Taiwan flora show features high-tech displays

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(AP) -- Paper-thin speakers blare pop music. Three-D films appear on elongated screens with no need for special viewing glasses. Viewers' pulses turn cocoons into butterflies in an interactive display.

Welcome to the Pavilion of Dreams, a high-tech enclave within the Taipei International Flora Exposition, where Taiwanese artists and engineers are using technology-generated flowers and plants to strut the island's cutting edge know-how to onlookers from around the world.

The exposition, which runs from November through April, has so far drawn more than 1.9 million visitors to an expansive site in northern Taipei.

Already recognized as a supplier of smartphone and computer components to globaltechnologycompanies, Taiwan wants to use the pavilion to highlight its capacity for product innovation in the increasingly competitive high-tech world, said Hsueh Wen-chen, head of the government-funded creativity center that designed the popular pavilion.

"Taiwan is not so well-known for creating technologies because we use them mainly in making parts and components for consumer products,"she said."Here we let our imaginations run wild in a way that can give us ideas about how to meet consumer needs when we design our products."

Visitors to the pavilion are greeted by a 3.5-ton artificial flower hanging from the ceiling. It opens and folds its petals to the rhythm of pop music blared from scores of palm-sized speakers, cut into leaf shapes to merge with their surroundings. The speakers are made from a thin, flexible metal coated with a vibrating membrane with strategically placed sensors.

In an adjacent exhibition room, a row of 65-inch flat screens runs 3D animated films of flowers and plants that visitors can view without special glasses because the screens have been engineered to display something known as lenticular imaging.

Just around the corner, a wall of 10-foot- (3-meter-) tall liquid crystal glass panels - looking like a giant transparent bowl - shows a lifelike projection of flowers in the wild.

Unlike conventional flat designs, the 18 panels are curved to create a stunning visual effect. Engineers changed the properties of the membrane attached to the glass so light permeates the curved surface evenly - just like it does on theflat screenversion.

Perhaps most impressive of all, a nearby amphitheater shows a film about flora and fauna in a deeply forested environment that allows viewers to transform a small plant into a large tree by breathing onto the screen, or turn a cocoon into a butterfly by placing their wrists near the screen and letting their pulses do the work.

The apparently magical effect is accomplished by using ultra-wide bands, a radio technology first developed at a Russian lab to register life signs in human beings without making physical contact.

"Taiwan is now adapting the UWB technology for medical and other uses,"said Yuan Nai-chuan, chief program producer at the pavilion."We thought it would work very nicely here, too."

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Ceiling lights in Minn. send coded Internet data

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(AP) -- Flickering ceiling lights are usually a nuisance, but in city offices in St. Cloud, they will actually be a pathway to the Internet.

The lights will transmit data to specially equipped computers on desks below by flickering faster than the eye can see. Ultimately, the technique could ease wireless congestion by opening up new expressways for short-range communications.

The first few light fixtures built by LVX System, a local startup, will be installed Wednesday in six municipal buildings in this city of 66,000 in the snowy farm fields of central Minnesota.

The LVX system puts clusters of itslight-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in a standard-sized light fixture. The LEDs transmit coded messages - as a series of 1s and 0s in computer speak - to special modems attached to computers.

A light on the modem talks back to the fixture overhead, where there is sensor to receive the return signal and transmit the data over the Internet. Those computers on the desks aren't connected to the Internet, except through these light signals, much as Wi-Fi allows people to connect wirelessly.

LVX takes its name from the Latin word for light, but the underlying concept is older than Rome; the ancient Greeks signaled each other over long distances using flashes of sunlight off mirrors and polished shields. The Navy uses a Morse-coded version with lamps.

The first generation of the LVX system will transmit data at speeds of about 3megabitsper second, roughly as fast as a residential DSL line.

Mohsen Kavehrad, a Penn State electrical engineering professor who has been working with optical network technology for about 10 years, said the approach could be a vital complement to the existing wireless system.

He said theradio spectrumusually used for short-range transmissions, such as Wi-Fi, is getting increasingly crowded, which can lead to slower connections.

"Light can be the way out of this mess,"said Kavehrad, who is not involved in the LVX project.

But there are significant hurdles. For one, smart phones and computers already work on Wi-Fi networks that are much faster than the LVX system.

Technology analyst Craig Mathias of the Farpoint Group said the problems with wireless congestion will ease as Wi-Fi evolves, leaving LVX's light system to niche applications such as indoor advertising displays and energy management.

LVX Chief Executive Officer John Pederson said a second-generation system that will roll out in about a year will permit speeds on par with commercial Wi-Fi networks. It will also permit lights that can be programmed to change intensity and color.

For the city, the data networking capability is secondary. The main reason it paid a $10,000 installation fee for LVX is to save money on electricity down the line, thanks to the energy-efficient LEDs. Pederson said one of his LED fixtures uses about 36 watts of power to provide the same illumination that 100 watts provides with a standard fluorescent fixture.

Besides installation costs, customers such as St. Cloud will pay LVX a monthly fee that's less than their current lighting expenses. LVX plans to make money because the LED fixtures are more durable and efficient than standard lighting. At least initially, the data transmission system is essentially a bonus for customers.

Pederson said the next generation of the system should get even more efficient as fixtures become"smart"so the lights would dim when bright sunlight is coming through a window or when a conference room or hallway is empty.

Because the lights can also change color, Pederson said they could be combined with personal locators or tiny video cameras to help guide people through large buildings. The lights could show a trail of green lights to an emergency exit, for instance.

While Kavehrad and Mathias credited LVX for being the first company in the United States to bring the technology to market, Kavehrad said it trails researchers and consumer electronics companies in Japan and Korea in developing products for visible-light networks.

Pederson's previous company, 911 EP, built high-powered LED roof lights for squad cars and other emergency vehicles. He said he sold the company in 2002. He said the visible-light network grew out his interest in LEDs that goes to the mid-1990s.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which pays for 24-hour lighting and replacing fluorescent bulbs on high ceilings, is considering an LVX system, said Jeffrey W. Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

The system might include mounting cameras on the light fixtures to bolster the airport security system, but the real attraction is the savings on electricity and maintenance.

"Anything we can do to save costs is worth consideration,"he said.

Michael Williams, the city administrator in St. Cloud, said the city had been considering LVX for some time.

"It's pretty wild stuff,"he said."They have been talking about it with us for couple of years, and frankly it took a while for it to sink in."

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Disney's 'Tron' movie reverse-ages Jeff Bridges

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(AP) -- Hollywood has famously had better luck using makeup to make young actors look old - like Russell Crowe in"A Beautiful Mind"- than making old actors look young. But the ability to manipulate images digitally could prove to be a fountain of youth for actors getting long in the tooth.

In"Tron: Legacy,"which opens Dec. 17, 61-year-old actor Jeff Bridges will play Kevin Flynn, at his natural age, and a computerized avatar called"Clu,"who hasn't aged since around the time he was first created in the original"Tron"in 1982.

Clu bears Bridges' face, altered to make him about 35 years old, but it's grafted onto a younger actor's body.

While it may be eerie for audiences to see a new performance from a younger-looking Bridges, it was no less strange for the actor himself.

"It's bizarre. It's great news for me, because now it means I can play myself at any age,"Bridges said.

There have been digitally created faces before, even on fully animated bodies. Think Gollum in"The Lord of the Rings"or Dobby from"Harry Potter."

