This is the Miselu Neiro, a "portable, net-enabled social music device" which was announced this weekend at SXSW. We were able see and handle the first-ever prototype fresh off the lab bench at theSoundCloud Open House in Austin. The app-based, Android-powered synth features a two octave velocity and pressure-sensitive keyboard, a capacitive multitouch widescreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and even a webcam. Battery life is expected to be in the five to six hour range. The laptop-sized instrument features audio I/O, MIDI I/O, two USB ports, an HDMI port and an SD card slot. It currently runs Gingerbread on a dual-core TI OMAP processor -- although those aren't the final specs.

While the silicon valley startup is mum on pricing and availability, it's teamed up with Yamaha to outfit the device with an NSX-1 DSP chip (for high-quality synthesis and effects) and with Retronyms to create a powerful suite of touch-controlled, cloud-enabled musical apps in time for launch. The instrument also includes a dock area for accessories (such as a speaker bar) and the company plans to license the interface to third-party manufacturers.

Beyond the Neiro prototype, Miselu also showcased its older, larger, proof-of-concept device (controlling Ableton Live via MIDI / OSC over WiFi) and a USB-powered digital speaker cabinet built in partnership with Onkyo that integrates Trigence's Dnote technology for high-quality audio reproduction using only 500mA of power. Check out the pictures in our gallery below, then hit the break for our hands-on video -- complete with a walkthrough by CEO Yoshinari Yoshikawa and a drum-machine demo.

 

VIA :: engadget.com

Duracell Powermat WiCC could bring wireless charging to any smartphone

Powermat may have a bright future, but the company's products to date have been expensive, slightly clunky and a generally imperfect solution for bringing wireless power to mobile devices. That could all change with WiCC. The Wireless Charging Card (WiCC) is an IEEE Power Matters Alliance (PMA) standard, with the potential to integrate Duracell Powermat technology within every mobile gadget. The incredibly thin device resembles those wafer-like SmartMedia cards once used in early digital cameras, with a similar form factor, but significantly more practicality. Each WiCC includes all the PowerMat circuitry found in the company's charging cases, while also doubling as an NFC antenna. The card's success is of course contingent on cooperation from device manufacturers, who will need to add a slim connector above the battery leads, including two for power, two for NFC and two for data -- an app will monitor charging. Powermat reps say that such a connector would cost pennies to implement, however, making it a potentially easy sell.

Powermat President Daniel Schreiber sees this as a major breakthrough for the smartphone industry, saying "we're going to do for wireless power what the memory card did for storage in mobile phones." We had a chance to take a look at a mock-up of the wireless card at MWC, which was resting just above the battery in a Samsung Galaxy S II. Because the phone's battery is slightly recessed, both the card and battery fit below the device's original backplate -- the WiCC lies flush with the phone's camera lens. Overall, we think there's some serious potential here, assuming device manufacturers are game to come on board. Still, don't expect to see these hitting stores anytime this year -- the company expects its other products to come to market long before the Wireless Charging Card. So for now, jump past the break to take a closer look, but don't make any plans to toss that power adapter just yet.

 

VIA :: http://www.engadget.com/

ALERT®PDMS | Sistema de Informação Integrado para Monitorização de Pacientes

A ALERT Life Sciences Computing  e LINCIS desenvolveram  projeto de I&DT ALERT®PDMS (patient data monitoring system) o qual pretende visualizar e arquivar dados capturados por dispositivos médicos externos em tempo real e disponibilizá-los no processo clínico eletrónico do paciente.


Visualizar e arquivar dados capturados por dispositivos médicos externos em tempo real e disponibilizá-los no processo clínico eletrónico do paciente.

Apoiado no âmbito do Programa COMPETE – Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade o projeto envolve um total de investimento elegível de 894 mil euros, correspondendo a um incentivo FEDER de 635  mil euros, o projeto  ALERT®PDMS incluí funcionalidades para registo de eventos, visualização de assessments, calculadoras, validação de dados CPOE através do sistema PDMS e reutilização dos dados para severity scores systems.

