NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Plastic Could (Finally) Replace Glass

Everyone loves a good touch screen -- until it drops and gets cracked. The only other material that was feasible for them was plastic, but there wasn’t one that was strong and hard enough, until now.

Dai Nippon Printing, of Japan, unveiled a plastic that resists scratching as well as glass does and has the added bonus of being flexible. It would replace the glass covers that currently grace the fronts of smartphones.

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The display cover is actually comprised of separate layers: one is the resin that gives the display cover its hardness, while the other protects it from fingerprints. The company didn’t go into details about the composition of the plastic in its press release.

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How hard is the display? According to the company it has a “pencil hardness” of 9H, which means that a 9H pencil has a tough time scratching it; that’s comparable to many ceramics and enamels.

DNP also tested steel wool on it with a pressure of 7 pounds per square inch (500 grams per square centimeter) and found it still didn’t scratch after 200 scrapes.

Paper Makes Touch Screen Displays

Hardness is only one part of it, though. The fact that it's plastic means that it's slightly flexible, and that in turn means it won’t shatter when dropped. Any smartphone  owner will appreciate that. Plastic is also lighter than the same volume of glass.

On top of all that, the flexibility allows a bendy display.

DNP has said they will be shipping samples in the first part of 2013, so it isn’t clear if any smartphone makers have signed on. But anything that makes un-crackable touch screens is a welcome development for the butterfingered among us.

Credit: Dai Nippon Printing

Via TechOn, Dai Nippon Printing (In Japanese)

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Drone Missile Kills Electronics, Not People

As modern warfare continues to be fought behind key boards and monitors, last week Boeing successfully tested a missile capable of making screens go blank. Boeing says their Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project known as CHAMP may one day change modern warfare by knocking out electronic targets with little or no collateral damage.

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Here's how Boeing described the event:

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CHAMP approached its first target and fired a burst of High Power Microwaves at a two story building built on the test range. Inside rows of personal computers and electrical systems were turned on to gauge the effects of the powerful radio waves.

Seconds later the PC monitors went dark and cheers erupted in the conference room. CHAMP had successfully knocked out the computer and electrical systems in the target building. Even the television cameras set up to record the test were knocked off line without collateral damage.

In one hour, seven test-range targets were hit and all electronics inside the buildings were degraded and defeated.

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"This technology marks a new era in modern-day warfare," said Keith Coleman, CHAMP program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. "In the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy's electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive."

So, uh, al Qaeda, you know those Sexy Tanja videos you like to make and watch in your free time? Heads up.

via io9

Credit: Boeing

 

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Cassettes Coming Back In a New Way

Cassette tapes are dead. Long live cassette tapes! The music staple of the late 20th century is making a comeback in the form of big data storage. That's right, kids, the same thing that made the mix tape possible in the 80s could hold tomorrow's pictures and mp3 files.

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Fuji Film and IBM have created a prototype cassette measuring 4x4x1 inches that can hold up to 35 terabytes of information, or about 8,750,000 songs. The data is stored on a strip of magnetic tape made from particles of barium ferrite. But don't bust out your "Saved By the Bell" torrents to save them on tape just yet. As of right now, the cassettes are being developed for big data storage use only, i.e. server farms.

The cassettes are actually the opening act for the new computer from IBM called the Square Kilometer Array telescope. When it's finished in 2024, this radio telescope will be the world's largest, able to push out one petabyte of data per day, or about 1 million gigabytes. When news came out earlier this year about IBM developing this super-data pusher, they mentioned "next-generation tape systems" as a storage method. Who knew the next generation would have such a familiar face?

via New Scientist

Credit: Lawrence Manning/Corbis

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Internet Pirates: Your Days Are Numbered

Lend me thine ears ye scurvy pirates pillaging the World Wide Web, a vigilant armada will soon be on thy trail. By year's end, the nation's major Internet service providers will launch a six-strikes-an-you're-out initiative that may put a damper on your plundering days of wide-spread downloading.

