NASA, in conjunction with the Internet Archive, has recently launched an online image gallery.

Nasa Images

The site offers public access not only to images but also to the video and audio collections from NASA.

http://www.nasaimages.org/

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InvenSense Inc recently announced that its IDG-600 multi-axis MEMS rate gyroscope has started shipping in mass production quantities to Nintendo for its Wii MotionPlus accessory.

http://www.invensense.com/news/071508.html

The addition of this multi-axis rate gyroscpic solution to the Wii MotionPlus accessory allows for high precision 3D tracking of rapid gaming gestures. For example, the ability to throw a disc through the air and control the angle of flight is now possible.

Genyo Takeda, General Manager of Nintendo’s Integrated Research and Development Division said,

“Nintendo selected the IDG-600 for its ability to measure large dynamic motions, high shock resistance and accuracy for sensing the fast moving arm and hand motions required to support exciting new game titles.”

Other applications using this type of technology, include Image Stabilization in camera phones to improve image quality, Pedestrian Navigation devices and improved Smart User Interfaces in mobile phones and internet devices.

Equally significant is the ability for mobile phones to understand gesture-based commands that may eliminate the need for pressing buttons to navigate on screen menus or to play games. In addition, with a small twist of the hand, phone users could answer and terminate calls, scroll menus, pan documents and organize information.

Details about the company can be found at

http://www.invensense.com/

The Wii MotionPlus is an accessory for the Wii Remote (Wiimote) controller.

Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation

So it provides more accurate motion sensors?

Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play.

That’s what it sounds like.

Details are pretty sparse at the moment, more will be revealed during the Nintendo press conference at E3 …

(E3 http://www.e3expo.com/ is an annual trade show for the computer games industry taking place, this year, from July 14-17)

But I wondered where it was going to fit on the Wii Zapper?

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Gesture based controls are starting to change the way users interact with computer applications - as seen, for example, with the Wiimote a remote control used with the Wii games console.

Wouldn’t it be great if the system could detect what was happening by interpreting movement and gestures directly without  the need for any input device?

In order to do this, technology is required that can build up a 3-Dimensional picture of the scene or environment where the user is placed. Movement and gestures within this 3D enviroment can then be used by the system to determine what the user is trying to do.

The ZCam^TM is a video camera that can capture depth information (which is used to build the 3D model) along with video and is produced by 3DV Systems.

http://www.3dvsystems.com/

The technology is based on the Time of Flight principle. In this technique, 3D depth data is generated by sending pulses of infra-red light  into the scene and detecting the light reflected from the surfaces of objects in the scene. Using the time taken for a light pulse to travel to the target and back, the distance can be calculated and used to build up 3D depth information for all objects in the scene. 

The technology performs superior depth imaging (depth resolution of millimeters) in real-time (60 fps or more), using little or no CPU.

The latest ZCam^TM is based on the DeepC^TM technology which is a chipset that incoporates the sensing technology.

There are a number of related publications which describe the technology in greater detail and can be found at

http://www.3dvsystems.com/technology/tech.html

Creating an intuitive mechanism to replace the keyboard and/or mouse has been an aspiration for many people ever since Tom Cruise in “Minority Report” looked so cool moving files around with his fingers.

Perhaps this technology can be used in helping to achieve those aims.  

Firefox 3 is now available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X as a free download from

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

Lots of news reports about the release of Firefox 3.0 with apparently more than 8,000,000 downloads in the first 24 hours, and to-date the number of downloads stands at 10,557,198 (9:30 GMT)

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

With over 14,000 improvements, including the revolutionary smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under the hood work, Firefox 3 delivers the Web without compromise. It uses significantly less memory and is overall two to three times faster than Firefox 2.

First impressions

One of the things you notice right away is the Smart Location bar. As you enter your location, the system displays matching sites from your browsing history, bookmarks and tags as you type. This can make it easy to find the site you want to visit.

You can bookmark pages with a single click on the star icon in the location bar. If you return to a bookmarked page, the star icon  will illuminate to remind you it has been bookmarked. Two clicks on the icon allows you to assign tags (labels) to the page. Then you can use improved features in the new Library for managing and searching your bookmarks.

In an attempt to make your web-browsing experience safer, security has not been forgotten with extensions to the existing anti-phishing mechanisms introduced in Firefox 2, easy access to site identity information, a re-engineered Password Manager and additional security for Add-ons

One feature of the improved User Interface includes the Full Page Zoom that allows you to zoom in or out of the entire page you are viewing. Firefox will recall your zoom state the next time you visit the page.

Built on the Gecko 1.9 engine, Firefox 3.0 is 2 to 3 times faster overall than the previous version, and hundreds of memory leaks have been fixed which will help to keep memory usage under control.

See Firefox in action HERE or visit the web-site at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ to download and enjoy the Firefox 3.0 experience for yourself.

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