Silicon Valley Watcher - at the intersection of technology and media

http://www.blip.tv/file/2392693

I'm sure you've seen those ubiquitous Intel "rock star" ads that are part of its "sponsors of tomorrow" campaign. I was at the recent Intel Research Day at the Computer History Museum and Intel introduced the real rock stars -- everyone in the TV ads is an actor (and in China all the rock stars are Chinese.)

The real rock stars are Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of USB, and Joshua Smith, a pioneer in wireless power and robotics.

Intel Labs also showed off about 40 projects in its science fair. One of the projects was a wireless electric power project. It will enable you to recharge your gizmos and gadgets without needing to plug them in -- they will get their power through the air. More info here: Research@Intel 2009 - Intel 'Rockstars' Show off Future Research Concepts, Projects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3hro-BsQc

Friday afternoon the Traveling Geeks visit Cambridge Consultants and visit the William Gates III building for meetings with researchers from Nokia Labs and Microsoft Research Labs (MRL).

Cambridge Consultants has helped bring to market products such as:

- Virtually waterless washing machine

- The "connected patient

Low cost cellular base stations.

The Microsoft Research Labs are part of the academic community at Cambridge university and the work is open and peer-reviewed. In the video our guide is Cambridge university lecturer and successful entrepreneur Jack Lang, also Ken Wood, deputy director of MRL, Tim Regan, Research SDE at MRL, and presentations from their colleagues. The video also shows some of Microsoft's research projects.