But no movie yet has done what The Walt Disney Co.'s"Tron: Legacy"attempts - putting an actor's rejuvenated face on a younger body, and in 3-D no less. Inevitably, the 61-year-old-turned-35-year-old face will be compared to Bridges when he was actually 35.

"With Jeff, we can go rent 'Against All Odds' or 'The Fabulous Baker Boys' or 'Starman,'"visual effects supervisor Eric Barba said."All this makes it incredibly difficult."

The filmmakers did not want Bridges' Clu looking precisely as he did in 1982. The idea was that some time had elapsed, and Clu was meant to look like Bridges in"Against All Odds,"which came out two years after the original"Tron."

"In our mythology, Clu was created after the events of the first film,"director Joseph Kosinski said."This is Clu 2."

Computers have already been used to roll back the years. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were made a couple decades younger in scenes from"X-Men: The Last Stand"from 2006.

Head alterations have happened, too. Helena Bonham Carter had an oversized cranium as the Red Queen in this year's"Alice in Wonderland,"and the late Oliver Reed's face was put on a body double after he died during the shooting of"Gladiator,"released in 2000.

But the triple-toe-loop of complexity in"Tron: Legacy"is a notch tougher than all that.

It also goes beyond the techniques that Barba and"Tron"animation supervisor Steve Preeg pioneered on Brad Pitt in the 2008 movie"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,"for which they shared an Oscar for visual effects. Pitt was digitally remade to look older, but he was never re-engineered to appear as the younger actor who has been seen by countless millions on celluloid.

By contrast,"we know what Jeff looks like and how he acted,"Barba said."It just means that people's perceptions will vary across the board."

In"Tron: Legacy,"Clu was created to help Bridges' character and the other program, Tron, build a perfect virtual world, but Clu turns evil with his own dark notions of building a virtual society.

To make Clu, filmmakers made a silicon mold of Bridges' face and painted it like real flesh. They took multiple photos, put them into a computer and gave him a"digital face lift"that took out wrinkles, tightened the skin and shrunk down his nose and ears.

He then performed a series of facial movements, such as raising his outer left eyebrow or lifting his cheek. Those were recorded by camera and computerized in 3-D.

Finally, when Bridges acted in scenes as Clu, he wore a helmet with four tiny cameras pointed at his face. Dozens of dots on his face acted as reference points for the computer.

"Sometimes I could be in my street clothes and just have this weird helmet on,"Bridges said.

The captured expressions are replicated on his younger-looking self. Actor John Reardon mimicked Bridges in later takes and had his face swapped out later.

Making sure Bridges' computerized head matched up with Reardon's body took artistry as well as high-tech. Preeg said filmmakers took more time looking at 160 Clu shots than they did at all the other 1,400 shots in the movie.

And who knows? Their hard work could help other agingactorsreprise roles they never had in the first place.

"I think this technology opens up really interesting opportunities for actors,"Kosinski said.

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US deploys 'game-changer' weapon to Afghanistan

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It looks and acts like something best left in the hands of Sylvester Stallone's"Rambo,"but this latest dream weapon is real -- and the US Army sees it becoming the Taliban's worst nightmare.

The Pentagon has rolled outprototypesof its first-ever programmable"smart"grenade launcher, a shoulder-fired weapon that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill the enemy, even when the enemy is hidden behind walls or other cover.

After years of development, the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, about the size of a regular rifle, has now been deployed to US units on the battlefields of Afghanistan, where the Army expects it to be a"game-changer"in its counterinsurgency operations.

"For well over a week, it's been actively on patrols, and in various combat outposts in areas that are hot,"said Lieutenant Colonel Chris Lehner, program manager for the XM25.

The gun's stats are formidable: it fires 25mm air-bursting shells up to 2,300 feet (700 meters), well past the range of most rifles used by today's soldiers, and programs them to explode at a precise distance, allowing troops to neutralize insurgents hiding behind walls, rocks or trenches or inside buildings.

"This is the first time we're putting smart technology into the hands of the individual soldier,"Lehner told AFP in a telephone interview.

"It's giving them the edge,"he said, in the harsh Afghan landscape where Islamist extremists have vexed US troops using centuries-old techniques of popping up from behind cover to engage.

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Graphic on the US army's new programmable"smart"gun that uses microchipped ammunition to target and kill enemy combatants hidden behind walls or other cover.

"You get behind something when someone is shooting at you, and that sort of cover has protected people for thousands of years,"Lehner said.

"Now we're taking that away from the enemy forever."

PEO Soldier says studies show the XM25 is 300 percent more effective than current weapons at the squad level.

The revolutionary advance involves an array of sights, sensors and lasers that reads the distance to the target, assesses elements such as air pressure, temperature, and ballistics and then sends that data to the microchip embedded in the XM25 shell before it is launched.

Previous grenade launchers needed to arc their shells over cover and land near the target to be effective.

"It takes out a lot of the variables that soldiers have to contemplate and even guess at,"Lehner said.

If, for example, an enemy combatant pops up from behind a wall to fire at US troops and then ducks behind it, an XM25 gunner can aim thelaserrange finder at the top of the wall, then program the shell to detonate one meter beyond it, showering lethal fragmentation where the insurgent is seeking cover.

Use of the XM25 can slash civilian deaths and damage, the Army argues, because its pinpointed firepower offers far less risk than larger mortars or air strikes.

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A soldier aims an XM25 weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Maryland. After years of development, the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has been deployed on the battlefields of Afghanistan, where the Army expects it to be a"game-changer"in its counterinsurgency operations.

The result, the Army says, is"very limited collateral damage."

The Pentagon plans to purchase at least 12,500 of the guns -- at a price tag of 25,000 to 30,000 dollars each -- beginning next year, enough for one in each Infantry squad and Special Forces team.

Lehner said the XM25 was special in that it requires comparatively little training, because the high-powered technology does so much of the work.

"This system is turning soldiers with average shooting skills into those with phenomenal shooting skills,"he said.

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China passenger train hits 300 mph, breaks record

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(AP) -- A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.

The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster.

A specially modified French TGV train reached 357.2 mph (574.8 kph) during a 2007 test, while a Japanese magnetically levitated train sped to 361 mph (581 kph) in 2003.

State television footage showed the sleek white train whipping past green farm fields in eastern China. It reached the top speed on a segment of the 824-mile (1,318-kilometer) -long line between Zaozhuang city in Shandong province and Bengbu city in Anhui province, Xinhua said.

The line is due to open in 2012 and will halve the current travel time between the capital Beijing and Shanghai to five hours.

The project costs $32.5 billion and is part of a massive government effort to link many of China's cities by high-speed rail and reduce overcrowding on heavily used lines.

Chinaalready has the world's longest high-speed rail network, and it plans to cover 8,125 miles (13,000 kilometers) by 2012 and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

The drive to develop high-speed rail technology rivals China's space program in terms of national pride and importance. Railway officials say they want to reach speeds over 500 kph (312 mph).

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Thai tech pioneer converts waste into wealth

Paijit Sangchai drops a small piece of laminated paper into a jar of cloudy liquid which he hopes will transform his start-up into a multi-million dollar company and help revolutionise recycling.

"Now this is the fun part,"he says a few minutes later, holding it under the tap to wash away soggy paper pulp and reveal a clearplastic film.

His Thai firm, Flexoresearch, has developed a series of blended enzymes that can recover pulp or fibre from laminated paper such as cigarette packets, stickers or milk cartons that were previously hard or impossible to recycle.

First one enzyme attacks the water resistant chemical coating the surface, then others take over and tackle the paper and adhesive layers.

