Watch 3D films on cellphone! Watching 3D films on your cellphone would now be possible thanks to researchers who have combined the new mobile radio standard LTE-advanced with a video coding technique. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin, Germany, have come up with a special compression technique for films in especially good high-resolution HD quality. It computes the films down to low data rates while maintaining quality: H.264/AVC.
What the H.246/AVC video format is to high-definition films, the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) is to 3D films. Thomas Schierl explained that "MVC is used to pack together the two images needed for the stereoscopic 3D effect to measurably reduce the film's bit rate," and this technique can be used to reduce the size of 3D films as much as 40 per cent. That means that you can quickly receive excellent quality 3-D films in connection with the new 3G-LTE mobile radio standard. New Materials Possible. Princeton engineers have made a breakthrough in an 80-year-old quandary in quantum physics, paving the way for the development of new materials that could make electronic devices smaller and cars more energy efficient.
Professor Emily Carter and graduate student Chen Huang developed a new way of predicting important properties of substances. The advance could speed the development of new materials and technologies. (Credit: Frank Wojciechowski) By reworking a theory first proposed by physicists in the 1920s, the researchers discovered a new way to predict important characteristics of a new material before it's been created. The new formula allows computers to model the properties of a material up to 100,000 times faster than previously possible and vastly expands the range of properties scientists can study. "But most materials aren't perfect," said Carter, the Arthur W. In the end, Huang said, the solution was a compromise. Microsofts 3-D Strategy <small>Microsoft's Craig Mundie describes how the company's vision of 3-D gaming could extend to all computer interactions.</small>
Microsoft has joined the wave of companies betting that 3-D is the next big thing for computing. At a recent talk at MIT, chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said he sees the technology as an innovation that "will get people out of treating a computer as a tool" and into treating the device as a natural extension of how they interact with the world around them.
Microsoft plans to introduce consumers to the change through its gaming products, but Mundie outlined a vision that would eventually have people shopping and searching in 3-D as well. The combination of better chips, better displays, and better sensors, Mundie said, is finally making it possible to move computing from today's graphical user interfaces to the "natural user interface," by allowing people to interact with 3-D content through the gestures they normally use. Mundie also argued that natural user interfaces would reduce the mental effort required for people to operate software. Rubiks cube man versus machine. Surprising Changes In Black Hole-powered 'Blazar' Galaxy. In the heart of an active galaxy, matter falling into a supermassive black hole somehow creates jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. For active galaxies classified as blazars, one of these jets beams right toward Earth. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab) An international team of astrophysicists using telescopes on the ground and in space have uncovered surprising changes in radiation emitted by an active galaxy.
The picture that emerges from these first-ever simultaneous observations with optical, X-ray and new-generation gamma-ray telescopes is much more complex than scientists expected and challenges current theories of how the radiation is generated. The galaxy in question is PKS 2155-304, a type of object known as a "blazar. " Like many active galaxies, a blazar emits oppositely directed jets of particles traveling near the speed of light as matter falls into a central supermassive black hole; this process is not well understood. The history of the universe – in 3D! In an international project, astronomers have obtained exceptional 3D images of distant galaxies, seen when the Universe was half its current age. And by looking at this unique “history book” of the universe, at an epoch when the Sun and the Earth did not even exist, scientists hope to solve the puzzle of how galaxies formed in the remote past.
The team – consisting of scientists from the US’ NASA, the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory – obtained the images by combining the Hubble Space Telescope’s acute eye with the capacity of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to probe the motions of gas in tiny objects. “Hubble and VLT are real ‘time machines’ for probing the universe’s history,” said Sébastien Peirani, lead author of one of the papers reporting on this study.
For decades, distant galaxies that emitted their light six to eight billion years ago – over half the age of the universe – were no more than small specks of light on the sky. Hubble Astronomers Uncover an Overheated Early Universe. If you think global warming is bad, 11 billion years ago the entire universe underwent, well, universal warming. The consequence was that fierce blasts of radiation from voracious black holes stunted the growth of some small galaxies for a stretch of 500 million years. This is the conclusion of a team of astronomers who used the new capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to probe the invisible, remote universe. Using the newly installed Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) they have identified an era, from 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago, when the universe stripped electrons off from primeval helium atoms -- a process called ionization.
