By Mike Slane, Goal.com
DALLAS – There’s no stopping Landon Donovan.
The LA Galaxy star had a pair of goals and an assist to guide the Americans to a convincing 3-1 victory over Honduras in the Gold Cup semifinals at Cowboy Stadium on Wednesday night.
A quick stroll through the Emerging Technologies section of SIGGRAPH usually reveals a collection of university projects and the latest Disney Research endeavor. However, we don’t usually see the likes of NVIDIA amongst the fold there. This time around, though, the component maker is showing off an undertaking from its Research sector: near-eye light field displays. To show the project off, a pair of OLED mircodisplays were installed on a glasses-like frame with a box for the electronics stashed up top. Those Sony ECX332A panels measure 15.36 x 8.64mm wield a resolution of 1,280 x 720 through 24-hit color pixels (which equates to a smidge over 83 pixels per millimeter). The diminutive displays open up the door for thinner and lighter head-mounted units that can sort “accurate accommodation, convergence and binocular-disparity cues.”
The light field that’s constructed directly over the pupil allows the viewer to focus at multiple depths and create a field of view of about 70 degrees. Both of those aspects were quite apparent to our peepers upon getting locked in for a quick demo. Despite being situated so close to the eye, the unit still provides some sharp images that we witnessed first hand. Of course, the close proximity causes some pixel loss at the hands of a decreased spacial resolution. One pretty neat aspect to this whole system is that software tweaks can be made to account for someone’s glasses or contacts prescription — software that’s powered by NVIDIA GPUs and OpenGL, of course. Without having to modify the hardware, changes to the microdisplays are sorted sans the need to switch to another set or make physical adjustments. For a bit more explanation of the unit, check out the video that resides just past the break and full findings that were presented here in Anaheim at the coverage link that follows.
“Buffy” fans: Are you ready to see Sarah Michelle Gellar’s real-life husband face off against “Angel” himself, David Boreanaz?
It may not be exactly the battle Whedonites were waiting for, but “Bones” fans will see Freddie Prinze Jr. as a CIA agent named Danny, an “armed and dangerous” old associate of Booth’s, who’s particularly invested in Booth (Boreanaz) and Brennan’s (Emily Deschanel) murder investigation. He’ll appear in the Season 9 premiere, TVLine was the first to report.
The Huffington Post has confirmed with a Fox rep that Prinze has potential for a multi-episode arc on “Bones'” upcoming season.
Curious as to what’s hiding inside the Google Chromecast dongle? Thanks to the FCC, we don’t have to wonder what the Chromecast is packing anymore. There’s a Marvell DE3005 chip and an AzurWare chip to take care of Wi-Fi duties, according to Anandtech. FCC documents actually show Chromecast details in May, with pictures of its innards added today. Enjoy the guts. [FCC via @nerdtalker, Engadget]
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Earlier in 2013, Mercedes-Benz initiated a contest of sorts, inviting individuals to submit ideas for a “golf cart of the future.” Those ideas would then be used to help form a concept vehicle, which Mercedes-Benz is saying is more of a “Golf Car” than a cart. That concept has now been revealed, dubbed the Mercedes-Benz Vision Golf Cart.
The concept luxury golf cart was shown off during the Open Championship, to which the winners chosen among the submissions it received were invited to attend as VIP guests. The entries were judged by a jury, of which the auto maker’s design vice president was at the helm. The submissions were then built upon, and the resulting concept was formed.
The Vision Golf Cart was developed in the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center located in California, with the aim being to create a concept involving both “aspects” of the maker’s cars and the functionality inherent in a golf cart. The result is a sleek, distinctly Mercedes-Benz golf cart harboring a variety of trimmings you won’t find on standard course offerings.
Not surprisingly, the concept is all-electric, and is powered via solar panels built into the roof, as well as a manual charging option when needed. Rather than a steering wheel, the Vision Golf Cart is controlled using a joystick mounted in the center console, which allows for either of the passengers to operate it. Buttons are almost entirely done away with by using touchscreen panels, and there’s a multimedia system that includes USB and Apple device docks.
Daimler’s Vice President of Design Gorden Wagener said: “The Mercedes-Benz Vision Golf Cart has a refined, simplified yet functional shape that fits well into our ‘Sensual-Purity’ design philosophy. The flow shapes create a ‘sculpture on wheels’ impression. I was very inspired by the idea of designing a golf cart, giving it a new shape and new sorts of meaning. Why not treating[sic] a golf cart like a car, and making it a ‘Golf Car’.”
SOURCE: Daimler
Mercedes-Benz Vision Golf Cart concept brings luxury to the course is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Even though Google only announced its new Chromecast HDMI dongle earlier today, we got our first peek at it in May. That’s when the mysterious H2G2-42 leaked in FCC documents, with few details other than the name referencing Douglas Adams’ book. As Anandtech’s Brian Klug points out, the documents have been updated, and now include a few pictures of the Chromecast with its external casing removed. Inside there’s a Marvell DE3005 chip, plus Azurewave hardware to handle its (2Ghz only) WiFi duties. Hit the link below to take a look, although at the $35 sticker price you can probably afford to do an iSuppli-style teardown of your own.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google
Source: FCC, Brian Klug (Twitter)
How much do you like your Instagram pictures? Enough to get a few likes? Enough to think you’d kick ass as a photographer? Enough to convert them into amazing oil paintings that you can hang on your wall? Pixelist is a company that’s trying to turn your Instagram photos into hand-made oil paintings that will live forever on canvas. How will those pictures of food and sunset and feet pictures look now?
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The system's instant feedback alerts caregivers when a patient should be turned to prevent pressure ulcers.
(Credit: Wellsense)
For the young and healthy, bedsores are about as low on the totem pole of concerns as growing old. But for anyone who has spent much time in an intensive care unit, where patients are often bedridden, pressure ulcers are a constant concern.
So Wellsense, a company in Nashville, Tenn., has come up with a monitoring technology to prevent them from forming in the first place. The approach utilizes thousands of sensors that form an electronic sheet over a mattress to detect in real time the precise distribution of pressure across the mattress. The system links up with a handheld monitoring device that displays images of pressure distribution and sounds alarms if patients need to be turned. It even keeps a history of the patient’s positioning that caregivers can access across multiple shifts.
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It’ll be about two years yet until you’re able to buy a hydrogen-powered vehicle, but one company is already making progress in ensuring those cars will be as gentle on the environment as possible. BASF, the world’s largest chemical maker, has come up with a hydrogen-making process that would purportedly cut carbon dioxide emissions in half, making fuel-cell vehicles generally cleaner than EVs. Until now, the holy grail has been hydrogen produced without introducing oxygen, as that would mean avoiding carbon dioxide emissions. The problem is, that’s meant cranking up the operating temperature, which means you’re using more energy, which means, uh, you’re looking at some carbon dioxide emissions. In this new system, though, BASF recycles heat more efficiently so that the company doesn’t have to raise the temperature quite so high. Additionally, the company’s cooked up some new catalysts it hopes will make the process more cost-efficient. No word on when or where this method will be implemented, but BASF is already hopeful it could be useful in other industries, like oil refinement, which similarly use lots of hydrogen.
Filed under: Transportation, Alt
Source: MIT Technology Review
Radio Raheem had it right: if you’re going to carry a stereo around, make it a big one for maximum effect.
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