MTI Micro partners for fuel cell ultra-mobile PC

MTI Micro and Korean manufacturer NeoSolar late last week said they will build prototype ultra-mobile PCs powered by fuel cells.

The two companies said they will develop digital devices that use MTI Micro's Mobion fuel cells, which use liquid methanol cartridges as a fuel.

The development could lead to external chargers, snap-on attachments or devices with the Mobion fuel cell embedded in them, the companies said.

Fuel cells are being developed for a wide range of applications, from back-up electricity in buildings and data centers to transportation.

Rather drawing on tanks of hydrogen to make electricity in a fuel cell, MTI Micro's Mobion uses methanol. The advantage is that it's a liquid fuel that can be easily transported and store, say backers. The byproduct of using the fuel is water and carbon dioxide, in relatively small amounts.

MTI has signed on a partners to develop GPS devices and digital cameras that use its fuel cells.

Other consumer electronics manufacturers, including Sharp, are also developing direct methanol to fuel cell chargers.

Via CNET Crave

Concept camera features onboard Photoshop

It seems I am not the only person daydreaming of the day point-and-shoots will be shipped with Photoshop. This conceptual shooter seen on petitinvention.com is a vision of what shooters in the future should look like--great design with a full-fledged image-editing application installed.

According to the design, this camera can automatically detect and erase people from the shot, leaving only the scene. Other than landscape photographers, I really cannot think of any reason to use this feature. Imagine activating this while on vacation and you return home only to find that everyone has been erased. Well, there's always the next holiday.

I am still game for the idea of having even a scaled-down version of Photoshop in my camera. Of course, a touchscreen display would be nice, with full-frame sensor and more.

Via: Petitinvention

Are chemical elements falling off the periodic table?

If you thought crude oil was being depleted, due to ever-increasing demand, and some animals such as polar bears were on the verge of extinction because of climate changes, they aren't the only one. Chemical elements are also heading the same way.

Armin Reller, a material chemist at Germany's University of Augsburg, predicts (read: warning us) that some chemical elements will not last for more than 30 years.

For instance, gallium (atomic number 31 in the periodic table) will not last for more than a decade. It has a very low boiling point and unwillingness to oxidize, thus making it suitable for LCDs.

Indium (49) and hafnium (72), which are hard to find, are used mainly in computer chips and also the control rods for nuclear reactors. They could therefore be gone around 2017. Meanwhile, zinc (30) and copper (29) will disappear in two decades, although they are not rare.

Just like oil, we are using them up faster than we can find them. If elements start falling off the periodic table, that's a bad omen for the environment.

Credit: fermat.csci.unt.edu

Prominent videogame institute opens in Singapore

The new DigiPen campus in Singapore
DigiPen is not the name of some new tablet pointing device. It's the name of an institute that offers degree courses which relate directly to videogame design. The school has two campuses in the US, and today, it officially opened one more in Singapore. Founder and president of the institute, Claude Comair, was in town for the opening and gave an overview of the purpose of the school and what it hopes to achieve in the island-state. From the time it set up shop in Washington till today, the number of companies creating videogames around it has increased from below 10 to more than 100. Comair is hoping the same effect will occur with the Singapore campus.

In case you are wondering what the big deal is about this school, consider the work of some of its graduates. Portal, the award-winning game developed and published by Valve Corporation, was first conceived by some DigiPen students who were employed by the company upon graduation. Other famous games worked on by past graduates have included Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (Nintendo) and Blood II: The Chosen (Monolith Productions). Imagine, the chance that a future hit game in 2011 may just come from your own backyard. The first line of the Portal theme song, Still Alive, truly describes its awesomeness: "This was a triumph."

A projector in your phone

Egads! Just had to say it since Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI)'s EGD module simply begs for it. That aside, this shouts geek appeal since it's a 110g device that can basically throw pictures off your mobile device to a 60-inch full-color SVGA image 2m away. What we know is that it can receive picture input signals like S-video, composite, component and analog RGB, and comes equipped with controller that can realize 3D images. Lest we get too excited about the potential waiting to be unleashed here--from billboard-type messages to sales pitches--the Eye Glass Display is still in gestation mode, folks. But at least it won't be long before we can turn our mobile phones into portable video projectors for impromptu movie marathons.

Via Ubergizmo

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