maandag, januari 31, 2005

Implant & Pay (Dutch article)

Bedrijf kondigt betaal-implantaat aan

A company in Florida has announced plans to develop a system that enables people to buy and sell things by means of a microchip placed under the skin.

vrijdag, januari 28, 2005

Nanotechnology >>

woensdag, januari 26, 2005

What's next for next-gen consoles?

BBC NEWS | Technology | What's next for next-gen consoles?

The next generation of video games consoles are in development but what will the new machines mean for games firms and consumers?

We may not know when they will be released, what they will be called or even what they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months.

vrijdag, januari 21, 2005

Introduction to Playstation 3's 'Cell' chip

Playstation 3's Cell Architecture Explained: Introduction

Designed for the PlayStation 3, Sony, Toshiba and IBM's new "Cell processor" promises seemingly obscene computing capabilities for what will rapidly become a very low price. In these articles it is explained what the Cell architecture is, what profound implications this new chip has, not for the games market, but for the entire computer industry. Has the PC finally met it's match?

donderdag, januari 20, 2005

The ultimate journey

The ultimate journey
The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here's how to do it

woensdag, januari 19, 2005

Do You Want to Live Forever?

Do You Want to Live Forever?
"..De Grey has mapped out his proposed course in such detail that he believes it may be possible for his objective to be achieved within as short a period as 25 years, in time for many readers of Technology Review to avail themselves of its formulations—and, not incidentally, in time for his 41-year-old self as well.."

zondag, januari 16, 2005

The Daedalus Gateway

The Daedalus Gateway
Research on the impact of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) on human behaviour.

3D Animation: Singularity

Check out this swirling space vortex

requires DivX codec

zaterdag, januari 15, 2005

Wanna fly into space?

vrijdag, januari 14, 2005

Blue Origin - yet another Space Company!

Blue Origin
Yet another company that's going to fly people into space (Thanx to Amazon's Jeff Bezos).

'Blue Origin is developing vehicles and technologies that, over time, will help enable an enduring human presence in space. Our initial research efforts are focused on reusable liquid propulsion systems, low cost operations, life support, abort systems and human factors. We are currently working to develop a crewed, suborbital launch system that emphasizes safety and low cost of operations.'

The Shadow Internet

Wired 13.01: The Shadow Internet
They start with a single stolen file and pump out bootleg games and movies by the millions. Inside the pirate networks that are terrorizing the entertainment business.

donderdag, januari 13, 2005

Samsung introduces 3d Movement Recognition phone

Samsung introduces 3d Movement Recognition phone


Samsung Electronics unveiled the world's first "3D movement recognition" mobile phone (model: SCH-S310). An 'Accelerometer' is built in to accurately calculate and ascertain movement in three dimensional space and then carry out commands according to those calculations.

Mobile phone input devices to date include the keypad, touch screen and voice recognition. In the future, however, 3D movement recognition technology will become an important user interface and revolutionize mobile phone designs and features.

The user can draw a "O" or "X" in the air with the phone, which will recognize it and respond with a voice message "yes" or "no." Move the phone sharply to the right and the selection on the MP3 play function will move to the next tune on the list; move it to the left, and the selection will back up one number.

The "motion beat box" function enables the user to select a particular sound from the menu such as "drum," "tambourine," "scratch" or "clap." Then he or she shakes the mobile phone and the beat will be re-created in rhythm with the motion. This enables the user to keep time with any tune being played.

With the music performance function, the phone will begin to play music after it is shaken by the user. The sensors in the phone identify the movement and adjust the beat accordingly.


Samsung employee shows the new "SCH-S310" mobile phone Posted by Hello

woensdag, januari 12, 2005

Get ready for the biggest manufacturing, distribution and retail revolution since the net

RFIDs: GREAT NEW LOGISTICS BUSINESS OR BRAVE NEW WORLD?


10 billion wireless electronic tags are about to impact manufacturing, distribution and retailing now that Walmart, Tesco and Pentagon are requiring suppliers to tag products - raising sensitive questions about privacy, civil liberties and human rights

Radio bar-codes embedded into billions of different things and organisms which have value, including animals and possibly some human beings - sending out radio signals about what they are, where they are, and possibly what they are doing or how their bodies are working. Like mobile phones, they cannot communicate to each other direct, but can exchange information via send / receive base stations.

