Hasta La Gadget!

Apple's App Store is home to 400,000 apps from third-party programmers. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

If your pockets aren’t deep enough to fight a corporate giant, then sue the little guys for milk money.

That’s the idea behind a patent company’s legal threats against several independent iPhone app programmers rather than Apple.

Several iOS programmers on Friday morning said they received a legal complaint from Lodsys, a patent-holding firm.

Lodsys is accusing the developers of infringing a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button that customers can use to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases from within an app.

Apple provides the payment technology that programmers embed inside their apps, but the Lodsys complaint is instead aimed squarely at the programmers using Apple’s in-app purchasing system.

Programmers who say they have received the complaint include James Thomson, creator of the scientific calculator app PCalc; Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the best-selling game Pocket God; and Matt Braun, developer of the popular iPhone kids game MASH.

Many apps use Apple’s in-app payment system, so the number of companies to receive the legal threat could soon grow much larger.

“Just got hit by very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit for using in-app purchase in PCalc Lite. Legal docs arrived via fedex,” Thomson tweeted Friday morning.

Programmers who have received the complaint say that Lodsys is demanding that they negotiate for a license to use the “upgrade” technology within 21 days, or a lawsuit will be filed.

This incident is an example of a practice that many in the industry would call “patent trolling,” which means using patents for little purpose other than to sue other companies until they cough up damages or licensing fees.

Lodsys did not respond to a request for comment.

On its website, Lodsys claims ownership of patents related to technologies that “provide for online purchasing of consumable supplies” and “sell upgrades or complimentary products,” among others.

Lodsys is based in eastern Texas, which is home to a federal court that often sides with patent holders. Patent lawyers around the world know that the easiest and quickest way to win a patent-related dispute is to file the complaint in Marshall, Texas. As a result, many defendants choose to settle instead of fight.

“One concern is that if we are the lightning rod, it could end up being pretty expensive for us, because they would choose to sue us no matter what our argument is,” Pocket God creator Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear whether the company will get involved in the patent dispute.

However, it seems likely that Apple will intervene. If Lodsys sues or imposes licensing fees on iOS programmers, it would deter developers from building apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and would hurt the ecosystem as a whole. Also, Apple takes 30 percent of each in-app sale, so it would lose money if Lodsys were to succeed.

See Also:

• Patent ‘Troll’ Sues Apple, Google Over Wireless E-mail
• EFF Decries ‘Sham’ Copyright-Troll Legal Tactics
• Apple Sued Over Keyboard Patent: Troll Suspected
• Paul Allen Files Patent Lawsuits Against Entire Web … Except Microsoft

In a dim environment, the mirasol frontlit prototype (left) outshines a traditional mirasol e-paper display. Photo: Nate Hoffelder

If you want to catch up on the day’s reading before bed, in your darkened room, you’re a bit SOL with a traditional e-paper e-reader.

Sure you could use a tablet to read on instead, but that backlighting is harsh. You just need to see the words onscreen — you don’t need them burned into your retinas.

Qualcomm has come up with an innovative solution that’s currently in prototype form: an e-paper display with integrated LED front lighting. Unlike clip-on lighting options, the display is evenly lit. And unlike tablets, the illumination can be completely turned off in order to preserve power.

A model with an ambient light sensor, which would automatically shut off the LEDs in bright situations and switch them on in the dark, is in the works, and Qualcomm expects the first products to utilize this front lighting technology to be released in the fall.

But is there still a market for e-readers? Barnes and Noble is transforming its Nook e-reader into a full-on Android tablet, and the tablet arena has been absolutely booming with new products (2011 has been the year of the tablet after all). Many e-reader makers have been having difficulties, filing for bankruptcy or canceling plans, in the wake of the tablet revolution.

Would you be more likely to purchase an e-reader if you could use it in the dark, or would you rather stick with a multi-functional portable like a tablet? Sound off in the comments.

There’s good news and bad news about Mirasol [The Digital Reader via Slashgear]

A masters student at Georgia Tech University has created a system that allows a group of robots to move into formations without communicating with the other robots it is forming shapes with. The robots have no predefined memory or no prior knowledge of their location.

