Check out these great Sony Vaio concept designs that have been popping up on the net, they are certainly a step a head of the iMac concept designs we featured in January’s posts (click here to read iMac Concept Designs).

Although not official, these new Sony Vaio concept designs are really worth a mention. They feature a holographic glass screen that can go transparent and a keyboard that turns opaque when turned off.

Some of technology featured here is a way from being mastered to really perform well but the designs are certainly an interesting peek of things to come. Perhaps Sony will think about taking these ideas on board for their future range of Vaio laptops.

Sony Viao Laptop Computer Notebooks Finance

The Optimus Maximus keyboard is one of its kind. At first glance it looks like a standard keyboard, nothing too flashy going on, just a nice simple design with pleasing lines. But upon closer inspection you will see that each and every button on the Optimus Maximus keyboard is actually a tiny display screen that uses OLED technology.

Each button consists of a moving cap, a microchip and a display which shows the current function assigned to the key.

To help extend the lifetime of the buttons and to cut down on vulnerable wires, the OLED display is fixed in the transparent cap, this means replacing a key is as easy as it would be on a standard keyboard, perhaps with one exception…the cost.

Optimus’s customizable layout enables the use of any language — Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, hiragana, etc. — as well as any other characters: notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions etc.

The included configurator software enables the user to program each button and the image displayed and once everything is set up, you can switch between layouts with ease.

To run the Optimus Maximus you’ll need Windows XP, Vista or Mac OSX 10.4.8 or higher, at least 20 MB of hard disk space, at least 256MB of RAM and the $400+ it costs to buy one.

The OLED technology used in the keyboard is still an expensive alternative to a standard keyboard however; OLED screens are theoretically cheaper to produce in the long-run compared to regular LCD screens.

There are also other advantages over LCD. OLED screens can be as thin as a human hair, they can produce light without the need for a back-light, the can be bent and transferred to fabric, they have a greater range of color and the image quality is equally as good.

The main disadvantage is the lifetime of the OLED is very limited, almost 10 times shorter than LCD. But, according to experts it will only be a matter of time before the technology is improved and these types of displays will be found on many devices from laptops to revolutionary new ‘multi-use newspapers’ or video screens embedded in clothing.

Check out the video to see the OLED keys in action!!!

There is no doubt about it, guided ammunitions are changing the way we fight wars. In the days of the Vietnam War, guided ammunitions had already been developed however dumb or iron bombs were still largely in use. These days many munitions have guidance systems ranging from lasers to GPS, some of these systems are even being fitted to unmanned vehicles to enable a totally autonomous attack.

Dumb bombs are what most people imagine when they think of a bomb. There is no way to control the bomb once it has been deployed, they simply fall to the ground and explode, hence the name. Needless to say hitting a target with a dumb bomb is an extremely difficult task and innocent bystanders are often caught up in the carpet bombing technique which is employed.Smart bombs are designed to guide themselves to the target. The concept of this smart weapon is certainly not new. First developed back in 1943 by the Germans, the technology would go through stages of radio-controlled and laser-guided developments before being used on a large scale. The first large-scale use of smart weapons came in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm when they were used by coalition forces against Iraq.

More Information On The Air Force’s Newest Smart bomb Plus Two Videos After The Jump.

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This great custom R2-D2 PC case modification is set to rock the worlds of all Star Wars fans. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be information regarding this particular mod, except that it could possibly have been made from the original R2 chassis.

The original R2-D2 chassis used in the movies was precision made to a high standard by an Australian firm called Petric Engineering. A closer look at this R2-D2 PC case reveals slight imperfections in the build quality but considering the thing looks this much like R2-D2, I don’t see many people complaining, just asking where on earth they might be able to pick one up.

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Whether or not the creator actually wanted to keep his name quiet is unclear but one thing is for sure, he has sparked off a lot of interest regarding R2 mods. There seems to be a bunch of R2 case mods popping up here and there, and one of the better ones we found actually had some information.

