elliptical

Startup to bring touchless gesture control tech to iOS

LAS VEGAS--Touchless gesture control may soon be possible on Apple's iOS devices, thanks to a startup that will be releasing a software development kit enabling the technology.

For some time, Israeli company PointGrab has been making its technology -- which allows users to control activity onscreen with little more than a wave of the hand -- available on a series of platforms, namely Windows 8, Android, and Linux. And next month, Apple's iOS will join the party.

In a demo at CES here today, Assaf Gad, PointGrab vice president of marketing and product, showed CNET how the technology … Read more

Elliptic Labs uses ultrasound for touchless gesture control

LAS VEGAS--Touch screens are so last year.

These days, touchless gesture control is the hot thing. Just last week, San Francisco startup Leap Motion, which developed a motion-control technology with sub-millimeter accuracy, announced a $30 million B round of funding. And at CES here, there are multiple companies showing off technology that lets users control their computers with little or no physical contact with a screen or a mouse.

One of them is Palo Alto, Calif.-based Elliptic Labs, which has pioneered an ultrasound-based touchless gesture control system. In a demo for CNET, Elliptic showed off its Windows 8 Gesture … Read more

Bringing 'Minority Report' touchless gestures to Windows 8

Elliptic Labs wants to bring the touchless gesture controls seen in the science-fiction film "Minority Report" to everyday consumer electronic devices, starting with Windows 8.

The company -- a Norwegian university spinout with offices in Oslo and Silicon Valley -- unveiled a set of tools to help consumer electronic companies enable touchless controls in their products. These would be similar to the kind of gesture controls seen with the Xbox 360 Kinect and in certain smart televisions like a few models from Samsung Electronics, but presumably would work more smoothly.

That's because the Elliptic device won't … Read more

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the quietest ride of all?

Ford engineers looking for ways to create a quieter cabin in the new Escape have turned to an elliptical acoustic mirror for results.

According to Ford, this is a new approach to reduce wind noise and deliver a quieter interior in a sport utility vehicle. The technology has been used by European luxury vehicle car makers, but is considered a breakthrough among U.S. manufacturers.

The mirror, which resembles a satellite dish with a microphone, measures noises on the surface of the vehicle and in the airflow. "The mirror identifies 'hot spots' where noise penetrates the interior of the … Read more

Eye drops for images

The red-eye phenomenon caused by camera flashes can ruin a good photo, but often the so-called correction offered by photo-editing tools isn't much of an improvement. We can't tell you how many times we've tried these tools and ended up with big, fake-looking black splotches where our subject's pupils are supposed to be. If you've had similar experiences, try S10 RedEyes. This simple program makes it easy to fix the dreaded red-eye and produce natural-looking results.

The program's interface is plain and easy to navigate. We checked out the program's online Help file … Read more

Workshop exposes deficiencies of electronic encryption

On Monday, Cryptography Research Inc. (CRI) opened a three-day workshop in San Francisco on the security of embedded system cryptography. The workshop is intended for developers and architects of secure embedded systems. Participants will be given smart cards and challenged to crack passwords using various demonstrated techniques.

"These are not theoretical attacks," Benjamin Jun, vice president of technology at CRI, noting that his company published the first white paper on monitoring attacks during the 1990s.

The workshop's primary focus will be on attacks to Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), a cryptographic algorithm that is now used to protect … Read more

Fitness machine gives Treo a workout

Our personal opinions about exercise notwithstanding, we grudgingly acknowledge that the convergence of consumer electronics and fitness equipment does make some sense. What better way is there, for instance, to get slovenly creatures like us onto cardio machines than games and iPods?

Yet we can't help but question the wisdom behind the "Elite Cross Trainer" from Star Trac. The main technological feature of this elliptical machine seems to be the ability to send personal fitness stats wirelessly and on the fly to a Palm device, according to Luxist. There's nothing wrong with keeping track of your … Read more

Games may finally get us to do cardio

We're convinced that the electronics industry is conspiring with our personal trainer, because he knows that built-in gadgets are the only way to get us on the cardio machines. The latest invention goes far beyond the iPod fitness equipment we mentioned earlier; this diabolical device really hits home--with games.

And we're not talking DDR either. The "ProForm 20.0 Elliptical CrossTrainer" includes a backlit console with a screen mounted right in front of your flushed face, according to Newlaunches. As if that weren't enough, additional cruelty comes in the games themselves, which the manufacturer says … Read more