Internet Based Television
Watch a Video on Each Internet TV System
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Internet Based Television
If you have a truly supersized HDTV, Internet Television is the perfect way to move special moments from your computer screen to the mega screen in your living room. Probably the best way to enjoy these tumultuous Internet TV times is with a set-top box or wireless connection between your computer and your HDTV.
This column describes 4 different Internet TV systems:
Logitech Revue (Google TV in a Box)
Boxee Box
Imation Link
IGUGU TV
The Flying Car
The flying car (Photo 1) is now in production and, if there are nodelays, the first units will be in customer hands by the end of this year.
You will need two licenses to fully operate this vehicle: a regular driver’s license to operate it on streets and highways (Photo 2) and a sport pilot’s license to fly it as an airplane.
Web Surfing
No Standard Computer Required
John Chuang, the CEO of litl has embraced the paradigm shift to cloud-based computing. His design team has created the first cloudbased computer, named “litl webbook.” They coined the name “webbook” to describe a new computer classification: a machine that only provides simple access to the Internet, unfettered with the hardware and software found on a standard computer.
The Newest Digital Camera has
Features that will Surprise You
What does a camera manufacturer have to do to keep the general public buying its cameras when almost every device that is portable and digital is capable of taking digital pictures?
Casio's answer is a new series of cameras that can create dynamic digital pictures. The EX-S12 has this best shot function that lets you lasso people, pets, or movable objects out of one scene and then insert them into a different photo.
This is only one of the amazing new features you will find on this camera. It gives you the power to create amazing photos that can defy gravity, logic, or even the space-time continuum.
How to Create
Dynamic Photos
Turning White Boards into Smartboards
Turning Standard Notebook Computers into Tablet PCs
3M SCP716 Turns
Whiteboards into Smartboards
Tablo
Turns your Notebook PC into a Tablet PC
The 3M Micro Professional Projector (MPro 110)
The new 3M Micro Professional Projector ($399.00 list) is the first generation of a new and emerging technology. It is the size of a small TV remote control, see photo.
It is designed to be hooked up to any device that is capable of transmitting a video signal. Appropriate devices include digital cameras, video phones, video MP3 players, DVD players, Personal Video Players, video game machines, and of course computers.
The unit's imager supports VGA (640 by 480 pixels), SVGA (800 by 600 pixels), and XGA (1,024 by 768 pixels) display resolutions.
Building a Smart National U.S. Power Grid
One of President Obama’s pre-election promises was to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by increasing our use of renewable energy to generate electricity. To increase our use of renewable energy we must create an enhanced electric grid system capable of transmitting electricity from the location where it is generated to the location where it is needed.
To fully embrace renewable energy our electric grid will need to go through a major metamorphosis. Our future grid will include smart meters to monitor the electricity that you use and also new technologies to store electricity produced during low demand periods for use when the demand is high.
The Dynamic Tower
Imagine a new kind of building that physically embraces the forces of nature and, much like a wind chime, accepts the wind as its artist’s final design element. David Fisher is the visionary architect behind the Dynamic Tower. His design creates a building facade that is constantly changing.
A snapshot in time will never catch the dynamics of this building where each floor rotates independently at a different speed. To understand the Dynamic Tower you need to read the story and watch the videos.
Slacker Radio
Free radio is again reinventing itself by broadcasting free music over the Internet.
One of these free online stations, Slacker Radio, has actually invented a new type of portable radio player (Photo 1 in column).
After you properly set up your computer, Slacker Radio’s G2 can automatically download future free personal radio programming. The Slacker G2 player receives its free music from slacker.com
At this web site you select radio stations or you create your own radio stations by selecting specific artists. The 4 GB model will hold 25 stations and the 8 GB model will hold 40 stations. Your Slacker portable G2 player only needs a Wi-Fi connection to download the music to your player. You can refresh the unit at any Wi-Fi hot spot, which gives the unit an infinite capacity.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Does it Leapfrog the Apple iPad II?
Samsung Tab 10.1 Vs Apple iPad 2
Apple introduced its first iPad in April of 2010. Just like the iPhone before it, the Apple iPad was an instant sensation and Apple sold three million iPads in less than three months. In the consumer electronic field being first out of the gate with a new product doesn’t guarantee that you will be able to hold your lead when your competitors introduce competing products. The question becomes can Apple keep its lead as other companies introduce tablet products?
Click image below
to Watch Samsung & Apple
Videos
Using Technology (Playlater and the Wi-Drive)
To Make Travel Time Fly
February 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
PlayLater is a PC DVR that is married to an Internet browser. It lets you record shows from all the channels shown in the photo. You need an Internet connection to record your shows, but you don’t need a connection to watch them.
The Wi-Drive establishes a private Wi-Fi network. It is about the same size as an iPod Touch and it lets you supersize the storage capacity of your handheld devices. It can broadcast different content to up to three different-brand handheld units at the same time.
Click an image to Watch
a Playlater or Wi-Drive Video
Click an image to Watch
a Playlater or Wi-Drive Video
Painless Dentistry
March 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The plasma brush is the new tool that can remove dental decay and prepare a tooth for a filling without any painful drilling. (See photo.) This technology not only removes the need for the drill, it also eliminates the need for most Novocain injections.
Your dentist might switch from a drill to the plasma brush sometime next year.
Waterproofing Electronics
April 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
Goto: TechDirections On Line
The HzO process keeps electronics dry underwater without a waterproof case. This protective coating will be applied by the manufacturer. A phone with HzO WaterBlock on the inside and a LifeProof case on the outside would certainly be an interesting product to own.