The resulting pulp, he says, can be used to produce new paper products -- thus saving trees -- or turned into building materials that can be used as an alternative to asbestos, which is potentially hazardous to human health.

The technique, believed to be the first of its kind, also produces clean plastic that can be recycled and used to produce new products.

The firm was recently named one of 31"Technology Pioneers"by the World Economic Forum, which said its products were"poised to reduce the use of asbestos in the developing world, positively impacting people's health."

Time Magazine described Flexoresearch as one of"10 start-ups that will change your life".

It is a rare honour to be bestowed on an entrepreneur in a country hardly renowned for its technological prowess.

In developing countries such as Thailand, laminated paper is usually thrown away, Paijit says.

"Most people burn it illegally and that causes toxic fumes which harm people's health,"he tells AFP at his small laboratory in a science park on the northern outskirts of Bangkok.

"For people in developing countries who suffer from the fumes and don't know why they are sick ... it can help improve their lives,"he adds.

And whiledeveloped countrieslike the United States are able to incinerate laminated paper such as fast food wrappers safely, they do not have any commercially viable way to recycle it either, he says.

"Every country uses laminated paper, in stickers and wrappers of food like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken. That's all laminated and people throw it away,"he says."I think this a global market."

Since winning the Technology Pioneer award -- previous recipients of which include Google and Twitter -- Paijit has been flooded with thousands of emails, mostly from venture capitalists interested in investing in his start-up.

But the affable company founder and CEO is not interested in borrowing more money or selling stakes to investors.

He is looking for people overseas who want to licence the technology, which is already attracting interest in countries including Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea and India.

"I want to work with people around the world to heal the environment,"says Paijit.

It is a far cry from the days he spent experimenting with enzymes produced from mushrooms in a home laboratory after quitting a more than decade-long, well-paid career with a leading Thai industrial giant four years ago.

He invested his savings, then borrowed heavily from the bank, putting up his house as collateral to keep the project going and build a paper mill in eastern Bangkok.

At one point the firm was in debt to the tune of about 1.5 million dollars, but it has since repaid all the money and now employs 17 people.

And Paijit is already eyeing ways to turn other problems into profits, including a technique to turn used liquid coolant drained from refrigeration systems into oil that can be used in the construction industry.

"I make a profit from a problem. I convert waste into wealth,"he says.

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Apple patents an inexpensive 3-D projection system

(PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S. patent office has granted Apple a patent for a 3-D projection system that doesn't require the use of bulky 3-D glasses. This gives the viewer more freedom of movement and viewing angles.

The name Apple has given to this simple 3-D system is called,"Three Dimensional Display System."This auto-stereoscopic system works by projecting each pixel onto a reflective, textured surface, which is then bounced into a viewer's left and right eye separately; this produces the 3D or stereoscopic effect. By sensing the locations of both eyes of each viewer, multiple viewers could observe the 3-D effect from a variety of angles.

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Each pixel is aimed at a curved surface, where it reflects onto the correct eye.

Apple is not the only company that’s involved in auto-stereoscopic R&D; however Apple's patent has picked apart the limitations of three categories of auto-stereoscopic system:

1. Ghost like or transparent images in volumetric displays.
2. The viewer required to remain stationary using the parallax barrier method.
3. The use of holographic images requires greater computer power and larger bandwidth, keeping the commercial cost higher that is required for other auto-stereoscopic systems.

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Apple's auto-stereoscopic system tracks where the viewer is located and tailors its display to your position.

Apple’s main objective is to develop a 3-D glass-free auto-stereoscopic system that would give viewers the freedom to move around without being tied down to bulky 3-D glasses.Apple’spatentalso promises to keep costs low and simplifying the system while maintaining performance.

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Let your beer mat do the talking

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Forget speed-dating and the classifieds column– now you can leave it to your beer mat to make that all-important first move.

Beer mats have always provided endless entertainment in thebarand now a group of computer scientists from Newcastle University have developed a novel way of sparking upconversationwith a new generation of beer mat.

Using an interactive bar surface, camera-based technology tracks the specially-designed mats as they are moved around the bar.

When the mats are placed on the bar they 'chat' to each other in the form of visual text messages - the words scrolling across the surface like television news bulletins and triggering a response.

‘Talking’ amongst themselves, the mats send out a random selection of pre-programmed messages, the aim being they act as an ice-breaker and prompt conversation between the owners of the drinks.

The interactive mats are the brainchild of a group of Newcastle University PhD students from the university’s Culture Lab with the system being built by Tom Bartindale and Jack Weeden.

Being demonstrated for the first time at Culture Lab’s Jam45 event, the technology is part of a showcase of new and innovative audio/visual performances from across the North East.

Tom explains:“The idea is that the mats gain a personality when placed on the bar - some are funny, some are naughty, some are scared of other mats and some are out to talk to everyone.

“This is a twist on meeting new people in a public space.  I think most of us feel quite self-conscious and uncomfortable about starting a conversation with a stranger so what our mat does is make that first move and also provides a talking point.”

Tom says the group first came up with the idea while they were sat in a bar in Germany.

“We were looking around at all these isolated groups and started thinking about how we could get them talking to each other.  The interactive beer mats started off as a bit of fun and then we realised their potential for bringing people together.”

The technology works by using cameras to sense the positions of traditional beer mats that have been printed with markers on their underside.  Text and graphics are then displayed on the bar, allowing the beer mats to“talk” to each other.

The conversation starters have been drawn from a variety of phrases, including humorous chat up lines, serious questions and light-hearted banter. When a drink mat is removed, other mats will comment on this, and encourage conversation with new“un-known” mats.

Weeden adds:“In general, technology tends to kill conversation and trigger quite anti-social behavior– we bury ourselves in our text messaging, iPods or computer screens and never even look up to see who’s standing next to us.

“The focus of our work is to use technology to encourage interaction and relationships.  We want these very public text messages to break the ice and make people laugh.”

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Japan pitches mind-blowing high-tech 3D World Cup

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Japan promised a high tech marvel in its final pitch to host the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday by paving 400 stadiums around the world with 3D flat screens to show life size matches thousands of miles away.

"I have to admit that the idea of this blows my mind away,"admitted Japan 2022 bid committee chief executive Kohzo Tashima.

"Three hundred and sixty million people could have a full stadium experience of matches; that's over 100 times the number of spectators at the 1994 World Cup in the United States,"he told FIFA's executive committee.

Backed by Sony chairman Howard Stringer, Japanese officials mirrored the promise of an electronics revolution for the next generation that would eliminate language problems in Japan by providing tiny real-time interpretation machines and constant connection to palm sized screens.

But the highlight of the presentation a day before the grandees of world footballs' governing body -- some of whom are in their 80s -- choose the hosts, was the idea of paving whole pitches including Wembley or the legendary Maracana stadium with flat screens.

They would project real-time hologram-likethree dimensional imagesof the game in life size and real time to crowds around the world.

"Our nation's bid is not about one nation hosting the games or two nations, but 208 regions and FIFA nations hosting the game together,"said Junji Ogura, chairman of the Japanese bid and a member of FIFA's executive committee.

"Create aWorld Cupfor the next generation to bring 208 smiles to the world,"he urged his fellow footballing offocials.

Although the idea seemed far fetched, Stringer insisted it was as realistic as the steps taken when the Walkman portable music player, home video cameras, or PlayStation were launched

"The truth is the world is changing faster than any of us can understand,"the Sony chief explained.

