research and development
Latest
Robovie R3 all set to assist, freak out elderly and handicapped shoppers this November (video)
The Robovie R3 is the latest in a distinguished line of humanoid bots developed for the purposes of research, discovery, and (a tiny bit of) geeky fun. Following its predecessor's footsteps -- the R2 secured employment as a guide to lost shoppers -- the R3 will be making its mall debut in November of this year, where it'll assist people by carrying their shopping, providing information about nearby products, and holding their hand as it guides them through the crowds. Intended as a way to get elderly and handicapped people back out into the community, this is part of a viability study for the robot's usefulness, and if it finds success maybe its anime eyes and dalek form factor will find their way outside Japan as well. Video of the R3 after the break.
Keiji Inafune now Capcom 'global head of production'
Apparently overseeing several of Capcom's major releases and having created some of the company's biggest properties -- ever heard of one Mr. Mega Man? -- wasn't enough in the accomplishment department for Keiji Inafune. So, he's stepping into the shoes of "global head of production," with the intention of unifying the publisher's worldwide development studios, reports Kotaku. "Whether games are created in America or Japan or anywhere in the world, I will be the one overlooking it, and so it will have that Capcom flavor that fans know and love," Inafune told attendees of the company's Hawaiian soirée last week. "So one of the things I want people to know is that now that I am overseeing every part of Capcom R&D. You can be sure that that unified vision is going to come through in all of our titles no matter where they are created." Us? Well, we just want to see a mega blaster in Dead Rising 2. Is that so much to ask for, Mr. Inafune? Is it?
Microsoft shows how Natal recognizes players, gender
Have you ever wondered what Project Natal actually sees through its beady, robotic eyes? A direct feed of the Natal's point-of-view was recently revealed to the audience of Microsoft Israel R&D's "Think Next" convention yesterday afternoon. Just past the jump, you can check out NextGen-News' video of a live demonstration from Microsoft VP of Hardware and Technology Dr. Ilan Spillinger and a female participant, both of whose genders and movements were successfully identified and Avatar-ified by Natal. Watch the video after the jump to see Spillinger get more excited by this technology than anyone has ever been excited for anything else on the planet, ever. [Via Engadget]
HP touts memristor development, bleak future for transistors
Silicon transistors are the stuff all our dreams of android sheep are made of, but there will ultimately be a limit to how many of them you can squish together inside a processing chip. The progressive avoidance of physical limitations by moving to yet more minuscule dimensions is admirable, but some folks at HP seem to believe the answer lies in a whole different technology. The company has been talking to the New York Times about its memristor (memory resistor) development, which promises to perform both data processing and storage tasks (even without an electrical charge), while also being capable of stacking in a three-dimensional array that would allow for vast scaling potential down the line. Promises for the future include a three nanometer memristor that can switch on and off in a nanosecond, as well as a 20GB per square centimeter memory density that we might expect to arrive within three years. If we believe the dudes in the white coats, that is. The important thing is that memristor-based storage has already been tested to successfully perform "hundreds of thousands" of read and write operations without failing, so the potential is indeed there. Now we just need a bit of luck and a smidgen of patience.
Sharp solar cell sets Conversion Efficiency record
The kids at Sharp have a long history of solar power development and research -- something which is evident in the solar cells they've attached to everything from televisions to cellphones. Always moving onward and upwards, the company is now announcing that it's achieved a title-holding 35.8 percent cell conversion efficiency through the use of a triple-junction compound cell. Mainly used on satellites, the triple-junction cell uses three photo-absorption layers and materials (such as indium gallium arsenide) to boost efficiency. This is all good news indeed for both people anticipating better solar devices and fans of solar research in general -- and great news for the people that make those 18 foot tall "solar flowers." PR after the break. [Via Akihabara]
Codex and InkSeine -- the roots of Microsoft's Courier?
Yesterday, the cats over at Gizmodo got a look at what appeared to be a pretty groundbreaking product from Microsoft -- the Courier -- a dual-screen, multitouch tablet with an advanced UI the likes of which we've rarely seen. According to the site's report, the product was in "late prototype" stages, and judging from the video, it looked to be pretty far along (at least as far as software was concerned). Today, MobileTechWorld looks as though it might be shedding a little more light on the device and its software... but it might not be quite what you think.
Nintendo building new R&D center (not a Death Star)
It's a simple truth: Nintendo makes money. What goes up must also come down, so it's only fitting that the company would dedicate some of its vast funds to researching and developing new ways make money. That's where the company's new R&D office comes in.Situated in the Minami-ku district of Kyoto, this new plot of land secured by Nintendo is 40,000 square feet and a $138 million labor of love. With the building rights secured last year, Nintendo has not divulged any info as to when it plans to complete this new research center, nor when it'll start cloning Miyamoto there.[Via Develop]
Seagate developing mutant hybrid SSD tech to bring costs down
We'd heard that Seagate was prepping its first solid state hard drives, but there was no plan for consumer-friendly products in that vein anytime soon because solid state drives cost far more to produce than the conventional variety. Recently, CEO Bill Watkins hinted that the company intends to overcome that problem by combining relatively inexpensive (but unreliable) multi-layer cells with pricier (but dependable) single-layer cells in some kind of hybrid drive technology. It's all very pie in the sky right now, but surely it's a better hope than sticking to your old fashioned ways and seeking out opportunities to sue envelope-pushing competitors.[Via Electronista]
Mercs and their role in EVE's industrial warfare
Much of what's written about EVE Online focuses on the darker aspects of the game. It's not surprising, as those topics are often the ones most interesting to players and non-players alike, but EVE has a very deep industrial side to it as well. It's a side that gets much less fanfare; R&D (invention), manufacturing, trading, and investment are all possible within the game and occur in tandem with EVE's more violent pursuits. Most every ship, after all, has been manufactured and sold (or re-sold) by another player. Those who engage in EVE's industry on a serious level often come into conflict with rival corporations and alliances in wars played out on the market, which sometimes spill into formal war declarations and combat. But if you're not interested in or inept at PvP, what are EVE's industrialists to do? While an industrialist may not be well-versed in the art of war, he or she can play to their own strength: financial influence. EVE has a number of merc corps who are willing to solve problems, be it through armed escorts in hostile space or simply obliterating your opposition... assuming you can meet their price. Benilopax, of Warp Drive Active: Industry podcast fame and an E-ON contributor, relates his experience with contracting mercenaries to solve such problems, in what he refers to as 'the dark side of industrialism'. "There is a growing use of mercenaries by industrial entities to either take out the competition or keep them from easily making a profit," Benilopax writes for EVE Tribune. If you're interested in knowing a bit more about this side of the game, start with Benilopax's article (and A-Team reference) to see what it's like to deal with mercenaries in EVE Online.
Microsoft's Midori -- a future without Windows
According to a report, Microsoft isn't just looking at the next version of Windows (no, not Mojave) for future OS possibilities, but is looking beyond the Windows architecture altogether with a project known as Midori. The new OS is still in the "incubation" phase (which puts it slightly closer to market than R&D projects), but Microsoft has admitted to its existence, and the Software Daily Times says at least one team in Redmond is actively working on the new architecture.The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft's Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines -- religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture -- which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, "The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places." Like it technical? Hit the read link for an in-depth look at the possible shape of Microsoft's future.[Via Yahoo!]
