NTT Communications has tackled the age-old problem of working out who's paying attention to which sign-based advertising by making the sign watch back. The Japanese company will run an experiment where webcam-equipped digital signs record what's going on then process the data to see how much attention each ad draws from passers by.
Starting in January in a Tokyo railway station, NTT will trial the technology on thousands of passer-by commuters. The system uses two cameras hooked up to a PC: It runs analysis software that computes how many people are in front of the sign, then matches an "averaged" Japanese face to each person to determine whether they're looking at the sign, and for how long.
The data from the system will, if analyzed properly, be invaluable to advertisers in analyzing the attention-grabbing value of particular adverts. NTT's content distribution system for digital will use data to help it select ads for signs appropriately. And though it's a taste of the future--a future of personalized dynamic ad placements that makes me shudder when I think of it--this system isn't exactly Big Brother: it doesn't attempt to identify individuals.
Samsung's Pixon cellphone has just made it past the FCC, labelled as M8800L, and that means it'll hit stores sometime soon. What distinguishes this phone from others in the crowded market is a built-in 8-megapixel camera.
Whether this makes it a phonecamera or a cameraphone is up to you, but the device seems to represent convergence at its best: The camera has auto-focus, a flash, anti-shake, auto-panorama mode and features face, smile and even blink detection to help you get the perfect portrait shot. It also shoots video at WVGA resolution at 30 fps. The phone has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, built-in GPS, Bluetooth v2.0, FM radio with RDS, a 5.1 virtual surround sound system and 290 hours of standby, 3 hours 40 mins of talk time.
It looks like it's going to be an AT&T-only device, running on 850 and 1900 HSDPA 3G bands, but no pricing or release timing has been announced yet.
Toshiba and Sandisk had plans to increase production of NAND flash memory chips as part of their Flash Alliance fab partnership, after both companies opened new 300-mm wafer fab plants last year. But the recession has taken two bites out of the market, and both companies are now scaling back plans radically.
As consumer spending dips, and purchases of devices like MP3 players with built-in flash memory, and gadgets like cameras that take add-on memory chips drop, the knock-on effect hits Toshiba and Sandisk, with both companies facing a temporary memory over-supply situation.
Toshiba announced a 30% cutback in production of chips, effective January, in an attempt to control the supply-side and stop the rot. Sandisk also plans to delay the second phase of its new Fab 4 300mm fabrication plant in Nagoya, Japan, in order to effect similar supply-side controls.
The fear is that prices will continue to fall in an attempt to tempt consumer purchases, and that would push the NAND makers into an impossible position.
The temporary over-supply of chips means potentially good news for consumers shopping for memory, but in the near term it's a bad thing. Decreasing prices of flash memory, combined with developments in increasing the chip's speed and capacity has been pushing the development of innovative and cheaper consumer gadgets. That means that spending on chip development is likely to become one of the first areas to suffer if the Flash Alliance has to trim spending.
Within Apple's stable of products, the beast that's recieved the least official attention for ages is the Mac Mini. But that's due to change in January, according to a new rumor from an "Apple corporate employee."
The much-loved Mini hasn't been upgraded since April 2007, leaving it lagging behind in processor technology, memory, and the all-aluminum design that's been lavished upon other Apple computers. The new Mini is rumored to be revealed at Macworld Expo, which starts January 5th, in line with Steve Job's custom of unveiling new products during his keynote speech.
Over at Wired they're speculating that the Mini will also adopt the aluminum body, have a greener build to improve Apple's eco-credentials and contain new graphics cards--as in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros--that support its typical role as a media-serving machine in home AV-setups.
I'm pretty sure that the theory that it'll cost $100 less than current models "in light of the recession" is nothing more than wild hope. Though, indeed, the price cut for the original iPhone and the new "low" price of the iPhone 3G suggest that Apple might be addressing the issue of a perceived "Apple tax."
While we have no idea what the machine will actually look like, there's this intriguing concept to look at {pictured left) from Sait Alayali, which adds a stackable right-angle shape to the Mini.
