tiny
Latest
Researchers debut one-cubic-millimeter computer, want to stick it in your eye
This as-of-yet-unnamed mini computer was fashioned as an implantable eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients, but its creators envision a future where we're all crawling with the little buggers. Taking up just over one cubic millimeter of space, the thing stuffs a pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell, wireless radio, and low-power microprocessor all into one very small translucent container. The processor behind this little guy uses an "extreme" sleep mode to keep it napping at 15-minute intervals and sucking up 5.3 nanowatts while awake, and its battery runs off 10 hours of indoor light or one and a half hours of sun beams. Using the sensor to measure eye pressure and the radio to communicate with an external reader, the system will continuously track the progress of glaucoma, without those pesky contacts. Of course, the mad scientists behind it look forward to a day when the tiny device will do much more, with each of us toting hundreds of the computer implants all over our bodies -- looks like a bright future for cyborgdom.
German researchers prototype 6mm thick pico projector
Pico projectors just keep shrinking, and a new prototype developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Engineering is helping said shrinking along pretty strikingly. The team has developed a prototype pico which is just 6mm thick, making it the world's slimmest ever. Better yet, the projected image is 10 times brighter than a pico projector of its size would have previously been -- had it existed. The new lens on the projector is so small that it could potentially be integrated into smart phones without boosting size or weight. The new prototype is made of 45 red, green or blue microlenses, each with a 200 x 200 pixel LCD, inspired by a microlens array called a fly's eye condenser. The resulting resolution is nearly, but not quite, WVGA with 11 lumens of brightness. The prototype will be shown off at Nano Tech 2011 in Tokyo. [Image credit: Fraunhofer Institute]
JTT's Chobi Cam One 'micro DSLR' is sure to meet your micro expectations
Japanese retailer JTT has already proven itself to be a fan of tiny cameras, but it's truly outdone itself with its latest offering: the Chobi Cam One. At last you'll be able to carry a DSLR in your pocket, with only some minor trade-offs in things like image quality, features, and usefulness. You can swap in your choice of three different magnetically-attached lenses, though -- and while you won't exactly get great pictures or video from the thing, you can at least store a lot of them thanks to the camera's microSD card slot. Look for the camera itself to set you back ¥9,800 (or about $118), with extra lenses running between $30 and $60 (bundles are also available).
Texas Instruments announces DLP Pico HD chipset, slew of pico projectors CES-bound
Texas Instruments has just announced its latest DLP projector chipset, the Pico HD. The newest, tiny chipset offer HD WXGA resolution projections of up to 100 inches, and promises to be brighter and clearer than ever. So what does this mean to you, the consumer? Well, Texas Instruments is promising a host of hardware partners showing off their brand spanking new projecting wares. We don't have full details yet, but we do know that we can expect to see Acer unveil its HW300T pocket projector, while ViewSonic will show the PLED-W200 DLP Pico projector, and offerings from Optoma and LG to boot. We'll track them all down for you as soon as our tiny hands possibly can. And that, in a nutshell, is our Texas Instruments pico news of the day. The full-fledged, not in a nutshell press release is after the break.
Intel 310 mSATA SSD knows that size matters, fits 80GB into less space than a credit card
Watch out, Toshiba, your tiny SSD modules aren't the only game in town for ludicrously small flash storage anymore. Intel's just announced a new SSD 310 line that offers spectacularly minimal 51mm by 30mm by 5mm dimensions, while retaining X25-class performance (up to 200MBps read and 80MBps write speeds). To give you an idea of what those measurements mean, the industry-standard 2.5-inch form factor, an already diminutive footprint, is eight times larger than these newfangled storage chips. 40GB and 80GB variants of the SSD 310 are shipping out to OEMs already and Lenovo has confirmed it plans to roll these into its next refresh of the venerable ThinkPad laptop line. Prices are set at $99 and $179 (depending on size) when bought in batches of 1,000, though direct sales to end users are predictably off the table for now. Better start saving up for that next ultrathin laptop if you want one.
Periodic table blasted onto a single human hair using ions, human reportedly wants his hair back
We've seen the Torah inscribed on a surface the size of a pin, and the atomic pen making inroads into even more impressive feats, but tiny writing never ceases to amaze us. Now, it seems, the entire periodic table of the elements has been scribed onto a single hair -- that of Martyn Poliakoff, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. The project involved magnifying the hair under an electron microscope, and 'writing' on it with ions using an ion beam writer to imprint the entire table of elements onto the hair. As you'll see in the video after the break, the results are quite impressive albeit very small.