This R2-D2 case was created by Ken “TGS” Kirby for ExtremeTech’s Science Fiction Case Mod Contest. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to complete the mod in time for the competition deadline so didn’t make rank, however many have reported that R2 would of certainly taken the 1st prize had it been entered.

The idea started when Ken salvaged two R2-D2 legs from an old R2-D2 Pepsi cooler. The after a long search he managed to find a white plastic barrel for R2’s body and a weber grill for R2’s head, then the chassis was ready.

Ken’s finished mod comes complete with:

• ABIT IC7-G
• P4 3.2Ghz w/HT @ 3.71Ghz
• 2GB (4 x 512MB) of DDR400 RAM
• 120GB Hard drive
• Radeon 9800XT 256MB Graphics Card
• Creative 7.1 surround sound
• Asetek Vapochill Phase Change cooling @ -38C

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As the trend for R2-D2 mod’s catches on and begins to grow, perhaps it won’t be long before a large company patents the idea and sets up for mass production.

As Blu-Ray seems to be leading the high definition format war over rival HD DVD, Sony and Nichia have teamed up to develop a new Blu-Ray player that is smaller and more cost efficient.

The new laser unit is just 3mm think and is compatible with normal DVD’s. Standard Blu-Ray players can not read DVD’s that contain organic dyes in the recording layers - Sony and Nichia’s new player can, this means the company will be able to save money churning out compatible disks from existing DVD lines and hopefully these savings will be passed on to the consumer.

The smaller dimension of the new Blu-ray laser makes the drive very efficient on space. This should also reduce cost of laptops and handheld devices that require time and money spent to map out how all the components will fit into case size deemed “portable.”

There is little news as to which products will be incorporating the new Blu-Ray player however Sony did announce that the new disc drive should make an appearance in their Vaio laptop range later this year, there are also rumors of the PS3 possibly getting this upgrade.

Brickhouse Security has just released their “Secret Service Invisible 2-Way Micro Headset,” the smallest communications device currently available to the general public. So, if you’re in need of an invisible headset for your business communications, covert operations or simply to impress your friends, you can pick one up for a mere 650 bucks.

This tiny communications device comprises of a micro-sized earphone, a transmitter necklace and a microphone which is connected to a cell phone. The micro earphone is wireless and weighs approx 1 gram, the wireless transmission works silently and is automatically picked up by the micro-earbud on the transmission necklace.

The earphone isolates the sound in the ear so nothing can be heard from the outside and there is an invisible thread which allows for a quick safe removal after use.

The device is marketed for suits business negotiations and meetings, live media appearances and personal surveillance requirements. People like President Bush and Barak Obama are already wearing the Secret Service Invisible 2-Way Micro Headset to ensure the correct wording, details and quotes are used when speaking publicly.

Check Out The Promotion Video From Brickhouse.

Point based motion capture has become the industry standard procedure to capture the movements of the human body and convert the data for use in 3D animations. Reflective markers are placed at many points of the body, as the person moves around the data is recorded and can then be transferred to the animation. Both movies and games use this technology to give characters lifelike movements and actions.

However when it comes to realistic facial work, even setups that use of hundreds of reflective dots leave the developers with rough blocky data the requires a lot of post processing.

Enter motion capture company Mova. Mova’s Contour Reality Capture System uses multiple cameras that create 100,000 polygon facial models that are accurate to within one tenth of a millimeter.

Mova founder, also the man behind Apple’s QuickTime and Microsoft’s WebTV, Steve Perlman said,

“This pushes Unreal Engine 3 to its very limit … it’s about as photo-real as you can get in real time.”

Check out the video of the Unreal Engine 3 running real time on a dual NVIDIA 8800 GTXs with SLI.

Perlman says the company has been working privately with developers for some time to adapt the system for video game use.

