• retweet
  Smart Computing Islands on Everyday Surfaces
  August 12, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a future where you could simply place an item of food on your kitchen countertop, and with a few finger strokes, locate recipes that incorporate that item. You could even put multiple food items on the counter and search for recipes that include all those ingredients. "Object-Aware Situated Interactive System" ("OASIS") combines real-time computer vision algorithms, 3D cameras, and micro-projection for fast recognition and tracking of everyday physical objects and gestures. The Intel demonstration uses displays projected on everyday household surfaces to create interactive islands for in-home applications. It can be easily retrofitted to any home, any room and almost any horizontal or vertical surface. The project has interesting implications for future capabilities around the home.
  
  
• retweet
  Mobile Augmented Reality for Do-it-Yourself Tech Support
  August 5, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a future where computer vision and Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) along with a device with the latest Intel® Atom™ processor could be used to help guide a consumer to do his own home PC repair project. The device was able to identify the model of the PC and provide text and graphical instructions to the user for each step of the repair.
  
  
• retweet
  Mobile Augmented Reality
  July 30, 2010
   
  Intel researchers recently demonstrated, at Research@Intel Day 2010, a Mobile Augmented Reality World Browser application on the latest Intel® Atom™ processor –based platform. The World Browser enriches the way users understand their world on an Intel Atom processor powered Smart Phone. Users can instantly access the huge reservoir of information on the web, by simple click of the camera shutter. The system identifies landmarks on the fly, using compute-intensive visual search in concert with power-efficient sensors, taking advantage of unique IA platform features.
  
  
• retweet
  Online Updates in Data Warehouses via SSDs
  July 22, 2010
   
  Today's data warehouses operate on stale (day-old) snapshots of data, in order to achieve efficient data access. The rise of e-commerce and the need for 24x7 operations for global markets make online updates increasingly desirable. At Research@Intel Day 2010 last month, researchers from Intel Labs Pittsburgh demonstrated research exploiting Solid State Drives (SSDs) to enable fast data access on up-to-the-minute data. Researchers demonstrated a prototype data warehouse that caches recent updates in a SSD, and combines cached updates on-the-fly in query answers while preserving the queries' good sequential disk access patterns.
  
  
• retweet
  Intel Powers Offshore Wind Turbines
  July 15, 2010
   
  Now, more than ever, there is a growing need for reliable, alternative offshore energy sources and with Intel processors powering Mainstream Renewable Power's offshore wind turbines throughout the UK, offshore wind has become a viable contender. Intel embedded technology enables increased control of turbines while reducing costs and providing real-time data processing, easy programmability and advanced pitch designs, which allow utilities to maintain a reliable stream of renewable energy to support future energy innovations.
  
  
• retweet
  Energy-Efficient Hardware Accelerator
  July 8, 2010
   
  Today's microprocessors need to compute more data than ever before, while maintaining a low power state for energy and battery life savings. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is one of the most compute-intensive block ciphers for media content protection and data encryption on high-performance tera-scale microprocessor platforms. The exponential increase in data rates of real-time media processing and computational complexities of mapping modular Galois-field (GF) arithmetic and arbitrary permutations onto general-purpose microprocessors create substantial power and performance bottlenecks within the CPU core. Recently, at Research@Intel Day, in Mountain View, California, Intel Researchers demonstrated an energy-efficient reconfigurable special-purpose hardware accelerator targeted for on-die real-time encryption/decryption of media content in 45nm high-K/Metal-gate CMOS technology. The prototype chip showcases novel high-performance reconfigurable arithmetic logic and data-path circuits that are capable of performing the most commonly employed AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256 encryption and decryption standards at industry-leading throughputs up to 53Gbps while consuming only 125mW. Near-threshold voltage optimized circuits utilized on this chip enable the encryption/decryption performance to scale over a wide operating voltage range from 1.1V down to 320mV. An all-digital variation-tolerant true random number generator design targeted for secure encryption key generation is also demonstrated functioning at 2.4Gbps. See more about research projects in Intel's worldwide network of labs.
  
  
• retweet
  Can Computer Gaming Help save the Planet?
  June 30, 2010
   
  Intel Researchers demonstrated at today's Research@Intel Day, in Mountain View, California, how computer games could potentially assist in environmental policymaking, with current efforts focused on water allocation policy. Researchers hypothesize that immersive games can facilitate public participation and provide insight to decision makers about the effects of various policy alternatives. In addition, game-play observation could enable more accurate modeling of human behavior. Working with colleagues at Sandia National Labs, Intel researchers simulated New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District at ScienceSim, a virtual world based on OpenSim for scientific collaboration and education. They created a role playing game that allows players to act out various stakeholder roles such as farmers, developers, manufacturers, environmentalists, and policy makers. See more about research projects in Intel's worldwide network of labs.
  
