Great. LG Brings Ad Capability to Internet-Connected TV

Something to look forward to, more commercials. LG Electronics is adding an advertising capability to its Internet-connected televisions through an agreement with video advertising technology company YuMe. And Toyota has already signed up.

A viewer of what LG calls its Smart TV would see ads for Toyota's 2012 Camry when browsing the TV set’s app store or using the search screen.

[via The New York Times]

Tablets turned into Braille keyboard by US researchers

A team of US researchers from New Mexico University has devised a way for people with impaired vision to use the touchscreen of a tablet such as an iPad as a Braille keyboard. The BBC reports.

Instead of using a keyboard or mechanical writer, users type directly onto the flat glass.

Instead of having fingers that find the buttons, we built buttons that find the fingers," said Stanford's Sohan Dharmaraja, one of the researchers on the project.

Users place eight fingers on the screen and the keyboard appears. Shaking the device activates a menu, and further interaction is achieved by regular touch gestures.

Read full article.

Amazon Whispersync coming to movies and TV

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet is taking all the headlines today and with it comes Whispersync for movies and TVs, writes Techradar.

It's such a neat feature on the Kindle – the software syncs your progress as you read a book on the Kindle device so that when you access it from your computer, your iPhone, or whatever device you're on next, you're always in the right place.

And now that functionality is coming to movies and television shows that you watch on your Kindle Fire, too.

Nifty indeed.

Smart meters reveal TV viewing habits

Researchers at the Münster University of Applied Sciences have discovered that it is possible to use electricity usage data from smart electricity meters to determine which programmes consumers are watching on a standard TV set. The HSecurity reports.

The experiments were carried out as part of the state-funded DaPriM (data privacy management) project. By analysing electricity consumption patterns, it is, in principle, also possible to identify films played from a DVD or other source.

Read more.

iPads, connected TVs lead to explosion in encoding

IPads, connected TVs and TV Everywhere services will be the biggest drivers of the global transcoding business, which is expected to grow to nearly half a billion dollars over the next few years. That kind of growth has a number of startups (and investors) excited about taking advantage of a wide-open market opportunity.

[via GigaOM]

BBC launches tool silencing Wimbledon players' grunts

After being able to tune out the sound of he vuvuzelas during the broadcasting of last year's World Cup in South Africa, armchair tennis fans now have a device that turns down the grunts of players. The Telegraph reports.

The noise reduction programme, called Wimbledon Net MIx, allows people to fade out the sound of the players grunting on court, and turn up the volume of the commentators.

Available on the BBC radio player it has a sliding scale which the tennis fan can manually alter the contrast between the commentators and the sounds coming from the court.

Read full article.

New TVs will watch you and record your emotions

NHK of Japan is planning on installing small cameras in TVs to observe you while you watch TV. How creepy is that? or who would agree to that is more to the point.

These cameras will be able to analyze movements as well as facial expressions in order to conclude on the kinds of programs and advertisements that you like, as well as what you don’t.

[Dvice via Ubergizmo]

Touch painted wall anywhere, to activate on/off TV switch

French blog tom's style, reports on new paint that when applied to a wall that acts as a switch, enabling you to turn your TV on and off by simply touching the wall.

Designed by Nicolas Troboulot of Quarks, it should be on the market in the Spring.

Image from AllTrends.

A Clever End Run Around the Movie-Streaming Gremlins

The New York Times on a new movie streaming service called Zediva that uses stacks of DVD players to send movies over the Internet.

Zediva lets you listen to the director’s commentary, turn on subtitles and change languages. It lets you enjoy your movie for two weeks instead of 24 hours, starting and stopping at will. It offers the 100 biggest movies for streaming on the very same day the DVD comes out. It sidesteps any meddling by the movie companies, HBO contracts and studio lawyers. And only for $2 per movie - or $1 if you buy a 10-pack.There is no signup fee, no monthly fee, no hardware to buy.

Read more.

Stanford researchers demonstrate NFC TV applications

[via Near Field Communications World]

Researchers from Stanford University's MobiSocial lab, who last month demonstrated the first Android NFC peer-to-peer applications, have now developed a number of applications which show how NFC could be used to interact with TVs.

Watch video.

3D makes people sick

Optometrists say as many as one in four viewers have problems watching 3D movies and TV, either because 3D causes tiresome eyestrain or because the viewer has problems perceiving depth in real life. In the worst cases, 3D makes people queasy, leaves them dizzy or gives them headaches. [via stuff]

Researchers have begun developing more lifelike 3D displays that might address the problems, but they're years or even decades from being available to the masses.

