Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Today in Geek, 20091223

It's technology day among geeks today, apparently.

Technology
Video-stitched cellphone streams go widescreen. Microsoft has developed a system to stitch together cellphone videos of the same scene to create higher-resolution videos. I highly recommend the video. Neat idea!

Green
Body Heat Energy Generation. They say this is for "micropower devices," but I wonder how much power you could realistically harvest from non-intrusive devices. They say they can get about 100-600 microWatts for a wristwatch-sized generator. Is that getting close to something that could recharge my cellphone and/or run an mp3 player?

Awesome
Typing With Your Brain. Researchers presented a study at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in which they were able to consistently predict the desired letters of patients "at or near 100 percent accuracy." Other studies have had similar success, apparently, but this one promises much greater speed, more the "you think it, it happens" that we expect from mind-reading computers. Sure, it requires electrodes implanted in the brain, but that seems like a small price to pay.

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