bit

Portrait-drawing robot shows CeBIT's artistic side

HANOVER, Germany--Who says robots don't have a sense of aesthetics?

Fraunhofer Institute showed off a robot that drew people's portraits here at the CeBIT tech show. It drew a big crowd, too--metaphorically speaking--with a steady throng watching its slow progress.

The robot actually didn't have a sense of aesthetics. Instead it had a camera, an algorithm to convert a digital photo into outlines, and an ability to draw those lines very precisely on a whiteboard.

Check the video below to see it in action. It's a thing of trigonometric beauty in its own way. … Read more

OCZ debuts faster SSD, previews Thunderbolt-based Lightfoot

HANOVER, Germany--OCZ unveiled a new solid-state drive here, its higher-performance Vertex 4, and said it'll ship an SSD called the Lightfoot using the Thunderbolt interface later this year that'll be even faster.

Many SSD makers use a controller chip from Sandforce, but OCZ acquired a competitor called Indilinx, and its Vertex 4 uses the Indilinx Everest 2 controller. Where Sandforce gets a performance boost by compressing data, the Indilinx technology uses faster uncompressed links, said marketing director Joost van Leeuwen, speaking here at the CeBIT tech show where it unveiled the products.

The Sandforce-based Vertex 3 products can … Read more

Acer shows off new ultrabooks and laptops at CeBit

Two new laptops from Acer have turned up at the annual CeBit trade show held in Hanover, Germany.

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3, in addition to having a really long name, is a 15-inch ultrabook (meaning it meets Intel's specifications for using that trademarked term), and it breaks new ground by including a discrete graphics card and an optical drive. Acer says of the system:

The latest Timeline series is slimmer and lighter than its predecessors (measuring just 20 mm thin), without compromising its state-of-the-art performance. In fact, the new Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 raises the bar by being the first Ultrabook with dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT640M graphics for enhanced content creation and consumption.

Secusmart offers encrypted calls for Android, BlackBerry

HANOVER, Germany--Wish you had one of those spy-movie scramblers the president uses to to keep snoopers from tapping into his calls?

At the CeBIT show here, Secusmart debuted a microSD card with a built-in processor that lets people do just that with ordinary smartphones. It plugs into phones with a microSD slot--yes, that means no iPhones--then encrypts voice and SMS communications.

The technology uses VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) to actually place the calls, which means it needs 3G or Wi-Fi connections, said Hans-Christoph Quelle, a managing director at the German company. With that connection, it provides real-time, full-duplex communications--in … Read more

How fast is that soccer player? Fraunhofer can tell

HANOVER, Germany--Today, baseball is the statistician's playground, but telematics technology that tracks players and the ball could bring the same numeric precision to soccer as well.

At the CeBIT trade show here, the Fraunhofer Institute is showing technology that attaches chips with radio transmitters to soccer players and the ball. A collection of 12 receivers around a stadium measures the players' position 200 times a second and the ball's position 2,000 times a second, said Ingmar Bretz, a project leader.

"You can distinguish between good and bad players in real time," he said, by gauging … Read more

Schmidt: The Web will dissolve national barriers

HANOVER, Germany--Google Executive Chairman is hopping from country to country on a European tour, but he said today the Internet is breaking down those national barriers.

"Loyalty is not just to a nation but to friends and interests," Schmidt said in a speech at the opening ceremony of the CeBIT technology show here today. "That will change everything for citizens, states, and society."

That may cause indigestion for any number of customs agents, tax collectors, and politicians, but it fits right in with Schmidt's optimistic view of the world: "It's a wonderful, wonderful … Read more

Robotation Academy preaches the robot gospel at CeBIT

HANOVER, Germany--Who knew an industrial robot could be so cheap?

That's one of the messages that Robotation Academy staff hope to lodge in the minds of the people who attend its training programs here at the vast trade-show fairgrounds. Deutsche Messe, which operates the gargantuan CeBIT show just now getting under way this year, also runs the academy year-round as part of a project to encourage adoption of robotics in manufacturing.

Deutsche Messe likes to drum up business for industries that might buy a booth at its trade shows, but the organization found that a "huge percentage" … Read more

IBM claims huge strides in quantum computing

Scientists at IBM say they have made a quantum computing breakthrough that demonstrates that a full-scale quantum computer is not only possible but is within reasonable reach.

In an announcement being made today at the American Physical Society in Boston, Matthias Steffen, manager of IBM's experimental quantum computing group, will unveil the research that has led his team to conclude they are the brink of developing scalable technology that could far outstrip what even the strongest supercomputers can do today.

A traditional bit has only two states--zero and one. But for its quantum computing efforts, IBM has decided to … Read more

Lionsgate taps indie developer for official 'Hunger Games' game

These days, mega-hot movie properties almost always get the app treatment, whether it's a game or some "interactive companion." And right now, there's no hotter property than "The Hunger Games."

Thus, you'd expect that any tie-in app would come from a big developer: EA, Gameloft, or even the studio's own label.

Surprise! The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire for iOS is in development by Adam Saltsman, an indie developer best known for the browser-based games Canabalt and Gravity Hook (both of which have recently been adapted for iOS).

So, what will the … Read more

Microsoft SkyDrive aiming to outcloud iCloud

Microsoft is targeting a host of improvements for SkyDrive, potentially giving iCloud and similar services some healthy competition.

The next version, dubbed SkyDrive Wave 5, could lead the way, with several features revealed by blogging site LiveSide.net.

Tipped off about "new features that are said to be coming to SkyDrive soon," the site detailed such items as support for the OpenDocument format and the ability to store and manage BitLocker recovery keys on SkyDrive.

A new URL-shortening service will provide links to your shared files, while you'll be able to share those files directly with your … Read more