BOOK A DESK IS LIVE!!!!

Vandaag live gegaan met Book A Desk. Dat wil zeggen de preregistratie. Vanaf 1 feb 2010 echt live maar alvast de moeite waard je in te schrijven. De eerste 500 leden die een jaarabonnement afsluiten krijgen een aandeel.

Book A Desk is een platform voor het matchen van verschillende organisaties met beschikbare werkplekken door geheel Nederland, met flexwerkers, zelfstandigen en buitendienst medewerkers. Bespaar tijd en geld, en wordt tegelijk onderdeel van een nieuw en innovatief fysiek en virtueel business netwerk!

VISIE BOOK A DESK

Book A Desk staat voor een nieuwe manier van (samen)werken die maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen hand in hand laat samengaan met effectief en efficient ondernemen.

MISSIE

Book A Desk is het platform dat door het slim inzetten van beschikbare werkplekken bij organisaties mensen de mogelijkheid biedt deze flexibel te gebruiken waardoor oa.;

• Het milieu minder belast wordt door slim te reizen
• Innovatie en co-creatie gestimuleerd wordt
• Zakelijke kansen gecreëerd worden
• Mensen snel de voor hen op dat moment optimale werkplek kunnen vinden en gebruiken, tegen lagere kosten
• Beschikbare faciliteiten en werkplekken rendabeler gemaakt worden
• Organisaties dit in kunnen zetten als business driver: potentiële klanten/partners komen binnenwandelen als je plekken beschikbaar stelt

WAAROM BOOK A DESK?

In tegenstelling tot andere mogelijkheden biedt Book A Desk een landelijk en goed bereikbaar netwerk met een vergoedingensysteem voor aangesloten organisaties en laag maandbedrag voor de leden.

Deze leden lopen niet tegen hoge kosten van kantoorhuur, zijn flexibel maar kunnen toch gebruik maken van professionele werkplek. Organisaties kunnen als locatie deelnemen en zo de vrije werkplekken en faciliteiten toch rendabel maken. Tegelijk biedt de aanloop van deze flexwerkers een mogelijkheid voor kennisdelen en business kansen.

Meer leren over Book A Desk en jezelf aanmelden of een locatie aanmelden

Ga naar www.bookadesk.nl en meld je aan

touch table taken literally

Thanks to slashgear for Motorola invest in Sensitive Object acoustic touchscreen specialists

Motorola have invested in a French startup that uses acoustic feedback to mimic traditional touch and multitouch input. Sensitive Object use acoustics in their ReverSys system to “analyze sound waves departing from the point of a touch to precisely and cost-effectively transform any product into a touch device.” For example, the system could track points of contact across the entire body of a cellphone, without requiring expensive capacitive sensors to cover the device.

ReverSys is also said to be cheaper to implement than traditional resistive, capacitive or optical touchscreen technology, which would mean that Motorola could implement it in entry-level devices. The firm is now working on full 3D device tactilization. No details as to the level of financial investment have been revealed.

Augmented reality is coming to your car

Well at least the technology that will enabkle this. Now Google and TomTom have to do some nice stuff and navigation will be even more convinient

Mayuko Uno, Nikkei Electronics

The demonstration of a head-up display using the new LED display as a light source

Oki Digital Imaging Corp (ODI) exhibited a prototype of a head-up display that uses an LED display as a light source at Oki Premium Fair 2009, a trade show hosted by the company.

The LED display is 1.1 inches in size and made by using the company's "EFB (epi film bonding)" technology. The EFB technology is a technology to bond different materials by utilizing intermolecular forces. It eliminates the need for adhesive, wire bonding, etc, making elements smaller and lower in cost.

The power consumption of the new head-up display is about 1/10 those of head-up displays made by combining an LED backlight and an LCD panel. As a result, the LEDs of the new display generate less heat, enabling to use a simpler heat sink.

In addition, because the panel serves as a light source, the display has a simple structure. So, it is possible to reduce the number and thickness of components.

"Head-up displays using an LCD panel are available only to luxury cars," ODI said. "But, with our LED display, head-up displays will be inexpensive enough to be mounted on low-end cars."

The new display has an edge over existing displays in terms of resolution and brightness in addition to power consumption. Its LED element pitch is 65μm. The company has already developed an EFB technology to realize an LED element pitch of 20μm (equivalent to 1,200dpi) to 40μm (equivalent to 600dpi) for the print heads of LED printers. And, this time, the technology was applied to the head-up display.

