NextFest gives us a glimpse of future

If you’re fretting that inventors and scientists have stopped dreaming big dreams, the NextFest exposition in San Francisco last weekend showed that’s just not so.

Organized by Wired magazine, NextFest ( www.nextfest.net) is part trade show, part world’s fair, bringing together researchers and engineers from corporations and universities to show off their ideas.

Some of the displays included:

• Flying scooters. The AirScooter II is an ultralight “recreational helicopter” that’s capable of carrying a single passenger for two hours at about 60 miles per hour. There are no complicated flight controls, just a handlebar with a twist throttle much like a motorcycle. Two 14-foot blades spin in opposite directions above the pilot. Developed by a company in Henderson, Nev., the AirScooter II will go on sale later this year and is expected to cost less than $50,000.

• Invisibility cloak. It’s not quite what Harry Potter used to sneak around Hogwarts, but the University of Tokyo demonstrated an optical camouflage system that gives the sensation of seeing through solid objects.

You look through the viewfinder that combines a view of the real world with an image created by a small projector. Let’s say the person in front of you wears a plastic raincoat; a video camera captures the view behind the person, and a computer puts that image onto the coat using the projector. The result is a see-through jacket.

Among the real-world applications: pilots could look straight down during landing and see the runway beneath them instead of the floor.

• Brain-powered browsers. Georgia State University in Atlanta has harnessed brain waves, received by sensors on the scalp, to control a Web browser. Shaping your thoughts to create commands such as “click on link” takes a lot of practice, so the researchers are focusing on test subjects who are paralyzed and therefore have a strong motivation to make the concept work.

In a creepier variation, Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories of Seattle uses brain waves as a lie detector. Test subjects are shown a photograph or an object, and the brain’s response tells investigators whether the subject has seen the image before.

Built-in censors

A new DVD player is starting to show up on Wal-Mart’s shelves. But this one has Hollywood spinning in anger.

The $70 player, from a company called ClearPlay, has built-in “filters” designed to skip over violence and nudity and mute salty language in 100 movies, including such blockbusters as “Terminator 3” and “The Matrix.” The Utah-based company is adding more films to its filter library all the time. (It now has more than 600 titles available for download.)

At ClearPlay, a “filtering technician” suggests changes; other developers and managers review and make the decisions. Users have the ability to fine-tune which of these filters to put into play, based on their personal sensitivities.

ClearPlay isn’t the first company to try to clean up movies. But it is the first company to produce a standalone DVD player and place it in the nation’s largest retailer.

Wal-Mart sees a demand. Studios and filmmakers, however, are stunned that someone not involved in the creative process could technologically chip away at their work — and make money at it. So lawsuits aiming to get the processes deemed illegal are under way.

Kiosks handy for photos

When you want fast, professional prints of digital images, step up to the photo kiosk. The kiosks are usually self-standing machines with touch-screen monitors. They accept photo CDs and memory cards from digital cameras.

Previously, photo kiosks were only seen in camera stores. Today, there are about 50,000 such machines in drugstores, discount retailers, supermarkets, malls and copy shops.

After you insert your digital media, you are given options to print each picture stored, a select few or even just one. You can also print multiple copies of one picture, and print in a variety of sizes.

You can also get creative with photos by framing with different borders or adding text.

Pricing is set by the stores that host the kiosks, but in general, expect to pay 30 to 40 cents for a 4-by-6-inch print, about $2 for a 5-by-7 and about $6 for an 8-by-10.

Internet may go to TV

A plan to use unused television channels to transmit high-speed Internet access has been backed by the Federal Communications Commission.

By using a technology so signals can be transmitted without interfering with each other, FCC engineers believe it is possible to use radio spectrum more fully.

Rural areas are especially promising for the technology because many remote locations have no access to high-speed Internet.

Even though engineers are confident that unused TV channels can carry Internet signals without harming TV reception, the FCC’s initiative is bound to raise opposition among broadcasters.

The FCC has allocated new channels that will be used by TV stations to transmit digital signals as they continue to broadcast analog signals on their old channels. Eventually, the plan is for the analog channels to shut down and become available for other use. The FCC initiative will look at opening unused channels for Internet transmission.