Thursday, December 02, 2010
FUTURE OF SCREENS – EXPERIENCE VIDEO
Capacitive screens has now become a commodity for touch screen devices. Screen technology is now taking the next leap and the coming years imagination is the only thing stopping us. We will soon have dual screens, malleable screens, screens built into wifi connected mirrors, desks or backside of gadgets clothed with e-ink screens, tactile feedback, color screens with great contrast in sunlight, holographics/stereoscopic screens, color e-ink touch screens, or screens actually knowing where they are in relation to other screens thanks to ultrasonic emitters and microphones.
We want to show some of these things in an “experience video”, that shows a normal day in a couple of years when all these technologies are affordable enough to be used everywhere. This video is the result of our experiment with open innovation, read more about our experiment here. Big thanks to all the people from TAT and around the world who helped out and sometimes shared their ideas and sometimes gave us homework on our own ideas.
The video of Paul Blomdahl showing off some of our demos on episode 13 of The Engadget Show on September 17th is now available. They start talking about the Future of Screens concept video that is shown just before we come in, and then they look at and discuss the Horizon demos.
Zuckerberg , Bush At Facebook HQ [Video]
Watch live streaming video from facebookguests at livestream.com
Looks like President Obama isn’t the only one resorting to Facebook as a way to reach the American people. In a first for a U.S. President past or present, former President George W. Bush will hold a discussion and Q&A live from Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto. The event will start in about 20 minutes at 2 pm PST.
Bush will be talking to Facebook employees about his new book Decision Points, and those of us not employed by Facebook will have the opportunity to watch it on Facebook Live and the Livestream above. According to The Next Web, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself will in fact moderate the discussion along with Facebook General Council Ted Ullyot. Ullyot also happens to have been an attorney for the Bush White House, which might explain why the former President’s only Bay Area appearance is at the social network.
Bush belatedly joined Facebook over the summer primarily to promote Decision Points through his fan page. W. currently has 619,516 fans as opposed to the 16,889,927 people “liking” the decidedly more web savvy Barack Obama.
We’re hoping the Q&A will also extend to the folks at home, or that some Facebook employee will muster up the courage to ask Bush what he thinks about Wikileaks. Stay tuned!
Boxee CEO To Big Media: “Resistance Is Futile”
With all the new Internet TV boxes and services sprouting this holiday season—from Google TV and Apple TV to the Boxee Box, Shufflr, and beyond—there is a lot talk about people cutting their cable cords and just getting all of their TV from the Internet. That is not going to happen anytime soon until the best TV shows and movies become available online at the same time as on TV, but the direction is clear. Today at the SAI Ignition conference in New York City, Boxee CEO Avner Ronen declared, “Resistance is futile.”
Ronen was responding to the question of when will there be something worthwhile to watch on the Web. Getting Web video to your TV is becoming increasingly easy, but there are so many restrictions on the best video (network TV shows and Hollywood movies) that it is still not worth watching on the Web for anybody but geeks. Ronen himself admits that his modest goal is to get “from geeks to early adopters.”
Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone, who was also on the same panel, argued that quality isn’t really the issue. “At some point, 80 percent of major network TV content was online.” The problem is that “it doesn’t stay there.” As a viewer, you have to know when to catch the shows, because unlike all other content on the Internet, TV shows and movies don’t stay online. They get placed online and then plucked off based on the different licensing windows the media companies adhere to in order to squeeze more profits from their shows and movies by making them available at different times through different distribution channels (theaters, DVDs, pay-per-view, cable, and now online).
Internet TV, however, doesn’t really fit into this distribution model because the generation of viewers who are growing up now on Youtube and Hulu want t watch TV or videos whenever they want to, not when the media companies tell them they can.
“The Internet is just a distribution model, it does not dictate business models,” argues Ronen. The existing media companies may not like the new competition that the Internet is bringing, but if consumers move there they won’t have a choice but to follow suit. He predicts that 50 percent of households in the U.S. will have Internet-connected TVs in five years and that “Netflix is going to have more paid video subscribers in two years than Comcast.” People will pay for broadband from one provider and pay for content from others (perhaps Netflix or Hulu or Boxee). Resistance is futile because over time, the Internet will prevail.
Below is a video interview I did with Avner a couple weeks ago on the same topic:
Ronen was responding to the question of when will there be something worthwhile to watch on the Web. Getting Web video to your TV is becoming increasingly easy, but there are so many restrictions on the best video (network TV shows and Hollywood movies) that it is still not worth watching on the Web for anybody but geeks. Ronen himself admits that his modest goal is to get “from geeks to early adopters.”
Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone, who was also on the same panel, argued that quality isn’t really the issue. “At some point, 80 percent of major network TV content was online.” The problem is that “it doesn’t stay there.” As a viewer, you have to know when to catch the shows, because unlike all other content on the Internet, TV shows and movies don’t stay online. They get placed online and then plucked off based on the different licensing windows the media companies adhere to in order to squeeze more profits from their shows and movies by making them available at different times through different distribution channels (theaters, DVDs, pay-per-view, cable, and now online).
Internet TV, however, doesn’t really fit into this distribution model because the generation of viewers who are growing up now on Youtube and Hulu want t watch TV or videos whenever they want to, not when the media companies tell them they can.
“The Internet is just a distribution model, it does not dictate business models,” argues Ronen. The existing media companies may not like the new competition that the Internet is bringing, but if consumers move there they won’t have a choice but to follow suit. He predicts that 50 percent of households in the U.S. will have Internet-connected TVs in five years and that “Netflix is going to have more paid video subscribers in two years than Comcast.” People will pay for broadband from one provider and pay for content from others (perhaps Netflix or Hulu or Boxee). Resistance is futile because over time, the Internet will prevail.
Below is a video interview I did with Avner a couple weeks ago on the same topic:
Real time monitoring of your energy consumption
Would you conserve energy if you could monitor your consumption by the hour? Lucid Design Group has developed new software that provides users with instant feedback on how much energy they're using. SmartPlanet visits the start-up to see their dashboard up close.
TED Featured on Ignite OTC by David Glover.
Stroke victims: Tiny coil saves lives by pulling blood clots from the brain
A device known as the Merci Retriever is a potential life saver for stroke victims, but it must be used within 8 hours. The device looks like a tiny corkscrew and it is used for blood clots that occur in large arteries where clot busting drugs are not effective.
San Francisco water meters get smart
In the future, San Francisco residents will be able to monitor and track their water usage via Web software on the hour instead of monthly, which is the case now. The new automated water meters will be connected to a little gray box that houses a low radio frequency signal and collects data. SmartPlanet visits the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to see how it works.
The Future Of... Hospitals
Hospital stays are rarely relaxing - but at Mountain View's El Camino Hospital, robots run errands, communication devices keep noise to a minimum and patient beds help translate doctors' orders. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das takes a tour of one of the most technologically advanced medical facilities in the world.
Berkeley tele-immersion lab developing 3D video conferencing
New tele-immersive technologies could be the future of video conferencing. The technology allows users to share a 3D environment with other individuals from a remote location. SmartPlanet talks to University of California at Berkeley's Gregorij Kurillo about how the system is being used to create virtual spaces for users to interact and manipulate 3D objects.
Honig Winery applies pressure bombs for better vineyard irrigation
SmartPlanet visits Honig Vineyard & Winery in Napa Valley and sees their 'green' practices up close, which include a solar array that produces energy for 100 percent of the winery's operations and a pressure bomb--a device they use to improve irrigation practices.
Groasis, the company that makes the Waterboxx, calls it an "intelligent water incubator." Simply put, the device captures rainwater in a round plastic container and then feeds plants steadily. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das talks to Daniel Bosch, head of viticulture at the Robert Mondavi Winery, about how the winemaker is using the Waterboxx to reduce traditional irrigation practices at its vineyards.
Groasis, the company that makes the Waterboxx, calls it an "intelligent water incubator." Simply put, the device captures rainwater in a round plastic container and then feeds plants steadily. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das talks to Daniel Bosch, head of viticulture at the Robert Mondavi Winery, about how the winemaker is using the Waterboxx to reduce traditional irrigation practices at its vineyards.
Travel gadgets go green
With air travel and hotel stays, business trips can be taxing on the environment. There are ways to conserve, though. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das shows you some travel products that have an eco-friendly spin.
Helping Haitians access safe drinking water
LifeGivingForce CEO Jim Chu demonstrates one of the solar-powered water purification systems the foundation is sending to Haiti to combat cholera and provide safe, clean and accessible water to people there.
MIT using sunrays to make clean water
MIT researchers Steve Dubowsky, Amy Bilton and Leah Kelly have created a solar-powered portable desalination system that could make clean drinking water available in countries that need it most. Using a process called reverse osmosis, the solar panel powers different pumps in the system that then force the seawater through a permeable membrane that filtrates the salt from the water. SmartPlanet shows you a time-lapse video sequence of the process.
Animation: Honda's new plug-in hybrid platform
Honda unveils its plug-in hybrid platform at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The goal is to allow for all-electric short trips and longer commutes with a 2.0-liter, i-VTEC inline 4-cylinder gasoline engine tied to a CVT, or continuously variable transmission. It has three modes: all-electric, gasoline-electric and engine direct-drive. SmartPlanet goes under the hood and shows you animation of how it works.
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