“People have never had this kind of data available before in a game context … their heads are spinning,” he said. “What you’re seeing right there is the result of, having time to wrap our heads around this thing and see how we’re going to use it, and yes, we can in fact get a face that looks almost photo-real — you know, not quite, but almost photo-real — running in a game engine today.”

“You can see the difference then between what’s achievable in cinema and what’s achievable right now in video games…….But next generation game machines, they’ll be able to essentially show in real time what we can do currently in non-real-time using renderers. … Next generation, you’re going to have interactive sequences where people think there’s a live person in the game.”

The Unreal Engines abilities doesn’t stop there, the contour system can also create even more detailed animations if real time processing is not necessary. Below is another video of how reality capture data can look when pre-rendered.

Perlman says that the cost of a Contour motion-capture session isn’t much higher than traditional marker-based capture session, somewhere in the region of a few thousand to a few hundred thousand depending on the length and complexity of the shot.

The real savings come in post production, Perlman explains,

“Unlike marker-based capture, which has a big manual clean-up process before you see results, with contour it’s purely computational….
“We’ve talked to people and one of the reasons when they announce delays for complex games is because they’re fighting to try and make the faces look good. With Contour, you send the guy in, he does a shoot, and we send you a face that looks nearly perfect. It’s no longer one of the risk issues for your schedule.”

The Contour system generates so much data, Perlman says, that the full value of the rendering won’t be apparent until hardware speeds improve.

“With markers, you kind of get the resolution of what those markers are and that’s it……
“When a next-generation game system comes out, or they decide they want to do something for a feature film, you can’t really use the data. With Contour, it’s actually capturing the data at much higher resolutions than any system in the world, even for feature films, can currently use. What we do is we store that data away … and when a next generation video game machine comes out and they want the data at higher resolution, they can.”

Perlman wouldn’t reveal which companies are currently using this technology, but said he expects the first games with Contour captures could come out in 2008, depending on developer schedules. He hopes the system will be in wide use by 2009.

The Pain Ray or Active Denial System (ADS) is a long standing joint project between the Air Force and the Pentagons Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. The ABS non-lethal weapon consists of a real life ray gun which shoots 95 GHz millimeter waves that penetrate the skin at a 64th of an inch beneath the skin. This causes the water molecules to boil where the nerve receptors are most concentrated and of course, this hurts like hell.

A press release by Sandia National Laboratories explains that when the waves hit,

“[They produce an] intense heating sensation [which] stops only if the individual moves out of the beam’s path or the beam is turned off……..
“The sensation caused by the system has been described by test subjects as feeling like touching a hot frying pan.”

Another Demonstration Video And More Info After The Jump >>>

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A joint project is developing the Cell Chip from the PS3 to help improve medical Imaging

IBM has recently teamed up with the Mayo Clinic to develop a research facility aimed at advancing medical imaging.The joint venture into improving the way we view medical images is developing the cell chip from the PS3 to hopefully enable doctors and radiologists to track patients’ health and treatment more effectively.

Bradley Erickson, chairman of radiology at the Rochester-based Mayo Clinic said that researchers are specifically looking at how the PS3 Cell chip - which was collaboratively developed by Sony Corp., IBM and Toshiba Corp. - could speed up the imaging process.

“It changes how we think about things…..We are facing significant problems in medical imaging because the number of images produced in CT scanners basically tracks Moore’s Law. My eyes and brain can’t keep up. I see more and more images I have to interpret….

Erickson said,

“The innovation here is to take computer chips and extract the information in these increasing number of images and help present it usefully to the radiologist.”

With the computer the Mayo Clinic is now using, it would take a few minutes to run the algorithm and get the new and old images lined up successfully. Using the PS3 Cell chip, which is extremely efficient at doing raw computations, the process could be done in a second.

This time saved can mean a great deal when it comes to treating patients with life threatening conditions.

