Researchers at MIT have developed a new imaging system that can record one trillion exposures per second. “That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom,” reports MIT News.
Andreas Velten, one of the system’s developers at the MIT Media Lab, describes it as the “ultimate” in slow motion: “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera,” he explains.
“The system relies on a recent technology called a streak camera, deployed in a totally unexpected way,” explains the article. “The aperture of the streak camera is a narrow slit. Particles of light — photons — enter the camera through the slit and pass through an electric field that deflects them in a direction perpendicular to the slit. Because the electric field is changing very rapidly, it deflects late-arriving photons more than it does early-arriving ones.”
However, to produce the super-slow-motion videos, the crew needs to perform the same experiment repeatedly: “It takes only a nanosecond — a billionth of a second — for light to scatter through a bottle, but it takes about an hour to collect all the data necessary for the final video.” Media Lab Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar calls the system “the world’s slowest fastest camera.”
“Although impractical for non-repeatable situations like filming live action, this research could lead to better, cheaper lighting,” points out ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld.
Be sure not to miss the 3-minute MIT Media Lab video.
Twitvid, a platform to share videos while Tweeting, just launched a new social video network that will “allow anyone to become a powerful video programmer, by curating links from YouTube, Vimeo or Twitvid,” reports Lost Remote.
“The purpose of this network is about discovering video. When you get followers, when you share a video, you’ll get viewership and engagement on the video and people talking and watching the next episode,” Twitvid CEO Mo Adham said. He believes the project is complementary, not competitive, to Twitter and YouTube.
The service allows users to make their pages open channels so anyone can share links, close it so only they can post links or assign a team of “editors” that can also contribute.
Several TV companies and shows already use Twitvid: “These tools will now help them build a following around sharing these clips,” the article states. As of now, only YouTube, Vimeo and Twitvid clips can be shared.
Social sharing remains on the rise and mobile sharing has grown over 600 percent since 2010, according to a new comprehensive report from sharing platform AddThis and social data aggregator Clearspring that analyzed more than 1.2 billion users.
According to the study, Facebook now comprises 52.1 percent of sharing on the Web. Twitter makes up 13.5 percent (52 percent in Japan, interestingly) and has shown 576.9 percent growth.
“Tumblr sharing has grown over 1299.5 percent, and is accelerating. This growth sharply contrasts with Digg and Myspace, whose sharing rates continue to fall (by 47.7 percent and 56.9 percent respectively),” reports The Next Web. “Facebook continues to grow, and Chrome is on its way to becoming the world’s most social browser.”
The post includes an infographic that outlines 2011 social sharing trends.
Audible Magic is adding its automated content recognition (ACR) technology to a live identification and synchronization service for television.
The company claims the new service will use the patented digital-fingerprint ACR technology “to identify TV content even if it is live, never-before-seen, reality-based material.”
“For content owners, broadcasters, programmers, and other application providers, this service also offers several significant new opportunities,” suggests the press release. “With it, for example, they can now add content-aware intelligence to smart, connected device applications on televisions, mobile devices, and set-top boxes. In addition, they can use the intelligence they acquire to create and support new forms of social engagement, advertising recognition and response, and audience measurement.”
Details about the service will be released during demonstrations at the CES Eureka Park Tech Zone in the Bellini Ballroom of the Venetian Hotel.
Panasonic has been named a CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree for its 65-inch Professional Plasma Display.
The company is targeting the home theater and post-production markets with its TH-65VX300U and claims the display’s “color reproduction approaches digital cinema standards.”
According to the press release: “The display’s ultra high-speed drive technology achieves clear and extremely detailed 3D video and also enhances 2D content. The advanced drive provides smoother gradation, which is double the smoothness of conventional models, resulting in richer gradation expression in a dark area of the screen allowing the viewer to see what is happening in extremely low-lit areas.”
The release also suggests the high-speed drive technology enables “crisp and clear” images, especially for sports and action films.
“The display also features a scaler bypass function which allows for pure degradation-free images and the use of an external scaler,” explains Panasonic. “With 3D images…the display features phosphor improvements and original lighting controls that deliver clear images with virtually no crosstalk.”