"I can tell you that this is not science fiction, in 2022 this will be science fact,"Stringer insisted, dressed in a Japan football jersey.

Japanese sports minister Kan Suzuki said the government was ready to give"absolute guarantees"not only for the political and financial pledges, but also the technological promise.

Ogura said:"The challenge for FIFA, for football, is to identify the next big idea."

Japan is vying with more traditional bids from Australia, the United States, Qatar, and South Korea to host the 2022 tournament.

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Following film and TV, music takes stab at 3-D

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(AP) -- At the beginning of the re-emergence of 3-D, the focus was on film, with movies like"Avatar"paving the way for the technology to become an integral part of the cinema experience.

Soon TV followed, with sporting events like the World Cup featured in 3-D, and companies such as Sony and Samsung rolling out 3-D televisions.

Now, the music world is making sure it isn't left behind in the 3-D revolution. Justin Bieber and the Black Eyed Peas are planning to release 3-D movie-concerts, while the music video for Shakira's World Cup anthem,"Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),"had a version in 3-D. Even acts like Sia and the Broken Bells are producing 3-D clips.

"It's not the '80s 3-D, like, the way people think of 3-D. It changes the art form of storytelling. It's pretty amazing. It's a whole new freaking jump-off,"said the Peas' leader will.i.am.

Oscar-winning director James Cameron, whose groundbreaking"Avatar"has become the top-grossing movie in history, says 3-D's spillover to music will find success.

"Music videos in 3-D, it's natural, that's great,"he said.

Cameron's production company, Pace, will produce the Peas' upcoming project. Will.i.am says 3-D music content will alter the way we watch music videos and concerts - and record labels have taken note.

JeanBaptise Duprieu, senior director at Sony Music International, says the company will"produce a lot of 3-D content this year."

Duprieu says when he presented Shakira's"Waka Waka"video to Sony staffers, they felt a sense of closeness to the Latin sensation.

"The reaction was, 'Wow, we feel so much closer to the artist ... and really immersed (in) what's going on,'"Duprieu recalled."So I think generally the impression is a better connection and a more sort of real vibrance going on."

The Peas performed a 3-D concert in New York's Times Square in March while rap-rock trio N.E.R.D did so last month. And other musicians like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Kenny Chesney have released 3-D concerts. International singers Kylie Minogue and Sia have also filmed some of their recent live shows in 3-D. Veteran rockers U2 did so in 2006 on their"Vertigo"tour.

Peter Shapiro, co-founder of 3ality Digital and producer for 2008's concert film"U2 3D,"says the music film helped pave the way for more like it. But he adds there are plenty of challenges with creating good 3-D material for the music world.

"If it's not done well and the cuts don't match, you can hurt people's eyes,"he said."3-D likes to be slower than 2-D. So if you're watching TV ... 3-D lends itself to feeling like you're there. You want to forget that you're watching a recorded image."

Cameron says 3-D music content will find more successful in clips that won't have too much action going on.

"It's not that 3-D works against you when you cut fast, it's just that you don't have time for your eye to lock in 3-D so you're not getting the value out of it,"Cameron said."But some music videos are long, sustained takes - so that's the kind that will work the best."

Duprieu agrees, explaining that Sony plans to film 3-D content with its classical musicians - including a recent recital with pianist Lang Lang.

"You would think classical music is pretty static and you would not feel that much stuff going on, but actually because of the depth of 3-D, you really actually enhance the listening experience and connection to the music by having that shot in 3-D,"he said.

"It can actually be overwhelming to have too many cameras and too many different angles,"he added.

Outside the Shakira clip, others have since produced 3-D music videos and content. Guitar Center Sessions, a program on DirecTV Inc., features live 3-D performances, including recent shows with Peter Gabriel and Jane's Addiction. A representative for the channel confirmed that there are plans to shoot about 15 more shows before the end of the year.

Rock duo Broken Bells released a 3-D video for their latest single,"October,"and the video for Bon Jovi's new single,"What Do You Got,"was shot in 3-D.

Wayne Isham, the director behind the Bon Jovi clip, says 3-D music videos are an opportunity for"music videosto blow everyone's minds again."

"I think it's going to be a rebirth of performance again in music, because with everything that's going on with the Internet and everything that's going on with the lack of a true MTV channel where people are not having ... the ability to show their videos, I think now bands are going to be able to showcase themselves ... in the most simplistic sense,"Isham said.

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Flexible and transparent OLEDs from TDK (w/ Video)

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(PhysOrg.com) -- Flexible and translucent organic displays have been developed by TDK for use in“bendable” mobile phones and other gadgets, and the bendable display is expected to go into mass production by the end of 2011.

The displays, developed by TDK, use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, which means very low power use because they are self illuminating. Having no back light enables the displays to be ultra thin (at 0.3 mm), but TDK’s flexibledisplayis also super light because it is manufactured using a film substrate rather than metal or glass.

The resolution of the flexible screen is currently 256 x 64, and it can be up to 10 cm tall and installed on curved surfaces of less than 25 mm radius. Being flexible would make the display more resistant to cracks or breakages.

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The translucent display is 320 x 240 resolution, 50 percent translucent, and up to 10 cm tall. The display uses one-way light emission, meaning the user of the device is able to see the text or images displayed, but people on the other side cannot because the light output is set to the direction of the text, although they can see through the display. The translucent display uses a glass substrate, but a film transparent display is planned for 2012.

Several other companies have previously demonstrated flexible screens, such asSony, but TDK'sflexible displayis expected to be in mass production by the end of next year, making it the first to actually reach market. The translucent screen is already being mass produced.

The OLEDs were unveiled at the Cutting-Edge IT&Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition (CEATEC) 2010 in Tokyo, Japan yesterday.

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Japan tech fair offers glimpse of future lifestyles

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Hundreds of technology firms came together in Japan Tuesday to showcase the latest in high-end gadgetry, including wafer-thin speakers and a ring that can monitor your heart rate.

The five-day Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (Ceatec) technology fair in Chiba near Tokyo features more than 600 companies from 15 countries and regions showing newgadgets.

Musical instrument maker Yamaha had on show its prototype TLF speaker that can be displayed as a thin, light and flexible poster with a cloth cover.

The 1.5-millimetre-thick speaker sends directional"flat-wave"sounds that do not deviate once emitted, meaning that sounds can only be heard when the listener is standing in front of it.

Yamaha aims to sell the technology early next year, company spokesman Yusaku Shibuya said, adding:"This can function as a convenient advertising poster, which can be rolled up and carried around."

He said it would first be aimed at corporate users before being released to ordinary consumers with potential benefits for those living in smaller houses who do not want to disturb roommates with music.

FujitsuLtd. offered its"omniview"system for automobiles, which uses small cameras and imaging software to give drivers a 360 degree, 3D view of the car's surroundings. SomeToyotavehicles adopted the system earlier this year.

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Japanese electronics parts maker Murata Electronics displays the company's unicycle robot called the"Murata Seiko-chan"during a demonstration at Ceatec, Asia's largest electronics trade show in Chiba, suburban Tokyo on October 5, 2010. The robot, 50 cms tall and weighing six kilos, was displayed riding on a unicycle along a narrow winding bridge, keeping its balance.

Electronics parts maker Murata Co. was displaying a ring that measures heart speed and blood-oxygen levels and can transmit data to a cellphone or other device to trigger an alarm if the pulse rate is too high.

NTT DoCoMo's new"augmented reality"applications use virtual images to enhance everyday experiences, Japan's leading mobile phone carrier said.

