Google Unveils Self-Driving Car Prototype

Google has been building self-driving cars for years, but what we've seen so far has always been retrofits of existing cars — until now. The search giant unveiled on Tuesday a fully autonomous self-driving car, built from the ground up by Google and its partners.

Company co-founder Sergey Brin revealed his plans at Recode's Code Conference in southern California. He told Recode editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher (who has ridden in the car), that there's a safety benefit in a custom-built self-driving car. Because the car doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator or brakes, it has more sensors in strategic spots than is possible in a regular vehicle. It is also equipped with a big "stop" button. In addition to all this tech, Google's autonomous car includes internal power steering and power brakes.

"It was inspiring to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask, 'What should be different about this kind of vehicle?'" Chris Urmson, director of the Self-Driving Car Project, wrote in a blog post about the new car.

Swisher said riding in the all-electric car was like going on a Disney ride. Considering it currently has a maximum speed of roughly 25 mph, this makes sense. Brin described riding in the car, which in one test was programmed via smartphone, as "relaxing," and similar to catching a chairlift. He added that the car will eventually go up to 100 mph once it's proven to be able to travel safely at that speed.

As for when the cars — which are significantly smaller than traditional cars and include couch-like seating — might actually make it to real highways, Brin said Google will soon test them with drivers. "Within a couple of years, we'll — if we’ve passed the safety metrics we've put in place, which is to be significantly safer than a human driver ... have them on the road," he said.

Image: GOOGLE

Read full Article…

Finally, Robots That Turn Into Furniture

Get ready for self-constructing, shape shifting, moving-on-command furniture — or as its creator like to call it, Roombots.

There are a lot of things we imagine our future robot overlords doing. But making, or rather being our furniture is probably not one of them. The kind of robot furnishings researchers at Switzerland-based technical university Ecole Polytechnique Federerale de Lausanne (EPFL) are working on is the stuff of dreams (and maybe a few nightmares).

Roombots are actually robotic modules, roughly 6x6x6 inches and weighing about 3 pounds, that include a few motors for three degrees of movements. They can roll slowly on the ground or use their built-in grip modules to attach themselves to each other or objects like specially-designed table-tops.

According to scientist Auke Ijspeert of the EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory in Switzerland, Roombots can build themselves into adaptive furniture that can change from a chair to, say, a table and even rise up to meet you. This second feature could be especially important, as one of Ijspeert’s goals is to make Roombots an assistive technology. A Roombot table could, for example, twist its legs so it becomes taller and easier to use for someone who has trouble bending down to reach the table top. Alternatively, a Roombot chair could move into place and rise up to help someone sit, instead of that person having to flop down into a tech-free chair.

The robot modules, which communicate via Bluetooth and run for an hour on a charge, can grab each other and, potentially join up in groups to turn a robot chair into a bigger robot bench. They also connect with passive modules, like a tabletop piece or anything else, like a lamp, container or camera, as long as these pieces have special notches to accept the Roombot’s powered grippers. Those same grippers also allow the modules to climb special walls. So, for example, a collection of them could line the walls of a seemingly empty meeting room and just the right number could climb down and combine into a set of self-aware conference table and chairs.

While the video is compelling, researchers have a lot of work do before we see robots tuning into furniture and rushing to offer themselves as a seat. EPFL reports that engineers hope to make the Roombots more practical by speeding up their movements and acknowledge that there’s still much work to be done on the configuration algorithms. Scientists told that industrial use is 15 years away and it could be two decades before they could be used reliably by every day consumers.

IMAGE: EPFL

Read full Article…

World's Smallest Nanomotor Spins as Fast as a Jet Engine

Researchers in Texas have created the nano-version of the Energizer Bunny. Their new nanomotor rotates at 18,000 RPMs for a whopping 15 hours. Previous nanomotors rotated far more slowly and sputtered out after a few minutes.

The tiny technology, also known as "Ultrahigh-Speed Rotating Nanoelectromechanical System (NEMS)" is a potential breakthrough for treating all kinds of human ailments including, you guessed it, cancer. Built by a team at Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Dr. Donglei (Emma) Fan, the motor is actually a collection of nano-entities, including a nanowire and patterned nano magnets.

In their research paper, the engineers recount all the less successful previous nano-work the new nanomotor is built upon, including experiments from Cornell University where out of hundreds of synthesized nanomotors, only a few rotated and at UC Berkeley, which built an excellent nanomotor using electron-beam lithography that, unfortunately, required an overly complex fabrication procedure.

