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NO GLASSES, MORE PEOPLE

The dream of 3D without the help of glasses—and for more than one viewer—is now a reality. At the recent consumer trade fair IFA Berlin, researchers of Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institute showcased this new tech. An autostereoscopic—or no-glasses—3D presentation for two or more viewers requires a much greater number of views than just the two currently used in stereoscopic productions. An algorithm developed by the researchers computes and generates the missing views required for autostereoscopic viewing. This algorithm can be integrated in the hardware of the TV receiver.

GNP GIANT

“Nokia contributed a quarter of Finnish growth from 1998 to 2007, according to figures from the Research Institute of Finnish Economy. Over the same period, the mobile-phone maker’s spending on R&D made up 30 per cent of the country’s total and it generated nearly a fifth of Finland’s exports. In the decade to 2007, Nokia paid as much as 23 per cent of all Finnish corporation tax.”–The Economist

3D ON MARS

It takes 14 minutes for a signal from Earth to reach Mars. This was proving a problem for Curiosity’s controllers at NASA. By the time, they saw an obstacle ahead and steered the rover, it would be 14 minutes too late. So NASA is now using imagery captured by Curiosityand viewing it in 3D using NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses. The team in charge scrutinises the geography and plot a path of 40 m before it instructs the rover where to go and what to do.

From app to appliance

There is Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app for iOS and Android, for taking photos and posting them online. Now there will be the Instagram Socialmatic, a physical device that will not only create content for online sharing but also prints, in the trademark square format, of course.

SONY

DSC-RX100

Using the imaging features of Sony’s Alpha range of A-mount and E-mount camera families, the DSC-RX100 promises impressive picture quality and comfortable control options in a pocket-sized camera. It is also the world’s first 1.0-type Exmor CMOS sensor with a resolution of 20.2 effective megapixels. The sensor area is around four times larger than the 1/2.3-type imager in regular point-and-shoot cameras and hence captures more light for vivid and detailed images. The ultra-bright Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens with 3.6x optical zoom range and wide F1.8 maximum aperture only adds to the picture quality.

Price: ` 34,990

ASUS S & F SERIES

The new Asus S Series Ultrabooks, S56CA-XX030R and S56CA-XX056R, are aimed at the budgetconscious buyer. With options of Intel 2nd and 3rd generation iCore processors, the S series Ultrabooks will have a 15.6-inch HD LED Backlight Glare display, a hybrid SSH+HDD storage to ensure instant resume and 13 days standby power. They also sport a brushed aluminum hairline texture and have a 2.4 kg bodyweight. The F Series, meanwhile, will run on Intel’s 2nd generation processor and is being touted as a sleek laptop.

Price: S Series:` 46,999+,

F Series:` 35,999

TECHNOGYM MYWELLNESS KEY

Technogym’s Mywellness Key is a first-of-its-kind portable device that keeps an eye on your health and sets daily goals for you to stay fit. The USB-like device measures the intensity and duration of physical activity over the course of a normal day and provides immediate visual feedback. Plugged into a Technogym machine, it measures the quantity of physical exercise you do in the gym. It can also analyse your progress when you connect to .

Price on request

PORTRONICS 3D DIGITAL

PEDOMETER

For heath conscious users, Portronics has come up with a 3D digital pedometer that will keep track on your daily stepcount. Touted as being highly accurate, the device allows users to key in details such as weight and stride distance. The pedometer can count up to 1 million steps with a seven-day memory and includes a built-in clock, calendar and sports timer.

Price: `999

GOGEAR SOUNDDOT MP3 PLAYER

Refreshing its portable music player lineup, Philips has introduced a good looking MP3 player called SoundDot. The small, colourful device is comfortable to wear during everyday activity like walking, excersing, and even cleaning the house. The music player has a built-in clip for convenient and hands-free use. It also has a Fastcharge feature where a quick six-minute charge powers up the music player to last for 60 minutes.

Price: `1,599

COOLER MASTER STORM SONUZ

Cooler Master has introduced a multi-purpose headset that is designed to deliver surreal performance not only while gaming, but also when enjoying music or movies. The light-weight, stylish headset is comfortable to wear and comes with a massive 97mm plush ear-pads forcomfort during marathon gaming sessions. There is also a removable microphone. Plus, the device comes with two-year warranty.

Price: ` 6, 799

FUJIFILM X-E1

Fujifilm has unveiled another retro looking interchangeable lens camera called the X-E1. This portable model offers 16 megapixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS Sensor with a high-end OLED electronic viewfinder, built-in flash and the X mount for the Fujinon XF lens range. The OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a resolution of 2.36 million dots, one of the highest resolutions available on digital cameras now. X-E1 is avail- able in silver and black variants.

Price: ` 90,000 (fullkit)

BOSE WAVE MUSIC SYSTEM III

Bose India has launched a new music system in the Wave lineup. The Wave music system III includes an improved FM/AM tuner for clearer reception and the artistes name and song title provided by broadcasters are also on displayed on the screen. There is a touch pad integration on the top of each unit for simple on/off control or snooze. This music player integrates a slot load CD player and auxiliary input.

Price: NA