Plastic 3D Printer

Want to Build Something Cool? Just Hit Print: Tech News «

It sounds like something out of science fiction — and in fact some have compared it to the “replicator” on Star Trek, which could dispense any food or liquid at the press of a button — but 3-D printing is rapidly becoming a reality. It isn’t quite the same as printing with paper, of course, but the idea is the same: you feed a design in one end, and out the other end comes a 3-D version of that object. And there are signs that it is closer to becoming a part of your life, even if you don’t command a spaceship — one 3-D printer company just got $5 million in funding, and some are planning to use a similar process to make artificial limbs and possibly even entire houses.

Billboards Display Ads by Reading RFID Data in your Wallet

IBM's Digital Billboard Displays Individualized Ads By Reading the RFID Data in Your Wallet | Popular Science

Ads that Know You're Coming A "Minority Report"-like advertising system being developed at IBM would pick up data from RFID chips in your credit card or cell phone to discern personal details about you and your spending habits, allowing it to custom tailor a digital advertisement just for you. It might even call you by name.

Japanese company NEC wowed technophiles and horrified privacy advocates earlier this year with electronic billboards that use facial recognition technology to identify the age and gender of passers-by, tailoring the ads they display to fit the demographic. Now IBM researchers in the UK are taking that notion even further, taking advantage of new technologies to delve deeper into the personal data of people on the street, tailoring advertisements that can even call the subject by name.

The billboards they are developing rely on the RFID chips that are increasingly being built into credit cards and cell phones as a means of storing data that is accessible by contact-free sensors (like the "touch pay" feature on some credit and debit cards that doesn't require the user to swipe). A sensor on the billboard picks up on that RFID signal as the cardholder passes by, tapping information like name, age, gender, shopping habits, and personal preferences.

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Complex is not simple

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex | Video on TED.com

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

Cell phone that can read lips

The Mobile Phone That Could "Read Lips"

�Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a method for mobile phones to convert silent mouth movements into speech. The technology is based on the principle of electromyography, that is the acquisition and recording of electrical potentials generated by muscle activity. This muscle activity is measured in the face and converted into speech.