Mind reading technology becomes commodity

Project Epoc

This release for developers has appeared:

Based on the latest developments in neuro-technology, Emotiv has developed a new interface for human computer interaction.

Project Epoc is a headset that uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals naturally produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expression. It connects wirelessly with all game platforms from consoles to PCs. Project Epoc now makes it possible for games to be controlled and influenced by the player's mind.

Engaging, immersive, and nuanced, Emotiv-inspired game-play will be like nothing ever seen before.

Going to the site, there's a set of tools to use the input from this standard headset. Combining this with the Wii bluetooth handset can create a truly immersive gaming experience.

Minority Report type UI working

The interface business continues to grow in sophistication. This example is made by Perceptive Pixel.




be impressed - be very impressed!

unintended consequences of licensing enforcement

A headmaster was tried after he acquired a improperly licensed copy of windows for the school. Response: if licensed software is causing problems - stop using it.



Russian schools abandon Windows after piracy scare

Schools in the Perm region will soon quit buying software from commercial companies, said the region’s Education Minister Nikolay Karpushin. The announcement was made in line with the report on ensuring 'license purity' in the region’s schools.

According to Karpushin, schools would start using freely distributed software like the Linux OS, Russky office and Open office desktop apps, Ekho Moskvi reports.

The flavour of Linux being used will be one of the cheap localised Russian Linux distributives in Russia.

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Now the Online Game is Core to the Franchise

Disney are building the online game as the core of their "Priates" franchise. Free to join - pay to upgrade. Can they do it?


Disney To Launch Free 'Pirates' MMO This May - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Disney Online will offer the legions of fans who have flocked to see Captain Jack Sparrow in movie theaters a chance to star in an original video game adventure for free with "Pirates of the Caribbean Online."
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The massively multiplayer online game, slated to launch in the spring in conjunction with the May 25 theatrical release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," will bypass retail and be available via a free download at www.PiratesOnline.com

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Can LED's really have this impact?

I know this is a little off topic - but look at the figures for money and CO2 saved!







Cheaper LEDs to light a green path? | Tech News on ZDNet

The future of light is plastic, Cyberlux says.

The company, which specializes in light-emitting diodes, plans to reveal in about four months prototypes of a new style of white-light LEDs that would both cost substantially less to manufacture and provide more light than conventional LEDs.

Combined, the two advantages would enable light fixtures based on LEDs, which are now relatively expensive, to better compete with traditional lamps based on conventional glass bulbs and fluorescent lights, according to Cyberlux President Mark Schmidt.



..............

Approximately 22 percent of the electricity consumed in the United
States goes toward lighting, according to the U.S. Department of
Energy.

To make matters worse, traditional lightbulbs are incredibly
inefficient. Only about 5 percent of the energy that goes into them
turns into light. The majority gets dissipated as heat. Fluorescent
bulbs are much more efficient but aren't as prevalent, particularly
inside homes. LED advocates say their devices will beat fluorescent
bulbs.

In a speech last year, DenBaars said that if 25 percent of
the lightbulbs in the United States were converted to LEDs putting out
150 lumens per watt (higher than the current commercial standard), the
country as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs,
cumulatively, by 2025. That would alleviate the need to build 133 new
coal-burning power stations, he said.

In turn, carbon emissions in the atmosphere would go down by 258 million metric tons.

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Zudeo now Public

P2P company Azureus has a new video-sharing beta in the works called Zudeo, which is up and ready for users right now.

Zudeo supports long-form full-resolution and even hi-def video in addition to the video podcasts and indie music typical to video-sharing sites.

For long-form stuff that you want to watch or distribute in a higher resolution than streaming video--like the 69-minute "Reefer Madness," online now!--a solution like Zudeo makes sense. For shorter/lower-rez stuff, though, why not go with a lighter solution like YouTube (and one that doesn't require downloading a client app)?

Aspiring video distributors: Zudeo hosting is free while it's in beta, and the site says they'll host your content free for at least 12 months no matter when the beta testing wraps up.

Video presenters! Zudeo also provides links to your content that you can embed in blogs and other sites.

Next Skype video project unveiled

Can Skype do it again?



Hands On with Skype's Joost/Venice Project - AppScout

Skype's Internet TV project, formerly called The Venice Project, got its real name today: Joost. The video service is still in beta, but the Joost team says it will be more open than before, so if you've been waiting for an invitation, you can start holding your breath now (we didn't get ours until last week).

For those that haven't heard of this yet, Skype's video service has pretty high ambitions. It's not meant for grainy webcam videos, nor is it the place to find recent Daily Show clips. Joost is looking to make its mark with original content streamed with as little compression as possible, and to give regular ol' TV a real run for its money.

I took Joost for a test drive this morning, and it looks pretty slick besides the occasional beta bugs (for instance, it isn't working with IE or Safari right now for some reason). Joost uses a local video player client that interacts with the Web to stream videos using an H.264 video codec, and there's a modified Mozilla browser built over it all so the client will work with pretty much any OS.

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Web News - become a journalist

Yahoo! are wanting to formalise the use of the public to capture news - video and photograph.

You Witness News

Were You There When News Happened?

Upload your photos and video here to have them considered for use in articles and features on Yahoo! News.

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Lookalike fonts

Interesting for designers wanting a free font that is similar to a commercial one.

Which fonts look most like Helvetica? What's a good substitute if you can't find Staccato? Many times companies will produce their own versions of another font. Occasionally the names will be similar such as Lithos and Lithographic. But often the names are totally dissimilar as in Perpetua and Lapidary 333. This list will help you find many of these lookalike fonts, font aliases, clones, and close-match fonts. It's not a comprehensive list by any means, but it is a start and encompasses typefaces from many well-known sources including Monotype, Bitstream, Adobe, Corel, and Linotype AG.

Best CES 2007 Photo Blog

What a mad place - I love the Paris Hotel - it looks like the set for "Moulin Rouge".

CES 2007 Photo Blog - CES 2007 Coverage by PC Magazine

When it comes to CES, we can try to explain the crazy events, technological miracles, and eye-popping booths, but in the end, seeing is believing. To that end, we present our CES 2007 Photo Blog , your ticket to the show floor. Click on the slideshow on the right to learn what we learn and see what we see.

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Kill the download button army

I haven't used this yet but download squad have found this interesting utility for professional bloggers:

Well, if you're someone that wants to offer your users the ability to easily subscribe to or bookmark your site, but want to avoid littering your site with all of these site-specific icons, check out Add This. Add This allows you to put a single image link on your site to take your readers to a dedicated bookmarking site page, and another for feed readers. Once there, they can choose the service they'd like to use, and perform the function they're looking to do.

Web 2.0 startup advice

Good advice for new systems too. Worth a check.

. It ... seems like many of these startups could use some guidance to help them find their way. With goofy names, varying user experiences and questionable goals running amok, we figured it was time to lay down some ground rules. Check out our seven tips to help Web 2.0 startups be all they can be:

1. Help me make the move: New blogs and communities need easy tools to let their users integrate some sort of blurb about their new hangout on their other sites and communities. For example: I've been playing with Vox for a few weeks now, and just recently they introduced a badge tool that puts together all the HTML users would need to insert in another blog sidebar. This makes it easy for users to tell existing readers they have have (or are moving to) a Vox blog. While it's a smart move and I'm using a badge on my personal WordPress blog, this generator should have existed the day Six Apart, and all who follow in their footsteps, flipped the switch on their service.