Cockrell's nanomotor, however, is built more simply and effectively in part because of another Cockrell invention, Electric Tweezers, a nano-manipulation technique that allowed the team to not only transport the nano-entities, but precisely position them within 150 nanometers and then rotate them exactly how they wanted.

Not only can these nanomotors rotate like nobody's nano-business (almost as fast as a Lear jet engine), a group of them can do it in sync.

At 500 times smaller than a grain of salt, these nanomotors could one day work inside cells and spin together to deliver cancer-killing medicines.

The future, however, is even crazier. Researchers envision building entire nano robots out of a group of these nanomotors, which can then work together to diagnose, grab and treat cells.

The nanomotor joins an ever-growing list of nano-breakthroughs. Earlier this year, researchers in Denmark built a drug-delivery cage out of DNA. Maybe one day the nanomotors will go to work while carrying these nanocages.

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DEPT. OF ENGINEERING

Read full Article…

Google Glass Gets Foursquare, TripIt and OpenTable Apps

Google Glass just got a whole lot more useful for travel. The connected headset now has official apps for Foursquare, TripIt and OpenTable.

The new apps join Word Lens and Google's own Field Trip (which recently got an upgrade) to create an impressive suite of travel apps for the wearable device. With the apps, wearers can explore their immediate area, make reservations, get updates on planned trips, and even translate signs and menus — all without ever touching a smartphone.

I got a chance to try out the new apps. Foursquare offers an extremely stripped-down experience when compared to the smartphone app, but it gets the essentials: the ability to see venues close by and to check into them. Both are actually accessible via the same command: "Okay Glass, check me into...." With that, the app serves up a "strip" of venues you can browse by swiping; a tap will check you in.

I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't add a photo to a check-in, but I expect that will be one of the first things to be added in subsequent updates.

The upcoming debut of Swarm — Foursquare's plan to split check-ins and discovery into two different apps — suggests the Foursquare Glass app was in development well before Swarm was announced. Given that Glass apps lend themselves to simple experiences, it's unlikely Foursquare will opt for two apps on Glass, but it may rebrand at some point after Swarm's launch.

TripIt inserts its trip updates and information in the Google Now cards that already appear on Glass. Your flight status, departure time and gate will all appear on a single card like the one, above, easily accessible with a tap and swipe on Glass' touchpad. Although Google Now already provides travel information (assuming the trip is in your Google Calendar), users who prefer to use TripIt can now do so through Glass.

Open Table has its own command: "Okay Glass, make a reservation...." Once you speak those words, a selection of nearby restaurants will appear, ready for you to scroll through. Completing the reservation is as easy as a tap: Your preferences (say, party of three for 8:30 p.m. ) are saved each time, so the app will carry them over, but you can change them with a few more taps and swipes if you wish.

The current version of Google's Field Trip sends you notifications about surrounding points of interest, but the upgrade, released in April, lets you specifically ask what's nearby. When you do, you can get general recommendations, or narrow things down by categories, including Art, Food and Museums. Tap again, and a scrolling list of venues appears.

Finally, Word Lens completes the travel package. The app has been on Glass since last November, but its augmented-reality translation abilities are arguably perfectly suited for smart glasses. With Glass, all you need to do is look at a sign or menu, aim Glass' camera so the text you need translated is in an onscreen rectangle, and the words will change — from, say, Italian to English — before your eyes. On a smartphone, the effect is impressive; on Glass, it blows you away.

This set of apps emphasizes one of the main areas where smart glasses can be truly useful: travel. When you're in a foreign land, having fast access to information about the area you're visiting is essential. Glass not only provides that access, but does it in a hands-free way. If smart glasses ever go mainstream, the category may have the travel industry to thank.

Read full Article…

Smart Bike Brings GPS Directions to Your Handle Bars

While some cars these days are smart enough to drive themselves, the bike industry has remained largely untouched in terms of innovation. But a new company wants to pedal forward with what it's calling the world's first smart and connected bicycle.

A Kickstarter campaign for the Vanhawks Valour smart bike connects with a smartphone app and brings tech like GPS directly to the handle bars. The concept is part of a greater effort to help bikers keep their eyes on the road, especially during high-traffic commuting times.

The smart bike adds another product to the growing category of the "Internet of Things," which refers to the concept that all devices, objects and systems could be web connected and share information in the future. Experts believe this will have a widespread effect on the way we live our everyday lives by 2025.

The bike campaign has already raised more than $400,000 — well beyond its $100,000 funding goal. Backers can pre-order the bike now for $1,049 (single-speed fixed gear) or $1,199 for a multi-speed unit, both of which are said to ship in November.

