Words are chosen by probability and suggest alternatives which more often than not make more sense than the first word. This introduces a new technique to spy on users without having to actually access the computer at all, all that is needed is a good view of the hands and the measure of the keyboard.

The second spy tech could come right out of the latest James Bond movie. The researchers at Saarland University managed to write a computer algorithm that is capable of interpreting reflections of the computer screen on objects. The quality of the telescope plays an important role, a normal $500 telescope was able to read 12 point fonts of a reflection that was 5 meters away from the computer and 198 point fonts from a distance of ten meters.

A more powerful Dobson telescope for $27500 was able to yield the same results from a maximum distance of 30 meters. Other tests allowed the researchers to view the monitor from a white wall that was 2 meters away from the computer screen.

The best way to defeat the techniques ? Don’t access a computer in public, always close the curtains when working with your computer and make sure no cameras are installed in the room with a computer.

“Using particle-based tools, the Extreme Loading technology generates iterative visuals with the added realism of material based physics. According to the developer, it can be used to design a destructible set — simulations can be run long before the set is built — and the resulting 3D files can be brought into Maya or comparable package for dressing and compositing.”

The second video is a dynamically transparent window that responds to the movements of people passing by. Using a camera, passers-by are tracked, and the data is processed by a system that controls custom-built interactive windows on the facade.

If you do not have a girlfriend yet you probably dislike sleeping alone. While it definitely has some advantages most people prefer the historical two humans per bed approach. If you are one human short you can instead try the virtual approach which adds a virtual girlfriend to your bed that responds to your reactions.

If you lie on the back for example she snuggles up next to you, lie on the side and the spoons on you. The only difficulty so far is that she only exists in 2D which means that you cannot feel her at all.

INBED is what Drew Burrows called his invention which makes use of infrared sensors. I’m not sure if his invention will be that successful because it lacks the somatic sensation..

Visible Body is a free, fully 3D system, that shows you detailed models of some of the human body’s most important parts. You need Internet Explorer (boooo!) with a plugin they supply and your off. The skeletal system downloads automatically, which lets you explore all bones in the body, panning about, zooming in and so on. Other interesting models like the circulatory system, nervous system and muscular system and a few others are also available, adding them is a simple click matter and they will download in a jiffy.

The coolest thing is though that it shows all this element by element. You don’t just get a heap of bones to look around in. All bones are labeled in the sidebar so you can easily find and identify them. Even arteries, muscles and so on are labeled, a job well done by the developers.

This application is great for teachers to whip up a quick presentation on the human body, or actually showcase anything they say on a projector on the fly. It is also great for students for some studying, but also to work on some school projects to use as reference material. It’s almost unbelievable that a service of this quality is free, although now that I think of it, all you need is some 3D skills and a medical encyclopedia, but still, awesome app!

You can pin files on walls, make them bigger to give them more weight and importance (smaller files have troubles moving bigger files). Everything looks really intuitive, easy and strangely familiar. Will everyone be using this kind of 3D desktops in the future or will this remain what it is right now, an experiment..

Here is the movie that shows the clock.

Update: the original movie is no longer available, and we had to search for a copy of it on the Internet. After some searching we found the clock on YouTube, and you find the video link embedded below. You may want to turn down the music as it may not be your taste at all.

A lot of activity is going on at the same time, which may be to much for some users who may prefer a simpler clock. The concept of the clock on the other hand is interesting, and die hard Pong fans looking for a new clock may like the idea of hanging it up in their homes.

The clock’s designer, Sander Mulder, released a limited edition of the clock which sold out in one day. You may sometimes see one of those rare clocks for auction on eBay.

You can also check out this WordPress site which details how you can build your own Pong clock. The description includes the parts list needed, and explains every step of the process with pictures and text. It is still fairly technical, and users who never build an electronic device before may run into a world of troubles trying to build the pong clock.

One suggestion would be to ask a friend, or to hire someone to build the clock for you. While this surely drives the price up, you can be sure that you do not get shocked to death plugging it in for the first time.

Some even have the ability to recharge electricity automatically and order a variety of foods using a local information network.

The price of the robots is cheap, mainly due to the fact that most processes are directed from the outside using wireless connections to communicate with the robot whose sensing and processing functions are maintained by a web connection.

“Like downloading a variety of software to personal computers via the broadband pipeline, most sensing and processing programs will be downloaded to URC robots, said Oh Sang-rok, MIC project manager who is in charge of the URC scheme.

Update: It is now six years after the initial announcement that every South-Korean household will have their own robot in 2020. And while it is still to early to tell if the projection will become reality, it is rather unlikely that it will come true. With eight years to go, and no real robots in sight right now, it is more likely that analysts will have to recalculate the projection to take into account the new parameters.

Eight years is on the other hand a long time, and with technology advancing at a rapid pace it is likely that first generation robots may be released in that time. That is, if you do not count cleaning robots that are already available to the first generation.

It is still a long way to go from cleaning robots to robots that offer a bigger functionality.

Here are videos that have been posted recently on YouTube that demonstrate today’s robotics technology.