Google plans to challenge Flipboard with its free news reader, available for tablets and phones from the Android Market or iTunes App Store.
Formerly codenamed Propeller, the newly named Currents app provides a “more magazine like reading experience,” with, of course, Google+ integration.
“The free app offers you a swipeable, graphics-heavy way to read material from partners like AllThingsD, PBS, Huffington Post and Fast Company, as well as public Google+ feeds and RSS,” reports Engadget. “You can even import your Google Reader subscriptions — and it all gets cached for offline viewing.”
Google Currents is only available in the U.S. at this time.
Network World has posted a slideshow of 20 gadgets and services expected to be featured at January’s CES.
The products are no surprise since they were already showcased at CEA’s recent press event in New York City, but the slideshow is a fun teaser for some of the gadgets we can expect to hear more about next month.
Highlights of the slideshow include: Biscotti HD video calling system that plugs into your HDTV, the Tailgater Portable HDTV System from Dish Network, Motorola’s $299 Universal Lapdock 100 with 10-inch screen and keyboard, the $80 ZAGGkeys FLEX keyboard accessory for universal smartphone and tablet support, Polaroid’s new Z340 camera with SD card and instant printing, and Sennheiser’s $150 X320 headphones designed for the Xbox 360.
TechRadar offers an interesting snapshot of the 10 gadgets their staff is most looking forward to in 2012, some of which we should expect to see at CES next month.
“Where once we were waiting on the influx of dual-core tablets, now we’re looking at a quad-core revolution on the horizon,” explains the post. “We were looking forward to Android 3.0 and Google’s Chrome OS, but now we’re clamouring for Android 4.0 and Windows 8. Gaming also looks set to have a bumper year, with new consoles and technologies coming, and this is all before we get the usual raft of awesome announcements at CES 2012 in January.”
The following comprise the 10 picks that the TechRadar staff are most excited about: 1) New video streaming options and other content for the Amazon Kindle Fire — “perhaps the best gadget bargain of this era;” 2) Wii U with 1080p output, 3D support and a new controller; 3) Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime — the first Nvidia Tegra 3 tablet; 4) Windows 8 tablets with Metro interface and support for ARM processors; 5) Apple’s 2012 tablet (iPad 3 with retina display?); 6) PlayStation Vita with quad-core graphics processor; 7) Asus Padfone with Android 4.0 and Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core CPU; 8) Sony PlayStation 3D display — “a brilliant way to get into 3D gaming without totally breaking the bank;” 9) Android 4.0 tablets with varieties of apps and widgets; and 10) Ultrabooks “that get it right.”
Amidst customer complaints and bad reviews, Amazon plans to unveil an over-the-air-update to the Kindle Fire and is also expected to produce an improved version of the device.
Some of the complaints include: no external volume control; the off switch is easily unintentionally hit; Web pages load slowly; there is no privacy for multiple users; and the touchscreen delays and can be difficult to operate for users “whose fingers are not as slender as toothpicks” one critic warns.
Some Fire consumers who bought the product based on faith in the company have expressed disappointment in reviews. Also, some unhappy customers recommend just spending the extra money on an iPad.
Amazon considers the Kindle crucial to its success as a virtual store and it is already at risk with current pricing that can lose as much as $20 on each $79 Fire. Although the negative feedback might spell doom for some companies, Forbes warns “it would be foolish to underestimate Amazon.”
If the company can make a well-liked, reliable product, Amazon’s low prices will ensure a decent market share. However, the company is hoping for a device that is more than an e-book reader, and an updated version may be needed to achieve this. One analyst noted there is nothing to do with the tablet “unless you’re planning on putting books, a lot of books, on it.”
One thing Amazon got right with the Fire: “Shopping on Amazon is a breeze,” reports The New York Times.
As consumers continue to expect ubiquitous, easy and immediate ways to access media content, Hollywood’s release windows strategy has become “the root cause of piracy,” suggest The Hill.
Research at Carnegie Mellon University shows that every week customers have to wait before they can buy a DVD leads to 1.8 percent lower DVD sales. Moreover, as pirated versions are available 14 weeks before legal versions, the result is a 70 percent increase in pirated movie downloads.
The article suggests that Hollywood needs to adjust its current windowing strategy by looking at selling content in theaters, on DVD and through digital services “around the same time, perhaps at different price points.”