  
• retweet
  Transistors - Past, Present, Future, and Future-er
  June 25, 2010
   
  The millions and even billions of transistors you need in the products you'll use more than a decade from now are already being researched and planned for inside the walls of Intel. Using its unique Research-Development-Manufacturing approach, Intel is able to develop the latest transistors and know they will be production-ready and on time to our customers. See "Transistors: Past, Present, Future, and Future-er" blog for more about the plenary talk Intel gave this week at the 2010 Device Research Conference.
  
  
• retweet
  Making Improvements to Cache Memory
  June 16, 2010
   
  Today's CPUs typically contain large amounts of on-chip cache memory, which speed up access to code and data, thereby improving overall performance and reducing power. Intel engineers are looking for ways to make these memories more dense, to either increase their capacity (for improved performance) or reduce their size (for lower manufacturing cost). Floating body cell (FBC) (PDF 371KB) is one candidate to one day replace the 6-transistor SRAM cells in use today. In two presentations at the 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits this week, Intel is presenting progress in developing this FBC. One paper describes the development of a 22nm FBC memory on a bulk wafer of the kind in use in high volume manufacturing today -- earlier results were on much more expensive SOI (silicon on insulator) wafers. Another paper describes a procedure for selectively doping (introducing impurities) into an FBC's back gate, without contaminating other parts of the device . quite a challenge, given its size. Further details are available here (PDF 40KB).
  
  
• retweet
  Increasing the Versatility of Chip Manufacturing Process
  June 15, 2010
   
  Intel is the only company in the world shipping products built on a 32nm (32 billionths of a meter) manufacturing process, and the only one with high-k/metal gate (PDF 13KB), a technology that delivers superior performance and energy efficiency. Now, Intel engineers have developed a new version of this process -- first created for CPUs - to make SoCs, particularly those requiring low power and RF (radio frequency)/mobile communications. A full array of features has been added, including a triple-transistor architecture with high frequency performance, low leakage power and good noise performance, and high breakdown power amplifier transistors. The latter is needed for CMOS power amplifiers in integrated radio applications such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, cellular, and GPS. The process provides noise isolation through deep-n-well and high resistivity substrates, and includes high quality inductors, resistors, and varactors. Intel is describing this new technology at the 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits this week. Further details are available here (PDF 28KB).
  
  
• retweet
  48-Core Single-Chip Cloud Computer - Reading Brain Waves with Computers
  June 15, 2010
   
  Imagine future laptops capable of vision comparable to the human eye, accurately seeing objects and motion. You could shop online using the laptop's 3D camera and display and see a "mirror image" of yourself wearing the clothes you are "trying on," seeing how the fabric drapes when you move or twirl and how the color complements your skin tone. Researchers from Intel Labs recently demonstrated (PDF 652KB) a experimental 48-core Intel microprocessor that could make this and much more a reality. Some researchers believe future computers with processors derived from this chip may even be able to read brain waves - where simply thinking about a command could make it happen. The long-term goal of the 48-core microprocessor is to add scaling features to computers in order to spur entirely new software applications and human-machine interfaces. Intel presented a paper on this technology at this week's 2010 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits. Read more about the "Single-Chip Cloud Computer" (PDF 1.15MB) in Microprocessor Report and see more about how Intel innovation is changing the way we work, live, and play.
  
  
• retweet
  Materials for EUV Lithography
  June 11, 2010
   
  One of the key challenges to successful EUV lithography is the choice of photoresist (aka "resist"), the material used to create a specific pattern on a layer of a chip. The resist must be sensitive to EUV radiation so a pattern can be created, and must resist subsequent etching or other processing steps. Intel has been evaluating various materials for this purpose on an in-house Micro-Exposure Tool. The goal is to simultaneously achieve high sensitivity, high resolution, and low line width roughness (LWR). Intel has demonstrated that a positive-tone chemically amplified resist coupled with an EUV underlayer as well as the use of an ancillary post-develop rinse material can achieve 22nm half pitch resolution while meeting sensitivity and LWR requirements. The results of this work were recently described at the SPIE Microlithography Conference (PDF 4.4MB); check out the paper for details.
  
