eye

Clouds ruin GeoEye's satellite image of inauguration

Aw, shucks: imaging company GeoEye could not capture a super high-resolution image of Obama's inauguration today from space.

Using its GeoEye-1 and IKONOS satellites positioned 423 miles above the Earth, the company tried and failed -- due to clouds -- on two separate attempts to capture the image of the inauguration, a GeoEye representative told CNET. GeoEye planned to release an interactive map of the ceremony with a built-in zoom and a slider that would have let the user compare this year's image to the one captured four years ago. Feel free to zoom around in the 2009 Inauguration image embedded below.… Read more

E-ink smartphone on display at CES 2013

Wednesday's CNET Update from CES 2013:

It's day two of the 2013 International CES, and this is the place to see what gadgets could be in our future. There's lots to talk about, but here's a breakdown of the tech that has our attention:

- The YotaPhone has been the most interesting smartphone seen at CES, because it has an e-ink touch screen on its backside.

- Fulton Innovation is showing off technology that lets you wirelessly transfer power from device to device.

- TheEyeTribe has shown how future tablets and smartphones can be controlled with your eyes. … Read more

Tobii Rex: Control a Windows 8 PC with your eyes

Whatever you may feel about Windows 8, it's sparked a number of interesting hybrid designs. Now you can count the Tobii Rex, an eye-controlled interface for Windows 8, as another innovation that works with Microsoft's latest operating system.

First seen at last year's CES, the Rex is an eye-tracking peripheral that works with Tobii's proprietary Gaze interface to navigate around a Windows 8 computer. The stick-like device attaches to the base of your computer screen and connects via a USB port. … Read more

Future of Facebook voting up for vote

Tuesday's CNET Update doubts the vote will be rocked:

Facebook doesn't want policy changes to be put up for a vote anymore. But first, it's letting users have one last chance to make their voice heard on the matter. Facebook lets users vote on policy changes, but the votes only count if 30 percent of all active users participate. Problem is, there has never been enough voter turnout for it to matter. So Facebook now is proposing to end the voting option and also make changes to messages. Users can vote on the Facebook Site Governance app, … Read more

Detecting schizophrenia: The eyes have it

More than a century ago, doctors first realized that people with psychotic illnesses also suffer from impaired eye movements. Now researchers out of the University of Aberdeen in the U.K. have taken that observation and truly put it to the test with high resolution cameras and video software.

The result: a computer model based on a series of simple eye-tracking trials that has distinguished schizophrenics from healthy control subjects with 98.3 percent accuracy.

"It has been known for over 100 years that individuals with psychotic illnesses have a variety of eye movement abnormalities, but until our study, … Read more

U.S. looks to replace human surveillance with computers

Computer software programmed to detect and report illicit behavior could eventually replace the fallible humans who monitor surveillance cameras.

The U.S. government has funded the development of so-called automatic video surveillance technology by a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers who disclosed details about their work this week -- including that it has an ultimate goal of predicting what people will do in the future.

"The main applications are in video surveillance, both civil and military," Alessandro Oltramari, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon who has a Ph.D. from Italy's University of Trento, told CNET … Read more

The 404 1,141: Where we feed the dogs (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Zynga and Hasbro announce board game versions of the most annoying Facebook ones.

- Will.i.am and Simon Cowell considering X-Factor style show, for tech.

- New Ninja Turtles cartoon replaces Cowabunga with....

Bathroom break video: Longboarder attacked by a deer.… Read more

ACDSee 15 offers a top photo editing and managing suite with integrated online storage

ACDSee 15 is a full-featured photo editor and manager optimized for home and business users. It shares many features and capabilities with ACD's pro photography applications, including powerful image editing tools that can handle the tasks you need as well as gigabytes of online storage space that you can use to organize and safely store tons of images. You can access your account anywhere, and from any computer or related ACD tool, by simply logging in. But ACDSee 15 is also specifically geared to make it easy to post and share your photos online, create slideshows and CDs, add … Read more

Eye-popping illusion lets you write with gaze alone

Last month, a paralyzed man sent his first tweet using eye movements. A new technology out of France could allow him not only to type, but to draw and sign his name in cursive on a computer.

The technique, described in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology, relies on a novel head-mounted display that uses a camera to track eye movements and then relays that movement data to a computer.

Discovered by a Paris scientist studying optical illusions, the technique tricks the neuromuscular machinery into overcoming a natural phenomenon known as saccadic eye movements. … Read more