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Jan 13, 2010
Break Dancing Robot from Japan
The Japanese have been pioneering some amazing robotic technology in the past few years, and this robot improves on that by adding some 'style'. Check out this break dancing robot I found on the web!
Jan 6, 2010
Lenovo Unveils New AMD-Powered Business Laptops - PC World Business Center
I am a big fan of business laptops such as Dell Latitudes and IBM Thinkpads. Lenovo has never impressed me with their incarnations of the beloved Thinkpad laptops, but this new series of laptops that Lenovo is pushing seems to follow many of the design elements that made the Thinkpad such an attractive business machine. They've changed the keyboard and the matte finish has been replaced with a somewhat glossy one, but overall, the laptop is as close to the real Thinkpad experience as Lenovo is going to get.
For $449.00 you get:
For $449.00 you get:
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| Designed for extreme mobility, lightweight ThinkPad® X Series laptops deliver big in reliability, performance and durability. And with the edgy new X100e—Lenovo's first business entry ultraportable—X Series is more affordable than ever. Beyond light Lighten your load with X Series—most models weigh in at less than 3 lbs! Small footprint Starting at just 11.1" wide and 7.4" deep, crowded tables and tiny airline trays are no match for compact X Series laptops. |  | |
| All-day computing The X200s model gives you up to 13.2 hours of battery life on a single charge! Spacious displays Enjoy roomy widescreens—up to 13.3" on the X301 model. Its LED backlit display helps ease eye strain, too. | ||
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| Durability X Series notebooks are tough enough to take the rigors of business travel.
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| Fast and energy efficient From CPUs that offer true parallel processing when running multi-threaded applications or multiple applications simultaneously to ultra-low voltage processors that balance performance and energy efficiency, X Series gives you several performance options. Need hardware-based security and integrated graphics for less battery power usage than discrete graphics? Or DirectX® 10 graphics support and enhanced visual performance? No problem. Check out all our X Series models to find the processor that's perfect for you. *Dual-core processors on X100e available first quarter 2010 | ||||||||||||
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Jan 5, 2010
Hack your UPS and get more run time in the data center.
Although power outages may occur only once or twice a year, when they occur, the modern office generally comes to a halt. Without internet access, email, or phone, your entire team can be left disconnected from the rest of the world. Depending on your business, this downtime can cost thousands of dollars in lost profits. One way to circumvent this problem is to create a backup power system. In this post, we will explore an 'inexpensive' option that will provide uninterrupted power while you switch over to a generator. We're talking about hacking UPS systems with larger batteries in order to extend their run time. Stay tuned for more details on locating the right parts, safety issues, and how to assemble the units.
Here is a good video giving a rough idea of what we plan to do:
Here is a good video giving a rough idea of what we plan to do:
Skype now support 720p HD video!
Skype users can now make high-definition video calls as long as they have an HD webcam and sufficient bandwidth and processing power. The feature is only available in the beta version of Skype.
Download the latest developer’s version here.
Nov 23, 2009
Ostendo CRVD - 2880x900 DLP 43" Curved LCD - $6499
The Ostendo CRVD features LED powered DLP technology to generate a 2880x900 resolution image on a 43" curved surface.
Nov 7, 2009
Augmented Reality: MIT's sixth sense
'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.
The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction. 
The SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch.
The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.
More information can be found at the project website:
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/
Nov 1, 2009
Google Maps Navigation edition. (beta)
This is great! This application promises to provide GPS navigation capabilities for everyone with an Android phone.
Take a look at the video and tell me what you think:
A demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta), an internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps on Android 2.0 phones.
Take a look at the video and tell me what you think:
A demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta), an internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps on Android 2.0 phones.
Screenshots
3D Navigation
Search along route
Traffic view
Street View
Navigation voice shortcut
Navigation during call
3D Navigation
Street View
Satellite view
Satellite view
More information can be seen at the Google Maps Navigation homepage.
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