The electronic eye takes photos in a 3D space rather than flatted in 2D

You know you’ve dreamed about it.  You want a bionic eye.  Everyone does.  Since you were a kid watching The Six Mission Dollar Man, you’ve dreamed of the day when bionics could become a reality.  Most of the bionic parts of Steve Austin already exist in some form (although not usually exceptionally powerful).  But the bionic left eye has been rather elusive.

Your dream may soon be coming true.  Researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University are working on a camera that could some day replace a human eye.  With a similar form factor as the eye, it could easily fit within a human eye socket.

It’s the curve of the camera that makes it most like an eye.  Unlike most cameras that often blur or minimize the focus of parts of the image on the outer edges, this new curved technology allows an image to be in focus in all parts of the image.

Check out the additional photos on CNET.

Lee Majors has nothing on us now.

Second Life (an online virtual 3D world) has been around a while now.  It’s incredibly popular and even has its own economy.  You can enter Second Life and “live” a life completely different from who you really are.  It’s somewhat of a game, but it mimics real life as much as possible. Companies (mainly IBM) have been known to hold virtual meetings or conferences within the Second Life universe.  But the main problem with Second Life is you have to download a rather large installation program and have to have some decent hardware to run it.

Second Life is about to get it’s first real competitor, LifePlace.  Not only does does the virtual world look more amazing and real (and slightly unsettling), but all the visual imagery is rendered “in the cloud.”  There is no installation.  You will visit LifePlace through a web browser and all the rendering is done on the server side.  So even if you don’t have amazing hardware with the latest and greatest graphics card, you will still be able to partake in the amazing world to be. You will even be able to stream it to a mobile device (the video below was captured on a Palm Treo). The technology is developed by a company called OTOY.

Gizmodo and TechCruch both have articles about LivePlace, but it’s the video that really does the talking.

Remember, if you can’t see the embedded video. View the original posting.

Another one of those, “Wow! Science is cool,” moments just happened in California.  In Berkley to be more precise.

Researchers as the University of California, Berkeley have for the first time demonstrated the ability to cloak three dimensional objects!  Cool!

I mentioned this before, but didn’t think it would become a reality so soon.

The science involved here is amazing.  This is just another example of science finally catching up with Science Fiction writers.

The findings of the research will soon be available in the journals, Nature and Science.

In celebration of the Olympic Games that start today in Bejing, China, Google has created a widget that contains a medal tracker as well as event and venue information. All built on their mapping technology. 

And here it is:

[If you don't see the embedded map, view the web original post on the site]

Be sure to come back often to see how the medal tally plays out.

There are those who might say I am jumping on the band wagon here, but I’m jumping.

Last night, I saw the latest installment in the Batman series of movies, The Dark Night. I went in expecting a lot because I hadn’t heard a single bad review. Usually there is plenty of criticism for super hero (comic book) type movies.

But this movie lived up to the hype.  The entire 152 minutes is packed with action or significant dialog. Not to mention one of the coolest stunts I’ve seen in a movie (the semi truck).  I came out of the IMAX theater with sore muscles.  Not from bad theater chairs, but because I was tensing my body the entire time.

Critics have applauded the work done by the late Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker.  At first, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, but as the film progressed into the later half, it became apparent that he did an amazing job.  As he walked out of the hospital, I realized that he nailed the role.  Is the performance deserving of an Oscar as some have proposed?  It’s surely worth a nomination.

The one let down was the part of Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I didn’t feel anything for the character in this film.  The role was much better handled by Katie Holmes in the previous film, Batman Begins.  Maybe it was the script, but it just didn’t work for me.

All in all, a great film.  Definitely on my top 10 list.

Just a few days after my recent post on True Patriotism, I found this article from The Philadelphia Inquirer. This guy is a prime example of “Bad Patriotism.”

He claims that because America has “sinned,” we shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day.

Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

Wow… talk about overreaction as well as bad patriotism.  This is the negativity that The Centrist mentioned in this article.

Balance is what this country needs.  Not polarization.

Have you ever been on vacation and wanted to know where the closest LDS Church is?  How about moving to a new area and wondering to which ward you belong, to which building you should go and what time are services?

The IT team for the church has just released a beta version of their new mapping application.  This will eventually replace the current “Meetinghouse Locator.”

Check it out.  It’s nicely done.  Even if you don’t know an address, you can “Place a Marker” (click the icon on the top left of the map and then click on your desired location) and it will figure it all out for you.  It provides surrounding meetinghouses and all the wards that meet at each location as well as contact information.  It will also identify to which ward that location is assigned (even gives you language and YSA wards).

Under the hood, it can either use Google Maps or Microsoft’s Live Maps.

Well done guys!

When the original iPhone first came out, I posted a review after just a week or so of use.  One of my major complaints was the lack of voice dialing.  When Apple announced their SDK, I had hoped that someone would build a third party application to do just that.

My hope was answered by a Salt Lake company called Fonix, known mostly for their speech recognition software.  A few days ago, they announced an application, Fonix iSpeak, to not only do voice dialing, but also voice commands to control other parts of the iPhone.

Oh yeah!  I hope they don’t try to charge an arm and a leg for it.  If they keep it reasonable, then that will be one of the first apps I aqcuire from the AppStore.

Some that know me well (especially my wife) can attest to the fact that I don’t have a great deal of patience in showing empathy or sympathy (yes, there is a difference).

So when I saw this article from CNN about EDD (Empathy Deficit Disorder), I finally realized that I can’t help it either.

I’m afflicted with a disorder.  A disease that I can’t control.  EDD is rampant among Americans, so that makes me more comfortable knowing that I’m in a large group of people who “just can’t” show empathy.  It’s not our fault, we have a disease.

The psychologist who “identified” this disorder credits it with creating most conflict in this world.  From war to divorce, it’s all because of EDD.  It destroys lives and causes political strife.

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The Centrist recently sent me an article from Time Magazine titled “The State of Patriotism” by Peter Beinart.  The article details the differences between the conservative style of patriotism and the liberal philosophy.

Beinart did a good job of keeping to the issue and not leaning to one side or the other.  As he indicates, there is a place for both types of patriotism, but he needed to go one step further.  The true patriot is one who embodies both styles of patriotism, not one or the other.  For some reason, each side feels their style is exclusively correct and cannot include portions (or the whole) of the other.

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