This process heated intergalactic gas and inhibited it from gravitationally collapsing to form new generations of stars in some small galaxies. Michael Shull of the University of Colorado and his team were able to find the telltale helium spectral absorption lines in the ultraviolet light from a quasar -- the brilliant core of an active galaxy. Tumors Feel The Deadly Sting Of Nanobees. When bees sting, they pump poison into their victims. Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees. Bee on a finger. Researchers have recently harnessed the toxin in bee venomto kill tumor cells.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Tatiana Buzuleac) In mice, nanobees delivered the bee toxin melittin to tumors while protecting other tissues from the toxin's destructive power. "The nanobees fly in, land on the surface of cells and deposit their cargo of melittin which rapidly merges with the target cells," says co-author Samuel Wickline, M.D., who heads the Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Washington University. Melittin is a small protein, or peptide, that is strongly attracted to cell membranes, where it can form pores that break up cells and kill them. Big Step Toward Quantum Error Correction. The rules that govern the world of the very small, quantum mechanics, are known for being bizarre.
One of the strangest tenets is something called quantum entanglement, in which two or more objects (such as particles of light, called photons) become inextricably linked, so that measuring certain properties of one object reveals information about the other(s), even if they are separated by thousands of miles. Einstein found the consequences of entanglement so unpalatable he famously dubbed it "spooky action at a distance. " Now a team led by Yale researchers has harnessed this counterintuitive aspect of quantum mechanics and achieved the entanglement of three solid-state qubits, or quantum bits, for the first time. Their accomplishment, described in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Nature, is a first step towards quantum error correction, a crucial aspect of future quantum computing. The team, led by Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Synthetic Magnetic Fields Trick Neutral Atoms Into Acting as If Electrically Charged.
Atomic Antennas Transmit Quantum Information Across a Microchip. The Austrian research group led by physicist Rainer Blatt suggests a fundamentally novel architecture for quantum computation. They have experimentally demonstrated quantum antennas, which enable the exchange of quantum information between two separate memory cells located on a computer chip. This offers new opportunities to build practical quantum computers. The researchers have published their work in the scientific journal Nature. Six years ago scientists at the University of Innsbruck realized the first quantum byte -- a quantum computer with eight entangled quantum particles; a record that still stands.
"Nevertheless, to make practical use of a quantum computer that performs calculations, we need a lot more quantum bits," says Prof. Rainer Blatt, who, with his research team at the Institute for Experimental Physics, created the first quantum byte in an electromagnetic ion trap. Antennas amplify transmission "The new technology offers the possibility to distribute entanglement. Wooden X Box, Predicting How You’ll Tweet & A Breath-Detecting Robot [Tech Headlines] Inhabitat's Week in Green: Tesla's Roadster 2.5, the world's smallest electric plane, and solar jellyfish goo.
K-12 Education and Technology in the News, including No Child Left Behind and the National Education Technology Plan. Today's Top Stories Get the <a href=" Week - Free</a> widget and many other <a href=" free widgets</a> at <a href=" Note: To see Education News, do not block content in your browser. Podcasts with Top Education News stories: National Public Radio on education TEDTalks Education Back to top Math Education and Standards in the News Recent HOT Top Stories HOT! NCTM News provides the latest top stories on math education, including connecting math education research to the classroom.
Look for Recent Research on Math Education in the Educational Research Newsletter. Plan ahead: April is Math Awareness Month. HOT: September 12, 2006: In response to the call for a more coherent curriculum, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics released Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence (NCTM, 2006a).
