Microsoft Targets Hard-Core Gamers with 13 New Xbox One Titles

In its 90-minute press conference at the big Electronic Entertainment Expo video game show in Los Angeles on Monday, Microsoft demonstrated a concentrated focus on Xbox One action games and serious gamers. "Microsoft needs to attract those hard-core fans as it goes up against Sony this holiday season," observed Paul Semel, editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Against the backdrop of the E3 video game conference and show in Los Angeles this week, Microsoft unveiled 13 new games for its upcoming Xbox One video game console.

While the company had offered a peak at the hardware behind the system a few weeks ago at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters, its press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference on Monday was almost solely about the games.
"It was a lot to process," video game industry consultant N'Gai Croal told Tech2Next following the nearly 90-minute presentation. "It is still early, but this looks like a strong line-up."
Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain
Among all the possible adjectives to describe the rapid-fire press conference, "loud" is the first one that comes to mind.

The E3 show in Los Angeles was the backdrop for Microsoft's Monday game announcements.

Kicking things off was the photorealistic Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, the latest in the popular third-person action game. As the series has typically been heavy on prerendered cut scenes and lengthy cinematic elements, it was difficult to tell where the prerendered began and the game play started. However, it showed up stunning visuals in an open world with dynamic weather.

That was just one of several such upcoming experiences that gamers can look forward to playing when the system arrives on November 21 for US$499.
"This is an exciting day for our teams," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "We've been promising it is all about the games."

Reaffirming the Xbox 360

While E3 always maintains a focus on the new, Microsoft did take a past move from the Sony playbook and noted that it will still support the aging Xbox 360, which was introduced eight years ago.
Most notably, Microsoft will offer an updated version of the system.
"We have updated the system with a modern look and feel that is based on the Xbox One design," said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business Group at Microsoft.

Game On

In total, Microsoft demonstrated 13 games for the Xbox One, including also Dark Souls II; World of Tanks -- Xbox 360 Edition; the fighting game Killer Instinct; the third-person, historically based Ryse: Son of Rome; and the open world zombie survival game Dead Rising 3.
Perhaps the biggest offering from an outside publisher, meanwhile, was the demo of Electronic Arts' Battlefield 4, which suggests yet another shooter showdown as rival Activision has already announced Call of Duty: Ghosts.
In any case, this fresh commitment to games suggests that Microsoft is going to its core fans again. While it previously announced some entertainment and streaming options, little was actually noted about those during the Monday press conference.
"I'm glad it was all games," said Paul Semel, editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly. "This gave us a sense of what the games will actually look like on the system.
"Microsoft needs to attract those hard-core fans as it goes up against Sony this holiday season," Semel told Tech2Next.
It is going to be a showdown between two giants, in other words, and that's notable in that it is the first time that Sony and Microsoft have duked it out in the same holiday season.

Microsoft's E3 demonstrations included primarily action games for the Xbox One.

Lights, Camera, Action

At only one point during the press conference did Microsoft offer any other discussion between game announcements, and that was in a brief segment about the role of Xbox Live, Smart Glass and Upload Studios, which can record game play.
That functionality, which allows players to save videos and upload them via Twitch, essentially transforms the game console into a social media device.

'A Very Good Move'

"This takes away some of the Wii U's thunder, that's for sure," independent video game analyst Billy Pidgeon told Tech2Next. "The Twitch partnership is a very good move."
Either way, the focus on action games specifically -- with the exception of the kid-friendly Max: The Curse of Brotherhood -- further suggests that Microsoft was going for the very hard-core gamer with the Xbox One.
"It was very much either hard-core games or the cutie titles, and that has been the trend with Microsoft," Pidgeon added. "That's a questionable strategy given that casual gaming has gotten so big. Microsoft is clearly betting on the action games.

The Emerging Technologies Of 2013

New challenges need new technologies to tackle them. Here, the top 10 most promising technology trends that can help to deliver sustainable growth in decades to come as global population and material demands on the environment continue to grow rapidly. 

OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV)

Wireless technology can now deliver electric power to moving vehicles. In next-generation electric cars, pick-up coil sets under the vehicle floor receive power remotely via an electromagnetic field broadcast from cables installed under the road. The current also charges an onboard battery used to power the vehicle when it is out of range. As electricity is supplied externally, these vehicles need only a fifth of the battery capacity of a standard electric car, and can achieve transmission efficiencies of over 80%. Online electric vehicles are currently undergoing road tests in Seoul, South Korea.

