Friday, April 13, 2007
Multi-Camera Server offers wireless vehicle tracking
If as '90s media guru Faith Popcorn once observed, we were once happy to "cocoon" in our homes and watch videos, now we are apparently in constant motion and must take our content libraries with us. With cheap multi-gigabit memory available in matchbox-sized devices, this is now entirely possible.
The happy talk among company representatives at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was that digital rights problems that might impede the acceptance of such devices have all been put to bed. Apple's iTunes proved that one can make money selling downloads, so now the studios will soon call off the law dogs, and everyone will be ecstatic, consumers and media giants alike. Never mind that hundreds of times more unauthorized content passes through peer-to-peer networks.
The portentous name for such handheld players is portable media servers, a.k.a. personal media servers, of which the Apple iPod family is only a subset of a subset. Some of these merely store music, or, less commonly video files, but others may receive FM and/or satellite radio broadcasts and GPS coordinates.
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The Tronic PMG (portable media gadget) is one of the more versatile, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS, MPEG, and a full Windows operating system. In addition, at CES Motorola and Viseon both displayed high-resolution video conferencing mobile phones, and various other phones on display could handle short video clips as well as MP3 files. Products incorporating ultra-wideband personal connectivity and digital wallets are reputedly waiting in the wings. Numerous UWB manufacturers, including Staccato, General Atomics, and Motorola, exhibited at the show.
ROBUST HANDHELDS
As recently as a year ago, the received opinion in the industry was that multi-competent handheld devices were done for, and that the future lay with limited smart phones sporting at most one or two accessories such as digital cameras or MP3 players. Now the assumption once again is that more is better.
During the show, Vodafone revealed plans for upcoming mobile content services that could exploit the capabilities of such devices. These will include full track audio downloads and "Mobisodes," short dramatic episodes specifically designed around the limitations of mobile devices. Meanwhile, Motorola Vice President Ron Garriques gave a keynote in which he spoke of "liquid media" feeds where content will automatically adapt itself to the particular device reproducing it, portable or stationary.
The proliferation of portable video players was such that, evidently, much of the industry must be convinced that mobile downloads will become the norm, to the presumed benefit of mobile carriers. But one representative of a leading chip manufacturer said on background that his company's leadership was skeptical due to the obvious difficulties of watching television while driving or even walking.
However, the growing popularity of rear-seat entertainment systems for cars suggests that a viable market could emerge for carrier-provided mobile content. Such automotive video displays were ubiquitous, with many occupying the trunks of show cars. One wonders precisely what function they actually serve.
HOME NETWORKING
The product category showcased at the previous CES, the home media server, was much less evident this year. So was the media computer, also heavily promoted last year. Sales of the latter category are increasing, if not exponentially. But media servers intended to direct multimedia streams about the residence are not finding many buyers. Perhaps the reason is that the whole concept is based upon a single centralized stack of signal sources serving an entire home, a rather dated notion when DVD players may be had for under $50.
In the meantime, manufacturers displayed numerous devices for facilitating home networks, whatever the traffic they might carry. Several prototypes of 802.11n radios capable of transporting HDTF were displayed, as were the aforementioned UWB radios and the new Powerline 2.0 equipment rated at 85mbps throughput.
In spite of the merely incremental growth in HDTV, large high-resolution video displays were still very actively promoted. Large format LCDs have improved to a startling degree. They now challenge plasma display technology, but the real news may have to do with SEDs (surface conduction electronic emitter displays), which were formerly known as FEDs (or field emissive devices).
These displays have been in development for almost two decades and utilize a type of cathode ray tube with as many cathodes as pixels and a high internal vacuum. Long considered to be potentially the most accurate video transducer (as well as being the most efficient flat panel display), SEDs or FEDs have always been prohibitively expensive to manufacture. For that reason they've been largely confined to vertical markets such as aerospace. Now Toshiba and Canon claim to have wrung the cost out.
The happy talk among company representatives at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was that digital rights problems that might impede the acceptance of such devices have all been put to bed. Apple's iTunes proved that one can make money selling downloads, so now the studios will soon call off the law dogs, and everyone will be ecstatic, consumers and media giants alike. Never mind that hundreds of times more unauthorized content passes through peer-to-peer networks.
The portentous name for such handheld players is portable media servers, a.k.a. personal media servers, of which the Apple iPod family is only a subset of a subset. Some of these merely store music, or, less commonly video files, but others may receive FM and/or satellite radio broadcasts and GPS coordinates.
Advertisement
The Tronic PMG (portable media gadget) is one of the more versatile, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS, MPEG, and a full Windows operating system. In addition, at CES Motorola and Viseon both displayed high-resolution video conferencing mobile phones, and various other phones on display could handle short video clips as well as MP3 files. Products incorporating ultra-wideband personal connectivity and digital wallets are reputedly waiting in the wings. Numerous UWB manufacturers, including Staccato, General Atomics, and Motorola, exhibited at the show.
ROBUST HANDHELDS
As recently as a year ago, the received opinion in the industry was that multi-competent handheld devices were done for, and that the future lay with limited smart phones sporting at most one or two accessories such as digital cameras or MP3 players. Now the assumption once again is that more is better.
During the show, Vodafone revealed plans for upcoming mobile content services that could exploit the capabilities of such devices. These will include full track audio downloads and "Mobisodes," short dramatic episodes specifically designed around the limitations of mobile devices. Meanwhile, Motorola Vice President Ron Garriques gave a keynote in which he spoke of "liquid media" feeds where content will automatically adapt itself to the particular device reproducing it, portable or stationary.
The proliferation of portable video players was such that, evidently, much of the industry must be convinced that mobile downloads will become the norm, to the presumed benefit of mobile carriers. But one representative of a leading chip manufacturer said on background that his company's leadership was skeptical due to the obvious difficulties of watching television while driving or even walking.
However, the growing popularity of rear-seat entertainment systems for cars suggests that a viable market could emerge for carrier-provided mobile content. Such automotive video displays were ubiquitous, with many occupying the trunks of show cars. One wonders precisely what function they actually serve.
HOME NETWORKING
The product category showcased at the previous CES, the home media server, was much less evident this year. So was the media computer, also heavily promoted last year. Sales of the latter category are increasing, if not exponentially. But media servers intended to direct multimedia streams about the residence are not finding many buyers. Perhaps the reason is that the whole concept is based upon a single centralized stack of signal sources serving an entire home, a rather dated notion when DVD players may be had for under $50.
In the meantime, manufacturers displayed numerous devices for facilitating home networks, whatever the traffic they might carry. Several prototypes of 802.11n radios capable of transporting HDTF were displayed, as were the aforementioned UWB radios and the new Powerline 2.0 equipment rated at 85mbps throughput.
In spite of the merely incremental growth in HDTV, large high-resolution video displays were still very actively promoted. Large format LCDs have improved to a startling degree. They now challenge plasma display technology, but the real news may have to do with SEDs (surface conduction electronic emitter displays), which were formerly known as FEDs (or field emissive devices).
These displays have been in development for almost two decades and utilize a type of cathode ray tube with as many cathodes as pixels and a high internal vacuum. Long considered to be potentially the most accurate video transducer (as well as being the most efficient flat panel display), SEDs or FEDs have always been prohibitively expensive to manufacture. For that reason they've been largely confined to vertical markets such as aerospace. Now Toshiba and Canon claim to have wrung the cost out.
# posted by Medical Information : 4:54 AM
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