  
• retweet
  Big Strides in EUV Lithography
  June 7, 2010
   
  Intel engineers working on lithography based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation have demonstrated significant gains on tool, defect inspection and performance fronts. Lithography is the process by which intricate patterns are created on computer chips; the wavelength of EUV is more than 10X shorter than that in use today, meaning that EUVL promises a much sharper "pencil" for creating ever smaller features as Moore's Law advances. Working with a EUV micro-exposure tool (MET), the first to be fully integrated into an IC fabrication facility, Intel engineers have demonstrated significant improvements in ultimate resolution capability. Results were presented recently at the SPIE Microlithography Conference (PDF 4.4MB); check out the paper for details. After over a decade of work, EUVL has moved from research to implementation mode!
  
  
• retweet
  Intel-Powered Fitness Equipment
  May 28, 2010
   
  Intel embedded technology now powers the latest Internet-connected, high-tech fitness equipment, enabling users to track their fitness goals and proactively manage their health and wellness. At its recent Tech Heaven event, Intel demonstrated (PDF 652KB) the equipment, which was designed by the visionaries at Core Performance*. These CPro* multipurpose fitness machines by Core Performance* are used by professional athletes, such as Team USA hockey player and Olympian Angela Ruggerio, as well as everyday achievers in life. This smart fitness technology can help anyone - from moms to engineers to athletes - get a personalized training program designed to meet their goals, lifestyle and fitness level. More information is available in the Embedded press kit; also check out this video.
  
  
• retweet
  Fishing for Faults in the Field
  May 21, 2010
   
  As chip feature sizes get ever smaller, they become more susceptible to noise sources and radiation which can result in non-recurring errors called soft errors. Also, after a chip has been in operation for an extended period of time, degradation effects such as hot carrier injection, electromigration and negative-bias temperature instability can contribute to increases in failures in the field. One way to test for such types of errors is "on line" testing, in which tests run continuously whenever the chip is in operation. But most forms of on line testing such as those using redundancy codes come at a cost in terms of chip area, power consumption, and/or performance. Intel researchers are proposing a low cost and low intrusive approach based on looking for existing information redundancy, rather than adding such redundancy for on line test purposes. Such inherent information redundancy can be exploited to achieve on line testing with low intrusiveness and at negligible cost. Details are being presented this week at the Association for Computing Machinery's International Conference on Computing Frontiers 2010.
  
  
• retweet
  Intel® Intelligent Digital Signage
  May 14, 2010
   
  The Intel® Intelligent Digital Signage Proof-of-Concept, with the Intel® Core™ i7 processor, showcases how digital signage technology can enhance the retail customer experience - such as in a store, bank or airport -with a multi-touch, multi-user interface. At its Tech Heaven event, Intel recently demonstrated this 7-foot-6-inch concept with an LCD display and holographic glass that allows consumers to explore merchandise, find out about promotions, submit feedback on products, read customer reviews, view past purchasing histories and share what they have discovered with their friends via social media and mobile phone integration. Multiple consumers can use the glass display to simultaneously explore augmented reality-enabled maps of each floor of a store. See press kit for more on Smarter Devices with Intel® Embedded and learn more about how Intel innovation is changing the way we live, work, and play.
  
  
• retweet
  The Human Brain: the Ultimate Interface to Computers
  May 7, 2010
   
  People want to access information stored on their PCs and mobile devices in a more natural, convenient way. While multi-touch, gestures and voice interfaces are recent steps in this direction, Intel's aim is to enable people to use their thoughts to directly interact with computers and mobile devices. While still very exploratory, Intel research is already showing that thought-based user interfaces are not as far-fetched as one might think. In a joint project with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, Intel Labs Pittsburgh is investigating what can be inferred about a person's cognitive state from their pattern of neural activity. Researchers are leveraging a variety of brain imaging modalities, including EEG, fMRI and magnetoencephalography, in order to gain insights into how the brain processes information and how that might be used to build more natural user interfaces. See video for more on this research. See more about how Intel is changing the way we work, live, and play.
  
  
• retweet
  Intel Intelligent Home Energy Management
  April 26, 2010
   
  Energy-efficient computing based on Intel® architecture now brings power-saving energy controls to your home. The Intel® Atom™ processor is the heart of a low-power embedded computing panel designed to exchange monitoring and control data with smart appliances, smart plugs, smart electric utility meters and sensors located throughout the home. Intel recently demonstrated at their Tech Heaven (PDF 651KB) event, a concept design for a central control center that provides family members with information to not only control utility costs, but also help them plan their daily activities, access personal messages and activate home security systems. See more about how Intel is changing the way we live, work, and play.
  