3-D printing and remote manufacturing

Three-dimensional printing allows the creation of solid structures from a digital computer file, potentially revolutionizing the economics of manufacturing if objects can be printed remotely in the home or office. The process involves layers of material being deposited on top of each other in to create free-standing structures from the bottom up. Blueprints from computer-aided design are sliced into cross-section for print templates, allowing virtually created objects to be used as models for “hard copies” made from plastics, metal alloys or other materials.

Self-healing materials 

One of the defining characteristics of living organisms is their inherent ability to repair physical damage. A growing trend in biomimicry is the creation of non-living structural materials that also have the capacity to heal themselves when cut, torn or cracked. Self-healing materials which can repair damage without external human intervention could give manufactured goods longer lifetimes and reduce the demand for raw materials, as well as improving the inherent safety of materials used in construction or to form the bodies of aircraft.

Energy-efficient water purification

Water scarcity is a worsening ecological problem in many parts of the world due to competing demands from agriculture, cities and other human uses. Where freshwater systems are over-used or exhausted, desalination from the sea offers near-unlimited water but a considerable use of energy – mostly from fossil fuels – to drive evaporation or reverse-osmosis systems. Emerging technologies offer the potential for significantly higher energy efficiency in desalination or purification of wastewater, potentially reducing energy consumption by 50% or more. Techniques such as forward-osmosis can additionally improve efficiency by utilizing low-grade heat from thermal power production or renewable heat produced by solar-thermal geothermal installations.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) conversion and use

Long-promised technologies for the capture and underground sequestration of carbon dioxide have yet to be proven commercially viable, even at the scale of a single large power station. New technologies that convert the unwanted CO₂ into saleable goods can potentially address both the economic and energetic shortcomings of conventional CCS strategies. One of the most promising approaches uses biologically engineered photosynthetic bacteria to turn waste CO₂ into liquid fuels or chemicals, in low-cost, modular solar converter systems. Individual systems are expected to reach hundreds of acres within two years. Being 10 to 100 times as productive per unit of land area, these systems address one of the main environmental constraints on biofuels from agricultural or algal feedstock, and could supply lower carbon fuels for automobiles, aviation or other big liquid-fuel users.

Enhanced nutrition to drive health at the molecular level

Even in developed countries millions of people suffer from malnutrition due to nutrient deficiencies in their diets. Now modern genomic techniques can determine at the gene sequence level the vast number of naturally consumed proteins which are important in the human diet. The proteins identified may have advantages over standard protein supplements in that they can supply a greater percentage of essential amino acids, and have improved solubility, taste, texture and nutritional characteristics. The large-scale production of pure human dietary proteins based on the application of biotechnology to molecular nutrition can deliver health benefits such as muscle development, managing diabetes or reducing obesity.

Remote sensing

The increasingly widespread use of sensors that allow often passive responses to external stimulae will continue to change the way we respond to the environment, particularly in the area of health. Examples include sensors that continually monitor bodily function – such as heart rate, blood oxygen and blood sugar levels – and, if necessary, trigger a medical response such as insulin provision. Advances rely on wireless communication between devices, low power-sensing technologies and, sometimes, active energy harvesting. Other examples include vehicle-to-vehicle sensing for improved safety on the road.

Precise drug delivery through nanoscale engineering

Pharmaceuticals that can be precisely delivered at the molecular level within or around a diseased cell offer unprecedented opportunities for more effective treatments while reducing unwanted side effects. Targeted nanoparticles that adhere to diseased tissue allow for the micro-scale delivery of potent therapeutic compounds while minimizing their impact on healthy tissue, and are now advancing in medical trials. After almost a decade of research, these new approaches are finally showing signs of clinical utility.

Organic electronics and photovoltaics

Organic electronics – a type of printed electronics – is the use of organic materials such as polymers to create electronic circuits and devices. In contrast to traditional (silicon-based) semiconductors that are fabricated with expensive photolithographic techniques, organic electronics can be printed using low-cost, scalable processes such as ink jet printing, making them extremely cheap compared with traditional electronics devices, both in terms of the cost per device and the capital equipment required to produce them. While organic electronics are currently unlikely to compete with silicon in terms of speed and density, they have the potential to provide a significant edge in cost and versatility. The cost implications of printed mass-produced solar photovoltaic collectors, for example, could accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Fourth-generation reactors and nuclear-waste recycling

Current once-through nuclear power reactors use only 1% of the potential energy available in uranium, leaving the rest radioactively contaminated as nuclear “waste”. While the technical challenge of geological disposal is manageable, the political challenge of nuclear waste seriously limits the appeal of this zero-carbon and highly scalable energy technology. Spent-fuel recycling and breeding uranium-238 into new fissile material – known as Nuclear 2.0 – would extend already-mined uranium resources for centuries while dramatically reducing the volume and long-term toxicity of wastes, whose radioactivity will drop below the level of the original uranium ore on a timescale of centuries rather millennia. This makes geological disposal much less of a challenge (and arguably even unnecessary) and nuclear waste a minor environmental issue compared to hazardous wastes produced by other industries. Fourth-generation technologies, including liquid metal-cooled fast reactors, are now being deployed in several countries and are offered by established nuclear engineering companies.

