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Video: German Fembot AILA

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 05:21 AM PDT

When we showed you AILA [GER] for the first time back in April, the only video material available of the robotic female from Germany wasn’t exactly of great quality. But now her maker, the Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI/German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), has shot and uploaded a new, better, and slightly longer (2.42 min.) video.

To recap, AILA stands 170cm tall and boasts these features: 18 joints in the body, a stereo camera, a 3D camera, and three laser sensors.

There are RFID antennas in her hands that help her identify, grab and move objects. She can “autonomously” move around on a 12 DOF mobile base, but as you can see in the new video embedded below, AILA is still pretty slow.

Via Plastic Pals

Site Memory: Evernote for Websites

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:30 AM PDT


The most popular note type created by Evernote users is a webpage. It seems that people love to save webpages in Evernote. Now Evernote is making it even easier for sites to get saved into notes with the announcement of the Evernote Site Memory Button. This is something of a departure from the historical Evernote modus operandi, where the user invokes a client application or opens up the Evernote website: the Site Memory Button is a server-side implementation, and sites that want to use it need to specifically add it. Once added, though, any Evernote user can use the button to add the page to their list of notes. The note will be pre-populated with content selected by the site owner, including title, and even have tags helpfully suggested.

From a user perspective, the most interesting component is that all of the notes you’ve clipped from that domain are available right from the button. You could use this to track your favorite recipes at a foodie blog, or your favorite awkward family photos, or whatever, all from the site you’re already visiting — assuming those sites implemented the Site Memory button. From a site operator’s point of view, you’re adding a pretty handsome bit of new functionality with little effort, and there’s even some scratch to be made! Users who sign up for Evernote from your Site Memory button who later become Premium users will earn you $10. Not bad.

It’s interesting, though not entirely surprising, that the site owner controls what content gets fed to the note created with the Site Memory button. As one commenter on the announcement post points out, ” developers can put in extra content – would this be content that doesn't appear on the page being clipped but that's added to the Note (eg extra links)? … I have reservations as a user. My Evernote is MY memory, not the website I'm clipping from.” The official Evernote reply to that comment is reasonable. I asked Evernote about this issue specifically, and got a similarly reasonable reply:

One of the benefits of Site Memory is that is gives a blogger the ability to deliver an attractively styled note into the visitor’s account, with the attributions, links and styles that they want. From a best practices standpoint, we suggest that site owners use this capability judiciously. Adding significant amounts of extraneous content may run the risk of alienating visitors. Ultimately, this is a decision we want to leave to the site owners, since they are in the best position to understand the needs of their visitors.

The reason we created Site Memory is to give publishers the ability to create a much better experience than if the visitor used one of our web clippers. Of course, if the publisher does not create a better experience, then the user is free to continue using an Evernote web clipper.

So, if you don’t like the way a site uses the Site Memory button, you can keep clipping notes the old fashioned way.

Mini Robot Powered By Panasonic EVOLTA Batteries To Travel 500KM

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:21 AM PDT

Panasonic has apparently enjoyed quite a bit of success with its previous, rather unusual promotion campaigns for its EVOLTA batteries. In 2008, we blogged an EVOLTA-powered mini robot that climbed up a 500 meter high cliff at Grand Canyon. Then, in 2009, we’ve shown you how such a robot ran 24km on the famous Le Mans 24 Hours circuit in France (on 2 AA batteries).

And now Panasonic plans [JP] to let another model travel from Tokyo to Kyoto – no less than 500KM. But this time, the batteries will be recharged along the way (obviously). Details are a bit scarce right now, but the robot will start his journey on September 23. The trip will be broadcast on Ustream, and Panasonic also plans to tweet about what happens on the road, next to blogging [JP] about it.

The robot itself is sized at 150×400×200mm, weighs 1kg and will be powered by a set of AA size EVOLTA batteries (HHR-3MVS, on sale in Japan from October 1). The trip is scheduled to end on December 10.

LuvPad: Japanese Company To Sell 10-Inch Android Tablet

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 03:01 AM PDT

And yet another tablet. This time, we get an Android 2.2-powered model [JP] from Japanese company Mouse Computer. The so-called LuvPad AD100 (what a name) features a 10-inch multitouch LCD screen with LED backlight and 1,024×600 resolution.

