Ding Ding Buumm – Touch Screen SkinPut

Remember Singaravelan Movie(Tamil) where Kamal hasan taps on Thai Amma’s Hand and says

“Ding Ding Ding Bummm” --- People have used this to found a new touch screen technology called Skinput ( I think People in Microsoft Research Lab has been inspired from this movie lolz (Tamil Lollu))

Technology

This future technology is developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. The system works with acoustic waves i.e. it has the ability to pick the Ultra low frequency sound also it can have a pico projector to display the User Interface on the Hand

 

Working

When ever we tap on our Arms or Hand we get sound, people have captured that sound to recognize which part of the hand you have tapped based on the Bone density, Mass and size, distance between the joints and also filtering from soft tissues this makes each skin area sound as unique one or the system can easily identify the “Skin Button”

If you normally tap the hand we won’t feel any difference but when seen in a slow motion each tapping produce a transverse wave. This technology is actually harnessing those bio acoustic waves for processing.

The system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector mounted in an armband. The acoustic detector which is also mounted in the armband will calculate which area the user has touched the skin.

The system could use wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit commands to many types of device including phones, iPods and even PCs , TV etc

In Picture : Chris Harrison ( Researcher, Man behind the Technology)

Interface

 

Currently the research claims to have achieved a 95.5% accuracy in tapping, the pictures shows the different tapping areas of the hand

The Tap area gives us minimum 10 skin button which is enough to control any Phones or Personal Media player (PMP) like iPods, MP3 players,

The above picture shows the User can regular User interface with back button or like this they have developed scrolling option in hand, if you tap on top of the hand it will scroll up, if you tap near hand elbow joint it will scroll down. To go back to previous screen you need to pinch or touch your thumb finger with any other finger.

The Touch screen technology is surely different one.

Applications

So far this is a Research Project has some cool applications. The below picture shows user controlling Tetris game in the computer by tapping his finger

 

This below picture is showing a tetris game projected on your hand using pico projector

Source : New scientist

Watch this video

so the Future is your hand saying is becoming true :)

Unknown Cool Google Services

We are all aware that Google has some cool services which starts from Search Engine, Gmail, GTalk , Google Earth , Google Map and the recently launched Google Buzz etc. But still there are some cool features that is not so famous lets see them

Google News TimeLine

This project his hidden under the sleeves of Google Labs, its main feature is to give Head lines of all news for a particular time line (per recent week). You can search your desired content and Google News Line will pull up the recent headlines and populate for you in date wise. So its a one shot news preview.

Link : Google News Time Line

Google In Quotes

This quotes displays the recent quotes made by a particular Political Leaders in recent times about a topic. This feature is good but has limited set of political leaders. This might expand soon to Scientist, Actors/ Actress etc. This is a upcoming features

Link : Google in Quotes

Google Patents Search

Are you a inventor or currently programming your own software algorithm, you can search whether the same has been already patented or already the technology has been invented. This site search through indexed patents registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The search engine uses optical character recognition (OCR) to sift through patents based on words and terms embedded in the image scans.

Link: Google Patents

Google Image Swirl

This one is hell a Cool Feature guys we have super cool feature called Google Similar Images. This feature is now graduated to Google Image search. Google Similar image will give result set of similar images but Image Swirl goes way a head and gives us a superb user interface of images and its sub groups

First the images gives stacked search images then clicking on the images gives us the one shot grouping view

Link : Google Image Swirl

Google Code Search

No need for explanation name itself suggest it search code for us. Good for Learners and Coders

 Link : Google Code Search

Google Fast Flip

This is like virtual News Stand, this is some what similar to Google News Timeline but this gives new in brand wise, there is a iphone Mobile version of the same

Other Notable Services

There are some more cool services but need lot of catch up to do

Google Scholar : if you are searching to make any paper presentation or read docs its good place

Google Product : One stop Shopping site but not as great as eBay.

Google Trends : Gives you the latest hot searching keyword trends, discover what the world is searching

Google City Tours : its awesome idea, gives you day wise tour trip of a city and even walking distance and time and even direction take right and take left but needs lot of catch up to do. it’s not working in IE 8, try in Google Chrome

Google Audio Indexing : same as Google Quotes but its not taking index from their news text , its taking from their audios, which are in Google Videos , you tube etc. as of now its very limited data only.

Tech Tweets : Windows Mobile 7 Phone Series

So its the last throw of Dice for Microsoft in Mobile Phone OS arena, after its over taken by Iphone OS and Android. It Seems 7 is been lucky for Microsoft ,Lets see what this Windows Mobile 7 Phone OS offers

Core OS

Good News is Microsoft has developed this OS from the existing Zune OS leaving the Old Windows Mobile 6.5 in Scrap. But Bad News is for Windows Mobile App developers, no news as of now whether it support .Net Compact framework or backward compatibility with old Windows Mobile 6.5. Microsoft is yet to provide its new SDK for this version of OS.

User Interface

Gone are the days when we use Stylus in touch screen PDA and Smart phone (PALM, HP ipaq, Asus etc) when Iphone made everything work with your fingers

Windows Mobile 7 Phone has new concept call hub, it has 6 hubs organized as People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office. which is called as Live Titles, you can modify the home screen to some extend.

The interface is much like Zune HD with flipping, zooming all fancy stuff. if you Scroll down to find more big, live tiles: Calendar, Exchange, Windows Live, Me and Xbox Live. Scroll right to find the list of all apps on your phone.

Music

it uses the same Zune HD interface , just like we have ipod feature in iphone we have zune in Windows phone

Social Networking & Browsing

it support Face book ( every one knows Microsoft invested heavily on FB) and windows Live so you can always be connected. it supports other Social networking also.

