MIT's Sixth Sense device trumps Apple's multitouch

Step aside, Apple and Microsoft. If MIT's little Sixth Sense gadget sees commercial light of day, we can toss our multitouch devices out the window. Who needs a Surface or an iPhone when the very idea of being able to access information by turning any flat surface into a touchscreen display sounds far more appealing? No surface available? Simply project a screen onto your hand, and voila. Shades of Minority Report?
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A blight upon your window shades

Usually a blight is something you'd want to avoid, but according to Unplggd, if designer Vincent Gerkens has his way, the more blight out there, the better.

Fortunately he's referring to Blight, a concept that involves attaching solar panels onto venetian blinds. As the Unplggd article points out, Blight is a word play on "blinds" and "light", which I probably would not have figured out on my own. The panels soak up the sun during the day, and at night they light up your life. Or room. Or whatever you need illuminated, I suppose.

Basically, sunlight charges a battery cell on the top of the blinds. Then when you're ready to do some reading or conduct your weekly game of Canasta, you now have the power of light (!), at night, using no extra power.

Hopefully, this will hit the mass market soon, as I'm sure many YouTube videos will follow showing just how well these can illuminate a room. This is a start, but other than the obvious OCD nature of the guy in the video, it doesn't tell me much.

Via Crave CNET

2,206 high-power LEDs at your service

Tired of hearing about unaffordable displays that are light years beyond what you have in front of you right now? Yeah, well so am I. Doesn't mean I'll stop reporting on them though, 'cause misery loves company.

At the 2009 Integrated Systems Europe in Amsterdam, SIM2 Multimedia and Dolby Laboratories unveiled what they refer to as "the latest in high-dynamic-range (HDR)-enabled LCD flat-screen display technology featuring Dolby Vision". Called the SIM2 Solar Series, the new displays will be available in the second quarter of this year.

SIM2's Solar Series is a 47-inch LCD display utilizing Dolby Vision technology. According to SIM2, Dolby Vision features a proprietary algorithm that manages LEDs behind the liquid crystal panel.
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Green printer that prints using coffee dregs as ink

We've seen plenty of printers in our time at CNET Asia, but this one is most definitely to our taste. Korean designer Jeon Hwan Ju, likely a beans person, has percolated a potent brew that utilizes coffee or tea dregs as the replacement ink for the printer. The result is the RITI inkbox, which probably is good for only sepia printouts, but is the kind of green tech we like very much. Coffee or tea dregs are placed into the cartridge, mixed with a little water. However, using this requires powering it along with a little muscle, moving the cartridge left and right in the slot while drawing on the paper. Not quite the most efficient workhorse for your home business, but at least it's the only aromatic printout you can personalize, from Lipton to Lavazza.
Via Core77

Sony points to finger veins for gadget security

Sony is taking biometrics from the surface of the finger to the inside with a new vein authentication technology that could show up on mobile devices within the year.

The compact, camera-based system--called "Mofiria," though we're not sure why--uses a CMOS sensor to diagonally capture scattered light inside the finger veins. Data from the pattern is compressed, making it possible for the information to be stored on gadgets like laptops or cell phones.

Sony says vein authentication technology achieves higher accuracy and produces faster reads than other biometric authentication techniques, such as fingerprint or retinal scans. Finger vein patterns differ from person to person and finger to finger, Sony noted, and do not change over the years. Also, they're much easier to remember than passwords.


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