“This is focusing on the quality of the medicine” Erickson explains,

“We might take an image of someone’s brain tumor to see if it’s getting better or worse or staying the same. We’re looking for really subtle changes. You might find out after two months of radiation that it’s not working, and you want to switch their treatment. If you have a human interpret that image, they may not see any difference, and the doctor will have them keep on with that same treatment, which in reality is not helping. … We can have a computer take that image and focus more quickly on what areas need attention.”

He added that it’s not unusual to be thinking about using a gaming processor in a medical imaging machine. He noted that a lot of high-powered graphics cards and other gaming technologies are have previously been used in medical imaging.

Scientists believe to have made a break through discovery that could one day allow us to charge or power electrical devices such as cell phones, by converting body heat to electricity.

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have been working with silicon nanowire-based converters and recently announced that they may have found a way to use to increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 100.Using a process called “electroless etching” the scientist are able synthesize silicon nanowires in an aqueous solution on the surfaces of wafers. The “technique involves the galvanic displacement of silicon through the reduction of silver ions on a wafer’s surface” the team explain in their paper.

This technique of creating the nanowires results in vertically aligned wires that feature a rougher surface than normal nanowires. It is believed that the rough surface of the nanowires is to account for the high thermoelectric efficiency.

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THE END IS NEAR!

Of the month that is. Love it or hate it - we all respect it. Nuclear energy offers a memorizing display of force as seen in the video above. The most powerful and destructive force that man has ever been able to achieve so far. With countries and terrorist threatening to use this power for evil, where does this leave the nuclear future?

South Africa may offer insight and a staging point for the future revolution of nuclear energy. The continents only nuclear power plant is located on its southern tip in no man’s land of Cape Town. It is an obsolete, water cooled reactor that is run by the State. However Eskom is ready to change all that and become the world’s first pebble bed reactor.

Pebble bed reactor promises safer, cleaner, smaller and more affordable power than conventional nuclear power plants. They even say this style reactor is “meltdown-proof” and “walk-away safe.”

“It is physically impossible for it to suffer the kind of accident at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl,” Ferreira says.

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Lobster Vision is the forefront of a new technology being developed for Home Security by Physical Optics Corporation of Torrance, California.

The handheld device prototype called the LEXID (Lobster Eye X-ray Imaging Device) is based on the lobster’s ability to see through the dark murky waters of the deep sea and may help security officers see through wood, concrete and steal.

Rick Shie, senior vice president at Physical Optics Corporation said that the patented device, which radiates objects with tiny amounts of X-ray energy,

“Is modeled exactly after the lobster living in the deepest, darkest part of the ocean,”

A lobster’s eyes are made up of thousands of tiny square channels that focus by reflection, rather than by refraction (or the bending of light) as human eyes do.

This unique optical geometric design, which allows lobsters to see in the dimmest light, is being adapted into a “lobster-eye lens” that focuses the X-ray images so that the device can actually see through solid objects.

The Californian Company are still in the early stages of development however She says his company hopes to have the device perfected within a year so that Homeland Security agents can test it on the job.

A bionic hand that can also help restore the sense of touch to amputees could soon be developed thanks to new research that has enabled two patients to feel sensations.

Both patients Claudia Mitchell, 27, a former U.S. Marine who lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident three years ago, and Jesse Sullivan, 60, who lost both arms to electrical burns, were fitted with prosthesis by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago this past year. These two patients are the first patients to receive this revolutionary new process that is leading the advancements in prosthesis.

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High Definition has already become the next generation format, many products already support the crisp resolutions of HD 1080i but there is still one thing undecided, Blu-ray or HD DVD? Both support high definition with similar technologies but they are not compatible and require different hardware to work.

With the two formats so closely matched in this head to head battle, it is impossible to predict which one will come out on top as the leader of the next-gen’ or if we may be indeed be stuck with the two competing formats.

Both systems use a 405nm wavelength blue-violet laser, but their optics differ in two ways.

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New high speed digital video camcorders are capturing speed and giving scientist a new perspective in time, speed and motion.