Random Accesses

Scientists in Canada have used photonic crystals to create a novel type of flexible electronic-paper display. Unlike other such devices, the photonic-crystal display is the first with pixels that can be individually tuned to any color.

"You get much brighter and more-intense colors," says André Arsenault, a chemist at the University of Toronto and cofounder of Opalux, a Toronto-based company commercializing the photonic-crystal technology, called P-Ink.

Several companies, including MIT startup E Ink and French firm Nemoptic, have begun producing products with e-paper displays. E Ink's technology uses a process in which images are created by electrically controlling the movement of black or white particles within tiny microcapsules. Nemoptic's displays are based on twisting nematic liquid crystals. The benefit of such screens is that compared with traditional displays, they are much easier to view in bright sunlight and yet only use a fraction of the power.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19337/

HypoSurface is a unique display medium in which the surface of the display actually moves. The surface is made of small, interlocking panels that can push out or pull in to create a wide variety of shapes.

The surface behaves like a precisely controlled liquid: waves, patterns, logos, even text emerge and fade continually within its dynamic surface. The human eye is drawn to physical movement, and this gives HypoSurface a basic advantage over other display systems.

The surface of the display can be made to mimic a wide variety of disturbingly biological movements. Letters and logos march across the wall; amoebas and snakes seem to undulate just under the surface (see video)

Source: http://www.livescience.com/technology/070821_hypo_surface.html

High-definition displays are increasingly popular. More and more people are experiencing high-definition movies and television in breathtaking color and detail. But another technology, called high-dynamic range (HDR), is on the heels of high definition, and some experts think that it could be a quick successor.

Whereas high-definition displays pump out more pixels, HDR displays provide more contrast. In other words, on an HDR display, the brightest whites are hundreds of thousands of times brighter than the darkest blacks; the contrast is key to making images on such a display appear more realistic.

"A regular image just looks like a depiction of a scene," says Roland Fleming, a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Tübingin, Germany. "But high-dynamic range looks like looking through a window."

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19141/?a=f

Canadian researchers say they have developed the most detailed model of a human yet, a movable "4D" image that doctors can use to plan complex surgery or show patients what ailments look like inside their bodies.

Called Caveman, the larger-than-life computer image encompasses more than 3,000 distinct body parts, all viewed in a booth that gives the image height, width and depth, the researchers said Wednesday.

Caveman also plots the passage of time--the fourth "D."

Scientists can layer on the unique visuals of patients, such as magnetic resonance images, CAT scans and X-rays, giving physicians high-resolution views of the inner workings of the body while it appears to float within arm's reach.

Source: http://news.com.com/Researchers+show+off+virtual+human+in+4D/2100-11393_3-6186277.html

Did you know our primitive brains weren’t wired very well to read this paragraph?

Scientific research conducted by Walker Reading Technologies, a small Minnesota startup that has been studying our ability to read for the last ten years, has concluded that the natural field of focus for our eyes is circular, so our eyes view the printed page as if we’re peering through a straw.

And a very bad-behaving straw at that, because not only do our eyes feed our brain the words we’re reading, they’re also uploading characters and words from the two sentences above and below the line we’re reading.

Every time we read block text, we’re forcing our brain to a wage a constant subconscious battle with itself to filter and discard the superfluous inputs. This mental tug of war slows reading speed and diminishes comprehension.

Walker Reading Technologies’ CEO and co-founder, Randall Walker MD, believes he and his team have developed a solution with a product called Live Ink that allows online publishers to improve reading speed and comprehension. Live Ink works by analyzing written language for meaning and language structure, and then applies algorithms that reformat the text into a series of short, cascading phrases. It breaks complex syntax into simpler syntax, which makes it easier for the brain to absorb the material.

Source; http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/10/live-ink-offers-better-way-to-read-text-online/#more-10459