"We designed the bike for those who commute in urban setting," Ali Zahid, co-founder and COO of Vanhawks, Sohaib Zahid. "Being commuters ourselves and having a manufacturer background, we wanted to create a bike that we would use everyday with safety in mind too."

Similar to a fitness wristband tracker, the bike keeps track of your riding progress, too: it monitors and logs your activity such as distance traveled, calories burned and duration. That data is housed in a corresponding app, where bikers can later analyze the details and set goals.

In addition to giving turn-by-turn directions, the bike gets smarter over time too — it learns where to avoid potholes and suggests the safest route. And because it's connected over a network, the company is alerted when one goes missing to help aid in its recovery.

Another helpful perk that every rider could use some help in is blind spot detection. The Valour picks up on haptic feedback in the handle bar grips when an object enters a blind spot and then alerts the rider.

The will also be open for developers to create accompanying apps that work with the product.

"We can expect developers to create app games that include racing with friends and use that telemetric data to figure more out about themselves," Zahid added.

IMAGE: VANHAWKS VALOUR

Read full Article…

The Body Dryer Blows Water Off Your Body - No Towel Needed

There's a chance your bathroom towel could end up in a retired pile of old cassette tapes and fax machines as something replaced by newer, shinier technology.

As part of an effort to shake up the towel market, an Indiegogo campaign for a product called The Body Dryer is attracting significant attention on the crowdsourcing site. Similar to the hand dryers used in bathrooms, the Body Dryer —which looks like a standard bathroom scale — blows the water off your body every time you step out of the shower or pool.

And why does the towel need a tech overhaul? Germs, says Body Dryer founder Tyler Overk.

"There is a problem with the growth of bacteria on a towel's wet, warm surface if it's not allowed to dry properly," Overk told. "If you dry off with it again, you are putting those bacteria back onto yourself."

In fact, this could potentially lead to health issues. We're talking Fungi infections, ringworms, athlete's foot, skin rashes and even serious infections for people with weakened immune systems.

"The bathroom rug is actually the ripest source of skin cells, bacteria and mildew because water and body particles drain down to your feet as you're drying off," he added. "Once you step on the Body Dryer, it will eliminate the bacteria, especially on your feet."

To keep the post-bathtime experience clean, a user steps onto the device — which can actually take your body weight measurements too (if you choose) — the body is given a blast of air. About 30 seconds later, the Body Dryer promises you'll be fully dry, without the need for a towel.

The device (2 x 2 feet) can be plugged into any standard AC outlet. You can control the temperature, too (cool or warm), which will likely come in handy during the changing seasons.

Since the campaign launched last month, it far surpassed its funding goal of $50,000 and brought in more than $275,000. The company has sold units on every continent except Antarctica and received more than 300 requests for distribution rights.

The Indiegogo campaign ends May 15. Early backers could get the device for $125 (it's now sold out), but it will retail for $250 when it officially launches later this year.

IMAGE: BODY DRYER

Read full Article…

Report: Samsung's First Tizen Smartphones Are Coming to Russia and India

It looks like the first Tizen-based Samsung smartphones are finally getting closer to release.

The Korean electronics giant is preparing to launch a Tizen-based smartphone in Russia and India, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Russian release will reportedly coincide with the Tizen Developer Conference, which takes place in San Francisco this June. Samsung will hold a launch event in Russia that's similar to its global Galaxy launches, WSJ reported.

Tizen is an open-source, Linux-based operating system led by Intel and Samsung. Like Samsung's previous Bada effort, Tizen is focused on emerging markets and low-cost devices.

Samsung's efforts to bring a Tizen-based smartphone to the market have been beset with delays. The first Tizen release was originally planned for 2012, which then became 2013. After 2013 came and went with no Tizen release, Samsung delayed the release of its first Tizen phone again in January.

Meanwhile, carrier partners — including Japan's NTT DoCoMo — have lost interest. Because Tizen is designed to run on a variety of devices, a few Tizen-based products have hit the market, including Samsung's Gear 2 smartwatch.

A Google-free OS

Samsung already controls 65% of the Android-device market, so why should it even bother with Tizen?

Two words: Ecosystem control.

Because it uses Android, Samsung's current mobile-device strategy relies on Google. Although Samsung can make some changes and tweaks to the interface, and offer its own unique applications, fundamental aspects of the OS must remain in Google's control. What's more, the future direction of the platform is shaped by Google, not Samsung.

With Tizen, Samsung has the opportunity to build its own platform. Not only can Samsung customize this platform in ways that Google won't let it (say, put in a different default mapping client or make changes to the interface), it also has the potential to build its own app ecosystem — one that Samsung, not Google, can profit from.