Within the current decade more of these RFIDs will be made each year than there are people alive on earth. Once prices fall to less than 2 cents per tag, retail usage will explode with anything from 20 - 40 billion tagged products sold a year.

RFIDs mean that a retail outlet can watch goods going out of the door and know who is taking them, even which card to charge. RFIDs prevent theft, help guarantee quality, provide absolute 100% precision about what stock remains in the food store and when products are close to sell-by dates. RFIDs mean I can pay for products and services ranging from bottles of wine to travel tickets, using a card that never leaves my pocket.

At the same time, expect huge emotive discussions about personal privacy, and data leakage, with demands that next-generation RFIDs contain a reliable switch which can be turned off by a consumer after a product is bought. Pressure groups will campaign successfully in some nations against data-leakage, where all kinds of information could theoretically be transmitted about an individual without their knowledge or consent, by tags in their shirts, shoes, gloves, belts, car seats, credit cards and so on, in response to unscrupulous use of scanners which could be as easy to conceal as mobile phones.

Take hold of the future or the future will take hold of you.

* Dr Patrick Dixon is Chairman of Global Change Ltd, author of Futurewise. He has recently been ranked as one of the 50 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers50 / Bloomsbury Publishing).http://www.globalchange.com - 5 million unique visitors

Robot makers say World Cup will be theirs by 2050

Robot makers say World Cup will be theirs by 2050
A Japanese consortium of robotics experts has thrown down the gauntlet to future players of the beautiful game by claiming their engineered humans will play mankind off the park within 45 years.

Robots playing football during a RoboCup game in Japan.
 Posted by Hello

dinsdag, januari 11, 2005

Robots Help Japan Care For Its Elderly

Robots Help Japan Care For Its Elderly
Borrowing an idea from the auto industry, Japanese nursing homes have begun experimenting with using robots to help care for the elderly.

Toyota to employ robots

Toyota to employ robots
Tokyo - Toyota Motor will introduce robots which can work as well or better than humans at all 12 of its factories in Japan to cut costs and deal with a looming labour shortage as the country ages, a report said on Thursday.

Say hello to Neo the chatterbot!

Chat with Neo

Neo is what they call a verbot/chatterbot with 'whom' you can talk. He/she/it might teach you something new about technology. But, it might also be that Neo starts babbling about me, which might be less entertaining. Mind you, Neo has a mind of its own. Try to speak with him/her/it in clear sentences and off you go. Have fun!

What if you can not tell the difference between the real world and the game?

Wired News: Real World Doesn't Use a Joystick
.. having a difficult time separating real-life consciousness from that of game playing is all too common among hard-core gamers ..

A Video of a 3d Face talking

dagger.mpg (video/mpeg Object)

In the future, when you visit websites, there will be somebody waiting for you..

Smart Chatterbots @ Zabaware

Zabaware - Welcome to Zabaware
It starts with Chatterbot and it ends with AI...

Welcome to the very-near future of gaming.. Posted by Hello

The future of gaming is online

EA’s Future Vision


Warren Jenson, CFO Electronics Arts, recently spoke at the Credit Suisse First Boston Annual Technology Conference, outlining the future direction for the entertainment conglomerate along with providing a sneaky peak of what EA’s vision of the future entails.


Suggesting that online will come of age during the next couple of years and creep up into a feasible revenue stream, Jenson painted a future forecast of subscription revenues and suggesting that every household that contains a next-gen console will essentially become a Wireless HUB. Citing the movement from the bedroom into the living room as the first major maturity of the medium, the progress of High-Definition and Online appears to be major factors for EA’s vision of the future. Continuing with the theme of changing distribution systems, Jenson suggested the possible success of pre-paid cards for online games, a method that was pioneered by the mobile sector and has become popular in the Chinese and Korean videogame territories.

News about MEMS, Nanotechnology and Microsystems

Small Times: News about MEMS, Nanotechnology and Microsystems:

"JAPANESE RESEARCHERS FABRICATE SILVER ATOMIC SWITCH"
Jan. 6 - A group of Japanese researchers has developed a nanodevice called a quantized conductance atomic switch, or QCAS. With its low energy consumption and high-speed operations, coupled with the ease of circuit fabrication, the QCAS can be used to develop microminiature, high-performance computers, they said.