The new Web browser is based on Internet Explorer, and includes pinch-to-zoom and automatic column reformatting. Bad news is as of now it does not supports FLASH, it seems everyone is moving in Apple way.

Every phone will have Bing Search button :)

Pictures Gallery

This one is cool they have separate gallery view which is very much integrated with social networking you can directly sync with any cloud or social networking for real time update. off course you have all that multi touch zooming and scrolling option

Games

The whopping mobile gaming market which Iphone has created must have made Microsoft to include this feature, We have a cool new Xbox Live for mobile, its same as the Xbox Live which we have inXbox 360 connect to your gaming world via phone and enjoy the games.

Email & Office

This is one will take the blackberries off the shelves the best mobile email client ever the integration is so superb and it has office onenote to take down all the notes

Hardware partners

Microsoft told earlier that HTC touch flo will not be a feature of this phone, the phone is heavy in graphics and they are smooth, sleek too. They had made a strict minimum requirements for this software to run such as

1. Capacitive multitouch screen with atleast 4 point touch
2. 5 – Megapixel camera
3. FM Radio
4. etc

As of now Microsoft is working with Qualcomm, LG, Samsung, Garmin Asus, HTC, HP, Dell, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba. AT&T's their "premiere partner" in the US.

Unlock Hidden Themes in Windows 7

By Default Windows 7 Comes with cool themes but still windows 7 have cool country Specific Themes

Let’s see how to unlock the Feature

Go to Control Panel –> Appearance and Personalization –> Folder Option

Uncheck the Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended)

Click “Yes” button on the security warning and click Ok button.

Then go to the following path C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT there you can find themes country wise

Folder Names	Countries
AU	Australia
CA	Canada
GB	Great Britain
US	United States
ZA	South Africa

 

I really felt South African Wallpapers were cool

Open the MCT – AU or any Folder and open Themes folder and double click it to enjoy the cool themes

For More Windows 7 Themes Click Here

Google Buzz has Gone Nuts Look @ this Mischievous Feature

Image Source :  The Doghouse Diaries

Oops Google Buzz has Edit Post option, which I personnely Tried to0 I  can change the Content and the Comments and Replies exits so it can be funny and Mischievous one too.

if I post something like

Who love Ice Creams ? and if i get some 5 comments saying I love , I love  then I can edit the Who Love iCe creams to Who Love Me lolz he he beware guys and Gals this is a really stupid feature I feel

Still Me Buzzing about the Google Buzz will come out with More soon

Reasons Why Apple iPad Will Fail

Now more details of the product is coming up, which is making me oh my God, why they missed the very basic ones

No Camera / No Video Chat

Being a Portal Mobile Internet device, it does not offer camera, so you cannot do Video Chat using the Ipad, dude you can ask me I will connect USB Video Camera see down for that too.

No Flash Support

Steve told Browsing will be great using IPAD, in reality 70% of worlds RIA in the world is in Flash, without Flash support, Your Rich Internet Application(RIA) cannot be accessed, so you cannot play online games, More shocker is

You cannot play games in FaceBook, So if you buy this product No Cafe world, No Farmville, No Mafia Wars etc

No Multi Tasking

Even My Old Nokia Phone does this, I can hear FM Radio while typing SMS but in IPad you can open one application at a time, it means you cannot hear music while U r browsing or reading EBooks. Technically speaking doing this gives the Apple IPad 10hr battery life, but as a customer multi tasking is important

No USB Port

You can argue with me, it has Wifi but the question is you cannot connect your Pen Drive or even CD / DVD Rom to watch a movie, No Usb Camera, No USB Keyboard, Nothing in USB is supported may be they don't want over load the OS with extra drivers.

You cannot even connect your Digi Camera, Mobile directly and download your photos since it does not have USB port, you need to download to PC then using Wi-fi transfers to Ipad errrrr a long process it ages dude.

Storage

Its limited only 16GB or 64GB no SD slot, you cannot increase the storage it is yet another let down either buy $899 Ipad or live with 16GB

No HDMI Output

IPAD supports HD videos, YouTube HD and you can buy a HD Movie in iTunes but you cannot connect to your TV and enjoy the same.

App Store

You need to buy everything from App Store, I personally feel this feature sucks in Iphone too. It pricey in long run and more over if you are a iPhone App developer your product to be approved by Apple and it supports only limited features not like windows

Tied to Network

The 3G version of Ipad is tied with AT&T other option is T-Mobile its a bitter news for US customers not for Indian

Conclusion

All this features made us to think why should we need to invest $ 499 to $899 for this device with no or less basic features, we can get a good Windows XP or 7 netbooks for $400 or less, where you can do multi tasking ,hear music, browse and important thing it has USB port So this Apple product has

started giving us Wow to Ohhhhhhhh feeling hmmm lets wait for more

Turn any Flat Surface into Touch Screen

Here comes yet another breath taking in CES 2010, A projector that converts every flat surface as touch screen. This technology sounds like the six sense, which was still in development these guys from Light Blue Optics has gone one step as a commercial product know as Light Touch.

Sneak Through the Hole

Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics

“In the picture a Sample Twitter Application running on a flat surface”

How's it Possible ??

It has projector which uses a technology called Holographic Laser Projection – or HLP™ to create the 2D images and infra red sensors for multi touch sensors. That do the trick. It can create a projected touch screen size of 10.1 inch.

 

Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics  “ In Picture Working of the Projector ”

What all it do?

It has a Windows CE operating system and support Adobe Flash Lite make it ideal platform and has Image viewing application which gives User Interface similar to Iphone and Microsoft Surface.

Let’s See some applications

  Image courtesy : Light Blue Optics

So whatever we saw in Sci-fi movies are coming true, its the very same way Tom Cruise did on Minority Report. Hope Light Saber of Star Wars too come in real life :)