Since the age of the double-wide ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), a morbidly obese monstrosity powered by unreliable vacuum tubes, electronic engineers have performed liposuction after liposuction to reach a point where toddlers can “Tickle Me Elmo.”

As in the fashion world, however, computers just can’t be too thin or too supercharged.

Hewlett Packard Co., which profits heavily on the sale of tiny printer cartridges that eject just enough ink to keep Grandma’s picture from becoming smudged,  has turned its attention on a new technology that redefines the words “thin” and “powerful.”

The HP research may soon produce tiny microchips that fit eight times the number of transistors now packed on a tiny processor.  The technology overcomes the problem of overheating — a long-time barrier to processor evolution for chips packed in at nanometer proportions.  Best of all, the resulting processor uses a fraction of the electricity now required to power all manner of processes. 

Hopefully, this trend won’t seep over into the fashion world.  Somehow, the sight of twenty-pound supermodels walking down the runway at 100 miles-per-hour, while balancing 500-pound weights, doesn’t do much for me.

Posted by Barbara.

For the Apple faithful gathering at MacWorld— in the shadow of the Consumer Electronics Show this week — what happens in San Francisco may be doomed to stay in San Francisco.  Unless of course there is an introduction of a high definition I-Pod that makes phone calls, acts as a fuel cell for hybrid cars, and remotely moves the toilet seat down.

Rumors have circulated for months that Apple will introduce a version of I-Pod that has at least one of those functions.  Apple also may introduce its “i-TV” product that serves as an independent bridge for downloaded movies that can be played on a home TV.  I-TV reportedly will include a hard drive that stores movies downloaded from a Mac or PC  and played with “the ease of a DVR…”

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, who is currently under a stock option cloud, is expected to make an announcement Tuesday to introduce a new generation of Apple products.  Unlike some of its competitors, Apple typically ships products introduced at MacWorld within hours of a Jobs address at MacWorld. 

If the toilet seat descender is introduced, I will be first in line at my local Apple store.

Posted by Barbara.

I always looked at the Consumer Electronics Show as my own “secret garden” of toys.  After all, it began in the year I graduated from high school and its winter showcase is held annually in the week of my birthday.  Most importantly, its endless halls and corridors are filled with the passion fruit of my life — few of which I can justify buying for myself. 
This year’s 40^th edition opens Sunday evening in Las Vegas without me.  However, Oliver, my partner in this space, will be there to bring you all the latest developments. f you haven’t got a reservation in Las Vegas, forget about it.  The more than 150,000 folks that will gather to watch the harmonic convergence of personal computers, televisions and the cinematic experience will be jamming Las Vegas elevators to approach host suites, endless free buffet lunches and handshakes from the next generation of Japanese robots.  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.  I haven’t done it since 1987, when there were few cell phones outside the display area, and laser discs had started threatening the future of VHS. 

Bill Gates, as usual will keynote the show when it opens Sunday evening.  He didn’t speak at the 1987 show that I attended.  Microsoft had just gone public, and its eyes were focused on what seemed like a trade secret: Windows 2.1.  It would be another two years before the PC hardware manufacturers displaying at the Las Vegas Convention Center — and developers working on Windows 3.0 — would make Windows a viable product. 

Professionally, I was looking primarily at computer hardware for the three PC-related magazines I represented.  Personally, however, I watched fascinated by advances in compact disc technology (imagine being able to carry the compact disc sound anywhere like a Walkman!) and the home theater experience of the latest laser disk systems.  Did Movie theaters have a future?

This year, of course, the trend of bigger, better, a biorhythmic home entertainment system advances to new levels.  High definition will be the name of the game in television, personal computer monitors and DVD players.   Much of what is said here will be forgotten, just as it was in 1987.  The future is certainly in high definition.  But like every preceding technology, the future is yet to be defined for sure.

Posted by Barbara.

Remember the good ol’ days when your car ruled the road?

At last, vehicle technology will rule the roads over drunk drivers, if Toyota has its way. The world’s second largest car maker is reportedly creating a detection system in new cars beginning in 2009 that will forbid drivers with a certain amount of alcohol in their systems from taking control.  It can also detect a build-up of alcohol in the system that will stop the car if it measures  excessive alcohol consumption.

The technology includes a breathalyzer, a camera that detects loss of focus in the pupils, and a steering mechanism that senses abnormal steering. The system is reportedly more advanced than the security locks imposed upon some drunken drivers by US courts. 

