Lenticular printing is a technology used in 3D displays to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move the image when viewed from different angles.

Here’s an example of Lenticular art to help give you a better picture. You can see that depending on your point of view, the image changes.

A Spanish organization ANAR, which aids children in distress has come up with a rather ingenious way to reach out to those who need help the most. Their use of lenticular printing in an advertisement has created a lot of conversation about the medium. Instead of simply trying to sell a product, it could quite possibly change someone’s life.

ANAR wanted to advertise their special hotline for minors at risk, but they faced a challenge in how to spread the word. If an adult, or potential aggressor could see the ad, it’s purpose would be defeated. Their solution was unique, and it allowed children and adults to be looking at the same advertisement, yet receive entirely different messages.

ANAR has used this technology to create a poster with a hidden message for people of different heights. Using the average height of a 10 year old, the ad was created so that children would see one message encouraging them to seek help, even if they were walking alongside an abuser.  The advertisement to those 4’ 5” and below is the face of an abused child with the message that reads, “if somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you,” alongside the organization’s help line number. People 4’ 5” and taller, on the other hand, see a different message highlighting awareness of child abuse. Check out the photo below for a visual explanation.

To see the ad in action, check out this short video.

Lenticular printing certainly isn’t new, but this ad certainly encourages everyone to think outside of the box on how it can be used. While this ad is used to help children, however, it may only be a matter of time until the process is used to advertise products directly to children, while parents are none the wiser.

The app serves more purposes than that, however, allowing you to manage incoming calls. If you’re unavailable, the app lets you choose to send callers an audio or text message letting them know you’ll return their call. You can also send out your contact info – including other numbers, website URLs, or links to your social media accounts – if you so desire. StarStar Me also allows you to block certain numbers.

StarStar numers work in tandem with your existing 10-digit mobile number – you don’t forfeit your current mobile number. That way your mom can still call your cell number, but your friends can call **BARTMAN or whatever you’ve picked for your StarStar number. When choosing a StarStar number, here are the parameters: The number must be at least 5 characters long with a max length of 9 characters. The number length does not include the ** characters at the beginning of the numbers. So hurry up and swipe **PhilsPhan if it’s still up for grabs.

StarStar Me isn’t available universally yet. It’s currently on the Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks, and will be available on other major carriers in the near future. Calls within the U.S. from Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T are currently supported, but calls from landlines, roaming calls, and calls from other mobile carriers are not at the moment. Sprint subscribers can have two StarStar numbers per mobile phone number, while T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers can get up to three. A recurring monthly fee is charged for each StarStar number.

The app is available for iPhone and Android. Callers using other mobile devices can reach you via your StarStar Me number, as long as they are on the carriers previously listed. SMS message cannot be sent to your StarStar number.

How to get it: iPhone and Android users on most mobile carriers can now sign up for StarStar Me service.iPhone and Android users can call **ME (**63) on their mobile phone to download the free StarStar Me app to get their StarStar number. Sprint customers can also sign up here, T-Mobile customers can sign here, Verizon customers can sign up here.  Alternatively, users can downloading the app from Google Play (Android) or the Apple App Store (iPhone).

Check out more info at their website.

According to a study at the Jaume I University in Castellón, just under 29% of the population of people aged 16 – 30 read online or conventional newspapers daily. The study also found that three out of every four individuals within this age bracket turn to social networking sites for information, even more so than they go to the television for news.
In the past decade, there has been a large drop-off in readership of printed newspapers, especially among the younger demographics, which is rapidly decreasing. The study shows that almost 75% of those aged 16-30 use social networks to stay informed, a larger number than those even watching news on the television.
If the trends continue, newspapers face not only a lost audience, but also the inability to capture the next generation.
News outlets have turned to the Internet to get the word out, but that also comes at a cost. Even though study participants lived in different cities and had differing levels of education, they overwhelmingly refused to pay to access current news. Only 6.2% said they would be willing to subscribe to a media source. Furthermore, over 76% said they would visit a free website if their site of choice began to charge for content. Overall, only 17.1% said they would discontinue Internet use for news altogether if there were no free means.
These statistics show that even the new business model of offering content online at a charge will need to adapt in order to flourish in the digital age. The aforementioned age group does take an interest in staying informed, however, but the study just helps further the understanding that news is a public service that must always be available for free whenever the reader wants.
As far as gender goes, men lean towards journalistic information more than women. They tend to consult a high number of sources and are more inclined to pay for news content. Women put more value on the importance of being well-informed in order to be good citizens.
The researcher suggests that newspapers find strategies to reconnect with young people. While they are interested in news, they aren’t inclined to use information that doesn’t respond to their needs and interests. It also suggests that journalistic media heavily adopt social network use to reach out to the youth, especially since this is how most of them get their information. Without adapting strategies to meet the consumption habits or news conceptions of young people, journalistic media will see their business models fail in the near future, and will possibly disappear altogether.