This column explores waterproofing from the outside in and the inside out.
LifeProof is Today's Best Answer to Waterproofing Electronics
HzO is Tomorrow's Best Answer to Waterproofing Electronics
May 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
Goto: TechDirections On Line
The Friction-Stir Welding process welds metals without melting them. It works on metals including aluminum, a metal that cannot easily be joined using other metal fusion processes.
NASA engineers have recently reengineered this technology so that it can now be used on materials that vary in thickness and even weld objects with very complex shapes.
Friction-Stir Welding
Products Reviewed: MovieNight (DSM-310) MSRP $48.00 & Day/Night Network Cameras DCS-932L & DCS-942L - MSRPs of $149.99 & $ 199.99
The mydlink™ streaming Surveillance System allows you to view streaming video from one or more D-Link networked cameras. You can view the video on your TV, iPod, iPad, or Android device.This review and video looks at the MovieNite (310) Player and 2 D-Link cameras (DCS-932L and DCS-942L). Both cameras have remote viewing and night vision.
July 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
August 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
Goto: TechDirections On Line
Imagine sports clothing, technology cases, bicycle helmets, and other things all made out of a material that can absorb up to 90% of the most intense force to protect whatever they encase. A material that can protect an already damaged body part, prevent personal injury during extreme sports, or even prevent electronic devices from being crushed.
Reactive Protection Technology
D-Link Streams Surveillance Video to Your TV, iPhone, iPad, and/or Android Device
September 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
Goto: TechDirections On Line
The flowing water in your home can be turned into electricity. With funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Rentricity is starting to prove that you can turn flowing drinking water into electricity. Their engineers are now installing new valve/generators that will use wasted pressure to generate electricity.
Generating Electricity From Drinking Water
October 2012
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
TechDirections Magazine
Goto: TechDirections On Line
From liftoff to landing,Curiosity flew 352 million miles in 245 days. Because of the
distance between planets, NASA Mission Control didn’t even know if the landing worked until Curiosity had been on the ground for seven minutes.
The computer controlled landing depended on a computer program that contained half a million lines of code. Why and how this landing succeeded is covered in this column.
The Curiosity Martian Landing
Goto: TechDirections On Line
Baxter the Unconventional Robot
February 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Baxter the unconventional robot writes its own programming code. Baxter is a new type of robot, with toy-like features, that has been designed to work next to people.
Baxter was created by Rodney Brooks the former director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before he established Rethink Robotics and created Baxter, he founded iRobot. A company that builds consumer robotic cleaning machines, military warrior bots, and rescue robots. Rodney Brooks is called the go-to guy for artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robotics.
Copyright © 1996 - 2015 Dr. Alan J. Pierce
You are however, welcome to print material from this website for use in your classroom.
Click to read over 200 other stories on new & emerging technologies.
March 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Goto: TechDirections On Line
What is new and emerging in Keyless Entry just might amaze you!!! At CES I learned that residential, commercial, and automobile locks will soon allow you to use your smartphone to do everything from opening doors to adjusting internal environments to match your individual desires.
To get the big picture just click on the link below.
Click to Watch on YouTube
Advances in Remote Keyless Entry
April 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Goto: TechDirections On Line
The basic science fiction concept of a
universal translator is simple. You speak into your smartphone in your native language and your words are changed on the fly so they exit the speaker on the other end of the wireless phone call in the language that your listener understands. (See photos.)
Microsoft is the current leader in the development of this technology. They can now almost instantly convert your telephone call statements into another language and have the person you are talking to hear your thoughts in their language in a voice that sounds just like you!
The Universal Translator Telephone
Click to Watch on YouTube 2012
Rick Rashid, Microsoft’s chief research officer demonstrates this technology
Click to Watch Microsoft 2010
Lead Researchers showing off an early version of this technology
September 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
Today General Electric’s aviation division and NASA are both creating engine parts on a 3D-printer. Their industrial 3D-printing process is called Additive Manufacturing. It is a 3D printing machine on steroids. The parts that they are producing can handle 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch this NASA video.
On the do it yourself side of 3D printing you can make just about anything even if you don't own a 3D printer. Read the full story to learn how. This technology is now being used to create tools, weapons, machine parts, and food. In high tech medical laboratories it is actually being used to create human tissues and organs for transplantation.
3D Printing on Steroids
3D Printing
From the Simple to the Complex
NASA Testing 3D Printed Engine Combuster
Consumer Side of 3D Printing
October 2013
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The modern elevator story began in 1852 with Elisha Otis’s invention of a safety mechanism that stopped elevators from falling. To take passengers on a half mile- high elevator ride in the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the Otis Elevator Company had to build a lift system with a 100-ton capacity.
Without a major breakthrough, elevators have reached their height limits because longer cables will break under their own weight. At this time, the construction industry is evaluating KONE Ultra-Rope™ which is a carbon fiber replacement for the steel elevator skyscraper cables.
A Vertical Transportation Breakthrough
A Vertical Transportation
Breakthrough
April 2014
By Alan J. Pierce EdD
The New Smartwatch Communicator
Can you shoot photos and video on your watch? Can the watch on your wrist serve as a hands free telephone? If it can’t perform the above tasks perhaps it can at least control what music is playing on your smartphone or let you read and answer text messages. At CES 2014 Samsung introduced their newest product the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch. The Galaxy Gear is a communication Swiss Army Knife that looks and acts like a working prop from a James Bond movie. If you want to know what else it can do read the full column.
Alan J. Pierce EdD
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