Techland Roundup: The Daily Dose; Technology News 2/4/10. Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010 Today in Techland: It’s Thumbs Up Thursday, kiddies. Today, Mike liked Thor, Steve gushed over Children of Men in the Techland Screening Room, and Peter really loved the claymation version of Evil Dead. And there you have it, but first… Here’s what else is going on in nerd news around the Web: Badass Owls: Never thought I’d be writing that… The trailer for Zack Snyder’s (Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen) first animated feature is here. Based on the book series, Legend of the Guardians, is about a noble band of owls sworn to protect. Hello Mr. Things that should be canceled: FOX exec Kevin Reilly tells THR that Human Target will be back for another season if he has his way. Good news, everyone: Futurama is coming back in June with 12 new episodes and the entire original cast in tow! Your Daily Punch in the Kisser: Sissy sparkly vampire (via Boing Boing) Do.
Superman Returns…to the CW: Has Smallville really been on the air for nine seasons? Your Daily Dinosaur: News aggregator Techmeme melds algorithms and humans. News aggregator Techmeme is perhaps the fastest way to find interesting tech news – it takes minutes to find and link to breaking stories, as opposed to the hours or days that rivals like Digg or Google News take. That’s one reason why tech journalists (like ourselves) watch it obsessively. Today, the site is moving beyond its chiefly technology-driven method of finding top stories. It has hired a human editor to help shape the site’s content: Megan McCarthy, a veteran tech reporter.
Techmeme is often controversial among tech journalists. Every tech publication (including VentureBeat) feels that it should have its headlines consistently featured over rivals. Techmeme uses a range of methods to figure out what stories are worth displaying, and from which publication. McCarthy will deal directly with pissed-off journalists who feel Techmeme’s algorithm has wronged them.
More, from Rivera’s company post on the matter: Humans have always edited Techmeme of course, just implicitly. (Cover) Flowww For Your Tech News. Does Cover Flow work for browsing the Web? Increasingly, I’ve been seeing Flash-based Websites adopt the visual metaphor of Apple’s iTunes Cover Flow as a navigational tool to quickly flip through Web pages (instead of album covers).
You can see that in new search engines like SearchMe, and in a news filter that just launched this weekend called Flowww. (Apparently, we are now entering the era of triple-letter misspellings for Websites because all the double-letter misspellings are taken). Flowww lets you flip through about 24 current pages culled from the top 100 tech blogs and news aggregation sites like Digg and Techmeme. Right now, you will find some of the same stories that you will find on Techmeme and elsewhere, including posts from TechCrunch, GigaOm, O’Reilly Radar, Silicon Alley Insider, Datawocky, TorrentFreak, The New York Times, and Yahoo News. Flowww was created by David Zotter, a developer in Connecticut. What do readers think? Green-tech news harvest: Tesla drivetrain, Google on plug-in hybrids | Green Tech. World’s Thinnest Televisions. If you’re interested in thins HDTVs take a look at our best TVs list as picked using our reviews and ratings.
Though we’ve poked fun at thin televisions in the past, we do have to profess finding a certain appeal to paper-thin screens (as long as we’re not the ones paying for them). There’s something about a TV that seems to disappear when you walk by it that really grabs attention – especially with people who are used to owning 300-pound CRTs. The trophy for “World’s Thinnest” seems to trade hands every other month, but we’ve rounded up a few of the most notable models, from the ones that got things kicking to the ones that took it to the razor’s edge. Sony XEL-1 OLED TV – 3mm If you’re looking for an ultra-slim TV you can actually go out and buy, this is as thin as they come.
Sony XEL-1 OLED TV Hitachi Ultra Thin Series LCD – 38.1mm Hitachi Ultra Thin Series LCD Pioneer Kuro Concept Plasma – 9mm Pioneer Kuro Concept Plasma – 9mm Panasonic Viera Z1 Plasma – 25.4mm Panasonic Viera Z1 Plasma. Panasonic TH-42PV80H 42" Multi-System Plasma TV TH-42PV80H panasonic multisystem plasma tv 110-220 volts 110-240 volts 220 volts 240 volts. How not to ship a plasma TV. The guy who shipped this may or may not have been a professional delivery person. It's tough to tell based on the work he did on this plasma TV. Seriously though, he might as well have shipped this thing using bowling balls.
Or, I dunno, hammers. Check out the aftermath of the TV after the jump. October 2008 - TV Snob.