USC Smart Fences use spatio-temporal sensor patterns to create a DRADIS for airports
January 28, 2011 No Comment
How do you send an automated alert to a security guard whenever anyone tries to climb a fence, but ignore anyone simply leaning on said chain link? How can a sensor pick up the presence of a Jeep but ignore a steady flow of gigantic airliners? Damned if we know, we’re just bloggers, but a team at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering figured it out, creating what’s called the Smart Fence. It’s a series of sensors plus some associated circuitry that easily handle the situations described above and do so with amazing accuracy. How amazing? Here are the results of one test: A perfect (100%) identification of unexpected intrusion events, and an average of less than two false positives per week and zero false negatives for recognition of human footsteps. In addition, no false positives or false negatives were reported by the installed fence sensors for a duration of 45 days of unattended operation, which included several days of seasonal storms. Yeah, pretty good. The system is being developed for use around airports and military bases and is currently being funded largely by Navy grants. Now, if only they could create a system to prevent ” laser events ” and airport blizzards we might be able to travel safely again. USC Smart Fences use spatio-temporal sensor patterns to create a DRADIS for airports originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …HP CEO: New webOS products shipping weeks after February 9 reveal, another big announcement March 14
January 28, 2011 No Comment
It’s been a few months since Leo Apotheker took the top spot at HP following the Mark Hurd debacle , and it sounds like he’s got some big plans for the company — speaking to the BBC, he says he hopes “one day people will say ‘this is as cool as HP,’ not ‘this is as cool as Apple.’” How does he plan on doing that? By speeding up ship times, for starters — unlike the year-long wait for the HP Slate , Apotheker says that “when HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship,” and that the new webOS products announced on February 9 will ship just a “few weeks” later. Speaking of the February 9 event, Apotheker said the new product line of tablets and mobile phones will have a new name that falls under the HP brand, which sounds like the Palm name is done for. (If we had to guess, it’ll be HP webOS, but that’s just a guess.) On top of all that, the BBC calls February 9 just the “starting gun,” because Apotheker’s “secret answer” and “vision of what HP is capable of in the future” will come on March 14, where he’ll try to pull together HP’s vast product portfolio into a cohesive narrative. According to Apotheker, HP’s size is its “basis of strength,” and no other company sells everything from servers to phones the way HP does. Sounds extremely exciting — and if Apotheker can pull it off, there’s a chance we’ll remember Mark Hurd’s dalliance as the best thing that ever happened to HP. [Thanks, soydeedo] HP CEO: New webOS products shipping weeks after February 9 reveal, another big announcement March 14 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Never would we have guessed that third-party wireless retailers would be aiming to launch AT&T’s powerhouse Atrix 4G for just $150 on contract — $200 or $250, sure, but not $150. Alas, just a few hours after AmazonWireless’ peep show , we’re seeing an alleged leaked screen shot of Costco’s inventory system showing the same blockbuster price. Now, bear in mind that AT&T itself will probably sell the phone for at least $50 more — third parties usually have a second ETF on top of the carrier’s that allows them to subsidize a little more heavily — but it’s a good sign regardless. Motorola Atrix 4G apparently priced at $150 by Costco, too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …VW confirms it will build hyper-efficient XL1, Autocar gets to drive one
January 28, 2011 No Comment
Think the Volkswagen XL1 concept is too far out there to ever get built? Tell that to the blokes in Wolfsberg. German source Automobilewoche is reporting that executives Ferdinand Piech and Martin Winterkorn both confirmed that the car will be produced in small numbers, first for Germany and later coming to the US and China. It’s powered by a diesel engine with less than one liter of displacement, managing 313mpg combined (that’s Imperial, 260mpg using American units) putting out just 48hp and thankfully assisted by a 27hp electric motor. Not much, but enough for the 1,750lb car, which Autocar correspondent Milton Holloway got to drive and said feels “fully sorted” despite an engine that’s a bit rattly. It is a diesel, after all. VW confirms it will build hyper-efficient XL1, Autocar gets to drive one originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …New research suggests our brains delete information at an ‘extraordinarily high’ rate
January 28, 2011 No Comment
The mysteries of the brain may be virtually endless, but a team of researchers from two institutes in G
Continue reading …Geolocation app appeals to your inner good samaritan, makes you an amateur EMT
January 28, 2011 No Comment