I hope that this information is useful for you, so please give your valuable comments and feedback .

Mind Blowing Facts About Facebook !!!

All of you use facebook. But here are some mind blowing facts about your favorite social networking site "Facebook" , that u have never been known . check this out :

Adding the number 4 to the end of Facebook’s URL will automatically direct you to Mark Zuckerberg’s wall.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the term “URL” - type in this web address: www.facebook.com/4. We’re not sure why Zuckerberg chose the fourth ID number instead of number 1, but this is a quick and easy way to get to the original Facebook wall that is owned by its creator. Adding the numbers 5 or 6 to the end of the URL will take you to the respective profiles of Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founders and Mark’s former college roommates. Tacking a 7 onto the web address leads to the profile of Arie Hasit, another good friend of Zuckerberg from his days at Harvard. To see the first few registered profiles of other Facebook employees, check out this website.

Facebook pays $500 to anyone who can hack into it !!!

Basically, if you find an original bug within the Facebook software and system, they’ll reward you with up to $500. There are stipulations to the rules, though. They allow this as showing appreciation for their security researchers. One cannot disclose personal information about others and must give Facebook 24 hours in good faith to fix the issue before going public with the bug. Only one bounty per security bug is given.

83% of prostitutes have Facebook pages.

This is according to a study done by Columbia University researcher Sudhir Venkatesh. Many of these "working girls" switched over to the site after Craigslist rid itself of the "adult services" category. Venkatesh discovered that about a quarter of each woman's clients came from the social networking site, while 31% were still provided by escort services. Seeing as how friendships and even marriages are often formed through these networks, it is not surprising to see Facebook's social advantages applied to nightly transactions.

A couple got murdered because they de-friended someone on Facebook

This bizarre crime occurred in Tennessee. Billy Clay Payne Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth decided to de-friend Jenelle Potter on Facebook. In response, Jenelle's father killed them.
The woman's father and another man were charged with the horrible crime. The couple had a young baby that was thankfully spared from the madness. Still, the 8-month old is now orphaned thanks to a sensless murder that shouldn't happen.
This isn't the first crime linked to Facebook. A woman set a friend's garage on fire last year because of a similar thing. A man also was accused of hitting his wife for not"Liking" a post about the death of the man's mother.

About 20% of all photos this year will end up on Facebook.

Over the last few decades, the advancement of photography has also allowed for the advancement of human communication. Easy capturing, editing, and sharing has allows us to inject our intended message into a visual, and share it on a worldwide stage.

The full scope of this phenomenon is probably most noticeable on Facebook; a place where photos of meaningful events and people stand alongside photos of people looking intensely into their bathroom mirrors. Facebook’s library already contains 140 billion photos, which is about 100 000 times that of the Library of Congress and 4% of the photos ever taken.
Facebook seems to have become a sort of digital photo album. It preserves the quality and quantity of the photos we take, organizes them, and allows for easier conversation about those photos. Plus, it’s considered by some studies to be more addictive than alcohol and tobacco.

A man was ordered to apologize on Facebook or Go to Jail

In June 2011, Mark Byron, a photographer from Cincinnati, was found guilty of cilvil domestic violence against his wife and she was granted a temporary protection order. In November, Byron posted a note to his  Facebook wall reading, ""If you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husband's life and take your son's father away from him completely -- all you need to do is say you're scared of your husband or domestic partner and they'll take him away!"
 Byron had blocked his wife from viewing his Facebook page, however she still received word of the post and proceeded to file charges against her husband stating that his post was in violation of her protection order, which prohibited her [then] husband "from causing the plaintiff or the child of the parties to suffer physical and/or mental abuse, harassment, annoyance or bodily injury. On January 25th, Byron was given the option of going to jail for 60 days and paying a $500 fine, or pay back child support and post an apology to his Facebook page for 30 days.

Today's Facebook users change their profile pictures 3 times as often as they did in 2006.

The average user in 2011 uploads 18 photos every year for their Facebook profile. That number has been steadily rising every year, since 2006 when the average was only 6 per year. And since Facebook started keeping track of which photos we use as profile photos, the average user has used 26 Facebook profile pictures in their lifetime. Women change their profile pictures more often than men (about once every 2 weeks, vs once every 3 weeks).

