Casetop: A cradle display case for your mobile phone

The world of computer users are swiftly moving to mobile phones and tablets since they are packed with powerful processors and healthy amounts of system memory and storage.  A significant drawback or limitation they have is when users want to use them for lots of writing and feel confined by the cramped keyboards or get fed up with one or two finger typing. Similarly, but with some exceptions, many mobile phones lack much in the way of adequate screen real estate.

John Andrus realised he had a solution to these issues by inventing a go-between gadget, he calls a Casetop, which is a netbook-like LCD display panel, keyboard and battery pack combination that uses your smart mobile device for it's computing power.

Casetop is universally compatible with most mobile phones and tablets that have Bluetooth and a video out option, except for windows phones since they don't have a video out port on their devices.

Check the video out after the jump.

Google Demo's Glass Project AR Concept Eyewear

We can all surely attest to the notion of how in the last few years computers are getting smaller so much so, that smart-phones and tablets are taking over the realm of the average user. Largely speaking more people are becoming more switched onto the idea of ditching their computers since discovering their smart-phones and tablets can perform all the functions their computers did plus much more.

The iPhone and iPad provided the main sources for this switch and as we all know Apple never releases a new product until they're satisfied that it's finished, whereas Google introduces their products well before their ultimate conclusion more so as ongoing developments such as their Chrome operating system.

True to Google's intentions they have recently unveiled their concept AR (augmented-reality)  Glass Project, in which the user can control music, get directions, take pictures, give voice commands and do video chats. The glasses are really just a band that rests on the nose, so it seems like the wearer does something like look up to engage with the display, as can be seen in the following video.

Harald Haas: Illumination equals Transmission

Light, electrical light and transmission signals all use the electromagnetic spectrum to convey information for both illumination and communication data. Presently we use only one end of the spectrum for data transmission as in the case of telephonic and radar. But what if we could use our everyday electric lighting to transmit wireless data between devices ?

Harald Haas demonstrates, in the video here his outstanding technological invention that enables communicating wireless data from flickering the light from a single LED !

This is optical data transmission without the need of a cable, but I wonder if this this technological innovation would as he says "replace cell towers" ?



While Harald's remarkable invention looks likely to handsomely reward via a total global market in the order of billions, many questions remain. Like if there is a critical distance and direction of light between his invention and say a mobile phone or computer ? Or how does the device safeguard our security ?

Between Lies Deception and Truth, Magic on 3 iPods Video

Magician Marco Tempest uses sleight of hand and clever timing on his three iPod Touches demonstrating  his own brand of techno-three-card Monte.

Along the way, he makes some thought-provoking points about self-deception, lies and truth, and how sometimes lies turn to truth, resulting in magic. Thanks, Marco that was way cool.

Flex-image Touch-screen display technology

A group of researchers from Osaka University, Japan recently demonstrated a new software interface in which a user fluidly scrolls and crunches up an image as the user manipulates the surface of a touch screen computer display.

The demonstration in the video below shows a researcher sweeping and swiping his fingers across a google map. Usually a map on a screen has an edge or border, but in this instance parts of the content are distorted to keep them within the screen. This allows the user to navigate within a seemingly endless or edgeless map while keeping in mind the parts of the map that were originally on the screen.



I have to admit to being somewhat confused by this new advance since it would seem to me to be a software invention rather than a whole new type of display technology. But the demonstrator says in the video:

"Because this interface can be easily added to any software, it can be used on all kinds of devices. You can use it on the iPhone and the iPod touch, and it could also be used with larger screens."

Subtracting objects in real time full motion video

First there was virtual reality, an all encompassing immersive experience for singular head-wear users, then came augmented reality, a way of adding objects to ones field of vision for interpretative understanding. Now arrives, perhaps a slightly more curious method of altering reality ? No, merely on-the-fly erasure of selected objects in video making.

Researchers Jan Herling and Wolfgang Broll, from the Ilmenau Technical University in Germany have developed a way of removing objects from real-time video. They call it Diminished Reality and it seems to work in a similar way to that of using a 'clone' brush in photoshop.

 "The effect is achieved by an image synthesizer that reduces the image quality, removes the object, and then increases the image quality back up. This all happens within 40 milliseconds, fast enough that the viewer doesn't notice any delay."

This profoundly cool technique could quickly become useful for many a studied video creator, but perhaps unlikely useful for instant video making ? Merely watch how long it actually takes to remove unwanted objects in the picture plane. The electronic sleight of hand erasure and repair is superior to the physical time it must take to notice, select, draw a circle around and repair the image space of the unwanted thing ?




The electro-pop sound-bed pushing us excitedly through this digital sleight of hand video effect is Synth harmony by Cassiopeia.

