Google has a new patent application with the USPTO (via 9to5Google), which takes one of the basic concepts of Glass and extends it even further, embedding tiny cameras that could be embedded in contact lenses for various uses, including photographing what a wearer sees, or providing the basic input for a contact-based assistive device for the visually impaired. Google has previously detailed a… Read More
The Boston Police Department has suspended their use of license plate scanners for now. It seems the optical character recognition technology was working just fine, but the department wasn’t following up on all of the hot crime fighting leads the technology was generating. The scanners collected about four million plate IDs a year, prompting onlookers […]
Murderer. Slave owner. Celebrated philanderer. These are the words that should come to mind when considering a one Mr. Nicholas "Santa" Claus. Just because you can see through that drunk jolly facade, though, doesn’t mean the rest of the world can. So it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Fortunately, OpticsPlanet has put together a state-of-the-art, high-tech Santa Stakeout Kit for all your hardcore Santa-hunting needs. The guy never stood a chance.
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The release of the 33-foot-long Thunderbolt Optical Cable by Corning is a long-awaited event. For those that want to move data along a wired connection – a long distance, at that – there’s a lot to be said about the 10 Gbit/s bi-directional, dual channel technology, and as the first “all-optical” offering in the world […]
While we think of optical connections as cutting edge, they’re positively decrepit in server rooms; current fiber interconnect technology got its start in the 1980s. Intel may soon drag servers into the modern era with its just-teased MXC format, however. The standard (not pictured here) will combine both silicon photonics and a new form of Corning fiber to link servers at 1.6Tbps — more than quick enough to eliminate many data bottlenecks. The connectors themselves are smaller, too. Intel won’t say more about MXC until the Intel Developer Forum next month in San Francisco, but we already suspect that supercomputer operators will be happy with all that extra bandwidth.
Filed under: Desktops, Networking, Intel
Via: PCWorld
Source: Intel
It’s unknown why, at the moment, the teams at Sony and Panasonic have decided they’d like to keep the standard-sized optical disk (CD-sized, that is) alive, but they’ve announced just that this morning. In an effort to create next-generation professional-use disks with capacities of at least 300 GB, these teams will join forces here and now. Their aim is to create this new media by the end of 2015.
This announcement comes after the next-newest advancement in disk technology – the Blu-ray – has been on the market since 2003. That’s ten years since the first prototype Blu-ray player was released, and another three years before that when the first Blu-ray was prototyped. Sony and Panasonic aim to take this size and format into the future with its full collection of strengths from the format itself and both companies’ unique solutions living in the same storage universe.
Panasonic’s contribution comes in the form of the LB-DM9 series optical disk storage device, made to house twelve 100GB optical disks in a dedicated magazine coming in at a thickness of 20.8mm. Meanwhile Sony’s solution came back in September of 2012 with their file-based optical disk archive system working with technology created for its XDCAM series of broadcasting products.
Each of Sony’s system’s disks (all twelve of them) were held within a single compact cartridge, each of them coming in at 25GB capacity. Storage capacities between 300GB and 1.5TB were offered, while Panasonic’s solution worked with 90 magazines with a storage capacity of 180TB in all.
We’ll be seeing this one solution, this one disk with storage capacity of 300GB or more by the end of 2015 complete with the good bits that’ve been with disks for several generations. Water resistance, humidity resistance, and ease in storage will live on.
Now we’ll get to see how the companies that’ve moved well beyond the disk universe will respond. Can we expect a return to drives? Or will Sony and Panasonic concentrate on the professional end alone?
SOURCE: Sony
Sony teams with Panasonic for 300GB optical disks – the slot lives on! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
During the heyday of optical storage we saw a 400GB Blu-Ray flavor (shown above) and even 1TB discs in the lab, but lately such development has waned. Sony and Panasonic have teamed up to move things along, however, saying there’s a need for reliable long-term storage that only optical disks can provide. The pair will develop a “next-generation standard for professional-use optical discs,” saying that a 300GB flavor could be ready in two years or so. Though geared towards industries like cloud storage and digital cinema at first, the tech could eventually trickle down to consumers, too. Given rapid developments in on-demand streaming and cloud gaming, however, there might be nothing left for us plebes to archive by then.
Via: The Verge
Source: Sony
If you’ve ever found yourself wishing for the ability to zoom your vision whilst squinting at a sign or object in the distance, you can rejoice – the first telescopic contact lens has been created, and with it the wearer’s sight can be boosted 2.8x. What’s more, the lens is small enough that it can be worn without discomfort.
The work was done by researchers led by Eric Tremblay of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Joseph Ford of University of California, San Diego. With this latest technology, all previous versions of telescopic vision have been torn asunder: implants, glasses, and thick contact lenses that were too big for someone to reasonably wear.
The lens measures in at 1.17mm in thickness, and works through a series of light bouncing. Light enters via the contact lens’ edges and bounces four times on very small mirrors made of aluminum, which function to both remove chromatic aberration and boost the image nearly three times. The light then reaches the outer portion of the retina with the magnified image.
The lenses were developed specifically for individuals affected by macular degeneration, which causes damage to the central part of the retina while usually leaving the edge of the retina in working condition. This portion of the eye can’t make out most details, however, reducing vision quality. Because the lenses pushes the light to this outer portion of the retina, individuals with this condition will be able to zoom in on an image, seeing the details the disease rids them of.
The contact lens is made from the same material that older versions of contact lenses were made from, a polymer called PMMA. The final product, which would be made available to the average consumer, will have to be made from the modern contact lens material known as RGP polymer. When in use, the wearer can switch back and forth between regular and zoomed vision.
This is achieved using 3D TV glasses (not to be confused with the red-and-blue 3D glasses used with older 3D technology). The glasses work with a polarizing filter that is on the front of the center portion of the lenses. The glasses reverses the polarization, causing the light bouncing and zoom effect.
SOURCE: Extreme Tech
Researchers make telescopic contact lens capable of 2.8x zoom is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Sony is releasing dustproof, rainproof “Digital recording binoculars” (2 models: DEV-50V, DEV-30) on June 21.
You can view images, as if they were traditional binoculars, but can also record moving, magnified images while viewing them.
The 2 models have different magnification ability: 0.8 – 25 magnification for DEV-50V, 0.8 – 15 magnification for DEV-30. Magnification can be smoothly adjusted while you are using them.
High-performance “G lens”, CMOS image sensor “Exmor R” (5.43 million pixels), image processor “BIONZ”, “Auto focus (AF) function” and “Optical image stabilizer (active mode)” are built-in, making it possible to record images as you watch them.
The price for “DEV-50V” will be about ¥170,000 and “DEV-30″ will be about ¥130,000.
If you thought screens were where glass started and finished in gadgets, think again. Corning, the company behind Gorilla Glass, has also started making optical USB and Thunderbolt cables—and they’re super, super long. More »
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