Life, Reinvented

Wired 13.01: Life, Reinvented: "Life, Reinvented "


In January, students at M.I.T. are let off the leash to follow their fancies. The annual monthlong Independent Activities Period is a playground for the mind, offering courses, seminars, and special events devoted to everything from energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy to poetry reading. There's glassblowing, building spacecraft for mice, and the all-important coolest-stuff-made-of-duct-tape competition. "I wish I didn't teach an IAP," says Drew Endy, an assistant professor in biological engineering. "I'd take a whole bunch of the courses."


But Endy does teach an IAP. This year his class is devoted to building counters - devices that count from, say, 1 to 32. That may not sound like much of a challenge for students at the world's most prestigious engineering school; in fact, it's the sort of thing a nerdy middle school kid would solder together. But here's the rub: The counters his students design won't be electronic, but biological. They won't be made of transistors, but DNA. And they won't be inserted into breadboards, but living bacteria.

While Endy is keen on counters at the moment (they might have practical uses; for example, indicating how many times a given cell has divided since the counter was last reset), they're just stepping-stones to a new era in biology. Last year, his students programmed bacteria to form polka-dotted colonies. The year before, they designed microorganisms that blinked like Christmas lights. But the real purpose of the course isn't making a particular biological circuit; it's figuring out what it takes to make any biological circuit.

Nanoscience: opportunities & uncertainties

nanoscience-opportunities-uncertainties.pdf (application/pdf Object)



Nanoscience and nanotechnologies are widely seen as
having huge potential to bring benefits to many areas of
research and application, and are attracting rapidly
increasing investments from Governments and from
businesses in many parts of the world. At the same time,
it is recognised that their application may raise new
challenges in the safety, regulatory or ethical domains
that will require societal debate. In June 2003 the UK
Government therefore commissioned the Royal Society
and the Royal Academy of Engineering to carry out this
independent study into current and future developments
in nanoscience and nanotechnologies and their impacts.
The remit of the study was to:

· define what is meant by nanoscience and nanotechnologies

· summarise the current state of scientific knowledge about nanotechnologies

· identify the specific applications of the new technologies, in particular where nanotechnologies are already in use

· carry out a forward look to see how the technologies might be used in future, where possible estimating the likely timescales in which the most far-reaching applications of the technologies might become reality

· identify what health and safety, environmental, ethical and societal implications or uncertainties may arise from the use of the technologies, both current and future

· entify areas where additional regulation needs to be considered.


Example of 3D Animation Posted by Hello

Samsung launches 5 megapixel cameraphone (Dutch article)

PCM, Personal Computer Magazine: Samsung lanceert 5 megapixel cameratelefoon
Het moet niet gekker worden: een mobiele telefoon waarin een 5 megapixel digitale camera is verwerkt. De Samsung SCH-S250 doet ook dienst als mp3-speler, heeft een tv/video-functie en u kunt er mobiel mee bankieren. Het toestel heeft 92MB geheugen en kan ook tekst omzetten in spraak.


De 5 megapixel cameratelefoon is overigens niet het het voorlopige eindpunt van de ontwikkelingen: de Zuidkoreaanse telecomaanbieder SK Telecom is van plan om eind van het jaar 10 megapixel cameratelefoons op de markt te gaan brengen, die eveneens door Samsung zijn geproduceerd. Of de 5 megapixelmodellen snel in Nederland verkrijgbaar zullen zijn, is niet bekend.

Revealing News (Dutch article)

|| Niburu.nl || Onthullend en Bewustmakend Nieuws

RFID nu in bibliotheken, waar in de toekomst?
Geplaatst op 08.03.2004 om 11:25:31 uur | 1388 bekeken | Techniek | WWW.NIBURU.NL | print

RFID-chips zijn zo klein en dun dat zij toegepast kunnen worden op allerlei producten. In de bibliotheek wordt gestudeerd op de mogelijkheid RFID-chips in boeken te plakken. RFID staat voor Radio Frequentie IDentificatie.

