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What if any object in the world, not just smartphones and tablets, could know when and how you were touching them? If a team working at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University continues to make progress, soon we may have smarter chairs, doorknobs, bathtubs, and even living things. Using the researchers’ new technology, called Touché , we could sense what is touching an object (human or fork?), how it is being touched (pushing, pinching, grasping), and which body part is touching it (hands, elbows, number of fingers).
Amazing new touch technology could revolutionize smartphones, doorknobs, your sofa
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Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, and not just for adults; as many as 75 percent of kids in the U.S. aged 2-13 regularly have access to smartphones, according to a recent study. That growing demographic of mobile device users is resulting in a lot of attention from startups, among them Safely, a division of Location Labs which deals specifically in mobile location safety features, and is now introducing kid-targeted parental controls formally in partnership with Sprint. Read more Berlin-based Phonedeck, which launches in private beta today, manages to deliver something a lot of users have likely been looking for; seamless integration of mobile phone and computer-based communications.
In a lot of the “ future world ” videos produced by technology companies, we are supposed to be wowed by devices that look far different from today’s tablets and smartphones. One common theme is the use of a device that is entirely display and is capable of adapting to the needs of the user at a given time. It would be pretty cool technology, but, up until now it, was nearly impossible to achieve, making the videos more sci-fi than future tech.
Atmel’s flexible touch sensors will revolutionize mobile device design | ExtremeTech
BEIJING (Reuters) - Global warming threatens China's march to prosperity by cutting crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods, says the government's latest assessment of climate change, projecting big shifts in how the nation feeds itself. The warnings are carried in the government's "Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change," which sums up advancing scientific knowledge about the consequences and costs of global warming for China -- the world's second biggest economy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas pollution. Global warming fed by greenhouse gases from industry, transport and shifting land-use poses a long-term threat to China's prosperity, health and food output, says the report. With China's economy likely to rival the United States' in size in coming decades, that will trigger wider consequences.
China report spells out grim climate change risks | Reuters
Last week we asked readers for their predictions of life in 100 years time. Inspired by ten 100-year predictions made by American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, many of you wrote in with your vision of the world in 2112. Many of the "strange, almost impossible" predictions made by Watkins came true. Here is what futurologists Ian Pearson (IP) and Patrick Tucker (PT) think of your ideas.
BBC News - Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now
Editor's Choice Main Category: Public Health Article Date: 04 Jan 2012 - 5:00 PST email to a friend printer friendly opinions
Predicting The Top Five Health Trends For 2012
Prophet recently conducted a spot survey of some 5,000 U.S. consumers to see which brands they’d put on the deathwatch for anytime between now and 2015. Anyone who even skims the news headlines will find their rankings no big surprise: Eastman Kodak topped the list with 27 percent of the group, with Netflix and the U.S. Post Office coming in with 19 percent and 18 percent of the vote. RIM (Blackberry) came as fourth most likely to fail (14 percent), and Sears came in fifth (11 percent). What emerged through the commentary was the identification of a distinct pattern of worst practices, and none of these struggling companies was seen as being guilty of having only one in play.
5 Brands Most Likely To Be Gone By 2015 - Forbes
BBC News - Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age'
9 January 2012 Last updated at 06:20 GMT By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News The climate, if not species, of an Ice Age "ought" to return within 1,500 years
Swiss solar aircraft makes first international flight (Update 2)
Swiss record-setting solar powered aircraft Solar Impulse takes off from Payerne airbase and is to make its first international flight. Solar Impulse is due to land at Brussels airport this evening. Pioneering Swiss solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse ambled over Europe into Belgium on Friday on its first international flight, with the pilot reporting that everything was running smoothly. "The flight is going really well, I have just flown over Liege, it's a real pleasure to enter Belgian airspace," Andre Borschberg said as the dragonfly-like aircraft cruised at 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour.
China seeks alternatives to 9 million burials a year - USATODAY.com
BEIJING — China is running out of space for 9 million burials a year and is urging the bereaved to look east, to the ocean, for the final resting place. With offerings of food and liquor and the burning of paper iPhones for the deceased to enjoy in the afterlife, China is honoring its dead this week as record-breaking numbers of people visit cemeteries to "sweep tombs" in the ancient Qingming festival. Most Chinese worry more about rising prices for burial plots that have made some cemeteries more expensive per square yard than the fanciest city apartments.Arcosanti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Light Touch projector makes any surface a touchscreen - Pocket-lint
8 January 2010 15:49 GMT / By Dan SungBeyond City Limits - By Parag Khanna | Foreign Policy
View a photo essay of the world's top global citiesComputerworld - The ability of the U.S. to compete globally is eroding, according to a federal report released Friday that described itself as a "call to arms." The report, which has a strong emphasis on technology, warns in stark terms that "some elements of the U.S. economy are losing their competitive edge." The report , titled the "The Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the United States," was prepared by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which said the report reflected "bipartisan priorities."