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Targus made a backpack with a built-in Find My tracker
The company also unveiled a docking station with a fingerprint reader at CES.
Targus unveils a virus-killing keyboard light and antimicrobial backpack
Targus is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic by releasing an UV light for your keyboard, an antimicrobial backpack and other safer gear.
LG unveils the first Tone Free wireless earphones with ANC
LG's HBS-FN7 is the first Tone Free model with active noise cancellation that lets you tune out your environment.
LG's Tone Free wireless earbuds with germ-killing case arrive in the US
LG’s flagship Tone Free wireless earbuds have arrived in the US with a feature you don’t see every day. They come with LG’s UVnano charging case that the company claims can kill 99.9 percent of bacteria with ultraviolet light during the charging cycle — a notable feature during a pandemic.
Samsung is selling a wireless charger that also sterilizes your phone
In a bid to give its customers an phone-cleaning option that doesn’t involve an antibacterial wipe, Samsung has begun selling a wireless UV charger that promises to “kill up to 99 percent of bacteria within 10 minutes.” The ITFIT UV Sterilizer is a very unremarkable white box that Samsung says is spacious enough to fit a Galaxy S20 Ultra. The embedded 10-watt Qi charger will deliver power while it does its thing.
Samsung's newest experiments include hands-free typing and a scalp scanner
It wouldn't be CES without Samsung unveiling projects from C-Lab, and the latest batch is once more trying to solve common problems through unusual methods. For some, the most practical may be SelfieType. As the name suggests, it uses your device's selfie camera and AI to translate finger movements into keyboard input. You wouldn't need to grab your phone to reply to a text when your hands are grubby.
MIT’s color-changing ink could let you customize your shoes
Imagine if, rather than buy your favorite shoes in blue or red, you could buy one pair of shoes and change the color depending on how you feel each day. Maybe you'd decide to add multicolored flames or zebra print. A new, reprogrammable ink might let you do just that. PhotoChromeleon Ink, developed by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), can change the color or pattern of an object when exposed to UV light.
L'Oreal's wearable sensor tracks UV, pollen and pollution
L'Oreal isn't a brand you'd usually associate with medical technology, but over the past few years it's been making major inroads in skin protection innovation. There was My UV Patch, designed to inform wearers how their skin was being affected by the sun, and then UV Sense, a thumbnail-sized smart device that helped monitor sun exposure. Now, it's launching a battery-free wearable electronic that tracks your exposure to UV, pollution, pollen and humidity.
Hello's 'Sense' sleep sensor gets voice controls
Hello Inc. has launched a new version of its sleep sensor called "Sense with Voice," with the highlight being (wait for it) voice commands. As a reminder, it consists of a sphere-shaped monitor and pill-shaped sensor that attaches to your pillow and detects your movements. Rather than just controlling it with a smartphone as before, you can now say "Okay Sense" to set the alarm, gauge your sleep quality or check environmental factors like the humidity and temperature.
ASUS VivoWatch review: a fitness watch with style and shortcomings
My wife often says I'm fat, but that's hardly a motivation for me to resume my exercise routine. Then the ASUS VivoWatch landed on my desk, so I had no choice but to get back on the treadmill for your amusement. To keep things short, it turns out that this fitness-centric smartwatch does have a couple of compelling features that made me interested in getting fit again -- more so than the other basic (as in no heart rate monitoring) fitness trackers that I've long left in the drawer. Also, the VivoWatch can pair with both iOS plus Android, and costs just under $150 in Taiwan, meaning it'll be going head to head with the similarly priced Fitbit Charge HR around the world. So is ASUS' first fitness device worth trying? Or should you stick to some more mature offerings? Let's take a look.
CreoPop lets you draw in three dimensions without that plastic smell
First TVs, then printers -- now even pens are producing content in 3D. It's truly a mad world, but at least our universe is still ripe for innovation. Introducing the CreoPop 3D Pen, a wieldable printing device that can "draw" objects into existence. It's not the first 3D pen we've come across (that honor goes to the WobbleWorks 3Doodler), but it is the first one we can't compare to a hot glue gun.
Paramount picks DTS-HD codec to deliver surround sound for UltraViolet common file format digital movies
Early this year, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. movie studios chose Dolby Digital Plus as their preferred means to deliver surround sound for their UltraViolet common file format (CFF) downloads. Paramount Pictures, however, has decided to go with Dolby's competitor, DTS, announcing today that the DTS-HD codec will be used in its UltraViolet CCF offerings. Like Dolby, the DTS codec delivers up to 7.1 channels of surround sound for Paramount's UV catalog -- though your cloud-based audio/visual bliss will have to wait, UltraViolet CFF isn't slated for release until sometime in the latter half of 2013.
The Hobbit will be first movie to support UltraViolet in New Zealand and Australia
Peter Jackson's homeland hasn't been too hot on UltraViolet until now, despite the cross-platform library tool's growing popularity in the US and UK. That'll change with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is set to launch on DVD and Blu-ray in New Zealand on May 1st and will allow both Kiwis and Aussies to purchase the movie on disc and then watch it on PC, Mac, iOS, Android and hopefully even Xbox via a redemption code and a Flixster account in the cloud -- with no DIY required. In wider UV-related news, the technology is also scheduled to reach France and Germany by the end of Q3 of this year, which should add a few names to the 12 million account holders around the world who've already used UltraViolet to watch 9,000 different titles.