So why Russia and India? Samsung already has a strong presence in these markets, and as WSJ noted, the company is hoping users will be swayed by the Samsung brand (and low price point), rather than access to Android and Google apps.

It also aims to capture users in India and Russia who don't have smartphones. Like Facebook, Samsung hopes they will become life-long customers.

In that vein, the point of Tizen isn't to steal business from the 1.5 billion users who already have smartphones, it's to attract the next 2 billion smartphone users.

It's a strategy that could pay off. As long as Samsung ensures that the most-used applications (i.e. WhatsApp, Facebook) are available, it could be enough to take over the lowest end of the smartphone market. These users could then graduate to more expensive, premium Samsung smartphones in the future.

This tactic is similar to what Nokia is trying to do with its Android-based devices. The difference (aside from built-in support for existing third-party Android app stores), is that Samsung is an aspirational brand in a way that Nokia is not.

Will anyone care?

Of course, this is Samsung, so execution will be essential. The company is famous for having great ideas that don't necessarily take off because the experience isn't seamless.

What's more, Chinese and Taiwanese phone makers are increasingly pushing down prices of higher-end, Android-based smartphones. This ruins some of the appeal of a Tizen-based Samsung device, at least in regions that already have some 3G infrastructure.

It's possible that Tizen's true value might not be realized for several years. In the meantime, Samsung's strategy of basing its non-smartphone connected devices on Tizen, might have more of an impact.

Read full Article…

This Smart Lighter Will Help You Quit Smoking

A new Internet-connected lighter called Quitbit will light your cigarette, but wean you off a smoking habit too.

A new Kickstarter campaign called Quitbit takes the same monitoring principles embedded into fitness trackers and helps users track and cutdown on smoking. In a nod to the name, it's like a Fitbit for smoking.

The product, which launched on Monday and is seeking $50,000 in funding pledges, is a pocket lighter that uses a heating coil similar to what's found in cars. But whether you're looking to quit or not, the lighter keeps track of every time you light up and logs that data in an accompanying app.

Users can set custom plans — so they can trim on intake at whatever pace they want — and see much money they've saved by cutting back on packs along the way. It also reveals the time since your last smoke, how many were consumed within a certain period of time and lets you call out the times you shared a cigarette with a friend (or let someone borrow the lighter).

The Quitbit, which also works with e-cigarettes or the patch, was developed by two friends who wanted an easy way to track the quitting process.

"Kuji and I were both smokers and met while in grad school together at Brown," co-founder Ata Ghofrani told. "I was trying to quit when he asked how much I smoked, and I realized there wasn't a really good way to keep track." "I was trying to quit when he asked how much I smoked, and I realized there wasn't a really good way to keep track."

Although there are countless apps on the market that help smokers quit, this is the first solution that includes hardware: "We wanted a piece of hardware to automatically monitor how much you're smoking, without having to manually enter that information within the app," he added.

Although it's up to each person to decide when and if they want to quit smoking, keeping the Quitbit in your pocket — we assume — gives the same affect of wearing a fitness wristband tracker. Sure, you might not wear a Fitbit to specifically lose weight, but it serves as a constant reminder to stay active.

The Quitbit will likely do the same; having access to all of your smoking data might the final nudge you need to scale back.

IMAGE: QUITBIT

Read full Article…

FDA Approves Segway Inventor's Mind-Controlled Robotic Arm

The era of real cyborgs has begun. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its first approval for the sale and marketing of a prosthetic arm that translates signals from a person’s muscles on Friday.

Informally known as the "Luke" arm (a reference to Luke Skywalker's robotic arm in Star Wars), the Deka Arm, which is controlled by electrical signals from electromyogram (EMG) electrodes connected to the wearer's muscles, can now move from research experiment to full-fledged commercial product. That's right, bionic limbs are about to go mainstream

" The Deka Arm System may allow some people to perform more complex tasks than they can with current prostheses in a way that more closely resembles the natural motion of the arm," said Christy Foreman, the director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health in a statement.

In a demonstration video (see above) released on Friday, Fred Downs, one of the recipients of the Deka Arm, is shown using the prosthetic hand to delicately pick up and move a carton of eggs. Like the device's nickname, the demonstration is indeed reminiscent of the dexterity exhibited by Luke Skywalker's robotic hand, a technology that was pure science fiction just a few decades ago, when the movie was first released.

The Deka Arm's electrodes, which are attached to the muscles of the wearer, transmit signals to a processor in the prosthesis, which then interprets those signals and turns them into up to 10 distinct movements.

