Hasta La Gadget!

We knew we’d be seeing 3M Touch Systems’ monster capacitive display once again, but we had no idea just how massive this year’s iteration would be. Taking up residence in a corner of CES Unveiled 2013, the company’s latest multi-touch prototype now measures in at 84 inches, far surpassing its 46-inch predecessor, with 100-inch versions waiting in the wings. This particular touch table now supports Ultra HD resolution (4K) and was shown running a software demo currently in use at Chicago’s Museum of Science. As you may be able to tell from the accompanying gallery, those floating images aren’t of the crispest quality, but that’s because the files aren’t fully high-res. Of course, tech of this kind isn’t necessarily intended for households — not yet, anyway — it makes for a more natural fit in commercial environments (think: airports, car dealerships or wireless retailers). At present, the table here on the showfloor is calibrated to support 40 individual touch points, but a company rep assured us it could be configured for up to 60, allowing for large groups of people to interact simultaneously. While touch tabletops of this kind are still quite rare in the wild, expect to see them crop up more commonly in the near future. Check out our gallery below and stay tuned for a video demo.

Sarah Silbert contributed to this report.

Filed under: Displays

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Imagination Technologies is on a high right now. Throughout 2012, the company’s PowerVR graphics processors continued to monopolize the iPhone and iPad as well as appearing in (late 2011) Android flagships, the PlayStation Vita and even the first Clover Trail-powered Windows 8 tablets. But you know what? That’s old news, because all those devices run current-gen PowerVR Series5 silicon. Most new top-end devices in 2013 and 2014 will either contain the latest Mali GPUs from rival ARM, or they’ll pack PowerVR Series6, aka Rogue. This latter chip is currently being developed by at least eight different smartphone and tablet manufacturers and is expected to make a good bit of noise at CES next week.

But who’s going to wait that long if they don’t absolutely have to? To get a fuller understanding of what awaits us in the coming weeks and months, we scoped out a Rogue test chip at Imagination’s sparkly new HQ just outside of London, UK. The test silicon doesn’t represent the true power of Series6 because it’s running on an FPGA board that severely limits its bandwidth, but it’s still able to show off one crucial advantage: namely the ability to run OpenGL ES 3.0 games and apps. This API is all about improving mobile graphics through making smarter use of GPU compute, without annoying the battery, and the three demos after the break show just how it pulls that off.

Continue reading PowerVR Series6 mobile GPUs are almost here, we go eyes-on with a test chip (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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Rapid prototyping isn’t anything new, but making prototypes for future technologies in under a couple of hours is pretty incredible. In what almost seems like something you would see MacGyver do, a team of rapid prototypers have come up with working prototypes of several different technologies, including Google Glasses and the touch interface featured in Minority Report.

At Mind The Product 2012, Google’s Tom Chi demonstrated that anyone can build these incredible products and ideas by using everyday materials and a bit of ingenuity. For example, Chi’s team built a fully-working prototype of Google Glassses from a coat hanger, a piece of plexi-glass, a Pico protector, a wire harness, and a netbook.

Chi’s team also built a prototype of the gestural interface as seen in the movie Minority Report. Unlike the Google Glasses rapid prototype, this only took 45 minutes to throw together, and it uses materials that you would normally find in any office or home, including a coat hanger, a whiteboard, fishing wire, a couple of hairgrips, a chopstick, and a presentation clicker.

Obviously, these rapid prototypes aren’t that practical, but the important thing that Chi notes is they get you to think and do the first things that pop in your mind. Chi also notes that the first thing that does pop in your head is “the right thing” only about 5% of the time, but he mentions that 5% is usually the rate of success for most startups. Chi notes that once you begin rapid prototyping, you go through ideas a lot quicker, meaning a higher success rate:

“By the time you try 20 things, even if each individual thing only has a 5% chance of success, by the time you try 20 things, your chance of success goes up to 64%. By the time you try 50 things, it goes up to 92%. It’s almost like you can’t fail!”