To learn more fun and interesting facts about Facebook photos, check out Pixable, a new app for managing your social media photos. It’s a great way to search, edit, and aggregate Facebook photos, and there are a bunch of cool infographics on the Pixable website where you can learn more facts like these.

On Facebook, users average a separation of only 3.74 people!

Updating the theory thought by Frigyes Karinthy and popularized by the “6 degrees from Kevin Bacon theory,” that there is a separation of 6 degrees between any two people in the world, Facebook data scientist Lars Backstrom discovered the separation is almost half as small!

After scanning through Facebook's 721 million users and excluding celebrity/miscellaneous fan pages, Backstrom was able to come up with 3.74 people. 99.6% of all random user pairs were connected by 5 people while 92% were connected by 4 people. To read more on the math of separation, click the source below!

A third of all divorce filings in 2011 contained the word "Facebook”

Information on Facebook is becoming a major factor in marriage conflicts and is increasingly being used as a source of evidence in divorce cases. In 2011, Facebook was cited as a reason for a third of divorces (Divorce-Online).
The most common reasons Divorce-Online found cited as evidence were; inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex, separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other, and facebook friends reporting spouse’s behavior.
The greater availability of information online through social media has created a variety of problems for relationships at every level. Conflict caused by embarrassment, jealousy, false assumptions, and stalker-like behavior, are some of the social disasters that can result from the misuse of social media. Check out this article for more information and how to avoid the major issues social media causes relationships.

Iceland used Facebook to rewrite its constitution!

In 2011, Iceland finally took on the task of rewriting its constitution as it had been hoping to do for many years, but had never got around to doing. When Iceland broke from Denmark in 1944, it merely took the Danish constitution and made minor changes. For example, the title of king was changed to president.
The Icelandic people were driven to change their constitution after their financial troubles in 2008. Their currency, the krona, last values and banks failed. The hope was that with some reformation and checks and balances another financial breakdown could be prevented.
The actual draft of the new constitution was being written by 25 people as part of a council. The council put their draft on Facebook for users to make suggestions about amendments and to have debates with one another about the constitution. They also streamed the proceedings of the council not only on their website, but also on Facebook.
The writing of the constitution took influence from all those on social media. The finished result came from the combined efforts of those 25 council member, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Do you think politics will flow more onto social media than it already has?

Facts About Your Favorite Search Engine Google That You Have Been Never Heard !!!!

"Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one." So began the "letter from the founders" penned by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the company's securities registration form in 2004. Despite ever-increasing commercial success since that date, Brin and Page have kept to their word.

Google is an unconventional company with a huge stake in our online lives. It is a source of fascination for many, including us, but what really happens in the Googleplex? And what cool factoids and stats exist from the company's relatively short past?

Here we bring you 10 fun facts about Google to quench our own thirst for Google knowledge as well as hopefully offer you a distracting diversion from your daily life.

1. The First Google Doodle

Google's famous homepage "Doodles" (the changing Google logo graphics) are well known and enjoyed by millions around the world as a way to mark an event or anniversary. But did you know that the very first Google Doodle was designed as a kind of "out of office" message?

In 1998 Brin and Page took the weekend off to go the Burning Man festival in Nevada. The Burning Man doodle (shown above), was designed by the Google guys and added to the homepage to let their users know they were out of office and couldn't fix technical issues like a server crash.

2. Interesting Figures from the Google IPO

While the initial price for Google's stock at its Initial Public Offering in August 2004 is an interesting stat in itself, there's more to the story. The opening price for Google's stock was $85 per share. At the time of writing, the stock price was $483 but has soared as high as $600 in the past year, making GOOG a rather nice investment for many.

A bonus factoid from Google's IPO process is the value Google stated it hoped to raise on its S-1 form — as much as $2,718,281,828. It may just look like a string of numbers to non-mathletes, but 2,718,281,828 is actually the first ten digits of the mathematical constant ""e"," showing that even as their company was planning to go public, the Google guys could still geek out with a bit of numerical humor.

3. The First Google Storage Was Made From LEGO

As proud hosts to Google back when it was still a research project, and known as "BackRub," here Stanford now showcases the original Google storage from way back in 1996. It's made up of a whopping 40 GB (less than a modern iPod) and it's made from, as fans of the building bricks will be delighted to see, LEGO. It even hash funny mini-figures on the top.

