It has been a while since we’ve seen Eric Giler presenting WiTricity, a technology that enables wireless electricity transfer, on Ted.com. The technology still seems to be in a relatively basic state, at least not at a stage where we strive for efficiency. It seems feasible for a short distance and, according Eric Giler, it is safe from radioactive. This is surely an impressive presentation considering the state where consumer electronic device are at present.

Links:
- Ted.com Eric Giler demos wireless electricity
- Gizmodo.com – Dell Latitude Z Hands On: Kills Cords With Wireless Charging
- Palm.com Touchstone

Tags: palm pre, touchstone, wireless electricity
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Nokia Beta Labs has recently released a beta version of a potentially helpful mobile application for the blind and the visually impaired. The beta application utilizes mobile phone’s vibration as an alternative feedback to the tactile experience of a braille. Personally I have always been interested in this field. I am also very glad that some company is showing some interest to add accessibility features to phones. However, it’s hard to agree with the approach and it doesn’t really seem to satisfy the needs. The software seems to be a derivative of a fund-lacking project that tries to come up with a next-best solution without trying to add additional hardware. Even the current TTS(Text-to-Speech) system seems like a perfectly better solution to me. Anyway, the software is vailable for download.

via:
Engadget

Tags: Braille
Posted in Softwares, User Interface | No Comments »

Touch screen interfaces are extremely popular nowadays. However, despite the hype, user satisfaction from using a touch screen device is not as high as it should be. Certainly there are many reasons behind this. However, one particular reason I am going to address here is the Response. When pressing a button on a touch screen, we can’t really experience the feeling of pressing a button. Samsung has tried to improve this by introducing Haptic Technology. However, from a personal point of view, this doesn’t really help the case.

In this year’s Wireless Japan Conference, NTT DoCoMo demonstrated a technology that actually delivers that tactile sense to users even at a remote distance. According to NTT DoCoMo, this technology can be used for users to actually feel the sense of touch from a remote distance before buying a product, perhaps like fabric from clothes.

via:
[Tech-on!] NTT DoCoMo Demos ‘Tactile-kinesthetic Sense’ Communications

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Haptic, Touch
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Bump Technologies have came up with a new way to share personal contact information and photos utilizing iPhone’s Peer-to-Peer Bluetooth functionality and motion sensor. Simply run application on both ends, and BUMP one device to the other, the information is sent to the other side. Above all, the application is completely FREE.

Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Motion Sensor, P2P
Posted in Apple, Device, User Interface | No Comments »

▲ image via Dilbert.com

Working at a company that makes consumer electronics, we often have conversations that are not exactly the same as above, but very similar. Perhaps it’s because, we share the same constraints, resources… especially money and time. It usually goes like this…

A: Our VOC(Voice of Customer) is very clear. It is our duty to deliver what they ask. Delivering something that is not 100%, is no better than useless.

B: That plan requires (blah.. blah.. blah..) which is costly, a burden in which we cannot afford.

A: (So our plan is to fail? … )

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Image from Apple.com

New iPhone has been released and perhaps to a naked eye it’s difficult to find the ‘Hardware’ difference between the new iPhone 3Gs and prior iPhone 3G. After all, software can always be upgraded with firmware update.

So here’s a simple summary of the hardware specification on Apple’s Homepage.

- CPU: 412MHz ARM 11 -> Yet unknown. However, Apple promises it would be as twice as fast on average.

- Weight: 4.7 -> 4.8 ounces

- Camera: 2 megapixels -> 3 megapixels – autofocus

- HSDPA: 3.6Mbps HSDPA -> 7.2Mbps HSDPA

- Bluetooth: 2.0 + EDR -> 2.1 + EDR

- Display: Added Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating

- Storage: 8GB -> 16, 32GB

The rest seems to be all related to software upgrade.

Link:
- iPhone Specification

Tags: iPhone
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Here’s a new shocker from the E3. Perhaps a even more shocker for me than PSP Go. Hmmm. I take that comment back. I was very very VERY shocked with PSP Go, not because of its specifications, but rather the rumor of hideous, not-sony-like design turning out to be true. Anyway, unlike PSP Go, the motion controller for PS3 turned out to be more promising that expected. After seeing Wii Motion Plus and Microsoft’s Natal Project, we presumed it would be hard for Sony to bring up anything to match up. However, Sony has certainly proven us to be wrong.

Tags: Game, motion controller, PS3
Posted in Device, Sony, User Interface, Vision | 2 Comments »

It’s simply all too good to be true. The new XBox presented at the E3 yesterday seems to have included two controversial technologies, Full body motion capture and Voice Recognition. We have always presumed these two technology to be crude, unfit for the general customers. And of course, I’m very skeptic with the level of accuracy the voice recognition is shown in the video. Oh wait, what about the customers who can’t speak English?!
However, as long as motion capture is involved, Nintendo has proven with Wii that it does not take a perfectly accurate algorithm in order to please the general customers. And who knows, maybe Microsoft did manage to extend that to a whole new level. Enough with the technical details, I’m sure we’ll see a whole lot more to come.

Update!
It seems motion capture on Natal is light-independent. In other words, people can be detected even in worst possible light condition.

Tags: motion capture, voice recognition
Posted in Device, Microsoft, User Interface, Vision | No Comments »

LoL!
Now this is a way researchers and developers should be treated!

Other thoughts that pops to my mind…

Korean CE companies like Samsung and LG should loosen up their Ads and lose the corporate company feel. Perhaps a suggestion is to make advertisements that shine light on the individual employees. There are plenty of ’star researcher and developers’ for other companies, yet there seem to be none for Samsung and LG.

Posted in General Opinion, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

It’s surprising how new devices often appear in close time period.

Even the most sofisticated and complex devices like mobile phones, which have a developing period of more than 6 months, appear or announced on the market within periods of weeks.
It’s probably safe to assume that most competitive companies research, try out pretty much all possible technologies and develop at least a prototype, so that once the company decides to actually make the device, they wouldn’t have to start from blank.

Another possibility is that companies have enough potential to replicate other companies’ device right away, that the only thing blocking them from actually doing it is patent infringement.

Either way, the axiomatic fact is that we are living in a crazy competitive world.

In Korea, we’ve seen KT release Wi-Bro portable router to the market. In US, Verizon Wireless has released MiFi2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, pretty much the same thing based on different technology. Just a week after Verizon’s release, Sprint has released the exact same device.

Although the service plans for Sprint and Verizon differs significantly, they are still expensive compared to KT Egg. KT Egg is only 23 dollar(US) for 30gb. People in Korea seems to take the rich wireless environment for granted. On the other hand, coverage is a problem that Wi-Bro still faces.

Coverage and price are two vital factors when it comes to mobile wireless device. Of course, both solutions are not available on both country. However, comparing the simple facts, I would say it’s a draw. : )

Via –
- verizon-debuts-mifi-2200-portable-ev-do-router
- novatels-mifi-2200-portable-ev-do-router-comes-to-sprint
Image also from Engadget

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