Technology and Innovation

Hectic lifestyles demand shortcuts, and this applies to cooking.The advent of the microwave was a godsend to anyone who hasn’t got the time to do anything other than lob their dinner into a box and wait the ten or so minutes until it goes’ping’.  The Samsung CK-99FS is an especially solid-looking stainless-steel, no-nonsense affair, with easy-to-use controls, six power levels, a very generous 0.9-cubic-foot capacity, a 1,300W grill, a 1,700W convection oven and a contemporary design. It’s perfect for ready-made meals, big dinners and yesterday’s leftovers a like.

As well as voice synthesis, the SDR-4X also expresses emotion through an advanced range of fluid movements
in its body. Not just a walker and talker, it can sing and dance according to the different music and lyrics programmed into its software.
More functional uses for the robot have not been detailed by Sony, who is tight-lipped about a release date for a consumer model, only suggesting that one will be available before the end of the year. Rumour has it, however, that the SDR-4X will not come cheap: early estimates are it could cost as much as a luxury car.

You’ll also be able to program the biped to move around as you see fit, by hooking it up to a PC over a wireless link. Even if our mechanical friend takes a tumble, don’t worry, it possesses the mobility to stand up again.
Using image and voice recognition to respond to people’s faces and voices, it can also recognise up to ten different individuals through front facial image capture, even against complex backgrounds.This is achieved by using seven microphones placed inside the robot’s head to locate a sound source and recognise individual speech and tone.

The SDR-4X is sensor loaded and operates using 38 independently moving joints fed information from the unit’s real-time control system. One of the key features Sony boasts about is the robot’s ability to sense variations in the surface it’s walking on and adjust its walking pattern accordingly.The robot’s not only capable of achieving a stable and flexible walking pattern, but can also assess its course over varying terrain and navigate objects, such as stairs, in its path.

Even if no one calls, you’ll look incredibly stylish and popular with the new Nokia 8270 CDMA fashion phone. Weighing just three ounces, the . phone comes with user-changeable Xpress-on colour covers (in orange, green, silver, white and magenta) and is the first Nokia in the American market with the signature bright blue backlight. Additional highlights include the ever-present customisable ringtone (with a special feature for individual identification tones), a standard 750mAh lithium-ion battery, a phonebook with up to 250 entries, an alarm clock and a calendar. Nokia has also thoughtfully included a built-in mini-browser with Internet connectivity and two-way mobile text messaging.

Unfortunately the low transfer rate that Wi-Fi currently offers means it only works with low-end applications – and so that means, as yet, no DVD movies in the kitchen or Quake III on the toiletThis does prompt the obvious question; why not use your PDA or laptop? Microsoft argues that as Mira’s only power drain is its display,you’ll get 4-6 hours battery life, and its touchscreen conveniently pops-up a handy “fat fingers” virtual keyboard.
Whether we all go wireless monitor crazy or not, you can expect Mira in the shops by Christmas.

Named after the Spanish verb for”to look” the Philips,ViewSonic and Wyse 10.4-and 15-inch prototypes currently on show are good-looking, but what use they’ll be put to is another matter. Aubrey Edwards, Microsoft’s director of marketing believes the Mira will “free your PC’ from the constraints of your desk, so you can pick up your email and surf the Web all from the comfort of your sofa.

Is your home a temple to minimalism? Do you freak out at the sight of ugly
tangles of wires? Sorry, to hear it. Microsoft may just have had you in mind when it came up with its new home conceptJhe Mira is a portable LCD monitor that communicates with your PC over a wire-free network using the industry-standard Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology.

In its guise as a tray-loading DVD player, the H40 also shapes up, and the inclusion of progressive scanning will guarantee decent image quality. Compatibility-wise, it’s impressive if not utterly comprehensive, with support for standard DVDs and DVD-R plus CDs and CD-RWs packed with MP3s.

The H40’s low-slung dimensions measure up at 430 x 70 x 370mm, and it weighs a lithe 4.5kg. If the undoubted money-saving and operational benefits of this DVD/PVR hybrid catch on, then Samsung may well be conveniently placed at the forefront of a whole new breed of home digital recorders.The DVD-H40 will be in the shops in May.

Samsung nave musded ¡n on the home recording marketwith a sleek all-in-one DVD player and 40GB hard disk recorder. For anyone looking to make the inevitable digital upgrade from VHS,this £699 hybrid does away with the more expensive option of buying a sepárate DVD player and personal video recorder (PVR).

As a digital recorder, the DVD-H40 holds 40 hours of low-qualityTV,a figure thatfallsto eight hours on the high-quality setting.Still more than enough to record, in tortuously pin-sharp style, England getting knocked out in the first group stage of the World Cup fináis in Japan.You’ll also be able to stash MP3s and digital images on the 40GB hard disk.