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[funkervogt]

Just a game? Study shows no evidence that violent video games lead to real-life violence

5 Nov 2021

Mass media and general public often link violent video games to real-life violence, although there is limited evidence to support the link.

Debate on the topic generally intensifies after mass public shootings, with some commentators linking these violent acts to the perpetrators’ interests in violent video games.

However, others have pointed out that different factors, such as mental health issues and/or easy access to guns, are more likely explanations.

In the light of these conflicting claims, President Obama called in 2013 for more government funding for research on video games and violence.

But before governments introduce any policies restricting access to violent video games, it is important to establish whether violent video games do indeed make players behave violently in the real world.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/933708

Findings like these have been consistent for decades now.

[Yuli Ban]

Robotic Kitchen Automation Levels

I’m sure you are somewhat familiar with the self-driving cars levels of automation, perhaps following Tesla’s claims of offering “full self-driving” capabilities, later downgraded to level 2 (out of 5) of autonomy. These automation standards, published in 2014 by automotive standardization body SAE International as “Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to On-Road Motor Vehicle Automated Driving Systems”, are useful to quickly address what we mean by self-driving capabilities. But cars are not the only thing that is getting automated, kitchens are being automated too!

As there is no current standardisation on what “automated kitchen” or “robotic kitchen” means, I will take a shot at drafting how kitchen automation levels could be defined. Having clear levels will help aligning expectations and seeing behind the hype. I will draw from my experience at Nyrvan and take strong inspiration from the self-driving automation levels, as they adapt well to be repurposed for kitchens. The main conceptual difference is that while self-driving automation levels have safety implications, kitchen automation levels are mainly impactful on the level of savings and flexibility that a kitchen owner can expect.

Don’t worry, it’s not going to be a 200-pages standard, indeed for now it’s going to be just a single table! I will mainly focus on commercial kitchens, but the same levels can apply to home kitchens. Without further ado, here you have it:

[Yuli Ban]

A professor in Japan has created a prototype TV screen that generates flavors when you lick it.

The bizarre invention, dubbed “Taste the TV” (TTTV), allows you to taste whatever you’re watching through a disposable hygienic film that covers a TV screen, Reuters reports.

In other words, a special array of ten flavor canisters could allow your taste buds — not just your eyeballs — to follow along while you catch up on an episode of “Iron Chef.”

“The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” inventor Homei Miyashita, professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, told Reuters.

[weatheriscool]

Researchers develop first fully 3D-printed, flexible OLED display
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-ful ... -oled.html
by University of Minnesota

In a groundbreaking new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities used a customized printer to fully 3D print a flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. The discovery could result in low-cost OLED displays in the future that could be widely produced using 3D printers by anyone at home, instead of by technicians in expensive microfabrication facilities.

The research is published in Science Advances.

The OLED display technology is based on the conversion of electricity into light using an organic material layer. OLEDs function as high quality digital displays, which can be made flexible and used in both large-scale devices such as television screens and monitors as well as handheld electronics such as smartphones. OLED displays have gained popularity because they are lightweight, power-efficient, thin and flexible, and offer a wide viewing angle and high contrast ratio.

"OLED displays are usually produced in big, expensive, ultra-clean fabrication facilities," said Michael McAlpine, a University of Minnesota Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the senior author of the study. "We wanted to see if we could basically condense all of that down and print an OLED display on our table-top 3D printer, which was custom built and costs about the same as a Tesla Model S."

The group had previously tried 3D printing OLED displays, but they struggled with the uniformity of the light-emitting layers. Other groups partially printed displays but also relied on spin-coating or thermal evaporation to deposit certain components and create functional devices.

[weatheriscool]

Epson introduces world's smallest and lightest 20,000-lumen projectors
By Paul Ridden
February 08, 2022
https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment ... rojectors/

Epson has introduced a bunch of Pro-focused interchangeable lens laser projectors destined to light up large venues such as concert halls, museums and stadiums, including the world's smallest and lightest 20,000-lumen projectors.

"As the 20,000-lumen market segment continues to grow, Epson’s new EB-PU2220B and EB-PU2120W will become the benchmark for quality and flexibility in live event installations," said Epson America's Gavin Downey. "With a significant reduction in size and weight over their predecessors, the new projectors simplify setup without compromising performance."

