W5H

W5H

CinemaDNG
What is CinemaDNG?
Adobe Systems announced an initiative for defining an openfile format for digital cinema files and called it CinemaDNG.DNG (Digital Negative) is aimed at delivering to the video arena what RAW did for still imagery.
Who would be working on it?
The coalition of industry entities like cinema camera manufacturers (Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam and ARRI), software vendors (Iridas and The Foundry) and codec provider CineFORM would be working together for defining
and publicly documenting the open-file format—CinemaDNG.
Why is it necessary?
Digital cinema requires dealing with a variety of file formats, which needs to be handled by different hardware and applications. With CinemaDNG, a common platform is possible, thereby easing most hassles such as compatibility and archiving.
When will it be finalised?
No specific time frame has been announced, since the initiative is being carried in coalition with camera manufacturers and other industry players.
How will it be beneficial?
Film makers can have a robust format for archiving with the highest quality source in open standards file formats. Manufacturers on the other hand, will enjoy the elimination of developmental costs for proprietary formats and conversion tools.
Which segment will it directly affect?
As a whole, the major beneficiaries of this open format will be the film-making fraternity. The open file format will directly affect prominent film-makers, since the hardware supporting CinemaDNG would yield significantly superior video quality.


Quick Path
What is it?
Quick Path, also known as Common System Interface is a point-to-point processor interconnect which is intended to replace the Front Side Bus used in traditional processor architecture. It has high bandwidth and extremely low latencies. Like TCP/IP it is a combination of five layers: physical, link, routing, transport and protocol (in ascending order). Each of these layers have different responsibilities and some of them may be omitted in less complex systems.
Who is developing it?
Intel is developing this technology as a rival to HyperTransport, another pointto-point interface used for long by many manufacturers in chipsets, routers, processors and servers.
Why is it needed?
With the dominance of multicore systems the need for faster data transfers between different cores are needed so that performance is not bottlenecked. In particular, processors with four or more cores need more bandwidth than the FSB can handle.
When is it going to debut?
Quick Path is going to debut in the second half of 2008.
Where will it be implemented?
It is going to be implemented on Xeon and Itanium platforms and will be first used by Nehalem and Tukwila processors. Quick Path is highly scalable and is designed for laptops as well as server farms.
How will performance change?
With 4.8 to 6.4 Gigatransfers per second and bus widths of up to 20 bits, the theoretical bandwidth is 24—32 Gbps per bus. These high speeds are needed in mission critical applications and eventually be faster than HyperTransport machines technology.


K-NFB READER
What's the K-NFB Reader?
knfbReader is a mobile phone software for the blind, developed by Ray Kurzweil (the father of text-to-speech) in association with National Federation for the Blind.
How does knfbReader work?
It’s a text-to-speech software that takes its input from the mobile phone’s camera and then uses optical character recognition technology and text-to-speech capability to read out text. It displays each sentence and highlights each word while it’s being read out at a user-adjustable speed. Thousands of pages can be saved in text format using memory sticks. Braille support is available on request.
Which phone models can sport knfbReader?
Currently, knfbReader is paired with and designed for the Nokia N82, Symbian Series 60, (3rd Edition) platform with 50 MB of flash storage.
Who's going to benefit from it?
This technology will benefit the visually impaired and those suffering from dyslexia—generally those who need assistance for reading text. It will make them more independent and boost their performance at professional and personal fronts.
Why will it make a difference?
This mobile reader program is expected to eliminate the need to carry multiple devices and ulitmately make the mobile phone a unified solution. The mobile reader can also function with GPS programs and access PDF files. Besides, accessibility to other mobile functions can be improved by using software such as MobileSpeak and Talks, developed specially for the visually impaired.
When will the knfbReader be available for purchase?
knfbReader was released on February 15, 2008. Get it at http://www.knfbreader.com/