Tomorrows computer and mobile phone display concepts

Practically daily we see more and more innovative display terminals popping up. And as our computers, televisions and mobile phones get progressively smaller and thinner, display screen technology is steadily becoming reduced to a mere sheet of glass covering interfaces.

Multitouch screens and gesture panning are already with us, so the next likely steps in interface device development will likely be, transparent monitors in the bathroom and in the office, retractable phone screens, tactile feedback, flexible e-ink and LCD screens that roll out and or fold up.

The video here is the result of TAT's Open Innovation experiment, where we get to appreciate an experience within a few moments of a day in the future, using some cool gadget interfaces.



One peculiar moment in this video, is the use of a contemporary Apple keyboard and mouse, surely one would have imagined at the very least some virtual keyboards ?

"Sweet Dream" on the iPad Orchestra

People often say "Music makes the world go round" but it looks as though Music will go round the world a whole quicker now with a wifi enabled iPad. This is exemplified by Alex Shpil's video here of the iPad Orchestra playing a piece entitled "Sweet Dream" composed by Ilya Plavunov.



The quartet are using an application called Seline HD available from the iTunes store, and for your convenience here also is the introductory tutorial video for Seline HD.



The iPad may be come the tool of choice for composers and musicians who collaborate either within a studio environ or more significantly from within almost anywhere in the world to anywhere else. Nevertheless you may not be all that familiar with the iPad so here is the link to Apple's youtube channel where you can view introductory video's of the iPad as well as video's of the latest iPod products that Apple released today.

Multitouch robot swarm interface controller

Robotics science researcher Dr. Mark Micire of UMass Lowell has developed a multitouch control interface using a Microsoft Surface table together with some of Microsoft's Robot Developer Studio products.

The video here demonstrates some examples of the gestures being used to control swarms of robots for disaster response, search, and rescue.

Two thirds into the video we see what must be the most unbelievably cool and useful aspect to this interface - the intuitive tabletop joystick widget, called the DREAM Controller, directly underneath the users hand.



The cool music piece is by Peace Orchestra with Who Am I (Chateau Flight Mix), off the Reset album.

Super thin, really tough Gorilla Glass

Back in 1962, New York based glass manufacturer Corning, developed an amazing innovation in glass technology, an almost unbreakable glass, which at the time struggled to find a market.

Now however the tables have turned with the advent of a burgeoning demand for very thin break resistant glass used in an increasing list of mobile phones, e readers, TV and computer displays.

"Gorilla is two to three times stronger than chemically strengthened versions of ordinary soda-lime glass, even when just half as thick, company scientists say. Its strength also means Gorilla can be thinner than a dime, saving on weight and shipping costs." read more

The glass formerly called Chemcor but now renamed as Gorilla can be manufactured in wafer thin flexible rolls. The video here demonstrates the durability and strength of Gorilla Glass compared with 2 other types of of very thin glass sheets.

3D TV: Motion Parallax Auto-stereoscopic

Recent releases of 3D movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland for both the movie theater and the home requires the user wear special optical glasses.

With a technology as old as 1908, technology researchers at NHK Integral have developed an experimental real-time system that uses an extremely high resolution video system, to create a 3D television system in which viewers need not wear special viewing glasses.

The video here gives us a glimpse of what may one day be a commonplace home and movie theater 3D TV experience, with one outstanding imperfection in the system. As the video states, this screen uses an 8K projector to create an image of only 400 by 250 pixels. This means that there are almost 280 2D pixels used to create one 3D pixel. Thus we ought not expect any opportunity to be pick up a set like this any time soon !

Tablets for the masses: the Indian $35 Tablet

IT engineers from Bangalore's IISc and four IITs have come up with a laptop at the cost of mere 35 dollars. The engineer says in the news video that by the time the device is released the product will be available for the mass market for under $20.

The display or tablet has a touch-screen, 2gig RAM, wifi connectivity and USB ports. Phew, when this nifty device arrives, I guess we can expect prices of most other tablets dropping ? Perhaps even the iPad ?

Multitouch Display Aquarium

Water is the most intimate material for human touch. Here we see a man playing with the surface of a large Multitouch Fish Tank at Deutsche Telekom CeBIT 2009. This rather opulent looking aquarium from q-bus enables interactivity with a computer display interface which is facilitated by tracking software through water, with the ability to play with the fish in the tank.

This appears to be an enlivening experience if only a novel one at best. Nevertheless I envisage a big market for these devices in large department stores, opera theatres, fashion conduits and stadium based convention and entertainment  centers.

The software was created by q-bus to run on an Apple Mac OS X platform. Although it may take a little while to properly load, be sure to check out their entertaining, Expanding Sphere video on the opening page of their website.