The luminance of the new display is 32,000cd/m² at the maximum in the case of whole surface emission and about 100,000cd/m² in the case of partial emission, according to ODI. Also, it is possible to realize a contrast ratio of 9,000:1 or higher by lighting control. Compared with LCD displays, the new display can be easily viewed in brighter places and outdoors, the company said.

Because the display is monochrome and as small as 1.1 inches, ODI expects to use it for head-up displays. The company plans to ship samples by the end of fiscal 2010 and start volume production after that.

"We are aiming to apply the display to mobile devices and mobile phones, leveraging its high resolution and high luminance," ODI said.

The company intends to employ RGB-color LEDs to enable the new display to show colors and enlarge it for use in mobile devices in three to five years.

a new marriage after Cisco and Tandberg - Logitech and LifeSize

Its pretty clear that videoconferencing and telepressence are hot. After the bid of Cisco on Tandberg, Logitech is now going for Lifesize. Convergence between IT and AV in its most clear way. Also it is a pretty positive one. The IT supplier growing big with webcams now taking over a high end Telepresence player. This can mean better integration between pc based messasing and telepresence. Will your next monitor be a logitech telepresence unit?

A Letter from the CEOs

We're delighted to announce that LifeSize will soon be joining Logitech.

Our two companies share a vision for the role of video in business and professional communication, believing that anywhere there is voice there should be video. That means offering a life-like, HD-video communication experience that is as seamless and mainstream as a telephone call not just in the board room for a select few, but in any meeting room in the enterprise, as well as at one's office desk or while telecommuting from home.

LifeSize started this journey with many of you more than five years ago. And together we have changed the landscape of workplace collaboration and built relationships with more than 9000 customers around the world.

It's time to go farther. Logitech, the world leader in webcams and a pioneer in the development of PC-based video calling, is a natural fit for LifeSize from a business, innovation and cultural perspective.

With Logitech's backing, LifeSize will be able to scale more effectively to deliver technology solutions to more customers and partners around the world. And by closely collaborating on innovation, we believe that we can accelerate the realization of our vision.

Voice-only communication knows almost no boundaries. We believe Logitech and LifeSize in partnership with other leading technology companies can drive innovation, price/performance and open standards so that the experience of visual communication is just as common and natural.

Together with our partners, we will continue to deliver standards-based, high-quality, flexible video-communication solutions that are scalable, secure and accessible to anyone, anywhere.

We are in the early stages of an important communication revolution and we will continue to set the pace of innovation for our customers and our partners. We look forward to making this journey together with you.

Sincerely,

Craig Malloy,

Founder and CEO of

LifeSize Communications

Gerald P. Quindlen,

President and CEO

of Logitech

Natural user interface with a glass panel

Say what you like about Microsoft, but their Research arm certainly know how to put together an eye-catching demo. Chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie has been doing a tour of US colleges showing off a prototype next-gen computer – among other things – that has a transparent glass display and can be controlled by pen, voice, touch-free gestures and eye-tracking.

The prototype machine docks with the transparent display – probably not something you’d want to throw into your laptop bag – and can be used to flick through large quantities of information such as text, photos or video timelines by tracking what your eyes are looking at. Some of the functionality seems to have been previewed by Microsoft’s “Look Ahead” vision of computing in 2019 which similarly impressed us earlier this year.

Mundie’s other talks centered on environmentally-friendly and carbon-neutral computing, and what user interfaces and design paradigms may be central in the years to come. There are videos of the transparent computer prototype in action on Microsoft’s College Tour virtual press room, or at istartedsomething

nice large (42") multitouch screen and affordable

Great to see a review of a 42" screen on a site dedicated to mobile computing. But basically I don't care where it comes from, as long as it is interesting technology and this might help in the implementation of multitouch in the enterprise since price still is an issue in companies.

Hands on with the 42in Albatron Optical Touch Monitor

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 02:52 | Written by LG Nilsson |http://mobileandnotebook.com/reviews/accessories/hands-on-with-the-42in-albatron-optical-touch-monitor

We've managed to get some hands on time with Albatron's recently announced 42-inch Optical Touch Monitor, or OTM for short and as the name suggests, this display is using a new type of touch screen technology. We shot a short video of it being demonstrated which you can watch after the break.