"Cellphones are a bridge between virtual reality and the world around you,"said Manabu Ota, a DoCoMo official for consumer mobile device development.

Among applications the firm is developing is a function giving shoppers an enhanced view of a chosen object to see if it fits in the home before buying.

DoCoMo also showed a prototype"AR Walker"system -- made with optical equipment maker Olympus -- which requires users to wear special glasses that give a view overlaid with information on directions and local recommendations.

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Obama promotes clean energy; GOP hits Dem spending

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(AP) -- Wind, solar and other clean energy technologies produce jobs and are essential for the country's environment and economy, President Barack Obama said in promoting his administration's efforts.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, a month away from congressional elections, to charge Republicans with wanting to scrap incentives for such projects.

"That's what's at stake in this debate,"the president said."We can go back to the failed energy policies that profited the oil companies but weakened our country. We can go back to the days when promising industries got set up overseas. Or we can go after new jobs in growing industries. And we can spur innovation and help make our economy more competitive."

Part of the House GOP's recently released"Pledge to America"calls for freezing spending from last year's stimulus bill. The stimulus included $90 billion for clean energy projects ranging from electric vehicles to solar loan guarantees, although a big chunk of the money has already been obligated or spent.

Obama cited a solar power plant breaking ground in the Mojave Desert this month thanks to government incentives.

"With projects like this one and others across this country, we are staking our claim to continued leadership in the new global economy,"Obama said."And we're putting Americans to work producing clean, homegrown American energy that will help lower our reliance on foreign oil and protect our planet for future generations."

Republicans disputed Obama's criticism, saying they support investments in renewable energy technologies.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took aim in the GOP radio response at government spending, saying Democrats are"maxing out the national credit card on a failed stimulus bill and a government-run health care bill."

He criticized Democrats for recessing Congress until after the elections without acting to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire in January. Obama and Democratic leaders want to extend the tax cuts only for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000, while Republicans and some rank-and-file Democrats want to extend tax cuts for the wealthy as well, a costlier proposition.

"Whenever they were asked about this looming tax hike, they just blamed the Republicans,"McConnell said."They said that Republicans will be to blame for some people getting a tax hike because we didn't think anyone should get a tax hike. ... The fact is, the best way to help individuals and small businesses and the economy is to give them all the certainty that their taxes won't be going up at the end of the year."

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Body language to be read by computers one of new innovative solutions

Can a computer read your body language? A consortium of European researchers thinks so, and has developed a range of innovative solutions from escalator safety to online marketing.

The keyboard and mouse are no longer the only means of communicating with computers. Modern consumer devices will respond to the touch of a finger and even the spoken word, but can we go further still? Can a computer learn to make sense of how we walk and stand, to understand our gestures and even to read ourfacial expressions?

The EU-fundedMIAUCEproject set out to do just that."The motivation of the project is to put humans in the loop of interaction between the computer and their environment,” explains project coordinator Chaabane Djeraba, of CNRS in Lille.

“We would like to have a form of ambient intelligence where computers are completely hidden,” he says. “This means a multimodal interface so people can interact with their environment. The computer sees their behavior and then extracts information useful for the user."

It is hard to imagine a world where hidden computers try to anticipate our needs, so the MIAUCE project has developed concrete prototypes of three kinds of applications.

Escalator accidents

The first is to monitor the safety of crowds at busy places such as airports and shopping centres. Surveillance cameras are used to detect situations such as accidents on escalators.

“The background technology of this research is based oncomputer vision,” says Djeraba. “We extract information from videos. This is the basic technology and technical method we use.”

It’s quite a challenge. First the video stream must be analysed in real time to extract a hierarchy of three levels of features. At its lowest, this is amathematical descriptionof shapes, movements and flows. At the next level this basic description is interpreted in terms of crowd density, speed and direction. At the highest level the computer is able to decide when the activity becomes‘abnormal’ perhaps because someone has fallen on an escalator and caused a pile-up that needs urgent intervention.

It is at the second level and the third“semantic” level of interpretation that MIAUCE has been most concerned.

One of the MIAUCE partners is already working with a manufacturer of escalators to augment existing video monitoring systems at international airports where there may be hundreds of escalators. If a collapse can be detected automatically then the seconds saved in responding could save lives as well.

But safety is only one possible kind of application where computers could read ourbody language.

Face swapping

A second could be in marketing, specifically to monitor how customers behave in shops.“We would like to analyse how people walk around in a shop,” Djeraba says, “and the behaviour of people in the shop, where they look, for example.”

The same partner is developing two products. One will be a‘people counter’ to monitor pedestrian flows in the street outside a shop. It is expected to be particularly attractive to fashion stores who wish to attract passers-by. Another is a ‘heat map generator’ to watch the movements of people inside the store, so that the manager can see which parts of the displays are attracting the most attention.

The third application addressed by MIAUCE is interactive web television, a technology of increasing interest where viewers can select what they want to see. As part of the project, the viewer’s webcam is used to monitor their face to see which part of the screen they are looking at.

It could be used to feed the user further information based on the evidence of what they have shown an interest in. Project partner Tilde, a software company in Latvia, is commercialising this application.

MIAUCE has also developed a related technology of‘face swapping’ in which the viewer’s face can replace that of a model. This could be used for trying out hairstyles and clothing.

Ethics and anonymity

These are all ingenious applications but are there not ethical and legal worries about reading people’s behavior in this way?

Djeraba acknowledges that the project team took such issues very seriously and several possible applications of their technology were ruled out on such grounds.

They worked to some basic rules, such as placing cameras only on private premises and always with a warning notice, but the fundamental principle was anonymity.“We have to anonymise people,” he says. “What we are doing here is analysing user behavior without any identification, this is a fundamental requirement for such systems.”

They also took account of whether the applications would be acceptable to society as a whole. No one would reasonably object to the monitoring of escalators, for example, if the aim was to improve public safety. But the technology must not identify individuals or even such characteristics as skin color.

“Generally speaking, anonymity is the critical point. If we anonymise it’s OK, if we don’t anonymise it’s not OK,” Djeraba says.

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'Levytator': Scientist unveils world's first freeform curved escalator (w/ Video)

Jack Levy, an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at City University London, has developed and patented the 'Levytator', and is now seeking to take it to market.

Architects will be able to create escalators in any shape they want, even freeform curves, thanks to the first significant rethink of escalator design since the‘moving stairway’ was invented in 1897.

A system known as the 'Levytator' has been developed by Jack Levy, an Emeritus Professor ofMechanical Engineeringat City University London. Unlike traditional designs, where redundant steps move underneath those in use, the Levytator utilises a continuous loop of curved modules, which can follow any path upwards, flatten and straighten out, and descend once more, all with passengers onboard.

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A video of a working model and computer simulation.

The system can be arranged in any configuration - as a DNA-esque double helix in a science museum, for example - and also offers several practical advantages at a cost that is similar to a conventional unit.

"As all of the steps can be accessed from above, maintenance can be carried out much more easily,"says Levy."It also means that no excavation is required when installing the Levytator. This could be particularly useful in the heritage sector, where the system could be placed on top of a grand staircase in a listed stately home, providing better access for elderly and disabled visitors, but not destroying the fabric of the building."