Toshiba AirSwing Interactive Hand gesture Mall displays

At the Embedded Systems Expo, Toshiba presented AirSwing. A user interface that can be operated via a camera built into a display through which it places a semitransparent image of the user within a superimposed menu allowing instant feedback to where the users are within the interface.

A significant feature of the AirSwing is that the image processing is handled with software which amazingly uses less than 4% of cpu resources while the equipment is running.

The system works by interpreting a combination of the users hand gestures and movements and since the interface is relatively simple and easy to, the displays are anticipated being installed in malls and shopping arcades.

E-Ink Newspaper display concept

is a cool semi-transparent E-Ink newspaper conceptual display. The virtual art video was likely made in a sophisticated video editing application, possibly Final Cut Pro. It was created by MFA student Scott Liao in collaboration with Manny Darden and Jay Yeop Kim.

The real E Ink according to the Wikipedia "is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997 based on research started a the MIT Media Lab. Currently available commercially in gray-scale only and commonly used in mobile devices such as e-Readers and to a lesser extent mobile phones and watches. The material is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays" particularly for e-Readers such as the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle among others.

Flexible/fold-able displays aren't anything new. Nor are interactive content or E-Ink. It's bringing these concepts together in a workable package that might take some time.

TechRestore disassembles re-assembles iPad

The first thing that strikes you about this video is the uniquely creative sound effects of this stop-motion animation tear-down treatment. It's pretty fun to watch. Apparently it only took 4 minutes of real time to pull it apart and re-build it !

Critically speaking there seems to be more than enough space within the enclosure to have a camera, an SD Card reader or a simple USB port in it, surely ?

But hey, isn't this all part and parcel of an Apple product ? Or are there production issues to be considered when building a completely new product ?

I tend to think that apple build the simplest which becomes the cheaper option available for the market, then listens to its critics and responds in the next generative model. I'd certainly be interested in reading your opinions in the comments section of this post.

Slick Sunset magazine mock-up for iPad

The creative potential for advertisers is remarkably clear upon viewing this quick mock-up of what a digital magazine cover could look like on the iPad.  Jesse Rosten's idea here is to take the familiar design and branding of Sunset Magazine and add motion.

Born to reshape the internet and looks certain to significantly alter the whole publishing industry, the iPad; doesn’t run Flash. If your website uses Flash, it won’t play well on the iPad. Turns out, a lot of people want their sites to look pretty on the iPad. So the internet is already starting to look different.


Over the foreseeable future I believe the iPad is likely to shake up the whole spectrum of news and entertainment media delivery systems, both on and off line.

Read more.

WallScope: Interactive gigapixel display

Students at the University of Tromso in Norway have created a larger than life interactive display wall using 28 projectors, creating a  22 megapixel, display. Interaction with the display simply involves placing your hands in front of it. I really dig the snapping fingers zoom in and out gesture, though.

This video shows how to navigate a 13.3 gigapixel image of Tromsø, Norway on the 22 megapixel display wall, using a custom, camera-based multi-touch interface and a custom system for high-performance navigation and visualization of high-resolution data sets.

The images here, are by photographer Eirik Helland Urke, gigapix.


Gigapixel images are great, but navigating them on a regular sized display through a slow web browser isn't such a great experience, you may also need be patient when viewing the video.

Flyfire: swarm bots to create huge airspace displays

MIT is looking to launch swarms of robotic LED-equipped micro-helicopters, they call Firefly and coordinate them synchronously to create massive free floating 2D or 3D displays in which each bot serves as a single pixel. Each bot is to be endowed with enough smarts and positional awareness to organize themselves into an airborne canvas.

The Flyfire canvas can transform itself from one shape to another or morph a two-dimensional photographic image into an articulated shape. The pixels are physically engaged in transitioning images from one state to another, which allows the Flyfire canvas to demonstrate a spatially animated viewing experience.

If they succeed in doing this, its likely Flyfire may only be practical within large indoor stadiums, since its almost impossible to maintain a stationary position in the open air by even the most successful hover piloting let alone thousands of almost weightless helicopter robots ? Or just how would they cope in almost any change in the atmosphere ?

Source

iPad: the third way to tech life savivness

..mememolly via rocketboom cleverly navigates us through the mayhem of iPad assets and functions....she helps us build a clearer idea of the stories emerging of Apple's new footprint into life-savvy history ....

Although it's not a major release from Apple, it's still a useful gadget. Hey its apparently possible to listen to music through iTunes whilst doing something else, like reading, browsing or emailing, photographs, video's, the internet and in some models use it as an iphone !

Together with 140,000 and counting apps available to use on the iPad, I personally think it looks to be the best e-book reader about to hit the hands of clever readers. However if it weren't for the early adopters price tag 10's of millions, more world get one. Hey relax Apple has only produced 10 mill !

(Authors note: Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.)