MPEG-4, Coming to a camcorder near you..

MPEG-4 Camcorders: Boom OR Bust?

At the Consumer Electronics Show this year, two companies made what seem to be the first serious attempts at MPEG-4 dedicated, tape-less camcorders. These digital camcorders claim to have advantages of high video compression, they are tightly housed within attractive, small profiles and generally are tapeless. Most of the models being introduced use either Secure Digital cards or write directly onto an internal hard drive.

Bug vision

Wired News: Bugs Taking Over Robot Guidance

“The principle is simply that, if the insect flies along a straight line, objects that are near it appear to whiz by much more rapidly in the eye than objects that are far away,” says Srinivasan. “Thus, the distance to an object can be inferred in terms of the velocity of its image in the eye — the greater the velocity, the nearer the object.”

Vinyl video discs

CED Magic – The RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc Web Site

From the site:
Capacitance Electronic Discs

This web site pertains to Capacitance Electronic Discs or CED’s, a consumer video format on grooved vinyl discs that was marketed by RCA in the 1980’s. This is the home site for the RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc FAQ and the CED Title Database. Additional information on the RCA VideoDisc System will appear here as it is prepared.

Design NYC’s Streetlights..!

City Lights Design Competition – Competition Info

From the site:
New York City’s Department of Design and Construction, in partnership with the Department of Transportation, is pleased to announce an international design competition for a new streetlight for the City of New York. The City of New York has provided lighting for the city’s streets since 1762. New York City currently maintains over three hundred thousand streetlights within its five boroughs, and is seeking a new streetlight design for the city in the twenty-first century. The city intends to add the new design to the Department of Transportation’s Street Lighting Catalogue, continuing a tradition of innovative street lighting begun more than two centuries ago.

Shake for light.. Tell me how it works..!

Forever Flashlight Home Page

From the site:
The Forever Flashlight uses the Faraday Principle of Electromagnetic Energy that guarantees replacement parts will never be needed!

Super bright Blue LED

Never needs batteries

Never needs bulbs

Waterproof

Floats in water

Great for cars, boats and campers and all emergency kits.
15-30 Seconds of shaking provides up to 5 minutes of
continuous bright light!

Projecting onto thin air?!?

IO2 Technology :† Heliodisplay- Interactive Free-Space Display

From the site:
The Heliodisplay projects full color streaming video into free space (i.e. air). It is plug-and-play compatible with most video sources (TV, DVD, computer, etc.). These non-holographic images can be fully interactive, allowing a hand or finger to select, navigate and manipulate — as if it were a virtual touch screen.

How does it work…?