Technology Trends

If you visit the Lights of Liberty Show in Philadelphia, you will not have to pay the $17.76 entrance fee to speak with a virtual Ben Franklin because his ghost is located in the free visitors area. There, you’ll be able to choose from a list of 160 prepared questions or type your own request. And Ben’s image will appear to float in front of you, like a ghost. But don’t worry! In fact, you’ll see a video of Ralph Archibald, an actor who has been portraying Franklin for more than 25 years. And Ben’s ghost will give you the most appropriate of about 800 possible answers from its own database using a technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University and already in use by some medical firms online.

So here are the facts about this exhibit.

An exhibit developed by the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and now open in Philadelphia at least gives the illusion that the founding father can still keep up his end of a conversation.

Called “Ben Franklin’s Ghost,” it is open across the street from Independence Hall in the visitors center for the Lights of Liberty Show, a sound-and-light walking tour after dark through Independence National Historical Park.

How does this work?

Using a Carnegie Mellon-patented technology called Synthetic Interview, visitors can ask questions of Franklin, either by choosing from 160 prepared questions or typing in their own questions based on a list of key words.

Computer software then calls up the most appropriate of about 800 possible answers as performed by actor Ralph Archbald, who has portrayed Franklin in hundreds of appearances in the Philadelphia area over the past 25 years. These digitally recorded images are then displayed using a 150-year-old illusion known as Pepper’s Ghost, which makes Archbald’s image appear to float in front of the visitor like a ghost.

You might think that this technology is only useful to entertain your kids. But you’ll be wrong. This technology, invented and patented by Scott Stevens and Mike Christel is already used online.

For example, MedRespond, a technology company servicing the healthcare and medical communities, already has started to design and develop Synthetic Interviews for online interactive applications.

If you happen to see Ben Franklin’s Ghost, don’t ask him silly questions, such as what will the host city for the Olympic Games in 2012 — tip: the answer is London! Instead, please take some pictures of the ghost in the air and tell me where to find them online. Thanks.

Sources: Various news releases and web sites

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A team of researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has developed the first true, three-dimensional, holographic movies. These movies should appear on a screen near you in about a decade. For the moment, the initial markets for this holographic television system will be in medical visualization and military applications. The system is based on regular digital light processing (DLP) micro-mirror chips, but there is a twist. Instead of using regular lights, the researchers are using laser lights, which are using a unique wavelength. And they feed the chip with interferograms coming from regular 3-D imaging applications. This unique combination leads the micro-mirrors to project a 3-D moving image that appears suspended in air, like a 3-D hologram. Read more today, or wait until 2020…

Here is the introduction of the UT Southwestern Medical Center news release about this future projection system.

In a small research laboratory at UT Southwestern Medical Center, a grainy, red movie of circling fighter jets emerges from a table-top black box, while nearby, a video of a rotating human heart hangs suspended in a tank of gooey gel.

These images - the first true, three-dimensional, holographic movies - are the brainchild of Dr. Harold “Skip” Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at UT Southwestern.

Below are three images showing the — early — technology at work (Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center). You’ll find more explanations below.

So when will be able to watch holographic television in our living rooms?

“An important next step is to take our proof of principle technology that we have now and move it into a commercial entity,” said Dr. Garner. “We think the two initial markets will be in medical visualization and military applications, such as heads-up displays for helmets and military aircraft and coordinating battlefield information.”

In the long term, Dr. Garner said, entertainment uses could include 3-D multiplayer games, theme park or advertising displays, and “Holo TV.” He and his colleagues have worked with students in Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business to develop a tentative business plan that explores the possible commercialization of the technology, focusing on medical applications.

“I predict that by the year 2020, that being the year of ‘perfect vision,’ we will have Holo TV in our homes,” said Dr. Michael Huebschman, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Garner’s lab and one of the developers of the technology.

Back in 2005, the “What’s New” section of Popular Science dated June 16, 2005, carries a special report named “The Future Starts Here,” which takes “a look at five unbelievable technologies trucking toward reality” and includes a very interesting article about the “Holographic Television.”

For more technical information, you should read this page about Holographic Imaging from Skip Garner’s lab, which also has links to several video demonstrations.

Finally, you should read a paper published by Optics Express in March 2003, “Dynamic holographic 3-D image projection” (Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 437-445). Here is a link to the full paper (PDF format, 9 pages, 1.69 MB). The images above are extracted from this paper.

Sources: UT Southwestern Medical Center news release, June 14, 2005; Jonathan Keats, Popular Science, June 16, 2005; and various sites

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In “Foggy screen points the way,” Nature describes a technology invented by a Finnish company named FogScreen. But don’t let you be fooled by the name, the images are not blurry, even if the screen is made of water. You can even walk through the screen without feeling wet because the company uses ‘dry’ fog made of plain water without any chemicals added. The idea behind the technology is similar to the one used by laser shows for musical events. And the real beauty of this innovation is its ease of use. You just replace your conventional screen by a FogScreen, and you’re all set. But read more…

Here are the opening paragraphs of the article from Nature.

Forget plasma screens, here’s one made out of nothing but water. Inventors have fashioned an interactive computer display from a curtain of fog.

The FogScreen uses ceiling-mounted air jets to create a vertical, turbulence-free slice of air a few centimetres thick, into which a fine mist of water is pumped. An ordinary projector can be used to display images on the resulting wall of fog.

And you can even click on this wall of fog.

When the projector is hooked up to a normal computer, the FogScreen can function much like the large display from a desktop in a lecture theatre. But, with the help of a laser-scanning system, the FogScreen also allows users to click on the watery screen itself.

Poke a finger at the screen, and the laser beams scanning the surface of the fog are interrupted, allowing the system to detect where you have ‘clicked’.

Below is a photograph showing how a FogScreen could be used during a trade show or a cultural event (Credit: FogScreen Inc.)

Here is a link to a larger version of this image (579 KB).

Nature adds that these screens are based on simple technologies.

It looks high-tech, but the FogScreen relies on fairly simple technologies. Ceiling-mounted blowers create vertical sheets of non-turbulent air that flow side-by-side without mixing. High-frequency ultrasound vibrations vaporize water into tiny droplets that are pumped between air flows.

In this page about its technology, FogScreen adds some details — but of course, this is company literature.

The basic components of the screen are a laminar, non-turbulent airflow, and a thin fog screen (or any particles) injected into and inside a laminar flow. Created this way, the fog screen is an internal part of the laminar airflow, and remains thin, crisp, and protected from turbulence.

The fog is made within the device using water and ultrasonic waves. If you hold your hands in the fog flow, the fog feels dry and cool, and your hands do not get wet.

After the screen is formed, images can be projected onto it. The screen can be translucent or fully opaque.

And with two projectors, you can project different images on both sides of the screen.

The technology behind the FogScreen products has received the U.S. patent number 6,819,487 in November 2004 under the name “Method and apparatus for forming a projection screen or a projection volume.”

Finally, in “Click on air!,” innovations report, from Germany, describes what you would experience at a car show if an automotive company used such a display.

Imagine a stand at a motor show featuring a new convertible. There’s a screen ‘hanging in the air’ with everything you expect on your PC desktop. You can click your way through all the new features of the car just by pointing your finger, and when you’re done you can walk through the screen and on to the next stand.

A last note: I’ve never seen these displays in action. So if you read this note and have already walked through a FogScreen, please leave your comments below. Anyway, tt looks like serious fun technology.

Sources: Michael Hopkin, Nature, June 10, 2005; and various websites

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How do we use our eyes in our daily lives? What are we watching when we drive a car, walk in the woods or wash our hands? Until recently, visual perception research took place only in laboratories and was concentrated on the mechanics of visual perception, and not at the actual process. But now, Jeff Pelz, a researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), has developed several new portable eye-tracking devices. RIT says “he’s taking eye-tracking research to next level.” Today, Pelz is working on how deaf students process information in the classroom or how the human eye perceives high-speed motion on large-scale LCD monitors. I’ve assembled a photo gallery for you about this research. Read more…

First, here is the introduction of the RIT news release.

How do we use our eyes to perceive the world? Could eye movements be windows into human cognition?

Scientist Jeff Pelz thinks so. The director of the Visual Perception Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology studies the link between eye movements and cognition. His latest research, in collaboration with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), focuses on how deaf students process information in the classroom. Another project tracks how the human eye perceives high-speed motion on large-scale LCD monitors for Sharp Research Laboratory of America.

Here are some details about these portable eyetracking systems.

“The system we’ve developed at RIT is unique in its ability to automatically monitor even complex tasks in a large range of environments,” Pelz says. “We can study students in a classroom or people finding their way in the woods.”

The wearable eye tracker extends the laboratory to the real world by recording what people look at and how their eyes move as they perform a specified task, such as attending to a lecture in a classroom, driving a car, walking or playing racquetball. In other words, the device tracks how eye movements support perception and what people pay attention to in order to gather the information they need to perform everyday activities.

Two eye-tracking models unique to RIT have different capabilities: one performs on-line processing in real time within any indoor setting outside the laboratory; the second model fits neatly in a backpack and can be worn anywhere, even outside. The latter model trades real-time capability for lightness; data recorded outside is later processed in the lab.

And now, let’s look at images.

The two pictures above show the 3rd-generation wearable eyetracker and backpack on the left, and the headgear on the right (Credit: RIT, from this eyetracking page).

The images above shows more details about the eyetracker headgear. On the left, you can see that the module above the headband contains the IR illuminator and eye camera, while the visor and scene camera are visible on the right (Credit: RIT).

These pictures, and the ones below, come from this technical paper, “Portable Eyetracking: A Study of Natural Eye Movements” (PDF format, 17 pages, 311 KB).

The sequence of images above shows how a user of this wearable eyetracking system looked while he was washing his hands. Here are the actions he performed in less than 4 seconds: “a) initial fixation on sink, b) ‘preview’ fixation on soap dispenser, c) wetting hands,d) ‘guiding’ fixation on soap dispenser, e) reaching toward soap dispenser, f) contact soap dispenser” (Credit: RIT).

Finally, here is the “Pioneer 50″ plasma display used with the integrated head and eye system for image display during experiments.”

Fascinating study if you ask me…

Sources: Rochester Institute of Technology news release, March 23, 2005; and various pages at its Visual Perception Laboratory

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Researchers at the University of Buffalo (UB) are producing immersive virtual reality (VR) dramas in which the users are given some goals at the beginning and are interacting with ’self-aware’ computational agents. The UB Reporter writes that they are putting a new face on ‘user-friendly’ VR environments. They already created a psychodrama called “The Trial The Trail” in which “the user is given two companions named Filopat and Patofil and told that at the end of her experience she will get her heart’s desire.” And because the software agents are continuously improving and ‘improvising’ around human users, the show is different every time. I don’t know if this will lead to some mainstream application, but I’m sure that the researchers had lots of fun in their CAVEs-like systems.

Here is the introduction from the UB Reporter.

A virtual-reality drama by UB researchers — aimed at transforming the movie-going experience — is driving the development of increasingly “self-aware” computational agents that are able to improvise responses to the spontaneous actions of human users.

These improvisational computer agents are expected to influence the development of electronic devices of tomorrow, making them much more user-friendly because they will be able to respond to the idiosyncratic needs of each user.

Here are more explanations.

By necessity, said professor Stuart C. Shapiro, those characters are computational agents that must be capable of behaving in sophisticated and very human-like ways, attributes that also can help take “user-friendliness” for computers and other electronic devices to new heights.

“This is a step in the design and implementation of computer agents that are aware of themselves and their actions, as well as the environment they are in,” he explained, “so this work is relevant to any application in which people interact with a device or system.”

You also can see a video clip of “The Trial The Trail” project (54.7 MB, so be cautious).

And here are some of the reasons why this project is pretty unusual.

While other computer scientists are exploring multiple agent systems, he continued, this project is more demanding because the agents in the drama must be able to “perceive” themselves and then respond to the user.

So, as the human user proceeds through the drama, his or her actions are being recorded computationally over the Internet, interpreted psychologically and used to prompt the responses by the virtual characters.

Because of this, the drama is different every time, a factor that the researchers say is both a more challenging and exciting type of entertainment, while also more computationally demanding.

For more technical information, you can read this technical paper published in 2004 under the title “Psycho-Drama in VR” (PDF format, 12 pages, 220 KB). The above illustrations were extracted from this paper.

Will this research effort lead to something useful? I’ve no idea, but I’m sure I would have like to be involved in this project if my hometown was Buffalo instead of Paris.

Source: Ellen Goldbaum, The University of Buffalo Reporter, March 3, 2005, Volume 36, Number 24

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The ‘real’ booth of the Fraunhofer Institute at the upcoming CeBIT 2005 will feature a brand new and unusual ‘virtual’ reality system. Instead of being surrounded by images, you’ll play with the VR Object Display, a two meters tall cylindrical column with a diameter of 1.6 meters, which has been specifically designed for advertising, trade shows and presentations. The system includes eight off-the-shelf projectors and four mirrors in the lower portion of the column, and is controlled by 5 PCs using a special calibration software. The semitransparent viewing surface for the pictures is wrapped around the upper section of the column. You’ll be able to interact with cars or buildings that don’t exist yet like if they were holograms. It really looks as an impressive step in virtual reality technology. But read more…

Let’s start with one quote from Ivo Haulsen, a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST.

“We have brought technology out of the darkness of the projection room. When modeling virtual objects, designers, architects and engineers will no longer be surrounded by three-dimensional images as before — they can now install a true-to-life simulation in the display column, walk around it and work on it. This gives the impression that the object they are working on is a hologram,” said Haulsen.

Here is how the system works.

The new high-tech column is two meters tall, with a diameter of 1.6 meters. Examples of what the versatile virtual showcase can do include displaying cars that do not exist yet at trade fairs, showing movie trailers or sets from a stage production in cinema and theater foyers, or reproducing an antique vase for an exhibition. Moving images in luminescent colors grab the attention of passers-by, inviting them to immerse themselves in a world of color — but not by vanishing through a hidden door in the display column, à la Orson Welles in the film classic “The Third Man.”

The innards of the column comprise a combination of proven technology elements: eight off-the-shelf projectors and four mirrors are installed in the lower portion of the column to provide the rear-projection image. The semitransparent viewing surface for the pictures is wrapped around the upper section of the column. The column is controlled by five standard computers using sophisticated calibration software.

Finally, here are some quotes about the past and the future of virtual reality.

“We have now succeeded in projecting the image all the way around the entire column. Original three-dimensional Cave presentations were composed of projections on flat surfaces — in this case, the light is projected onto the walls of the walk-through high-tech cube. In the next step, we were able to cast distortion-free images onto curved surfaces.”

“Projecting onto semicircular screens, for example, produces skewed images, which we straighten back into shape using special software,” says Haulsen, describing the development timeline. An automatic calibration system calculates and corrects distortions in the 360-degree projection, and quickly and precisely puts the pictures back together. Irregular coloring, brightness, unwanted overlaps and tedious fine adjustments are also things of the past.

The Fraunhofer scientists are continuing to develop the technology for multipurpose projection screens in different shapes. It seems there are no limits to what customers can ask for.

I would like to conclude this post with three observations.

In ‘traditional’ — read ‘cubic’ — virtual reality environments, the problems associated with coloring and calibration are hard to solve. If the researchers at FIRST have found solutions for such a new environment, it’s really a breakthrough.

And if they want to invite me to the next CeBIT, which will be held from March 10 to 16 in Hannover, Germany, I’ll be glad to accept.

Finally, if you want more information, here is the VR Object Display page describing the project, its roots and its future.

Sources: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft news release, February 24, 2005; and various pages at the Fraunhofer Institute

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The Korea Times reports that “science fiction becomes reality with a new holograph machine.” In fact, the devices developed by IO₂Technology look impressive. The Heliodisplay, which is about the size of a PC, is fed with images, swallows air and ‘modifies’ it. When the ‘altered’ — but harmless — air is ejected, it is illuminated to produce a continuous flow of 2D images. A first version, which can project floated images of 22 inches (55 centimeters) in the air, costs $18,600 — including $9,000 payable in advance. Even if I agree with the writer of the story that this is an interesting new technology with many possible applications, it’s interesting that the company itself says that “although the Heliodisplay uses lasers, the images are not holographic.” Read more…

Here are two short paragraphs from the Korea Times story.

Developed by Chad Dyner at IO2, the surprisingly compact Heliodisplay, which is about the size of an average PC case laid on its side (and only a bit noisier), is said to intake air, ‘alter’ it, then expel it and use lasers to project the image onto the ’still invisible’ conditioned air.

For obvious reasons, IO2 isn’t revealing how it modifies the air, but say that its perfectly safe. The machine could run all day in a sealed room and the air would still be breathable. Some have speculated that the secret may lie in ionization.

IO₂Technology describes how the Heliodisplay works on this page.

Air comes into the device, is modified then ejected and illuminated to produce the image. Nothing is added to the air so there isn`t any harmful gas or liquid emitted from the device, and nothing needs to be refilled. Operating the device will not change a room`s environment, air quality or other conditions. If a Heliodisplay were left running for a week in a hermetically sealed room, the only change to the room`s environment would be from the electricity used to run the device.

Floating images can easily be viewed in an office environment, for a presentation for example. As you can see below, the Heliodisplay is pretty small.

Here is a link to a larger version of this prototype. And you can see other images and videos on this page.

IO2 says it has built devices able to project images ranging from from 12 to 105 centimeters. You can check all the specifications for a model able to project 55 centimeters — and even buy one — on this page.

For almost $20K, it’s probably too expensive right now, except for uses in trade shows or museums. But if prices go down rapidly, which is almost a rule with this kind of technology, you might soon see one displaying a sales presentation in your company.

Sources: Peter Stephenson, The Korea Times, January 31, 2005; IO₂Technology website

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It’s not the first time I’m telling you about pocket projectors (check here for example). But now, a small UK company, Light Blue Optics, has developed an holographic projector so small that it could be integrated into your laptop or even your cell phone. In “Holographic projector for your future PDA,” PDA Live.com writes that the holographic laser technology used by the company relies on very few components, meaning these future projectors should be cheap to produce. The company says these projectors should be on the market in the next two to four years. Read more…

Here are the key excerpts from the article.

The company’s new technology requires only a very few components, which means the projector can be made relatively cheap and very small, so that it could be integrated any portable device. The company also created as special chip that is capable of generating and displaying high quality holograms at video frame rates.

How does it work? A hologram pattern, which to the naked eye looks like a collection of random dots, is displayed on a small liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) microdisplay - a tiny, very fast liquid crystal display built on top of a chip. The hologram patterns are calculated by Light Blue Optics’ proprietary “hologram chip” so that when the microdisplay is illuminated by laser light, the light interferes with itself in a complex manner through the physical process of diffraction which, when carefully controlled, results in the formation of a large, high quality projected image on, for example, a screen or a wall.

The company showed a working prototype at St John’s Innovation Press Day in Cambridge, UK, in November 2004. It also issued this press release.

And when will products be in the shops? The company answers.

At present, Light Blue Optics has a lab-based demonstrator, which converts a standard composite video signal into high-quality 2D holographic video, in real time. The hologram generation engine runs in a commercially available FPGA (field-programmable gate array) chip, whose design extends naturally to cheap mass production. Other processing platforms including low-power digital signal processing (DSP) ICs are also under development.

Light Blue Optics is working with several strategic partners to further develop this technology into real products. It is envisaged that devices based on this technology will be in the shops in the next two to four years.

I can’t wait for Christmas 2006.

Source: PDA Live.com, December 27, 2004; and various websites

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The vast majority of us is used to interact with 2D objects, such as a computer screen. But how do you deal with a volumetric display, such as an architectural model? In this short article, “Gestures control true 3D display,” Technology Research News (TRN) writes that researchers from the University of Toronto have devised a method which involves a multi-finger gestural interaction with the 3D display. The users, who carry ‘markers’ on their fingers which are tracked by cameras, can pick, manipulate or control objects existing in the 3D environment. As the TRN article was only wetting my appetite, I’ve done my own research on the subject. And among other facts, I discovered that these computer scientists won the Best Paper Award at the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST 2004). Read more…

Here is what says TRN.

Researchers from the University of Toronto have put together a system that allows for direct gestural interaction with virtual objects contained in a volumetric display.

The researchers’ method involves using fingers to gesture in the space around and on the surface of the volumetric display. The user’s finger positions and postures are tracked by a set of four cameras.

The interface includes two-dimensional menus projected on the surface of the display and a browser for selecting three-dimensional objects used to construct models. The browser uses a grid that contains three-dimensional images of objects like cubes, spheres and pyramids.

Using finger gestures, users can point at objects, make gestures to trigger commands, and manipulate three-dimensional models projected in the display, including moving, rotating and resizing the models or portions of the models.

It’s time to look at pictures, which will explain better the concept.

This research work, from Tovi Grossman, Daniel Wigdor, and Ravin Balakrishnan, has been presented at the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST 2004), which was held in Santa Fe in October 2004.

Here are two links to the Proceedings of this conference and to the abstract of the researchers’ paper,”Multi-finger gestural interaction with 3d volumetric displays.”

Volumetric displays provide interesting opportunities and challenges for 3D interaction and visualization, particularly when used in a highly interactive manner. We explore this area through the design and implementation of techniques for interactive direct manipulation of objects with a 3D volumetric display. Motion tracking of the user’s fingers provides for direct gestural interaction with the virtual objects, through manipulations on and around the display’s hemispheric enclosure. Our techniques leverage the unique features of volumetric displays, including a 360° viewing volume that enables manipulation from any viewpoint around the display, as well as natural and accurate perception of true depth information in the displayed 3D scene. We demonstrate our techniques within a prototype 3D geometric model building application.

Here is a link to the full paper (PDF format, 10 pages, 4.77 MB)

For even more information, you should check the University of Toronto’s Dynamic Graphics Project.

Sources: Technology Research News, December 29, 2004/January 5, 2005; and various websites

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A flexible image scanner that you could roll up and carry in your pocket along with your cell phone will soon help you to capture an accurate image of a curved surface such as the label on the wine bottle you just shared with friends. In “Flexible scanner works on curved surfaces,” New Scientist writes that a recently introduced prototype weighs less than 1 gram. Its dimensions are 50 by 50 millimeters and it’s only 0.4 millimeter thick. You connect it to your phone, which acts both as a power provider and as a display. So far, this flexible scanner can only capture images of its own size and has only a resolution of 36 dots per inch. But more advanced scanners should be on the market within three years, with better resolutions and in various sizes. The Japanese inventors say that a 7-centimeter-square scanner should cost about $10. Read more…

Here is the description of this flexible scanner by New Scientist.

The new device, developed in Japan by electrical engineer Takao Someya and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, comprises a polymer matrix in which thousands of light-sensitive plastic photodiodes have been deposited 700 micrometres apart beneath a grid of plastic transistors.

Each photodiode produces a current in response to light input, which its accompanying transistor stores as a charge. This can then be read into the memory of a mobile phone and converted into an image.

To use the sheet image scanner, it has to be placed on the area of interest, such as a bottle or an open book. It can only capture the image it covers; it cannot be swiped across it like an office hand scanner.

The above images were also shown in “Flexible image scanner,” published by ElectronicsWeekly.com, which adds a few details about the resolution of the device.

Each pixel in the device consists of an organic transistor and organic photodetector with an effective sensing area of 50×50µm and the 0.4mm thick imager has a 50×50mm sensing area and resolution of 36 dots per inch (dpi) “with the potential to go up to 250 dpi”, said Someya.

In this other article, “Image scanner fits in a pocket,” optics.org brings additional information.

The device consists of a polymer laminate sheet containing a two-dimensional array of light sensor cells, each featuring an organic transistor and an organic photodiode.

Unlike conventional image scanners which mechanically scan a linear array of photodetectors over an object, the new Japanese design does not require any moving parts or internal optics to capture an image. Instead, the sheet is simply placed over the target object in ambient light conditions and the transistors are probed to reveal to the light intensity of each photodetector. Each sensor cell is also covered with an opaque light shield to prevent incident light from above distorting the signal generated by the object below.

Someya’s current prototype has an effective sensing area of 2×2 inches and is just 0.4 mm thick and 1 g in weight. It features an array of 72×72 (5184) sensor cells, each 700 µm in size, giving a scan resolution of 36 dpi.

This flexible scanner was recently introduced during a presentation at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2004), which was held in December in San Francisco. Here is a link to the press kit for this organic sheet-image scanner.

For more information, you can visit the Takao Someya Group website, which contains an abstract of the IEDM presentation.

A large-area, flexible, and lightweight sheet image scanner has been successfully manufactured on a plastic film, for the first time, integrating high-quality organic transistors and organic photodetectors. Since this area-type image-capturing device does not require any optics or any mechanical scanning devices, it is innovatively light to carry, shock-resistant and potentially inexpensive to manufacture.

Finally, I already mentioned here a previous work from the Takao Someya Group, “Flexible Sensors Make Robot Skin.”

Sources: Celeste Biever, New Scientist, December 23, 2004; Steve Bush, ElectronicsWeekly.com, December 14, 2004; Oliver Graydon, optics.org, December 22, 2004; and various websites

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The holiday season is coming, and you’ve probably already bought some lights and decorations for your Christmas tree, your house or even your street. But did you know that the market for light bulbs is a $12 to $15 billion one? Now, several companies making light-emitting diodes (LEDs) want a piece of this market, claiming that LEDs are more efficient than light bulbs and could save a staggering $17 billion a year in energy costs. In “Switching off bulbs for LEDs,” the San Jose Mercury News reports that in ten years, you’ll go to your Wal-Mart store to buy LEDs instead of light bulbs, thanks to fantastic improvements in performance by the LED industry. And did you know that each decade since the first LED appeared in 1962, prices have fallen by a factor of 10 while performance has grown by a factor of 20? In the world of LED engineers, this is known as Haitz’s Law, named after retired Agilent scientist Roland Haitz. Read more…

Here are the opening paragraphs of the Mercury News article.

How many engineers does it take to permanently unscrew a light bulb? At San Jose’s Lumileds Lighting, the answer is hundreds.

Lumileds, a joint venture of Agilent and Philips Electronics, makes semiconductor chips known as light-emitting diodes. LEDs are found everywhere, from the tiny flashes on digital cameras to the blue lights that illuminate the Arc d’ Triomphe in Paris at night. And if all goes right, Lumileds will one day see its LEDs replace the common light bulb.

Federal studies estimate that replacing light bulbs with white LEDs could save $17 billion a year in energy costs, or the equivalent of 30 power plants. That could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 155 million tons annually.

LEDs consume less power, don’t use harmful pollutants such as mercury and last 10 times longer than conventional lights. They cost more at the outset, but over time they save money in electrical bills and maintenance.

I’m sure you’re a bit skeptical here. But as you can see below, this technology can be used in extremely different environments. Both images come from this image gallery.

The article then describes the history of the LED industry in a very informative way, including the extraordinary gains in performance during the last 40 years.

Each decade, LED prices have fallen by a factor of 10 while performance has grown by a factor of 20. This phenomenon, known as Haitz’s Law after former Agilent scientist Roland Haitz, is the LED equivalent of Moore’s Law in the chip industry, which holds that chip performance doubles every 18 months.

The image above comes from “Powering Next-Generation Solid-State Lighting,” an article published on May 1, 2004 by Paul Greenland and Werner Berns, from National Semiconductor Corp. in Power Electronics.

But will we switch to LEDs in our houses? Right now, they’re still too expensive for the home market and are not bright enough. This could change in ten years if Haitz’s Law continues to be valid.

Anyway, the LED market for illuminations is already a big one.

The high-brightness LED market is expected to grow from $2.7 billion in 2003 to $6 billion in 2008, according to market researcher Strategies Unlimited in Mountain View. About 50 percent of the market consists of cell phones and other mobile devices. About 18 percent is automotive, while outdoor signs account for 23 percent of the market. Illumination, for now, is a scant 5 percent of the market, said Bob Steele, an analyst at Strategies Unlimited. “LEDs are chasing after a $12 billion to $15 billion light bulb market,” he said.

Sources: Dean Takahashi, San Jose Mercury News, December 6, 2004; and various web sites

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As the recent release of the last Top500 list reminded us last month, the most powerful computers now are reaching speeds of dozens of teraflops. When these machines run a nuclear simulation or a global climate model for days or weeks, they produce datasets of tens of terabytes. How to visualize, analyze and understand such massive amounts of data? The answer is now obvious: using Linux clusters. In this very long article, “From Seeing to Understanding,” Science & Technology Review looks at the technologies used at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), which will host the IBM’s BlueGene/L next year. Visualization will be handled by a 128- or 256-node Linux cluster. Each node contains two processors sharing one graphic card. Meanwhile, the EVEREST built by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has a 35 million pixels screen piloted by a 14-node dual Opteron cluster sending images to 27 projectors. Now that Linux superclusters have almost swallowed the high-end scientific computing market, they’re building momentum in the high-end visualization one. Read more…

Let’s start with ORNL’s EVEREST.

ORNL’s EVEREST is a large-scale immersive venue for data exploration and analysis. Its screen is 30′ wide by 8′ high — comparable in size to 150 standard computer displays — and has a resolution of over 11 thousand by 3 thousand pixels, creating a total pixel space of 35 million pixels.

Below is an early version of this visualization environment. “A nanotechnology application is on the big screen, with GIS and Astrophysics on the desktops.” (Credit: ORNL)

“Visualizing and sifting through the incredible amount of information generated from massively parallel computer simulations is similar to trying to find a diamond in the desert,” said George Fann of ORNL’s Computer Science and Mathematics Division.

The power wall, dubbed EVEREST, changes that and provides a rich visual interactive experience and a highly collaborative environment for scientists to analyze their data. EVEREST makes use of commercial graphics and entertainment technologies and off-the-shelf dual-processor personal computers connected by a high-speed network to drive 27 projectors.

This is the third Linux cluster deployed at ORNL to manage the large display environments.

Now, let’s turn to LLNL. The article about the visualization efforts there is 9-page long and contains entire sections devoted to visualization advances in recent years or how the visualization process has been transformed with the arrival of powerful graphical processing unit (GPU)-equipped graphics cards.

Please read the whole article to learn more about these subjects. Here, I’ll focus only on the hardware part of the project.

Below is a powerwall in Livermore’s new Terascale Simulation Facility. “Powerwalls work by aggregating, or ’tiling,’ the separate images from many projectors (right) to create one seamless image.” (Credit: LLNL)

And here is the history of Linux clusters used for visualization at LLNL.

The first Linux visualization cluster deployed at Livermore was the Production Visualization Cluster (PVC). PVC was designed to support unclassified applications on the 11.2-teraops Multiprogrammatic Capability Resource (MCR) machine and is being expanded to support the 22.9-teraops Thunder cluster supercomputer. With 64 nodes, each consisting of two processors and a graphics card, PVC went online in 2002.

By all measures, PVC has been highly successful. It is handling data sets of 23 terabytes to create animations involving 1 billion atoms. PVC generates these animations in about one-tenth the time and at one-fifth the cost of proprietary visualization engines, while simultaneously driving high-resolution displays in conference rooms and on powerwalls.

“PVC is our model for classified ASC [Advanced Simulation and Computing program] visualization engines,” says computer scientist and VIEWS [Visual Interactive Environment for Weapons Simulation] program leader Steve Louis. The VIEWS team is preparing to deploy gViz, a 64-node cluster designed to support White, with each node consisting of two processors running at 3 gigahertz and sharing one graphics card. Similar clusters are planned to support Purple and BlueGene/L.

One important advantage of Linux cluster visualization engines is that clusters can be expanded easily. PVC is being tripled in size to support the unclassified demands brought on by Thunder. Similarly, gViz2 is a planned expansion of gViz to either 128 or 256 nodes.

The article also describes how all applications have been rewritten to run on the Linux clusters. Here is a short quote.

The new cluster software is open source, which means that the source code — the software’s programming code — is freely available on the Internet through such organizations as SourceForge. “A benefit of this approach is that the public can use our software, make improvements, and notify us if they find any bugs,” says VIEWS visualization project leader Sean Ahern.

So what is the final verdict about these Linux clusters?

The nearly unanimous opinion about the new Linux clusters is strong approval, if not downright devotion. “Users are impressed with the clusters,” says computer scientist Hank Childs, who helps DNT physicists visualize complicated simulations on PVC for unclassified, stockpile stewardship–related work. “It’s a night-and-day difference between the clusters and the older shared-memory visualization engines. Visualization programs run 10 times faster.”

Ahern notes that the increased computational horsepower of the Linux clusters allows users to run larger simulations in the same amount of time and display simulations with greater resolution. Langer notes that the clusters are proving themselves especially adept at rotating images faster than the old machines.

And what’s next? Optimization — a word almost obsolete these days!

With plans well under way to bring gViz online and retire the old visualization engines, Louis and other VIEWS managers are looking ahead to purchasing visualization clusters to support Purple and Blue Gene/L. At the same time, computer scientists are searching for ways to make the clusters process data more efficiently. “We know we’re not yet taking full advantage of the Linux clusters, especially the graphics cards,” says Louis. GPUs are so powerful that the VIEWS team and others are exploring their potential for general-purpose computing.

The VIEWS Program (recently renamed Data and Visualization Sciences) is also seeking a hardware solution to compositing. The compositing process pieces together bits of an image, each done by a separate node, into a whole. Currently performed by software, the technique could be made faster if done by a specialized card linked to each GPU.

I sincerely hope that I didn’t take too much of your time with this post, slightly longer than usual. But I think the subject deserved it.

Sources: Arnie Heller, Science & Technology Review, December 2004; and the Visualization Task Group at ORNL

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Military forces are increasingly relying on wearable computers and other gadgetries designed by commercial companies, only slightly more ruggedized because of mission critical requirements. In this long article, Military & Aerospace Electronics gives various examples of how these wearable technologies are networking soldiers. For instance, the military version of Microvision’s Nomad helmet-mounted display delivers a virtual cockpit interface to commanders in the field. Or take Xybernaut, which is developing belt-mounted mobile and wearable computers with integrated satellite communications units allowing soldiers to export wirelessly and continuously their location. In the mean time, General Dynamics C4 Systems is building GoBook tablet computers powered by direct-liquid fuel cells which could become potential replacements for current ground air-traffic-control computers. Read more…

The original article describes other wearable technologies as well, so be sure to read it. Here I just want to focus on the Microvision’s Nomad helmet-mounted display.

In a company white paper, “Out the Hatch Situational Awareness,” Microvision officials describe how their wearable computer, Nomad, improves situational awareness for commanders in the field.

Situational awareness, the paper points out, drives the need for electronic information on opposing forces, neutrals and noncombatants, terrain maps, spot reports and messages, vehicle sensors such as driver vision enhancement and gunner displays, and “the time-tested human vision of the surrounding tactical environment.”

The Nomad helmet-mounted display enables the commander to keep his head outside the vehicle while also accessing ­vehicle displays. It provides electronic information that is visible under all lighting conditions and enables the commander/ leader to remain aware of his situation without ducking into the vehicle.

One hundred Nomad helmet-mounted display systems have been deployed in Iraq, Microvision officials say. “Feedback from the field has been overwhelmingly positive with comments like — the only problem with the Nomad is that we don’t have enough of them,” according to the company white paper.

“For the 3-20 Brigade, the Nomad Helmet Mounted Display consisted of a display module attached to the helmet, a video control module mounted to the vehicle, with a cable connected to the FBCB2 [Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade-and-Below] computer system. For the 1-25 Brigade the system has been ­upgraded to provide the ability to switch between the FBCB2, thermal weapon display, and thermal driver’s display with head-out-of-the-hatch operation. Nomad is a see-through, daylight readable display repeater in both applications.”

Don’t think it’s a huge market for commercial companies. The latest contract that Microvision got represents about $4 million. But the market is growing.

Tim Shea, senior analyst at Venture Development Corp. in Natick, Mass., says the wearable-computer market should grow to about $560 million worldwide by 2008 with government/military/homeland security applications taking up about $74 million, if the Army’s Land Warrior system is fielded by then.

“Government/military usage is primarily spread across battlefield, logistics, and vehicle/aircraft maintenance applications,” Shea says. “We’re also starting to see small transactions for wearables among first responders and other homeland security areas starting to grow.”

These technologies will not change my life, but I hope they’ll improve soldiers’ lives.

Sources: John McHale, Military & Aerospace Electronics, November 2004; and various web sites

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Flexible displays based on various forms of organic LEDs (or OLEDs) will allow us to carry roll-up TVs one day. But there are still significant hurdles, according to Electronics Weekly in “Organic LEDs are on the way.” One major obstacle is the life expectancy for such screens, still far below from the 10,000 hours limit considered to be the basis for a commercial distribution. But there is a bigger issue. On OLEDs displays, the different colors vanish at different rates. So you’ll lose blue three times before red or green. Another very long and well-documented article on displays from Military & Aerospace Electronics, “Display technology leaps to the next generation,” adds that there is still a massive $1 billion per year poured in OLED research, and that 14-inch OLED displays are already working in labs. Read more…

Before looking at these articles, here is something you might one day roll out from your pocket or your purse.

Here is how starts the Electronics Weekly article.

Imagine a TV that is not just thin like a plasma screen, but thin like a birthday card. That lives in a narrow box near the ceiling and has a string you pull to unroll it.

Something from the future?

Not in the labs, but yes for your living room. There are still some significant hurdles to overcome.

The first is display lifetime. OLED materials from all manufacturers have a life which is dependent on both how hard the display is driven, and what environment the material is operating in. A life of 10,000 hours for a display is considered commercially viable.

This may not seem much - under two years continuous use - but comparing it to the 250,000 mile life expectancy of a quality car (8,300 hours at 30mph), puts this into perspective.

But as I wrote above, there is a bigger issue.

Absolute life expectance is not actually the biggest issue with OLED as, unlike LCDs which use colour filters over identical pixels, OLEDs are vulnerable to differential aging.

“The big problem for colour is red, green and blue emitters degrade at different rates,” says Cobb. “Two years ago, one firm was getting through four displays a day on their stand at a show.” They had to swap displays as colour-shift was obvious within hours of switch-on even though the life of its weakest OLED material was rated at 2,000 hours, explains Martin Cobb of Trident Displays.

Here is another example of this differential aging problem.

Cambridge-based display technology firm CDT is developing polymer-based OLEDs which it calls PLEDs. Blue PLEDs have the shortest life on the CDT pallet.

“Blue life has increased eight or ten fold in the last 18 months,” CDT marketing manager Terry Nicklin tells Electronics Weekly. “At the May SID conference this year we showed 35,000 hours lifetime [from 100cd/m² to half brightness for blue, last month we demonstrated 70,000 hours for blue.”

These figures compare with 210,000 hours for red and 200,000 for green, he says.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics article tells us another story — but of course, military have deeper pockets than you and me.

Commercial companies are already pouring $1 billion per year into OLED research, though not necessarily for flexible displays. Companies such as Pioneer, Samsung, Philips, and Dupont are producing glass OLED displays for cell phones, says John Thomas, manager for display technology development at the General Dynamics Canada Vetronics Systems group. But those applications are just an inch or two across.

“There are 14-inch OLED displays out there, and a 12-inch from Sony, but they are just laboratory curiosities,” says Thomas. “Their problems include finite lifetime and differential degradation of materials. It’s not there yet; it’s a new technology and is immature, but it is the one to watch.”

The bottom line is the dominant position of LCDs in all display applications. CRTs are still there but shrinking fast, while OLEDs will dominate research and development for the middle future, he says.

The Army and the Navy don’t think they’ll see OLED applications before at least 2006.

For more information, please check the two articles linked above. They’re both long, but worth reading.

Sources: Steve Bush, Electronics Weekly, November 11, 2004; Ben Ames, Military & Aerospace Electronics, October, 2004

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Researchers from Seoul National University have developed a full-color autostereoscopic three-dimensional display, which can be viewed without glasses, according to this short article from Technology Research News. They used a set of six holograms to generate 3D images and video. The system, which is 60 centimeters long, generates slightly different images for the left and right eyes to produce a three-dimensional effect. Such a system could come to market within five years to be used for video broadcasting or in medical and military applications. Read more…

The autostereoscopic system consists of red, green, and blue laser diodes, a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator and a projection lens, and is 60 centimeters long. It generates slightly different images for the left and right eyes to produce the effect of natural three-dimensional vision.

Rather than three-dimensional holograms, which are difficult to calculate, the system produces two-dimensional red, green and blue holograms for each eye. These holograms are reproduced by shining a laser through a liquid-crystal display that shows the holograms’ light and dark patterns.

The researchers’ system shines red, green and blue lasers through a single liquid crystal light modulator, which switches rapidly among the six hologram patterns. The three color holograms for each eye overlap to produce a full-color image. The output is focused through a lens to direct the two images to the left and right eyes.

[Note: In the above diagram, CDC stands for "color-dispersion-compensated" and SPH for "synthetic phase hologram."]

What will be this relatively cheap system will be used for?

The three-dimensional displays could eventually be used to display any type of dynamic data for use in entertainment, art, medicine, and military applications.

[And with] a parallel processing computer system and a specialized chip, the method could be used for real-time three-dimensional broadcasting, according to the researchers.

The research work has been published by Optics Express under the long title “Full-color autostereoscopic 3D display system using color-dispersion-compensated synthetic phase holograms.”

Here are two links to the abstract and to the full paper (PDF format, 8 pages, 886 KB). The above diagrams were extracted from this paper.

Sources: Technology Research News, November 18, 2004; Optics Express, Vol. 12, No. 21, Pages 5229-5236, October 18, 2004

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