News

• Kyocera launches speakerless phone, uses vibrations to transmit sound to the ear

  By Jay Alabaster | 01 June, 2012 03:58

  Kyocera is demonstrating a new mobile phone that uses vibrations in its screen to transmit sound to the ear, in place of the traditional receiver speaker.

• NTT DoCoMo shows tablet-based virtual shared spaces, two-way clear touchscreen

  By Jay Alabaster | 01 June, 2012 01:44

  NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile operator, is developing a new platform that allows two remote tablet users to explore and share a virtual space.

• TED head: Online video, education platform are the future

  By Jay Alabaster | 30 May, 2012 07:49

  The head of TED, the organizer of conferences around brainy presentations on a wide variety of subjects, says online video will continue to play a central role for the group and he has high hopes for its new education platform.

• Japan robot lab readies second prototype for work at crippled nuclear reactor

  By Jay Alabaster | 25 May, 2012 10:17

  A Japanese robotics lab has developed a new emergency response prototype that will soon be put to work at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan.

• FujiFilm camera design to withstand water, shock, dust, freezing temperatures

  By Jay Alabaster | 23 May, 2012 13:22

  FujiFilm said Wednesday it will begin sales of a digital camera in June that is waterproof, shockproof, sealed against dust and sand, and works at temperatures below freezing.

• Microsoft beats data-sorting record with new approach

  By Joab Jackson | 23 May, 2012 04:56

  Besting a record set by Yahoo in 2009, the research arm of Microsoft have deployed a new technique for quickly sorting large amounts of data, called Flat Datacenter Storage (FDS).

• Sony demos wireless media hub for its computers, smartphones, game consoles

  By Jay Alabaster | 23 May, 2012 01:31

  Sony on Tuesday showed a digital media hub that uses Wi-Fi to connect its PCs, tablets, smartphones and PlayStation game consoles, a product that it hopes will be part of its comeback.

• Researcher runs IP network over xylophones

  By Joab Jackson | 12 May, 2012 06:56

  Vint Cerf once wore a shirt that read "IP on Everything," a wry comment on the versatility of the Internet Protocol he helped invent, a protocol that underlies all Internet communication. Now a University of California Berkeley researcher has put Cerf's maxim to the test, running an IP network over a set of xylophones, played by human participants.

• Japan's Softbank testing blimp-based emergency mobile phone system

  By Jay Alabaster | 11 May, 2012 13:59

  Softbank, which runs Japan's third-largest mobile phone network, is experimenting with using blimps as temporary cell towers for use during natural disasters.

• UC Berkeley tests floating robot sensors to track water flow, environmental concerns

  By Kerry Davis | 10 May, 2012 12:56

  It's been a couple of years and a couple of million dollars. Finally, researchers and graduate students who have spent years developing intelligent water sensors released them into the Sacramento River on Wednesday, about 80 miles east of San Francisco.

• Gesture sensing alternatives use radio interference, Doppler Effect

  By Nick Barber | 10 May, 2012 03:22

  Two Microsoft Research projects presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems used unique methods, completely absent of any cameras, to sense gestures.

• Twitter success thrives on narrow focus

  By Joab Jackson | 10 May, 2012 00:37

  Those looking to build a substantial following on Twitter would do well to stick to one particular topic, rather than use Twitter to discuss a wide range of subjects, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher has advised.

• The rhythm method: temporal taps a novel user input

  By Joab Jackson | 09 May, 2012 06:41

  Issuing commands to tomorrow's computational devices could be as simple as tapping out a few beats on a touchscreen or trackpad, French researchers suggest.

• Electric lemonade zaps taste buds

  By Nick Barber | 09 May, 2012 05:39

  A research project at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Austin experimented with adding electricity to food to change its taste.

• Sharp to sell moody robotic vacuum with video streaming, remote control by phone

  By Jay Alabaster | 08 May, 2012 23:16

  Sharp's new robot vacuum isn't always happy to do your housework.