Hasta La Gadget!

This week a group of scientists from the University of Missouri have decided it’s time to make public their work on creating and controlling plasma. The system that they’re making public has, they say, the potential to transform the way America – and the rest of the world, for that matter – store and create energy. The team has developed a way to make plasma create its own self-containing self-magnetic field, effectively allowing it to launch into open air.

Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri’s College of Engineering Randy Curry spoke up about the system this week. He and his team made clear their successful creation of a device able to launch a ring of plasma distances of up to two feet. Their creation, it seems, has them excited enough to make some rather bold claims.

“Launching plasma in open air is the ‘Holy Grail’ in the field of physics. Creating plasma in a vacuum tube surrounded by powerful electromagnets is no big deal; dozens of labs can do that. Our innovation allows the plasma to hold itself together while it travels through regular air without any need for containment.” – Curry

The fourth state of matter – not liquid, gas, or solid – is plasma. Lightening and fire are plasma, and as you might recall, the ability to summon fire was a rather important turning point in the history of humanity. The device that University of Missouri scientists have created can launch self-contained plasma.

In the first iteration of this reportedly completely functional plasma-launching device, Curry and his team have used parts and technology that’s by no means optimized for size. Part of their continued work will be to create a reasonably sized device – this being possible in three to five years, Curry suggests.

Curry has also been vocal about the fact that without continued funding, the University of Missouri’s Center for Physical & Power Electronics will be unable to continue development. So all you large cash sum-holding lovers of science: make with the push!

[via University of Missouri]

Scientists devise Plasma Launcher: the “Holy Grail” of Physics is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia is set to further expand its camera expertise portfolio with a strategic investment in Pelican Imaging, a photography software specialist cooking up Lytro-style refocusable photos using array lenses. Pelican’s system, which first broke cover back in 2011, uses an array of 25 densely-packed individual lenses, the data from which is combined – using Pelican’s proprietary software – into a single, higher resolution still which can be post-tweaked for focus and even have 3D effects introduced.

Array cameras demand complex processing in order to actually achieve all that, however, which has meant news from Pelican has been quiet since the initial reveal. However, Nokia Growth Partners’ Bo Ilsoe told Bloomberg, such camera modules “are on the cusp of being commercialized and Pelican does software for that,” describing the firm as “one of the companies that has mastered this technology.”

In fact, Ilsoe confirmed, Nokia Growth Partners – the Finnish phone company’s venture-capital division – has had its metaphorical eye on Pelican Imaging since shortly after the company was founded, back in 2008. It’s unclear exactly how much has been invested in Pelican in this round.

Nonetheless, the move to broaden camera expertise dovetails well with Nokia’s push to highlight its Lumia Windows Phones’ photography abilities, particularly under the PureView brand. Last year, the company acquired camera processing tech from Scalado which allows components from multiple frames to be combined into a single photo.

Meanwhile, Nokia Growth Partners also holds investments in micro-optics specialist Heptagon, and sensor firm InVisage Technologies. The latter made headlines several years ago with its quantum-dot sensors that promise a roughly 4x increase in sharpness thanks to massively increased sensitivity to light compared to traditional CMOS.

Increasing light capture has been a central theme in Nokia’s photography push, beginning with the 808 PureView with its massive 41-megapixel sensor. That combined data from clusters of pixels to iron out visual glitches and boost accuracy in the final still, without producing massively unwieldy files. However, actually accommodating the sizable sensor in a more mainstream phone chassis is troublesome, and so Nokia has used other approaches – such as optical image stabilization using a suspended-lens system in the Lumia 920 – to try to broaden PureView’s impact.

The benefit of Pelican’s array technology, however, is that it offers increased 808 PureView-style light capture but without the comparative bulk. By combining data from multiple lenses, the company says users will be able to change focus after they take a photo, as well as capturing linear measurements, and scale and segment images.

[via My Nokia Blog]

Nokia invests in Pelican array camera tech for PureView push is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft’s IllumiRoom immersive projected gaming system, first shown off at CES, has broken cover again for a more comprehensive demo, complete with more details of how the “TV expanding” augmented reality works. Still described as a proof-of-concept, though thoroughly whetting appetites for what the next-gen Xbox might one day evolve into, IllumiRoom will be presented at CHI 2013 [pdf link] this week, complete with learning the topography and design of your living room and then digitally manipulating it.

The Microsoft Research team responsible for IllumiRoom is currently using a standard projector with a wide field of view, and a Kinect for Windows sensor bar, though any commercial implementation would probably be designed to sit on a coffee table. Automatic room calibration is included, projecting various patterns and sequences which map the outline of the TV, furniture, and the room’s geography in 3D; future iterations could even identify and track moving objects, such as people, as they move through the projection.

Once the layout of the gaming arena is understood, IllumiRoom’s real magic can begin. Various implementations are proposed, from fully extending what’s on the TV to greater fill the room – making for a more immersive environment – to picking out specific elements to highlight them, such as weapons fire that escapes from the primary display. By changing how physical objects in the room have their own textures projected, furniture could be made to ripple and wobble, change color or desaturate, or have their lighting adjusted.

Alternatively, the IllumiRoom system might just expand on the theme of the current game: having virtual falling snow spread across the living room, perhaps, building up on the actual furniture. The three possibilities, Microsoft Research suggests, are “negating”, “including”, or “augmenting” real-world objects: either digitally masking them, allowing them to remain visible, or adding to them with projected graphics.