But is this rumor true? This rumor may carry a bit more weight than similar rumors of an Apple netbook, since the Mini is an existing product. The Mini has gone unmentioned for a while in any Apple future-thinking communications, though there has been a few assurances that it's not being forgotten. It's also tagged as "The essence of Mac" on Apple's own Mac Mini web page, pointing out how seemingly "core" the device really is. And for Apple to remove the machine from its product inventory would seem crazy--it's in third place on Amazon's list of best-selling desktop machines, so that would be a ridiculous income line to give up, especially in the current economic climate. Also Macs are increasingly used in business contexts, and the Mini is a business favorite due to its size and convenient design.
But it's also quite possible that the Mini will be replaced by something completely new, taking up a niche somewhere between the current Apple TV and current Mini. A different form-factor is also possible, though perhaps nothing so radical as the concept shown above. If the product went for a unibody aluminum enclosure, it would seem simplest to machine this in wide, shallow box-shapes, versus the "chunky" existing Mini.
Or Apple may just go for the low-maintenance approach, and slightly tweak the Mini's innards specs, leaving it a "hanger-on" from previous-gen tech like the white plastic low-end Macbook it still sells. But that's just one piece of speculation in what will undoubtedly be a large list.
Christiaan Huygens attributed his 1655 discovery of Saturn's largest moon Titan partly to "the quality of his telescope and partly to luck." And now it seems luck has struck again in the latest Titan discovery: the first ever directly-observed extra-terrestrial liquid drops.
In examining the data from the Huygens probe, which zipped through the atmosphere to a final squishy landing in 2005, scientists have noticed a discrepancy between two photos captured moments apart. The splodges don't amount to much visually, but they're highlighted with tiny arrows in the image here. And they appear to be liquid methane that's condensed out of the air of the moon onto the cold metal surface of the probe.
Initially the spots were dismissed as artifacts in the sensor caused by cosmic rays, but upon reconsideration it looks like the spots really do represent methane.
And what does that mean? Scientifically it agrees with the theory that liquid methane exists plentifully on Titan's surface, but since the condensation was artificially induced, it doesn't add much to the debate on whether Titan suffers methane rain storms. Nevertheless, the direct observation of the first ever non-terrestrial liquid drops is an exciting reminder that there's still plenty of discoveries to be made in space.
With conventional batteries nearly ousted, first by NiCad and now Li-ion rechargeables, you'd think the question of which battery to use would be pretty sewn up. Not so: now comes nickel-zinc technology to shake it all up again.
The new Quantaray Super Z rechargeable AA batteries from PowerGenix ditch lithium technology for nickel-zinc chemistry, a couple of sweet advantages. For one, they offer about 30% more voltage in the same package size--overcoming the problem previous rechargeables had of only delivering 1.2V versus the 1.5V of single-use cells. This makes them handy for a whole range of high-drain devices, such as camera flashes--which will also recharge more quickly using NiZn batteries.
Also, the battery contents of NiZn are non-toxic, which makes them even safer in case of accidents. And most importantly, NiZn is reportedly the "most recyclable rechargeable chemistry on the market" and the batteries meet all the requirements of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation's requirements for recyclability.
As good as conventional single-use cells, but more recyclable and eco-friendly than both those and more recently released rechargeable batteries? Pretty amazing. The cells will debut in Ritz Camera shops, but a price hasn't been quoted for them yet.
The iPod Touch (and iPhone) may have been deemed as "the best iPod ever" by Steve Jobs himself, and Apple clearly dominates the MP3 player market. But it seems Sony thinks enough is enough, and is due to release a new Walkman that goes head-to-head with the Touch.
Rumors are circulating that the Sony device will be an OLED touchscreen media player with a WQVGA screen (that's somewhere in the vicinity of 400 x 240 pixels) and it'll have Wi-Fi for web-surfing and presumably music and video connectivity too. It's also reported to be able to link a music archive directly to Youtube, so if listening to a song by Ms Aguilera's makes you yearn to see her writhing on video, it'll be just a click away. There could also be podcast downloads and maybe an FM radio and noise-canceling earphones. Storage capacities are suggested at 32GB and 16GB.
So far that sounds so very much not an iPod Touch killer. If this gizmo is real, it'll have to be at the right price.
