Plastic Sheet Offers Wireless Connectivity

The University of Tokyo has something promising in development; a plastic sheet that allows electronic devices to communicate wireless when placed upon it. This plastic sheet is actually fabricated on an ink jet printer in total, but the breakthrough here is in energy needed to communicate via a wireless system is minuscule in comparison with wireless technology today. If the system can scale up to many devices the implications are huge, but let’s step back and look at the retail market for a moment.

Imagine walking in to your house tonight and laying your phone on the desk. The desk, which has the University of Tokyo plastics built in, then updates your home computer with messages, contacts and your calendar all the while charging your phone via another similar technology invented last year by the same group.

A few years ago the Java community was buzzing about refrigerators sending us emails when the milk was low, but just try to imagine a world where we can embed tiny computers in almost anything and then those small devices communicate to either your home computer or each other. Jump forward again to the enterprise realm and consider a server room where many computers are connected by touch alone. No messy wires running here and there, just stack a server on the pile and it lights up with power and connectivity. Breath taking huh?

Delve deeper with these links:

• Smart Sheet Combines Wireless Power Supply and Wireless Communications
• Communicating with Plastic

Microsoft Acquires multiMap

Microsoft has fired another salvo at Google with the purchase of London based multiMap, the second most popular search site in England. multiMap seems a little busy to me, but I’m used to the Google offering, so I will withhold my user interface comments for now. Though multiMap is barely in the black financially, the purchase offers Microsoft some much needed support in the localized search realm. It is expected that the new acquisition will be incorporated into Microsoft’s Virtual Earth team.
The interesting Website of the day is: GizmoWatch, a site devoted to finding the latest and greatest gizmo on the net. I use this one a lot to see what I am missing on the design front in technology. I like it because it is a broad swipe at technology and how it is changing our lives. From the chairs that race around to configure themselves for a meeting to the high-tech Mobility Suit from Toyota.