wireless power ............. how to easily recharge

So far I have a great bunch of power adapters around my desk for all my devices. Recently the EU ruled some new legislation that ensures at least 1 single type of connector for all cell phones (mini USB) but this would be even more convinient. At this moment there is a replacement backplate for 1 motorola device but when more phonemakers will have this convinience is coming to you:). For all devices that do not (yet) have a replacement backplate (the iPhone for example......ok you even can not switch battery) they have a solution in place as well with a kind of dongle you can attach to the device so this is as universal as can be at the moment. Below I copied the press release for wildcharge

WildCharge Reveals Universal Adapter for Wire-Free Mobile Phone Charging

Universal Adapter is Compatible with over a Hundred Devices from Major Mobile Brands

Boulder, Colorado, April 7, 2009

WildCharge Inc., the leader in wire-free power technology, announces today the WildCharge™ Universal Adapter for Cell Phones. This revolutionary new adapter enables a wide range of mobile phones to charge wire-free with the patented WildCharger™ Pad and works with a variety of different cell phones, including many from major brands such as Blackberry (RIM), HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

“WildCharge is shaking up the entire charging industry by offering the only commercially available, wire-free power technology that works with multiple devices across multiple brands,” said Dennis Grant, CEO of WildCharge, Inc. “This newest product, our first Universal Adapter for cell phones, provides a convenient charging solution that eliminates the mess of cords and breaks away from traditional charging technology.”

The new, small adapter is easy to use and extends the usability of the WildCharger Pad to include more cell phone models for simple compatibility. The adapter works by connecting mobile phones to the WildCharger Pad via a thin swing arm and removable tips, quickly transferring wire-free power from the charge pad to the device’s battery. With the Universal Adapter, multiple cell phones can establish connectivity for convenient, seamless charging.

The WildCharge Universal Adapter for Cell Phones is available for US MSRP $39.99 and comes in three different bundles for Mini-USB, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. The company is also offering a Universal Adapter Bundle, which includes the Universal Adapter, WildCharger Pad and wall adapter. This is available for US MSRP $79.99. The WildCharge Universal Adapter is available for purchase online at www.wildcharge.com.

WildCharge continues to innovate to meet the ever-increasing demand of its patented wire-free charging technology. WildCharge has a technology licensing program that allows partners to integrate the WildCharge technology into their own products, allowing for multiple companies to offer a wire-free charging experience to customers.

Liquid OLED for curved, longlife displays and many creative solutions

I wrote a post earlier on flexible OLED but that was more limted than the newest version. read the press release below

19 August 2009

Researchers at a Japanese University have developed a groundbreaking OLED technology that is claimed will significantly ease the creation of curved displays and drastically improve their lifespan. Denghui Xu and Chihaya Adachi, from the Center for Future Chemistry at Kyushu University in Fukuoka have created “liquid-OLED”, according to information and news website, OLED-info.com

Source: OLED-info.com

The re

Bericht publiceren

volutionary design has a liquid centre and can be easily curved. SlashGear reported that Xu and Adachi had injected a mixture of electrically-conductive liquid and photoluminescent solid rubrene between an anode and cathode. That was then sandwiched in glass to produce lighting in the same way that an OLED with a solid luminescent layer does.

Another advantage, according to the Japanese scientists, is that by utilising a recirculating system the fluid OLED layer could be refreshed, thereby extending the lifespan of the display.

The scientists will, however, have to overcome a problem with the light output of the liquid-OLEDs. Apparently, although the light output is visible to the naked eye, it does not currently match that of traditional OLED display products.

Coming Soon: Microsoft's Beefed-Up 720p LifeCam Cinema Webcam

Not sure how this will impact telepresence but the introduction of the first HD webcam by Microsoft will have impact on the ability to use video messaging when working from anywhere. So far I did not like the video possibility in MSN, Skype or OCS but this might change how I feel about it since it promises a quality that will make it useable and beyond the nice for teens, family abroad and geeks groups.


By Danny Allen, 1:30 AM on Tue Aug 18 2009(Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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Looks like Microsoft's working on a snazzy new glass lens Webcam capable of 720p video at 30fps (in full 1280x720 resolution). Other features are expected to include 4x digital zoom, and a built-in noise-cancelling microphone.

