transparent

A new report from Google shows a rise in government requests for user account data and content removal, including a request by one unnamed law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality--which the company refused.

The latest Google Transparency Report, released today, also shows historic traffic patterns on Google services via graphs with spikes and drops indicating outages that, in some cases, indicate attempts by governments to block access to Google or the Internet. For instance, all Google servers were inaccessible in Libya during the first six months of this year, as was YouTube in China.

But the … Read more

Like the idea of a fully transparent cell phone, e-reader, or other device?

Stanford University graduate student Yuan Yang has come up with a way to make a see-through lithium ion battery, and it could pave the way for completely see-through flexible electronics (some partially transparent gadgets already exist). Developed in conjunction with Yi Cui, a professor of photon science at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the battery would cost nearly the same as a regular battery if produced on a mass scale, the creators say.

So how does one make a see-through power source? According to Stanford News, "Yang and Cui devised a mesh-like framework for the battery electrodes, with each 'line' in the grid being approximately 35 microns wide. Light passes through the transparent gaps between the gridlines; because the individual lines are so thin, the entire meshwork area appears transparent." … Read more

Google received 14,201 requests from 25 countries for private user information in the second half of 2010, according to data released today in the company's Transparency Report.

Among the countries listed in the report, the U.S. accounted for 4,601 requests, of which Google complied with 94 percent. The U.S. had the most requests of any single country.

Other countries high on the list included Brazil with 1,804 user data requests, India with 1,699, and the U.K. with 1,162.

The search giant's Transparency Report is designed to shed light on the … Read more

A German advertising agency highlights an innovative idea from Mercedes-Benz in this Web video.

The Mercedes-Benz safety feature, "Pre-Safe," is a collision warning system that anticipates oncoming hazards.

In the ad "Transparent Walls," the Pre-Safe concept plays out more like an art installation piece than a safety feature demonstration. Transparent Walls shows what Pre-Safe would look like as seen through human eyes.

Live video is captured on the onside of a wall and projected around the corner onto another wall--making the wall look transparent. As drivers pass, they can literally see what is coming from behind … Read more

LAS VEGAS--"Flexible" isn't something you'd think you needed in a cell phone screen, but CES is all about concepts and future applications in addition to big-name product releases.

That's why we were excited to see prototypes of two Samsung displays. One is a malleable screen you can actually bend in a wave or arc. The 4.5-inch screen has an impressive WVGA (800x480 pixel) resolution that you can curve. It's also paper-thin, less than 0.3mm thick.

We may have been a bit drastic with our photo shoot (see image above,) but there … Read more

Republicans are planning to use the Internet as a sledgehammer to clobber the secretive way in which Congress has traditionally done business.

Through a set of almost-radical changes that most Americans would probably view as common sense, the incoming GOP majority is set to approve rules saying that legislation must be posted online three days before a vote and that committee amendments will also be publicly posted.

Politicians' formal votes in committees will also be disclosed, and audio and video recordings will be permanently posted "in a manner that is easily accessible to the public," according to the … Read more

In the wake of Google's censorship battles with China and other nations, the search giant has launched a new tool to reveal which governments are blocking its services or requesting information on its users.

The company's new Transparency Report breaks down the information into two sections.

The Government Requests page offers an interactive map where you can see the number of requests by each government asking Google to remove certain content from its search page, Gmail, YouTube, and other services. Google even reveals how many of those requests it's actually complied with. This page also details the … Read more

In what is--seriously--the worst-kept secret of the summer, Sony officially announced the first members of its innovative new series of cameras, the Alpha SLT-A33 and SLT-A55V, which are the first cameras to incorporate translucent mirrors. I, along with about 15 other reviewers, got a chance to shoot with the cameras--as per our policy CNET footed the bill for my trip rather than Sony--and have sample photos and some preliminary analysis of the photo and video quality and ergonomics of the cameras.

Also known as a pellicle mirror, a TM passes most of the light from the lens through a fixed semitransparent mirror, reflecting a small bit of the light upward to a separate phase-detection autofocus sensor. This is how Sony achieves the faster phase-detect continuous AF for movie capture, while most current interchangeable-lens cameras (ILCs) and dSLRs use the slower contrast AF, which is based off the imaging sensor.

One doesn't necessarily need to use a mirror to incorporate phase detection, though; for example, Fujifilm's recent F300 EXR and F800 EXR point-and-shoots use a phase-detection array layered over the image sensor. Because many older dSLR-mount lenses can only work with phase-detection AF--that's why ILC adapters for older lenses generally don't support AF--Sony's system enables autofocus when using those lenses for shooting video.

Most traditional lenses have noisy focusing and aperture activation mechanisms, however, which makes them unsuited for video AF. Sony says it focuses so quickly that the noise should be barely perceptible, and that anyway you should use one of the new dedicated microphones (models ECM-ALST1 and ECM-CG50) for better separation from the lens. I didn't get a chance to test Sony's audio claims. The quieter lens is one of the rationales behind the electromagnetic activation in the NEX series' E-mount lenses, and it's hard not to feel like Sony's entering some confusing territory by pairing its most video-oriented still camera with its old-fashioned lens system. The cameras also update to a 1200-zone metering system.

The A33 has a traditional dSLR analog, the DSLR-A560, announced at the same time, which replaces the A550 and A500. Here's Sony's current sub-$1,000 Alpha lineup:… Read more

PHILADELPHIA--There are few words in digital-media jargon that are more weighted than "transparency."

Though it was overshadowed by talk about the complexities of broadband access policy, government transparency was one of the topics highlighted in a set of "Policy Workshop" panels on Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business as part of the Supernova 2010 technology conference. But, as is one of the downsides of a 45-minute panel, the speakers were barely able to scratch the surface.

These calls to action on access and openness come at an uneasy time for Washington … Read more