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Graphene is the key to tougher flexible OLED displays
You can already find flexible displays in your phone or smartwatch, but there's a good reason you don't find them everywhere: the transparent electrodes in many OLED screens are too fragile to take a lot of abuse. That might change in the long run, though. South Korean researchers have made the first OLED panel that uses graphene for its electrodes. The hyped wonder material is both flexible and shouldn't chip, which is more than a little important for a display that you're going to bend and twist. This will ideally lead to displays woven into your clothes, or next-generation wearables that can take a lot of punishment.
Researchers claim they've built the first 3D color hologram
Princess Leia was apparently indisposed, but Korean researchers are laying claim to the world's first 360-degree color hologram -- a floating Rubik's cube. A 16-company consortium called ETRI, led by LG Display division, has created "tabletop holographic display" that can be viewed from all angles. According to ET News, it's a true hologram and not a "pseudo hologram that make[s] 3D effects through 2D images." In other words, it's not a "Pepper's Ghost" illusion famously used for the Tupac hologram. Since the view changes when you move around it -- as if it were a real object -- it also differs from "floating 3D-movie" type holograms.
ETRO robot wears its heart on its face, promises to love you
We prefer our robots stick to the household cleaning chores, a little DJing action even, and then go right back to the closet. But, when we first glimpsed this emoting automaton from Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, our fears of the day of robot reckoning subsided slightly. The ETRI-built robot (or ETRO for short) is currently "employed" as an ambassador for human-robot relations at Daejon's National Science Museum, treating amused passersby to outspoken professions of love backed by its LED-lit facial expressions. Originally designed as a reading robot back in 2003, version 2.0 of this humanoid helper was created with a greater cause in mind -- showcasing robotics as promising Korean growth industry. Rather than let those economic concerns muddle our whimsy, let's just focus on the AI-assisted cuteness in the video below.
Korean researchers demonstrate LTE-Advanced in a custom RV, score 600Mbps downloads
We're just giddy like kids on the way to Disney World at the prospect of LTE and WiMAX sweeping like wildfire across the country, yet someone always has to come along and be a downer by showing off something even cooler. Those kids are the players at Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, the same folks who brought us a Body Area Network back in 2006 and this creepy looking koala. Now they're working on LTE-Advanced, the real true 4G that delivers 600Mbps downloads. That's six times what you can ever hope to expect from LTE and 40 times faster than 3G -- enough to download a 700MB file in 9.3 seconds or stream 3D HD footage on the go, a feat those crazy cats did in their rolling man cave shown above. Sadly we have no pictures of the thing on the outside, but we're seeing antennas. Lots of antennas. [Thanks, Andy]
OnLive MicroConsole TV Adapter clears FCC with ZigBee surprise
Well, well, look at what we've got here. It's the promised OnLive MicroConsole TV adapter courtesy of the FCC. The MicroConsole itself, isn't a surprise -- the little box that replaces the PC or Mac and brings the streaming game service to the living room TV courtesy of an HDMI-out jack was first announced back in March with plans for a late 2010 retail delivery. What is a surprise is the discovery of an FCC test report for ZigBee 802.15.4 in addition to Bluetooth. The ZigBee mesh networking standard is most often targeted at RF applications requiring a low data rate like lighting, sensor, and power socket control nodes in home automation networks. So why the hell would OnLive be dabbling in ZigBee? OnLive's site says that the MicroConsole uses Bluetooth to connect multiple wireless headsets. So maybe ZigBee is for the four wireless controllers (something we've seen before) the MicroConsole supports. We can't say for sure, but a quick search of ZigBee's product certification database turns up an ETRI VoZ (Voice over ZigBee) prototype capable of facilitating a ZigBee headset, microphone, and speaker. Perhaps OnLive is just doing some future proofing here or maybe they've got plans for some ZigBee enhanced gameplay. Unfortunately, the FCC test unit is listed as a pre-production "Pre-DV Sample" meaning it could still be awhile before the MicroConsole launches. FCC wireframe and label pictured after the break.