The company reports that these two new additions to the six-strong Pro Series additions shape up as some 64 percent smaller and 50 percent lighter than their predecessors at 23 x 19.3 x 8.5 in (586 x 492 x 218 mm) and 53.8 lb (24.4 kg), making them an attractive proposition for venue managers who are short on hardware space.

The new 3LCD projectors boast a hermetically sealed optical engine to keep image-spoiling dust at bay, and throw a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolution image up to 1,000 diagonal inches at 16:10 aspect. Pixel-shifting 4K enhancement technology is cooked in, device-specific contrast is given as 2,000:1 (although dynamic contrast is reported to be over 2,500,000:1) and they're capable of 20,000 lumens of color and white brightness.

[wjfox]

Quality Street – shrinkflation trend

25th December 2022

If the current trend in packaging size continues, a box of Quality Street could weigh less than 200 grams (7 oz) by 2050.

Quality Street has been around since 1936, when Harold Mackintosh began manufacturing the product in Yorkshire, northern England. The company incorporated ground-breaking technology for the time, such as the first twist-wrapping machine to make chocolate affordable to working families.

Since then, the sweets have become famous around the world. Nestlé acquired the brand in 1988, and the tins moved from their historical round design to an octagonal shape. A further rebranding then followed, focused on the iconic colourful sweets and their individual shapes, along with a familiar purple background. Today, Quality Street is one of the world's most recognised and popular chocolate assortments, exported to 70 countries.

In recent years, however, the sweets and their packaging have been affected by a phenomenon known as shrinkflation. According to Wikipedia, this is defined as "the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation. [...] Shrinkflation allows companies to increase their operating margin and profitability by reducing costs whilst maintaining sales volume, and is often used as an alternative to raising prices in line with inflation."

Read more: https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... -trend.htm

[Time_Traveller]

Quality Street – shrinkflation trend

25th December 2022

If the current trend in packaging size continues, a box of Quality Street could weigh less than 200 grams (7 oz) by 2050.

Quality Street has been around since 1936, when Harold Mackintosh began manufacturing the product in Yorkshire, northern England. The company incorporated ground-breaking technology for the time, such as the first twist-wrapping machine to make chocolate affordable to working families.

Since then, the sweets have become famous around the world. Nestlé acquired the brand in 1988, and the tins moved from their historical round design to an octagonal shape. A further rebranding then followed, focused on the iconic colourful sweets and their individual shapes, along with a familiar purple background. Today, Quality Street is one of the world's most recognised and popular chocolate assortments, exported to 70 countries.

In recent years, however, the sweets and their packaging have been affected by a phenomenon known as shrinkflation. According to Wikipedia, this is defined as "the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation. [...] Shrinkflation allows companies to increase their operating margin and profitability by reducing costs whilst maintaining sales volume, and is often used as an alternative to raising prices in line with inflation."

Read more: https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... -trend.htm

Less chocolate, same amount of money.

[wjfox]

Smart appliances could stop working after two years, says Which?

3 days ago

Smart appliances could stop working properly after just two years because manufacturers are failing to provide tech updates, according to Which?.

Research by the consumer champion found products like expensive dishwashers, TVs, and washing machines - which might be expected to last more than a decade - are "being abandoned" by brands.

A lack of software support from firms means devices do not get updated.

The older they get, the risk of online hacking also increases, Which? says.

It found that "hardly any brands even came close to matching their expected lifespan" with their smart update policies, while others failed to respond when they were asked to clarify the length of support.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64249388

[wjfox]

Farewell radiators? Testing out electric infrared wallpaper

1 day ago

Look carefully and you will notice there is something slightly different about Kris Bilski's house in Hull.

It has no radiators.

Yet even on a -2C winter's day, it's nice and warm inside.

This is because Kris is an early adopter of electric infrared wallpaper.

Thin, metallic sheets are hidden behind the plaster of his walls, which are connected to the mains electricity of his house.

These sheets emit heat by infrared waves.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64402524

[weatheriscool]

LG throws 4K movie magic on wall or ceiling with latest CineBeam projector
By Paul Ridden
https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment ... projector/
May 23, 2023

Ahead of last year's CES expo, Samsung launched a "one-of-a-kind projector" called the Freestyle that ditched the familiar boxy housing for a stylish cylinder. Now LG has joined the party with a new CineBeam that goes 4K instead of 1080p.