In yet another video (see above), Downs is shown using the Deka Arm to open up a piece of mail, a seemingly simple demonstration that is nevertheless indicative of the device's precision.

And while the project was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office, Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, and his team at Deka Research were instrumental in its development, hence the name.


IMAGE: DARPA

Read full Article…

Samsung NX3000 Camera Lets You Get Serious About Selfies

In the NX Mini, Samsung introduced a camera for the selfie-obsessed, including an LCD that flips a full 180 degrees and special settings for self portraits. Now that feature is getting a second home in the NX3000.

Whereas the NX Mini prioritized a slim form factor and speed over all else, the NX3000 is a more "traditional" mirrorless camera. Its APS-C sensor captures the same 20 megapixels as the NX Mini's, but its larger size will give image quality a boost, plus it makes the camera compatible with the diverse NX line of lenses (the Mini's 1-inch sensor requires different optics).

The marquee feature is the flip-up LCD, which gives selfie lovers the perfect way to set up a high-quality shot of themselves. Not only will you benefit from the NX3000's lens and sensor, but the camera's Self Shot mode will also automatically airbrush your selfies by default (you can turn the feature off for the "natural" look). You can also set it up to snap your selfie either after a 3-second countdown, when you smile or when you wink at the camera.

The NX3000 has a shutter speed that maxes out at 1/4,000 of a second and can capture up to six RAW photos per second. ISO is adjustable from 100 to 25,600. Just like the NX Mini, it saves to microSD cards instead of full-size ones, both to cut down on space and make them quickly swappable into a smartphone.

There's a micro USB port for data and charging (it has the same battery as in many Galaxy smartphones) as well as a micro HDMI port for displaying photos and videos on a TV. The body comes in brown, black and white, and it ships with a 16-50mm power-zoom lens that includes optical image stabilization. A detachable flash is included.

The NX300 will be available June 1 for the tidy sum of $529 (with 16-50mm OIS Power Zoom and a SEF-8 Flash), or about as much as the NX Mini (depending on the lens). A version with a 20-50mm lens and SEF-8 flash will also be available for the price of $479.

Whichever you choose is a question of how much you prioritize lens compatibility, overall slimness and that potential extra bump in image quality. But in either case, you'll get the best selfies you've ever taken.

Image: SAMSUNG

Read full Article…

Robot TED Talk Will Make You Believe in Magic

Magician's assistants may soon be out of work. Robots are not only ready to take their place, but they're doing it live and on a TED stage.

After months of development, training and practice, self-styled "techno illusionist" Marco Tempest took a Baxter robot, renamed him EDI (pronounced "Eddie") and put him on stage doing magic tricks at the recent TED2014 conference in Vancouver.

Tempest's six-minute TED talk, seen below, is a testament to what's possible with modern robots. As he told, "It’s time for magicians and technologists to collaborate.”

Tempest, whose previous magic-infused TED talk used augmented reality and iPads, started his new project last year, shortly after Rethink Robotics introduced its roughly $30,000 Baxter robot. Although it's designed to work in a factory setting, Baxter is unusual: It plugs into a standard wall outlet, and can be trained to do simple repetitive tasks in a half an hour.

For his TED talk, however, Tempest had something else in mind. He wanted a performance, not "creepy" repetitive tasks. Over a period of eight months, Tempest reprogrammed Baxter to work with him, adding 3D-printed hands that would help its performance, a jaunty hat and a new digital face to make the robot look "goofier."

When we checked in with Tempest last year, the project looked promising, but there was still a lot of work left to do (see the video, below). The performance he and EDI (Electronic Deceptive Intelligence) gave in Vancouver, however, is flawless and rather astounding. Notice that Tempest interacts directly with EDI, and despite the robot's impressive arm span and occasionally rapid movements, they never collide.

As the video shows, the talk is roughly 70% robotics education and 30% magic performance. Once we're all up to speed on the power and promise of robotics, perhaps we'll see even more magic out of EDI and Tempest.

VIDEO: Marco Tempest

IMAGE:  TED CONFERENCE, JAMES DUNCAN DAVIDSON

Read full Article…

Pocket-Sized Charger Claims to Keep Your Devices Juiced Up

Low battery, you may have met your match.

A new portable charging system aims to put on-the-go power in your pocket, boasting a set-up that reportedly doesn't compromise on power or portability. Modulo, developed by Barcelona-based tech company Idapt, is a credit card-sized gadget that claims to power any USB device, wherever you go.

