LuminAR Bulb transforms any surface into a touch screen

Welcome to the newsletter for Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for December the 10th, 2012. LuminAR Bulb transforms any surface into a touch screen We've all seen gigantic touch screens on the news or in movies, but what if you could achieve the same type of interface by simply replacing the bulb in your desk lamp? That's the idea behind the LuminAR, developed by a team led by Natan Linder at the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group. It combines a Pico-projector, camera, and wireless computer to project interactive images onto any surface - and is small enough to screw into a standard light fixture. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Azimut Grande debuts new Rolls-Royce Carbon Azipull 65C propulsion system Azimut Yachts, the Italian shipyard noted for luxury yachts, revealed its Azimut Grande 140 Trideck with a new Rolls Royce propulsion system at the 2012 Cannes Boat Show in September. With an overall length of 42 meters (138 ft) and displacement of 276 tons (280.4 tonnes), this is the largest Azimut Grande model ever built and is the first vessel to feature the Rolls Royce Carbon Azipull 65C propulsion system with fully steerable pods. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Mirrorless Camera Comparison Guide 2012 Mirrorless camera systems finally feel like they have come of age. Yes they've been knocking around for a couple of years, but over the last 12 months we've seen models which can genuinely rival DSLRs in terms of image quality and performance. While this choice is great for the camera-buying public, it also makes it even more tricky when deciding which system to invest in ... which is why we decided to compile a guide to the top mirrorless camera releases of 2012. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Hydra's immortality gene sheds light on human ageing The tiny freshwater polyp Hydra is a remarkable creature. It does not show any signs of ageing and appears to be immortal due to the fact that it contains stem cells capable of continuous proliferation. Researchers from Kiel University have examined this phenomenon and uncovered an important link to the ageing process in humans that could lead to the development of advanced rejuvenation therapies. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Review: Sony Cyber-shot RX100 Compact cameras have been struggling recently, many people choose to use a smartphone for their picture-taking requirements, while more demanding photographers opt for a mirrorless or DSLR camera. But packing a large 1-inch-type sensor into its otherwise compact body, the Sony RX100 could offer enough of a boost to image quality to justify a spot in your pocket. I spent a bit of time with the compact powerhouse to find out if it does. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Spotify doubles its paid subscriber count, adds a host of new features Music streaming service Spotify announced this week that it now has an impressive one million paid subscribers in the United States alone, a significant milestone for the company. A number of improvements to the service were also announced, including the new Discover tab and expanded social features. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Collector selling every US Super Nintendo game for $25,000 A well known collector in the video game community is putting his complete US Super Nintendo collection up for sale at an asking price of US$25,000 ... but he is accepting other offers. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Snowbull sled takes skiing lying down Traditionally the domain of small children celebrating a snow day, sledding is slowly working its way up to a serious snow sport akin to skiing. About a month ago, we covered the US$3,000 Snolo Stealth-X carbon fiber sled, and now we have another high-tech sled built for serious downhillers. The Snowbull is an Austrian-designed sled that uses high-tech components for a sharp, fast ride. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Golden Spike announces plans for commercial lunar exploration It was forty years ago this month that Apollo 17 took astronauts to the Moon for the last time. Since then, the satellite has only been visited periodically by unmanned probes, but that may change inside the next ten years. On Thursday, the day before the anniversary of Apollo 17's launch, a new company called Golden Spike announced at the National Press Club that it would be sending commercial exploration missions to the Moon within a decade with a ticket price of US$750 million. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Giving smartphones emotional intelligence It would be great if smartphones could sense moods – especially when they've dropped a call three times in five minutes. Engineers at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York have developed a prototype app that provides phones with a form of emotional intelligence that could have wide applications in phones and beyond. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Barcode Room: The Optimus Prime of apartments People living in cities are increasingly being squeezed into smaller and smaller apartments, a reality that is driving a search for new living space designs that can adapt, transform, and evolve as the needs of those residing in them dictate. Barcode Room from Japanese design company Studio_01 is an attempt at doing just that. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Suunto upgrades the Ambit GPS watch with apps A few months after launch, the Suunto Ambit GPS watch found itself in a predicament with some hard-hitting competition from the lower-priced Garmin Fenix. Not surprisingly, Suunto has been busy updating the Ambit ever since. Its official 2.0 update went live earlier this week, and brings the potential for a variety of new functions by way of apps. Your other portable electronics have apps, why not your sports watch? Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Nano-sandwich material claimed to boost solar cell efficiency by 175 percent One of the main reasons that solar cells aren't more efficient at converting sunlight into electricity is because much of that sunlight is reflected off the cell, or can't be fully absorbed by it. A new sandwich-like material created by researchers at Princeton University, however, is claimed to dramatically address that problem – by minimizing reflection and increasing absorption, it reportedly boosts the efficiency of organic solar cells by 175 percent. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Chevrolet and Michigan students team up to design new cycle for wounded veterans Chevrolet and Michigan Technological University have teamed up to build a new tricycle for wounded veterans. This new cycle is built to be race-ready, so users are still able to compete in marathons and other distance races in the most efficient way possible. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Electrolysis-based anti-biofouling system keeps hulls clean Marine biofouling is the process in which organisms such as barnacles problematically colonize underwater surfaces. When it happens to the hulls of ships, the vessels become less hydrodynamic, having to burn more fuel in order to move through the water. Although hulls can be coated with paint that kills the offending organisms, that paint also releases toxic substances into the surrounding water. Now, however, scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials have developed a more environmentally-friendly paint, that uses electrolysis to control biofouling. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile AnyGlove makes any glove touchscreen-friendly It's that time of year again, when those of us living in the higher latitudes are thwarted by our non-conductive gloves if we try to use touchscreen devices outdoors. Well, don't bin those gloves just yet – a new product by the name of AnyGlove is claimed to be able to solve the problem. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Spoutnik microwave oven has a look that's out of this world With a name and design that suggest a Space Age, Barbarella-style design, Fagor's new Spoutnik microwave could perhaps be mistaken for a cartoon-ish UFO that landed on the kitchen counter. Its bold, fun design is about more than just looks, though – it serves a functional purpose, too. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile City authorities turn to shipping containers to combat homelessness Independent schemes in the New York, USA and Brighton, UK are putting the humble shipping container to work as an effective source of low-cost housing to combat the problem of homelessness. The two schemes are poles apart in scope, and designed to address vastly differing causes of homelessness, however. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Disney World celebrates new park expansion with mechanical flying dragon At the recent grand opening for Disney World's new theme park expansion, New Fantasyland, spectators were greeted with a visit from a surprise guest: a giant, fire-breathing dragon. From the ground, onlookers watched as the mechanical beast soared through the sky, flapping its wings, roaring as it moved its head, and shooting fireworks out of its mouth. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Turn your phone into a console with PhoneJoy Play The success of the touchscreen device as a gaming platform shows that physical buttons are not required to offer a compelling user experience. Still, sometimes physical tactility and feedback would indeed be a welcome addition, and it is for just such occasions that the PhoneJoy Play has been developed, offering an adjustable gamepad which sports near-universal support for iOS, Android, and desktop computers. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Perfect optical absorber invented at Harvard University Harvard Professor of Applied Physics Federico Capasso and his collaborators have invented a nearly perfect optical absorber. By coating a piece of sapphire with an exceedingly thin (180 nm) layer of vanadium dioxide (VO2), a surface is created that absorbs 99.75 percent of infrared light with a wavelength of 11.6 micron wavelength. Such optical absorbers can be tailored to enable a wide range of applications. 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