http://phys.org/technology-news/hi-tech/ en-us Phys.org Phys.Org provides the latest news on hi-tech, innovation and new inventions technology, computer news and information A high-tech startup is wading into the gun control debate with a cellphone controller that would allow gun owners to know when their weapon is being moved—and disable it remotely. http://phys.org/news288376342.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-21T18:00:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Two tech talents, formerly employees at video game publisher Valve, have been working on their own vision in the form of game-ready glasses. Their company, Technical Illusions, will seek to commercialize their technology, being introduced to gaming fans as castAR, a projected augmented reality (AR) game system. The system features a pair 3-D AR glasses. The two creators are Jeri Ellsworth, former Valve hardware engineer, and programmer Rick Johnson. They belong to a corps of inventors with products designed to delight game players with novel ways to interact with their computers. Ellsworth and Johnson's creation made an appearance at Maker Faire, where they decided to debut their prototype system. http://phys.org/news288356705.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-21T12:30:02-07:00 (Phys.org) —A team of European researchers working at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has created an artificial compound eye that is comparable to those in insects such as the fruit fly. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes how they overcame the problem of accurately aligning photoreceptors and other optical components on a curved surface by using stacked layers of microelectronics. http://phys.org/news288346286.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-21T09:11:45-07:00 Mannequins in riot gear, armoured cars and drones line a police equipment and "anti-terrorism technology" trade fair in Beijing as vendors seek to profit from China's huge internal security budget. http://phys.org/news288173106.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-19T09:40:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Yawn. Two startup visionaries claim they have just the device to replace keyboard and mouse forever and ever. Where have you heard that before. But maybe these two have something important. Meron Gribetz, the startup founder and CEO and Ben Sand, the co-pilot and evangelist, are behind something called the Meta wearable computer headset, which consists of stereoscopic glasses and camera. It's the way computers always should have been: wearable, viewed through both eyes, and directly controlled using the entire arms and hands, according to its founder and CEO Gribetz. The belief is that the future of computing is in this technology that can display information from the real world and control objects with one's fingers, Tony Stark-style, at low latency and high dexterity. Meta founder and CEO Gribetz referred to the technology as the keyboard and mouse of the future. http://phys.org/news288096606.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-18T11:50:38-07:00 Taking pictures with 3D cameras may start catching on thanks to an innovation by Brigham Young University computer scientists and developers at Adobe. http://phys.org/news287998643.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-17T09:10:04-07:00 Google Glass was a common sight as software savants shared visions of games, weather reports, news and more delivered to the Internet-linked eyewear. http://phys.org/news287893685.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-16T04:10:01-07:00 Imagine having a wafer-thin touchscreen on your sleeve which, like a scene out of a Philip K. Dick novel, gives you all the functionality of a smartphone without the awkwardness of a cumbersome battery. http://phys.org/news287827469.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-15T09:30:05-07:00 The drive to decrease the ecological impact of production machines is leading manufactures to focus on novel ways to incorporate energy efficiency in the designing of new products. One answer is the first-ever badminton playing robot - designed to test a software application that optimises energy efficiency in machine design. http://phys.org/news287827612.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-15T09:06:58-07:00 (Phys.org) —Picture-taking is not a comfortable subject for those with vision impairments or who are blind. Having a resume-type photo for an online bio page or sharing a photo of a trip with friends are activities that are not easy to come by for those with impaired vision. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz want to enable people with such problems to independently and successfully use their smartphone cameras to not only take but share photos. They have come up with an application designed to do that. In a previous paper describing their research interest, "Qualitative Study to Support a Blind Photography Mobile Application," Dustin Adams, Lourdes Morales, and Sri Kurniawan said the success of an app of this nature could be successful if they first surveyed people with the vision handicaps they sought to address. http://phys.org/news287684343.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-13T17:40:01-07:00 The mobile telephones of the future will be able to see, shrink while becoming larger, and slip into their users' skins. That terse statement summarizes the recently released results of a thorough look at the next ten to fifteen years of mobile telephony by the Technische Universität Darmstadt's "Future Internet" research cluster. http://phys.org/news287305313.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-09T08:20:03-07:00 (Phys.org) —Many states are using the technology to scan driver's licenses to prevent identity fraud. It led to the arrest of a suspected arsonist in New York. And while facial recognition technology could not identify the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, police used the software in their search. http://phys.org/news287298921.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-09T06:30:01-07:00 A fly factory that transforms blood, guts, manure and discarded food into animal feed has walked away with a $100,000 UN-backed innovation prize. http://phys.org/news287221250.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-08T08:50:05-07:00 (Phys.org) —Marketers partnering with software innovators are thinking up new ways to know customers better, to take the guesswork out of product targeting. Technologies hold out hope that companies will minimize the toll that product duds can take on advertising budgets and name-brands. Eye-tracking is seen as one of the technology tools with potential for selling smart. Where does the consumer look? What catches the most attention? What is that person's viewing behavior? A prototype system introduced at a Paris show this week takes the comment, "Oh, I'm just looking" and turns it into good news for shopkeepers and retail giants. "I'm just looking" customers may reveal how to target brands and, fundamentally, sell. http://phys.org/news286627023.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-01T11:37:23-07:00 Just as people have embraced computers and smart phones, they may also give their blessing to talking tissue boxes and other smart objects, according to Penn State researchers. http://phys.org/news286562978.