In the video above, the 15 Khepera robots make independent decisions based on the same information and by trial and error move their way into a formation that has been assigned to them. They move to spell out the word “GRITS”, standing for Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems.

Ted MacDonald, who devised the multi-robot system, explained to Wired.co.uk that most other systems tend to split robot formation into two parts. The first is figuring out where each robot should go and the second is actually making the formation happen. He wanted to find a way to do both of these things at the same time, i.e. be moving and working out where to go simultaneously.

He told Wired.co.uk: “Imagine if a group of 10 people were asked to form the shape of a box, but weren’t allowed to speak. People would look around to see if there were any lines forming and try and find holes for them to move into.”

His robotic formation used a 3D motion-tracking camera above the robots, which could assess the position of each of the robots and then broadcast that information to all of the robots over Wi-Fi — so they each had access to the same information. They then use an Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm which assesses the difference between where they are positioned currently and the formation they need to adopt.

The robots can be placed completely randomly to start with. Each robot then makes an initial guess as to where it thinks the formation might be (perhaps noticing an early pattern emerging that resembles part of the letter). All of the robots follow the same rules and eventually converge to a solution.

The robots can be made to spell out any words in real time by following the same rules. Macdonald is now working on a variation that sees a leader robot (which does not follow the algorithm) be automatically assigned a role in the formation. This means that a single robot could be controlled remotely (by a human) to lead a phalanx of other robots in a formation, which could change en route.

Clearly in real-world situations you do not always have a motion tacking camera, but the same effect could be achieved by the robots having GPS devices relaying their positions to the others.

Macdonald is also keen to find out what happens if the robots cannot see every other robot in the group. So far it seems that they can still get into formation if they start off close to the right formation, but so far he hasn’t been able to mathematically prove when it works and when it doesn’t.

Potential applications for the technology include moving a group of robotic vehicles from point A to point B without experiencing congestion problems (which could have uses for the military). Because of the sophisticated 3D motion tracking, the same system could be used to move aerial robots into 3D formations.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.

Intel's new 3-D processor, codenamed "Ivy Gate" (right), and one of the previous generation of transistors (left). Photo courtesy Intel

Intel has announced the world’s first 3-D microprocessor transistor for mass production.

It’s a major breakthrough for the semiconductor industry, which has been trying for years to get the microscopic semiconductor structures that make up computer chips into the third dimension.

“This transition to 3-D devices will help us continue Moore’s Law,” said Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr at the news conference Wednesday. “Clearly you can pack more things into a small space if you go vertical with 3-D.”

The Tri-Gate 3-D transistors will be put onto a new line of Intel chips. Dubbed “Ivy Bridge,” the chips are the world’s first mass-produced 22-nanometer microprocessors, which means they also contain the smallest semiconductors yet available on a production chip.

The creation of the 3-D transistor is a major advancement in chip manufacturing. Instead of the power-conducting channel occurring on a 2-D surface as with existing transistors, it is replaced with a thin silicon fin that rises vertically from the silicon of the transistor.

Current control is then gated on each of the fin’s three sides on a 3-D transistor, rather than just on the top side, as happens in the current generation of planar, or 2-D, transistors.

Essentially, that means as much current flowing as possible when transistors are in the “on” state, increasing performance by as much as 30 percent compared to the current planar transistors. Alternately, when the transistor is in its “off” state, the flow will be as close to zero as possible, with lower leakage than before. This lower leakage means minimizing power usage.

In other words, the new line of processors will be smaller, faster and perform at a lower voltage with less power leakage than before.

Enhanced view of Intel’s Tri-Gate 3-D transistor. Photo courtesy Intel

“It’s the first change in transistor structure since 1958, when Robert Noyce invented the first planar IC,” said Dan Hutcheson, an analyst at VLSI Research. “Over the past 10 years, all we’ve done is shrink the chips. But it’s been growing more and more difficult to do so without actually changing the transistor itself.”

Also, more transistors are able to be fit on the Ivy Bridge processors, using the company’s 22-nanometer manufacturing process. Bohr said the new chips have twice the transistor density of the previous generation of 32-nanometer chips.

