Sunday, July 15, 2007

Cool Lab research (from PCMag.com)

PLURIBUS (HP labs)

Get an ordinary PC workstation, an together with a camera, and some ingenious C code. You can then gather up to twelve projectors and create one image. If you are able to gather the twelve projectors, you can have a cinema experience at home much bigger than any existing home cinema. (the camera and the software adjust each projector so they all fit together)

SOAP (Microsoft research)

A mouse that works cordless, and FLOORLESS!! It doesn't need any sort of flat surface to work it works on the air (think something similar to WII's interface), it's a midair mouse! By the way check the story about the first prototype:

"Baudisch built his original prototype using an optical mouse he found lying around the lab and a few household items he picked up from a local RiteAid. He simply pried open his pointing device, pulled out the innards, and remounted them inside an empty bottle of hand sanitizer. Yes, an empty bottle of hand sanitizer—something that was transparent and would easily rotate inside his fabric hull. Once he pulled the hull around the bottle—and slipped some lubricant between the two—he had a mouse that worked in midair"

Topological quantum computing (Bell labs)

A new attempt at building quantum computing, too complex for me to understand so here's the quote with the basics: "n the simplest of terms, Bell researchers are tying quantum systems into knots. "In very exotic circumstances, such as very low temperature and high magnetic field, we're essentially grabbing onto the particles and moving them around each other, forming knots in what we call the space-time path," Simon explains. "If you can form the right knot, you can do the right quantum computation."

Content-Centric Networking, or CCN (PARC)

Problem: Today if you need a piece of data from the net you almost always have to get to the server that holds whatever you are looking for. If together with you there's a bunch of other people getting to the same server at the same time, everybody gets stuck.

Solution: instead of your computing looking for a specific server that has the data you are looking for, your computer we'll look directly for the data itself. So instead of everybody looking for the one server, the computers if other networked computers have the piece of data you are looking for. So if you are looking for a New York Timfroes article, your computer can get it from any computer that has the article instead of going to the NYT server

And in the coming future, check it out:

Milestones of the Future
Want a list of all the groundbreaking technologies due over the next decade? Tough luck. We've got neither the time nor the space. But we can give you the milestones—the 13 technologies guaranteed to change the world between now and 2020.

Summer 2007
The Real Quad-Core
AMD releases the first single-chip quad-core CPU. Code-named Barcelona, it promises 20 to 50 percent better performance than the competing multichip design from you-know-who.

Late 2007
Hello, OLED
Sony introduces the first OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television. It's too small and too expensive for mass consumption, but early adopters love its 3mm profile and 1,000,000-to-1 contrast ratio.

2008
Like Wi-Fi—but Everywhere
Carriers launch the first WiMAX services in the U.S., giving major metro areas wireless access that rivals the speeds of Wi-Fi. The difference? No more hot spots. It's everywhere you go.

2008
Eight-Core and More
Intel unveils an eight-core processor and completely revamps its Core architecture, moving the memory controller and graphics circuitry from distinct chipsets onto the CPU itself.

2010
So Long, Laser Printer
The first Memjet ink-based printers hit the market, delivering 60 pages per minute at a reasonable cost per page. The trick: multiple print heads that span the entire width of the paper you're printing on.

2010
The High-Def DVR
Seagate releases a 3.5-inch hard drive that stores 3 terabytes of data. That's 3,000 gigabytes. We're talking about a digital video recorder that records nothing but high-def video.

2011
Can You Say 4G?
Fourth-generation cellular networks debut in the United States. The LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard doubles the throughput of 3G networks, offering 3 to 4 Mbps to real-world users.

2011
Chips Go Optical
IBM perfects a chip for mainframes and other high-end machines that uses optical connections instead of copper. Moving photons instead of electrons improves data transfer speeds eightfold.

2015
A Cure for Jersey Drivers
The first cars equipped with Motorola's MotoDrive technology roll off the assembly line. Able to calculate their speed and position relative to other vehicles, these cars can automatically avoid accidents.

2016
HDTV Is Obsolete
Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) debuts with a resolution of 7,680-by-4,320 and 22 speakers of surround sound, dwarfing today's HDTVs, which top out at 1,920-by-1,080.

2016
Power Off, Memory On
Manufacturers use carbon nanotubes to offer NRAM (nonvolatile random-access memory). Unlike today's SDRAM and flash memory technologies, it can hold information even when you lose power.

2019
Wash 'N' Wear iPods
Flexible, washable OLED screens hit the market. That means laptops that roll up like place mats—not to mention smartphone and music-player displays built right into your clothing.

2020
Offices Everywhere
Wall-sized displays made of low-power polymers and improved video-conferencing technologies let groups of home-based workers interact as if they were sitting face to face.


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