"All our lifestyle now goes to electronics — it's portable, really portable," Idapt CEO Jacques Giribet told. "We have designed a battery that is as small as possible, taking into account that we want it to give you the same power as the original battery."

Once an electronic device is connected to a Modulo, either with its original charger or one of Idapt's mini cables, the battery begins to power up. The two can be even more securely attached with special adhesive strips that don't leave any residue behind. Stacking multiple Modulos on top of one another means more juice for a faster charge. For example, one Modulo would be enough to power up a smartphone as quickly as a normal charger would, but a tablet would need two or three to reach a full charge in the fastest possible time, the company claims.

The Modulos themselves can be charged from any wall socket, while connected to a computer or with a wireless receiver. Idapt also hopes it will be able to offer a solar-charging panel and crank add-on that creates its own energy. A Modulo can last up to about six months on one charge, according to the company.

There are plenty of other on-the-go charging options out there. According to Giribet, what sets Modulo apart from the rest of the pack is the fact that it's compatible with so many devices, and users don't have to choose between true portability — each Modulo weighs 2.4 ounces — and function.

"None of the solutions that are there are really a solution," Giribet said.

Modulo's Kickstarter campaign has already surpassed its fundraising goal, attracting more than $60,000 out of its original $30,000 goal, with 24 days remaining. It also won iLounge's Best in Show award at CES 2014. Production is expected to begin June, and shipping will start in July.

Image: IDAPT

Read full Article…

Huawei's New Smartphone Weighs Less Than a Pack of AA Batteries

Huawei has unveiled the Ascend P7, a slim Android smartphone with LTE support, at an event in Paris on Wednesday.

The 5-inch device has a 1080p display, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a 13-megapixel camera on the back, coupled with an 8-megapixel one on the front.

With a 0.26-inch-thick body that weighs only 4.37 ounces, it's one of the slimmest and lightest LTE smartphones on the market. Other features of note are the microSD card slot, a 2500 mAh battery and 1080p video recording.

The device will be coming in May to most of Europe, China, as well as some Middle East and Asia markets. It will be available in black and white, for a suggested retail price of €449 ($625).

Image: Huawei

Read full Article…

Patent Shows Microsoft Has Been Planning a Smartwatch for 2 Years

Apart from a few words at its latest developer conference, Microsoft has been more or less silent on wearables so far, probably dreading comparisons to its failed Spot platform. But a patent suggests its wearable tech might be a larger part of its strategy moving forward.

The patent, which Microsoft filed in 2012 but was granted this week, is clearly for a kind of smartwatch. The accompanying diagrams and description reveal it will be a sensor-laden device capable of measuring a "biometric parameter" (i.e., heart rate). The illustration shows the watch displaying a simple interface for a generic fitness app that measures distance traveled.

As shown, the band is separate from the "computing device," which can be easily removed, similar in concept to the Sony Core life-logging gadget from CES, which was essentially a small sensor device that could be part of a wristband, brooch or something else.

However, Sony's device was more of a tracker, whereas Microsoft's is clearly more interactive, equipped with a "touch display" and communications interface (presumably to connect with a smartphone) to transfer the data it logs.

Microsoft plans to charge the device via a dock, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Gear. The illustrations show the display rotating 90 degrees while in the dock, which also functions as a stand.

Even though it hasn't said much about wearables themselves, Microsoft recently launched an initiative called Windows on Devices, which adapts the company's software for the "Internet of Things" — getting products that normally don't run Windows (or any OS) to run Windows. The first software development kit (SDK) is due this spring.


It's definitely possible Microsoft is planning its own hardware offering to kick-start the platform, similar to what the company attempted with the Surface and Windows 8. There's no telling when a Microsoft smartwatch might debut, but given that an upcoming event will be focused on the Surface Mini, it would probably be fall at the earliest.

IMAGE: USPTO

Read full Article…

Google and Intel Unveil a New Generation of Powerful Chromebooks

Google and Intel announced several new Chromebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba at a press event in San Francisco Tuesday.

Google also said Chromebooks will soon have Google Now integration and the ability to play Google Play movies and TV shows offline.

"Our strategy is about computing and ensuring any device that computes does it best with Intel," Navin Shenoy, Intel vice president and general manager of the mobile computing group. "We will embrace multiple operating systems."

Chromebooks are laptops that run Google's Chrome OS and are similar to netbooks in that they're usually less powerful than a typical laptop. The Intel chips that power this next generation of Chromebooks are more powerful than in most previous models.

Most of the new designs include Intel Celeron processors based on Intel's "Bay Trail" line, whose efficient design enables a battery life of up to 11 hours.

