Category: Media Evolution

This 22” monitor of Philips, Brilliance 225P1ES, has an integrated PowerSensor which basically takes the form of a infrared sensor that detect when you’re seated before the Brilliance 225P1ES or you just have walked away. As soon as you are away, it will step in to reduce the display’s brightness which will see up to a 50% reduction in power usage.

Although evevything seems to about energy saving these days, the underlying trend is much more fundamental: screens are now being equipped with sensors which will allow them to know whether there is sitting someone in front of them. Next, they’ll distinguish humans from dogs and cats and soon after they’ll recognize individuals and give only certain persons access to certain areas. The textual password codes of today, are evolving into ‘gesturing in the air’ tomorrow.

It’s not about our planet, it’s about our experience and the dialogue between brands and individuals. And a dialogue starts with recognition.

Fujitsu announced the start of consumer sales in Japan of the world’s first color e-paper mobile terminal, FLEPia, through Fujitsu Frontech’s online store “FrontechDirect”. FLEPia is the first ever mobile information terminal to feature color electronic paper (color e-paper). In addition to being lightweight and thin, the color e-paper mobile terminal features an easy-to-view 8-inch display screen capable of showing up to 260,000 colors in high-definition, in addition to being equipped with Bluetooth and high-speed wireless LAN.

SPRXmobile has launched the world’s first augmented reality browser for mobile phones names Layar. Layar adds realtime digital information on top of the real world seen through a mobile device’s camera. It does not need any use of recognition through images or other objects. Instead it locates it’s position through a combination of camera, compass and GPS.

Google has implemented semi-3D “Smart Navigation,” which makes your virtual walking a lot easier. Your cursor is mapped on a rough 3D model of the scene, with a convincing sense of depth. Just click where you want to go, and Street View takes you there, making the transition with an unexpectedly convincing pseudo-3D effect.

It also works for off-road sights, like storefronts or distant scenery. These items are mapped as well, so if you lead your cursor to, say, the front door of your house, Street View will automatically take you to the best possible viewpoint. The above video explains it all pretty well.

Microsoft's Project Natal is the first game console without a controller. The system has a 3D camera that maps the exacts position of your hands, your fingers, your feet, your header, your nose, everything in a 3D map. This allows you to control the game with only your body, in great detail, and no controller needed. Furthermore, it recognises voice and faces and supports complex video chat.

Steven Spielberg: . "This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games"

The company PittPatt has face mined the TV series Star Trek. Specifically, they applied algorithms in face detection, face tracking and face recognition to 67 Star Trek episodes over three seasons. This process automatically extracts all visible face tracks, and clusters these into a small number of same-person groupings. Currently, PittPatt recognize frontal or near-frontal tracks. In the near future, we will extend our results to non-frontal tracks as well.

Fleshbot discovered that Jess of UndressJess just started recording her Camgirl videos in 3D, allowing her viewers to get the sense that she's actually sticking out of their monitors a slightly bit. Using a fancy little Minoru webcam, she's started recording some of her videos.

Google Voice, is an alternative call apllication to run on smart phones or other devices. Google Voice is now about to hit iPhones by way of an app. This app for the iPhone has immediately access to your contacts.

Here is how it works: you don't press you regular 'Phone' application, but you select your Google Voice button. You just dial a number or select it from your contacts, as you would do in your regular phone application. The App diales out to Google and you' be a called back to connect both sides and you press the Green button. In this way, you do not only skip the standard fees charged to you by your operator, it will also allow you to maintain your calls from any other smartphone or devices. It actually disconnects your telephone number from your device. Additionally, you can also SMS people the same way.

The DaVince Si Surgical system is world’s only robotic surgical system with 3D HD vision. It has two separate HD optical channels that merge for highly accurate depth perception and a lightweight camera head features buttons for focus control, automated scope setup and illuminator control directly form the camera head.

This simply shows us the future of virtual worlds in our living room: we won’t be able to understand what the real world impact is of our behaviour in the virtual world. That will be a challenge for the next decade.

The French magazine Amusement n°4 is equipped with an RFID tag connecting it to the web and access additional exclusive content online. How does it work? An RFID tag is fixed in the middle of page 2 of the magazine. As soon as the reader touches the magazine's tag to the RFID Mir:ror scanner (see video), which trigger certain actions or have certain digital applications appear.

Tanita's BC-1000 Body Composition Monitor is a sophisticated scale, collecting measurements on muscle mass, overall physique, daily caloric intake, metabolic age, bone mass and visceral fat. From there, the unit can either send those details wireless to your watch, or it can beam them to any PC. The device will be shipped for $279.99 with a USB stick or $399.99 with an FR60 watch.

The Ondus Digitecture by Grohe is a slim, wall-mounted panel that adds a futuristic dimension to your bathroom. The newest addition to the award-winning Grohe Ondus Digital Faucet Collection, the Digitecture, includes temperature control, touchpad operation, an attractive faucet, and holders for soap and cups, all in one place.

In the next step our taps will be the media panels. We’ll instruct them for the experience we want and they’ll adjust not only the water and the soap, but also the light, the odor, the music, and match the bubbles to our mood, as this is measured too. The interesting thing comes when we can also visit a hotel bath in a foreign country and our health coaching brand recognizes us and continues our bathing experience in a total different atmosphere. It never seems to stop…

China web 2.0: Baidu, the large Chinese competitor of Google, has launched its Alading platform, which is to track the dark web. There’s lots of data on the web, which is not in form of web page, mainly those dynamic content. Users usually get those content by submitting a form query. Search engine sometimes can index dynamic links to retrieve some data, but there’s no way to fully understand them.

Here’s where Alading platform comes into place. If you have some definite data, which is always up to date and publicly accessible, you can submit it to Alading.

Click and fly in 3D over the active audience in video! By YellowBirds.