Coming in 2008: GPS-enabled cameras?

The year of the GPS-enabled camera is nearly upon us.

So predicts Kanwar Chadha, founder of GPS chip designer Sirf Technology. "Most (camera makers) are seriously planning location-enabled cameras. The first," he said, "you'll see next year."

Chadha has a vested interest in the technology, so take that bullish prediction with a grain of salt, but don't discount his expertise, influence, and connections. And do pay attention to a new technology Sirf is developing that Chadha promises will let GPS devices find their location within 10 seconds of being switched on.

If his prediction comes true, it'll be good news for those of us who want to know where our pictures were taken as well as when.

öll greinin á http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9825378-39.html?tag=nefd.lede

Laser Photon Thruster Could Shorten Trip to Mars to 1 Week

A new laser photon thruster (PLT) developed by Young Bae, head of the Bae Institute, could be the holy grail of space travel in our solar system. The clean burning laser is precise, powerful and efficient. In short, just what the astronauts ordered.

The PLT could accelerate a spaceship to velocities greater than 100 km/sec making the journey to Mars a week long journey. The small scale demonstrator produced thrusts of 35 µN and is scaleable to power spaceships.

Other uses include precision satellite positioning controlling synthetic apertures for space and earth observation and clean burning positioning thrusters for docking.

Meiri hraði á koparnum

29-year-old Australian researcher Dr. John Papandriopoulos has developed an algorithm that has the promise of upping ADSL connections from 1-20Mbps to 100Mbps by reducing electromagnetic interference. He moves to Silicon Valley in two weeks.

John Cioffi, an engineering professor at Stanford and known as the "father of DSL" by some, has offered him a job at his tech startup, ASSIA, where optimizing DSL networks is their focus. His school is trying to find a vendor to implement his work.

Although others are researching similar ways to reduce crosstalk, his approach allows for easier implementation. ISPs worldwide could roll out products in 2-3 years using his algorithm if he can get equipment vendors licensed to use it.

Research Boosts Wireless Data Transfer

Scientists at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at Georgia Tech are investigating the use of extremely high radio frequencies (RF) to achieve broad bandwidth and high data transmission rates over short distances.

Stephane Pinel, a research scientist with the Georgia Electronic Design Center, demonstrates gigabit-wireless technology at the group’s Atlanta headquarters. (Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek).

Within three years, this “multi-gigabit wireless” approach could result in a bevy of personal area network (PAN) applications, including next generation home multimedia and wireless data connections able to transfer an entire DVD in seconds. 

The research focuses on RF frequencies around 60 gigahertz (GHz), which are currently unlicensed—free for anyone to use—in the United States. GEDC researchers have already achieved wireless data-transfer rates of 15 gigabits per second (Gbps) at a distance of 1 meter, 10 Gbps at 2 meters and 5 Gbps at 5 meters.

Wireless high-definition video could also be a major application of this technology. Users could keep a DVD player by their side while transmitting wirelessly to a screen 5 or 10 meters away.

Öll greinin á slóðinni http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=1431

Nokia Focus On Mobile Map Navigation

Nokia is going full force into expanding their mobile mapping service by offering to buy US-based Navteq for a massive US$8.1billion. Navteq is a company which develops digital maps for the car industry, satellite navigation devices, internet-based mapping applications and solutions for the government and business markets.

Early this year, Nokia rolled out their mobile mapping service called Smart2go. I even have a post about the review of Smart2Go, which was done by a reader of mine, Hafiz Ismail.


“The navigation area is a fast-growing business, and with location-based services expanding rapidly into mobile communications devices, the industry is poised for even further growth,” Nokia said in a statement.


The news of Nokia is acquiring Navteq proves to be one of the key steps to strengthen their leadership in mapping service for mobile phone. If the acquisition is successful, it aligns perfectly with Nokia’s vision to enable everyone to find their way to people, places and opportunities on mobile communications devices, cars, desktop computers and in all the other places that are important to them.

Hi-Tech Will Make Parking in City So, So Much Easier

As I endlessly circled the blocks around my optometrist's office this afternoon, I thought, "Man, how great would it be if I could check the Internet to see what spots are opening up? Wouldn't that be awesome, and reduce my carbon footprint, and save me time as well as my last frayed nerve? Wouldn't it be great if someone had thought of that?"
Guess what? Someone has.
I caught this piece in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning. The federal Transportation Department has given the Bay Area $159 million to experiment with new technologies to reduce congestion. Since parking in SF is one of my least favorite things to do -- second only to scraping dog poop off my shoe -- I was thrilled to learn that some technologies include embedded sensors to tell when spots are occupied, and meters that can be fed by credit cards or possibly Fastrak transponders.
That's right, Department of Parking and Traffic! You'll be getting no more hard-earned money from me! Muahahahaha! Technology DOES improve lives.

google bræður, kaupa leikföng

The fun thing about having lots of money is you can buy as many toys as you want. Over at Google it's a veritable playground.