Other specs include:

  • NVIDIA’s Tegra 250 mobile processor
  • 512MB of DDR2 RAM
  • 8GB flash memory
  • microSD card slot, USB 2.0 mini port
  • built-in speaker
  • IEEE802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
  • weight: 760g (iPad: 730g for the Wi-Fi+3G model, the Wi-Fi only model is 50g lighter)

Mouse Computer plans to start selling the LuvPad in Japan within this month for $480. If you’re interested but live outside Japan, you can pre-order it over at Geek Stuff 4 U now for $530.75.

Ponoko Teams Up With SparkFun To Help You Make Stuff

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 08:20 PM PDT

Ponoko, a company that helps people make stuff on a small scale, has teamed up with SparkFun Electronics – another company that helps you do the same thing. The reason? Well, Ponoko makes the physical enclosures, and SparkFun makes the electronics. This enables people who want to make stuff order all the parts from one source, rather then multiple sources on the internet.

We’ve talked about Ponoko in the past, they do small scale runs on sheet materials, typically used in making personalized products. Previously, if you wanted to add electronic components you’d be forced to order the sheet materials from one source, and then the electrics from another. Ponoko announced recently that they’ve teamed up with the electronics distributor SparkFun, which will let you order all the parts at the same time. The end result will be a more streamlined production process that will reduce overhead costs and make it easier for people to market their products.

From the press release:

Ponoko has teamed up with SparkFun Electronics to help make it easy for you to build custom electronics products using your online personal factory.

This combines the digital making wizardry of the world's easiest making system with a 1500+ strong electronics catalog from open source electronics supplier SparkFun.

This new service extends Ponoko's materials catalog to include electronic gadgetry as well as timbers, plastics, fabrics, metals and other sheet materials.

"It's the first time we've offered non-sheet materials," says Ponoko CEO David ten Have. "Adding hardware to the mix opens up new possibilities on several fronts. Creators can order all the parts they need with one click, rather than needing to go to multiple sources. They also have a single place to describe and store their product design and its components – in this case, the custom parts and the electronics hardware."

The electronics catalog has been slotted into the existing Ponoko making process so there's virtually no change from the current making system. Creators upload their designs and select flat sheet materials. Then they have the option to add electronic hardware to their order at the same price as buying direct from SparkFun. They get an instant online price, check out, and all of their items are delivered to their door – custom parts from Ponoko and electronic parts from SparkFun.

"This partnership with Ponoko is more than just business. Rather, it represents another step in our goal of 'enabling electronic enthusiasts,'" said SparkFun Chief Operating Officer Trevor Zylstra. "SparkFun and Ponoko are working together to create an easy way for our customers to make polished, complete projects. We want the SparkFun community to have the resources to create unique custom enclosures for their projects. Working together with Ponoko, we think we have accomplished that."

The new service also makes it more practical for creators to sell their custom made electronic products.

"Anyone can sell their custom made goods on Ponoko, including electronic products," says Mr ten Have. "They just take photos of their finished items and upload them to their free Ponoko showroom along with a description. Customers order online and we take care of the fulfillment process – delivering the custom parts and hardware direct to the customer for self assembly."

More than 60,000 user generated goods have been made so far using the Ponoko system. Providing easy access to materials is as much a part of its popularity as easy access to making technology and the Ponoko team hopes to continue to expand its material catalog over the coming months.

The iPod Nano Watch: Fashion Win Or Fashion Fail?

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:30 PM PDT

You knew someone was going to do it, it was just a question of time. The real question is, does the iPod Nano actually work as a wristwatch? Well, that depends on your definition of “works”.

There’s a few problems, right off the bat. First off: battery life. The Nano only has about 8-10 hours of battery life in continuous use, which is less then desirable for a wristwatch. I mean, who wants a watch that you have to recharge every night? Next off, a lack of water resistance. The Nano is not intended to be used near water, and your hands generally are near water more often then you realize. Finally, as a fashion accessory. I like a chunky watch as much as the next guy, but the new Nano is still a little large to wear on your wrist.

If your heart is set on wearing one, you can pick up a Maratac watch band for about $17, and stick it behind the clip on the Nano. I actually have two Maratac bands; they are high quality and look great with a real wristwatch. With the Nano? That’s your call. I think I’ll pass.