Microsoft patent application would automatically disinfect grimy touchscreens (update: related tech)
We've all seen that touchscreen device in the store that's covered with fingerprints (and possibly contagions) from curious shoppers. While it's unlikely that we'll get sick from all that touching, Microsoft is trying for a patent that would set our minds at ease. The method would send ultraviolet light bouncing through a film on or inside a touchscreen, disinfecting fingertips and contact areas without blasting the person directly. Processing inside the gadget could also dictate just when and for how long the UV blast would run. It could kick in only after a user was done, for example, and last just long enough to kill common germs. There's no clues that Microsoft is about to use the technology in real-world products. Still, we wouldn't mind touching an extra-sanitary Windows phone or tablet -- or rather, someone else's. Update: Microsoft applied for a UV cleaning approach before, but that depended on coupling UV with the backlight; this newer patent would give Microsoft considerably more flexibility.
CinemaNow adds Ultraviolet support to some of its movies
Bestbuy's CinemaNow has started to embed UltraViolet content into their video-streaming service. It's no huge surprise -- given that the retailer is a founding member of DECE -- but a good sign for anyone shoring up a collection of discs with UV digital content. CinemaNow identified compatible content with an Ultraviolet icon (seen above), while the service continues to gradually upgrade its SD content to big-screen friendly full HD. According to some early users, there's some teething issues with links to UV versions, however, suggesting CinemaNow's still tweaking the setup. [Thanks Zachary]
University of Tokyo turns real paper and ink into a display, could share doodles from a distance (video)
Forget e-paper: if the University of Tokyo's Naemura Lab has its way, we'll interact with the real thing. The division's new research has budding artists draw on photochromic paper with Frixion's heat-sensitive ink, turning the results into something a computer can manipulate. A laser 'erases' the ink to fix mistakes or add effects, and an ultraviolet projector overhead can copy any handiwork, fill in the gaps or print a new creation. The prototype is neither high resolution nor quick -- you won't be living out fantasies of a real-world A-Ha music video -- but the laser's accuracy (down to 0.0001 inches) has already led researchers to dream of paper-based, Google Docs-style collaboration where edits in one place affect a tangible document somewhere else. It's hard to see truly widespread adoption in an era where we're often trying to save trees instead of print to them, but there's an undeniable appeal to having a hard copy that isn't fixed in time.
UltraViolet movie format to use Dolby Digital Plus encoding, keep sound thumping across platforms
Movies encoded in UltraViolet's Common File Format represent just one of multiple takes on paid internet video -- what's to make them stand out? The answer might just be Dolby Digital Plus audio encoding, which should be a staple feature of CFF from now on. A newly ready development kit lets producers feed the multichannel sound to hardware and apps that can recognize it, including web-based avenues like Apple's HTTP Live Streaming, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming and MPEG's DASH. Just in case a few devices fall through the cracks, Dolby is talking directly with digital production firms like castLabs, Digital Rapids and Elemental Technologies to make sure the audio codec's implementation truly spans platforms. We don't know how soon movies will take advantage of the upgrade, but the Dolby addition lends weight to a fledgling format that might have as fierce a battle in home theaters as it does on PCs and tablets.
Navy looks into UV cloak for stealth aircraft
The Navy's invested good money in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which obscures radar waves and redirects engine heat to evade recognition by infrared sensors. But that stealth flier is still vulnerable to another type of detection: UV sensors. The Pentagon recently began soliciting proposals to develop a device that cloaks aircraft from ultra-violet detection systems. The hope is that such a technology could shield aircraft from missile seekers that scan the sky for telltale "UV silhouettes." According to the call for research, the solution could involve a device that disperses a cloud of quantum dots or other materials to veil jet fighters in a shapeless mass of UV shadow. Given that this is a rather daunting task, it's not surprising that the development timeframe and projected cost are still up in the air.
Philips InstantTrust water purifier offers immediate bug-free hydration
Well, if you can boil a kettle with a bulb, why not crank up the dial and zap bugs with UV? Philips is doing exactly that with InstantTrust, a new instant water disinfection solution that is petite enough to be used in household appliances like taps, water filters and even water pitchers. The ultra-violet system is able to nix those nasty microbes at a rate of around four liters of water per minute and, unlike other bacteria-zapping systems, at any water temperature. Hopefully, the new system will put an end to the watery adage, "If it's brown drink it down, if it's black send it back."
NC State builds self-healing structural stress sensor, moves on to other alliterative projects
"Sensor, heal thyself," goes an old saying, and North Carolina State University researchers have given it a new spin. Structural stress monitors can break during, say, an earthquake or explosion: just when you most need information about a building's integrity. So the NCSU crew added a reservoir of ultraviolet-curable resin; if their sensor cracks, the resin flows into the gap, where a UV light hardens it. An infrared light, which does the actual monitoring, then has a complete circuit through which to pass, and voila: stress data flows once more, aiding decision-makers. Obviously we never tire of UV-reactive gadgetry, especially for making safer buildings, and we're doubly glad to see self-healing that doesn't involve the phrase "he's just not that into you." To see the self-repair in action, check the picture after the break, and hit the source link for more info.