When VCRs were first introduced, they were viewed by the industry as a potentially dangerous piracy tool. However, VCRs eventually became a highly lucrative mechanism for the home video rental business.
The Hill concludes, “technology required the industry to adapt then, and it requires the same now. If Hollywood and publishers can do so, they stand a much better chance of thriving in a global digital marketplace.”
Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG, makes predictions about “virtual” cable companies that he expects to become available online by next year.
These companies will differ from VOD services like Netflix or Hulu in that consumers will subscribe to “real” TV delivered over the Web in real time.
The contracts will not be a la carte and the virtual cable companies will probably have razor-thin profit margins — after paying higher-than-market rates for big TV channels/programmers.
Although networks might shy away from virtual cable companies so as to not threaten their current deals with existing cable companies, the virtual programming may be beneficial to providers like Time Warner Cable, which will continue to offer broadband, where the profit margin is larger.
Greenfield expects companies that aren’t yet involved in the video business to be the first viral cable providers as they look for another platform to expand their business. Companies such as Amazon, Google or Verizon might also be among the first to sign on.
Faced with little interest from potential buyers, Hewlett-Packard is making its mobile operating system, webOS, available for free, allowing individuals and companies to make improvements (with certain guidelines).
When HP purchased webOS with Palm Inc. in July last year for $1.2 billion, it was “a highly regarded technology, but one that had failed to gain much traction with consumers,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
HP plans to continue enhancements to webOS and keep the 600 or so employees involved with the system. CEO Meg Whitman said HP may build devices with webOS in the future, but not in the next year.
The mobile operating system is “a fabulous technology that we don’t want to have go away,” explained Whitman in an interview, further noting that the decision to go open source is “a great answer.”
Google just hit the 10 billion mark for Android app downloads and is seeing one billion downloads per month.
However, The Arora Report found that some app developers make 1000 percent or more revenue from Apple than they do with Google.
“It appears that iPhone buyers are more amenable for paying for apps whereas Google buyers typically look for free apps,” explains Forbes. “Capitalism indicates that developers will continue to focus first on Apple and then on Google. It makes sense for the developers to go first where the money is.”
The article suggests Apple buyers prefer top of the line products whereas many Android consumers buy cheaper phones.
To further entice buyers, Google is now offering 10 popular Android apps for $1, with plans to cycle new apps every day.
Researchers have developed a new form of light-emitting crystals, known as quantum dots, that will be used to create thinner, flexible displays.
“The tiny crystals, which are 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, can be printed onto flexible plastic sheets to produce a paper-thin display that can be easily carried around, or even onto wallpaper to create giant room-size screens,” reports The Telegraph.
The first commercial products to use the technology are expected to be flat-screen TVs with improved color and thinner displays, available by the end of next year. The flexible versions should take at least three years to become commercially available, although the technology may appear on small personal devices earlier.
“Something else we are looking at is reels of wallpaper or curtains made out of a material that has quantum dots printed on it,” explains Michael Edelman, chief executive of Nanoco,a company set up by the scientists behind the technology at Manchester University. “You can imagine displaying scenes of the sun rising over a beach as you wake up in the morning.”
According to Edelman, Nanoco is currently working with major Asian electronics companies on flat-screen TVs that incorporate the quantum dot technology.
Amazon has established a $6 million fund called KDP Select aimed at gaining 90-day book exclusives for Kindles from publishers and independent authors.
Digital Trends explains how it works: “$6 million is allocated each year and split into $500,000 per month. That $500,000 is awarded to publishers based entirely on how many purchases that author’s books generated during the month as compared to all books enrolled in the KDP Select exclusivity program. So, according to Amazon, if 100,000 books sell during a month and your book sells 1,500, you will earn $7,500 in additional royalties for the month.”
Authors who opt in will get “special tools” like the ability to offer their book for free, to better market their books on Amazon. Amazon says there will hopefully be more tools to come in the future.
The program may become less appealing as more authors join — especially popular authors — since the fixed $500,000 amount could potentially split more times. “The minute a really popular book joins that plan, all other participating members will see their royalties sliced by huge proportions,” suggests the post.