[via Gizmodo]

IBM Tells The Story Of Its Optochips

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:30 PM PDT

This is an interesting read if you like stretching your brain around bleeding-edge computing technology. IBM researchers explain the reasons behind and method of creating an optical bus, which replaces the electrical signals your computer uses to communicate with photons. The take-away is that this technology isn’t actually sci-fi; it’s easy enough to manufacture and similar enough in certain ways to existing tech that it could be switched out next year with a little work, to huge benefit.

Of course, the supercomputer guys will get first crack at it, as the synchronization of thousands of computing modules requires a precision no longer providable by copper. Anyway, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time to read the article.

August Sales Figures Show PS3 Gaining, Xbox 360 Outselling The Wii

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:00 PM PDT

When the NPD Group released their August figures, there was a little summer surprise for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Turns out that while Wii sales have slowed down a bit, the overall volume hasn’t really changed that much. That translates to good news for the PS3 and Xbox 360, as their sales have gone up while the Wii’s overall have gone down.

The sales figures breakdown like this:

  • Xbox 360 – 356,700
  • Nintendo DS – 342,700
  • Wii – 244,300
  • PlayStation 3 – 226,000
  • PSP – 79,400

NPD says that August was the weakest month for the Wii since launch. Regardless of the downward trend, the Wii is still one of the best selling consoles of all time. I’d expect to see a spike in sales for the redesigned 360, particularly with the new Halo: Reach being released this month.

[via 1Up]

Adobe To Resume “Dev Work” On Flash-to-iPhone Tool

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:38 PM PDT


Hot on the heels of Apple’s decision to increase, ever so slightly, the opportunities for devs to use different frameworks for iPhone app creation, Adobe announced that its resuming work on its Flash-to-iPhone system for Flash Professional CS5.

Here is the relevant quote:

Apple's announcement today that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for Adobe's Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool. This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices. The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.


Don’t think Apple has given up. This doesn’t mean Flash for iPhone is imminent. To put this in a pharmacological perspective, this allows folks to use “generic” systems for iPhone app creation while the real, Apple frameworks will always be “better.” I also think, in light of Apple’s new App Store rules, that the potential for abuse of these frameworks are minimal. Even if it’s easier to make a fart app in Flash, I doubt it will waft past the approval stage.

Video: Using Microsoft Surface With Joystick Emulation

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:30 PM PDT

Wondering how the Microsoft Surface product will be for gaming? A student at the University of Massachusetts was, and he made a video of what he found out. Have a look and see how Portal and Flight Simulator X controls. I’m still not sold, I found using a touchscreen to be a bit tiring, but hopefully you’ll get something out of it.


Plumen Bulbs Make CFLs Look Good – But They’re Still CFLs

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:00 PM PDT

At the moment, if you’re looking to move to more eco-friendly bulbs, your choices are compact fluorescents or LEDs. The trouble is that LEDs are still pretty expensive (though their color temperature issues are being worked out), and CFLs are… well, fluorescent. Nobody likes fluorescent light.

So while these cool-looking Plumen CFL bulbs let you do away with the incandescent-aping bulb shape of normal CFLs, they’re still going to flicker and hum the way this kind of light always has (at €30, they’re also a bit expensive). If it never bothered you before, then get buyin’, but if you get fluorescent headaches, I’d wait for cheap LEDs.

Or find another way to be green. Power consumption on this level is more “feel good” eco-friendly than “actually effective.”

[via Likecool and Gizmodo]

“Acoustic Fingerprinting” Turns Any Device Into A Touchable Surface

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 05:30 PM PDT


Forgive me for the inexact headline. Of course every device has touchable surfaces — how else would you handle the phone? — but not all respond to those touches. A company called Input Dynamics claims it can use any device’s microphone to pinpoint the location of touches on the device, by interpreting the noise of your finger hitting its surface. Sounds interesting, but can it possibly really work?

It’s called TouchDevice, and while it sounds cool, the troubles here are several. First, I question the precision of such a technology. Can they distinguish between touches a millimeter apart? A centimeter apart? It makes a real difference to how useful it can be.

Also, touchscreens aren’t just about providing buttons to be pressed. The benefit of touchscreens is that you can see what you’re touching. Direct interaction with UI elements is important for the UIs of smartphones today.