The LG CineBeam PU700R's "intuitive and interior-friendly design" doesn't exactly mirror the Freestyle, wearing an elliptic face rather than a circle, but it's pretty close.

The DLP projector can throw 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) visuals at up to 120 diagonal inches, and its RGB LED light source puts out up to 1,000 ANSI lumens, with LG cooking in optimized brightness levels for daylight-friendly viewing without needing to close the blinds. Contrast is reported to be 150,000:1, and there's support for HDR10 and HLG content, too.

The comparatively chunky cradle it's mounted to allow for easy adjustment over 90 degrees for placement flexibility, with 4/9/15-point keystone correction and Auto Screen Adjustment – which aligns, focuses and tweaks the image for optimum viewing – helping things along.

[wjfox]

Netflix Plans to Open Brick-and-Mortar Stores in 2025

Visitors will dine at themed restaurants and participate in immersive experiences

October 17, 2023

Long after the fall of Blockbuster, Netflix is planning to open new brick-and-mortar locations in 2025. But instead of browsing video rentals, customers will shop for merchandise, eat at themed restaurants, see live entertainment and participate in immersive experiences surrounding hit Netflix shows.

The first two locations will open in the United States, reports Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. If all goes well, the streaming platform plans to take the concept global.

“We’ve seen how much fans love to immerse themselves in the world of our movies and TV shows, and we’ve been thinking a lot about how we take that to the next level,” Josh Simon, Netflix’s vice president of consumer products, tells Bloomberg.

The stores—called “Netflix House”—won’t be the company’s first foray into the world of retail. Netflix already sells merchandise at its online store and has previously experimented with pop-up shops and experiences in select cities.

Earlier this year, foodies in Los Angeles dined at the pop-up restaurant Netflix Bites, which served dishes created by celebrity chefs that have appeared on Netflix’s shows. The city is also home to Squid Game: The Trials, an immersive experience where participants try to beat six interactive games inspired by the show.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180983085/

[weatheriscool]

Study unveils shape-configurable MXene-based thermoacoustic loudspeakers with tunable sound directivity
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-unveils-s ... akers.html
by JooHyeon Heo, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

Recent research has led to the development of film-type shape-configurable speakers. These speakers, based on the unique properties of MXene, offer tunable sound directivity and hold immense promise for the rapidly growing field of wearable electronics. The study is published in Advanced Materials.

Traditional loudspeakers with bulky vibrating diaphragms face limitations in integrating with wearable devices due to their bulky vibrating diaphragms. However, the team's ultra-thin thermoacoustic (TA) loudspeakers, which are free from such limitations, demonstrate remarkable potential in this domain. The challenge lies in configuring these speakers into arbitrary shapes due to their low sound pressure level (SPL) under mechanical deformations and limited conformability.

[weatheriscool]

Logitech simplifies livestreaming with wireless 4K MFT camera
By Paul Ridden
March 20, 2024

Ease of use, lens flexibility and Micro Four Thirds image quality is what Logitech is offering digital content creators with the launch of the app-controlled Mevo Core wireless livestreaming camera.

The Core follows a 1080p Mevo livestream camera from around four years ago, which featured a fixed lens and a six-hour battery and triple-array MEMS mics for mobile content creation. The battery life and internal mics filter through to the new model, but pretty much everything else has changed.

For starters, the video resolution has been given a serious bump to 4K/30p at 40 Mbps when recording or 1080/30p at 6 Mbps when streaming. The camera also gains a 4/3 CMOS sensor for "DSLR level quality, but with a fraction of the complexity of a traditional camera."

https://newatlas.com/mobile-technology/ ... ft-camera/

[weatheriscool]

Jetdive Pro puts a dual electric power boost on divers' hips
By Ben Coxworth
May 01, 2024
https://newatlas.com/outdoors/ztdive-je ... rs-divers/

If you're looking for a hands-free wearable electric boost while snorkeling or scuba diving, the Jetdive Pro should definitely fit the bill. It's not the first product of its kind, but it is claimed to be the best in several key ways.

Manufactured by Hong Kong company ZTDive, the Jetdive Pro system is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. It's designed to be an alternative to the more traditional "underwater scooters" that users have to hold in their hands, and which partially block their forward/downward view.