  
• retweet
  Your TV is Your New BFF
  April 16, 2010
   
  Future technology will only get more personal. As your computing devices (PC, phone, set-top-box) get to know your interests, goals and daily patterns, they can work together to deliver a seamless, personalized experience that fits your lifestyle. Intel Labs recently demonstrated at their "Tech Heaven" (PDF 651KB) event, a research prototype that helps you identify TV content across many sources (broadcast, pre-recorded and streaming), as well as discounts and opportunities that fit your interests, goals and daily routine. These recommendations are personalized by automatically tracking your TV viewing patterns, your Internet browsing patterns and your daily activities. See blog for more.
  
  
• retweet
  Real-time Privacy Monitoring on Mobile Devices
  April 9, 2010
   
  Mobile phone applications routinely access data for context-aware services, which may result in unintended security exposure. Geo-coordinates of the phone can be accurately tracked and exposed to third parties without the user's knowledge. Or applications could access the phone's microphone and record the audio. Intel Labs Berkeley and Intel Labs Seattle researchers recently demonstrated a proof-of-concept system called "mPrivacy Scope" for real-time privacy monitoring on mobile devices. It tracks personal sensor data use (and abuse) by mobile applications for flexible and complete privacy protection on smart phones.
  
  
• retweet
  Eco-Sense Buildings
  April 2, 2010
   
  Buildings consume 40% of the total energy and 72% of the total electricity in the US, with much of it being wasted. There's a huge opportunity to improve this via computer-based management. Additionally, there are now strict regulatory restrictions as well as incentives for more energy-efficient new construction. Intel is collaborating with a consortium, "GIE Enjeu Energie Positive (French Web site)," along with other companies including Bouygues (construction), Siemens, Philips, Lexmark, Sodexo, Steelcase and others to examine how efficiency can be improved in all stages of the building lifecycle - from design and construction through day-to-day operations. Intel's research focuses on operational efficiency - coordinated power management of all building subsystems and proactive, adaptive control polices based on human activity within the building, as well as optimization of energy across sources and demand-response with utilities. Intel is currently developing research that will be validated in the consortium's living lab. See more about Intel Labs Berkeley.
  
  
• retweet
  Intel® Atom™ Processor in Remarkable Automotive Applications
  March 26, 2010
   
  Powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor for embedded applications, Telemetria's DashTop is an in-vehicle infotainment system that connects the driver to the Internet and other electronics inside the vehicle. Dashtop not only features navigation, but can also show real-time information such as engine diagnostics, weather updates and traffic with smart routing. Check out a video of this IVI application via this MotorWeek episode on PBS.
  
  
• retweet
  Disaster Communications
  March 18, 2010
   
  As witnessed in the recent major earthquakes and other disasters around the globe, people need a rapid way to communicate to obtain emergency assistance and to locate their family members, water, food, and shelter. The current primary infrastructures (cellular networks, Internet) do not satisfy these needs well during disasters. Intel Labs Berkeley researchers are working on a project that would enable citizens to continue using familiar Internet applications on their personal devices (e.g., smart phones, laptops) even when network infrastructure is degraded or barely functioning. They have designed a new protocol with the ability to automatically discover neighbors as well as architecture to support media-rich situation awareness applications. See video and read more on this project and other Intel Labs Berkeley Research projects.
  
  
• retweet
  Power-Aware Perception
  March 11, 2010
   
  Within the next few years, your smartphone will be able to catalog your belongings, your physical activities, your favorite places and favorite things at these places - even how to get those things. It could even teach you how to fix your car or how to clean your espresso machine. The perception algorithms that make this future possible already exist as prototypes in research labs, but they aren't accurate enough and are so power-hungry they will rapidly drain your battery. At their annual open house today, Intel Labs Berkeley researchers demonstrated a new project that explores the design of extreme power management technology to enable mobile devices to support always-on mobile perception applications., i.e., image, facial, object, and gesture recognition. The research scope includes techniques and tools for power-usage analysis, automated benchmarking, application tuning, and an application developer toolkit. See more on this and other Intel Labs Berkeley Research projects.
  
  
• retweet
  Intel-powered Classmate PC & the Magellan Generation
  
  March 3, 2010
   
  Interviews in Portugal with key stakeholders on the deployment of 450,000 "Magellan PCs" for students revealed that the project is so influential the students are now being referred to as the "Magellan Generation" - an entire generation experiencing education in a new light with greater access to information beyond the walls of their classroom. Children are pursuing their interests and using technology as a tool to explore, create, and share their ideas with their friends and families. They have a more positive attitude toward learning and a more widespread belief that they have a bright future ahead. This is the first nationwide deployment with universal coverage of all 1st-4th grade students using a PC based on the Intel-powered classmate PC reference design. For more information on how innovative education solutions from Intel are impacting Portugal, see "The Magellan Generation" blog. For more on Intel in education see the "Generation of Innovators" page and for more on impact, see the "Positive Impact of eLearning" white paper (PDF 449KB).
  