SmartHand is a European collaborative project to develop a next-generation robotic prosthetic limb, and as part of the project Swedish researchers have successfully demonstrated a neat psychological trick that makes wearers feel like an artificial limb is actually part of their body.
A report published by the team at the Karolinska Institutet and Malmö University Hospital shows success in what's known as the "rubber hand" illusion. Amputees' brains can be fooled into thinking that a fake hand is actually wired into their nervous systems, despite the fact that the hand has no sensory inputs whatsoever.
It's a similar effect to the solution discovered by V.S. Ramachandran to alleviating phantom limb pain: In his work the brain is fooled into thinking it's getting sensory inputs from a missing limb by an optical illusion with a mirror, and the mental side-effects of this relieve pain. The work challenged the existing medical thinking that damaged severed nerve endings were the cause of the pain.
In the Swedish case, Prosthetic limb users were subjected to a different visual trick: Someone visibly touched the artificial hand while out of the patient's sight their arm stump was being stimulated. Apparently the illusion is very convincing, and the deep psychological basis for the effect was further demonstrated by subconsciously-induced sweating when the "rubber" hand was pricked by a needle. The results suggest that the artificial hand has been completely adopted into the user's body image at a neurological level.
The research team sees this as evidence for a possible new way of connecting up future prosthetic limbs sensor-equipped hands to a patient, and it's potentially a much simpler solution than having to directly couple electronics into the nervous system surgically. And since the illusion is similar to Ramachandran's study, there's a possibility that phantom limb pain may also be reduced.
The research into the more mechanical aspects of SmartHand have produced an amazing thought-controlled product that's ever-evolving, with the goal of totally replacing a missing forelimb with a sophisticated robot. But it's not alone: in the US there's Dean Kamen's robotic limb project.
This device is already so sci-fi-ishly sophisticated it's been dubbed the "Luke arm" after the artificial limb given to Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies. Kamen's project is concentrating on developing the motorized engineering and nerve-input interface--it's directly wired into patient's nerves to control its motors--but has already shown remarkable results. Famously one test subject felt so much at ease operating the arm that he was able to rest a mug on a nearby table without watching, and carrying on a conversation at the same time.
Kamen's work was initially aimed at replacing limbs lost by soldiers on duty, but the Luke arm and SmartHand suggest that limb-loss victims of all types, through accidents and as civilian war casualties, have amazing artificial limbs to look forward to in the future. They'll work just like the real thing, maybe even being stronger, and they just might feel like they're a natural part of the body. But the costs will have to be driven down from multi-million-dollar levels.
First George W. expressed his disapproval of the future-thinking nationwide free Wi-Fi service, and now the FCC has simply cancelled a meeting that was scheduled this week to discuss the issue.
The December 18th meeting was due to be on the topic of auctioning portions of the whitespace spectrum that would end up being used for the proposed national free Wi-Fi internet service. But, apparently coming under pressure from certain "key lawmakers" who pushed for delaying the meeting, it's not going to happen now.
Are we looking at a move to push controversial topics out of the end of the Bush administration and into the Obama era? Or is the topic so mired in difficulty, courtesy of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's push that the new service be pornography free, and lack of free internet in the business plans of interested parties, that it needs a significant rethink before beginning to go into action? Only time, and now a new administration in the White House, will tell.
This gadget's been on the cards since MP3/MP4 players and digital video cameras began to get tiny and cheap. A toy for grownups, its inevitability is based on a dozen spy movies from the recent past.
Inside the slightly chunky device there's enough miniature electronics that enable it to act as a media player and digital photo frame with a 1.8-inch screen. And, what makes it most like 007 is its tiny camera that lets you capture up to 3.5 hours of video at 352 x 288 pixels, or VGA resolution stills. Those images aren't going to win any prizes for quality, but the fact that you can do it from the convenience and secrecy of your wrist is going to sell this device all by itself.
On the other hand, those controls look kinda fiddly, so buyers of the $160 device may just end up recording hours of video of the mysterious life of their own pocket fluff, rather than hours of exciting espionage. And at 352 x 288 pixels, hot Bond-girl action isn't going to be all that hot.