The anti-drunk driving detection system has become an increasingly popular enforcement system against repeat offenders who build up a series of convictions.  There is no immediate word whether Toyota plans to sell its system as a voluntary option or as standard equipment.  Toyota is expected to announce details surrounding the new system this week.

Now, if only Toyota could create technology that prevents a sober driver from acting like an idiot behind the wheel...

Posted by Barbara.

You may remember back in October, UK and Japanese research scientists made a big splash when they revealed that not only had they solved the math behind building a real invisibility cloak...they'd actually gone and built a partial prototype. The math behind this obviously wasn't as flashy as the prototype, but for those who like numbers it was certainly exciting. Now some theorists have created more math that describes the behavior of what's going on inside an working invisibility cloak and their explanations show that the technology should also be able to hide even actively light-radiating objects like a flashlight or cell phone. A good read, but probably fun for physicists only.

 

Gonna be a whole new world for burglar detection.

 

(via Digg)

 

Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then…

Today, at a San Francisco news conference,  in a place where even gadget geeks fear to tread,  your IPod Nano just became obsolete. 

So did your laptop.

Imagine a flash “phase change” memory chip that can retain memory without constant electrical charge and makes today’s bite-sized chips seem as bulky as a vacuum tube.  A collaboration among IBM, Macronix and Qimonda  scientists demonstrated a prototype phase-change memory device at an IEEE meeting in San Francisco.  The new alloy material at the root of the chip switches more than 500 times faster than flash while using less than one-half the power to write data into a cell. At this point, there is no estimate on when the first real-time applications of the new chips will be developed.

What this means is that you might ultimately host several I-Tunes stores on your MP3 player, and you can take your laptop with you on that July spelunking trip through Death Valley a few years from now — without worrying about overheating or exploding batteries.

In the meantime, you might want to take your Nano to an antique store for appraisal.

Posted by Barbara

 

Those of us who chose to go a little more upscale in our overnight accommodations after going eyeball to eyeball with a cockroach somewhere in East Texas will be amazed at the Hotel of Tomorrow. 

This futuristic concept is  a combination of some old Jack Lemon and Dean Martin morning-after visuals and Star Trek technology.   Not only is there electricity in the air, it surrounds you on the walls and floors, making wires and wall sockets obsolete.  Presumably, the charge you feel will be from the environmental conditioning system that makes the ambiance ideal — as measured from your first step into the room.  

The room is filled with gadgets from the room selection device that can conceptually put you in the room as you make your reservation, to the bed that withdraws into a bathtub and shower.  Imagine waking up to a cold shower in the morning. 

The Hotel of Tomorrow is not somebody’s wild and crazy idea of future hospitality.  It is a working project by Hospitality Design magazine and Gettys, a Chicago-based design firm. 

Call me a fatalist, but I have the feeling that cockroach in East Texas will still be able to check in to this new environment. 

Posted by Barbara

Bring on the Wi-Fi! Who needs peanuts and Crackerjacks?

Silicon Valley’s new home for the Oakland Athletics will apparently show off more than a baseball team.  Cisco Field in Fremont, California is cleverly designed to draw gadget fans away from their Xboxes and high-definition TV when it opens in three to five years.

Early press reports note that the facility sponsored by the world’s Wi-Fi leader will be the most technically advanced sports stadium anywhere, including wizardry such as “handheld devices to watch instant replays, order food and beverages, communicate with friends, and keep score.” 

Does it mean the A’s will be a better baseball team? 

Apparently, some of this technology is already present in the new Busch Field, home of the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Posted by Barbara

An extended finger is probably the last thing the cafeteria lady wants to see when a child pushes his tuna wiggle through the line.  But at West End Elementary School in Rome, Georgia, every student is expected to raise their index finger as they pass the cashier. 

In the first test of a biometric system at the elementary school level, the system captures the fingerprint of mere four-year-olds (as well as older kids) and deducts the price of lunch from a prepaid account.  A human monitor behind the counter is left only to determine the accurate amount of food on the plate. 

When the four-year-olds grow up, chances are their biometric impressions will open more than the cafeteria line.  Their identity will be an open door, unless of course they turn to a life of crime.  In that case, few doors will be open to them.

Still, only 35 parents of students have opted out of the program on behalf of their students.

