Hasta La Gadget!

If only harnessing the power of the Sun could be as simple as sticking an outlet with a solar panel onto your window. That’s the idea designers Kyuho Song and Boa Oh are pushing for with their Window Socket concept design.

It’s basically an outlet you fasten onto any clear window so that it charges up by absorbing the sun’s solar energy. When you want to power something up, simply stick the plug into the socket and that’s it.

The design description indicates that the solar energy will be transformed into electrical energy by a converter, although I can’t really see where they could have crammed that circuitry inside of the small puck-like device.

I think the Window Socket is a grand idea, and it would be awesome if they actually managed to turn it into a reality.

[via Yanko Design]

After investing in Pelican’s array camera technology a couple days ago, it looks like Nokia is on the fast track to add the tech to their smartphones by as early as next year. Pelican CEO Chris Pickett has revealed that the company’s 16-lens array camera is currently be tested and will make an appearance on at least one smartphone that will release in 2014.

Engadget speculates that a deal between Nokia and Pelican has already been signed, since a new device can take months of testing before it’s ready to be revealed, which means that a phone with Pelican’s array camera could be close to being done, or even already in its testing phases.

Pelican’s array camera uses a 4×4 grid of 16 lenses total. Each lens in the array captures a single color, which would be either red, blue, or green. This means that photos would have much less noise than traditional camera, since there would be no interference like there would be when capturing all three colors in the same plain.

Plus, since the 16 lens would take a photo of a subject at just slightly different angles, the images would contain a 3D component as well, which can be processed in specialized Pelican software and combine all 16 images into one single JPEG for regular use. This kind of technology would be the first for a smartphone camera, and could possibly put the 41MP Nokia 808 PureView to shame.

[via Engadget]

Pelican 16-lens array camera arriving in smartphones in 2014 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Earlier this year Microsoft introduced IllumiRoom, a prototype technology that augments TVs and other displays by projecting room-filling visuals that complement what is being shown on the screen. Microsoft Research recently released a video that explains the basics of IllumiRoom.

IllumiRoom can augment your gaming sessions in a number of ways. The most obvious and impressive way is to extend what’s being shown on your TV into the area around it. The resulting effect is halfway between a 3D headset and a cinema. But this is also the most difficult feature to implement because it will require “access to the game’s source code.” Other features of the IllumiRoom include adding spatial cues or matching mood lighting to enhance immersion.

Movies can also be extended using the IllumiRoom, but again the movie would have to be made with this function in mind. In other words, every scene has to be shot in a wide field of view in addition to the usual shots.

As mentioned in the video, the current proof-of-concept prototype uses a Kinect to analyze the color and geometry of the area around the TV and an off-the-shelf projector to display the complementary visuals. But as Microsoft’s researchers imply in their paper (pdf), the goal is to pack all the necessary hardware into one device. This IllumiRoom-capable device will then be “connected wirelessly to a next generation gaming console as a secondary display.” I wonder if we’ll hear more about it on May 21.

[Microsoft Research via Destructoid]

Like most of you, I’m patiently waiting for the day when I can buy a robot that will take care of all the irritating things around house I want to deal with. I want a robot to wash the dishes, bathe the dog, mow the lawn, and take out the trash. While this breakthrough might not solve that problem for me yet, a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have invented something dubbed “smart skin” that could give robots a sense of touch.

The researchers working on the smart skin used a bundle of vertical zinc oxide nano wires along with an array of about 8000 transistors. Each of those individual transistors is able to independently produce electronic signals when subjected to mechanical strain. The researchers say that these touch sensitive transistors, which they call taxels, have sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger. They say that the artificial skin can feel activity on its surface and the sensation could be translated into control signals for robot in the future.

Having a sense of touch is important because it will allow a robot to know when something is in its hand and how hard can grip that object. It wouldn’t do to have a robot breaking all your dishes after all.

[via BBC News]

The first city in the country to get the incredibly fast Google Fiber Internet service was Kansas City. Earlier this month, Google announced the second city to get access to its incredibly fast Internet service would be Austin, Texas. I continue to be insanely jealous that people in these cities will be able to get gigabit Internet speeds while my “broadband” at home is measured in Kbps on a good day.

Google has now announced that the next city to get Google Fiber Internet will be Provo, Utah. Google says that the city of Provo currently has an existing fiber-optic network that it has agreed to purchase and upgrade. That network is called iProvo and all that stands between Google and the city of Provo on the quest to bring incredibly fast Internet speeds is a city council vote scheduled for next week.

Google will offer every home along the path of the existing fiber-optic network free access to Internet service at up to 5 Mbps speeds for seven years with the only out-of-pocket cost being a $30(USD) activation fee. I currently pay more than twice that per month. 25 public institutions including schools, hospitals, and libraries will get free gigabit access. Google also plans on offering its faster Gigabit service and Google Fiber TV service in Provo as well.

If you happen to live in Provo, you can sign up to register your interest in Google Fiber service here.