The display works by having a pair of CMOS cameras installed in each of the top corners, as well as reflectors fitted to the sides and bottom of the screen. The cameras are used to "sense" where your finger is, although you can use pretty much anything as long as the diameter isn't too small, so the back of a pencil would work well instead of your finger if you're afraid of smudges.

The sensor and reflectors are mounted onto a tempered glass panel that sits on top of the LCD panel and as such acts as protection for the LCD panel, although it should be possible to implement this technology without the glass panel in say a notebook. A small controller board is then attached and this is in turn interfaced with the computer via a USB connector.

It's a very simple, yet elegant solutions that works very well and it does of course support both multi-touch and gestures. The OTM is Windows 7 compatible and although the 42-inch models is not priced with consumers in mind, Albatron is offering a 21.5-inch model with 1,920x1,080 resolution for a retail price of about $450 (€304) in selected markets.

We were also told by Albatron that the cost of implementing this technology doesn't increase much by going to a larger screen size which is one of the major selling points of this technology, unlike most touch screen technology which gets exponentially more expensive as the screen size gets bigger. We're hoping that this might just be the future of touch screen technology and Albatron is expecting to license this technology to other display manufacturers, so we might see this from some more familiar brands in the near future.

High-Tech Glasses Beam Info Directly Onto Your Retinas

ok we have augemented reality. we have got head up displays but this might be the next cool trick. Your own personal augmented reality layer projected about 1 meter in front of you. The only thing is that they need to work on the design thing. Now it's nerds only but would be great to have this available in a fashionable way

Retinal Viewing Do you see what I see ... of course not Brother Industries

Office workers may never have to worry again about viewing hilarious but NSFW images surreptitiously. A pair of glasses developed by Brother Industries can project images or documents directly onto a wearer's retinas.

The Retinal Imaging Display technology displays a small image 10 centimeters wide that appears to float about 1 meter (3.3 ft) in front of a user's eye. Images have an 800x600 resolution and refresh at 60Hz.

Through the Glasses: A conceptual image of the view through the new specs Brother Industries

Each pair of glasses holds an optical scanner, eyepiece and a light source that also contains a tiny power box. Brother Industries derived its application from laser printing technology, as well as piezoelectric technologies based on inkjet printing.

Similar technologies have tried embedding heads-up displays within the lens of glasses. Other heads-up displays have gone for more specific applications, such as giving drivers a safer experience on the road.

The company has yet to announce how much the specs will cost when it commercializes them next year. But reading those operation manuals hands-free at your desk never sounded so exciting. Those are operation manuals, right?

[via Register Hardware]

future skill levels

When it comes to education in Holland we definately see some issues with the good old craftsmen. They are not skilled enough. I realize there will always be a need for specialists in all areas (even in car mechanics) but we might need less according to this BMW video. The real specilised troubleshooter will end up more well payd I guess but the regular mechanics will not need to much except for this pair off glasses

3D projection and pico projectors

When reading the article below you start understanding the great importance of small projectors. If you want to create a 3D screen )where you do not need those funny glasses' and want it to be viewable by many angles you need a lot of projectors and to have this in a house pico projectors would help a lot making it small enough.

Oct 14, 2009 13:35 Tetsuo Nozawa, Nikkei Electronics

Hitachi Ltd exhibited its 10-inch "Full Parallax 3D TV" at CEATEC 2009. It does not require special glasses, can be watched from any direction and has a resolution of 3D image as high as VGA (640 x 480 pixels), according to the company.

The Full Parallax 3D TV is based on a method called "Integral Photography with Overlaid Projection." Specifically, it consists of 16 projectors and a lens array sheet to cover them. The lens array sheet ensures parallax in any direction (not only in the horizontal direction). Because of parallax, the 3D image seen by the user differs in accordance with the angle from which the screen is viewed.

Aiming to exceed limit of pixel count

In general, the total pixel count of a 3D display that does not require special glasses is equal to the pixel count of 3D image multiplied by the number of viewpoints that show different images. In other words, there is a trade-off between the number of viewpoints and the resolution of 3D image.

If the number of viewpoints is focused too much, the resolution of 3D image deteriorates. But it is not easy to increase the total pixel count of a display. For example, the Science & Technical Research Laboratories (STRL) of Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) is now developing a 3D display using the "Ultra-high Definition TV" with a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 (approximately 33 Mpixels) but seems having a hard time to achieve a high resolution.