RFID labels of -tags zijn etiketten die voorzien zijn van een minuscule antenne en dito chip die op producten worden aangebracht. De werking is te vergelijken met een kleine zender die radiogolven produceert die door een RFID lezer worden gedetecteerd. Zowel de RFID-lezer als het RFID-label zelf kunnen informatie uitwisselen. Omdat de stroomvoorziening gebeurt via inductie hoeft een RFID-label geen batterij te bevatten. Door de aard van de technologie vormt het aanbrengen van labels op magnetische dragers en CD/DVD's geen enkel probleem.

Electronic Arts en Vivendi Universal Games choose Blu-ray (Dutch article)

The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software

The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software:


"Over the past 30 years, CPU designers have achieved performance gains in three main areas, the first two of which focus on straight-line execution flow:

  • clock speed
  • execution optimization
  • cache"

For the near-term future, meaning for the next few years, the performance gains in new chips will be fueled by three main approaches, only one of which is the same as in the past. The near-term future performance growth drivers are:

  • hyperthreading
  • multicore
  • cache

Xbox 2 Hardware Specs Sneak into Web

X-bit labs - Hardware news - Xbox 2 Hardware Specs Sneak into Web


Xbox 2 May Process up to 6 Threads

The Xbox 2’s central processing unit is a custom processor based on PowerPC technology. The CPU includes three independent processors (cores) on a single die. Each core runs at 3.50GHz speed of faster. The Xbox 2 microprocessor can issue two instructions per clock cycle per core. At peak performance, Xenon can issue 21 billion instructions per second.

Smart Dust

Wired 11.06: START: "What Is Smart Dust, Anyway?

Facial-recognition cameras are so 2001 - at least when it comes to stirring up paranoia among privacy hand-wringers. The bogeyman of the moment is smart dust, a network of speck-sized machines that can suss out whether sarin is in the air, enemy troops are around the corner, or the mean temperature on Mars has dropped. Smart-dust particles are designed to float through the air as innocuously as dandelion seeds, gathering and transmitting data in real time."

QRIO - Sony's high-tech entertainment Robot

Sony Dream Robot - QRIO:
"It is the product of cutting edge artificial intelligence and dynamics technology.
An entertainment robot that lives with you, makes life fun, makes you happy.

Its name is QRIO.

QRIO can gather information and move around on its own accord.

QRIO not only walks on two legs, it can also manage uneven surfaces,
dance, recognize people's faces and voices, and carry on conversation.

QRIO is eager to be friends with people."

maandag, januari 10, 2005

Virgin Galactic - commercial flights to space!

Virgin Galactic


27th September 2004

Today at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London's West End, Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan made their announcement to the world's media that Virgin Galactic was now in a position to commence a programme of work that would result in the world's first affordable space tourist flights in 2 to 3 years time.

Sir Richard said: "Virgin has been in talks with Paul Allen and Burt throughout this year and in the early hours of Saturday morning signed a historical deal to license SpaceShipOne's technology to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service."

Nanotechnologists’ new plastic can see in the dark

Infrared-sensitive material five times more efficient converter of solar energy


Imagine a home with “smart” walls responsive to the environment in the room, a digital camera sensitive enough to work in the dark, or clothing with the capacity to turn the sun’s power into electrical energy. Researchers at University of Toronto have invented an infrared-sensitive material that could shortly turn these possibilities into realities.

In a paper to be published on the Nature Materials website Jan. 9, 2005, senior author Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks – Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies at U of T’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team report on their achievement in tailoring matter to harvest the sun’s invisible rays.

“We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size. The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint,” explains Sargent. Then, they tuned the tiny nanocrystals to catch light at very long wavelengths. The result – a sprayable infrared detector.

Professor Peter Peumans of Stanford University, who has reviewed the U of T team’s research, also acknowledges the groundbreaking nature of the work. “Our calculations show that, with further improvements in efficiency, combining infrared and visible photovoltaics could allow up to 30 per cent of the sun’s radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to six per cent in today’s best plastic solar cells.”

Contact:

Professor Edward H. Sargent, Nortel Networks – Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies, (416) 946-5051; e-mail: ted.sargent@utoronto.ca

New plastic can better convert solar energy