Future tech

Holographic 3D for mobile could become a reality

Current 3D display technology has a lot of limitations. You need to view it wearing special glasses, which can be costly or ill-fitting. With glasses-free 3D, the viewing angle can be small, meaning that if you move slightly too far to either side, the 3D image disappears.

Now, however, a team of scientists, led by David Fattal at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., claim to have created a new kind of 3D display for small screens that is both glasses-free and has a very wide viewing angle. … Read more

The 404 1,232: Where we see through your Subreddit (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- How Facebook knew a man was gay before anyone else did .

- NYC subways deploy a touch-screen network, complete with apps and Wi-Fi.

- Man who got porn site logos tattooed on his face now somehow regrets his decision.

- Lululemon pulls popular yoga pants for revealing too much.… Read more

Honda and Audi show the future of driving at Nvidia conference

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Over the past decade, new in-car electronics have helped us navigate and made more music easily available while driving. But if the work shown at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) is any indication, bigger and better changes are in store.

Among the many automotive seminars at this year's GTC, Honda showed off its development of a head-up display, while Audi discussed its initiatives to make urban driving safer.

In Honda's seminar, Victor Ng-Thow-Hing, principal scientist at the Honda Research Institute in Mountain View, Calif., showed head-up display technology that makes current production examples look … Read more

Virtual talking head expresses human emotions

With the arrival of in-car GPS units, and then Siri and its clones, products that give and receive voice commands and answers have become more common. But one problem, according to the University of Cambridge, is that disembodied digital voices can just be so darn impersonal.

So Toshiba's Cambridge Research Lab and the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering set about putting a face to the voice.

What the team ended up with looks like something straight out of the British comedy franchise "Red Dwarf" -- perhaps the ancestor to the AI with the 6000 IQ, … Read more

The 404 1,231: Where time is brain (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Check out our interview with B.O.B. and Big Boi for their new game, "Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel."

- Mico headphones let your brainwaves choose the music.

- Google Images adds filters for animated GIFs.

- Detroit doctors link garbled texting as first sign of a stroke.… Read more

The 404 1,230: Where there's nothing in the safe (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- 60,000 Redditors want to know what's in this safe.

- NYC looks to Facebook for the future of payphones.

- UD Replicas makes a replica of the most underrated accessory from "The Dark Knight."

- Samsung Galaxy Watch "definitely" coming, Samsung confirms.

- The Pebble smartwatch finally arrives on doorsteps to a chorus of approval.

- Pebble breakdown shows waterproofing makes repairs impossible.… Read more

Fujitsu tech scans your face to take your pulse

Want an instant pulse check? Look into the lens.

Fujitsu today announced a technology that can take a person's pulse in real time using the built-in camera on a smartphone, tablet, or PC.

The system reads pulses by measuring variations in the brightness of the face thought to be caused by blood flow. It requires no special hardware and can measure pulse rate in as little as 5 seconds, positioning it as a possible tool for easy self-monitoring, anytime and anywhere, without the need for a special device. It could also be used by security teams to detect people acting suspiciously in public venues such as concerts and airports, Fujitsu says. … Read more