Posts in Future Tech
CityWall LCD lets users get touchy-feely
Eric Franklin | Oct 13, 2008
Three-dimensional orbs are the way of the future.
(Credit: MultiTouch)
On Friday, the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, or HIIT (not be confused with high-intensity interval training), launched a new 3D version of its multitouch display called CityWall.
When I say "3D" I mean it's 3D as far as the graphics on the screen go, but not in the way seen in Minority Report. We're still a ways off from that.
By using a rear-projection system involving multiple cameras, projectors, and infrared sensors, the technology is able to track as many fingers and hands as can fit on the screen--and uniquely identify them.
This 3D version of CityWall is now in use at the Lasipalatsi media center in Helsinki, Finland. Currently the screen is being used for an interactive exhibition that focuses on the benefits and nuisances of urban nature. The exhibition will reportedly remain at Lasipalatsi permanently, so if you happen to be weaving your way through Northern Europe at some point, you might want to drop in.
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Robot suit for rent
Juniper Foo | Oct 10, 2008
(Credit: Cyberdyne)
I, Robot's Isaac Asimov would have loved Japan to bits. Land of robots (kawaii or otherwise) and birth place of the Honda Asimov (in tribute to Isaac) and Murata Girl, Japan has again led the march forward--with robot suits for rent. How cool is that? But before we can all become Iron Man, there's just one wee catch. You'll need about 220,000 yen (US$2,218) in pocket change for the tab. And that's just a month's rental.
Cyberdyne, a new company in Tsukuba outside Tokyo, says it will mass-produce HAL (in yet another tribute, this time to 2001: A Space Odyssey), short for hybrid assistive limb. The suit's ability to read brain signals and direct limb movement thorugh the skin will have far-reaching impact for the rapidly aging population and people with mobility issues not just in Japan but worldwide.
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KDDI demos world's first 3D LCD display
Damian Koh | Oct 10, 2008
The 800 x 480-pixel screen on the right shows a fuzzy image, but according to Physorg, the stereoscopic effect is able to trick each eye into seeing a real 3D image. Naturally, there's no word on when you'll see this technology in the market, but at least you don't have to worry about making that happen since someone else is already doing it on your behalf.
Via Physorg
Date set for restart of Large Hadron Collider
Tom Espiner | Oct 06, 2008
The Large Hadron Collider will be turned on again at the beginning of April, according to Robert Aymar, CERN's director general.
The LHC, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, was built by the European nuclear-research organization to conduct experiments to test fundamental physics theories and to search for important new science such as the Higgs Boson.
Click image for gallery on the Large Hadron Collider.
(Credit: Maximilien Brice for CERN)
Aymar said that at the moment, the scientists at CERN do not know what caused the leak, as the equipment, which needs to be cooled to operate, still had to heat up to room temperature to be examined.
"We have to perform a test, but we cannot believe a magnet is faulty," Aymar told ZDNet UK on Friday at the official launch at CERN of its grid-computing system, which has actually been running since 2003. "At the moment, we think it is an (electrical) connection. We have thousands of connections, and they can't all be tested...We'll see after the magnet returns to room temperature."
The LHC will come back online at the beginning of April, after a period of maintenance. Aymar said that from November 15 to the beginning of April, all the accelerators are closed down each year for maintenance. The closure period also reduces the winter load on the French power grid, which normally supplies power to the experiment.
"In general, we call (the maintenance period) 'consolidation,' but really we have to do it; otherwise, (the accelerators) would fall apart," Aymar said.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from CERN's headquarters.
Solar power for toxic waste sites?
Elsa Wenzel | Oct 06, 2008
Interactive EPA maps for Google Earth expand on the data shown here.
(Credit: EPA)
The agency says 850,000 acres it has cleaned up, among 15 million contaminated acres total, are exceptional destinations for clean-power companies, in part due to the low cost and existing infrastructure there. Plus, brownfields, former mines, and Superfund sites are unattractive for most commercial and residential development, especially in rural areas.
Demand for cleaner forms of energy will expand by 31 percent over the next quarter-century, according to the Department of Energy. Its National Renewable Energy Laboratory worked with the EPA to suggest destinations for green-energy projects.
However, the Christian Science Monitor and others voice concern about the safety of workers who would build and staff these renewable-energy plants.
Early in 2007 the EPA made data about toxic wastelands available for the public to map with Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey is also online, in formats including XML and RSS.
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