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A robot kicked my ass in Scrabble at CES
Look, there's plenty of boring industrial robots on the floor of the Las Vegas convention center for CES. But I've got to hand it to the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) -- it really knows how to make a demo fun and interactive. The company combined a number of its technologies into a robot that is able to sit and play Scrabble against a human opponent ... and win.
ITRI touchscreen technology lets you pinch-to-zoom boob tubes of any size (video)
Turning a plain old display into a multi-touch affair isn't exactly a groundbreaking feat, but we're still drooling over the Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) latest touchscreen enabler. The Taiwan-based outfit recently showed off a new attachment that the folks over at Netbooknews claim can make displays of any size touch-friendly. We're told that the touchy-feely accessory is still in development, which means it probably won't hit our living room anytime soon, but our fingers are tingling just thinking of the possibilities. Hop on past the break to see the thing in action.
ITRI shows off 6-inch FlexUPD AMOLED, hybrid 2D/3D display, makes lots of promises
Hey, remember when Taiwan's ITRI said that flexible TFT-EPD displays would be ready for smartphones by 2009? Yeah, well, keep that in mind when reading about this new 6-inch flexible display the company says will be released in a line of e-readers "very soon." It's called the FlexUPD, a 1mm thick AMOLED with a 5cm folding radius, 150nits brightness, and "unbreakable" construction. ITRI is also talking up its switchable 2D/3D display that we saw earlier, able to display both types of content simultaneously and do so without the requirement of goofy glasses. That tech is called i2/3DW and is set to "revitalize the [display] industry by revolutionizing the concept of 3D viewing." You keep on believing, ITRI, we'll just keep on waiting.
ITRI's display manages 2D and 3D at once, set to challenge Toshiba for hybrid supremacy
We're still not really sure how Toshiba managed to do both 2D and glasses-free 3D in a single display, but we do now know that it isn't the only company to have achieved this stereoscopic feat. Engadget Chinese caught sight of ITRI's similar composite display, which is able to add depth to individual sections of the screen whilst leaving the rest of it stuck in Flatland. It's a 22-inch, 1680 x 1050 panel and, while 3D content is said to be rendered in much lower resolution than the rest of the display, SecondLife doesn't really require that many pixels to freak you out anyhow. No word on a possible retail release, so you'll just have to keep crossing your eyes at your current monitor.
Intel, Motorola, Samsung and more join forces to support WiMAX 2
You probably have yet to experience its original incarnation, but with mere months left before the IEEE finally decides on the standard for the improved 802.16m version of WiMAX, a group of companies has finally stepped forward to support the new protocol, and solidify that nice, marketable "WiMAX 2" name while they're at it. Dubbed the WiMAX 2 Collaboration Initiative (or WCI for short), Alvarion, Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Sequans, XRONet, ZTE and ITRI intend to, well, collaborate to make sure the new protocol can compete with LTE, while our old friends Sprint and Clearwire -- who are keeping their options open in the 4G wars -- simply cheer them on. Hit the source link for invigorating quotes from each company involved.
Researchers propose $30 portable fuel cell charger, we don't hold our breath
If you believed all the fuel cell talk that's been bandied about in press releases over the years you'd have thrown away your plug-in chargers by now and started squirting alcohol into all your gadgets. Many promises have been broken, so please take this news of a supposed $30 fuel cell charger for cellphones and other mobile devices with a suitably large chunk of salt -- or some sodium-free flavor enhancer if your doctor has imposed such dietary restrictions. Scientists at the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan have created a prototype charger that runs on small tubes containing solid-state hydrogen, "plasticized" so that it is only released when mixed with water. The canisters are said to sell for $.30 a pop, leaving one researcher to say: "They could be sold at 7-Eleven." We want to write a skeptical response analyzing the feasibility of to such pricing but instead got distracted researching information about Taiwanese convenience stores. Did you know there are 4,807 7-Eleven franchise locations around Taiwan? Amazing!
Paper Flexpeaker could change the way you perceive posters
Paper speakers go a long way back, but now finally seem close to making appearances in the real world. A few weeks ago it was researchers at the University of Warwick showing off their wispy wares, and now Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute is talking up its thin tweeters, called Flexpeaker. The initial goal is for 8.5-inch by 11-inch sheets that cost about $20, but the hope is to produce whole rolls of the stuff in the not too distant future, which will then be liberally applied to the exteriors of movie theaters, the interiors of automobiles, and the sides of the thinnest of thin-panel TVs. An effective range of 500Hz to 200KHz leaves an awful lot of lower frequencies lacking, but perhaps someone will invent a paper subwoofer one of these days. High-pitched video of an earlier prototype after the break.
ITRI's folding TFT-EPD display: ready for smartphones next year
While everyone wants their gadgets, particularly smartphones, to become smaller and smaller we paradoxically want the screens to get bigger and bigger. That's why so much R&D money is spent on wearable, folding, projecting, swiveling, and rollable displays: there's a gold mine to be had by the first to offer a solution with mass-market appeal. Here's Taiwan's great economic hope developed by its Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) with some help from industrial design house, PilotFish. The TFT-EPD (Thin Film Transistor Electrophoretic Display) panel combines a folding-top display with a bottom-sliding secondary (separated by a 1-cm flexible strip) to double the total panel size to 5-inches -- other screen sizes are also in the works. What looks like a break through the center of the combined display above is actually a software taskbar. While these are obvious mock-ups, prototype displays do exist with plans to take the technology -- which will included touchscreen capabilities -- into production sometime next year. Imagine this applied to an N97 followup and you might appreciate our enthusiasm.%Gallery-38648%[Via Computerwoche]
ITRI showcases a 10.4-inch flexible color LCD
Hot on the heels of that flexible color e-ink display we saw a couple days back, here comes a flexible 10.4-inch LCD display that's less then 10mm thick. The display is being developed by Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and features two plastic substrate elements instead of a traditional glass one. ITRI says the display can reproduce 57 percent of the NTSC color gamut, but there's no word on when we might ever see these in production.[Via TG Daily]
POPO the robotic fish / marshmallow wannabe
Look, we never claimed to be fish-ologists or anything like that, but we really don't have the foggiest idea of how this thing works. Sure, it has rechargeable batteries for up to 24 hours of swimming, and ultrasound for object avoidance, and even a cool robotic-fish sounding name: "POPO." We're just totally in the dark as to where the propulsion system is on this thing, or what portions of the bot we're supposed to hug and kiss in moments of weakness when the cute-itude sweeps over us. Apparently this is a second-gen fish bot from the ITRI Creative Laboratory's Aqua project, but words of legitimacy like that won't saw us until we've seen some solid video and / or action shots.[Via Crave]
