Hidden

In this day and age  the portable products that we buy are targets for theft.  We have devices such as laptops, smart phones, etc.  For the most part getting back stolen property can be a daunting task, but with the emergence of new technology that is a thing of the past.   There is a product called Hidden which allows for users to know the location of a stolen Mac system, gives them a picture of the thief, and screenshots of the computer in use.  The way this product works is the user installs it, configures it, and then if it is stolen the user simply logs into their Hidden account and gets the data.  After this the police may use the information given to them by the user to get back their property.  In my opinion technology like this makes people feel safer and lets them not worry as much about their stuff being stolen.  Hopefully more products like this will come about to be used on other items like I-Phones, other laptops, etc.

Applications

New applications come out everyday for the smart phones that are available.  Some of the new technology they offer range from games, business apps, and much more.  A very interesting new application is one that allows color blind individuals to see what a color truly is.  It is called the DanKam app, and it is available for the Android and IPhone.   What this product does is take the data from the camera and changes the color slightly so that the colors fall within the spectrum that color blind individuals can see.  This technology is a great tool for somebody who is color blind and is widely available since it is sold on app stores.

New Google Operating Systems

Computers now a days usually only come with either Windows Operating Systems or Apple operating systems. Tomorrow Google will show case their own operating system. Google hopes to create Chrome OS Netbooks which would create a lightweight browser-based operating system. This sort of system would run just Web applications instead of native ones. This sort of technology has some benefits and some cons to it. One of the benefits is that it should provide rather quick Internet access, it would allow for people to run web applications faster than other Operating Systems because it shouldn’t be bogged down by the usual native applications that would normally run in the background. There are quite a few cons to this sort of Operating System though, one of the main things being that it only allows people to browser the internet and use web applications. If a consumer wants something that lets you install and play games, they would have to go with a different computer. Another con would be that most likely you would only be able to use Google’s chrome browser, which is a good browser but it limits what the user may want to browse with. And we have yet to see what this operating system has to offer, so most of this is just speculation but it will be interesting to see what Google has to offer. In short most consumers would probably stay away from this sort of netbook unless they are just looking for something to browse the web with, I for certain won’t be getting this netbook or operating system.

Kinect Modifcations

Video games are a popular technology available to many consumers.  One of the popular systems for video games is the X-Box 360, which has recently released a new product called the Kinect.  This product allows for users to become the controllers due to the motion capture software and cameras within it.  Recently there has been a large surge of people tinkering with Microsoft Kinect to use it for more than just playing games on the X-Box.  The product was released nearly over a month ago, and within a week of a company named Adafruit Industries offering a reward to the first person who created an open-sourced driver for it was one released.  After it's release there was many youtube videos hitting the internet showing off people using the Kinect for 3D drawing programs, multi-touch gesture-controlled photo viewers, and much more.  This was all done using an open data channel through the Kinect's USB interface.  This simple product opened up a wave of innovative ideas and uses for the type of technology that the Kinect uses, even though it was to be used primarly for playing games on the X-Box 360.  This sort of technology allows for a tremendous amount of innovative features and uses, ranging anywhere from playing indie games to possibly being used for things like augmented reality, in which users can touch and interact with a virtual product, which would be a new tool for advertising.  This is certainly a technology for people to keep their eyeson because it offers such versatility.

IBM Chips

Recently IBM has achieved a major milestone in computer chip technology.  They have created a chip that's design uses conventional manufacturing, involves very small component parts, and will essentially allow a communication line of fiber-optic to be attached directly to the processor.  currently their technology consits of a processor that has six optical communication links.  The chip has six transmistters and receivers which are each capable of handling eight channels of data through multiplexing technology.  Each modulator within the hcips can oversee bandwith of 20 gigabits a second.  This technology is promising as far as allowing faster processors and reduces the amount of electromagnectic waves produced by high-speed electrical communications because each tiny wire ina computer acts as antenna.  This is due to the fact that it uses optical communications instead of electrical, and will allow chips to work under lower power.  Unfortunately these types are only in development stages and IBM has to focus on creating efficient, reliable manufacturing of the products and putting them into it's exascale supercomputer.  Later on this form of technology will most likely be available to the general public, only time will tell whether or not these chips will bring in a new wave of faster computers.

Microsoft

Recently Microsoft published details of a patent involving a light-induced shaped-memory polymer display screen.  It is essentially a touch screen that has a real texture and has tactile feedback, making it feel like users are actually touching an object.  It was invented by Erez Kikin-Gi.  This screen is coated with polymers that could change or hold the shape when different wavelengths of ultraviolet light hits the pixels from bbeneath it.  This sort of technology is interesting because it goes more in depth into making a user feel as if what they are controlling on the screen is real, because it could not only just display images but also specific interfaces such as a keyboard making the sure feel like they are actual typing onto one.  Unfortunately for now this technology will only initially find it's way onto large screens like Microsoft's Surface computers.  It will certainly be a technology many people will find interesting in the future.

3-D Images

In recent years 3-D technolgoy has become more affordable and is starting to break into the homes with the invention of TVs cable of displaying 3-D. Although we still need to wear 3D glasses soon that may not be the case with upcoming technology. Physicists at the University of Arizona are taking steps toward that direction. What they have done is create a new technique which displays images in 3 dimensions, basically taking objects from one location and then showing them in another location in 3-D. This technique would allow viewers to see an object from different perspectives using a type of material called photorefractive polymer film. It is a type of film that 3-D images can be recorded and erased, and then replaced in nearly real time. This sort of technology will allow people to be more creative with projects, allowing advertisements to be shown in 3-D, more realistic 3-D movies, and more realistic games. In my opinion although this technology is a long way from becoming mainstream it is a very promising and useful technology. It's usefulness could stretch far beyond just commerical use. Maybe in the near future we may see some of this technology in use, but only time will tell.