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Nokia research lab working on nanowire sensing, stretchable electronic skin

Getting into a Nokia Research Center laboratory isn't easy. The security doors remain open long enough for one or two people to enter and if held open too long, will sound what we're told is an exceptionally loud alarm. Lucky then that we were part of a group taken around NRC’s Cambridge laboratory to see some of the latest scientific problems being solved there. We were treated to demoes of three different strands of research; Nanowire Sensing, Stretchable Electronic Skin and Electrotactile Experience. Each one as amazing and eye-opening as the next. Read on after thejump for a lowdown including pics and video.

The Nokia Research Center in Cambridge was set up in 2007 as a partnership with the University of Cambridge. Soon after it was established, theMorph Conceptwas unveiled, to help build a picture of where the research at the labs was heading. Led by Dr Tapani Ryhänen the Cambridge team is one part of a two-location European NRC operation, the other location being in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Dr Tapani has a team of about 25 Nokia researchers working in Cambridge (and a further 10 in Lausanne), but they also work closely with the University of Cambridge, giving access to a much wider team. The focus of the research though is very much around nanotechnology and executing what Dr Tapani refers to as“meaningful engineering at a smaller scale”. Nanotech isn’t something which we’ll see appear on a device as a feature. Rather it’s a way of working which offers a whole new world of possibility, some of which we’re previewing below.

Nanowire sensing

The lowdown: The team involved in this project is effectively working on an artificial nose. By placing a nanowire on top of a chip, they can train it to recognise different substances which are placed close to the sensing surface. This all happens at a nanometer scale, where the current passing through the nanowire is influenced by its immediate surroundings. Place a different substance near it and the current running through the wire will react differently. There’s still a lot of work to do on it, but the team were able to show us the nanowire and its accompanying software (which used a sniffing dog as it’s icon) correctly identify a substance.

The potential application: In the future, this kind of technology could be used to monitor environments and measure a variety of things including air pollution, food-based contaminants or bio-chemical processes. Right now it’s restricted to identifying particular molecules but the long term aim is to enable it to identify complex molecular mixtures - similar to how our own noses work.

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Stretchable electronic skin

The lowdown: Right now, circuit boards are solid. The team at Cambridge however are working on a technology that’ll enable them to be flexible, creating something akin to “electronic skin”. By using evaporated gold as a conductor, they have created an electronic touchpad which can be stretched like a rubber band, but still respond to touch and pressure. The team has been testing it to stretch by up to 20 per cent of its original length without any drop in performance. The process of creating the material is pretty unique and the results are utterly mind-boggling, when you start to think about the possibilities it offers.

The potential application: This research has at its heart new form factors for devices of the future. The possibilities might sound hard to believe, but working technology which can be twisted and distorted like a rubber band could enable a unique range of wearable devices or even enable technology to feasibly become part of our clothing. After we’d seen it, the talk from the group was of us having completely different ways of us interacting with technology in the future. What is solid and known to us right now, could be flexible and entirely different in the future.

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Electrotactile experience

The lowdown: The third of our demoes was also the most realistic, as it was being shown off on a Nokia N900. The team is working on ways to enable touchscreens to offer more realistic feedback. This goes way beyond simple haptics to deliver genuine tactile response. The team are influenced by the belief that the sensation of touch isn’t currently well understood so they’re trying to work out ways to make it more effective when interacting with technology. Part of the team’s research is looking at ways to try and replicate textures, potentially offering users new experiences when it comes to interacting with a touchscreen. Using the concept of electrovibration, which was first documented in the 1950s, the team have been working on the concept for about a year now but have already made tremendous progress. As part of the project, the team has been working with the electrical engineers atNokia’s Research Center in Beijing who managed to miniaturise the required hardware to fit into a modified N900 (using a half-size battery).

The potential application: This technology would enable a new level of feedback from touchscreen devices, taking our way of interacting with them to a whole new level. Of course this is just a concept prototype so don’t expect it on your device any time soon. However, given the speed with which the team have reached this phase of research, progress does seem to be pretty rapid.

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'Ubice': Nokia builds a touchscreen made of ice (w/ Video)

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(PhysOrg.com) -- Nokia researchers in Finland have created a massive touchscreen display from a wall made of blocks of ice, dubbed ubiquitous ice or"Ubice."

Scientists at the Nokia Research Center in Tampere in Finland projected images on a wall made of blocks of ice 25 cm thick and 50 cm square, and used near-infrared projectors and cameras to determine the position and movements of the hands of users, who saw what looked like flames or colored lights in the ice.

The aim of the project was to demonstrate"ubiquitous computing,"the principle of incorporating computers into everyday objects. In Finland, river ice is in plentiful supply in winter, and the researchers hired a local contractor at Oulu to collect a tonne of river ice, which was then chopped into square blocks using a chainsaw and ice sculpting tools. The blocks were then assembled to create a wall of ice two meters wide and 1.5 meters high. Water or snow was applied to the joints, and then a heat gun (like a paint stripping gun) was used to smooth the ice wall surface.

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Ubice installation

An array of near-infrared lights, near-infrared cameras, and a digital projector were positioned behind the ice wall and focused on the front surface. When a user places a hand on the front of the ice wall the invisible near-infrared light is reflected back to the cameras, which transmit the signals to a nearby computer. The computer then uses information from the signals to track the precise position, size and movements of the hand. The digital projector then projects an image of colored light or flames that appears to the user to be in the ice beneath the hand.

The system worked best with bare hands, but also worked with gloved hands. The cold ambient temperature (-15°C) kept the ice wall intact even in the face of the heat generated by the projector, and team member Antti Virolainen said it was much more interesting seeing what looked like flames inside ice than in a plastic screen.

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Nokia scientist Jyri Huopaniemi said the team had been asked to explore novel interfaces, multimedia and software approaches, and while the experiment was“playful” it showed interactive computing interfaces could be built anywhere. The concept could be used in cold countries as interactive ice sculptures, byicehotels such as that in Jukkasjärvi in Sweden, or for advertising.

The Ubicetouchscreenwas introduced last week in Saarbrucken, Germany at the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference.

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Military deploys virtual reality to train soldiers, staff

Seated in a tan leather couch, Petty Officer Sarax suddenly straightens his back and begins flailing his right arm.

"She doesn't know what I've been through,"Sarax, who just returned from Iraq, says when asked about his marriage."There are things that I just don't want to talk about with her. And she keeps pushing."

He talks and behaves like a soldier overcome by combat trauma, but Sarax isn't real. He is a software program, a life-size projection on a movie screen that is reacting and responding to questions from a psychologist being trained to treatpost-traumatic stress disorder.

Sarax is a virtual patient, one of many computer-simulated humans created by artists, engineers and scientists at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies. By the end of the year, the virtual patient is expected to be in use in university classrooms, and eventually in clinical hospitals and military bases.

Interactive computerpatients are just one of many cutting-edge virtual technologies being developed at the institute. Many of them are used as training tools for U.S. military personnel, from fighting insurgents to calming nerves of combat-weary soldiers.

The institute's wide-ranging virtual technologies, now found on 65 military sites across the country, have popped in and out of the public spotlight, but they're on full display now that the institute has opened the doors to its new 72,000-square-foot facility in Playa Vista, Calif.

"The move is a mark of a new era for us,"said Randall W. Hill Jr., executive director of the institute, which outgrew its facility in Marina del Rey, Calif."But really, it's a new era for the Army as well."

The institute's funding has increased from $5 million in 1999 to about $30 million today - as the Pentagon has stepped up spending on training military personnel through simulations. It has also attracted a diverse staff of more than 180 professionals, from graphic designers to psychologists.

