Blu-Ray hasn’t taken off as we had originally anticipated, despite a sharp decrease in price of both units and actual discs. So can we expect 3DTV to actually take off?

Late last year, I went to the cinema to see Jackass 3D. This was to be my first ever 3D movie at a conventional cinema, and I was truly surprised at how well it worked.

Seeing an image in 3D isn’t simply looking at something in higher definition – you are actually interacting with the movie. There are segments within these 3D films which are specifically designed to make something appear to come out of the screen.

But are we really going to sit in glasses at home?

The answer is probably no. Sony and Toshiba have ploughed millions of US Dollars into researching glasses-free 3D television, with some success. Toshiba showcased the REGZA, which used 9 different perspectives and lenticular lenses to portray this 3 dimensional image.

There are a couple of drawbacks. The REGZA is only available in 12-inch and 20-inch models, which require the viewer to be sat directly in front, at a maximum distance of two and three feet away respectively. The launch, at present, is limited to Japan only, with a European and American version unlikely.

It is seen as more of a benchsetter, to which Sony showcased their 3D-glasses-free experience. This video shows that the viewer doesn’t actually need to be sat directly in front of the television set to achieve the 3D experience.

All we know so far is that consumers worldwide are considering the race for no-glasses 3D technology to be a momental one, which could be worth a small fortune to the company that cracks it first.

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Besides Facebook, WWE Entertainment decided to get involved. All of their shows in the run-up to the general elections saw WWE Superstars reminding their fans to vote on the 6th May. It’s amazing how different emerging mediums can both promote an old democratic process.

The interent hasn’t just helped in the promotion and delivery of politics. When a hung parliament was announced, a flurry of people fled to Wikipedia in an attempt to understand the situation more clearly. Twitter become overrun by hung parliament tweets, and groups began to surface on Facebook almost immediately. These new trends proved a new found interest in politics, in turn showing us how the internet and television has enabled us to explore new levels of previously unfounded politics.

So it seems that at last, modern technology has grabbed politics by the scruff of the neck and given it a good shake.

The question is…what will come out of this blatant assault on ‘old politics’ in the future?

At some point in the near future, the voting system will become predominently based online. This will make it easier to register a vote, speed results up, and allow a wider range of statistics to accompany the results.

We will also see politians taking their campaigns online. They will start sending flyers by email and creating  groups on social networking sites to declare certain policies. This shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing – Politics has needed a 21st makeover for…well, since 2000!

The 2010 General Election saw new trends emerge, and cement a place in delivering ‘new politics‘. Unfortunately, this may be the last time we see ‘old politics‘ in full swing, as technologic advances continue to restructure  the political system, as well as our understanding of politics.

The shift of how we understand politics was also seen in the recent ‘Leader’s Debate’, where all three leaders from the main parties explained their policies, before ripping each others to shreds. This was the first time such an event had taken place, and is therefore a historical moment in our political agenda.

With people now able to stream live content to handheld devices, it is almost impossible to avoid the hefty news topics of the day. Even if you aren’t watching a news broadcast or reading a newspaper, there will be someone tweeting or updating a Facebook status which clearly identifies something that has happened in the world of news.

This is the same as the development in politics. Barack Obama now has a YouTube channel which broadcasts his messages to an instant, worldwide audience. We aren’t quite seeing this in the UK yet, however a lot of people are beginning to follow senior politicians on Twitter, with every update possibly explaining what is going on within the brick walls of Parliament.

The audiences of the leaders debate showed a renewed interest in this dawning age of politics. With figures reaching as high as 9.9 million during peak times, the audience is clearly ready to listen to what the country needs. Gone is the age of leaflets making a huge difference – the main targets are now accessible through a wide range of digital mediums, including television and the Internet.

Not that this is a bad thing. The switch of news to a digital format is one that has been threatening for years, and with so many people ready to read content online, there has never been a better time to shift the focus. As well as offering the reader the same content you can read in a newspaper, offerings of videos and instant photographs makes it a lot more appealing.