“Because they’ve made this shift, they have the power equivalence of about two nodes in one,” Hutcheson said.

While most microprocessors contain many vertical layers of circuitry (the wiring that connects the chips’ billions of transistors) the transistors have been confined to the bottom layer of the chip. That’s because the etching technology used to create semiconductors is destructive, so you can’t create multiple layers — or 3-D structures — without destroying the underlying layers.

Intel claimed only a 2-to-3-percent cost increase from the previous generation of planar transistors.

The company will be making upgrades to its factories over 2011 and 2012 in order to manufacture the new transistors. The technology should be expected to be in full production by the end of this year.

When asked, company spokesmen wouldn’t say when we would see 3-D transistors in smartphones and tablets, but acknowledged the company has a date in mind.

While this is a major announcement for the firm, Intel’s year hasn’t been without its problems. The company revealed in February that a supporting chip in one of its “Sandy Bridge” line of processors, codenamed “Cougar Point,” contained a manufacturing flaw. After shipping approximately 8 million of the bad chips, the subsequent recall cost the company an estimated $1 billion in the first quarter of 2011, after calculating for lost revenues and replacement costs.

But Intel has fared better this week. Apple announced its refreshed line of iMacs on Tuesday. They’re powered by Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” i5 and i7 processors. Early benchmarks show extremely speedy results.

With the development of the Tri-Gate transistor, Bohr estimates that Intel is definitely going to stay competitive with its rival, ARM Holdings.

“It doesn’t mean that ARM is going to roll over and die,” Hutcheson said. “But it’s not going to have the advantage in low-power consumption like it used to.”

A wall-climbing robot at SRI International sticks to vertical surfaces using electroadhesive film. Photo: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com

MENLO PARK, California — Scientists at SRI International have figured out how to make a plastic film that can stick to walls when you apply a small electric current — then peel off effortlessly when you turn the current off.

Why? They’re not entirely sure yet, but it’s pretty cool technology.

A recent SRI project aims to use the film to stick extension ladders to walls, so they don’t fall over when you’re climbing up them.

I saw a demonstration of the technology recently at SRI’s labs here, not far from Stanford University, which spawned the think tank in 1946 and spun it off as an independent nonprofit in 1970. The organization has been home to an impressive range of breakthroughs, from Douglas Engelbart’s pioneering work on mouse-driven graphical user interfaces to surgical robots, and has spawned a number of commercially successful spinoffs.

The key to on-demand stickiness is a special polymer film with a very low power (but high voltage) circuit printed on it. Applying 7,500 volts at 50-100 microamperes of current makes the polymer sticky enough to support small loads. Turn the current off, and the stickiness, called electroadhesion, dissipates within a few seconds.

Wrap that film around a couple of rollers, tank tread-style, and you’ve got a wall-climbing robot.

The robot shown in the video below has a footprint of about 1.5 by 2 feet, which gives it enough stickiness to lift itself (the robot weighs about 4 pounds) plus a 4-pound payload. It’s controlled by wireless signals from a game controller, though the controls are pretty limited: It can go forward (up) or backward (down). And it’s quite sticky, even on uneven surfaces like a painted cinder-block wall.

The SRI scientist who developed this technology in 2008, Harsha Prahlad, sees it as potentially useful for wall-climbing surveillance robots, or robots that can climb buildings, bridges, or other structures to inspect them for damage in places that humans can’t easily reach.

Other applications include pick-and-place systems in warehouses: A robot arm with an electroadhesive “pad” could use it to pick up objects, then set them on conveyor belts or in boxes.

It would also make a slick wall-hanging system for photo frames or even tablets like the iPad: Turn on the adhesive pad, stick it to the wall and walk away, with no wall-disfiguring nails or screws required. With a small solar panel, you can get enough energy from ambient light to power the electroadhesive film all day, Prahlad says.

See below for a video of the wall-climbing robot in action.

Note: The two “tails” sticking down from the bottom of the robot are there to keep the robot from peeling off the wall. By giving the robot an angular “brace” it increases the horizontal component of the force, which the electroadhesive film is better able to resist. Prahlad says that geckos’ tails function in a similar way: “If you cut off the tail from a gecko it can no longer climb.”