(Credit: Boeing)
A company controlled by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt, with the strange name of H211 LLC, has an agreement to land four jets at Moffett Field, according to documents released to The New York Times after the paper filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Moffett Field, which is operated by NASA Ames Research Center, is very close to Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

So, in addition to the two Gulfstream Vs and a Boeing 767, the Google billionaires anticipate landing a Boeing 757 at the airfield starting sometime next month, the documents show.

Google and NASA have a public-private partnership that gives NASA scientists access to the planes and provides fees that help defray the costs of running Moffett, a Google spokesman told the Times. Oh, and the Googlers have bought carbon offsets to mitigate the Boeing 767's negative impact on the environment, he says.

The Google billionaires are paying $1.3 million annually for the Moffett rights.

Some may see the planes as a sign of indulgence. And they have the community up in arms over the increase in flight traffic over the area and other CEOs in the area jealous that they weren't the ones to score a Moffett deal.

Actually, maybe these aren't just toys to the Google guys. Maybe they are a reflection that the company has become so important it needs special privileges, and a way to evacuate large groups of people out of the area quickly.

Sony is to launch the world’s first television using organic light-emitting diode technology in time for the Christmas market, gaining a lead in the race to dominate the market for the next generation of flat-screen TVs.

The Japanese electronics group will start selling the 11-inch TV, which is just 3mm thick – about the same as three credit cards – on December 1 in Japan for Y200,000 ($1,700).

Microsoft Exel fell a stærðfræðiprofi

Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 2007 spreadsheet program is going to have to relearn part of its multiplication table.

In a blog post, Microsoft employee David Gainer said that when computer users tried to get Excel 2007 to multiply some pairs of numbers and the result was 65,535, Excel would incorrectly display 100,000 as the answer.

Gainer said Excel makes mistakes multiplying 77.1 by 850, 10.2 by 6,425 and 20.4 by 3,212.5, but the program appears to be able to handle 16,383.75 times 4.

"Further testing showed a similar phenomenon with 65,536 as well," Gainer wrote Tuesday.

He said Excel was actually performing the calculations correctly, but when it comes time to show the answer on the screen, it messes up.

Gainer said the bug is limited to six numbers from 65,534.99999999995 to 65,535, and six numbers from 65,535.99999999995 to 65,536, and that Microsoft is working hard to fix the problem.

Intel með nyjungar

Intel has unveiled an initiative that aims to cut the power consumption of Linux servers.

The Less Watts programme will provide tips on decreasing the power usage for Linux systems, and will coordinate with developers working on future kernel enhancements to lower Linux power consumption.

Intel unveiled the project at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on 20 September.

The project brings several existing projects under a single umbrella, such as the 'tickless idle' technology that allows Linux to utilise power technologies built into hardware.

Another component, Intel's PowerTOP, allows laptop users to monitor the power consumption of their Linux system. It lets them pinpoint processes that prevent the processor from going into a more energy efficient mode.

The Linux Foundation, which counts Intel as a backer, launched its Green Linux initiative earlier this year which has similar goals to LessWatts.

Intel and the Linux Foundation were unable to provide background information on how the two programmes will function in time for this story's publication.

Nytt UFS flash minni fyrir gsm sima

Several mobile phone technology companies began a collaborative effort this week to create a flash memory standard for mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices.
Micron Technology (MU), Nokia (NOK), Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Spansion, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments (TXN) said they will support the development of an industry specification called Universal Flash Storage (UFS) for removable memory cards and embedded memory technologies.

The standard, which will eliminate the need for adaptors to accommodate various removable memory card sizes, is being developed by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, an organization that creates open standards in the semiconductor industry.

Once UFS is finalized in 2009, users will be able to get a unified removable memory card that can be shared among mobile phones, digital cameras, and other electronic devices without adaptors.

"The proposed UFS specification is good news to card manufacturers and set designers alike. The proliferating use of flash memory as a storage medium underscores the importance of introducing a universal connectivity to memory cards where high performance and reliability are critical," said Jon Kang, Samsung's president, in a statement.

