Posts Tagged ‘concept’

Tempo – A Real World “Recycle Bin”

3, Sep 2007

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TEMPO is a concept design for an unique external hard drive storage device in the form of a miniature recycle bin. It is intended to protect the user from accidentally deleting files or as an external storage device. As you delete files, they are automatically moved to the TEMPO device, so that if you incidentally delete a needed file you can recover it. And as the device fills up, leds light the “can” from the bottom up, visually informing you of how much free space is available.

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As for the technical details, they are still quite sketchy. It seems that the hard drive will be 250GB in size and Bluetooth interface will be used for transferring files. The device should be compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. Maybe the only drawback in the idea will be the Bluetooth that is quite slow when transferring large amounts of data, especially when we are talking about multimedia files with sizes of hundred megabytes or even gigabytes. A 802.11g (up to 54 Mbps) or even 802.11n (up to 300Mbps) Wi-Fi connection will be much better especially considering the fact that both the PC and the Tempo should be very close in terms of distance between the two. Even a non-wireless 100Mbps or even 1 Gigabit ethernet version might be a good idea considering the need to transfer large amounts of data between the PC and the Tempo device.

Tempo is just a concept that hasn’t been technologically designed, but the idea behind it still remains quite interesting.

– For more information about the Tempo concept…

MouseField: A Simple and Versatile Input Device

29, Aug 2006

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A new simple and versatile input device called the MouseField, which enables users to control various information appliances easily without huge amount of cost. A MouseField consists of an ID recognizer and motion sensors that can detect an object and its movement after the object is placed on it. The system can interpret the user’s action as a command to control the flow of information.

Implementation of MouseField which consists of two motion sensors (taken from standard optical mouses) and an RFID reader (Texas Instruments S2000 Micro Reader) hidden under the surface. The RFID reader and the two optical mouses are connected to a PC through a USB cable, and they can detect the ID and the motion of the object put on the device. When a user puts an object with an RFID on the MouseField, it first detects what was put on the RFID reader. When the user moves or rotates the object, motion sensors detects the direction and rotation of the object.

An example of the interface where a user can enjoy music using a MouseField and CD cases which represent the music in the CD. All the music in the CD are saved in a music server, and an RFID tag is attached to each CD case. When a user places a CD case on the MouseField, a music player is displayed on the screen, shows the contents of the CD, and starts playing the music. The user can change the sound volume by rotating the CD case, and move to the next or previous music by sliding the case to the front or to the back. When the user removes the case from the MouseField, the sound stops and a screen saver is displayed placing a CD case starts playing music sliding the CD case plays the next music rotating the CD case changes the sound volume on the screen.

This is an experimental project, but the idea is very interesting.

– For more information about the MouseField project…

FRE3SPACE – A 3D Wireless Mouse

21, Aug 2006

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This is a project by three guys at the University of California: Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2005 and Winter of 2006 as part of their senior design class. The goal of FRE3SPACE was to create a wireless mouse that could operate in three dimensions. In other words, while holding the mouse in the air you could move your arm left or right, up and down, towards and away, in relation to your computer.

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This project was completed in March of 2006 with some success. The mouse does work, and the position of the mouse can be detected with an accuracy of 3 centimeters, over a range of 1 to 6 meters, with the position being updated 25 times per second. The mouse contains 5 general use buttons whose status are also updated 25 times per second. The mouse is also rechargable by simply plugging it into the wall with an AC adapter. The mouse will last about 14 hours on a single charge. Mouse coordinates and button states are sent to the PC over a USB link.

The system would cost roughly $550 to construct additional units, and more than half that cost is for an Altera NiosII FPGA Dev Kit. If a new design for another PCB that contains the FPGA is made, this could lower the non-mass-produced system cost to under $400.

– Powerpoint presentation of the FRE3SPACE project…
– More in-depth information about the project in this Doc file…
– The official website of the FRE3SPACE project…


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