In addition to the ease of communication, Microsoft feels that the added features Skype will bring is another big reason for the switch.
Among these new features: support for more devices; video, landline, and mobile calling functions will be consolidated into one single application; sharing of screens; video calling from mobile devices and via Facebook; and group video calling will be added.

With consumers favoring social media and texting over Instant Messaging, Microsoft feels they have a more universal and compatible product in Skype. The business world, however, still relies strongly on Instant Messaging as a technology. It plays a large role in unified communications, which means the Skype rollout will also give the business world more features in one product. Presence functionality – the ability to know a coworkers location and availability, is built in to the software – which is a major reason why Instant Messaging technology is so important for businesses.

Social messaging is a big competitor in the consumer market, but even enterprise social software makers are trying to integrate instant messaging to their platforms because of the heavy reliance by businesses. Microsoft currently has an enterprise product, called Lync, which includes Instant Messaging. Right now, Microsoft doesn’t have plans to oust Lync in favor of Skype, but they will likely plan to increase integration between both in the future.

In the end, Microsoft is just treating the change as another new client that users will need to upgrade to in order to keep up with changing technology. The transition will be smooth, so it’s unlikely to cause many customer issues.

Using sugar is not only more efficient, but is also much more cost-effective. Most rechargeable batteries found in digital cameras, cell phones, and other electronics are lithium ion batteries, but lithium is a rare element, making these batteries expensive. Since lithium is rare, it must be imported to many countries, contributing to the high price. Sodium ion batteries were created as a cheaper, more sustainable substitute. Sodium supply, unlike lithium, is unlimited; and plentiful elements like iron, aluminum, and sodium can be used in manufacturing, instead of copper or cobalt. Sugar is what turns batteries into high-capacity devices – the battery’s negative charge comes from hard carbon derived from sucrose, another extremely abundant element.

Hard carbon is made using a process called pyrolyzing, which basically means it’s heated in an oxygen-free electric furnace at a very high temperature. The process is very precise because the sucrose will burn if air gets in, but even so, it is very easy to manufacture. The end result is a black powder, called hard carbon.

The research group has been able to increase the storage capacity of regular batteries by 20% simply by using sucrose as the base for hard carbon. Kombata’s group forsees that it may take five years before a practical version of the battery is produced, but the savings in both money and rare elements would certainly be a real breakthrough in the way our electronics are powered.

Detecting these types of cells is difficult. Achieving good statistical accuracy requires an automated instrument using what is called a ‘high-throughput screening’, which can examine millions of cells rather quickly. Even though microscopes outfitted with digital cameras are regarded as the ideal way to analyze cells, they just aren’t fast enough. Engineers at UCLA have developed an optical microscope that would stand up to the task. In order to view these cells, the cameras needed must have the ability to capture and digitally process millions of images continuously, at a very high frame rate. Conventional cameras are not rapid or sensitive enough, and the actually become less sensitive to light at a high speed because of the time needed to read data from the pixels.

The method currently used, relies on single-point light scattering, as opposed to taking a picture. This method is also not sensitive enough to detect early stage cancer cells, or other types of rare cells. UCLA has led research in breaking through to conquer these limitations. Experts in the field of optics and biotechnology have developed a high-throughput optical microscope that can detect rare cells with a sensitivity of one part per million in real time. In 2009, the same research team created the world fastest continuous-running camera, and they put it to good use here. Their developments are based on, but also enhance the technology behind the world fastest continuous-running camera.