[via Mind the Product]

Google Glasses rapid prototype built in just two hours is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Late last week, Moog outed its LEV-96 sensoriactuator prototype and offered a glimpse at its latest R&D unit. Even though it’s still in the early phases of beta-testing, we were able to stop by the Moog Music factory for a closer look and a brief glimpse of the gear in action ahead of its appearance at Moogfest. While the unit is installed on acoustic guitars for the time being, the company says that similar tech can be used on other acoustic instruments and eventually to other surfaces — this is just the current manifestation. Since the tech modifies the guitar’s natural harmonics and string vibrations, the LEV-96 is getting cozy on both traditional acoustic guitars and those outfitted with pickups in its present state.

As far as controls go, the entire unit is capacitive touch-enabled from the moment a finger swipe powers it on. Sliders allow for adjusting the intensity, harmonics and note duration while the other buttons enable arpeggio presets and modulation that includes tremolo and random harmonic tweaks. Those sliders remain in play when a preset is activated, serving to enable further adjustments on selected There is a lock button, too, so that you don’t accidentally make a switch mid-strum. All of these finger-friendly surfaces work alongside two pairs of electromagnetic pickup channels per string to wrangle the 96 simultaneous harmonics. Magnets work to either increase of decrease the string’s motion, bringing out vibrational modes that have always been in-play on acoustic instruments, but have never been offered the power needed to make ’em sing. The folks at Moog are quick to remind us that the LEV-96 is still in its infancy, but you can rest assured we’ll be keeping an eye our for what develops. For a peek at the tech in action, head on past the break for a really quick demo that we kept brief due to that fact that this is an early prototype.

Continue reading Moog’s LEV-96 sensoriactuator prototype wields touch control of 96 simultaneous harmonics, we go eyes-on (video)

Filed under: Misc

Moog’s LEV-96 sensoriactuator prototype wields touch control of 96 simultaneous harmonics, we go eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next Nexus family device set to be released by Google and LG appears to have been revealed essentially top to bottom by a man with a prototype. This LG Nexus device being a prototype shown off by the Onliner lends quite a bit of detail as far as how this device will look and feel, but does not send out final details insomuch as it’s working with software that’s already out on the market and does not seem to be performing as it would have to in benchmark tests of several types. This review of the device release today is therefor a look at the ideation process behind Google and LG’s collaboration.

The photographs above and below appear very much to be showing an LG device based on their recently revealed LG Optimus G, a device with a quad-core processor from Qualcomm and a massive camera. The USA versions of the Optimus G have two different cameras, one model with a 13 megapixel camera, the other with an 8 megapixel camera. This LG Nexus device quite likely has an 8 megapixel camera, this assessment based on the apparent size of the module compared to the G and our understanding of how Google advances their Nexus line one step at a time – aka they wouldn’t skip 8 and go right to 13.

The Galaxy Nexus, a Samsung device, surprised the masses last year with a release that included a 5 megapixel camera. We expect that this LG device – if indeed it does pan out – will include an 8 megapixel camera at least. This prototype carries with it the code LG E960 as well as the name “Mako”. It’s also been suggested that this device is code-named LG Nexus 4.

The LG Nexus 4 name comes from the idea that it is the 4th major Nexus smartphone on the market – or will be in the near future. The prototype review we’re seeing today shows the device to be extremely similar to the Galaxy Nexus in size and shape with a slightly more flat front and back, a glittery sort of back panel not unlike the Optimus G, and a front panel with glass that curves downward near its edges.

The display is shown here to be an IPS LCD and has the same amount of pixels that the Galaxy Nexus had at 720 x 1280 across a 4.7-inch panel. The image you’re seeing below shows the device next to the iPhone 5, that device having a 4-inch panel, both devices apparently showing the same wallpaper to make it clear which is the brighter and the sharper of the two. We do not know if the reviewer here made both devices hit their maximum brightness.

Keep your eyes peeled for a real look at this device as it leaves its prototype stages and brings on the next generation of Google’s Vanilla-flavored Android system. We’re expecting a very clean version of whatever Google has to offer next for Android with no carrier additions. What we’re suspecting, in addition to this, is a worldwide release – or something close to it – with Google’s own Google Play store online offering up the device for sale for everyone all at once.

We shall see soon, and very soon, if the rumors are correct!

[Thanks Gene for the tip!]

LG Nexus Prototype detailed in full is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.