AMD teases Bobcat Fusion APUs again, delivers Atom-busting performance (video)
A quick refresher: Bobcat is AMD's low-power Accelerated Processing Unit that can handle both computational and graphical duties, Ontario and Zacate are the chips built upon that core, and Brazos is the overall platform that they'll be doing their work on. Clear enough? We hope so. AMD has finally allowed a few tech pubs to get their hands on Brazos-based systems and, along with feedback about their experience, the guys have come back with some added spec notes. There'll be two initial Zacate options, the dual-core E-350 running at 1.6GHz or the single-core E-240 clocked at 1.5GHz, while Ontario will offer 1GHz dual-core and 1.2GHz single-core variants. Let's not forget that both are intended for netbooks and lithe desktop computers before writing them off as too slow -- which would be a mistake anyway as the sites that got a chance to play with the E-350 reported very respectable performance. HardOCP dared to try out Crysis and managed to get it chugging along at a resolution around 720p, whereas Hot Hardware witnessed a 1080p video clip being played back perfectly smoothly alongside an instance of Hyper Pi maxing out the CPU load. Benchmark results will have to wait for another day, but feel free to peruse the links below for a more detailed breakdown of the new architecture.
Verbatim's Clip-it is a USB drive with paperclip ambitions
It sure is hard to differentiate yourself in the highly competitive world of ever-shrinking USB storage. To avoid this trend of disregard, Verbatim has sent its latest offering off to paper management school and the results are now apparent for us to see. The new Clip-it comes with an added incision in the middle of its lilliputian body that allows it to act as a paperclip or maybe even a handsome accessory to your geek chique outfit. Verbatim makes sure to tell us (about eleventy times) that the Clip-it has scooped up a red dot Design Award for its ingenuity, and prices the thing at eminently affordable €8.99 (2GB) and €11.49 (4GB) levels. Those correspond to $12 and $15.34, respectively, meaning you could have the whole set of seven colors for less than what you'd have to spend on just one iWatch.
Swiss labs build credit card-sized projector for cellphones, operating rooms, and more
We're used to seeing far-out technology from Swiss firm EPFL, from glider / robots to thought-controlled wheel chairs, and now it looks like a spin-off company of the labs, Lemoptix, has greatly upped the pico projector stakes with one such device that rocks a projector head a mere cubic centimeter, with the whole thing squeezing into an area smaller than a credit card. According to research director Maher Kayal, the device uses "tiny mirrors of less than a millimeter's thickness. Positioned on a silicon (wafer) disc, they reflect red, blue and green laser beams," to project VGA (640 x 480) images onto a surface equivalent to a 15-inch screen. Possible uses range from consumer electronics such as cellphones and PMPs, HUDs for automobiles, and even operating rooms, where medical info can be projected onto the surgeon's work area, reducing the time he spends looking at a screen. There's no telling what the cost will be, but you can look forward to seeing it hit the shelves "early next year."
LaCie MosKeyto streamlines portable storage, invites bad puns
LaCie's keeping up its eccentric branding strategy today with this pest-inspired new USB key. Measuring a mere 20mm in length and 10 grams in weight, the MosKeyto is ready to all but disappear once you plug it into your computer, and it'll outdo its physical counterpart by not only sucking data down but pushing it back out should you want it. Basically, it's yet another miniaturized USB drive and can be owned today, starting at $18 for the 4GB version. 8GB will set you back $28 and there's a 16GB variant to come as well. Got all that? Good. Now buzz off.%Gallery-101243%
Modu, world's lightest cellphone, lands in UK
Another day, another... oh wait, what's this? The Modu phone has been an enigmatic figure in the mobile world, treading the precipice of vaporware for a while before finally launching in its home market of Israel last year and in a few more places around the world since then. Aiming to shake up the apparently stale mobile market, this minimalist take on the phone is no larger than the standard battery in your modern smartphone and gets its name from the modular "jackets" it can slip into. They furnish it with added functionality and buttons, while also sprinkling a bit of extra style on top as well. Slide past the break to learn more about this handset, the Modu 1, together with a few teasers about the upcoming touchscreen-based Modu 2.%Gallery-97442%%Gallery-97441%
Swiftpoint's tiny mouse finally up for pre-order, shipping in August
It's been a long couple of years since we last heard from Swiftpoint, but the company is back with a (tiny) bang and introducing its eponymous ultraportable mouse. Touting a pen-like grip, tilt-scrolling, and a 30 to 40 percent better efficiency than your touchpad, this little thumb accessory wants to be seen as the solver of an eternal problem -- namely, getting all the utility of a desktop rodent without having to deal with its full size. Whether it lives up to that lofty goal will require some fingers-on time to determine, but the Swiftpoint does a very credible job on the battery front: it can turn a 30-second charge into an hour's use and can last 3 to 4 weeks on a fully juiced cell. It all sounds quite appealing, but be prepared for some sticker shock as the pre-order price is £67 in the UK or $70 in the USA... and that's with a 10 percent early bird discount included. We might just wait till these hit the sales before grabbing one. [Thanks, Patrick]
Samsung shocks the pico projector world with SP-H03
Samsung's just rolled out its first ever pico projector, the SP-H03. The little thing boasts 1GB of internal memory, a microSD slot, and projects WVGA video at 30 lumens, a 1 watt speaker, and supports both open and proprietary codecs. It's got a battery life of about two hours and weighs in a 6 ounces. Other than that, it's a pretty standard looking pico affair, and it's available now for $300.