Intel also showed off a pair of "high performance" Chromebooks with the latest Intel fourth-generation Intel Core i3 processors. The Dell Chromebook 11 and Acer C720 Chromebook are variations of existing models with the new chips.

Accer's C270 will start at $350 and will be available "early in the back to school season," and the Dell will be available "later this year" and will start at $349. While Dell has targeted schools and students with its previous Chromebook offerings, the company said the new high-performance model will target small and medium businesses.

Asus announced two new models: an 11.6-inch C200 and 13.3-inch C300, both of which will go on sale this summer.

Additionally, LG's new Chromebase, the Chrome OS-powered desktop computer, will go on sale later this month in the US for $349. HP's Chromebox, a similar product, will go on sale in the US in June.

Lenovo showed off the N20 and N20p Chromebooks, which the company is billing as the company's first consumer Chromebooks.

All of Intel's new Chrome devices will be powered by the company's first conflict-free microprocessors, Shenoy said. The minerals used in the chips — tin, gold, tantalum and tungsten — only come from mines that are certified "conflict free," which means they don't benefit armed groups within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or neighboring countries.

Read full Article…

Sony Supersizes Data Storage With 185-Terabyte Cassette Tape

The iPod let you put your entire music collection in your pocket. Now Sony has something that could let you put the world's music collection in your pocket: a cassette tape that holds 185 terabytes of data.

To put that in perspective, the tape can hold about 60 million songs — far more than anyone could listen to in their lifetime (that would be about 17 million, assuming continuous listening for 100 years, even while sleeping, and 3 minutes per song). All of the printed works of the Library of Congress add up to only about 10 terabytes.

The recording density of the 185TB tape is about 74 times the capacity of current tapes, Sony claims. It was able to achieve heretofore unheard of storage powers by better controlling the tiny magnetic particles that are "grown" to record individual 1s and 0s. Sony optimized a commonly-used process called "sputter deposition," which creates the particles to keep them from growing too big as well as making their magnetic properties more uniform. At the same time, a magnetic "underlayer" of the tape is developed independently to minimize potential disruptions.

The result is a recording medium whose magnetic particles don't exceed 7.7 nanometers in diameter, and a tape capable of holding every single tweet on Twitter (which was about 85TB a year ago).

It's in big-data applications that such a high-density tape is really needed. Facebook, for example, stores more than 300 petabytes of data from its users (a petabyte is 1,000 terabytes), and that data has to go somewhere. Tapes are used for most high-capacity data archiving for the simple reason that the storage density rivals anything else.

With Sony's storage breakthrough, it looks like tape is here to stay. And Big Data just got a potent tool for making its even bigger ambitions really happen.

Read full Article…

Qualcomm's Toq Smartwatch Lets You Text Without Typing

Qualcomm's Toq smartwatch got the Dick Tracy treatment on Monday with a new feature dubbed "Toq Talk."

Powered by Nuance's voice-to-text technology, Toq Talk lets owners create and respond to text messages using their voices.

Nuance is one of the industry leaders in in speech recognition and natural language processing. It powers Siri on iOS and is embedded in many other systems spanning various industries. Nuance also powers the voice-input on the original Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

For now, the feature is restricted to the text messaging app. You're also limited to nine seconds of speech input — but that should be enough to compose a quick message or send a quick reply.

It's important to remember, however, that Qualcomm isn't selling the Toq through traditional consumer channels. It's designed more as a reference point so other manufacturers can see what's possible in the wearable space, rather than a fully-realized product.

It's not hard to imagine that this sort of technology — especially aligned with some of the cloud-based systems Nuance is investing in — powering a wide array of voice-controlled interfaces for the wearable market.

Read full Article…

Capture 360-Degree HD Video With This Tiny UFO-Style Camera

Tools like Google Street View and even Apple's iPhone allow you to view the world as captured in panoramic photos, but a new camera called Centr delivers the same kind of immersive experience in high-definition video.

Created by a team of ex-Apple employees, Centr is a beautifully designed, palm-sized panoramic camera that you can control with your smartphone or tablet (iOS and Android).

"Think of it as a GoPro plus," Centr CEO Bill Banta told. "It lets you do everything you could with a GoPro, plus see another dimension.It allows the user to get perspectives that they couldn't normally get with a GoPro. Now you have the opportunity to create a panoramic selfie."

Giving users the ability to record 360-degree high-definition video is something the team has been working on for several years. Working under the name Stealth HD, the team provided private panoramic video recording solutions for the military, sports organizations and companies like Red Bull and National Geographic.

