The Fastest Text Input Test: Laptop, iPhone, Pen, Palm, or Newton? [Input]

The Fastest Text Input Test: Laptop, iPhone, Pen, Palm, or Newton? [Input]: "

In this totally unscientific but reasonably fair test, one man writes a long paragraph on several different devices (including pen and paper) to test speed. The results may surprise and anger you.

The contestants: MacBook (unibody), pen and paper, iPhone (portrait), Apple Newton, Palm Treo 650 (hardware QWERTY), and Palm VX (Graffiti handwriting recognition software). There are some details that are a little troubling, of course; with handheld keyboards, speed greatly depends on how often you use then, and the tester has been using an iPhone as his main handheld for 18 months. A dedicated BlackBerry (or Pre) user would almost certainly do better with a hardware QWERTY than the tester did. That being said, it's pretty much impossible to have a perfectly fair test of this sort, and the tester clearly did what he could to eke out the best time possible for each device, so just take his results with a grain of salt.

The results: The laptop keyboard came out in front, which is no surprise, with the iPhone, Treo and pen and paper coming out essentially even, about 50% longer than the laptop. The two handwriting recognition devices finished way behind the pack.

I was a bit surprised, as was the tester, that the laptop keyboard didn't absolutely destroy the handhelds—just goes to show how good those little things really are. But you don't really care about that. It's Apple Tablet week, and what you care about is how this affects our predictions for the Tablet. And I'm not going to disappoint you.

I predict that the Tablet will not be made of ink and paper. You can quote me on that. [Gyford.com]

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Breakthrough in developing super-material graphene

Breakthrough in developing super-material graphene: "A collaborative research project has brought the world a step closer to producing a new material on which future nanotechnology could be based. Researchers have demonstrated how an incredible material, graphene, could hold the key to the future of high-speed electronics, such as micro-chips and touchscreen technology."

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Bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than thought

Bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than thought: "It's not thinking in the way humans, dogs or even birds think, but new findings show that bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than previously known."

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Now You Can See Through Buildings Like Batman Bin Suparman [Augmented Reality]

Now You Can See Through Buildings Like Batman Bin Suparman [Augmented Reality]: "

Taking a hint from how the F-35 demon helmet maps multiple video feeds into a 3D space, a Carnegie Mellon University team has created an augmented reality car system to see through any massive obstacle. The objective: Avoid car collisions.

The system takes video from two cameras and mixes them into one, creating the illusion of being able to see through any object. A video processing system compares the feed from one of the cameras—installed in the car—to the other camera—installed on a street. By identifying common points between the two sources, the software can distort the street camera's video feed to match the driver's view. The matching perspective video gets projected onto the windshield, allowing the driver to see through walls in a natural, seamless way.

The Carnegie Mellon team, lead by Yaser Sheikh, thinks that the system could be easily implemented by tapping into the CCTV camera networks available in most major cities.

I'm glad to see that someone is thinking about making CCTV useful for everyone. On the other side, I wonder why people spend time creating these absurdly useful, accident-preventing augmented reality systems, instead of working in making a software like iNaked (NSFW) a reality. Get on the with the program, people. You need to get your preferences right. [New Scientist—Thanks Jimmy Flores]

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New computer vision system for the analysis of human behavior

New computer vision system for the analysis of human behavior: "Scientists have developed a cognitive computational system consisting of video cameras and software able to recognize and predict human behavior, as well as describe it in natural language. The applications of this project, called the Hermes project, are numerous and can be used in the fields of intelligent surveillance, protection of accidents, marketing, psychology, etc."

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'Nanodragster' races toward the future of molecular machines

'Nanodragster' races toward the future of molecular machines: "Scientists in Texas are reporting the development of a 'nanodragster' that may speed the course toward development of a new generation of futuristic molecular machines. The vehicle -- only 1/50,000th the width of a human hair -- resembles a hot-rod in shape and can outperform previous nano-sized vehicles."

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Seeing a diagnosis: How an eye test could aid Alzheimer's detection

Seeing a diagnosis: How an eye test could aid Alzheimer's detection

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