“Ideally, IllumiRoom would be directly integrated into a next generation console and new games would be designed for IllumiRoom from the ground up. We envision an API that enables triggering illusions, changing surface appearance, controlling room lighting, inserting objects into the physical environment, etc.” Microsoft Research

While the best result would be if games natively supported, and integrated, IllumiRoom functionality, the system could also fashion a suitable AR scheme by analyzing gameplay in realtime, similar to how Philips’ Ambilight system tracks on-screen colors and matches them with its periphery of multicolor LEDs. The developers also suggest that audio cues could be used, such as triggering a ripple of the surrounding projection whenever the system hears a gunshot sound.

There’s also potential for how IllumiRoom could work with non-game content, such as movies and television; the team fashioned a prototype extended field-of-view camcorder – in effect pairing a standard camcorder with one that has a wide FOV – with the main screen showing the core video and the IllumiRoom projector showing the peripheral footage.

“Can a grenade from the latest Bond film explode in your living room? How would such content be authored? It would be im- portant to investigate how the movie director should deal with the fixed nature of a film and the randomness imbued by the system adapting to the user’s living room” Microsoft Research

Unsurprisingly, there’s still no (public) talk about how IllumiRoom tech and Microsoft’s Xbox ambitions might work together. As it stands, the current projection system relies on a PC for its brain, though it’s worth remembering that Kinect itself started out as a proof-of-concept peripheral, and only later evolved into an Xbox 360 add-on.

[via The Verge; via CHI 2013; Thanks Zak!]

Microsoft IllumiRoom fleshed out: Gaming and movie AR for your living room is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As the HTC One was released in review unit form earlier this year, it became apparent that a cross-carrier release in the USA wasn’t as cut and dry as it first appeared. The largest carrier in the United States, Verizon Wireless, was tipped to be considering releasing the HTC One on their 4G LTE network not only breaking from their original passing on such a release, but with an unheard-of lack of additional branding. While the HTC-made DROID DNA still sits as Verizon’s hero device by that manufacturer, a deeply embedded code leak discovered this month may be an indicator of Verizon’s push to bring the HTC One to its ranks soon.

The HTC fan blog HTCSoku turned up a code associated with an international edition of the HTC DROID DNA recently that showed a new mystery device by this same manufacturer. While the device this code was intended for was the HTC Butterfly X920d, again, the original version of the DROID DNA, here we see the “DLXPLUS_WL”, or the DLX Plus. This code also showed two other HTC Butterfly 2 devices (HTC has made it clear that this device is, indeed, in the works) with U and UL on their tails.

An HTC Butterfly 2 would be an incremental update to the hardware associated with the HTC Butterfly, or DROID DNA, that being the slightly more massive HTC device released at the end of 2012. HTC-loving developer and anonymous insider LLabTooFeR has spoken up several times on the device which will replace the Butterfly, that being the DLX Plus (or DLX+, if you prefer). LLabTooFeR has strongly suggested that this device – not necessarily the HTC One for Verizon, will be announced “Somewhere in between” the second and third quarters of 2013.

The DLXPLUS_WL has also been suggested to be a variant – or upgrade – of the DROID DNA made for non-Verizon carriers in the USA. This device would be released with the following specifications:

Qualcomm S4 Pro APQ8064 quad-core processor at 1.7GHz
4.7-inch display 1080p resolution
13 megapixel camera back-facing
2.1 megapixel camera front-facing
Internal storage: 16GB
RAM 2GB
Bluetooth 4.0
MicroSD card port for memory expansion
Sense 5.0
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Have a peek at our DROID DNA review from back in November of 2012 to see how similar this setup is to the original. According to HTCSoku, The HTC-made DLXPLUS_WL will be released with the Snapdragon 600 processor, the same processor working on the HTC One in each of its already-revealed iterations.

Final assessment (for now): Verizon will get a DROID DNA+, an upgrade to the DROID DNA they revealed at the end of last year, this time coming with some software feature updates and the same processor as the HTC One.

Sound reasonable to you? Or do you believe HTC would rather keep that top-dog processor to their one true hero device?

HTC One variant appears in code: Verizon may be brewing is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Space-gazers and fans of the ringed planet Saturn should keep their eyes upward this weekend, as the planet reaches its highest point above the horizon in its opposition phase. Visible to the naked eye – but all the better with a telescope, since you’ll then be able to see its distinctive rings – Saturn will be most clearly visible late on Saturday or in the early hours of Sunday, and though often visible at other times, will be both brighter and bigger than it usually appears.

That extra degree of clarity is because the planet will be at its closest to Earth as well as at its opposition point: the exact opposite from where the sun is positioned. Saturn will be visible all through the night, with a steady glow, though it will take some tools of the astronomy trade if you want to make out more than that.

For instance, Space suggests, magnification of at least 25 power will show more details of Saturn, with the rings making it appear oval in shape rather than circular as the naked eye might see it. Quadruple that magnification and more of the planet’s details will be picked out, including several of its 62 moons.

The best point to see Saturn is late evening, when the planet reaches its highest point. To actually find it, the LA Times suggests, look for the bright star Arcturus – off along the “handle” of the Big Dipper, away from the bowl – and then to the right, where the star Spica is. Saturn is below and left of that.

If that all sounds complicated, then NASA’s video, below, should give more of an indication as to where Saturn will be in the night sky, as well as what you might expect to see with the naked eye and various types of telescope. Saturn will be at its best on April 28, the space agency suggests.

Look up: Saturn at its boldest and brightest this weekend is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.