From NetworkWorld

Researchers at Texas A&M University have created what may amount to one of the most important touch screen interface of our times: a screenless touch screen, literally. The ZeroTouch screen is an “empty” frame lined with LEDS and crisscrossed with infrared beams that can record where the beams are interrupted and the size of the touch area. Use it as a traditional drafting tablet, a painting canvas, etc.

Read more about the ZeroTouch at: physorg.

source popsci

It’s straight out of science fiction: “Captain, these are holograms powered by quantum effects and therefore allow us to view true colors from any angle.”

I would never be able to be an actor reading all those scientific sounding lines from an episode of Star Trek, Star Wars or Stargate. Why? Because I would laugh uncontrollably mouthing off those impossibly far-fetched lines. But not anymore as science meets science fiction. Holograms? Quantum effects? Real live applications? Future 3-D displays that have no need for 3-D glasses or even special screens? We are not talking here about an illusionary display that trick our minds that we are seeing 3D, but a real 3D hologram.

Read more at: Popsci.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham and at MIT have successfully used naturally forming calcite crystals to render objects invisible. In the Birmingham experiment, a paper clip was rendered invisible when a composite crystal was placed over it. By gluing together two calcite crystals with opposite crystal orientations, the latter reflected and refracted the light coming through in such a way as to conceal the paper clip on the other side, making it appear as though it wasn’t there.

Since the calcite crystals can grow well over a dozen feet long, it is theoretically possible to conceal a person or even an average New York City apartment!

source Popsci

From herlingjan

Imagine being able to remove something from live, full-motion video as it is playing. All you do is circle it with a stylus and, poof!, it’s gone. It’s the most recent research project in the area of Diminished Reality by Jan Herling and Wolfgang Broll, Ilmenau University of Technology, Department of Virtual Worlds / Digital Games, 2010.

I’m not sure where this software will be used, but combine this with hand gestures (currently you need a stylus), and it will look like magic: wave your hand over an object in a video and, when you move your hand away, it’s gone.

source popsci

OK, this is not strictly photography-related news but it could have import for all of us if it were to pan out. The premise is that highways basking in the hot sun are wasted energy so Scott Brusaw wants to make them out of solar panels enbedded into glass. Yes, glass.

His company, Solar Roadways, is embedding PV cells and LED lights into panels engineered to withstand the forces of traffic (yes, the panels’ glass is textured for traction, embedded with heating elements for melting away ice and snow, able to survive years of traffic, including from 40-ton trucks with snow chains, and is self-cleaning). The lights would allow for “smart” roadways and parking lots with changeable signage, while the cells would generate enough energy to power businesses, cities and, eventually, the entire country.

Imagine being able to power and/or recharge your electronic devices, including the battery inside your digital camera, literally on the road.

My only concern is that people might be tearing out the expensive $10,000 panels from the road…

Read more at: PopSci.

Popular Science has an interesting photo gallery of their very first looks at technologies, like the telephone, the autofocus lens, and the Internet, that went on to be rather successful.

View the gallery at: PopSci.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

There’s no doubt that the Canon EOS 5D Mark II made video acceptable in DSLR. The combination of a large image sensor, HD video and the availability of high quality 35mm lenses meant that quality video could be filmed with a relatively inexpensive camera. Soon, it was being used in commercial shots, indie films and even parts of network TV shows. The Canon 5D MK II was simply a portable alternative to big, five-figure movie rigs.

View the PopSci 100 Best Innovations of 2009.

Concerned scientists have been telling those who want to listen that many of the products we use everyday are making us sick. Filed under “Fun Stuff” but really a serious situation driven by profits.

[ View the gallery at: PopSci ]