BeamBox Evolution R-2 -- one of the brightest little guys around
BeamBox has just outed its Revolution R-2 pico projector, and while nothing much that could be termed revolutionary has happened in the world of tiny projectors as of late, the R-2 certainly has one thing going for it: it's super bright. That's right, the Revolution R-2 boasts a 40 lumen LCoS chip, which means it should stand out where most picos are much less -- and often around 20 lumens. Other than that it will produce a 75-inch projection with a 200:1 contrast ratio, it's got 1GB of storage plus a microSD slot, A/V inputs and a Mini USB port, plus an integrated media player. The Revolution R-2 is available now for £250 (around $360).
Maintenance day loot from WoW.com
WoW.com is giving more loot cards away today, thanks to an extremely generous donation from WoWTCGLoot.com. Why? Because it's maintenance day and because we feel like it! Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of five different codes: one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny codes (these are horses for the Alliance and raptors like the one pictured above for the Horde), or one Path of Cenarius code. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline to enter is May 20th at 10:00 AM EDT, so leave a comment while you can and win! Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes). Good luck!
OmniVision announces 'world's smallest' 1080p camera module
Well, Samsung's had a nice one-month run, but it looks like there's a new company to claim the title of world's smallest 1080p camera -- OmniVision's just announced an in-bezel solution of its own with a z-height a full one millimeter smaller (3.5 mm compared to Samsung's 4.5 mm). To achieve that feat, OmniVision used its own 1.4 micron OmniBSI backside illumination technology, which the company says also helps to give its new OV2720 CMOS sensor low-light performance double that of similar-sized VGA sensors. Still no word on any specific products that will use the camera, but OmniVision says it's ideal for everything from netbooks to standalone webcams, and it's already slated to go into mass production this June. Full press release is after the break.
Researchers shows off self-contained, 9mm solar power system
Advances in solar power aren't always the most immediately exciting sort of developments (a more efficient solar panel still looks like a solar panel), but this new solar power system developed at the University of Michigan certainly won't have any trouble turning a few heads. Not only is it 1,000 times smaller than any comparable commercial counterpart (just 9 cubic millimeters), but its processor, solar cells, and battery are all self-contained, and the researchers say it would be be able to operate "nearly perpetually" if not for the battery eventually giving out after "many years." What's more, they say the system could also be adapted to be powered by movement or heat instead of light, which means that it could eventually power medical implants in addition to a whole range of other devices. No word on when that might happen, but the inventors are already busily working to commercialize the device. Extreme close-up after the break.
TCG art contest winners announced
Some of the coolest contests happen in the EU, and unfortunately, sometimes completely under our radar. World of Warcraft in Europe recently announced the winners of a contest held between November 23 and December 6, 2009 (that's a period of two weeks, so even the folks in Europe might've missed out on it) which asked folks to design their own World of Warcraft trading card. We told you the coolest contests happen in the EU. Winners were announced last December 18, 2009, with Blizzard apparently selecting the best entries according to language. Five winners were selected, with J. Hoermandinger winning the top prize for English submissions with the Boo'Yah "Brickhead" card; D. Klenk was the German winner with Shilanya; S. Mariez won the French top prize with Perséphia Tristombe; A. Fuentes Garcia was the Spanish winner with Nairies; and A. Kirsanova won the Russian prize with a thankfully nameless but awesome-looking card (Cyrillic would be a little troublesome to jot down here). The contest awarded a veritable Upper Deck treasure trove that included a Death Knight deluxe starter kit, a World of Warcraft miniatures game starter kit and booster pack, and the ScourgeWar epic collection which has the Tiny loot card. The loot card enables Horde characters to mount a miniature raptor and Alliance characters to ride a miniature pony to move at unmounted speed. Congratulations to the all the winners! For those of you who missed out on the fun, you can always make your own TCG cards by downloading their Horde or Alliance templates. Enjoy!
Buffalo adds 16GB microSD card / reader to its line of incredibly small USB memory
We've seen Buffalo shrink USB drives down to preposterous sizes in the recent past, and now the company is throwing a microSD card reader into the mix. Available for ¥15,500.00 (that's $160, give or take) this guy stores 16GB internally, is available in both colors -- black AND white -- and would be right at home in any of your computer's favorite USB 2.0 ports. And just to get you started, this bad boy includes a 16GB card microSD card. How sweet is that?[Via OhGizmo!]
Video: Miniature, operational electric drill perfect for smurfing smurfs
The gang over at Make have dug up a pretty sweet electric drill that's looks to be about the right size for the Smurf in your life. Powered by a button cell battery, the inventor (a shadowy figure known only as s8) has plans to make these commercially available -- as soon as he figures out how to configure his website. Not too many details on how this was put together, but you can see several prototypes above. Video after the break.[Via Book of Joe]
