Better Place's plan for electric cars with swappable batteries is coming to an end. Despite a change in leadership and a streamlining effort over the past six months, the Israeli EV maker has filed a court motion for liquidation, citing insufficient cash to continue operations and a failure to raise the necessary funds. According to Israel Corporation, the firm's controlling shareholder, other investors willing to pitch in the vast amount of money needed couldn't be found. With approximately $812 million lost in operations and deploying battery exchange stations since 2007, and $454 million of that within 2012 alone, it's estimated that just recouping those loses would take $500 million and four years.
"Unfortunately, after a year's commercial operation, it was clear to us that despite many satisfied customers, the wider public take up would not be sufficient and that the support from the car producers was not forthcoming," said Better Place CEO Dan Cohen. Sure, it might be curtains for the company, but the existing battery network looks like it might live on, as the liquidator is being asked to "maintain the functioning of the network."
[Thanks, Michael]
Filed under: Transportation
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Via: Globes
Source: Better Place
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I think we all knew this, but for someone on the inside to come out and admit it it?!? A former FBI counterterrorism agent has hinted at a vast and intrusive surveillance...
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Video chats have become quite popular these days, whether you're using Facetime, Skype or are attending a Google Hangout. One problem with those platforms is that they provide a limited field of view and that view is static for attendees. PanaCast solves that problem with some unique hardware and software that provides a 200 degree FOV and a virtualized camera for each viewer. Its camera has six imagers, an SoC with dual ARM11 cores and a custom-built multi-imaging video processor (MIVP), along with an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port.
The MIVP, with an assist from some custom firmware, stitches all of the input images together to form a single 2700 x 540 video stream. That feed has enterprise-grade encryption and can run at up to 60fps over faster connections, but streams lower framerates over 3G as well. It works over the open internet and streams using a high-speed codec developed by Cavium Networks that needs only 350kb of bandwidth to function. After you're done perusing our gallery below, join us after the break to learn more about how the PanaCast system works.
Gallery: PanaCast panoramic HD video conferencing camera hands-on
Filed under: Cameras, Mobile
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Source: Altia Systems
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Good Times Dan Nosowitz
"My mind is occupied. Please call back later."
We've had a good time with the Necomimi Cat Ears in the past--we used them to monitor our interest in the last iPhone event--but the Good Times project is a use for them we never expected.
The Necomimi Cat Ears, upon which the Good Times project is based, use electroencephalography to monitor brainwave activity. The Cat Ears are a pretty simple cause-and-effect toy: with high levels of brain activity, the ears perk up. With low activity, they droop down. They're fun, but we couldn't see much real practical use for them.
Good Times uses essentially a pair of the Necomimis without the ears attached, and uses the brainwave monitoring to trigger a specific response when people try to call you. When your brainwave activity is very high, the device assumes you're mentally very engaged, working hard on something, and thus do not want to be disturbed. If anyone tries to call during that time, he or she will get your voicemail, which the headset has activated via Bluetooth. Once your brainwave activity has lessened, people will be able to get through again.
I saw the Good Times demonstrated at an AT&T event this morning, and it worked quite well. I'm normally skeptical of EEG, having had experiences with it where it just doesn't work, but Good Times seems to work perfectly. It does, however, look completely ridiculous. That's not really a problem, considering this is more of a fun experiment than a product that's designed to be sold on the retail market. But it's fun!
Good Times was created at an AT&T hackathon, out of a modified Necomimi set. It's the product of one man, Italian native Ruggero Scorcioni, who took first place (and a $30,000 prize) for Good Times.
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