Hitachi aims to go over the limit of total pixel count by using multiple projectors, each of which has a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels (SVGA). So, a display using 16 projectors has a resolution of 7.68 Mpixels, which is equivalent to 4K x 2K resolution. Considering its small size (10 inches), the new 3D display is much finer than a normal 4K x 2K display.

"We will be able to arrange projectors in a higher density by employing laser-based micro-projectors and increase the number of projectors by more than 10 times," Hitachi said.

Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) also employed the method of increasing the total pixel count by using projectors and exhibited a 3D display that does not require special glasses at CEATEC in two consecutive years. But NICT utilizes projectors to increase the pixel count only in the horizontal direction.

Paper-thin speaker collects tech gong - a new dimension in audio books

14 October 2009

A paper-thin speaker technology was recently honoured at the Wall Street Journal’s global Technology Innovation awards. At the ceremony on October 13, 2009 Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute scooped an award for its fleXpeaker concept that is set to revolutionise sound in industries from digital signage to automotive. According to the Wall Street Journal, ITRI is considering options, including licensing or the creation of a new company, to bring the product to market.

ITRI paper-thin flexible loudspeaker (fleXpeaker)

InAVate first reported on the technology back in April. Back then, although it was a relatively unknown product, researchers were confidently claiming the product would be used for in-car audio in 2010. The prestigious award should contribute to putting the product firmly on the map, escalating the likelihood that we will see fleXspeaker out in the market over the next year.


The technology project, supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs saw of competition from 500 competitors to snatch the award that recognises its efforts in research and development.


The Wall Street Journal commented: “Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, won in the consumer-electronics category for its work developing a paper-thin, flexible speaker. Researchers at ITRI, devised a way to create arrays of tiny speakers that can be combined to produce high-fidelity speaker systems of almost any size. Because the fleXpeaker is lightweight and consumes little power, it could be attractive for use in cellphones or in car sound systems. Other possible applications include giant banners that could be used to deliver public-service announcements in train stations or advertising messages in shopping malls. ITRI is seeking to license the technology or create a spin-off company to commercialise the product.”


ITRI president Dr Johnsee Lee explained: “ITRI commenced with R&D of the paper-thin flexible loudspeaker in 2006 through the team led by General Director Dr Yi-Jen Chan in Electronic & Optoelectronic Research Laboratories. Presently, ITRI has applied for 45 global patents for its 17 projects. Applications for this technology are rather extensive and with enormous industry potential. Aside from currently using in family stereo automobile hi-fi equipment, it can also be used in earphone or for industrial anti-noise purpose. The papers of this technology have been published at the largest display exhibition in the world—the US Display Consortium (USDC), the Society For Information Display (SID), and also adopted by the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in 2009.”


The paper-thin flexible loudspeaker utilises paper and metal layers and is produced with a printing technique. Aside from upgrading traditional speaker industry, it can be integrated into energy-saving buildings, electric vehicles, and will be suited to entertainment and medical applications.

So you think you've got a large screen:)

Well there is large and building size large

Switched On: Microsoft's touchy subjects

Just an ordinary copy of an engadget post but one I clearly like

by Ross Rubin posted Oct 14th 2009 at 5:00PM

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

As CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates would often talk about his dream of "information at your fingertips." The company he co-founded, though, is now taking literal steps toward that goal. By the end of the month, Microsoft will have released three new devices or platforms that embrace or extend touchscreen support -- but the impact touch will have on each varies significantly by their legacy, usage, and manufacturers.

Windows has long had touchscreen support. Such support, in fact, was the basis of the Tablet Edition of Windows XP, and Tablet PCs were proclaimed to be the future of notebooks. Early iterations were larger and thicker keyboard-lacking slates much like the new Archos 9pctablet. But this was before rampant Web browsing, streaming video, casual games and electronic books -- all of which now provide relevance for a new generation of touchscreen PCs as content-consumption devices.

Combined with the low prices and sleeker form factors of today's netbook and CULV platforms, we'll soon see PC companies rolling out consumer touchscreen PCs both with and without keyboards. Unlike Tablet PCs of old, they'll be finger-friendly, but Windows itself won't look very different despite its support of touch -- very few manufacturers are investing in distinct interfaces that really take advantage of the plumbing.

