Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Steven Ballmer's Thoughts About Microsoft

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:02:03 GMT

Steven Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, recently talked with BusinessWeek. In this column, he expressed his thoughts on a wide range of topics. Here are my favorite picks.

3D Scanners For Home Usage?

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 17:13:33 GMT

Until now, 3D scanning was expensive and mostly used by corporations. Now, a new technology developed in Australia by CSIRO has the potential to deliver 3D scanners in our homes, if manufacturers are interested of course.

Digital Imaging System Leads To Perfect Buns

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 11:22:57 GMT

One of the growing market segment of the bakery industry is the production of buns and other rolls for fast-food restaurants. Now, research engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology are working with bakers from Flowers Bakery on a machine vision-based approach in a quest to produce perfect buns.

Inkha, the Roboceptionist

Tue, 25 Nov 2003 12:01:02 GMT

In "Robo-receptionist clocks on," Nature tells us the story of Inkha, a robot which greets guests of King's College London (KCL) and adds artificial intelligence to the front desk.

Is Time Travel Possible?

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 10:56:41 GMT

You probably read Timeline, the book by Michael Crichton in which a group of historians travels back in time. As the movie adaptation is about to be released, Scientific American discussed with theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, whose ideas inspired Crichton, and asked him if time travel was plausible.

The TeraGyroid Project Uses Transatlantic Supercomputing

Sun, 23 Nov 2003 12:32:57 GMT

During SC2003, the TeraGyroid Project used more than 6,000 processors and 17 teraflops at six supercomputing facilities located on two continents.

A Robot Carries Humans, Another One Plays Flute

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:19:06 GMT

The New Scientist says that a robot able to carry humans was demonstrated in Tokyo. The article provides a nice picture.