"Five years ago, the characters were talking heads with computer-generated voices with no emotion,"said Patrick G. Kenny, who leads thevirtual patientprogram."Today, it's getting harder to distinguish what is real from what is not with virtual human characters."

Walking through the institute's new Playa Vista offices is like walking through a fraternity house for high-tech geeks. Cubicles have white boards on which workers can quickly jot down ideas whenever they have an"aha"moment. And a corner office is more likely to be occupied by a twentysomething in a T-shirt huddled over a computer monitor than a supervisor in a suit.

On a recent visit, the institute engineers were testing one of their latest first-person, multi-player games that allows players to take part in a simulated attack that includes dealing with an improvised explosive device. The game is designed to prepare soldiers for an insurgent ambush. It is already found on three military bases, including Camp Pendleton, in northern San Diego County.

In the training simulation, soldiers sit in mock Humvees and slowly roll through towns in either Iraq or Afghanistan, which are aesthetically true to life because the institute used satellite photographs to design the town's landscape.

"We try to make it as real as possible,"said Todd Richmond, the game's project director.

Richmond said he knew the institute got the game right after one of its players, a Marine who had been deployed overseas, pointed to a shop by the side of the road, saying,"Hey, I went in that place and bought a Coke."

In addition to mapping and satellite reconnaissance, the institute uses Hollywood movie writers to come in and make the story lines more compelling. The institute is one of the country's only organizations that draws on the entertainment industry to do such work.

Maintaining this kind of realism is key to the institute's success, said Peter W. Singer, author of"Wired for War,"a book that examines robotic warfare."The stuff that (the institute) does is really in a class of its own."

Singer estimates the U.S.militaryis spending about $6 billion each year on virtual training and expects that number to rise.

"This is a medium the iPhone generation knows,"Singer said."You can't simply teach them on a chalkboard anymore."

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Japan to test walk-through explosive sniffers during APEC

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Japan will test new"walk-through"bomb detectors that can pick up minute traces of explosives when the country hosts an Asia-Pacific summit next month, government officials said Wednesday.

The system, still in the development and test phase, will be installed on November 12-14 at a train station in Yokohama near Tokyo, the venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, officials said.

Passengers will be alerted by signs and given the choice of whether to help trial the Hitachi-made system, or whether to pick another gate, under a test that is meant to check for false positives.

However,policealso hope the new device will act as a deterrent against terrorist attacks during the summit, a police official said.

The walk-through gate works by blowing a stream of warm air that brushes the passing passenger before it is captured by a suction device for chemical analysis of anyairborne particles.

Explosives particles can be recognised within two or three seconds, according to the science and technology ministry.

When a person makes or carries home-made bombs,"chemical substances from the explosives can stay on the producer's hands, clothes or bags... The air jet can blow them off,"said Akiko Kobayashi at the ministry.

The system, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, has also been tested at Tokyo's Haneda airport and in Akihabara, Tokyo's electrical goods and comic and anime shopping district, since last year.

Security has been tightening ahead of the APEC meetings, which will bring government leaders from 21 economies, with more police officers patrolling train stations, airports, parks and other locations.

The national police said it will mobilise a maximum of 21,000 officers a day when a string of meetings are held from November 7 to 14, the largest international event in Japan since a Group of Eight summit in 2008.

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Shoppers whip out smart phones to streamline purchases

Standing before a display of heart-rate monitors at Sports Authority, Robert Dries of Brookfield, Wis., was ready to buy the one he'd heard about at his health club. But before making the purchase, he decided to pull out his Apple iPhone and check some reviews online.

"They were not that favorable at all,"Dries said."I ended up buying another model."

All over the country, shoppers armed with smart phones are doing some version of this, and the trend is expected to be bigger than ever this holiday season.

"It's a hot topic,"said Anne Brouwer, senior partner at McMillan/Doolittle, a Chicago retail consulting firm.

One-quarter of Americans who own smart phones - cell phones that run software, play media and connect to the Internet - plan to use them this year to look for gift ideas, compare prices and find items in nearby stores, according to a survey by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. Among young adults ages 18-24, the percentage using phones for shopping is 45 percent.

This is the first year that the retail trade group asked the question. But while it's still a relatively new phenomenon, experts expect shopping applications to exert a growing influence on retailers, as consumers continue to use their mobile devices to take more control of the buying process.

"I do very little store shopping now,"said Kristine Hinrichs of Milwaukee."Last year I did a bunch of Christmas shopping while under a quilt in bed."

Hinrichs wasn't ill. She just enjoys the convenience of curling up with her phone - and now with her iPad.

Consumers who ownsmart phoneshave an ever-growing number of shopping apps to choose from, in addition to the ability to simply surf the Web on traditional sites. There are apps that help find stores, locate products locally, review products, provide coupons and compare prices.

Fast Mall, an app that launched this fall, has a voice recorder to help you remember where you parked, as long as you remember to use it. Once inside, the app will give you bathroom locations in the mall and can guide you to a particular store if you type in your location. On a test run at Mayfair mall in Wauwasota, Wis., Fast Mall guided me past several stores by name, and then told me to take the escalator upstairs to find GapKids.

Point Inside, a geo-positioning app, can pinpoint your location inside malls and airports, and provides maps of the premises. The Coupon Sherpa app lists national chains alphabetically and provides store coupons and special offers.

Price comparison apps with bar code scanners could have the biggest impact on retailers because they can bring up a list of other merchants offering the same item, allowing an instant price comparison. The PriceGrabber app does that, but the bar code scanner worked only one out of six times when I tested it in Wal-Mart and Macy's stores.

Even without the scanner, PriceGrabber.com and similar price comparison websites can be accessed from a smart phone, and a shopper standing in a store could make a purchase on the phone from a competitor.

"We recommend that retailers get over the fact that consumers can compare prices,"said Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail in New York."That horse has left the barn. So go with it and turn it into an advantage."

For example, Corlett recommends that retailers have a store app that will pop up when a shopper enters their stores.

Retailers are adapting to the new smart phone technology, but are still early in the process, according to a report this summer from Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. About 60 percent of retailers surveyed early this year either had no mobile strategy or were in the early stage of development.

About 35 percent of retailers had a special site that works with mobile browsers, and a third had aniPhoneapp. Android and BlackBerry apps were available for 8 percent of retailers.

Kohl's Corp. has its weekly ad circular available on its app, along with store information. Macy's app lists special events by store and sale information. Both Kohl's and Macy's apps allow users to make a purchase from their phones. JC Penney's app has product-related YouTube videos, offers weekly deals for mobile and sends coupons to your phone.

Amazon.com's app, meanwhile, has a bar code scanner and an experimental feature that offers to save photos and try to find similar products. Theappwasn't tested for this report.

Retailers surveyed by Forrester report investing, on average, $170,000 on their mobile sites in 2009, but large chains said they expected to spend $500,000.

Despite the fanfare this year, mobile shopping is still just a tiny part of sales. Retailers told Forrester that mobile browsers generated just 2.8 percent of their website traffic last year and 2 percent of Internet revenue.

A survey by WSL Strategic Retail found that one of the biggest uses for mobile phones while shopping in stores was taking photos of products. People send them to friends, post them online or keep them as a reference.

"Last year I was looking for a camera,"Hinrichs said."I couldn't remember which model was at which place."She solved her problem by taking pictures of the cameras she liked, and also showed the photos to her friend to get advice.

Corlett said her company's surveys show very different uses of mobile by gender and age.

"Men are using it more than women,"Corlett said. They are more likely to be gadget-lovers and to use their phones to compare prices.