The "Copyright Alert System" strategy (CAS), backed by the Obama administration, Hollywood and major record labels, aims to disrupt and potentially terminate Internet access for those who continually infringe upon copyright laws.

The program, which monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing services, includes participation by AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.

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First offenders will receive an email alert from their Internet service provider saying their account may have been misused for online piracy. After a second offense, the alert could contain an educational message about online copyright laws.

After the third and fourth strikes, users could receive a pop-up notice "asking the subscriber to acknowledge receipt of the alert."

After four alerts, the warnings stop and the real punishments come to the surface...kind of.

The CAS program calls these "mitigation measures," which could include "temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures (as specified in published policies) that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter."

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Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights group Public Knowledge, and an adviser to the Center for Copyright Information, the group behind the program, told Wired that offenders won't be penalized each time an infringement is detected.

"Each strike is not one infringement," Sohn said. "Each strike is dozens or scores or hundreds of infringements."

Considering that, after the first infringement is detected, strikes will only be counted every seven days and that there's a grace period between each alert, this dragnet sounds like it has some pretty big holes for occasional pirates to easily slip through.

Forgive my skepticism, but '600-strikes and you're out' seems like a long leash, not to mention a very passive-aggressive way to project authority.

via Wired

Credit: Images.com/Corbis

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The Computerized Sex Life Of A Cow

When I woke up this morning, defrosted bull semen was the last thing I thought I'd be pondering today. Going out on a limb here, but I'm willing to bet the same goes for you too.

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However, here we are, at the threshold. So let's say you and I take a jaunty stroll through the magical world of bovine artificial insemination, shall we?

When it comes to coitus uninterruptus, save for those of the more oblivious and introverted persuasion, we humans are pretty quick at picking up on the kind of signals that lead to the bedroom. But when it comes to telling whether or not a cow is in heat, as to be expected, we're somewhat less fluent in that language of love.

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Rather than get lost in translation, German dairy farmer, Joseph Wintjens, equips his cows with a sex sensor called Heatime. The small box attaches to the collar and measures the cow's temperature twice a day, then sends the data to a computer.

"Often the period between a cow displaying her heat symptoms and ovulating is actually quite small," professor Karl Schellander told DW. Schellander heads the department of animal husbandry at the University of Bonn.

Just like us, when a cow is feeling frisky, its temperature rises. When Wintjens sees this on his computer screen, he knows there's only one thing left to do: dim the lights, turn on some Lovage and defrost some bull semen. Okay, he probably doesn't dim the lights or turn on Lovage, but by golly he sure does get up close and personal with his herd.

Because I have dutifully taken the time to learn about bovine artificial insemination today, so are you. First thing farmer Wintjens does is lube up his arm, which is wrapped in a plastic glove. Again, not too far removed from the precautionary measures that precede some of our own intimate moments.

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If you ever catch yourself thinking, "Man, I hate my job," consider this: At least you don't have to stick your arm up a cow's butt. And I do mean arm, as in elbow-deep, because that's how you inseminate a cow. The farmer enters rectally to manipulate the cervix, while the other hand uses a long syringe to inseminate the uterus via the cow's vagina. Bet that unpaid overtime your boss just asked you to work doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

"Well, yes, of course, there are nicer things than digging around in excrement, but someone has to do it," Wintjens said.

via DW

Credit: Lillian Patz/Design Pics/Corbis

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A 3-D Display Made Of Bubbles

The surface of a bubble is a beautiful display of light and movement. Now displays may be made of bubbles.

Created by a research team from three universities -- Carnegie Mellon, the University of Tokyo and University of Tsukuba -- the bubble displays could be used to make three-dimensional images and duplicate the "look" of textures more realistically than current flat screen technology.

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The bubble displays are made from a mixture of water, sugar, glycerin, soap, a surfactant and milk -- a combination known as a colloidal liquid.