Legend has it that the reason for the LEGO construction was that the Google guys needed an easily expandable, and cheap way to house 10 4 GB hard drives, and LEGO fit the bill. Whether the primary colors of the bricks used were the hues that went on to inspire the Google logo's design is up for debate, but we'd guess it wasn't just a coincidence.

4. Google's First Ever Tweet

Google's first ever Twitter post was as satisfyingly geeky as you could hope for. The message, sent in February 2009, reads "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010."

For anyone not fluent in binary, here's a hint — it's a well known phrase from the company's homepage. Got it? Yep, it reads: "I'm feeling lucky."

5. Google Rents Goats

This one isn't actually one of Google's infamous April Fools' Day jokes: Google rents out goats. Yes you read that right. It rents goats from a company called California Grazing to help cut down the amount of weeds and brush at Google HQ.

The operation of 200 goats (plus herder and a border collie) is kind to the environment, and as Google puts it: "A lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers."

6. Google's Impact on Language

While you'd think the news that the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionary adding "google" as a verb to their lexicons in 2006 would thrill the search engine, Google was actually none too pleased with the development.

"We'd like to make clear that you should please only use 'Google' when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services," the company wrote in a blog post at the time.

The rationale behind the semantic displeasure was that Google had "a brand to protect," and feared Google would "slip from trademarked status into common usage." Now, four years later, we have to say Google was fighting a losing battle — just 'google it.'

However, we've found some other Google-themed linguistic delights for you — a Google staffer is commonly referred to as a "Googler," while a new team member joins as a "Noogler." Nooglers also used to wear a colorful hat with a spinner on top. According to a former employee, those hats are now pretty scarce in some offices, instead: "Every Noogler gets a yellow smiley balloon and a nameplate."

7. Google Is Dog-Friendly

Google is a super dog-friendly company. It proudly names "company dogs," like Yoshka (described as a "free-range Leonberger") pictured above. Yoshka accompanies Urs Holzle, senior VP operations and Google Fellow to the Googleplex. Less senior staff are also allowed to bring their dogs to the office.

According to Google's "Dog Policy", one indiscretion too many on the Google carpets, or aggressive behavior, means Lassie will have to stay at home in the future. Strong bladdered and friendly canines are more than welcome across the campus.

Unfortunately, cats are not quite as welcome. Here's an excerpt taken directly from Google's Code of Conduct: "Google's affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture. We like cats, but we're a dog company, so as a general rule we feel cats visiting our offices would be fairly stressed out."

8. Google's First Ever "Company Snack" Was Swedish Fish

Back in February, 1999, the chewy candy known as "Swedish Fish" became the first ever company snack (not counting beverages) that was ordered into the Google office.

Although a relatively small event, it has led to big things. Google is infamous in the industry for treating its employees to not just free drinks and snacks on tap, but full-on gourmet meals, three times a day at a plethora of on-site cafes and eateries, as well as regular BBQs during the summer.

Brin and Page have been quoted in the past as saying no Googler should have to go more than 100 feet for food, leading to snack-filled "microkitchens" that are liberally dotted around the Google offices.

In fact, the free food is said to be so tempting that Googlers risk the "Google 15," similar to the "Freshman 15," where they pile on weight soon after joining the company. Good thing they also have a Google gym.

Backing this up, here's a stat from Google — "Bay Area Googlers consumed approximately 5,500 pounds of handmade chocolates from the snack bins in the microkitchens in 2007." Wow.

9. The Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001

Google's famously sparse homepage is considered a classic design in the online world. The Google logo, however, wasn't actually centered on the page until March 31, 2001. As early users will remember, the homepage had a bias to the left-hand side, and even earlier — back in 1998 — Google sported a Yahoo-style exclamation mark.

10. Google Has a Company Dinosaur

By all accounts, there are many wondrous sights to be seen at the Googleplex, but one of the most arresting is surely the gigantic T-Rex skeleton — nicknamed "Stan" after a "real" dino found nearby — that looms menacingly at Googlers in Mountain View.

Joining Stan in the unique campus decorations is a scale replica of the SpaceShipOne, enormous Android-themed models, pink flamingos, a large LEGO man, Google-colored phone boxes and grown-up size ball pits. One thing seems for sure — just like the company itself — life at the Googleplex must be far from dull.

Note : This facts needed some extra information about some terms used here, so some facts are fetched from other websites, whose URLs are linked to the terms.

Vedio Games Controlled By Your Brain

At the most recent TED Global Conference a guy named Evan Grant made an orange cube disappear inside a virtual world by merely thinking it away. The audience went wild over the former TED speaker's feat. What made the demo so mind-blowing was that while performing this seemingly magic trick, Grant neither spoke nor used his hands to communicate with the computer projecting the cube on its screen.

