Category Archives: Hardware

Nokia and In-Location Alliance to improve indoor positioning

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Nokia Indoor Navigation

Nokia Research Center has developed Indoor Navigator to provide precise indoor location information on a handset, without needing GPS. (Image Credit: © Nokia)

Nokia this week announced the new In-Location Alliance that will be working on the innovation and promotion of a new standard-based short-range wireless technology, that will make it possible to locate objects or positions indoors with extremely high accuracy, using mobile devices. The In-Location Alliance includes more than 20 tech companies across different industries, with Nokia being one of the founding members.

Nokia, wanting to become the “Where platform”, already have quite a few positioning services in the works, and have talked about Indoor position for a while. To speed up the adaptation, and with hopes to create a unified standard, Nokia now seek a cooperation with other high profile name from the mobile industry such as Broadcom, CSR, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Mobile Communications. Neither Apple or Google is however part of this new Alliance.

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LG introduce new premium IPS7 cinema screen design monitors

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LG IPS7 series monitors

LG Electronics new premium IPS7 series monitors (Image: © LG)

LG Electronics (LG) just announced the global roll-out of their new premium IPS7 series monitors. The launch will first start in the Asian markets of Korea and China, including Hong Kong, and other markets are yet to be announced. The monitors feature LG’s own Cinema Screen Design, with an impressively thin 1.2mm bezel for an unobstructed viewing experience, lifelike color consistency, and also a wider viewing angle. This is made possible by using IPS technology developed by LG. The IPS7 series also feature Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) that makes it easy to connect external devices, like smartphones, for viewing content on a larger screen.

“By combining CINEMA SCREEN Design and MHL functionality with the industry’s leading IPS technology, the IPS7 series is able to offer stunning design and performance”, said J.J. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of the IT Business Unit of the LG Home Entertainment Company. “With the rapid growth in the number of mobile smart devices such as smartphones and tablets, the availability of content has greatly expanded. LG’s IPS7 expands the user experience, enabling viewers to take full advantage of this content-rich environment.”

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Sony launches new ultra fast XQD™ S Series memory card

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Sony XQD™ S Series memory card

XQD™ S Series memory card from Sony, the fastest-ever memory card with 168MB/s read-write speed (Image: © Sony)

Sports photographers can rejoice this summer as Sony launch their new XQD™ S Series memory card, allowing the best-ever shooting performance so far. Offering a sustained read/write transfer speed of 168MB/s (actual speed), the XQD™ S Series actually outpaces the maximum interface speed limit of Compact Flash cards (167 MB/s), and is ideal for storing large volumes of data-heavy RAW files.

The blazing speed and large capacity, should make the card ideal for sports photographers who doesn’t want to be held back by eventual lag in the storage media, and at the same time might be triggering the camera’s shutter remotely and cannot conveniently change media cards in the middle of the action they are trying to capture.

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Technology leaders form HSA Foundation to usher innovation

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HSA Foundation

HSA Foundation was announced at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit

This week, technology leaders AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek and Texas Instruments came together to form the HSA Foundation, a non-profit consortium established to promote the broad and open industry adoption of HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture). The purpose is to define and promote an open standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing. Providing a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem will make it easier for software developers to create innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today’s modern processors.

The new collaboration was announced at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS), and the new independent consortium is open to any and all computing industry professionals with an interest in driving the next era in computing performance and energy efficiency to join. The HSA Foundation plan to deliver robust development solutions for heterogeneous computing, to drive innovative content and applications with developer tools, software developer kits (SDKs), libraries, documentation, training, support and more.

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Docomo show double-sided transparent touchscreen prototype

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NTT Docomo Transparant Dual Touch Display

NTT Docomo Transparant Dual Touch Display. Credit: DigInfo.tv video

NTT Docomo have together with Fujitsu developed a new prototype smartphone running Android, using a transparent display. No only is it using a see-through display, but it also has dual touchscreens, one on the front, and the other on the back. Through newly developed gestures this makes it possible to manipulate and navigate the phone UI in a way never seen before.