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The scientists used this odd-sounding brew because colloidal liquids make membranes strong enough that they don't pop like soap bubbles do. It's even possible to pass an object through them. Colloidal liquids also show the Tyndall Effect, which refers to the way that some wavelengths of light get scattered more than others, giving bubbles their opalescence.

To make the images, the researchers used ultrasonic sound waves, which change the perfectly smooth surface of the liquid membrane from transparent to reflective or opaque. The control is fine enough that one can change the properties of small parts of the membrane, and thus get an image.

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Using two membranes creates three-dimensional images, and moving the ultrasonic speaker can change the position of the image on the membrane. This kind of display might one day be used in big presentations, holographic displays for medical imaging or even on phones. The team plans to present its work at SIGGRAPH in August.

via Yoichi Ochiai Design Works

Credit: Yoichi Ochiai Design Works

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Apple's WWDC News: iOS Hits The Road

Apple is finally yanking the map out of Google's hands. That's the headline news of the keynote opening Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco: the replacement of the aging, increasingly-uncompetitive Google-based Maps app in the upcoming iOS 6 with an Apple-exclusive program.

But to me, the new maps app isn't the most important change revealed at WWDC (beyond those listed below, others included the arrival of a thin but expensive MacBook Pro laptop with an ultra-high-resolution Retina Display to match the new iPad and the ability to move a browsing session from one copy of Safari to another through Apple's iCloud Web service). It's more like the fifth-most important. Here's what tops it:

1. "Eyes Free" mode. When it ships sometime this fall, iOS 6 (a free upgrade for the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the current iPod touch, the iPad 2 and the new iPad) will allow some drivers to request directions and hear and respond to text messages without even looking at the screens of their phones, much less touching them. They will need an upcoming vehicle from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes or Toyota with a "Siri button" on the wheel, but this still sets an important precedent. It's also a smarter response to distracted driving than trying to ban all phone use by drivers.

2. Facebook integration. The social network will be even more tightly integrated in iOS 6 than Twitter is in iOS 5, including automatically synchronizing Facebook events and contacts. (Many Android phones include a similar feature). The same integration is coming to Mountain Lion, a new version of OS X coming in July for $19.99. In the keynote, Apple bragged that Twitter's presence in iOS 5 has led to 47 percent of the photos shared on that service coming from iOS devices; imagine what this sort of Facebook tie-in might yield.

3. Passbook. This new iOS 6 app will collect electronic versions of shopper-loyalty cards, tickets and boarding passes, bringing up the right one automatically on an iPhone's lock screen when it detects it's at a relevant location. If enough vendors and merchants support this feature, this will insert Apple into the middle of an enormous number of transactions. And what if an upcoming version of the iPhone also supports mobile payments with an NFC chip? Let the rumor-mongering begin!

4. Notifications in Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion will copy a feature in iOS 5 (which in turn copied one from Android) by allowing background applications to request a user's attention in compact banners that scroll down from the top-right corner of the screen. (That, in turn, reminds me of a feature I appreciated in the Ubuntu version of Linux two years ago.) This should make Mountain Lion a less cluttered place for its users. It also seems a more sensible borrowing from Apple's mobile efforts than the interface elements Apple crudely transplanted into Lion, most of which I've since disabled.

5. Maps. The maps-and-directions program in iOS 6 looks uncommonly beautiful, with an eye-catching "flyover" mode that lets you soar over a rendered version of many major cities. On a more practical note, it will provide turn-by-turn directions that factor in traffic delays, include Yelp ratings of nearby establishments and let you book OpenTable restaurant reservations. But there's no word of an offline mode to match what Google says it's bringing to the Android version of Google Maps. And this app apparently won't offer walking, bicycling or transit directions, areas that I've found Google's app excels in. (Update, 6/13/2012: Grist's Philip Bump confirmed that it does provide walking navigation.) Apple says it will present third-party apps providing those services in Maps, but that's not as elegant. And elegance, as you may have heard, is kind of a big deal at Apple.