Third, apparently you have to make a certain kind of tap on the phone, with a fingernail or other hard object. Isn’t there a huge amount of variance in the acoustic properties of different people tapping, at different strengths, with different objects?

I can see this as an add-on for existing interfaces, like adding a way of doing contextual actions on a tablet — normal touch to do normal things, hard tap to raise a menu or hide a window, that sort of thing. The main benefit may actually be for existing phones without touchscreens, which may be able to be retrofitted with a TouchDevice-enabled OS. I’d have to try it to see if that’s something really worthwhile, but it’s certainly a cool idea.

[via Dvice]

Students To Be Subject To Week-Long Social Media “Detox” Experiment

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 05:00 PM PDT


The Provost of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Eric Darr, has decided to perform what will certainly be an unpopular experiment on the students at his school. Following some chin-stroking related to the nature of social media and its relevance to etc. etc., Mr. Darr decided it would be interesting to block all use of social websites and applications on school networks for a full week.

The school is far from technophobic; in fact, like most modern universities, it is extremely well-wired, and a huge amount of collaboration and communication takes place online. So in addition to blocking Facebook, AIM, Twitter, and Myspace, HUST will also be blocking its internal networks and tools. There’s a lot to like about this experiment, and a lot to discuss.

First of all, the experiment is doomed to failure from the beginning, in a way; the Provost surely recognizes that much of the social web is accessible via smartphone, and text messages have largely replaced instant messenger applications (although within dorms, they are still well-used) for quick communication. But by eliminating the convenient built-in network for these types of social applications, students and faculty still might flail a bit before finding the path of next-least resistance for their social urges. In the post-mortem, it will provide interesting data to hear, for example, which people and groups ended up relying on phones, which actually walked down the hall, and which tried to avoid the whole mess by working from home.

The next idea that occurs to one is how one would go about blocking all social access. It seems to me this isn’t really even possible except by eliminating internet access altogether. A system-wide shutdown of all wired and wireless communications within a modern university — now wouldn’t that be a sight?

I imagine you’d have to talk to carriers, OK things with the neighborhood and city officials, and so on. More trouble than it’s worth, probably. Better to just wait for a blackout and go around taking notes. Note to Google, Facebook and analytics companies: pay close attention to usage after forced absences like disasters and long outages and forward the results to me and Eric Darr.

As a thought experiment, being suddenly deprived of one’s social media tools has a whole range of responses. Some, like me, wouldn’t feel the heat at all. Some enjoy and thrive in it, and have legitimately moved part of their social life onto it — not just heavy Twitter users, but think of serious MMO players, who may spend more time with their clanmates than with their “real” friends (no judgment). Or simply people who rely on technology to keep in touch with distant family and friends.

It’s not always what one expects, though. Think of the poor benighted social media butterflies the world over who have found to their horror that their mobile tweets haven’t been propagating correctly, or their RSS feed has been down, and (as happened recently) no one noticed on either side.

The only way to know for sure what the places of social media and other forms of instant sharing are in our lives is to remove them, and measure the gap. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll be treated to a day without a Google any time soon, and let’s be honest, who among us has the guts to cut the cord, as Paul did? As usual, it will take more than curiosity to part us from our toys — good thing for us that there are (as usual) test subjects a-plenty in the form of undergraduates (side note: I’ve heard Psychology referred to as “the study of undergraduates” because of a huge proportion of knowledge in that field is derived from that population). I look forward to hearing about the results of Darr’s experiment soon.

Apple’s iOS Devices Call Back To The Mothership

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 04:30 PM PDT

Here’s an interesting tidbit for you: whenever an iOS device connects to a Wi-Fi network, it automatically makes a connection back to the mothership. While the URL looks harmless, the potential for abuse is staggering. Of course, is anyone really surprised that Apple wants to check up on you whenever you use one of their devices?

Now to be completely fair, the security expert that found this little nugget has dismissed it as not really being a privacy issue. I question this since I have fundamental issues whenever someone causes something I’ve purchased to contact them without my permission. The potential for attack is definitely there – what if a malcontent manages to hijack that URL, and put a iOS specific virus out into the wild.

So while no personally identifiable information is sent, there’s really no privacy leak here. The problem is that it’s a simple HTTP request, so it really wouldn’t be that hard to redirect it to somewhere less wholesome, and potentially damaging.

