Technology news

Published on Saturday 21 June 2008 19:49

FROM 3G TO 3D

An Indian company has pledged to have mobile phones with holographic screens, capable of showing and capturing 3D images, on the market by 2010.

The company, Infosys, has patented the handsets and said the phones will be able to receive 3D movies and pictures.

The phone's powerful onboard chip is designed to build a series of ordinary pictures into 3D holograms using special mathematical processes known as 'Fourier' transformations.

ELECTRIC BOOST

Bosch and Samsung have joined forces to boost their presence in the electric car business. Based in South Korea, the venture, which will be called SB LiMotive, will launch in September. It is scheduled to start production in 2010 in an effort to develop new batteries for electric and hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius.

LOST SATELLITE

Kazakhstan's sole communications satellite, used by many of the country's broadcasters, is out of control due to a computer glitch and is likely to be lost altogether, space officials said last week.

The Russian-built KazSat-1, below, was launched in June 2006, the first of four due to have been in orbit by 2020.

VIRTUAL GUINEA PIG

New computing technologies and the evolution of a 'virtual man' to predict the effects of new drugs before they enter clinical trials could transform the fortunes of pharmaceutical research, a report said last week.

By 2020, the drug research and development process could be shortened by two thirds, clinical trial costs slashed and productivity increased dramatically, according to the report from the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.