Images via Apple PR

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Largest Flexible Display Debuts

The largest flexible color display is making its debut, showing that it's possible to make screens that are more durable than glass in sizes practical for any computing device. The project was part of a mandate from the U.S. Department of Defense to build a display that could flex and show color video while withstanding tough, battlefield conditions.

The display, built by the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University, is called an organic light emitting display, or OLED. It uses a more advanced version of the thin film transistor technology that people see in cellphones and televisions. It's 7.4 inches across, about the size of a Blackberry Playbook.

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The use of mixed oxides is key. Most liquid crystal displays (LCDs) use a form of silicon, which doesn't bend easily without distorting or breaking. The mixed oxides can be bent and they don't need exotic manufacturing techniques. That's important as factories that build TFT displays are expensive -- there are only a few in the world.

It's also been difficult for companies to commercialize flexible-display technology. One attempt, the Que e-reader, from Mountain View, Calif.-based Plastic Logic, was unveiled in 2010. But it was later cancelled.

The Flexible Display Center will be showing off the new display at the Society for Information Display conference in Boston from June 5-7.

Credit: Jann Kaminski, ASU

via Arizona State University

 

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Future Eye-tracking Systems Will Read Your Mind

The eyes are the window to the soul, so says the old adage. And for companies developing eye-tracking technology, they're becoming the ultimate Peeping Toms.

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Front-facing cameras are certain to become standard on all devices, and they'll be equipped to not only monitor what we read online, but how we read it. They'll watch how long you linger on a word or image, how your pupils dilate, how fast you blink. Why? Because those details provide a wealth of important information about their favorite customer: you. And that means big bucks for them in terms of advertising revenue.

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Slate's John Villasenor recently ruminated on this very subject:

"Did our eyes linger for a few seconds on an advertisement that, in the end, we decided not to click on? How do our eyes move as they take in the contents of a page? Are there certain words, phrases, or topics that we appear to prefer or avoid? In the future, will we be served online ads based not only on what we’ve shopped for, but also on the thoughts reflected in our eye movements?"

Of course, the bodhisattva pacesetters of modern technology at Apple have already filed a patent application for a 3-D eye-tracking graphical user interface for personal electronic devices like the iPhone and iPad. And European company Senseye is slated to have eye-tracking software built into its smartphones next year.

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While most contemporary computers and personal electronic devices aren't powerful enough to accommodate the complex computations that are required for eye-tracking software, it's only a matter of time before they are.

Villasenor put a nicely placed "cherry on top" at the end of his post when he wrote the following:

"Today, when we read something online, our thoughts are still our own. We should enjoy it while it lasts."

via Slate

Credit: George Doyle / Getty Images

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Fossilize Your E-Waste Into An Epoxy Stool

Still have one of those outdated candy-colored iMac G3's collecting dust in your garage? Or how about that cardboard box of cumbersome keyboards, floppy disks and dial-up modems you have in the attic?

Still not sure what to do with all your electronic flotsam and jetsam? Well, the conscious thing to do would be to dispose of it properly. Or better yet, if it still has a few years left, you can donate it and have these people show you where it ends up.

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But if you're the quirky kind and bulky, gauche furniture is your thing, you can always fossilize your E-junk into a stool.

Helping you achieve this is graphic artist and designer, Rodrigo Alonso. His new sculpture-installation-cum-functional-piece-of-furniture is called N+ew: No More Electronic Waste. These "stools" are basically composed of discarded hardware such as circuit boards, mice, cables and any other computer innards you can image that are dumped into a mold and then filled with clear epoxy resin.

Once it has hardened and been polished, what you have is the equivalent to all your defunct electronics being preserved into an ice cube big enough to sit on.

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While encasing your electronic relics in gallons of expensive epoxy resin may not be the most economical or environmentally friendly option for disposal, I'll admit I wouldn't mind plopping my keister down on one of these stools while I surf the web.

[Via Gizmodo]

Credit: Rodrigo Alonso

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