Transparent OLED rearview mirror both dazzles and distracts
Although we've been hearing about transparent OLEDs for years now, mum's been the word on an actual product. So far the focus has been on Germany, but it looks like some interesting things have been going down in Korea as well. Researchers at ETRI (the flexible OLED folks) have apparently applied for 51 patents both nationally and internationally for the tech, including one for a transparent oxide resistor that helps increase the aperture ratio of AMOLEDs. And while all this is going down, NeoView KOLON has unveiled a new prototype rearview mirror that utilizes a transparent OLED display for -- well, displaying things. Just be sure to keep your eyes on the road, eh?Read - "Korean Researchers Develop Transparent Transistors OLED Displays"Read - "Neoview Kolon transparent OLED prototype"
ETRI's Rabie terrifies children like Frank The Rabbit
Come on ETRI, at least make Rabie look like Smurfette or something a bit more cuddly. And "Rabie?" Do you really have to name your latest robot after a fatal viral disease? Perhaps that name is a clue to how this robot intends to "play" with the kids it's designed for. Rabie is a networked bot which transmits video of your children wetting themselves in fear direct to your mobile phone. Good times. Watch Rabie in action after the break. Only you'll have to suffer though about 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds of the arguably more interesting, Kobie the killer koala first.[Via B2Btv]
ETRI develops senior sensor system to detect falls
Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute recently announced that it's developed a new sensor system for seniors designed to detect falls -- for times when your "smart" brace doesn't work, we suppose. While similar systems have been around for a while, ETRI's does appear to boast a few notable advantages, largely due to its dependence on tried and true cellphone technology. That allows a series of calls to be set in motion at the first sign of trouble, the first going to the senior in question to check if there actually is a problem, with the hospital's emergency center and the person's family then notified if there is. What's more, the system is also equipped with GPS, allowing the person in peril to be easily located. Eventually, the researchers say the system could be adapted for use with any cellphone, or simply take advantage of the Internet if the senior is wearing it in a nursing home or hospital. Look for it to be available sometime next year.
Kobie: the fondling robot to the gods
Meet Kobie, the cuddly Koala on what appears to be life-support. We think Babelfish translation says is best, "it is a fondling elder brother robot of the nose Allah form which gives an emotional stability." Indeed. By which we assume they mean the latest in elderly care robots. This one, developed by Korea's ETRI can detect its owner's touches and react with a reassuring leg thumping and realistic movement of the head and torso. That's sweet.
ETRI's ROMI cleaning bot could beat up, insult your Roomba
What's the Roomba got, Bleeps and bloops? Love in its cold metallic heart? Pshaw. Korea's ETRI just unveiled it's new ROMI bot, which can love your family so much better. Not only is ROMI quite the cutie, but it can clean floors with the best of 'em, all while taking commands via (presumably) WiFi and CDMA, recording video with its big camera eyes, and vocalizing via a speech synthesizer. We're sure it's all just a proud, fragile shell, overcompensating for ROMI's general depression and dissatisfaction for the world that give him birth, but we suppose we'll find out when we see this guy at CES and as him a few psychoanalytical questions -- don't worry, it's all in the line of duty.[Via Akihabara]
ETRI's Body Area Network prototype: prints through your body
Besides working on non-exploding batteries and Flexible OLEDs, Korea's ETRI is hard at work on the underlying technology of their Body Area Network (BAN). Yes, that would be the human body area network, like the Bluetooth PAN only much more personal. Really though, it's just another variation of Microsoft's (and someday even Sony's) patented technology which uses the human body as the electrical conduit between devices. So assuming you wanted to print a document from ETRI's prototype wearable above, you just start the job on the device, touch the Touch-And-Play (TAP) enabled printer and voila, out pops your hard copy. Sweet... and creepy, but still pretty sweet. Assuming of course, that ETRI has met their data transfer goals of 1MB/s by now -- otherwise, you'll look pretty silly poking the printer as you strain under the weight of that modest 2.4Kbps data rate achieved last year. Just remember, never confuse the work of Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute with the that of the Korea's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology -- no one likes a splitter. Now kick back, grab a sack of wolf nipple chips and check the pics after the break.
ETRI's Flexible OLED prototype
Korea's ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) is here to remind us that they, and others, are still working hard to bring Flexible OLED to market. This and other FOLED prototypes are on display right now at the Next Generation Computing Show in Korea. Ok, you can't knit a sweater with it or anything, but Flexible OLED technology is certainly progressing beyond the staid FOLED displays seen thus far. Ready for the Nokia 888 communicator? Certainly not, but definitely a step in the right direction. More prototypes after the break.
New switch puts an end to exploding batteries
Check it Sony, 'cause if necessity is the mother of invention then you're about to be calling the ETRI daddy. Coming a bit too late for some, ETRI (Telecommunications Research Institute of Korea) have developed what they call a Critical Temperature Switch to prevent exploding batteries in mobile devices. Smaller, but more reliable than ceramic sensors, the new switches use a Mott Metal-Insulator Transistor or MIT, to prevent batteries from swelling and exploding in a violent discharge triggered by overheating. Ultimately, ETRI expects to integrate over 16,000 of the Critical Temperature Switches or 5,000 explosion-proof systems into a film just 2-inches in diameter. For the time being, they are looking for partners to develop their commercially ready technologies into product. Hey Sony, you paying attention?
