A Tech Round Up

Green Paper Vending



Weird but very interesting and great to use, here is a concept that is from
Japan. After a roaring success of Talking Toilets in Tokyo now comes yet
another unique concept. A company called Oriental has come up with a device
called White Goat, that recycles office paper into toilet tissues. The machine
which looks like a vending device makes one roll of toilet tissue out of forty
A4 sheets in just about thirty minutes! Its really a novel way to reuse office
paper that is disposed off otherwise. The machine costs a whopping $100,000 and
is more to show how technology can be used in innovative ways by recycling used
material into something reusable. The machine weighs 600 kgs and is 1.8 meters
in height.

Neuro-inspired Computers

Researchers in France have come out with a hybrid nanoparticle-organic
transistor that has the capability to mimic the core functionalities of a
Synapse, a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical
signal to another cell in the brain. What it means is that the organic
transistor, based on pentacenea polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of
five linearly fused benzene rings and gold nanoparticles. Called as Nanoparticle
Organic Memory Field-Effect Transistor (NOMFET) it is expected to open up a new
premise on neuro-inspired computers that are capable of responding in a manner
similar to the nervous system. What the researchers have demonstrated is that
electric charges flowing through a mixture of an organic semiconductor and
metallic nanoparticles can behave the same way as neurotransmitters through a
synaptic connection in the brain.

Hands Free Texting

With the acceptance of mobile phones as part of the day-to-day life,
innovative technology concepts hastening user experience are on the rise. Take
the case of the hands free texting solution developed by researchers at Clemson
Universitys Human Centered Computing Lab (HCCL). A team headed by Dr Juan
Gilbert, professor, HCCL has come out with an application called VoiceTEXT that
enables cell phone users to speak text messages to the phone. VoiceTEXT works by
connecting a cell phone to an in-car hands-free system and setting it to vocal
mode action that connects the phone to a central server, which can then record
and send messages. The message is then transmitted as a voicemail message, an
email with a link to the message audio file, or transcribed using speech
recognition software and sent as an SMS.

Skinput: A New Dimension in Touch

A team of researchers are taking touchscreen to a whole new level. Carnegie
Mellons Chris Harrison and Microsoft Research Labs Dan Morris & Desney Tan
have developed a touchscreen system that enables users to use their own hands
and arms as touchscreen. This was done by detecting several ultra-low frequency
sounds produced while tapping at various parts of the skin. Minute pico
projectors are used for this purpose. According to the researchers, Skinput
technology appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the
skin to be used as an input surface. In particular, it resolves the location of
finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that
propagate through the body. It collects these signals using a novel array of
sensors worn as an armband.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in