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-05-01T02:00:01-07:00 Researchers at Queen's University's Human Media Lab have developed a new smartphone – called MorePhone – which can morph its shape to give users a silent yet visual cue of an incoming phone call, text message or email. http://phys.org/news286461002.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-29T13:30:13-07:00 (Phys.org) —The buzz around new happenings at Microsoft stems from two job ads posted last week. The ads reveal that Microsoft means serious business about working on telepresence technology that will enable body doubles, in the next wave of business conference calls. Microsoft seeks two software development engineers, and the job ad wordings reveal Microsoft's research goals: Microsoft plans to deliver a telepresence technology system that can depict a person on the other end of a business conversation. http://phys.org/news286436301.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-29T06:42:45-07:00 Prototype mobile devices that can change shape on-demand will be unveiled today and could lay down the foundation for creating high shape resolution devices of the future. http://phys.org/news286429847.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-29T04:50:58-07:00 (Phys.org) —"Wave goodbye to camera-based gesture control." That is the confident directive coming from a one-year-old Waterloo, Ontario, startup called Thalmic Labs. The company is prepared to ship its next batch of wearable-computing armbands for device controls early next year. The $149 armbands called MYO do not require cameras in order to track hand or arm movements. The armbands can wirelessly control and interact with computers and other digital consumer products by recognizing the electric impulses in users' muscles. http://phys.org/news286350047.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-28T06:41:10-07:00 (Phys.org) —Such a concept: outputting currently-displayed content of a user's digital device to an HMD. But there is an added nuance where the video follows you no matter where you look. LG Electronics filed a patent for its head mounted display that can show you your video content even when you are looking away from your external device. http://phys.org/news286170837.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-26T07:00:01-07:00 Researchers previously have shown that a depth camera system, such as Kinect, can be combined with a projector to turn almost any surface into a touchscreen. But now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated how these touch-based interfaces can be created almost at will, with the wave of a hand. http://phys.org/news286106290.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-25T10:58:21-07:00 (Phys.org) —Indian company Kriyate Design Solutions, headed and run by post-graduate student Sumit Dagar, has built a prototype Braille smartphone that makes use of a type of shape metal alloy to cause pins to raise and lower on a touchscreen—it allows users to read what is being sent using only their fingertips. http://phys.org/news285933597.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-23T11:00:11-07:00 (Phys.org) —What is an Obake? Two definitions have emerged; MIT inventors would enjoy close attention on the newer one. The older definition is that they are creatures in Japanese folklore that shift shapes. The second is an updated, 2013 definition, created in MIT Media Lab quarters. Obake is a highly touchable screen interface that lets you pinch, press, prod, and expand your screen. "What if our screens were elastic?" asks one of the designers, Dhairya Dand. The question that goes with that one is, are you up for a user experience beyond a flat screen? Those are the questions that result from the MIT Media Lab project on a touchscreen interface that can take users into a next-step world of tactile computing. In one of the inventor's words, they provide a new language of interaction. http://phys.org/news285918294.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-23T06:45:06-07:00 Israel's air force is on track to developing drones that within four to five decades would carry out nearly every battlefield operation executed today by piloted aircraft, a high-ranking Israeli officer told The Associated Press Sunday. http://phys.org/news285783510.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-21T17:30:01-07:00 (Phys.org) —Audi, along with several U.S. universities, has been studying what contributes to road accidents, what can avert accidents, and the right technology systems that can keep drivers on track. According to reports, the driver team members working on next-generation technology for drivers studied accident statistics in numerous categories in working out their solution. Audi is talking about its system that combines hardware and software for better driving results. The solution is tagged Audi Urban Intelligent Assist. Key features include predictive data and a more human-based type of GPS navigation that draws on landmarks. Information on the system was made known recently at the GPU Technology Conference in March. Audi engineers are testing the system features, according to The Register. http://phys.org/news285570939.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-19T06:15:57-07:00 A British firm has unveiled a sat-nav system that warns lorry drivers when they are approaching roads where they are at high risk of hitting a cyclist. http://phys.org/news285499215.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-18T10:20:29-07:00 Bayer Leverkusen, who are on course to return to the Champions League next season, unveiled plans on Tuesday to turn their ground into a high-tech friendly "Stadium of the Future" for football fans. http://phys.org/news285430226.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-17T15:10:34-07:00 (Phys.org) —The research team of Antti Oulasvirta at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics has created a new keyboard called KALQ that enables faster thumb-typing on touchscreen devices. They used computational optimization techniques in conjunction with a model of thumb movement to search among millions of potential layouts before identifying one that yields superior performance. A user study confirmed that, after a short amount of practice, users could type 34% faster than they could with a QWERTY layout. http://phys.org/news285408643.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-17T09:11:08-07:00 A new way for families to stay close to independent elders that blends modern technology with old fashioned parcel post debuted on crowd-funding website Kickstarter Tuesday. http://phys.org/news285349888.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-16T16:51:47-07:00 (Phys.org) —Fujitsu Laboratories has unveiled a new twist in touch-screen technology—an overhead projector/camera device that turns printed pages into interactive media. Called the Fingerlink Interaction System, it lets users highlight text or images using a single finger then drag them to one side for future use; tap on web-links and have web pages open, or use their fist to animate virtual 3D objects. http://phys.org/news285325647.html Technology - Hi Tech & Innovation 2013-04-16T10:20:01-07:00