One thing is for sure; the high viewing figures and record voting turn-outs it partially down to the advance of political communication through digital communication…

Ever since the iPhone came out, we’ve all been obsessed with touch-screen technology. Not that it didn’t exist before then, but it really wasn’t so much in the public eye unless you were using a commercial kiosk or something like that. Now touch-screens are everywhere, but there’s still one thing that the mouse & screen combination can do that the touchscreen never got right: hovering. You can see it in several online applications; the menu that unscrolls when you hover over it, the link that magically appears as the cursor passes over. We could never get it right on touch-screens because it’s basically a binary operation. You’re either touching it, or you’re not.

Folks over at TrueTouch have figured out a way for a screen to actually track how far away your finger is from the screen. So, if it’s close, but not touching, the screen will “see” it, and the operation will register as hovering.  I can totally see this becoming the next big thing in mobile technology. Check out the demo video over at the source article from DVICE.

SOURCE: DVICE

The most annoying things about portable devices are the batteries. For at least a few hours out of your day your phone or MP3 player needs to remain tethered to the wall or your computer to soak up precious energy. Until now…

RCA has come up with a magical new technology that literally grabs wi-fi signals out of the air and converts them into electrical energy to charge whatever device you want.  Wireless battery chargers might sound like sci-fi tech, but the RCA AirPower device is already being manufactured. Just leave this little guy, about the size of a flip phone, hanging around a wi-fi signal and it’ll juice up itself ready to spit back out that energy for your device. It takes about 5-6 hours to fully charge itself (which is about how long constant iPhone usage lasts for me) and then about the same amount of time to charge your device as if it were in a wall socket.

Eventually, wireless battery charger technology could be built into battery powered devices to give them a constant charge without the need to plug anything into anything! I don’t know about you, but I could use a bit fewer wires in my life.

Source: DVICE

With all this 3D technology that seems to be all the rage today, it’s no surprise that it seems like there are new applications for it every day. pCubee is a cube with screens for sides that display an image that is perspective corrected for the user’s position. This seems to be the same kind of technology that will be used for the Nintendo 3DS, but the difference is that the pCubee lets you look at all sides of a particular scene whereas other applications of this tech, having only one screen, will only show you a particular direction.

Beyond simple 3D games, this device could also be used for product demos and personal 3D photo displays. It’s still in the concept stages right now, but be on the look out for this and a wide range of other perspective-corrected 3D displays. Also, take a look at pCubee in action here.

Source: HCT

My least favorite thing to do every morning is wake up. Especially when a loud alarm is blaring in my ear. My first reaction is to hit it with a hammer, but I quickly realize that this will only damage the device and make me late the next morning.  My second reaction, yelling “TURN OFF THE ALARM!!” has had absolutely no effect… until now.

The Moshi Voice Activated Alarm Clock, available at ThinkGeek, takes the voice command technology that was so futuristic in the sixties (visa vi Star Trek), and rams it into a small desktop clock with pretty lights and the ability to talk back. You can access pretty much every normal function of the alarm clock by voice, including inquiring about the temperature and setting the time. The clock will talk back to you, too, giving you the time and/or temperature. All in all, this is probably the coolest alarm clock ever.

GM is reportedly working on something that has fascinated sci-fi writers for almost as long as cars themselves. The Augmented Reality Windshield will show you things you might not otherwise have been able to see. With sensors on the front of the car that detect obstructions or road lines, the windshield, being tuned the exact position of your eyes in the driver’s seat, will light up to highlight these things as you need them. It can even act as a GPS navigator right in front of you so your eyes never stray to the side and the arrows point to the actual road! When you think about it, this is really just the natural progression of technology. All the pieces are in place; it was only a matter of time before this came around. Check out this video demonstration:

Source: Mashable

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rVGqmcbMgU

A great report from CNN, reporting on some of the most interesting developments in green technology.