What the amazed audience witnessed was Emotiv's brain-computer interface technology, which allows direct communication between the human brain and computers. Researchers have been playing around with this technology for decades, but only recently has it been used in a myriad of applications--from helping amputees sense and use their prosthetics to playing PC games without lifting a finger.

Using the mind to improve the gaming experience is something that makes gamers drool. The problem, says Scott Steinberg, chief executive of Seattle-based videogame consulting firm TechSavvy, is that the brain-computer interface technology available to gamers right now is impressive as a novelty, but no more effective at killing an opponent on "Half-Life" than using a mouse and keyboard. "It's a classic chicken and egg scenario," says Steinberg. "Until there's compelling, high-quality, must-see content--killer apps--which fundamentally rely on the technology, fans won't buy en masse. Yet until there's a sizeable fan base, developers have little incentive to invest heavily in games which support it or raise the bar."


 Videogames Powered By Your Brain  : 

Brain-computer interface tech companies know gamers want more. NeuroSky of San Jose, Calif., a leader in the field, recently announced partnerships with Asian gaming giants LineKong and Square Enix, and NeuroSky Chief Executive Stanley Yang says he expects his company's revenues to double or triple this year to double-digit millions of dollars. NeuroSky, which has raised venture funding from U.S. and Asian investors, has a so-called "dry sensor" technology that needs no lubricating. ("Wet sensors" require a few drops of saline be put on pads that go inside the headset to increase conductivity of electrical signals from the player's brain to the computer.) The technology will soon allow players of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games such as "Warrior King" to fight opponents using the power of their minds, rather than quick draws with their hands. NeuroSky boasts that players using its MindSet head gear will have "extra powers" giving them a competitive advantage.

"Our technology can be embedded into all kinds of form factors, whether it's mobile, desktop, PC or console games. That is the reason why we are chosen by many of these big players to be incorporated into their next- generation products," says NeuroSky's Yang.

Developers are picking up on to the intrigue of the brainwave-tapping technology. In early September PLX Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif., unveiled the XWave, the first brainwave interface accessory for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, using NeuroSky brain sensor technology. IPhone users can now buy the $99 XWave headset (shipping begins in October), which will enable them to levitate a virtual ball on the screen using their brainwaves and change screen colors based on brain relaxation levels.

"The $99 price point will certainly go a way toward convincing critics and developers alike that the technology can be made available in widely accessible form," says TechSavvy's Steinberg. "It's still a considerable investment for a unique and quirky interface."

Newcomer BCInet of San Jose, Calif.--spun off last year from OCZ Technologies--developed the OCZ NIA, which includes a headband with three dry sensors and an interface that connects the headband to a PC. BCInet says the NIA game controller can be used with any PC game already on the market; its headband tracks facial and eye movements as well as brain waves. By clenching the jaw or squinting, players can make their avatars do things like jump, run or shoot. By looking left or right, they can change direction. With an application called "Brain Fingers" users can practice thinking in ways that can help their game. 

Interactive holographic displays and self-driving cars are in our future.

SAN FRANCISCO -- While consumers are marveling at this year's new tablets and smartphones, researchers are hard at work developing the next wave of computer technologies that will change our lives.

For starters, parallel computing is yielding extraordinary results. The once-experimental technology that allows computers to process multiple problems simultaneously is being used to create new breakthroughs in graphics rendering, language translation and even facial recognition. Berkeley Par Lab research professor Kurt Keutzer predicts that parallel computing will foster enormous advances in speed and power for every kind of electronics, from videogame consoles to handheld devices.

In addition to producing more powerful machines, new research is making it easier to work with computers. "The most exciting thing that's happened in [user interface systems] is the rise of multi-touch screens, like the Wii [controller], and more recently the Microsoft Kinect," says Scott Klemmer, a researcher at Stanford's Human-Computer Interaction Group. "As opposed to writing down a set of textual commands ... we envision people telling a computer, 'When someone gestures like this, then the computer should do this.'"

New Technologies changing your life :

Interactive holographic displays are also being developed to allow people to see real and virtual objects in true 3-D. These displays will let architects evaluate models that exist only in the mind of a computer, medical students view the body without needing a cadaver, and show shoppers the look and size of a product without leaving their homes. Scientists at the University of Tokyo in 2009 used a holograph display, Wii Remotes rigged as motion detectors and a grid that produced ultrasonic sound waves to create a high-tech interface that allowed people to "feel" a virtual object when they tried to touch the image floating in front of the screen.
New sensors will let computers take on new tasks, such as providing more accurate real-world data. For example, "augmented reality" programs rely on GPS data and online information to let smartphone owners with cameras view street names and overlay reviews on live video of their surroundings. But due to GPS' roughly 10-meter margin of error, the correlation between the video image and the information superimposed on top is rough and unreliable at present. An array of GPS satellites developed by Boeing ( BA - news - people ) can pinpoint people's locations on the globe with much greater accuracy, and should make augmented reality much more useful.