Dries admits to making a purchase while showing off his phone to friends in a restaurant.

"We were goofing around with the phones,"Dries recalled. By the end of the evening, he'd bought a Timex Ironman watch from Zappos.com, without leaving the table.

All of the apps in this report are free.

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Taking movies beyond Avatar -- for under $150 (w/ Video)

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A new development in virtual cameras at the University of Abertay Dundee, UK, is developing the pioneering work of James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar using a Nintendo Wii-like motion controller– all for less than $150.

Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time, used several completely new filming techniques to bring to life its ultra-realistic 3D action. Now computer games researchers have found a way of taking those techniques further using home computers and motion controllers.

James Cameron invented a new way of filming called Simul-cam, where the image recorded is processed in real-time before it reaches the director’s monitor screen. This allows actors in motion-capture suits to be instantly seen as the blue Na’vi characters, without days spent creating computer-generated images.

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A new development in virtual cameras at the University of Abertay Dundee is developing the pioneering work of James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar using a Nintendo Wii-like motion controller - all for less than $150.

The Abertay researchers, led by computer games technology lecturer Matt Bett, have linked the power of a virtual camera– where a computer dramatically enhances what a film camera could achieve– using a motion-sensor. This allows completely intuitive, immediately responsive camera actions within any computer-generated world.

Matt said:“Avatar is a fantastic film in terms of its technical achievements. To push the boundaries of filmmaking required the creation of brand new techniques, which is staggering. What the Simul-cam technology allows is a kind of augmented reality, where the computer-generated world can be seen immediately.

“What I wanted to do was turn this on its head, and bring this power to home computers. Using a new Sixense electromagneticmotion controller, we can now manipulate a virtual camera in any virtual environment– be it a film, an animation, acomputer game, or a simulation tool for teaching.”

The applications of the project, dubbed Motus, are substantial. Complex films and animations could be produced at a very low cost, giving new creative tools to small studios or artists at home. Computer environments can be manipulated in the same way as a camera, opening new opportunities for games, and for education.

Project associate Erin Michno, an undergraduate Computer Games Technology student at Abertay University, added:“This tool could completely change the way people interact with computer games, and the way computer-aided learning is delivered to students around the world.

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“Within games, watching and sharing replays of the action is hugely popular. What our development allows is replays to be edited exactly as if they were a film, zooming in, panning the camera, quickly and easily creating a whole movie based on your gaming. For online games enthusiasts, that would dramatically change what’s possible.

“In the classroom and lecture theatre, having this level of control for such a small price would allow some things which just aren’t possible– performing virtual operations live on screen, flying through the inside of an engine– in any school and any university.”

Motion controllers first became popular with theNintendo Wiigames console, and more recently with the launch of PlayStation Move. The Abertay researchers built their new system using the Sixense Truemotion Devkit, a more advanced version of these technologies which will be manufactured by Razer.

This tool uses electromagnetic sensors to capture the controller’s position to a precise single millimetre accuracy, and unlike other controllers still works even when an object is in the way. It will work on any home PC, and is expected to retail for under£100 from early 2011.

A patent application for the invention and unique applications of the technology has been recently filed in the UK.

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Eyes, ears of US military take shape in high-tech labs

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A Global Hawk robotic plane, hovering more than 11 miles above Afghanistan, can snap images of Taliban hide-outs so crystal clear that U.S. intelligence officials can make out the pickup trucks parked nearby - and how long they've been there.

Halfway around the globe in an underground laboratory in El Segundo, Calif., Raytheon Co. engineers who helped develop the cameras and sensors for the pilotless spy plane are now working on even more powerful devices that are revolutionizing the way the military gathers intelligence.

The new sensors enable flying drones to"listen in"on cell phone conversations and pinpoint the location of the caller on the ground. Some can even"smell"the air and sniff out chemical plumes emanating from a potential underground nuclear laboratory.

Reconnaissance is"now the centerpiece of our global war on terrorism,"said David L. Rockwell, an electronics analyst with aerospace research firm the Teal Group Corp."The military wants to have an unblinking eye over the war zone."

And that has meant a growing and potentially huge business for the defense industry at a time when the Pentagon is looking at cutting back on big-ticket purchases such as fighter jets and Navy ships.

The drone electronics industry now generates about $3 billion in revenue, but that's expected to double to $6 billion in the next eight years, Teal Group estimates.

The industry's projected growth has fueled a surge in mergers and acquisitions of companies that develop and make the parts for the sensor systems.

"There has been an explosion in the reconnaissance market,"said Jon B. Kutler, founder of Admiralty Partners, a Century City, Calif., private investment firm that buys and sells small defense firms.

"It's one of the few remaining growth areas."

Kutler's company recently acquired Torrance, Calif.-based Trident Space&Defense, which manufactures hard drives that enable drones to store high-resolution images.

Trident, which has about 70 employees, has seen its sales more than double to about $40 million over the last five years.

The demand for sensors is growing as the Pentagon steps up use of drones for intelligence gathering.

More than 7,000 drones - ranging from the small, hand-launched Raven to the massive Global Hawk - are currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though some have been outfitted with laser-guided bombs or missiles - grabbing most of the news headlines - all are equipped with sensors for reconnaissance and surveillance work.

The most advanced cameras and sensors are on theGlobal Hawk, a long-endurance, high-altitude drone that can fly for 30 hours at a time at more than 60,000 feet, out of range of most antiaircraft missiles and undetectable to the human eye.

Peter W. Singer, author of"Wired for War,"a book about robotic warfare, compares the technology to the popular"Where's Waldo"children's books, in which readers are challenged to find one person hidden in a mass of people.

The latest detectors not only can pick out Waldo from a crowd, but know when Waldo may have fired a rifle. Such sensors can detect the heat from the barrel of a gun and estimate when it was fired.

Many of the sensors have been developed by Raytheon engineers in El Segundo, where the company has had a long history of developing spy equipment, including those found on the famed U-2 spy plane.

Some of the more advanced cameras can cost more than $15 million and take 18 months to make. Raytheon develops the cameras in a humidity-controlled, dust-free laboratory to ensure that they are free of blemishes.

Each basketball-sized camera"must be perfect,"said Oscar Fragoso, a Raytheon optical engineer."If it isn't, we know we're putting lives at risk."

Raytheon has begun to face stiff competition as other aerospace contractors vie for its business.

Sparks, Nev.-based Sierra Nevada Corp., which is known for its work on developing parts for spy satellites, has developed a sensor system, named the Gorgon Stare, that widens the area that drones can monitor from 1 mile to nearly 3 miles.

Named for the creature in Greek mythology whose gaze turns victims to stone, the sensor system features 12 small cameras - instead of one large one. It is to be affixed to Reaper drones before the end of the year.

With the multiple cameras, the operator can follow numerous vehicles instead of just one, said Brig. Gen. Robert P. Otto, the U.S. Air Force's director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance."By the end of the year, we're going to be fielding capabilities that are unlike anything we've used before."

But with an increase in the number of drone patrols and new sensor technology, the Air Force will be"drowning in data,"Otto said."That means we're going to need a lot more people looking at computer screens."

The Pentagon has said that drones last year took so much video footage that it would take someone 24 years to watch it all.

By this time next year, the Air Force expects to have almost 5,000 people trawling through the images for intelligence information. That's up from little more than 1,200 nine years ago.

"The reconnaissance work that's being done now takes seconds, where it used to take days,"Otto said."We're pushing the edge of technology."

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