The growing popularity of multimedia content and the demand for higher performance devices that can handle such content have created the need for flash memory storage, such as removable cards, and embedded formats.

UFS promises to offer high-speed access to large multimedia files, while consuming less power in consumer electronic devices. UFS's performance is expected to be much higher than is offered today by flash cards. For example, with the new standard, instead of experiencing a three-minute access time for a 90-minute, 4 Gigabyte high-definition movie, users would only wait a few seconds.

heimild:http://www.informationweek.com/

Ný myndavél frá Sony

is adding a mid-range model to its Alpha digital still camera range later this year in anticipation of a competitive year-end shopping season.

The Alpha 700 is a mid-range model with a higher feature set that Sony's Alpha 100, which launched in July last year as Sony's first single lens reflex camera. It was unveiled on Thursday at a Tokyo news conference.

Single-lens reflex cameras use a mirror placed between the lens and the film or image sensor to project the image to the camera's viewfinder. The mirror moves out of the way when the picture is taken. They typically support interchangeable lenses and are faster and more capable than smaller point-and-shoot cameras.

The camera is based around a 12-megapixel CMOS image sensor that Sony has dubbed "Exmor." The sensor is newly developed and will work in combination with Sony's "Bionz" image processing engine inside the camera, said Sony.

In addition to the high-resolution images, the camera is also capable of shooting at up to 5 frames per second in full resolution. The only limit on the number of shots that can be taken at this speed is the space left on the camera's CompactFlash or MemoryStick card.

An unusual feature on the A700 is an HDMI (high definition multimedia interface) connector. More typically found on high-definition video devices, the HDMI connector allows the camera to be directly connected to a high-definition television for viewing of images. New model Bravia televisions can automatically detect the A700 when it's connected and switch the TV to a mode tuned for the display of still images. That means a better picture than normal, according to Sony.

At the rear of the camera the 230,000 pixel monitor screen of the A100 has been replaced with a display that has four times the resolution. The 920,000 pixel screen also has higher contrast. Images displayed on demonstration A700 cameras at the news conference were bright and clear.

The camera will form part of Sony's line-up going into the year-end sales period. DSLR cameras have become more and more popular of the last couple of years as prices have come down and more manufacturers entered the market. A few years ago the market was virtually divided between Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc. but the entry of companies like Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) has pushed up competition.

The market for more feature-rich DSLR cameras is also growing. Whereas entry-level models, like Sony's A100, accounted for about three quarters of the Japanese DSLR market in the first half of this year that is expected to shrink to about two thirds of the market this year-end period, according to estimates from Sony. The A700 is targeted at this growing mid- and high-range sector.

The DSLR-A700 will cost around %180,000 (US$1,555) in Japan and be available from Nov. 16. It will be available in October in the U.S. market and cost about US$1,400. A version bundled with a 18-70mm lens will also ship in October for US$1,500 and a version with a 16-105mm lens will be available a month later for US$1,900. European launch details have not been announced.

A Program that Unlocks the iPhone?

According to reports, an anonymous group of software developers claims to have developed a program that unlocks Apple's iPhone, thus making it operational on any GSM network across the globe.

As of now, the iPhone is available only in the US, and is operational only on the AT&T network, under an exclusive two-year agreement between Apple and AT&T.
The iPhone unlocking program was demonstrated by Los Angeles-based software consultant named Brett Schulte, who replaced AT&T with a T-Mobile SIM card, and within a few seconds, the iPhone became operational.

Schulte said the procedure doesn't require opening or disassembling of the device, and unlocking can be done in just about two minutes.

Apparently, the anonymous group includes six people from three different continents, who claim to have unlocked the device just as a hobby.

The developers plan to put the software on sale, though no price has been finalized yet. They have also created a Web site called iPhoneSIMfree.com, which has some information on the program but does not give a way to purchase it yet.

Meanwhile, an AT&T spokesman said that though they could not hypothesize on the authenticity of hacking the iPhone, they hurried to remind users that by buying the iPhone, they become contractually indebted to AT&T.

A similar incident took place about a week back, where a teenager claimed to have found the way to unlock the iPhone, though by disassembling the device.

tekið af síðunni 3.sept http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t

Prufa i tæknigat

Góðan daginn, Þetta er smá prufa í námskeiðinu nám og störf í rafmagnsverkfræði. Hér verða skrifaðir pislar, um ýmis tæknileg málefni,rannsóknir, og fl