But it was only within the last 12 months that the team reached a point where they believed the technology could be made available to the general public at an affordable price ($399 at retail, with lower prices available now during pre-order).

"Our dream has always been to bring this type of tech to the mass market," says Banta. "We had a real breakthrough last year. We got to a point where we were able to do all the calibration and processing in real-time."

Using in-camera calibration, Centr's four independent HD image sensors stitch together panoramic videos in real-time, delivering an entirely different, and often quite revealing perspective on reality.

"The real value is you don't have to worry about anything being out of frame or out of focus," says Banta.

With up to two hours of battery life for continuous shooting (six hours standby), the device, which can be held through its center hole, or using a tripod, immediately opens up the possibility of innovative filmmaking using Centr's 360-perspective.

"The longest we've recorded is a full day at Burning Man," says Banta. "If you have a 64GB SD card, you should be able to get 7 to 8 hours of recording time, assuming you're recording at 720 resolution."

The camera can also shoot 1080p video and is equipped with 8GB of flash storage, three microphones, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability and a USB 3.0 connector.

Once they decided to release the product commercially, the team turned to Kickstarter, a route startups are increasingly relying upon to test out market demand. In this case, the makers of Centr are looking to raise $900,000 from early backers, a pretty ambitious goal for a product that is likely to appeal to a small niche of users.

"For people that just take pictures, it's probably not the perfect product," says Banta. "It's for people who love video and who love capturing memories and experiences through video."

Another factor that may bolster the project's success is the fact that the product's DNA is infused with Apple tradition and attention to detail. Banta managed Apple's supply chain for its camera group for four years, and Centr CTO, Paul Alioshin, led camera engineering at Apple and was part of the team that brought the built-in iSight camera to the Mac, MacBook and iPhone.

As of this writing, the project has garnered nearly $300,000, with 25 days to go, so that nearly $1 million goal may not be as lofty as some might think.


Image: CENTR CAMERA

Read full Article…

New Fingerprinting Method Takes a Hard Look at Your Pores

Criminals might not get away so easily, thanks to a new fingerprinting method that may be faster and more reliable than traditional methods, researchers say.

The method images the sweat pores in a human hand using a polymer that glows fluorescent and changes color when it comes in contact with tiny droplets of water. Only a small fraction of the fingerprint is needed to identify an individual, according to the new study.

"The sensor technology developed in this study has the potential of serving as a new method for fingerprint analysis and for the clinical diagnosis of malfunctioning sweat pores," the researchers wrote in the study, detailed April 29 in the journal Nature Communications.

The idea of using sweat pores for fingerprinting isn't new, but this is the first time that fast, reliable and cheap methods have been available.

A team led by Jong-Man Kim, a chemical engineer at Hanyang University in South Korea, developed a new fingerprinting method that uses a simple color-changing polymer that can be deposited using an ink-jet printer. When a fingertip is pressed against it, the polymer changes color from blue to red and glows in the places where it comes into contact with sweat, producing a dotted pattern that constitutes a unique fingerprint.

Traditional fingerprinting, which captures the characteristic ridge patterns on the fingertip, requires a large area to produce a reliable print and is prone to error. In contrast, the sweat-pore method requires only a small fraction of the fingertip to match it to its owner and is more reliable, researchers said.

The new method could also be used to diagnose sweat-pore disorders, because it can distinguish functioning pores from nonfunctioning ones.

This article originally published at LiveScience

Read full Article…

Google Hints It May Toss Long URLs From Chrome

Google Chrome may eventually hide long URLs from the address bar. That is, if a recent update to Google's experimental browser is any indication.

A recent update to Chrome's publicly available Canary browser added a feature that hides long URLs. Instead, when users view webpages, the browser only reveals the website name and domain, not the entire URL.

If this sounds familiar, this is similar to the mobile version of Safari, which already hides the full URL in iOS 7 by default. In the Safari app, the address bar only displays the website name and domain, e.g. yahoo.com, not the entire URL— regardless of where on the website you navigate to. To view or select the full URL, users must tap the address bar.

Similarly, if the new feature in Canary is enabled, users can only see the entire URL by clicking on the domain name, what's technically called the "origin chip," which brings up the full URL for users to view or edit.

Canary is Google's experimental version of Chrome. The Chrome team updates it daily with new features, many of which have not been previously tested. Google often uses it to test new features and builds before even rolling them out to the Chrome Dev Channel.

Given its experimental nature, seeing this URL tweak in Canary doesn't necessarily mean this is a feature Google is considering for the full version of Chrome but should Canary's small user base react positively, it could get a full launch.

Read full Article…