That isn't deterring the entertainment industry, which is aware of the problem yet charging ahead with plans to create more movies and TV shows in 3D.

Read full article.

Relateld:

-- Toshiba plans no glasses 3-D TV

-- 12 per cent of the UK population has a visual impairment that prevents them from seeing 3D images

-- Are 3-D TV's dangerous? some experts say yes

-- Is 3D ZV hazardous to your health?

Virtual spheres speed up skimming through mobile video

Users often have to download an entire online video to find out what's in it. A new skim-viewing interface from Telcordia Technologies - which will be previewed next month at CES in Las Vegas - could speed things up.

[via New Scientist]

Are holograms the next step for 3D tech?

3D TV sets and 3D movies are everywhere in 2010. According to The Christian Science Monitor, 3D holograms could be next.

The technology for a 3D hologram, a three-dimensional telepresence might be closer than you think.

The current issue of the science journal Nature features an extensive report from a group of Arizona researchers who succeeded in creating a real-time image – one that can be viewed without glasses – from multiple angles. (Just like in "Star Wars"!) The image, the researchers said, is recorded using a battery of cameras:

Read full article.

New software released to slim actors onscreen

According to The Hollywood Reporter, scientists in Germany have developed software that can make actors appear thinner, fatter, taller or more buff on screen.

The program called MovieReshape could mean an end to actors risking their health by gaining or losing dangerous amounts to suit a role. The software can alter an actor's muscle tone or body shape and can be used on existing video material.

Read full article.

New Scientist suggests an alternate use for the program:

It could also be a cost-saver for advertising companies. Because standards of beauty vary across cultures, it is the norm to shoot several adverts for a single product. With the new software, firms could make one film and tweak the model’s dimensions to suit different countries.

The Next Stage of Online Video Evolution

HTML5 is changing the look of Web video, but can it edge out Flash? Technology Review weighs in.

While HTML5 promises to give programmers more flexibility in the way they present videos, and allow these videos to play on Apple devices, the new Web standard lacks some features of Flash. In addition, there are already millions of videos, including much of YouTube, that can only be played using Flash. And Flash has been around for years, so many developers already know how to incorporate Flash-based videos into websites.

But here's been a flurry of activity to get HTML5 up to speed. Recently, a company called Skyfire announced that it had developed (and submitted for approval to Apple's app store) a mobile Web browser that converts Flash-based video to HTML5 so an iPhone user can watch it. Another company, Sublime Video, launched a player that allows programmers to reproduce the features provided by Flash video using HTML5.

Read full article.

Samsung tries to woo TV app developers

App stores have transformed portable devices. Could TVs be next? Samsung Electronics think so. The Korean company is in the US pitching Samsung Apps, an application platform and marketplace, to media and content providers, as well as individual third-party developers.

[via Cnet]

Toshiba plans 'no-glasses 3-D TV'

According to Orange News, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba says it is developing technology for a 3-D TV that will not require special glasses.

Spokeswoman Yuko Sugahara said such technology was in the works but she refused to comment on a report in the Yomiuri newspaper that the Tokyo-based company plans to start selling the new 3-D TVs by the end of the year.

The TVs send different images at various angles to create an illusion within a viewer's brain of dimension and depth, and watching the 3-D images will not be tiring on the eyes.

Read more.

The Wand Remote Control

A magic television remote wand. Or a "buttonless remote control that can learn up to 12 infrared codes from existing remote controls and replay them when the user makes one fo 12 predefined gestures".

[via The Guardian]

Seen before: Harry Potter-like Want as TV Remote

15 Technologies That Changed The Way We Watch Television

A good read. Some of the most important (and oft-forgotten) gadgetry that brought TV to where it is today. From Mechanical TVs to the first color sets, remote controls and how they changed our viewing habits (first launched in 1950!), VHS, Satellite, Cable... to Internet TV.

[by Amy Leigh for World TV Radio]

Will Internet TV Be a Victim of Bandwidth Caps?

Bandwidth caps might not affect many users now, but with services like Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus just gaining momentum, research firm iSuppli warns that carrier plans to set limits on the amount of bandwidth consumers use could pose a threat to the emerging Internet TV segment.