The camera is made from aluminum and has a stand designed to work with both desktops and laptops. Pocket-link goes on to say that:

The LifeCam Cinema is of course compatible with Windows Live Messenger, but also with Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery. It's also compatible with Windows 7 out of the box, as well as Windows Vista and Windows XP.

We've seen 720p Webcams before but the video specs on this one look quite promising. The Lifecam Cinema is expected to be $80 when it hits stores on September 9.

how to manage your house the easy way - Experimental Tech Turns Your Coffee Table Into a Universal Remote

Just read an incredible great concept at wired.com and it's not some futuristic thing you need to wait for, actually they already created it and although it might not be very cheap it's great

Stock up on coasters. A new technology combines the coffee table with a universal remote so that people sitting around the table can tap on a screen to change the channel, turn up the volume or dim the lights.

CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is a research project in user interface that attempts to create a natural way of connecting with devices. The system offers a streaming video view of the living room on a tabletop, so users can can walk up to it, see the layout of the room and interact with the TV or the photo frame.

“We wanted a social aspect to activities such as choosing what to watch on TV and we wanted to make the process easy and intuitive,” says Stacey Scott, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and a member of the project. A demo of CRISTAL was shown at the Siggraph graphics conference earlier this month.

The idea isn’t completely novel. Microsoft showed off Surface, a multitouch display in 2008 that allows users to interact with it by using gestures.

Universal remotes have become popular in the last few years, but they are still difficult to use. Their greatest flaw, though, may be that they do not help quash those battles over who gets the remote. CRISTAL solves those problems, says Christian Müller-Tomfelde, an Australian researcher who is currently writing a book on research in tabletop displays.

“It is a clever use of the tabletop as a ‘world-in-miniature’ interface to control room elements,” he says.

Scott and researchers from the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences have been working on the idea for less than a year. It started when Michael Haller, the head of the Media Interaction Lab at the university, found himself frustrated with different remotes for each device: TV, radio and DVD player.

“Every time you get a new device into the living room, you get a new remote with it,” says Scott. “And instead of difficult programmable universal remotes, this offers intuitive mapping of the different devices and home.”

CRISTAL uses a camera to capture the living room and all the devices in it, including lamps and digital picture frames. The captured video is displayed on the multi-touch coffee table. The video image of the device itself is the interface, so a sliding gesture on the image can turn up the volume of the TV, for instance. To watch a movie, drag an image of the movie cover and drop it on to the TV on the multitouch screen.

But it will be a few years before this remote is available at Best Buy. It could take five to 10 years before affordable multitouch tabletops can be created for consumers, says Müller-Tomfelde. “The investment to get such a coffee-table display into the living room is not to be underestimated, as we can see with Microsoft’s Surface technology,” he says.

Scott estimates that a tabletop remote such as CRISTAL could cost $10,000 to $15,000. But she is confident that the idea can become viable enough for consumer production in a few years, especially if it can be combined with Microsoft’s Surface product.

Check out a video demo of CRISTAL below.

Photo and video: Media Interaction Lab

Touchable Holography .........they managed to get this done

Research in Japan is doing some great stuff. My previous post was on the 3D cubes and now this. Details from their work are below and might be a little technical but just look at the video and you'll be amazed (and beyond). This is simple (to some extend) and very cool.

Recently, mid-air displays are attracting a lot of attention in the fields of digital signage and home TV, and many types of holographic displays have been proposed and developed. Although we can "see" holograhpic images as if they are really floating in front of us, we cannot "touch" them, because they are nothing but light. This project adds tactile feedback to the hovering image in 3D free space. Tactile sensation requires contact with objects, but including a stimulator in the work space dilutes the appearance of holographic images. The Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display solves this problem by producing tactile sensation on a user's hand without any direct contact and without diluting the quality of the holographic projection.




1 Introduction

Mid-air displays which project floating images in free space have
been seen in SF movies for several decades [Rakkolainen 2007].
Recently, they are attracting a lot of attention as promising tech-
nologies in the field of digital signage and home TV, and many
types of holographic displays are proposed and developed. You can
see a virtual object as if it is really hovering in front of you. But
that amazing experience is broken down the moment you reach for
it, because you feel no sensation on your hand.