Scientists Are Preparing To Pull The Words Out Of Your Brain

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 04:00 PM PDT

Get out the tinfoil hats boys, paranoia just got real. A recent article published in the “Journal Of Neural Engineering” revealed how scientists connected 16 microelectrodes to two different parts of a patients brain, allowing them to determine what word the person was thinking. The technology is being developed to help people that are paralyzed and unable to speak, and while the concept is still in its infancy, the scientists are starting to see some good results.

In fact, they are seeing great results. The study has focused on 10 specific words like yes, no, more, less, hot, cold, and hungry. They have had up to a 90% success rate in distinguishing between the brain activity associated with any two words, and up to 48% success in determining a single word among the field of 10. Of course, this the birth of the technology, and the success rates will improve over time.

[via Singularity Hub]

Dell Home Hawking The New Xbox 360 Arcade For Only $169

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 03:30 PM PDT


Dude, this is totally a good deal. A new Xbox 360 with 802.11n, 4GB, and a wireless controller for $169? Yessir. I’ll take two. [Dell Home via i4u]

Egg-Bot Machine Threatens To Put The Bunny Out Of Business

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 02:30 PM PDT

Meet the hottest geek dad device of next Easter: the Egg-Bot. Developed by the wacky inventors at Evil Mad Science, the Egg-Bot will draw repetitive geometric shapes on any round of egg shaped surface. Think of this as a high tech version of the stencil kit you used to color eggs as a kid, without the colored water and wire egg lifters.

The original Egg-Bot was developed in 1990, and has been evolving (revolving?) ever since. The device consists of a rigid frame that allows you to mount the drawing surface (egg, golf ball, ping pong ball, etc.) on to the computer controlled motor that spins the object. A second servo motor (also computer controlled) moves the drawing stylus against the surface, determining what design will be drawn.

The kit comes with a circuit board that allows you to connect to the Egg-Bot via USB, and control how the motors move. This allows a resolution of up to 3200 steps per turn of the egg. The end result is a pretty impressive build it yourself project that can create some neat artwork. The kit comes with everything you need, including the open source Inkscapesoftware and Python extensions that will allow you to decide what design to put on your egg.

You can buy your own Egg-Bot kit from the Evil Mad Science lab for $195. Currently there is a bit of a backlog, you should expect your kit to ship early next month. I’d expect to start seeing these in shopping mall kiosks this coming holiday season.

[via Gizmodo]

Just A Few More Delays For WakeMate Sleep Aid System

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 02:00 PM PDT


Soon, friends. Soon you will have your WakeMates. As soon as they figure out the quality control issues, ship the pieces to the manufacturer, assemble the units, and pass Apple’s app certification process, they’ll get those pre-orders out to you right away!

WakeMate is a sleep aid system that monitors your sleep patterns, then wakes you at a time calculated to be most beneficial to your restfulness. Sounds good, except they’ve been delaying the first shipments for a good 8 months now, and competitors like Zeo are eating up the market.

To be fair, I like the WakeMate’s armband system better than the headband on the Zeo (in theory, at least). I’d probably have weird dreams with that thing strapped to my forehead.

Need For Speed World Goes Totally Free-To-Play, Now Has 1 Million Users

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 01:30 PM PDT

As if there were any doubt that the free-to-play model for MMOs would take off (and be viable, too), word from EA is that its online racer, Need For Speed World, has passed the 1 million user mark. The game, which officially launched on July 27, puts players in a perpetual world where they can race each other, earn points, customize their cars, etc.

The base game is now totally free to play, but players can purchase additionally doodads—items, power-ups, etc.—to further trick out their car.

"Trick out." See, I’m hip.

Need For Speed World is hardly the biggest MMO to guy free-to-play. Off the top of my head, MMOs that are FTP in some capacity are Lord of The Rings and EverQuest II.

And how many FTP games are available in Asia, where players can buy little bonus dealies for their characters?

This, of course, says nothing of the numerous FTP "social" games like Farmville.

Not for nothing, but I’m one of the 1 million registered users. It’s an OK game, but it’s not exactly as in-depth as its cousin Need For Speed Shift, or games like Forza 3 or the upcoming Gran Turismo 5.

Silverlight Streaming Gets SRS Surround Sound

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 01:00 PM PDT


This isn’t exactly the most momentous announcement, but the evolution of the streaming media platforms out there is worth keeping an eye on. SRS is a good, established sound standard, present on many TVs and now decodable to your local setup through Silverlight.

