Imagine walking down the street and as your mobile phone rings, the name of the caller suddenly appears floating in the air in front of you. That is one of the possibilities offered by a new contact lens which incorporates electronic circuits which can create a type of heads-up display, right within the eyeball. Cellular News reports.

“Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.”

textually.org

tags:Tech news Technology

The site is still in beta, but TryPhone has quite an interesting concept going on. You may not be able to physically fondle the handset, but TryPhone grants you the online opportunity to test out the user interface on several phones.

Right now, the options are only limited to four handsets: the Apple iPhone, LG Muziq, Samsung Juke, and BlackBerry Pearl. What you get presented with is a digital representation of your chosen handset and most of the buttons are fully interactive. You can access the camera function, the music player, and so on. The interface isn’t 100% accurate, but it does come pretty close.

Oh, and before you ask, the multi-touch feature doesn’t work on the virtual iPhone at all. You can’t even flick through playlists; it’s just the “buttons” that work. Click here to try out TryPhone on your own.

mobilemag.com

tags:On the net Technology

LG and DivX today announced their partnership to enable a high-quality consumer media experience with the LG Viewty (Model: LG-KU990), a new 5.0 mega-pixel digital camera phone available from LG Mobile.

The DivX Mobile Certified LG Viewty will support DivX playback.
 

The LG Viewty enables consumers to easily playback a wide range of DivX files from the PC on the go or output to a TV monitor without converting to another format. LG Viewty has undergone a rigorous testing program as all the products that bear the DivX Certified logo do to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video creation and playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality users expect from DivX.

The super sleek and stylish LG Viewty is the first in LG’s new line of high technology handsets and boasts a number of ‘world first’ features never seen before on a mobile handset, including 120 fps video recording as well as unique camera functionality such as manual focus, image stabilizer and handwriting recognition that makes editing easy on the Viewty’s 3-inch wide LCD touch screen.

LG Viewty will go on sale from mid-October starting from Europe and on to other regions. 

phonemag.com

tags:Camera phones divX LG Technology

For those struggling to communicate with the deaf could benefit from Sisi (Say it, Sign it), a system developed as part of IBM’s Extreme Blue initiative. The Inquirer reports.

“Sisi takes input from text and then converts it into BSL (British Sign Language).

The really clever bit is that the Extreme Blue team which developed Sisi has married the conversion process to existing avatar technology.

At present the technique relies on communications with a server. It then returns the results as a video clip of the avatar signing the desired message.

Sisi would enable handset users to key a message into their mobile phones and then display the results as a video clip with the avatar signing.

At present the team see the technology as being initially taken up for voicemails and instant messaging.

In future they also hope to support other languages besides English.”

textually.org

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Leaving analysts just a little baffled, Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint has stepped down after three years of fairly successful leadership. The consensus among members of the financial community seems to be that there’s absolutely no way Flint was forced out; under his command, Sony Ericsson has seen consistent profitability and a steady increase in its market share (North America excepted, we might passive-aggressively note). The ex-prez says that he’s looking to expand his horizons after 17 years under the Sony and Sony Ericsson brands, while Sony Electronics USA chairman Hideki Komiyama has been tapped to fill the huge shoes left behind. Analysts seem pretty convinced that he’ll have a tough time doing any better than his predecessor, noting that low-end handsets seem like the next logical step to market share dominance despite the segment’s virtually nonexistent margins. Might we recommend more North American love, Komiyama-san?

[Via mocoNews]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/04/sony-ericssons-president-steps-down-apparently-on-good-terms/

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A survey about the technology people have, how they use it and what they think about it shatters assumptions and reveals where companies might be able to expand their audiences. Te WSJ reports.”The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31% are elite technology users, 20% are moderate users and the remainder has little or no use of the Internet or cellphones.

But Americans are divided within each group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data released Sunday. The high-tech elites, for instance, are almost evenly split four ways into:

– “Omnivores,” who fully embrace technology and express themselves creatively through blogs and personal Web pages.

– “Connectors,” who see the Internet and cellphones as communications tools.

– “Productivity enhancers,” who consider technology as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs and daily lives.

– “Lackluster veterans,” those who use technology frequently but aren’t thrilled by it.

… The moderate users were also evenly divided into “mobile centrics,” those who primarily use the cellphone for talking, text messaging and even games, and “connected but hassled,” those who have used technology but find it burdensome.”

textually.org

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