Hasta La Gadget!

Yet more exits for Israeli startups, with the latest two developments a throwback to the hardware and engineering muscle that raised the tech profile of the region in the first place, before the Waze’s of the world got us thinking about Israel as a hotbed of consumer internet companies.

Today, reports leaked out, and we have now confirmed, that Intel has acquired Omek Interactive, a company it had already invested in that makes technology for gesture-based interfaces. At the same time, Israel publication the Calcalist is reporting that Apple is circling around PrimeSense, another developer of gesture-based technology that has been used in Microsoft’s Kinect. Together, the moves could be a sign that gesture-based controls such as those in Microsoft’s Kinect may become even more prevalent.

The Apple/PrimeSense talk, however, appears to be too early, if not altogether inaccurate. The Calcalist’s report notes that this is based around some meetings between the two companies, and that the price for the deal would be around $280 million. But a source at the company described the report as “BS.”

This is “journalist delusion based on unverified and twisted hints,” the source added, also questioning the valuation: “280M? Come on! We’re worth 10 times that. ” Up to now, PrimeSense has raised nearly $30 million from investors that include Gemini Israel Funds, Canaan Partners, Genesis Partners and Silver Lake Partners and bills itself as “giving digital devices the gift of sight.”

Meanwhile, we have contacted Omek, where the person we tracked down on the phone giggled (yes) and then referred us to Intel for any questions.

We have yet to hear back from Intel or investing arm Intel Capital. A post on Harretz notes the deal actually concluded last week. Haaretz has also managed to get a confirmation directly from Intel: “The acquisition of Omek Interactive will help increase Intel’s capabilities in the delivery of more immersive perceptual computing experiences,” the statement says.
Update: Intel has confirmed to me that the transaction has closed. In addition to the same statement it gave Haaretz, an Intel spokesperson added it’s not confirming the value of the deal, and “we are also not disclosing the timelines on future products that integrate this technology.”

The reported value of Intel’s deal for Omek is between $30 million and $50 million. Without actually hearing from Intel on the details, for now there appears to be a few lines of thinking behind why Intel is going beyond being simply a strategic investor. (Omek has raised $13.8 million to date, with $7 million of that coming from Intel Capital.)

The first of these — as explained in a story in VentureBeat, which first reported talks between the two in March of this year — is that Omek may have been in the market to raise more money and that it chose the exit route instead of going it alone.

Another is that Intel wants the technology as part of its bigger moves into 3D visualization and “perceptual computing”, Intel’s catch-all term for gesture, touch, voice, and other AI-style sensory technologies. This is also the subject of a $100 million investment fund Intel launched in April.

And a third is more mundane and cynical, and potentially true regardless of Intel’s wider, more airy ambitions. The blog GeekTime suggests that this is a hardware play: Intel wants Omek for technology that it can embed into chips. The more functionality it can add that will drive new purchases of those chips by device makers, the better:

“The search for worthy power eating technologies to justify the need for yearly chip version upgrades is an integral part of the hardware industries market management strategy,” it writes. “Device companies must be convinced of the need to design their products to support the more expensive vanguard models of the processing world, placing the need for innovation above price point, and even quality in some cases.”

Whether or not the PrimeSense news is accurate, 9to5Mac makes a convincing argument for how the startup’s intellectual property could fit in with other IP at Apple already; and with Apple’s bigger ambitions to develop products that take it further into the living room, specifically with Apple TV.

And that, in the end, seems to be the crux of today’s news as well. However you cut it, and whoever ends up controlling it (in the tech sense), gesture is increasingly coming into focus and will let us get machines to do our bidding with the wave of a hand, or finger, soon.

My eyes are telling me that this is 3D art. My brain is telling me that these are 3D drawings. My entire being believes that this is crafted in 3D. But nope. These drawings are actually 2D with clever shading and angles to make us believe they’re in 3D. I still can’t believe it.

Read more…

In the latest of 3D-printed hardware, NASA has completed a series of test firings of the agency’s first rocket engine part made entirely from 3D printing. The component in question is the rocket engine’s injector, and it went through several hot-fire tests using a mix of liquid-oxygen and gaseous hydrogen.

