Samsung Electronics is developing a wristwatch as Asia’s biggest technology company races against Apple Inc. to create a new industry of wearable devices that perform similar tasks as smartphones. “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” Lee Young-hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, said during an interview in Seoul. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.” Lee had no co

March 21, 2013

Two Canadians have developed a new type of toothbrush that works by the movement of the tongue.The gadget, named “T2T” (meaning “tongue to teeth”), was created by boilermaker Adel Elseri and his friend, Said Fayad, both aged 26.They claimed that users can brush their teeth with the gizmo mounted to their tongue and coated with toothpaste.The newly developed tool is more hygienic than existing toothbrushes, Elseri and Fayad claimed.A Facebook page and Twitter account have been made to promote the

March 21, 2013

U.S. children ages 2-4 who drank skim milk or 1 percent milk had higher body mass index than those drinking whole milk, researchers say. Rebecca Scharf and Mark DeBoer, both of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and Ryan Demmer of Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University said the study involved 10,700 pre-school children. At age 2 the children body mass index was calculated and parents were asked what type of milk they gave their children. The children, a representative

March 21, 2013

Mobile phone users may soon be able to enjoy 3-D pictures and videos on their devices.Researchers at Hewlett-Packard Co. said that they had developed a new way of putting glassless 3-D video onto mobile phones.Although Nintendo has already adopted 3-D technology for a handheld gaming console, users can enjoy 3-D displays only by centering their eyes on the screen.The newly developed technology portrays a 3-D object by creating 64 different points of view, allowing users to see its every angle on

March 21, 2013

A digital talking head named “Zoe” could be a first step toward a new era in human-computer interaction, British engineers say.　The virtual “talking head” can express a full range of human emotions and could be used as a digital personal assistant or to replace texting with “face messaging,” the University of Cambridge reported Tuesday.　Researchers at Toshiba‘s Cambridge Research Lab and the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering said the lifelike face can display emotions such as h

March 21, 2013

Patent infringement had not been a common phrase for the global electronics industry in the past, and companies only had to focus on ramping up the design factor to appeal to customers and create a feel that was different from others. The software that goes inside the device, or rather, just how much of the technology is really “theirs,” was not so significant. But that changed completely with the introduction of smartphones and other devices dubbed “smart,” a trend led by Apple Inc. a few years

March 20, 2013

Harvard researchers say they've linked sugary drinks to 180,000 deaths a year worldwide, 25,000 in the United States."We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity, and that a large number of deaths are caused by obesity-related diseases. But until now, nobody had really put these pieces together," lead author Gitanjali Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told ABC-TV News. Singh and colleagues used data from national health surve

March 20, 2013

A finding of exceptionally low genetic diversity suggests all giant squid worldwide are members of a single species, Danish researchers say.A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reported on DNA studies of the globe-trotting giant squid, which can grow as big as 43 feet long."These observations are consistent with the hypotheses that there is only one global species of giant squid, Architeuthis dux," researcher Inger Winkelmann and colleagues wrote, suggesting the squid coul

March 20, 2013

A recent study suggests that people tend to gain weight when they are deprived of sleep for just a few days in a row, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Sleep experts at the University of Colorado recruited 16 healthy grown-ups and adjusted their sleeping hours to see the changes in their sleep patterns, metabolism and eating habits. According to the research, participants who had their sleeping hours cut from nine to five gained two pounds (0.9 kg) on average at the end of the experiment a

March 19, 2013

NAGOYA, Japan -- Roosters crowing at dawn aren‘t just reacting to the external stimulus of light, Japanese researchers say; they actually know what time of day it is.In a study reported in the journal Current Biology, scientists at Nagoya University say there is indeed a clock in “cock-a-doodle-doo” -- a biological one.“’Cock-a-doodle-doo‘ symbolizes the break of dawn in many countries,” researcher Takashi Yoshimura said. “But it wasn’t clear whether crowing is under the control of a biological

March 19, 2013

In last year’s smash hit TV series “Best Love,” the lead actor confirmed his love for a woman by recalling the melody he had heard during his surgery. A very romantic scene to watch, for sure. However, if it were your operation, would you allow your surgeon to enjoy listening to music while doing a very delicate operation?It’d be better to let them enjoy the music, as one recent study revealed that listening or humming to one’s favorite music helps doctors to work more effectively. The study, pu

March 18, 2013

The U.S. doctor-patient conversation is tougher for physicians with today‘s more informed, more proactive and more in-control patients, researchers say.Al Topin, president of Topin & Associates, who conducted the study, said he found the age-old, doctor-patient relationship has been changing dramatically.“Specialists find themselves answering more questions, countering misleading information patients find online and even justifying their treatment recommendations,” Topin said in a statement.“The

March 18, 2013