The Jetdive gets around these limitations by going on the user's waist. It consists of a waist belt along with two 600-watt electric thrusters mounted on that belt, one at either hip. Users steer simply by twisting their upper body or moving their arms.

[weatheriscool]

New chip design heralds arrival of compact low-power 4K projectors
By Paul Ridden
August 07, 2024

Texas Instruments has announced a new DLP display controller that's markedly smaller than previous iterations, and is designed to cater to a new wave of compact 4K UHD projectors as well as augmented-reality glasses.

We regularly feature home and business projectors here at New Atlas, and we've even tried a bunch of them ourselves to see in person what all the big-screen fuss is about. Many of them are built around Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology from Texas Instruments.

The company's new DLPC8445 display controller is reported to be the smallest of its kind – at just 9 x 9 mm (0.35 x 0.35 in) – and comes in some 90% smaller than previous generation chips. This clearly means that consumers can expect projection gadgetry to be made even more compact in the near future, without sacrificing image quality.

https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment ... -dlpc8445/

[weatheriscool]

BenQ invites movie lovers to lay back and look up
By Paul Ridden
August 16, 2024
https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment ... projector/

BenQ launched an interesting portable projector back in 2021 that had the look of a Bluetooth speaker but offered big-screen visuals as well. The company has added a flagship model to the family that makes use of an underused flat surface for movie screenings – the ceiling.

Sporting a chunky waterdrop shape, the GV50 rocks the same pair of 4-watt midrange drivers as the GV30 before it, but BenQ has pumped up the bass to a 10-W woofer for the promise of satisfying Dolby Audio soundtracks to go with the imagery thrown onto the ceiling.

Of course, you don't have to point the projection unit upward to watch content served up by Google TV (including Netflix) – and if your ceiling is textured like mine, you probably won't want to. The unit boasts 135-degree vertical projection flexibility, as well as a horizontal range of 360 degrees thanks to a rotating base, so the visuals can be flung on a nearby wall or screen if you have one.

[weatheriscool]

48% efficiency boost brings eco-friendly air con a step closer
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
August 22, 2024

We're caught in a vicious circle of facing increasing temperatures across the planet, and combating that with air conditioning – which in turn causes global warming. A problem worth throwing a whole lot of science at, if there ever was one.

Thankfully, we might be close to a fix.

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an elastocaloric cooling device that they say is 48% more efficient than previous attempts.

Built on an entirely different principle for cooling than vapor compression that enables traditional air conditioners to do their thing, it entirely negates the need for greenhouse gas-emitting refrigerants in AC units.

https://newatlas.com/science/hkust-elas ... ng-device/

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Trio of triple-laser mini projectors aim to bring cinema home
By Paul Ridden
October 04, 2024

Hisense has announced a new series of smart mini projectors designed to "elevate home cinema to new heights." The C2 series models each feature the company's Tri-Chroma triple laser technology, sit on a gimbal stand and include a JBL sound system.

At the top of the C2 series tree is the Ultra model, pumping out 4K UHD visuals courtesy of TI's 0.47-inch DLP chip and XPR4 technology – which pixel-shifts the native 1080p output to achieve 4K output.

Throw size goes from 65 diagonal inches right up to 300, there's 2,000:1 contrast and 110% coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut, plus support for IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG content. The company's triple-laser light source gives the red, green and blue colors their own laser for the promise of crisp imagery at 3,000 ANSI lumens.

https://newatlas.com/home-entertainment ... rojectors/

[weatheriscool]

Electric Wallpaper Could Help Warm Poorly Insulated Homes During Winter
The wallpaper is currently being tested in Scotland, where home heating makes up over a third of annual carbon emissions.
By Adrianna Nine October 24, 2024

https://www.extremetech.com/energy/elec ... ing-winter
Researchers in Scotland are testing electric wallpaper as a cleaner alternative to gas-based interior heating. If the trial goes well, it could allow people living in cold climates to keep their homes warm without pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

A collaboration between two Scottish universities and the Glasgow City Council, the wallpaper can be installed on the ceiling—meaning it should technically be called electric ceiling paper, but that's not quite as catchy. The paper contains thin strips of copper and graphene that, when powered, release infrared radiation. This radiation reportedly begins to warm the home within three minutes of being powered on.