When you go into cardiac arrest, you’ve got about ten minutes to live if you don’t receive medical attention, and the average emergency response time is seven minutes after you dial 911. In an effort to get folks help more quickly and leverage the iPhone’s life saving abilities , the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District in California has created the FireDepartment app to enlist the help of the citizenry in fighting the (unfortunate) results of a lifetime of eating tacos . The iPhone app — Android and BlackBerry versions are currently in the works — allows emergency dispatchers to notify users via text of a nearby crisis. For those feeling heroic, the app displays a map with the victim’s location and any nearby automatic electronic defibrillators , and provides “resuscitation reminders” in case you’re the CPR teddy-toting type . For now, the service only works in San Ramon but there are plans to port it for use elsewhere. That means we can look forward to a nation of amateur EMTs, which makes us thankful that mouth-to-mouth is no longer a part of CPR. Check the video after the break to see the app in action. Continue reading Geolocation app appeals to your inner good samaritan, makes you an amateur EMT Geolocation app appeals to your inner good samaritan, makes you an amateur EMT originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Smart USA won’t be stopped by snow, delivers first Fortwo Electric Drive to a customer
January 28, 2011 No Comment
Hertz may have been the first to get the suckers on the road , but Mindy Kimball of Silver Spring, MD is the first American customer to have a Smart Fortwo Electric Drive of her very own. She’s a US Army Major and now has a funky little green (but not olive drab) and white coupe at home — probably buried under a foot or two of white stuff at this point. She’s member numero uno of Smart USA’s so-called “Team 250,” which will make up the first 250 owners of the cars, each of which offer a maximum of 72 miles of range and a top speed of 70mph. All while looking super cute. [Thanks, Jason] Smart USA won’t be stopped by snow, delivers first Fortwo Electric Drive to a customer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Ladies and gentlemen of the, ahem, jury, we intend to show — through rumors and circumstantial evidence — that Apple might very well be building Nexus S-like NFC capabilities into next-generation iPhones and iPads. We present for your consideration exhibits A, B, and C: three Apple job posts, seeking two managers of global payment platforms and one test engineer for iPhone hardware. According to the original post, the right engineer possesses a background in both ICT (information and communication technology) and RFID (radio frequency identification), which forms the basis for NFC. Suspiciously, Apple removed the “ID” in “RFID” sometime in the past 24 hours. Still not convinced of Apple’s NFC involvement? Consider this: Apple’s manager of global payment platforms is tasked with contributing “to the analysis and development of new payment types and processes.” Okay, so there’s not a smoking gun in sight, but a little innocent conjecture never hurt anybody. Apple job posts point to built-in NFC capabilities for iPad / iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Nikon patents DSLR camera / projector, high-end photographers may get to join the projection party
January 28, 2011 No Comment
Nikon’s done the projector-in-a-camera thing before, but the S1100pj was aimed at the compact digital camera crowd. In what appears to be an effort to take its game to the next level, the company has obtained a Japanese patent for a way to give a DSLR those same mythical projector capabilities. Though the patent’s english detailed description states that images are “projected on the screen of the photographing instrument exterior via the eyepiece of an electronic view finder,” something may have been lost in translation — the drawings show the projection coming out of the camera’s lens, and our hopes and dreams won’t let us see anything else. Regardless of how the thing works, we hope that Nikon puts it into production soon, as we — proud members of the “serious” photo-snapping crowd — would like to share our pics at parties, too . Hit up the source link for the translated patent documents, but be aware that the link won’t work in Chrome (IE or Firefox only) and you’ll need to put in “A” for the Kind code and “2011-10098″ in the Number field to get them. What, you thought surfing the world wide web was easy ? Nikon patents DSLR camera / projector, high-end photographers may get to join the projection party originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Samsung Tabulates 2 million slates, 80 million phones sold in Q4 2010, breaks revenue records
January 28, 2011 No Comment
Score one for Samsung in its eternal struggle against South Korean nemesis LG. Whereas the Life’s Good crew were licking their Q4 2010 wounds yesterday, Samsung’s had the pleasure of announcing that the final quarter of last year helped it bust through all its previous fiscal records: total revenue ($139b), net income ($14b), and operating profit ($15.5b) all reached all-time highs. The fourth quarter’s contribution was $2.7b in operating profit, 80.7 million mobile devices sold, 12.72 million flat panel TVs shipped, and two million Galaxy Tabs distributed to Android lovers yearning for some Froyo . That last number’s pretty important as it shows the Tab’s sales have almost doubled over the last month of the quarter — it reached one million sales in early December — indicating that there is indeed a hunger for slate-based computing. Oh, and if you’re wondering what Samsung’s planning for the future, there’s a reminder that a device with a Super AMOLED Plus screen and a dual-core processor is coming to replace the Galaxy S in the first half of 2011. Good to know. [Thanks, Tascien] Continue reading Samsung Tabulates 2 million slates, 80 million phones sold in Q4 2010, breaks revenue records Samsung Tabulates 2 million slates, 80 million phones sold in Q4 2010, breaks revenue records originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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