production. Examples could be producing energy from the sun, the use of air currents that are formed during the movement of the car itself and the conversion into electricity of heat developed by electric motors.
I believe that technological innovation in this sector is just beginning and maybe this could lead to something completely innovative rethinking the concept of mobility.
Parrot has been demonstrating at the 2010 CES show in Las Vegas the AR.Drone, a Wi-Fi helicopter with dual cameras and augmented-reality video streaming, that you control using your iPhone or iPod Touch. The AR.Drone features four rotors and interchangeable hulls for flying both indoors and outside. Built-in flight stabilization technology keeps the drone steady while you use your iPhone’s motion sensors to steer it remotely over the craft’s Wi-Fi network.
Parrot spent four years developing the AR.Drone and creating an augmented reality gaming platform. Using its streaming video camera, the AR.Drone image processing can detect other drones or 3D targets. Several demo games are on display, but Parrot hopes that game developers will take advantage of their open API to develop more games and other applications for the AR.Drone.
To make the AR.Drone easy to fly, Parrot developed a microelectromechanical (MEMS) inertial guidance system that includes a three-axis accelerometer, a two-axis gyroscope, and a single-axis precision gyroscope for yaw. The flyer also includes an ultrasonic altimeter and a down-facing video camera for calculating speed and position. By tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch you can drive the drone. The built-in Wi-Fi network is used to establish the connection between the drone and the iPhone, then the video camera on the drone streams its feed directly to the screen on your iPhone. If you remove your finger from the iPhone, the AR.Drone’s autopilot keeps the drone hovering about a meter off the ground. If the network connection is lost, the autopilot will stabilize the drone and slowly lower it to the ground for a soft landing.
Parrot hopes to make the AR.Drone available in the second half of 2010. For more information visit ardrone.parrot.com. For details about the open API, visit projects.ardrone.org.
New type of battery is coming. Researchers at Stanford University are using carbon nanotubes with silver nanowires to realize ink to be printed over a standard piece of paper and realize a a low-cost battery or supercapacitor that is ultra lightweight.
Professor Yi Cui said that this type of battery is more durable due to the fact that the ink adheres strongly to the paper. The paper supercapacitor may last through 40000 charge-discharge cycles.
The flexibility of the paper allows many practical applications like using it in electric or hybrid cars.
The experiment shown also in the video where focused on using paper battery to turn on a LED, which glowed brightly.
"This technology has potential to be commercialized within a short time," said Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. "I don't think it will be limited to just energy storage devices," he said. "This is potentially a very nice, low-cost, flexible electrode for any electrical device."
Today I want to announce that a new blog is born: iPhone 4 Passion (yes I know, I had not to much fantasy ;) ). This is a specialized blog I decided to create only for iPhone/iPod Touch and Objective-C programming.
For now I migrated the two presentations that you can find also in this blog, but soon I intend to enrich the blog with code examples, better tips and tricks and other useful information on this awesome device.
So stay tuned and hope to hear soon your comments, impressions, suggestions and so on.
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