Our objective is adding tactile feedback to the hovering image in
3D free space. One of the biggest issues is how to provide tactile
sensation. Although tactile sensation needs contact with objects by
nature, the existence of a stimulator in the work space depresses the
appearance of holographic images. Therefore some kind of remote-
controllable tactile sensation is needed. That is achieved by our
original tactile display [Iwamoto et al. 2008]. The following paper
explains the technologies employed for a “Touchable Holography.”

2 Principle

2.1 Holographic Display

We use “Holo [Provision 2009],” a holographic display which pro-
vides floating images from an LCD by utilizing a concave mirror.
The projected images float at 30 cm away from the display surface.
A user can get near to the image and try to touch it. Of course, his
fingers pass through it with no tactile sensation.

2.2 Tactile Display

“Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display [Iwamoto et al. 2008]” is a
tactile display which provides tactile sensation onto the user’s hand.
It utilizes the nonlinear phenomenon of ultrasound; acoustic radia-
tion pressure. When an object interrupts the propagation of ultra-
sound, a pressure field is exerted on the surface of the object. The
acoustic radiation pressure P [Pa] is written as
P = E (1)
where E [J/m3] is the energy density of ultrasound.  [-] is a con-
stant ranging from 1 to 2 depending on the reflection coefficient
at the object surface. The acoustic radiation pressure acts in the
same direction of the ultrasound propagation. That is, roughly say-
ing, the ultrasound “pushes” the object. Eq.(1) suggests that the
spatial distribution of the pressure can be controlled by using wave
field synthesis. When the tactile display radiates the ultrasound, the
users can feel tactile sensation on their bare hands in free space with
no direct contact.

The current version of prototype consists of 324 ultrasound trans-
ducers. The resonant frequency is 40 kHz. The phase delays and
amplitudes of all the transducers are controlled individually to gen-
erate one focal point and move it three-dimensionally. The total output force within the focal region is 1.6 gf. The diameter of the focal point is 20 mm. The prototype produce sufficient vibrations
up to 1 kHz.

2.3 Hand Tracking

While camera-based and marker-less hand tracking systems are
demonstrated these days, we use Wiimote (Nintendo) which has
an infrared (IR) camera for simplicity. A retroreflective marker is
attached on the tip of user’s middle finger. IR LEDs illuminate the
marker and two Wiimotes sense the 3D position of the finger. Ow-
ing to this hand-tracking system, the users can handle the floating
virtual image with their hands.

3 Application

The developed system can render various virtual objects because
not only visual but also tactile sensation is refreshable based on
digital data. It is useful for video games, 3D CADs, and so on. Here
we show an example of demos. Fig. 1 shows a demo in which rain
drops fall from above. When the rain drop hits the user’s palm, he
feels tactile sensation created by the ultrasound. In another demo,
he sees and feels a small virtual creature running on his palm.

the next version of a showroom but there are many other possibilities for this

Thanks to inAVate who brought this to my attention. A great way of displying products in 3D. This could be the next showroom. Easy tu change and small change of people stealing your products since they just are 3D images of the real products. Due to the interactive part people can actually play a bit with it.

3D display cube creates images in real-time

05 August 2009

Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has unveiled a new handheld, 3D communications tool. The gCubik, developed by the NICT earlier in the year, reproduces 3D images, inside a 10cm-per-side cube, that are viewable without special glasses. Now, the gCubik+i can generate the images in real-time allowing them to be manipulated using touchscreen panels and on-board motion sensors.

The gCubik with image of a duck

All the six faces of the cube display 3D images, allowing users to see the display from every possible direction. By adding special sensors, users can also interact with the inside images.

The gCubik was born out of a drive at NICT to develop 3D technology that does not require 3D glasses. The organisation said: "Our "gCubik", a cubic auto-stereoscopic display, which has been designed as a tool to support communication among multiple users, is a graspable display born from this new concept."

Each face of the display includes a touch panel. Speakers for posture and acceleration are included inside. Therefore, users can have simple interaction with the 3D images displayed. This now makes it possible to develop applications and begin discussions towards using the display as a communication tool.