  
• retweet
  Communication-Assisted Platform Power Management
  February 23, 2010
   
  Intel's energy efficiency research is showing how we're reducing overall platform power demands while maintaining high performance. Intel research is taking a holistic approach to power management from the network to the platform for extended battery life. This communications-based technology creates idle durations by aligning Tx, Rx and I/O break events allowing the CPU and platform to get into a low power state faster and stay there longer. This synergistic approach to power management is resulting in up to 30% CPU power savings for various workloads. See video for more.
  
  
• retweet
  Small Objects, Big Worlds
  February 17, 2010
   
  Intel Labs China is showcasing how photography can be used to allow amateurs to create rich visual content including 3D objects mirror worlds, environments that model buildings and other large structures in the real world. One prototype can help users to create a 3D model from real-life images without prior known camera parameters and without any calibration reference. The other can help users to create and navigate a mirror world by using the ever-increasing volume of user-generated and geo-tagged multimedia data.
  
  
• retweet
  Seamless Classroom Transitions Enabled by Intel
  February 9, 2010
   
  Sustained technology use in classrooms is hampered by difficult moments of transitions, which take time and distract from the core activity of learning. These transitions happen between lessons, individuals, study groups, and classroom-wide activities. Intel's efforts in device composition through our Carry Small, Live Large research initiative enables mobile devices such as the Intel-powered classmate PC to dynamically share their clipboard and storage for collaborative learning, and then seamlessly transition to front-of-the-class presentations using wireless display technology. See video for more information.
  
  
• retweet
  Collaborative Visual Analytics in Virtual Worlds
  February 2, 2010
   
  Virtual worlds are powerful tools for connecting groups of people. Intel and Qwaq, Inc. are working together on enterprise collaboration combining Intel's Miramar 3D desktop and Qwaq Forums into a new virtual collaboration environment, enabling groups of people to connect with groups of documents. Recently, Intel and Qwaq brought 3D visualizations into the mix, enabling visual analytics usage models within a collaborative work environment. This connects groups of people with large amounts of complex information for collaborative sense-making and understanding. See Video for more.
  
  
• retweet
  Enhancing Computer Vision with Parallel Programming Tool
  January 26, 2010
   
  Creating applications that take advantage of multi-core hardware requires new approaches in parallel programming. Innovative tools from Intel such as Intel® Concurrent Collections and Intel's Ct Technology can aid the development of these applications, such as computer vision. Concurrent Collections for C++ is a new language, now available, that helps create robust parallel applications, and Ct was born as an Intel research effort to extend C/C++ for data-parallel programming. See video for more.
  
  
• retweet
  Computer Vision Accelerator
  January 19, 2010
   
  As video cameras are integrated into more devices from laptops to phones, computer vision capabilities have become increasingly attractive to enable applications such as gesture-based user interfaces and augmented reality. Intel has demonstrated a functional, reconfigurable hardware accelerator to enable advanced vision capabilities on mobile devices. This research from Intel Labs, St. Petersburg explores the automated design of reconfigurable accelerators based on tools-aided application analysis targeting computationally-intensive media workloads such as the SURF object recognition algorithm. See video for more information.
  
  
• retweet
  Everyday Sensing and Perception
  January 12, 2010
   
  The ability to perceive user context, such as their location, activity and social interaction, is an essential ingredient for future mobile devices. Such devices could remind you to take your medication before a meal, step you through jump-starting your car or help you put a name that you've forgotten to a face. However, understanding detailed context accurately over most of a user's day is beyond the capability of today's devices. "Everyday Sensing and Perception," developed by Intel Labs researchers and demonstrated at Research@Intel Day, integrates a novel wearable sensor-augmented video camera with state-of the art perception algorithms into one of the first systems that can parse much of daily life at a useful level. See "Everyday Sensing & Perception" video.
  
  
• retweet
  Don't Worry, Be Happy: Resilient Circuits
  January 5, 2010
   
  Intel recently demonstrated research on a low voltage resilient processor that automatically adapts its power-performance point to achieve the best throughput at minimum energy. The distributed sensors and error detectors on the die enable automatic reissue of instructions or automatic adaptation of the operating conditions to achieve error-free performance beyond typical dynamic guardbands set by voltage, temperature and aging over lifetime of the product. See blog and video demonstration for more.
  
  

Click here to view the complete Innovation@Intel archive ›

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.