Posted by Barbara

Those of us who grew up with the Jetsons’ cartoon series back in the 1960’s  figured that we would be commuting with jet packs and other aerial transit at this point in our lives.

Who knew that the future promised by the Jetsons was about as accurate as the stone-age set of the Flintstones

According to the authors of a new coffee table tome, we should have seen it coming.
Eric and Jonathan Dregni have put together an admonishment for futurists in Follies of Science: 20^th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future that remind us that what’s good for corporate barons is not necessarily good for America.Long before the Jetsons, America’s vision included a full court press on the magic ingredients that seemed so wonderful early in the twentieth century. 

Free energy would certainly make life better for millions of people--though it would probably put a damper on teh day of those poor ultra-execs who just made $10 billion in profit per quarter. Awwww.

 

But this isn't yet another cold fusion hoax-style rehash. Seems this time, two Irish engineers accidentally discovered a perpetual motion engine based on a magnetic source. Their invention was aimed elsewhere, but it turns out their machine generates more power than it needs and keeps on doing so.

 

All boils down to the new company's theory that fixed magnets can act upon a moving magnet in such a way as to turn the ensemble into a virtual perpetual motion generator. Has applications everywhere, electrical appliances, water pumps, heating systems and even energy efficient cars. Work it Steorn, work it.

 

(via Geeks Are Sexy)

Yeah, it's a tech blog, but when I see a car this sexy I just have to squawk about it somewhere. Seems Audi is tired of being the almost-sports car of Germany. They've gone all out with the new supercar R8, a $130,000 ultra sports car that'll be available here in 2007. Even went so far as to give Mayor Bloomberg a test drie down Park Avenue today (Mikey had to ride shotgun, tho).

 

(via Digg)

Researchers have announced some progress in the fight to keep us safe from nutbars with weaponized diseases, especially anthrax. Clemson University research team led by Ya-Ping Sun and including some visitors from Peking, have developed a nanotech countermeasure to combat weaponized anthrax. The new approach uses nano stuff to attack specific components of weaponized anthrax powder rendering it (hopefully) harmless. Still a ways from production, tho. 

 

(via Digg)

HP's UK operation just filed to patent a foot-controlled user interface. The idea is to build this foot-activated device into chairs and such so folks with the use of their hands can still control mouse and pointer functions. Clicks, by the way, wouldn't be done with toes, but rather twists of your feet. Means you can now get tired feet while sitting down.

 

They've even got visions of using this as part of a severe multi-tasking environment (hands-free to handle phone calls while the feet do the computing--I HATE the sound of that) and also as part of a wearable computing system (that twist thing should make walking a real challenge).

 

(via Engadget)

A little whacky, but cool in a semi-useless pushing-the-techno-geek sort of way. "Data rings" designed by Hideaki Matsui. You wear a ring. I wear a ring. We meet somewhere for the first time and shake hands. Your ring passes your basic information to me (biz card and bio type stuff) and my ring passes the same info to you. We smile, exchange no words, and keep going to the next person. Later, I can call you up on a screen and study up on your vitals. Then decide whether you deserve a call back.

 

Sleek, geeky and cold. Hope that's not our whole future.

 

(via Sci Fi)

This is a freaky idea: MIT researchers are putting tiny gas-turbine engines on silicon chips roughly the size of a quarter. It's not a faster chip, but a longer-lasting battery. MIT hopes the new devices would run 10 times longer than a battery of similar size and weight. Eventually this would be able to power laptops, cell phones, radios and more.

 

So they're calling them 'microengines' for now, and hope that with mass production these little jobbies could drop the cost of providing energy significantly. Also has great benefits for folks who can't access a power grid, since as long as they're powered with gas the devices are largely self-sufficient. Cool.

 

(via Slashdot)

A possible model for the school of the future has just been opened in Philadelphia. This is a public high school where students all work on WiFi-connected laptops, teachers don't do traditional curriculums but rather concentrate on teaching through real-world topics and parents can track their kids' school progress via the Web.

 

The school cost $63 million to build and had backing from Microsoft. Students were elgible based on record and a lottery.

 

I like initiatives like this. Our educational system has long been in need of a swift kick in the booty. The only downside is that often these types of 'modern' or 'future' schools often load up on technical, math and science studies while giving short shrift to the humanites, literature and even history. Just hope that this new school gives students a chance to explore those fields if their predilictions lie that way.

 

(via Digg)