The Institute hopes that, by allowing users to share 3D images instead of pictures, it can provide a new means for future communications. "We plan to propose a new interaction paradigm, and develop applications, for multi-user collaborative tasks that exploit the concept of ‘Graspable 3D Images’," the Institute said in a statement. "Furthermore, we plan to make the display which is wireless, even more compact and improve its image quality in preparation for commercial applications."

Technical explanation from NICT

And the gCubik with image of a ball

Each face of the display uses integral photography, which is one of the various methods to display 3D images without special glasses (auto-stereoscopic). When viewing a real scene, humans see a different image with each eye, which depends on the distance and the different position of the eyes (binocular parallax). When we move our heads, we see different images (motion parallax). These are some of clues on how humans perceive depth (3D). Integral photography uses a tightly packed micro convex lens array to record distinct 'elemental' images, and when these images are again viewed through the same micro-lens array, they reproduce the 3D integrated image of the scene with both binocular and motion parallax. The Institute’s system utilises the electronic integral photography which uses an LCD display, instead of the recorded photograph, to display the elemental images.

Integral photography makes use of the principle that convex lenses are designed so that parallel incoming light rays converge into its focal point. Conversely, all the ray lights coming from a light source at the focal point will come out of the lens as parallel rays in the direction of the line joining the light source with the lens principal point.

By arranging and displaying appropriate elemental images on the LCD pixels corresponding to each lens, each screen of the display functions as a window where different views of the scene can be observed depending of the viewing angle. By using integral photography (IP), horizontal and vertical motion parallax for 3D images can be observed without special glasses.

Besides, auto-stereoscopic displays using lenticular lenses are more widely known than the ones that use integral photography, but they only provide horizontal motion parallax, a subset of the parallax provided by IP.

New marriage...twitter and digital signage

After twitter an the iPhone have some nice ways of playing together now digital signage and twitter get married to make your digital signage as interactive as can be. When reading the web (well not all obviously) I found this article at digital signage today

The convergence of digital signage and Twitter

Bill Yackey editor
• 04 Aug 2009

Like many industries, digital signage is seeing an increased presence on the social media site Twitter. Just by searching the term “digital signage” or the #digitalsignage hashtag, users are exposed to candid conversations about trends, news and products that previously only occurred in one-on-one phone calls and tradeshow floor chatter.

Twitter, and its 140-character messaging style, is also beginning to find its way on to digital signage screens, opening up a new way of engaging audiences and providing user-generated digital signage content.

Perhaps the most forward-thinking company in this area has been LocaModa, which has integrated Twitter into its digital signage social media tool Wiffiti. Previously, Wiffiti served as a platform where users could text messages to a short code and have them show up on screens in bars, restaurants, cafes, etc.

Now, LocaModa president Stephen Randall says the company is “tagging” Twitter terms, allowing Twitter to automatically send relevant messages to the screen which users can respond to. Take the term “weather,” for example:

A Locamoda Wiffiti screen featuring Twitter feeds.

“The most mundane topics like weather can be brought to life with Twitter,” Randall said. “Many digital signage screens feature a weather banner. If you tag Twitter with weather and display it on a Wiffiti screen, you can connect people all around the world. It could be raining I Massachusetts, and you could see messages from people in California talking about how sunny it is or from Japan talking about how it’s freezing. It can still tell you today’s weather, but tell you in a way that makes you feel connected.”

There are other approaches to integrating Twitter into digital signage content without launching an entire platform. Gavin Stark, VP of product development for Real Digital Media (RDM), said that since Twitter offers several RSS feeds per account, they could be integrated into content similar to the way news and weather feeds are:

1) Create a server somewhere that pre-processes the Twitter feed for certain formatting or exclusion rules

2) Take the RSS data straight in as a ticker.

3) Develop a flash page to read the RSS stream and jazz it up

4) Create a Web page (either as a Web archive or live from a server), use Javascript to read the RSS feed.

Stark said that for the BarCamp 2008 convention, he wrote a Web page that pulled Twitter hashtags on an RDM player and showed it on a 42-inch screen with a sidebar showing sponsors and RDM company info.