How would you like to use your body as a screen and input device? Well, you will be able to do it in a very near future, according to the following video, which shows Skinput, the result of some experiments from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft’s Redmond research lab.
Skinput makes use of a microchip-sized pico projector embedded in an armband to beam an image onto a user’s forearm or hand. When the user taps a menu item or other control icon on the skin, an acoustic detector also in the armband analyzes the ultralow-frequency sound to determine which region of the display has been activated.
For more information, grab the paper (in pdf format) and watch the video:
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The 2010 edition of TED is now over, and some really interesting videos are already popping out. In this one, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos some new features in Bing Maps, and it's mind blowing:
Maybe is time for Google to bring back the Rasmussen brothers to Google Maps.
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Ladies and Gents, we have a new contender in the smartphone arena: Microsoft Phone OS. By the look of it, they choose a clean sheet approach for the new Windows Phone 7, and rebuild it from ground zero. For all of you out there asking, no, it doesn't support Flash, which makes some sense, since Microsoft's Silverlight is a direct competitor to Flash.
All I know about this new OS is what I see in released videos, and I must say it looks good. It looks like Microsoft engineers developed a new way of mobile interaction, but only life usage will tell if is it good or not.
Available in holiday 2010 (whatever that means). Watch the video:
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While I use more and more the touchpad then the mouse, Microsoft is experimenting with new input devices that combine the standard capabilities of a computer mouse with multi-touch sensing. The future will something of this kind:
Yes, really, due to patent infringement. The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay i4i more than $290 million in damages. Maybe now Microsoft will start hating software patents.
While the buzz from Microsoft these days concentrate on Bing, their new "not a search engine but a decision engine" service, I think the real breakthrough technology people should be looking and talking about is the new project named Natal for XBOX 360.
It's a all new ball game in the human computer interaction, where one does not need a controller to play and interact with the XBOX 360. Just be there and play. Watch the demo:
Natal is the portuguese word for Christmas, does it means it will be available in Christmas? If so, Santa, I know is a bit early to ask for presents, but unless otherwise, this is what I want.
Update 4 hours later:Johnny Chung Lee has some technical insights of this project in his blog.
It's not me, but Microsoft itself who's saying it on his "Europe Logs On" study, released yesterday. In 18 months, people will spend more time browsing the web than watching TV. Other key findings of the study are:
Europeans spent on average 1.5 days a month on the Internet in 2008, and by 2010 will spend 2.5, which represents a 66% growth
Internet use on PCs will drop from 95% today to only 50% over the next 5 years due to increase usage of IPTV, games consoles and mobile phones accessing the web
Online video is the most popular online entertainment application
Content and communications services represents 65% of all time spent online, and commerce represents 33%
Being one of the European countries with lower penetration, Portugal has today more than 4 million people using the Internet
A brilliant video presented by Bill Gates in his CES 2008 keynote. Featuring Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bono, Jon Stewart, with a great humor and fantastic self critic. I'm amazed:
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