[via NewTeeVee]

UltraViolet film system tested

A group of media and electronics companies will soon start testing a system that will let you watch films you buy wherever you are, regardless of formats and other technical hurdles. Like ATMs, your account would follow you, no matter what brand of machine you use. UKPA reports.

The group has also come up with the name UltraViolet for the open standard it is creating, which it was unveiling on Tuesday.

The open standard, backed film studios including Warner Brothers and technology companies such as Microsoft, represents a challenge to owned formats from Apple and others. Those formats lock buyers of video content to limited numbers of devices, such as the iPad or Apple TV.

Backers of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem hope to kick-start growth of digital film purchases, now just four per cent of all sales, by freeing consumers of format concerns.

Read full article.

Related article:- Introducing UltraViolet: Buy Your Digital Movie Once, Play It Anywhere? (NPR)

Inflatable football screens hit Kenya

Throughout the World Cup, the Kenya Field of Dreams project - with the help of a giant inflatable outdoor TV screen - showed matches in the remotest of Kenyan communities, including areas without televisions or even electricity.

[via the BBC]

Six million Britons can’t see 3D TV

Around 12 per cent of the UK population has a visual impairment that prevents them from seeing 3D images, The Eyecare Trust warns, reports The Telegraph.

Around 10 per cent of the UK population has poor binocular vision, which means it is difficult for them to see 3D effects in movies and video games. Instead, they see a blurry image, and can suffer headaches and eye strain as a result.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Are 3D TVs dangerous? Some experts say yes

-- Is 3D Hazardous to your health?

Smart TV remote

A new system aims to identify family members by how they use the remote. New Scientist reports.

Magdiel Galan at Arizona State University in Tempe and colleagues at Intel Labs modified a TV remote with sensors to measure the way it was held as volunteers channel-surfed. For one session in every five, the volunteers identified themselves by entering a PIN.

The idiosyncrasies in the way people used the remote could then be used to identify them in the rest of the sessions with 60 to 90 per cent accuracy, suggesting a way to personalise access to content.

Read full article.

Access Hulu from Outside the U.S. Without a Proxy Server

How to access Hulu from outside the U.S. without a proxy server. All you need is a Firefox add-on and a few blocked ports.

[via Gizmodo]

Singapore Gets Wired for Speed

Singapore could soon be the first country blanketed with a fiber optic infrastructure so fast that it would enable the contents of a DVD to be downloaded in only a few seconds.

[via The New York Times]

Are 3D TVs Dangerous? Some Experts Say Yes

With Avatar officially becoming the highest grossing film of all time, it seems like 3D’s time has arrived. 3D TV’s made at a splash CES this year. Samsung, Sony, Panasonic – are betting that people will want to put a 3D capable television in their home. But is 3d safe? JustEyeWear reports.

No, says Mark Pesce. And he would know: he started one of the first virtual reality companies in the early 90’s and worked closely with Sega to develop a virtual reality headset for their Genesis system. Only, that headset was never released, as a result of a study done by SRI that was commissioned by Sega. Pesce says that the study found that a significant percentage of users maintained depth perception issues anywhere from 15 minutes to hours after taking the headset off. This is why Sega never released it.

... By putting 3D TV’s in people’s homes, people could unwittingly be damaging their depth perception long term. This is especially a danger for children, who are still developing the neural pathways necessary for depth perception. The disorder, which is called “binocular dysphoria“, can become permanent, he claims.

Read full article.

Related: Is 3D Hazardous to your health?

Adobe acknowledges critical security flaw in software

According to the BBC, Adobe has acknowledged a "critical" security flaw in its Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player software.

Adobe says the vulnerability potentially enables hackers to take control of affected computer systems.

Users running Windows, Macintosh or Linux might all be open to attack.

The company is working to fix the problem. In the meantime, users of Reader, Acrobat and Flash are advised to ensure their anti-virus software is up to date.

... Apple has been criticised for preventing its popular iPhone and iPad devices from viewing Adobe Flash animations and videos.

Read full article.

Is 3D TV hazardous to your health?

According to The NY Post, Doctors and researchers are starting to warn viewers about the potential dangers of spending too much time in front of a 3D boob tube.

Guidelines for Samsung's new line of 3D TVs warn against prolonged exposure to 3D TVs for kids (kids under 6 shouldn't watch at all), teens, pregnant women, the elderly, sleep-deprived people and anyone buzzed on alcohol.

