video of your face contains useful information such as who you are, where you are looking and how you are feeling. If we can extract this information from the video, it potentially paves the way for automatic face verification (i.e. determining whether you are who you claim to be), augmented reality and robots that can recognize emotions.

 

To get this information from the video we track landmarks on the face (e.g. around the eyes, nose, mouth and jawline) using a technique known as the Active Appearance Model that was pioneered by the University of Manchester. The positions of these landmarks relative to each other define the shape of your face and indicate where you are looking, your expression and (to a small degree) who you are. Your identity, however, is more strongly indicated by the texture of the face which we can extract by cutting out just the bits of the image that lie within the boundary defined by the landmarks on your eyebrows and jawline.

This Experiment achieved by the University of Manchester (UK). Using an N900, the research team developed a prototype that quickly locks and tracks 22 facial features in real time (even when upside down) using the Nokia's front-facing camera. The Active Appearance modeling technique was developed for the EU-funded Mobile Biometrics (MoBio) project as a means of using face verification to authenticate smartphone access to social media sites. Unfortunately, there's no mention of how long Manchester's face-verified login actually takes.

The N900 is one capable gaming machine. Thus, it makes perfect sense for the blokes at Game Gripper to mold a controller specifically for that very handset, no? We've already spent a fair amount far too much time with our made-for-Droid edition, and if you're looking to boost your enjoyment level when playing NES ROMs, you can toss your pre-order in this very second. The company's offering the complete Game Gripper N900 for €14.95 ($20), or the button set alone for €3.95 ($5), with initial shipments expected in around a fortnight.

 

MeeGo is an open source platform hosted by The Linux Foundation that brings together Intel Corporation and Nokia's previous projects and is designed for computing device types including smartphones, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and IVI systems. Adoption by this major automotive alliance is a testament to the cross-device, cross architecture advantages of the MeeGo platform. GENIVI is a nonprofit industry alliance with founding members BMW Group, Delphi, GM, Intel, Magneti-Marelli, PSA, Visteon and Wind River.

IVI is a rapidly growing and evolving field that encompasses the digital applications that can be used by all occupants of a vehicle, including navigation, entertainment, location based services, and connectivity to devices, car networks and broadband networks. MeeGo will provide the base for the upcoming GENIVI Apollo release that will be used by members to reduce time to market and the cost of IVI development. MeeGo’s platform contains a Linux base, middleware, and an interface layer that powers these rich applications.

"We are pleased to see GENIVI choose MeeGo to power their software platform," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "MeeGo has been built from the ground up for these types of applications. Because MeeGo is a truly open platform, the work GENIVI will do to extend the platform can benefit the project and all who use it. For developers, this is a great opportunity to harness the power of the MeeGo APIs to target a variety of devices and architectures and extend their work on handset applications toward vehicles."

"We selected MeeGo as the open source basis for our platform because it is technically innovative and can provide the cross architecture build support we require for our references," said Graham Smethurst, President of GENIVI. “Working with MeeGo we expect to establish a solution that effectively merges IVI needs with those of the other MeeGo target device categories.”

"Access to a thriving ecosystem and engaging applications for an in-vehicle infotainment system is vital to our customers," said Gerulf Kinkelin, GENIVI Director and Innovation Area Manager for Electronics and Telematices, PSA Peugeot Citroen. "PSA supports GENIVI’s decision and believes the rapid innovation associated with open source and a rich network of contributors available with MeeGo can enable us to define and deliver a faster time-to-market, outstanding IVI experience in our upcoming products."

An initial release of the MeeGo platform is available now from https://www.meego.com/downloads. Interested parties can download and contribute to the project. The MeeGo project encourages all automakers or industry groups to participate in the MeeGo project or make use of its software to power their own distributions.

Maemo 6 = MeeGo 1.1 (Review + Video on on Aava phone)

 

 

A proper MeeGo device is still nowhere in sight, but the Aava phone is the next best thing it's a developer platform, meaning intended mostly for MeeGo developers rather than customers, but it gives us a look at how the MeeGo OS and MeeGo powered devices might look.

There’s a lengthy video review along with an extensive photo shoot of the Aava phone running MeeGo 1.1. A lot of the things aren’t working yet, but there’s still quite some time before the market launch.

 

Like I said, this Aava phone is not meant for consumers and it shows many things (volume keys included) still aren’t working. The software needs plenty of work too but the things that work look rather impressive.

 

 

While we’re still waiting for Nokia to announce its first MeeGo-powered device, the Moorestown-based Aava Mobile smartphone has already started cropping up around the globe. It has just been caught in the wild and a video is about to show up within the next couple of days.

The MeeGo is still in the works and since Nokia N900 won’t be getting it (at least not officially, though) when the new platform is ready to hit the market we’re still yet to meet the first Nokia phone packing the MeeGo.

And while Nokia is taking a nap, the competition isn’t sleeping: the first Aava prototypes (based on the Moorestown platform) have just begun surfacing. Like this one (pictured above).

 

 

 

Check the Video Below!

 

While promises of MeeGo are stealing all the spotlight, Maemo is not forgotten - certainly not by Opera. They've released an update for their Opera Mobile browser bringing it up to speed with the other platforms.

Sun Spider JavaScript benchmark results, possibly from the Nokia N900 (it doesn't say) and its 600MHz CPU
Opera Mobile 10.1 beta for Maemo brings faster JavaScript, geo-location support and power management support, among other things.

 

Last week, there was an unofficial port of the Opera Mobile 10.1 for Maemo, but this is the real deal. It's not complete yet and has some issues (check the Opera Labs post for more details) but the new version brings some shiny new features to the browser.
The JavaScript engine uses JIT, which is what practically every desktop browser other than IE uses to achieve their blazing speeds (the Android 2.2 Froyo browser too). Opera Mobile 10.1 for Maemo works on the Nokia N800 and N810, as well as the Nokia N900.
Geo-location on mobiles was limited to the iPhones and the Android phones, but Maemo users can get a piece of the action too. Geo-location is used for near-me-now types of searches and other things (if you've heard the phrase "location-based services", this is it, right there in the web browser). You can test how new feature works here or using Google's mobile page.
The power management support sounds good too, though Opera didn't share numbers on how it impacts the battery usage. You can get the Opera Mobile 10.1 beta for Maemo from the Opera Labs page. Don't forget to report any bugs you might find - it will help the developers iron out any issues they've missed for the final version of Opera Mobile 10.1.