We have seen in the past some of the things being cooked in the ovens of Microsoft Research. Augmented reality, virtual reality, advanced mapping and interfaces in alternative spaces have a common goal, and that is to put aside the keyboard and mouse. This time, it comes Digits project. In order to obtain the highest sensitivity and ability to detect possible Digits uses a bracelet with an infrared camera and a laser line generator, which enable gesture recognition in real time.
Gesture recognition has a much larger presence than we imagine. You may automatically think of Microsoft Kinect, but a digital camera make your shot when it detects a smile is also a way to recognize a specific gesture. If we let our minds float a little more, eventually reach the recurring example of "Minority Report" and the famous gesture driven interface. It may take many years, and may not even be available between home systems, but in the same way that the touch screen is displacing keys, advanced gesture recognition will return the favor to the touch screen. In regards to our hands, the Kinect lacks the resolution necessary to detect them correctly, however, Microsoft Research have created something with much greater precision: Digits.
An infrared camera, a laser scanning and inertial measurement unit is all you need the Digits to run as long as the package is installed on a bracelet at a reasonable distance from the user's hand. Although this is just a prototype, Digits can detect and recognize gestures in real time, to the nearest hundredth of an inch. In part, this is reminiscent of the great Leap Motion, but one of the most important differences is that Digits not need to be at the computer to work. In fact, do not even need to look at the device. For a smartphone, with simple gestures the user is able to tune to a different radio, change the volume or skip to the next song.
By itself, Digits can probably get a place among the game as follows control, but things get even more interesting when you consider the possibility of combining the Digits with some Google-style Glass. Dynamic gesture recognition and augmented reality is presented as a great combination, and who finds a way to "do better", you will get a substantial advantage in a market waiting to be exploited. The next step will be to evaluate methods to miniaturize the device. Will this development to remove once and for all to the keyboard and mouse? Given the status of the project, will have to wait a while to find out.
In 1956 the U.S. Air Force (USAF) developed what is known as "Project 1794". Contemplated the design and development of an aircraft unlike any known aircraft or helicopter designed to be able to take off and land vertically. It was capable of speeds of up to three and four times that of sound, at altitudes up to 30,000 meters. It has been over 50 years and finally the National Archives and Records Administration has declassified documents related to this project: we can see how it would have been a flying saucer earthling.
There are few who claim to have seen a "flying saucer". There are thousands of alleged photograph of dish shaped aircraft many of which are obvious frauds, and it is possible that some of them correspond to aircraft prototype developed by the great powers, or even remain secret, or whose development was abandoned decades ago and ever we will learn of its existence. However, every so often, any document related to these developments is "declassified" by governments and their content reaches the public. This is the case of so-called "Project 1794," the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States just to publicize.
As you can guess seeing the photographs, it is the design of an aircraft unlike anything we're used to seeing at airports. It has the unmistakable shape of the "flying saucers" that have been reported many times over and wide, and was developed in the mid 1950s in the United States Air Force, Air Force there. According to authorities, never became a mass-produced vehicle, but it is known that the project "reached at least the initial phase of research and development", and had been assigned to the Canadian Avro Aircraft company.
It seems that, at least on paper-this flying saucer model child of the Cold War was capable of speeds of up to three to four times the speed of sound (Mach 3 or 4), had a range of nearly 1,850 kilometers and could Flight reach heights of up to 30 thousand feet above sea level. Only a few have declassified images and an internal memorandum, so not many details of the project. However, their very existence forces us to reflect on the amount of "toys" that have tried similar (or managed) build over the last 50 or 60 years, of which may never have any news. The "Project 1794" may be one that was abandoned in the early stages of development, it has been declassified. But it is likely that other, more advanced, sleeping in a remote hangar USAF. Do not you think?
A year has passed since the death of Steve Jobs, the founder and leader of Apple. In these 12 months, the company Apple has continued to advance at full throttle as a company, breaking sales records and rising as the company most valued and most valuable in the world. But, with its spectacular financial performance, some believe that the iconic image of Apple is losing steam and that without Jobs, Apple is becoming a technology company either.
In 2012 Apple has achieved brilliant results. Under the auspices of Tim Cook, who took the witness to Jobs in January 2011, Apple has grown in the last quarter by 23 percent. Also, in that time period, the Cupertino company has sold 26 million iPhones, 17 million iPads and 4 million computers.
These extraordinary numbers Apple managed to give the necessary impetus to finish with a sprint it climbs to the top of the markets. And it has been in the first year of no Jobs that Apple has become the company's most valuable private property history, surpassing the record first set by Microsoft in 1999. It was on 20 August when Apple's stock gained 2.6 percent, reaching $665.15 per share, which made the value of the company to rise to the 623,520 million.
Wall Street, which made Jobs' death spread concern for the future of the company, I could not imagine that Cook and his team with such forcefulness rebatirían fears. So much so, that Cook was even allowed to do something that ended in March of dazzle investors: dividends, something that the leadership of the company-specific Jobs had refused to do since 1995.
Although every one of the achievements that Apple has recently won the apple company has also found several bumps in the road since I was orphaned. The working conditions for factory workers iPads in China or the recent "mapgate" were some of them. Still, the most controversial mishap with which Apple has had to deal was the millionaire litigation against Samsung.
The American company sued the South Korean technology for violating various patents. Although Apple won and Samsung was ordered to pay more than 1,000 million dollars in compensation for damages, the Cupertino brand also took a blow. Basically the judge recognize that Apple and Samsung products were essentially indistinguishable led many to wonder why they paid more than triple by phone or tablet from Apple when Samsung were virtually identical.
Less rosy forecasts predicted that without Jobs, the flagship of a unique corporate culture in the world, Apple would lose its essence and direction. And though their values remain and his group of loyal fans continues to support the company unconditionally, some people are reluctant to look to Apple with the same eyes.
In recent weeks, Forbes said that Apple without Steve Jobs has "the same interest as Dell" or without the Apple visionary entrepreneur "is becoming a technology company normal."