O ALERT®PDMS baseia-se na captura dos dados clínicos a partir de dispositivos médicos, e a sua visualização numa linha temporal centrada no paciente, em que o utilizador pode facilmente relacionar diferentes parâmetros e identificar causas e efeitos dessas relações.

Características do ALERT®PDMS:

- Sistema de Informação Integrado para Monitorização de Pacientes, através da integração dos dados recolhidos de forma automática e em real time dos dispositivos médicos de monitorização;

- utilização de sistema embebido para captura e tratamento de dados.

- interoperabilidade com todos os dispositivos médicos e sistemas de informação numa instituição de saúde;

- disponibilização de alarmes e dados em dispositivos moveis;

- integração de dispositivos médicos moveis (RFID/WIFI);

- método inovador na associação da identificação do paciente em relação aos equipamentos de monitorização que lhe estão associados;

- utilização de ferramentas de business intelligence para estabelecimento de diferentes tipos de estudos e correações (ex. correlação entre os sinais vitais e a medicação administrada com a indicação de resultados de exames e relaciona-los num ponto no tempo).

Em suma, o ALERT®PDMS combina informação de dispositivos médicos com o processo clínico eletrónico. Esta interação disponibiliza a informação capturada dos dispositivos médicos e correlaciona com os fatores clínicos tendo em vista a linha temporal.

VIA :: http://www.pofc.qren.pt/Media/Noticias

Cirque releases proximity sensing technology that discerns user grip and right / left hand

Cirque's latest sensor is able to distinguish between left and right hand(s) of one or more users.

Salt Lake City, Utah - February 23, 2012 – Cirque, the creator of the capacitive trackpad, has added Proximity Sensing with Grip Detection to its portfolio of sensor technologies. This technology allows a physical control to discern whether it is being approached by a user’s left or right hand and whether or not the user is gripping the control.

The ability to discern between a right and left hand allows electronics to become smarter and safer.  This technology can be used to differentiate the hands of driver and passenger (pilot and co-pilot) or the right and left hand of a single user at a smart terminal.  Automobiles with this technology will be able to deactivate functions that might be too distracting for a driver.

Grip Detection enables controls to be configured to behave differently before and after the user first touches the control.  Upon sensing touch input, these smart-controls will be able to change menus, displays, or any other configurable attribute.

"Proximity Sensing and Grip Detection allows consoles to provide more customized interaction for users," says Doug Moore, Vice President of Input Solutions. "This technology is going to make automobiles, kiosks, medical terminals and a host of other consoles easier to design and use."

A video demonstration of the Proximity Sensing with Grip Detection technology can be found onCirque's YouTube channel, or at the URL: http://youtu.be/MvDOsAttOWY.

For more information about Cirque, Proximity and Grip Sensing, and other trackpad and touchscreen solutions, please visit http://www.cirque.com/.

Cirque Corporation is the original developer of capacitive sensing technology and continues to function as a leader in a variety of markets such as notebook computers, payment, industrial, medical and consumer electronics.

VIA :: http://www.cirque.com/

Google heads-up display glasses to sell for $250 to $600 this year

They will also have a unique navigation system. “The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click,” Mr. Weintraub wrote this month. “We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.” Whether these will take off depends on a wide variety of factors: usability, style, and fleshing out exactly what such a product does — but naturally, we're as excited as anyone to try them. More on this as it develops.

The New York Times' Nick Bilton is quoting "Google employees familiar with the project" as saying that Mountain View's long-rumored skunkworks technology — heads-up glasses with integrated connectivity and navigation features — will be on sale this year. That could be construed as an aggressive-sounding schedule, but it's said that the company is looking at this more of an "experiment" than a profitable product — idea first, revenue streams later. And the price might be low enough to at least get a few techies interested: "around the price of current smartphones," Bilton says, or somewhere in the range of $250 to $600. His sources say that we can expect either 3G or 4G wireless capability, motion and GPS sensors, a camera, and an Android base powering a small display sitting close to the eye that will offer an augmented reality view of your world. Integration with Google products like Maps and Goggles is a given, needless to say.