They also point out that watching 3D programming might cause motion sickness, lingering depth perception problems, disorientation and "decreased postural stability."

The guidelines suggest taking frequent 30 minute breaks from TV watching.

Read full article.

[via TV Tattle]

Internet-enabled TVs to feature ‘app stores’

“App stores” are coming to the television as developers and content providers move their software and services to the big screens of internet-connected TVs. The Financial Times reports.

Many TV sets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week have an added Ethernet connection as the internet, along with 3D, becomes an integrated part of the viewing experience.

... Vudu, which began as a streaming movie service, announced Vudu Apps on Wednesday, a platform that will deliver video, music on demand, photo browsing, news services, social networking and other applications through internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players from Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba and Vizio.

Read full article.

Skype will soon be available on your TV set

In just a few months’ time, you’ll be able to get Sykpe on your TV, thanks to TVs from LG and Panasonic with an integrated Skype client that will be coming out later this year.

While users will still have to purchase a separate video camera designed to work with the service (priced at around $100-$200), doing so will open up a whole new way for users to connect with friends and family from the comfort of their living room.

Read full article in NewTeeVee and Skype video explaining how it will work.

End of an Era: Pirate Bay Tracker Shuts Down

Do you know how BitTorrent works? I mean, really know the technology behind it? Even if you’re not all too familiar with it, you probably know that it requires a tracker – a computer that coordinates the distribution of a file within the network.

But the trick is, it doesn’t – not anymore. Two technologies called DHT and PEX enable trackerless BitTorrent; in the simplest of terms, the BitTorrent technology has evolved to the point where trackers are no longer necessary for operation. Thus, the folks over at The Pirate Bay have decided to permanently shut down the Pirate Bay tracker.

Read full article in Mashable.

Orange strikes Twitter TV deal

According to The Guardian, European Twitter users will soon be able to tweet to each other via their TV sets while watching entertainment and sports shows, after Orange struck a deal to integrate the service into its mobile and television offerings.

Under the deal, Orange is aiming to integrate Twitter into football coverage, news, entertainment shows and films.

Orange said that Twitter services would be rolled out in the UK first, to be followed by France, Spain and Poland later this year. The service will be rolled out in other European markets next year.

Read full article.

facial recognition technology helps tvs save power

New facial recognition technology from Hitachi automatically detects when you’re actually watching your television, then shuts the display off whenever you’re not looking, to save energy.

[engadget via Technabob]

Cablevision to Launch Clickable TV Ads

Cablevision announced today that it will begin rolling out interactive TV ads, allowing viewers to use their remotes to “click” on a commercial in order to get more information.

[via NewTeeVee]

TV remote control ‘allows you to switch channels with flick of the wrist’

A television remote, the UWand, that allows viewers to switch channels with flick of the wrist has been developed using technology similar to Nintendo’s Wii game controller. The Telegraph reports.

It allows users to adjust the volume, change the channel or any other function on a television.

While sitting on a sofa, consumers simply point the uWand in the appropriate direction, click to make selections and move it to interact with screen menus, and manipulate objects such as photos.

Using technology similar to the popular Wii games, the uWand uses infra-red technology that controls a cursor that then scrolls through menus or helps change the volume.

Clicking on a channel will help change it, while pointing the contraption to the right or left will adjust various settings.

A small inbuilt camera allows it to be connected with two small beacons either built into the television or on a detachable bar beneath it.

Read full article.

Related innovative remotes:

-- Turning the TV on with your voice

-- Clapping your hands to control your remote

-- Touchless Remote Control

-- The New TV Remote: Your Bare Hand?

-- You Face as a Remote Control

-- Twist and Squeeze Remote Control

-- Remote responds to voice commands

-- Gestures Control Hitachi TV

IBM files patent for a TV Remote That Tweets

IBM is apparently working on technology that would enable you to blog or tweet straight from the remote control of your TV. The company has filed a patent for said technology, reports BaltTech via TechCrunch.

Verizon turning cell phones into TV remotes

Verizon Communications is getting ready to launch a new feature that allows its Fios TV customers to interact with their sets using their Verizon Wireless cell phones, according to a story published by Dow Jones News service, reports CNet.

The handset remote control application will only work with Wi-Fi enabled handsets and will use a Wi-Fi network instead of the Verizon cellular network to access the Fios service. Wi-Fi is only available on a select handsets from Verizon Wireless.