Once people get over the fact that they can watch anything at any time, they’re going to start really looking at the video and audio quality, and having SRS built in will make it easier to get, say, virtual solid sound pushed to your tablet or mobile phone. They say they can fit a surround signal into 96kbps, which honestly probably sounds like garbage, but it’s a good floor to work up from.

I generally think of sound and video on mobiles (and soon, tablets) as being low-quality in every way, but that’s starting to change. One of these days I might even be able to watch a whole movie on my phone without giving up in frustration.

Here’s the full press release:

SRS FIRST TO COUPLE 5.1 SURROUND SOUND TO MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT AND IIS SMOOTH STREAMING ECOSYSTEMS WITH A COMPLETE TOOLKIT

SRS 5.1 Empowers Content Creators to Enhance Multimedia with Surround Sound Encoding That’s Playable Across TVs, PCs and Mobile Devices

SANTA ANA, Calif., September 9, 2010 – SRS Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRSL), the industry leader in surround sound, audio and voice technologies, announced today that it is making available complete SRS surround sound encoding and decoding technology to users of Microsoft Silverlight, a powerful development platform for creating rich media and business applications for the Web, desktop and mobile devices.

“This is an exciting moment for SRS and we’re thrilled to expand this collaboration with Microsoft to now bring surround sound capability to Silverlight and its millions of users,” said Allen H. Gharapetian, Vice President of Marketing for SRS Labs. “Every day, more and more consumers are streaming TV shows and movies over the Web to their PCs, TVs, and mobile phones, and now, with the availability of SRS 5.1 surround for Silverlight, the collective online multimedia experience will become more vivid and immersive.”

Microsoft and SRS’ collaboration dates back to May 2000 when SRS WOW became a standard feature within Windows Media Player. Today, as part of a larger effort to deliver immersive surround sound to the rapidly growing number of consumers streaming content to their PCs, TVs and mobile phones, SRS has advanced the streaming multimedia experience to the next level by coupling its SRS 5.1 technology with a complete Microsoft-centric toolkit that effortlessly adds bit efficient, exceptional quality surround sound to content created in Silverlight.

SRS 5.1 is designed to provide content creators with the tools to create and deliver true, high-quality streamed surround sound encoded content across the three-screens, TVs, PCs and mobile devices. SRS 5.1 is the only surround format available now in Microsoft Silverlight that is coupled with a complete toolkit. This SRS package functions as a managed code add-on for content creators and developers making surround sound decoding in Silverlight applications easy and seamless. Because millions of TVs, A/V receivers, PCs and mobile phones today feature one or more SRS audio solutions such as Circle Surround, TheaterSound, StudioSound HD, and TruSurround, every one of these CE devices are natively equipped with the capability to decode SRS 5.1 surround encoded content, resulting in a “surround everywhere” entertainment experience.

Some of the other major benefits of these encoding and decoding solutions include:

* Multichannel and front-rendered surround sound
* Smooth steering and full bandwidth for a seamless and immersive surround environment
* Backwards compatibility with legacy matrix decoders and stereo
* Surround streaming over bit rates as low as 96kbps

Since the release of Silverlight in 2007, its adoption has continued at a rapid pace with installations approaching 60 percent on all Internet-connected devices worldwide, an increase of nearly 15 percentage points in just four months. Now with inclusion of SRS 5.1 surround for content created in Silverlight, any PC or connected flat panel TV can decode SRS 5.1 audio for true multi-channel or front-rendered surround.SRS 5.1 effectively provides a top-quality, format agnostic, easy to deploy and manage end-to-end surround sound technology for content creation, transmission and consumption.

“Multichannel audio takes the premium media experiences offered by Silverlight to the next level,” said Brad Becker, director of Rich Client Platforms at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft is pleased to see SRS bring its surround sound technology to Silverlight’s hundreds of millions of users by taking advantage of the powerful extensibility and interoperability that Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming provide.”

The tools and white paper for SRS 5.1 content creation with Silverlight are available now at www.srslabs.com/Silverlight. Meanwhile, a demonstration of SRS 5.1 will be available at IBC in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from September 10th to 14th at the Microsoft stand located in the Topaz Lounge.
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