Gizmag News - Windows 7 gets the Minority Report treatment using Kinect

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for November the 22nd, 2010. Windows 7 gets the Minority Report treatment using Kinect In the 2002 movie Minority Report, part of the “way out there” 2054 technology was a computer system that Tom Cruise navigated his way through via arm and hand gestures. That technology – minus the holograms – has now officially arrived 44 years ahead of schedule, thanks to the design team at tech firm Evoluce. With support from Microsoft, the company has created prototype software which allows Microsoft’s Kinect gesture-based video gaming platform to control Windows 7 applications. PC-users will likely soon be able to “swim” through Google Earth images, write on-screen messages in the air, and surf the Internet without cramping their mousing hand. Read More MIT's adaptive lighting system could slash lighting bills According to a 2009 Department of Energy study, lighting accounts for 22 percent of all the electricity used in the United States. In an effort to cut this figure, many modern buildings have done away with the humble light switch in favor of automatic motion-detector switches or complicated control panels with arrays of sliders and buttons. A new system literally puts the controls back in people’s hands and its developers at MIT say it has the potential to slash lighting bills by more than half. Read More Matrox Extio enables remote hi-def multi-screen displays Matrox Graphics’ new Extio F2408 KVM Extension Solution offers a new capability we feel certain will find many new uses. It enables a multiple display configuration of up to eight 1920x1200 screens to be separated from the host PC by up to a kilometer of fiber-optic cable, yet still produce the same flawless image quality and system performance of the host workstation. Five USB 2.0 ports at the display end enable the addition of keyboard, mouse, touchscreen controllers and other peripherals. Read More Cadillac Aera and smart 454 take out LA Auto Show Design Challenge The 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge – which asked designers to come up with an efficient 1,000lb (454kg), four-passenger vehicle that maintained comfort, safety, driving-performance and style – has finished in a tie between GM’s Cadillac Aera concept and the Smart 454 from Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design. Previously, the Design Challenge was restricted to major Southern California automotive design studios but this year saw the field widen to include studios from Germany and Japan, resulting in entries from Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Maybach. Read More Space-saving chicken coop includes rooftop veggie patch Having chickens and vegetables in your backyard is great for self-sustainability, but what if I want both in a small space? Seattle-based architect turned-self-starter Traci Fontyn has the solution in the form of the Kippen House; a modular chicken coop with a rooftop vegetable garden that creates a looped ecosystem to benefit both your home-grown veggies and eggs. Read More Elecom's new headphones built to hold iPod Shuffle Here's a clever set of headphones from Japanese manufacturer Elecom that are specifically built to hold the latest iPod Shuffle. The company has created a very simple neckstrap/headphone unit that slips over your ears, and then your iPod shuffle docks right into the ear-piece. The obvious benefit here being that there is no longer any long headphone cord to get in your way. Read More 'Plastisoil' could mean cleaner rivers and less plastic waste A new cement-like material that could be used to form sidewalks, bike and jogging paths, driveways and parking lots, may be able to lessen two environmental problems, namely plastic waste and polluted rainwater runoff. The substance is called Plastisoil, and it was developed by Naji Khoury, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. In order to make Plastisoil, discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles are pulverized and mixed with soil, and then that mixture is blended with a coarse aggregate and heated. The result is a hard yet non-watertight substance, similar to pervious concrete or porous asphalt. Read More Elephants, jellyfish and robotic automation Festo, the automation company that designed the bionic penguin and its robotic stablemates – AirRay, AquaRay, AirJelly and AquaJelly – has found another natural model in its latest application of biomimicry – the elephant's trunk. Read More Retrofittable anti-rollover truck system recognized It doesn't take much analysis to reach the conclusion that truck rollovers are very dangerous. Studies have shown that over 6 percent of the heavy truck fatalities and incapacitating injuries on U.S roads alone are a result of rollover accidents. Modern trucks fitted with ESP (Electronic Stability Program) have a greater chance of avoiding the problem, but this retrofittable early warning tanker roll-over device developed by Bertocco Automotive Engineering of Italy and Shell Chemicals Europe provides added safety for older vehicles... and it's just been awarded top prize in the EuroTra Safety and Innovation Award 2010. Read More The Aquavista Dinosaur Gold Edition Aquarium - with Mammoth tusk and T-Rex bone inlays Fancy an aquascaping and aquarium showcase in your lounge-room but don’t want the hassles of cleaning and feeding? No problems! Aquavista is pushing the envelope of automating all those tasks and its range-topping Panoramic model can be fitted with a Carbon Dioxide Generator that allows plants to photosynthesize and flourish, vastly simplifying the task of creating a ripsnorter underwater garden feature. Want to make sure you won’t be trumped by the Jones? No problems! Renowned bespoke luxury goods remanufacturer Stuart Hughes has just the ticket. Stuart’s latest creation starts with the Aquavista Panoramic, incorporates no less than 68kg of pure 24ct gold, has side veneers made from the tusk of a 14 ft Mammoth, inlaid with bone from a 17 ft T-Rex. If that doesn’t impress the visitors, mention the price-tag – GBP 3 million – around USD$4.8 million. Read More Audi's autonomous Audi TT conquers Pikes Peak - how long before it betters a human driver? Not long ago, there was informed debate on whether a purpose-built computer would ever beat a chess master. Now mobile phones have achieved Grand Master status. Computers continue to get exponentially faster, not to mention considerably smarter through improved software, whereas humans are effectively nearing their limits. Hence, it’s arguably only a matter of time and R&D focus before computers (plus improved sensors and software) surpass any specific human capability. This week Audi revealed that its Autonomous TTS research car had completed the 12.42-mile Pike’s Peak mountain course in 27 minutes. An expert driver in the same car would take around 17 minutes – now we have a benchmark, the race is on, and it's almost inevitable that a computer will one day outdrive the best of our species, and it may be sooner than you think. Read More EV Adapt brings electric Fiat 500 to Europe Fiat recently announced that it will be manufacturing an electric version of its cute li’l 500 automobile for the North American market, starting in 2012. If you can’t wait that long, however, you can get one in Europe right now – you just won’t be buying it from Fiat. The Italian automaker gave Swedish company EV Adapt permission to buy the stock 500, swap out the combustion motor for an electric one, and then resell the car as an EV. Sold as the CARe 500, the vehicle is now available throughout Europe. In an interesting move, buyers have the option of purchasing a battery-less car for a reduced price, and then renting its battery pack. Read More Enhance onboard audio with Sound Blaster USB solutions Having spent a number of years as the audio weapon of choice for computer sound systems, Creative has announced a couple of USB releases that will allow any sound card to benefit from its Sound Blaster know-how. The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro is said to offer true 5.1 surround sound, while the Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro has been designed for mobile listeners. Both benefit from the company's THX TruStudio Pro entertainment system, that provides depth and space to give a more natural feel to stereo output. Read More 'Chess Terminator' robot takes on former champ Kramnik in blitz match For almost as long as we've had computers, humans have been trying to make ones that play chess. The most famous chess-playing computer of course is IBM's Deep Blue, which in 1997 defeated the then World Champion Garry Kasparov. But as powerful as Deep Blue was, it didn't actually move the chess pieces on its own. Perhaps that's a trivial task in comparison to beating the best chess player of all-time, but still I was pleased to discover this recent video of a chess robot that more closely fits the true definition of a chess automaton. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. Please don't try to forward this email, as the formatting is unlikely to remain intact. And don't worry, we don't share email addresses. Please read our privacy policy if you are concerned. Watch for more of the best new innovations, ideas and practical technologies in your inbox. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at http://www.gizmag.com. 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