New service tracks online interest in TV shows

Web site creation service Wetpaint has launched a measurement system that tracks fan interest in popular TV shows, reports Reuters.

Billed as the first measurement tool of its kind, TV Fandex tracks the level of "fan engagement" of popular programs on Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Webpaint's own network of 1.5 million user-created fan sites.

... There are existing ways to measure a brand's online popularity, including BuzzMetrics from Nielsen, the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter. Fandex is billed as the first system built specifically around providing an apples-to-apples comparison of TV series interest among social media networks.

Hide My Ass gets around region-restricted videos

Hide My Ass, another proxy and privacy tool to surf the Web anonymously, or in other words, watch Weeds and other favorite TV shows on YouTube even if you live outside the US.

Unlike HotSpot Shield, there is no client application to download, just type in a URL.

Related: - How to Watch Hulu Around the World

Motion-Activated Theater Seats for launch of new "Terminator"

Today, May 21, moviegoers at the Theatres at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. will feel like they are living the action on the screen as they view the new feature film “Terminator Salvation” from their own motion-activated seat.

Mall of America will be the first theater in the state and the fourth in the nation to feature this thrilling new dimension in movie viewing.

Moviegoers will encounter gripping explosions and suspenseful fight scenes as each seat moves “in perfect sync” with the onscreen action; creating an unmatched immersive experience.

[Press release via CoolestGadgets]

New DVD technology packs 2,000 movies on one disc

Scientists unveiled new DVD technology on Wednesday that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2,000 movies onto a single disc. [via Physorg.com]

A team of researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, used nanotechnology to boost the storage potential nearly 10,000-fold compared to standard DVDs, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

How to Watch Hulu Around the World

For all sorts of complicated legal and contractual reasons, Hulu is not officially available to users outside of the United States. Hulu detects your foreign IP adress when you connect to their website and blocks access to content. A message pops us with "Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States".

But according to GigaOM a free VPN service called Hotspot Shield (HSS) allows you to change your IP adress to an American one, fooling Hulu.

How does it work? Well, VPN stands for “virtual private network,” so when Hotspot Shield is turned on your web connection is encrypted. More importantly, it also replaces your IP address with one from Hotspot Shield, which is based in the U.S. The idea is to protect your browsing from online snoops, but this little side effect means that as far as Hulu knows, you’re as American as apple pie.

All you have to do is download the client, which works for both PCs and Macs, and you’re ready to go. It’s a lot less complicated and appears much more reliable than relying on proxy servers.

I've just tried it. It works for Hulu, but I'm unable to watch TV shows on ABC, I get the usual message: "Only viewers within the United States can watch these full length episodes". I tried disconnecting and reconnecting HotSpot Shield, but it still sees my connection as from outside the US. However it works for NBC TV shows, I can watch.

I have a feeling this is a good thing that's not going to last as soon as NBC and Hulu figure out how ABC sees through HSS.

Internet users 'could suffer brownouts due to YouTube and iPlayer'

Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube and the BBC's iPlayer cause online traffic to double, experts warn, writes The Telegraph.

Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites, it is claimed.

Analysts are warning that the internet will cease to function as an effective tool of communication – becoming merely an "unreliable toy" for casual users – unless networks are upgraded.

Related:

-- The Exaflood - Technology experts are calling it the exaflood, a massive wave of new video and other bandwith intensive traffic headed for the web. Watch excerpts from a video on the Internet Innovation Alliance website on the Exaflood.

-- Video, interactivity could nab Web users by '10 - The Web will start to seem pokey as early as 2010, as use of interactive and video-intensive services overwhelms local cable, phone and wireless Internet providers.

-- Demand for video reshaping Internet - In 1995, the first warning was raised: The throngs of people swarming to the Internet would overwhelm the system in 1996. For more than a decade, that fear has proven untrue.

-- Interesting: 'Poor man's broadband (PMB). Students to download big files faster by avoiding the internet - It's not often that you get to go faster by avoiding the superhighway, but soon students in Pakistan will be able to download big files faster by avoiding the internet.

The New TV Remote: Your Bare Hand?

CBS News reports on the TV remote control of the future: Your hands.

At least one major TV manufacturer has been actively looking at how to bring a remote-less TV into the mainstream. Hitachi approached Silicon Valley-based GestureTek about using its software with a depth camera to track movement and translate it into onscreen commands. It's still just a prototype, but Hitachi demonstrated it at Ceatec last year and at CES in January.

Read full article.