“You could hold down an icon on the front, and slide on the back to move an icon, or use the message bar, or create a new application”, explained Masashi Tagaya, Advanced Technology Group, Communication Device Development Dept., NTT DOCOMO R&D.

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Electronic touch pads on disposable paper coming soon

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Metallic paper touch pads

Metallic paper touch pad

Researchers in the US and France have developed a electronic touch pad that is based on metallised paper. This could lead to throwaway touch pads potentially incorporated into anything from food packaging to disposable or sterile medical devices.

The touch pads are made from paper coated in a layer of aluminium around 10nm thick. The paper is then overlaid with a thin film of transparent polymer. The paper the touch pads are based on is already produced commercially and is used for everything from labels on beer bottles to glossy book covers. It is therefore very inexpensive and cost only around $0.25/m2 to manufacture.

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HP will resume tablet manufacturing

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HP Windows 8 tablet

Potential HP TouchPad running Windows 8? (Image mock-up)

At the Global Influencer Summit 2012 this week, HP showed off several new HP Ultrabooks™, but chief executive Meg Whitman also reveled that the company will restart production of consumer tablets. Unlike the previous HP TouchPad running webOS, these new tablets will be using the upcoming Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft.

The tablet strategy was scrapped last year by the current CEO Leo Apotheker after disappointing sales figures, and at the same time Apotheker caused a stir when he decided to refocus HP on higher-margin businesses like cloud computing and software. It seemed that HP might leave the Personal Computer market all together. After just 11 months on the job, Hewlett-Packard’s board ousted CEO Leo Apotheker, replacing him with Meg Whitman, former CEO at eBay.

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LG Optimus L7 to arrive in stores this month

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LG Optimus L7

LG Optimus L7 - Image: ©lg.com

The new LG Optimus L7 will begin arriving in stores this week. Being part of LG’s L-Series lineup, it has a premium design and a large 4.3-inch display and comes with the latest Android version, Ice Cream Sandwich. The LG Optimus L7 has a slim and sleek body and a thickness of only 8.7mm. With it’s metallic-decorated edges, and seamless key arrangement the device gives an elegant look and feel.

The Optimus L7 features a 5 MP rear camera with an impressive and advanced, six-tenth of a second Autofocus feature, allowing users to capture precious scenes fast and more accurately. Following its release in Europe in early May, the LG Optimus L7 will roll out in Asia followed by other markets around the world soon after.

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NGK develop GaN Wafer for new Ultra High Brightness LED’s

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NGK's GaN wafer

LED element under light emitting test. Injection current: approx. 200mA, Center wavelength: 450nm (Image: © NGK Insulators, Ltd)

NGK Insulators, Ltd. has announced it has developed gallium nitride (GaN) wafers that can double the luminous efficiency of a LED light source compared to conventional materials.

With the assistance of a research institute outside the company, tests were performed to measure the luminous efficiency of an LED element using NGK’s new GaN wafer. With an injection current of 200mA, the GaN wafer during the tests showed an internal quantum efficiency of 90%. The GaN wafer achieved a luminous efficiency of 200lm/W, which is twice as efficient as those on the market today. This in affect means that with this new solution the power consumption can be reduced by up to 50%, while upholding the same brightness of a traditional LED.

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New research can give mobile devices that see through walls

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UT Dallas Reasearchers

Dr. Kenneth O, left, worked with a team including Dae Yeon Kim, who was among the authors of the research report.

Researchers at UT Dallas have designed a new imaging chip that in the future could let mobile devices see through walls, wood, plastics, paper and other objects. The research team have linked two existing scientific breakthroughs into one. The first involves looking at the terahertz range, a previously unused range in the electromagnetic spectrum. The second utilize advancements in new microchip technology.

Infrared wavelengths have been used for years, making night vision devices among other things possible. The terahertz band, one of the wavelength ranges that falls between microwave and infrared, has however up till now not been accessible for most consumer devices.

“We’ve created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use and life-saving medical applications”, said Dr. Kenneth O, professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas and director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence(TxACE). “The terahertz range is full of unlimited potential that could benefit us all.”

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