Electronics
InVision HR 3D Printer can print jewelry parts in a day
November 2, 2004 The development and availability of three dimensional printing systems is creating new opportunities - to demonstrate the capabilities of it's new InVision HR 3D printer, 3D Systems has been showing jewelry manufacturers how to use the system to print fine-feature, highly detailed parts in a day, reliably and at an affordable price. The response has been positive with many companies that were planning long-term to adopt 3-dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) software, accelerating their strategy to move to digital design and manufacturing in a matter of months as a result of the business advantages of the InVision HR 3D printer. (read more...)
World's first 100 GIGABYTE MP3 player
October 29, 2004 The publicity advantages of being the first MP3 player to reach the 100GB mark has pushed MP3 storage to breakthrough levels with the world's first 100 GB MP3 player announced recently from Digital Mind Corp. The DMC Xclef 500 can store up to 3,500 hours of music (based on Windows Media format at 64kb/s) - that's a whopping 145 days of recorded music or a whole summer of portable jukebox entertainment! Its internal battery provides over 20 of hours of play on a single charge and can be recharged 500 times to 100% capability. Its USB 2.0 interface also allows for data transfers of any kind at lightning-fast speeds. It is both PC and Mac compatible, and needs no software of any kind - just plug it in to your computer and it shows up as a regular hard drive. The DMC Xclef comes in five models, a base with no drive (US $149), 40GB (US $249), 60 GB (US $299), 80 GB (US $349) and 100 GB (US $449). Specs on the company website suggest the current design may extend to a further record of 132 GB in the near future. (read more...)
Wiziway interactive paper bridges print and Net
October 29, 2004 Wiziway Australia & NZ has introduced a new way to bridge the gap between printed media and the Internet: a simple click of a USB powered device, a clicker, is all that is required to take the user directly from the printed document to a web page, or download files from the Web. Wiziway's software solution consists of the reading of a 3mm tag (printed in the document) by an optical reader. The reader recognises the URL contained in the tag and uses the default browser on the computer. (read more...)
High-Speed Inclination Escalators from Mitsubishi
October 29m 2004 Mitsubishi Electric is developing an escalator that increases acceleration speed to 1.5-times normal at the slope compared with the boarding zone, redefining the perception that safe means slow whilst speeding up the journey from A to B over long distances. (read more...)
Intelligent Vending Machines point towards a cashless future
Stickups are on the rise but it's not guns being pointed - its mobile phones. And you're not being robbed - far from it. You're shopping in the cashless future that is now catching on with a convergence of technologies promising to digitise money and change the way we buy. The age of cashless transactions is here - not the end of money as much as the end of physical currency as we know it and the beginning of a networked economy of retail diversity, convenience and micropayments. Across America everything from ticket sales, laundromats, public phones, vending machines and automated kiosks are integrating USA Technologies' wireless, cashless networking services in a full scale roll out of the new digital economy. With the click of a bluetooth enabled mobile phone consumers can now shop without physical cash - leave your wallet at home. (read more...)
Medis Technologies To Develop Fuel Cells For Tablet PCs
Medis Technologies Ltd. has announced that it has received an order from General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, to deliver five prototype fuel cell power packs and associated cartridges as power sources for 10 prototype tablet computers in support of the United States Air Force (USAF) Wearable Computer Power Program. The aim of the initial project is to demonstrate extended field operation and the potential to reduce reliance on battery operation. The strategic intention is that the program will lead to a follow-on spiral development program with an objective of replacing the current ground air traffic control computers. (read more...)
DVD and CD media all in one disc
Silverline records, along with the participation of other major record labels, are set to release the DualDisc, a two-sided disc with CD content on one side and DVD content on the other. A significant step-up from the "enhanced" CD - which contains only a limited amount of extra information - the dual-format will allow artists to release music at a superior sound format and include extra content like music videos and interviews. In addition to having the full album on the CD side, the DVD side provides the full album in enhanced sound (such as Surround Sound, DVD-Audio or LPCM stereo), and also includes a range of special features like music videos, concert footage, interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, photo galleries, web links, and lyrics. However the contents will vary significantly depending on the artist and record company. (read more...)
11.7-foot, high-resolution screen
Researchers from Purdue university have demonstrated a new type of large high-resolution display that promises to have a range of applications in everything from home theatres to to higher education. The screen is massive by current standards, with a viewing area 11.7 feet wide by 6.7 feet high, yet has very high resolution, and hence could be used by researchers viewing scientific simulations and homeland security experts viewing satellite imaging (read more...)
Philips and Sony create first ePaper Book
May 2004 Philips, Sony and E Ink have won the race to market for electronic paper and announced the world’s first consumer application of an electronic paper display module in Sony’s new e-Book reader, LIBRIé, which went on sale in Japan as we publish (May 2004). E Ink’s electronic ink technology offers a t... (read more...)
NEC testing on-the-fly two-way speech translator
The language barrier which exists between massive groups of the world population went one step closer to elimination when NEC Corporation and NEC Personal Products announced the development of an automatic speech-to-speech Travel Interpreter (Japanese-English/English-Japanese) recently. The Travel Interpreter incorporates several NEC technologies - speech recognition, conversation-based speech translation and speech synthesis technology and achieves high-speed speech translation of approximately one second per Japanese sentence spoken. In essence, this means that a traveller speaking only English can converse with someone who speaks only Japanese via NEC's PDA-based translator. (read more...)