Keutzer says better sensors and faster processors will give rise to super-smart handheld devices that can "learn" their owner's behaviors, keeping track of where they go and what they buy online. For instance, researchers at Dartmouth have tested software that analyzes sounds from smartphone microphones to identify voices, music and even the places the phone's owner visited.
Perhaps the most interesting area of research is in machines that are capable of functioning largely on their own. Research in autonomous machines has come a long way from primitive robots that can solve mazes. For example, Google's ( GOOG - news - people ) self-driving cars use image recognition software, light detection technology, GPS and proximity detection Radar to almost entirely replace human drivers. And the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's new "Deep Learning" program aims to teach computers to interpret and classify images.
Such research brings humanity closer to realizing what we've read about in science fiction--true, practical artificial intelligence. The future may come sooner than we think.

Leap Motion : A solution after failure of multitouch desktop

Multi-touch desktop is a (miserably) failed product due to the fact that hands could get very tired with prolonged use, but Leap Motion wants to challenge this dark area again with a more advanced idea. It lets you control the desktop with fingers, but without touching the screen.

It’s not your typical motion sensor, as Leap Motion allows you to scroll the web page, zoom in the map and photos, sign documentss and even play a first person shooter game with only hand and finger movements. The smooth reaction is the most crucial key point here. More importantly, you can own this future with just $70, a price of a premium PS3 game title!

If this device could completely work with Oculus Rift to simulate a real-time gaming experience, gaming is going to get a major make-over.

Google Driverless Cars

I could still remember the day I watch the iRobot as a teen, and being skeptical about my brother’s statement that one day, the driverless car will become reality. And it’s now a reality, made possible by… a search engine company, Google.

While the data source is still a secret recipe, the Google driverless car is powered by artificial intelligence that utilizes the input from the video cameras inside the car, a sensor on the vehicle’s top, and some radar and position sensors attached to different positions of the car. Sounds like a lot of effort to mimic the human intelligence in a car, but so far the system has successfully driven 1609 kilometres without human commands!



“You can count on one hand the number of years it will take before ordinary people can experience this.” Google co-founder, Sergey Brin said. However, innovation is an achievement, consumerization is the headache, as Google currently face the challenge to forge the system into an affordable gem that every worker with an average salary could benefit from. "

The Nokia Morph Concept

Launched alongside The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (United Kingdom) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities.
Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices:

• Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live
• Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving
• Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension
• Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge
• Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

In addition to the advances above, the integrated electronics shown in the Morph concept could cost less and include more functionality in a much smaller space, even as interfaces are simplified and usability is enhanced. All of these new capabilities will unleash new applications and services that will allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways.

Flexible & Changing Design
Nanotechnology enables materials and components that are flexible, stretchable, transparent and remarkably strong. Fibril proteins are woven into a three dimensional mesh that reinforces thin elastic structures. Using the same principle behind spider silk, this elasticity enables the device to literally change shapes and configure itself to adapt to the task at hand.
A folded design would fit easily in a pocket and could lend itself ergonomically to being used as a traditional handset. An unfolded larger design could display more detailed information, and incorporate input devices such as keyboards and touch pads.
Even integrated electronics, from interconnects to sensors, could share these flexible properties. Further, utilization of biodegradable materials might make production and recycling of devices easier and ecologically friendly.
Self-Cleaning
Nanotechnology also can be leveraged to create self-cleaning surfaces on mobile devices, ultimately reducing corrosion, wear and improving longevity. Nanostructured surfaces, such as “Nanoflowers” naturally repel water, dirt, and even fingerprints utilizing effects also seen in natural systems.
Advanced Power Sources
Nanotechnology holds out the possibility that the surface of a device will become a natural source of energy via a covering of “Nanograss” structures that harvest solar power. At the same time new high energy density storage materials allow batteries to become smaller and thinner, while also quicker to recharge and able to endure more charging cycles.
Sensing The Environment
Nanosensors would empower users to examine the environment around them in completely new ways, from analyzing air pollution, to gaining insight into bio-chemical traces and processes. New capabilities might be as complex as helping us monitor evolving conditions in the quality of our surroundings, or as simple as knowing if the fruit we are about to enjoy should be washed before we eat it. Our ability to tune into our environment in these ways can help us make key decisions that guide our daily actions and ultimately can enhance our health.

The Google Glasses

Last week Google flexed its augmented tech muscles with the dramatic sky-diving demonstration of Project Glass at Google I/O 2012  Attendees were given the option of ordering a pair of the glasses for $1,500, so that developers could take them away and come up with inventive and creative uses for them. With the hype surrounding the glasses you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were the only wearable computing coming to the market. But they’re not, as plenty more are working their way to an online retailer near you soon.

And with these new types of products—these computers we can wear—we’ll be entering another phase of our digital journey, a phase where the tech goes from being something noticeable, and in some cases cumbersome, to something which will slip quietly into the background, integrated into our clothes and the objects that surround us. This is the world of ubiquitous computing and wearable technology. It’s a world that’s been explored in R&D labs across the world for some time, but now it’s beginning to hit the consumer market where the real impact will be felt.

The first consumer iterations of these products are coming our way with tech like the Google glasses and, sure, they might be too expensive and not look too great for the fashion conscious. But give it a few years and they’ll become cheaper and sleeker, eventually evolving into an AR contact lens.

World's Biggest corporate competition " Google v/s Microsoft" .

Microsoft and Google are having, what I would call from history class, an "Arms Race". The company's rivalry, although not very discrete, is reaching its heating points. They are competing for the way people will use technology in the future.

Google

Google hired Kai-Fu Lee, the vice president of Microsoft, to set up a Research Center which is what started the whole entire problem. He worked for Google long before he was with Microsoft. Google's product and advancements are becoming threats to Microsoft. Besides the search engine, Google is trying to fix the problem that many people have. Microsoft, isn't working well with them. Plain and simple. On the other hand, Microsoft isn't enjoying the competition. The company's goal is to organize information, and make it accessible to the people easier, and more reliable.

Microsoft

Microsoft is taking the competition very seriously, putting its money where its mouth is. Microsoft with its high budget and brains has the advantage over the competition, but word has it that Google is leading. The fight for the top is narrowing, and will end up coming down to who ever releases first in the world of the internet. The Microsoft CEO takes the matters very seriously. He has thrown a chair across the room because of a meeting with an engineer who was speaking of working with Google. Though he said he didn't do it, who would admit to doing it...? Exactly.

The Next generation Intel Ultrabooks will include voice recognition and gesture interfaces .

As computers become more sophisticated, they sometimes seem almost human – especially when they refuse to download a page when you’re in a hurry. At the Intel Developer’s Forum in San Francisco, Intel revealed that it is taking that a step further by giving their new line of Ultrabooks “human-like senses to perceive the user's intentions” thanks to a new generation of processors.

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The new Ultrabooks will use low-power fourth generation Intel Core processors based on Haswell microarchitecture. According to Intel, these have an idle power 20 times that of the second generation processors. Scheduled to be introduced into Ultrabooks and other PCs in 2013, they promise longer battery life and increased processor, graphics and media performance.
Intel sees the new processors as not only the way to faster, lighter, thinner cooler and more secure Ultrabooks, but also as a means of opening the door to a raft of new mobile designs and interactive softwares. One idea that Intel is actively promoting is to make its Ultrabooks into highly interactive platforms with advanced senses that allow for more intuitive, natural interactions between computer and user.

As part of this effort, Intel will release its Intel Perceptual Computing Software Development Kit beta to developers early next year. The idea behind perceptual computing is to provide the Ultrabook with human-like senses to allow the computer to perceive the user's intentions. Key to this is Intel’s Creative camera, which is a screen-mounted system that includes a low-power HD 760p image sensor designed to work at close range, along with a 3D depth array and dual microphone array.
With the Creative camera, Intel hopes that software developers will come up with advanced applications to enhance user interactions. One area is speech recognition, which Intel wants to move beyond today’s "barking orders" stage to more natural functions, such as real-time language translation. Another is facial analysis for facial recognition, determining a user’s age and gender, facial tracking and even something as simple as knowing when the user is smiling or not.

Other uses for perceptual computing involve giving users a virtual interface. By providing the Ultrabook with close-range tracking, users can reach out and manipulate objects on screen or control applications by simple gestures. Related to this is 2D/3D tracking that will allow user images to blend into the action on the screen. As the computer tracks the user’s hands or facial features, it will be possible for users to go beyond manipulating objects to doing things like trying on glasses in a virtual environment.

These are still more wish list than reality, but if you should someday see someone in the coffee shop gesturing wildly at their laptop, keep in mind that they aren’t raving mad.