This new technology is leaps and bounds more efficient when classifying cells in blood samples than conventional methods. Additionally, research indicates that false-positive results are at record lows with the new method, at a rate of one cell in a million. Early test results have shown that this new technology has the potential to quickly enable the detection of rare circulating tumor cells from a large volume of blood, which paves the way for both statistical accuracy in early detection of cancer, and for monitoring the efficiency of drug and radiation therapy. In addition to these breakthroughs, the technology can cut down on errors and reduce costs in medical diagnosis.

Tests were conducted by using lab-grown cancer cells, which were mixed with blood in various proportions to emulate the real-life blood of a potential patient. Clinical tests are also in the works, but researchers also say this technology can be useful in various other ways, such as for urine analysis, water quality monitoring and other related applications.

The technology was just presented on July 13^th in the Journal of Neural Engineering, and researchers from Imperial College London held a demonstration with users playing the classic computer game Pong without any tactile controllers. Video of this demonstration can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zapK5wvYU84
The learning curve was almost non-existent, as six of the subjects, who had never used their eyes as a control input before, were still able to score within 20% of the able bodied users after the first 10 minutes with the device. Users also demonstrated browsing the web and composing emails hands-free.

The device is made up of two fast video game console cameras, costing less than $32 each, that are attached, outside of the line of vision, to a pair of glasses that cost just around $5. The cameras constantly take pictures of the eye, working out where the pupil is pointing, and from this the researchers can use a set of calibrations to work out exactly where a person is looking on the screen.

Even more impressive, the researchers were also able to use more detailed calibrations to work out the 3D gaze of the subjects — in other words, how far into the distance they were looking. It is believed that this could allow people to control an electronic wheelchair simply by looking where they want to go or control a robotic prosthetic arm.

The commercially viable device uses just one watt of power and can transmit data wirelessly over Wi-Fi or via USB into any Windows or Linux computer.
The system has also solved the ‘Midas touch problem’, allowing users to click on an item on the screen using their eyes, instead of a mouse button. Previously, this issue was resolved by staring at an icon for a prolonged period or blinking. The issue with this solution is that blinking happens naturally, and unintentionally, so the researchers calibrated the system to respond so that a wink would represent a mouse click. Since winking occurs voluntarily, it’s a much more effective solution.

Not only is the device a 3D eye-tracking system, but it is hundreds of times cheaper than commercial devices, and allows real-time interactions with users that are faster and smoother than what is currently available. No word on a release date yet, but soon affordable devices can help people worldwide independent of their healthcare circumstances.

Philadelphia Recycling Rewards is a partnership between the Philadelphia Streets Department and RecycleBank, which allows residents to earn points for the amount they recycle. Residents will obtain a special sticker to place on their recycling bins, which is scanned at the time of collection. From there, points are automatically added to your account based on how much your community has recycled.

Points can be redeemed through RecycleBank for discounts, gift cards, or charitable contributions at hundreds of local and national merchants and non-profit agencies. The program will begin in some neighborhoods in early 2010, and by July the entire city will be participating.

Click here to see when your neighborhood will begin the program.

BBC News has reported that over 30,000 email addresses and their passwords have been posted online over the past few days, and that number is growing. The information was obtained via a phishing scam, which incorporates the use of fake websites to lure unsuspecting customers into divulging sensitive information, in this case, names and passwords for their email accounts. The first reports believed that only Hotmail user accounts were published, but now it has been confirmed that other providers, including Comcast, Earthlink, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and others are included. Some of the email accounts appear to be old, unused or fake, but many are genuine. Since the issue was publicized, the website on which this information was posted was temporarily down while changes were made and filters were implemented to prevent this issue from reoccurring.

Now is a better time than ever to take a lesson from this scam by changing passwords, keeping antivirus software up to date, and being extra careful when clicking on links within email messages, even with trusted sources in your contacts, as their accounts may have been affected by the scam. If you are still leery about clicking on a link, it’s not a bad idea to verify with the email sender that they sent you the link before clicking on it, and be cautious about entering sensitive information afterwards. Contact Orbis today if you have any questions about antivirus software.

Sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8292299.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8294714.stm