By the end of this year, a startup called Kateeva will start shipping manufacturing equipment that could finally bring flexible displays to market.

For years, designers have conjured up images of displays that could be rolled up. In January 2013, for instance, Samsung showed off a flexible screen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, offering visions of smart watches with displays that wrap around your wrist, or even gadgets that can be folded up and popped in a pocket.

But these prototypes have not been durable enough to commercialize. After unveiling its flexible display prototype, Samsung reportedly ran into trouble with the material for sealing the display—the organic LEDs (OLEDs) used in the display must be protected from water vapor and oxygen. 

“Just a few molecules of oxygen or moisture can kill the display,” says Greg Raupp, an expert on display technology at Arizona State University. “So the encapsulation requirements for an OLED display are quite significant.”

Samsung has come out with curved phones that use flexible displays, but these have been fixed in place so that they can’t be bent, a format that is easier to seal. According to a statement from Samsung, the company does not have “any challenge encapsulating OLED materials” in these mass-produced phones. 

Kateeva has developed an inkjet printing process that can apply a protective coating to OLEDs far faster than previous methods. This promises to cut manufacturing costs in half, and make it possible to integrate the process into existing production lines more easily.

The Internet isn't just a repository of humanity's information (and porn), it could soon serve as a final resting place for the mind after our bodies wear out. Johnny Depp attempts to do just that—but with disastrous results—in Transcendence. But how close are we to accomplishing the same in real life? Quite close, according to the film's star Paul Bettany.

Bettany apparently talked to a "brain scientist" at CalTech as part of his research for the role, who told him such technology could be feasible within the next three decades. It's not the Ghost in the Shell future we wanted, it's the Ghost in the Shell future we deserve. Transcendence hits store shelves and e-lockers tomorrow on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, and Digital HD.

Source : 2045.com

On January 21 a text message flashed on phones held by the protesters thronging Kiev’s Independence Square. Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, was then still clinging to power and brutalizing opponents. The message—from the number 111—read: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.” Widely presumed to have been sent from Yanukovych’s security apparatus to all phones in the protest zone, the message was a stark reminder of how mobile phones can be used for surveillance.

Soon after, a Ukrainian man walked into a nondescript office in National Harbor, Maryland, and sought help from a man named Phil Zimmermann.

Four years ago, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, uploaded a video to YouTube. It featured a demonstration they’d done using a powerful new robot called PR2, a dishwasher-size machine with two hefty arms and six camera eyes on its face. In the demo, PR2 stands before a disorderly pile of small towels. Then, slowly but surely, it stretches its arms, picks up a towel, and neatly folds it, even patting it gently to smooth out the wrinkles. The robot repeats the routine until no more towels are left in the heap.

The researchers were pleased with their work, but they didn’t quite expect what came next: Their video went viral. Within days, hundreds of thousands of people watched it as news of the robot spread through social media and the blogosphere. Reports popped up on newscasts and publications around the world. One Twitter user humorously summed up what the achievement might portend: “I, for one, welcome our towel-folding robot overlords.”