Tech Universe: Tuesday 24 May

Amazon report that customers are now buying more Kindle books than paperback and hardcover books combined. Photo / Supplied

TALKING HEAD: At the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo
researchers are exploring ways to make telepresence avatars. One idea
projects a person's image onto a metre wide helium filled balloon
equipped with loudspeakers and propellers. Because it floats, it
avoids problems moving around obstacles or up stairs. The big giant
head indeed! More at New Scientiest, video here.

BIG ELECTRIC: SIM-Drive from Japan have shown a prototype 4-seater
electric car that can travel 333 Km on a single charge. The SIM-LEI
has motors inside each wheel and a super-light frame. They expect to
bring the car to market by 2013. That's about the same distance as a
tank of petrol. It's time to get recharging stations up and easy to
access. More on the SIM-Drive here.

SMART STORES: In some stores in the US you may use a handheld Scan It to scan items as you add them to your shopping trolley. For some
scanned goods you immediately receive a discount on a related item,
for example, scan coffee and you may get a discount on sugar. Shoppers
can bag their groceries as they go, then stop at a self-checkout to
pay. Shoppers find things move more quickly and the shop owners find
they sell more. And no more pointless lifting groceries in and out of
a trolley. More information at WSJ.

BOOKS DON'T NEED PAPER: Amazon report that customers are now buying
more Kindle books than paperback and hardcover books combined. Since 1
April 2011, Amazon.com has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print
books. The number doesn't include free Kindle books. The US Kindle
Store now has more than 950,000 books. And doubtless the sales figures
would be higher if all books were available to all countries. Full release
here.

INSTANT TRANSLATION: While Google Translate has its flaws, it's still pretty handy for a quick check. The Google eBooks Web Reader now
offers the ability to look up a word's meaning (just like Kindle) or
even to translate words within the text. Which would be even more
useful if all books were available to all countries. More at
Google's Blog.

- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz.