DARPA flaunts HD heat vision camera small enough to carry into battle

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/19/darpa-small-heat-vision-infrared-camera/

Thermal imaging cameras are highly useful tools for military and law enforcement types, letting them see humans inside buildings or land a helicopter in the fog. High-definition models are too heavy for servicemen to tote, however, so DARPA and a private partner have built a 1,280 x 720 LIWR (long-wave infrared) imager with pixels a mere five microns in diameter. That's smaller than infrared light's wavelength, allowing for a slighter device without giving up any resolution or sensitivity while costing much less, to boot. Researchers say that three functional prototypes have performed as well as much larger models, allowing them to see through a simulated dust storm, among other tests. If DARPA ever lets such goodies fall into civvy hands, count us in -- you can never have too much security.

Filed under: Cameras, Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Gizmag

Source: DARPA

Read More...

Summary only...

Facebook launches real-time graphs to highlight its data center efficiency

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/19/facebook-pue-real-time-charts/

Curious as to the effect that your poking wars are having on the planet? Facebook is outing power and water usage data for its Oregon and North Carolina data centers to show off its sustainability chops. The information is updated in near-real time, and the company will add its Swedish facility to the charts as soon as it's built. The stats for the Forest City, NC plant show a very efficient power usage effectiveness ratio of 1.09 -- thanks, in part, to that balmy (North) Carolina air.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

Comments

Via: GigaOm

Source: Facebook, Open Compute Project

Read More...

Summary only...

Ridiculously thin and light laptop unveiled in Taiwan: the 10.7mm, 1.9-pound Inhon Blade 13 Carbon

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/19/inhon-blade-13-carbon/

Never heard of Inhon? That might change with the Taiwanese computer maker's Blade 13 Carbon laptop, which it claims is now the world's thinnest and lightest. Tipping the scale at 870g (1.9 pounds) and 10.7mm, the company says it undercuts NEC's 12.8mm Lavie X by a whopping 2mm, while nipping the 875g LaVie Z by 5g. There are still weighty specs crammed into the package, however: a Core i5 or i7 CPU, 1080p screen, 128GB or 256GB SSD and 4GB of RAM. If you're looking for that kind of unencumbered power, the Carbon will also lighten your pocketbook to the respectable tune of $1,350, while a dialed-back 1,600 x 900 fiberglass version -- still radically lean at 12.6mm and 1,195g (2.6 pounds) -- will run a grand or so. These models will arrive in Taiwan in June, with no sign that it'll come to relieve us overburdened laptop users stateside.

Gallery: Inhon Blade 13 Carbon

Filed under: Laptops

Comments

Source: Engadget Chinese

Read More...

Summary only...

drag2share: Butt-On With the Magical Machine That Finds the Perfect Pair of Jeans

source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/vip/~3/5NQaCi3GM3M/butt+on-with-the-magical-machine-that-finds-the-perfect-pair-of-jeans

Butt-On With the Magical Machine That Finds the Perfect Pair of Jeans

Apr 18, 2013

Anyone with legs and a butt knows finding a pair of pants that fits just right is challenging. No two bodies—or jeans for that matter—are alike. But Me-Ality is a magical machine that takes just 10 seconds to tell you exactly which brands, styles, and sizes are your perfect match.

Bloomingdale's recently installed Me-Ality sizing booths in the women's denim departments of several of its locations. I made a trip up to the 59th Street store in Manhattan this morning to give the virtual tailor a try. And it might have changed my life.

Here's how it works: You stand still inside a big white, glass-windowed booth that looks like an adapted version of the elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with y! our hand s by your side. A big wand passes by you twice to collect 200,000 measurements. The booth uses light radio waves (the equivalent of 1/1000th of a phone call, says Me-Ality's PR head) to detect the moisture in your skin to sniff out your size. You don't have to strip down or wear any special suit or anything, but if you're wearing heels, you'll have to slip them off because it will throw the height detection off.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

Read More...

Summary only...

Archos dips into smartphones with the 35 Carbon, 50 Platinum and 53 Platnium

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/18/archos-dips-into-android-smartphones/

While Archos has long held dreams of expanding into smartphones, we've seen it run into its fair share of roadblocks along the way. Thanks in part to a sharpened corporate focus, that vision is at last becoming real with the company's first, honest-to-goodness smartphone range. The 35 Carbon, 50 Platinum and 53 Platinum all cater to the budget, carrier-independent crowd with common foundations of unlocked 7.2Mbps HSPA 3G, dual SIM slots (only one being 3G) and stock Android. We also see a rather skimpy 4GB of storage, although a microSD slot on each phone helps make up for the difference.

What you're mostly paying for is performance and screen size. The 35 Carbon ships with an HVGA 3.5-inch screen, a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon S1, 512MB of RAM, VGA cameras and Ice Cream Sandwich; move up to the 50 or 53 Platinum and you'll get their respective 5- and 5.3-inch qHD screens, a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front camera and Jelly Bean. No, we're not bowled over by the performance any more than you are -- but the respective contract-free prices of $100, $220 and $250 may have at least some trying Archos' first effort, even if the company's late May launch will only include Europe at first.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: Archos (1), (2), (3)

Read More...

Summary only...