The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.

Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.

VIA :: www.theverge.com

BMW My Remote app arrives

BMW announced that the My BMW Remote app is available for Apple iOS devices beginning today. This app allows many BMW customers to access remote features for their vehicle by using their mobile device and the power of BMW Assist. These features include remotely locking and unlocking of doors, getting the location of their parked vehicle, and sending Google Local Search results to their vehicle. Additionally, some customers will even be able to send a command to sound the horn or flash the headlights of their BMW.

Customers who have an active BMW Assist Safety Plan, a compatible vehicle, and an Apple device running iOS 4.0 or later will be able to download the app to their device starting today via the Apple iTunes store. No changes are required to their BMW. My BMW Remote operates on the customer's mobile device, sending remote commands to their BMW.

My BMW Remote includes the following functions in detail:

Vehicle Position – If the vehicle's ignition is off, and it is located within 0.6 miles (1km) of the mobile device, the current vehicle location can be displayed on a map in the mobile device:



Google Local Search - Search for local businesses, restaurants, and more on the mobile device and send the details to the vehicle:


Remote Locking & Unlocking – Customers can remotely lock or unlock their vehicles, providing peace of mind if they are unsure whether they locked the vehicle in the parking lot or if they have accidently locked keys in the vehicle :


Remote Horn and Headlights - Send a remote command to sound the horn or flash the lights of your BMW to help locate it:


The remote features available to the customer will depend on which BMW model they have.

The following vehicles will have Remote Door Lock & Unlock, Google Local Search, and Vehicle Position available:
- 1 Series, 3 Series, 5 Series, or 6 Series produced March 2008 or later
- X5 SAV or X6 SAC produced April 2008 or later
- Z4 Roadster from Model Year 2009 or later

The following vehicles will have Remote Horn and Remote Flash Headlights available, in addition to Remote Door Lock & Unlock, Google Local Search, and Vehicle Position:

- X3 SAV from Model Year 2011 or later
- 3 Series Sedan from Model Year 2012 or later
- 5 Series Gran Turismo from Model Year 2010 or later
- 5 Series Sedan from Model Year 2011 or later
- 6 Series from Model Year 2012 or later
- 7 Series from Model Year 2009 or later

VIA :: http://www.bimmerfest.com

Google Public DNS: 70 bilion request a day and counting

In December of 2009 Google launched a service that the company said would help make the web faster for everyone, called Google Public DNS.

Since Google crawls the web daily already and caches DNS information for websites in the process, it decided to provide an alternative DNS service for anyone in the world as well as lighten the load for ISPs’ DNS servers.

Over two years since its launch the service is now seeing 70B requests a day, with 70% of them coming from outside of the United States. Here’s what the company had to say about the Public DNS project today:

DNS acts like the phone book of the Internet. If you had to look up hundreds or thousands of phone numbers every day, you’d want a directory that was fast, secure and correct. That’s what Google Public DNS provides for tens of millions of people.

Google Public DNS has become particularly popular for our users internationally. Today, about 70 percent of its traffic comes from outside the U.S. We’ve maintained our strong presence in North America, South America and Europe, and beefed up our presence in Asia. We’ve also added entirely new access points to parts of the world where we previously didn’t have Google Public DNS servers, including Australia, India, Japan and Nigeria.

In addition to adding access points globally, the company has learned a thing or two about how to optimize the DNS process and continues to support the “Global Internet Speedup” initiative along with OpenDNS.

By optimizing the surfing experience for users by making sure they’re connecting to the most optimal servers for websites by location, Google hopes to make the web experience faster for everyone so that we can consume even more. While those of us who are lucky enough to have fast Internet connections at home might not care, someone who’s on a much slower connection overseas has seen the speed difference thanks to Google’s work.

VIA :: http://thenextweb.com/