Like the Windows on the desktop, the history of touch-enabled mobile devices from Microsoft runs deep, with the earliest Windows CE-based PDAs supporting stylus input. Since the advent of the iPhone, though, many Windows Mobile vendors have added finger-friendly user interface layers to their phones, and with Windows Mobile 6.5 Microsoft has brought its own spin across the platform with easier targets for controls and a revamped stepped grid app launcher. This brings Windows Mobile a bit closer to platforms that have embraced touch at their core like Android and webOS.

It's hard to deny Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a refinement of what has essentially been a touch platform from the beginning.

However, the nature of Windows Mobile licensing and the competitive smartphone market means that many Windows phone users will hardly see the results of Microsoft's touch rehash -- HTC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and others all bring their own user interface layers to their handsets. Indeed, promising handsets such as HTC's HD2 will bring Windows Mobile to a new level of user experience by combining a large, capacitive touchscreen with a fast processor, but the primary interface is HTC's Sense, not Windows Mobile. Regardless, it's hard to deny Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a refinement of what has essentially been a touch platform from the beginning.

Finally, there is the Zune HD, Microsoft's answer to the iPod touch that represents a marked contrast from Apple's most advanced iPod. While both devices use a multitouch screen and employ similar gestures for browsing Web pages and photos, The Zune HD shows Microsoft's thinking about a limited functionality device. As opposed to iPod touch screens filled with icons and button controls, most screens on the Zune are represented by miniature previews of themselves. The result is a richer representation that blurs boundaries of modality at the cost of some screen clutter.

The Zune HD's touch interface is not just an engaging touch interface in its own right, but one of the best examples of how a non-touch user interface can be transformed into a touch-centric one with few compromises. Unfortunately, given Microsoft's low market share and limited distribution, far fewer will experience one of Microsoft's best user interfaces -- most will instead experience the quiet touch overlay of Windows 7 or the largely buried one of Windows Mobile. Zune HD user interface concepts may be seeds that will grow into a major makeover for Windows 7, but there will need to be accommodations to meet the requirements of a wider range of hardware running a wider array of software.

---

Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.

KDDI Augmented Reality Meets Twitter!

Augmented reality on a mobile phone isn't new, but KDDI has a very nice setup using a phones internal GPS + camera and Twitter. I'm sure you're aware of what augmented reality is like on a phone… Just in case, let’s say that thanks to your phone scamera you can see additional information on top of real settings… Imagine you're watching a street via your mobile phone's camera, some virtual information or ads pop-up on specific details. Now with the usage of a GPS and Twitter, KDDI allows you to see virtual Twitts on top of real sceneries. Imagine that you're walking down a street and people who walked the same street a couple of day priorl Twitted some points of Interest (photo, text and GPS location) you can immediately see them… Ideally, and if many people do this, you could walk on any street in the world and get additional information or must see POIs from other Twitter users…

3D film for mobile displayes...........no glasses needed

Film specialist 3M has come up with a new optical film that lets you ditch the glasses when viewing stereoscopic 3D images on mobile devices. The 3D optical film goes into the gadget's back light unit and uses two alternate rows of LED lights to project left and right images sequentially into the viewer's eyes. As the sequential images are focused on the individual eye, the technology eliminates the need for 3D glasses to block the picture for the other eye.

According to Erik Jostes, LCD business director of 3M's Optical Systems Division, it does so without sacrificing screen brightness or resolution.

"This technology can switch from 3D mode to 2D mode and back and you don't make compromises on the original display," he said.

3M's technology works on displays up to 9 inches, and the company envisions it primarily for games and other single-user applications. It requires one LCD panel and operates at a 120Hz refresh rate (most monitors and TVs display video at 60Hz, but to watch video in 3D, the video must be displayed at 120Hz, since each side of the screen creates two perspectives for each frame).

Since installation of the 3D film is almost identical to that of film stacks on existing systems, 3M says it can be easily integrated into the display's back light module at the assembly stage. The film--which will be on display at the Korea Electronics Show next week--is currently appearing in one mobile device in Asia, according to Jostes, though he wouldn't disclose which.

how long to wait before you've got an office like this

Microsoft Research is doing some nice stuff and this is the new office according to them. Just check the video and you be asking for this. At least I love to have one like this