However, NASA didn’t use ABS plastic that most 3D-printers use. Instead, the agency used custom 3D printers to spray layers of metallic powder using lasers. The lasers spray the powder in a specific pattern in order to come up with the desired shape for an object. In this case: a rocket engine injector.

The testing was done at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the project is in partnership with Aerojet Rocketdyne. The company designed the injector and used 3D printing to make the component a reality. If they were to make the injector using traditional manufacturing processes, it would take over a year to make.

With 3D printing now an option, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are able to make the same component in just a matter of four months or less. Costs are a huge factor too, and the 3D-printed reduces costsby up to 70% compared to traditional methods and materials. This could lead to more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing of rocket engines.

NASA didn’t say what was next for the 3D-printed injector as far as testing goes, nor do they have a timeline for when they expect to officially implement the new technology in future rocket engines. We can only expect them to implement it sooner rather than later, but it could take several more years until it can be fully operational and on its way into space.

SOURCE: NASA

NASA 3D-printed rocket injector undergoes first test firing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

So maybe we won’t actually see a real-life Terminator come to fruition anytime soon, but flexible electronics could be in our future thanks to a new method of 3D printing that uses liquid metal instead of the traditional ABS plastic that we see being used in most 3D printers nowadays.

A team of researchers at North Carolina State University have come up with a method to create electronics using a 3D printer. The researchers discovered a mixture of gallium and indium that is liquid at room temperature, but forms a thin skin of gallium oxide on the outside when exposed to air. This is strong enough to hold the metals’ shape.

During their testing, the researchers were able to squeeze out drops of the metal mixture through a syringe and create a structure that held together, thanks to that rigid outer skin that holds it all together. They’re essentially like tiny water balloons, but since they’re made of metal, they can conduct electricity and be used in electronics.

The researchers are currently looking for ways to integrate the metal mixture to make it work in normal 3D printers, where users could use both plastic and metal in the same nozzle, but we reckon it’ll take a bit more time for that happen. However, this would mean that 3D-printing fans could create electronics in the future, but we’ll have to wait and see how practical it is.

Another caveat at this point, is that the metal mixture used by the researchers is insanely expensive, so it may be a while before we see something like this hit the mainstream. Hopefully, though, researchers can find a way to cut down on the costs of the materials, either by changing the mixture a bit or finding other cheaper metals to use.

VIA: Engadget

SOURCE: NCSU

3D-printed liquid metal could see a Terminator-like future is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For those of you who have had the unfortunate experience of going through the healing process after breaking one (or more) of your limbs, you would know the uncomfortable feeling you get whenever your hand (or the affected limb) is placed in a cast. These tend to be bulky most of the time, and they also double up as a blank canvas for friends to leave goodwill messages, although some of the more mischievous ones among your circle might just opt to leave embarrassing sketches instead without having to answer for them. The thing is, those are small payoffs for the healing process to ensure that your bone sets properly, while plaster and fiberglass variants also do their job well without costing an arm and a leg, which indirectly results in a whole lot less investment where innovation is concerned. Jake Evill is one to do something about the situation after being saddled with a plaster cast for a few months himself, where the “smelly and itchy plaster” bothered him so much, he decided to think of a solution of his own. Voila! A 3D-printed brace which would now be able to follow the contours of the arm.

This 3D printed brace might remain a concept as at press time, but Evill’s Cortex (as he has called it) might just have an extremely bright future ahead of it, thanks to it being an injury-localized exoskeleton which is not only lightweight, but washable, ventilated and recyclable to boot.

Evill was inspired by nature to churn out this design after doing some research on the human bone, and realized that the trabecular – tiny lattice-shaped structures which form the inner tissue of a bone, is the design he had been looking for all this while. Evill said, “It was this honeycomb structure that inspired the Cortex pattern because, as usual, nature has the best answers. This natural shape embodied the qualities of being strong whilst light just like the bone it is protecting within.”

Hopefully this denser, less ventilated material will become more and more mainstream and accepted in medical circles in the future, and when that happens, we own Jake Evill a big round of applause and thanks.

Source
[ 3D Printed Cast could assist in recovery process copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]