New patent from Apple splits chrominance and luminance pixels
Antitrust+?
Given my post last night, this will probably sound like piling on. But I’m sorry, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. I don’t see how it can’t.
How on Earth is Google going to avoid antitrust inquiries with their new Search+ features announced today? If Facebook, Twitter, etc, have any decent presence in DC, the ball began rolling a few hours ago.
This is the type of case that Senators die for. Google wrapped it in a bow and placed it in one of their laps.
Most of the broader antitrust concerns against Google are bullshit in my opinion. You can argue that they have a monopoly on search, but it’s a natural one. They’ve earned it. They’re simply better at search than their competitors. This has always been true. It remains true.
But when they use that natural monopoly to start pushing into other verticals, things get gray. Travel, restaurant reviews, etc, etc. We see more of it each year.
Clever cable…
Nice.
Aerial 3D: Amazing System Shows 3D Objects In Mid-Air, With No Screen (Video)
Sent to you via Google Reader
Aerial 3D: Amazing System Shows 3D Objects In Mid-Air, With No Screen (Video)>
[burton 3d feat]
Since 2006, Tokyo-based Burton has been working on Aerial 3D, a technology that makes it possible to produce pictures in 3D in mid-air or underwater – without using a screen (that’s what I call “True 3D Technology” indeed). Burton says their laser-based system is the only one of its kind.
The current system projects 3D objects at 50,000 dots per second (up from around 1,000 in 2006) and with a frame rate of 10-15. The Aerial 3D works by focusing laser light, producing “plasma excitation from the oxygen and nitrogen in the air”.
As you can see in the video below, the technology still leaves some room for improvement regarding picture quality (Burton currently tries to boost the frame rate), but the 3D objects can be seen floating in mid-air clearly:
>
Video courtesy of Diginfo TV»»»>
[http://feeds.feedburner.com/&;ff/Techcrunch?d=2mJPEYqXBVI]»»>
Sample shots: ASUS Transformer Prime camera gets a workout
Sent to you via Google Reader
Sample shots: ASUS Transformer Prime camera gets a workout>
[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/11/2-1321346933.jpg]>
The photographer’s mantra is “the best camera is the one that’s with you”
Alireza Mahdian, John Black, Richard Han, Shivakant Mishra (Submitted on 24 Oct 2011)
This technical report considers the design of a social network that would address the shortcomings of the current ones, and identifies user privacy, security, and service availability as strong motivations that push the architecture of the proposed design to be distributed. We describe our design in detail and identify the property of resiliency as a key objective for the overall design philosophy.
We define the system goals, threat model, and trust model as part of the system model, and discuss the challenges in adapting such distributed frameworks to become highly available and highly resilient in potentially hostile environments. We propose a distributed solution to address these challenges based on a trust-based friendship model for replicating user profiles and disseminating messages, and examine how this approach builds upon prior work in distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks.
This is exactly the form that social operating systems will take: a distributed model (mediated by server-side replication) for peer-to-peer social relationships and messaging.
(via emergentfutures)
GoPro is ready to take action cameras to a whole new level. Again. The Half Moon Bay-based company just released the HD Hero2 Professional, a major refresh over the original (and much loved)…
The program of 6th Fraunhofer IMS Workshop on CMOS Imaging has been published. The workshop is to be held in Duisburg, Germany on June 12-13, 2012. The program includes:
2D - Imaging
- Worse…
John Gruber in his iPhone 4S review:
I spoke to some friends familiar with the development of iOS 5 and the 4S, and word on the Cupertino street is that camera speed — time from launch to being able to snap a photo, as well as the time between subsequent photos — received an enormous amount of engineering attention during development. The stopwatches were out, and every single tenth of a second that could be shaved was shaved.
The iPhone is and has been my main camera for some time. The dramatically improved camera speed alone makes the upgrade from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S worth it for me. All the rest is just icing.
Cloud-Powered Facial Recognition Is Terrifying
By harnessing the vast wealth of publicly available cloud-based data, researchers are taking facial recognition technology to unprecedented levels
Unlike Groucho Marx, unfortunately, the cloud never forgets. That’s the logic behind a new application developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College that’s designed to take a photograph of a total stranger and, using the facial recognition software PittPatt, track down their real identity in a matter of minutes.
Full Story: The Atlantic
