Intel demonstrates low-powered CPU that draws power from red wine

The closing day of Intel’s annual Developer Forum is typically reserved to highlight future-looking projects and this year was no different. In-house anthropologist Dr. Genevieve Bell demonstrated a processor that is so efficient that it can draw the power it needs from a glass of red wine.

The wine glass in question used two electrodes that reacted with the acetic acid in the red wine to power a low-powered processor and accelerometer. It’s similar in theory to the potato battery that children have used in science fairs for years although Bell wanted to show that even the slightest bit of power could run Intel silicon.

Through the demonstration Bell said it is possible to start to imagine a world of incredibly low-power devices that also offer high performance. This will help unburden people – especially those in developing countries – and give us a pathway to wearable technology with the ability to power things like constant sensing, communication and computing – all of which are necessary for our mobile future, she said.

Elsewhere, Lama Nachman, principal engineer at Intel Labs, joined Bell to demonstrate a few other nifty ideas in mobile. One involved voice recognition to unlock a phone while the other used the accelerometer in a handset to record a user’s gait while walking which was then used to unlock the phone. When movements were mimicked by another person, the phone noticed the subtle differences and locked the system down.

Technology like this is still likely years away but it’s neat to get a glimpse into what the future may hold.

PhysX effects highlighted in Batman: Arkham Origins tech demo

Last month it was revealed that Nvidia would offer Batman: Arkham Origins free with select GeForce graphics card purchases. We were told at the time the game would take advantage of a number of technologies including PhsyX effects and now we have some visuals to show off what gamers can expect come October 25.

In the tech demo embedded below, we can see Batman has an all-new cape that uses PhysX technology. The narrator notes how it makes him look much more realistic. Elsewhere we are shown how the environment is affected by PhysX-powered fog that reacts realistically to the motions of the characters in the scene.

As The Tech Report points out, however, the video isn’t a great representation of what we will see when rendering the game on our own machines. Even with the YouTube video running at 720p, the footage looks a bit washed out and the textures appear to be lacking. Video compression may or may not be the culprit here.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that, while the fog and particle effects do look really neat, they often only serve as distractions when I’m playing a game. I prefer to have a clearer view of the world around me rather than have it masked by smoke or fog or some other environmental effect that takes away from me having the upper hand.

What says you? Do you like to play games with all of these environmental effects enabled or would you rather have those bits of eye candy disabled for higher overall FPS / a clearer view?

Demonoid shut down by Ukrainian authorities following DDoS attack

Demonoid, the Internet's largest combined BitTorrent site and tracker, has been shutdown in one of the biggest BitTorrent-related busts in recent times, according to TorrentFreak. ColoCall, the Ukrainian datacenter who hosts Demonoid, was forced to relinquish Demonoid's data to local authorities and terminate service for the site.

Just prior to the bust, the semi-private tracker and site had essentially been inoperative for more than a week due a massive DDoS attack. Demonoid's admin recently confirmed the site had been hacked in addition to the DDoS attack, but vowed the site would be brought back to life despite recent difficulties. He admitted though, it may take awhile to address the site's underlying issues. Unfortunately for Demonoid, local authorities may make the site's brief intermission a permanent one.

The timing is interesting; and not just due to the concurrency of the DDoS, hacking and investigation, but because of recent political events as well. TorrentFreak points out that the bust happens to coincide with the very first trip taken to the United States by Ukraine's newly appointed First Vice Prime Minister, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky. Curiously, while he visits the U.S., Khoroshkovsky will be discussing a very familiar topic: International copyright infringement. 

The First Vice Prime Minister’s visit follows a purported promise by the Ukrainian government to step up International copyright protection. With that and the timing of events in mind, TorrentFreak's sources theorize that Demonoid may have actually been a Ukrainian "gift" to show the U.S. that the country is serious about protecting intellectual property.