Summit Global Group, PLR IP Holdings LLC, and the Impossible Project, a group that had bought a former Polaroid plant in Amsterdam with the intent to manufacture its own instant photography product, have made a deal to manufacture new Polaroid instant cameras and film in 2010.
According to the Boston Herald, PLR IP Holdings is co-owned by Boston-based financial services firm Gordon Brothers Group.
The former Route 128 powerhouse auctioned off its former headquarters in Waltham on Friday. Its assets, including its intellectual property and name, were sold in April to New York-based private equity firm Patriarch Partners.
Even as it fell, Polaroid’s instant photography technology had fans — organized, proactive fans that started projects like Poladroid, a web site that gives digital photos that slightly off Polaroid color; Polanoid, an online gallery of the world’s scanned Polaroid photos; the unnecessary-to-explain Save Polaroid; and the Impossible Project, which had been buying capital to manufacture a similar product. So bringing the product back isn’t that shocking given that some people were bent out of shape enough to buy a factory.
On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”
Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.
But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.
MIT News Office photo
• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.
• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot. (more…)
Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Co. tested a prototype of its VASIMR VX-200 plasma rocket last week. The rocket, running at 1.8 million degrees, is a larger version of the plasma rocket MIT researcher Oleg Batishchev developed for satellites to position themselves. NASA plans to test the argon gas-powered rocket on the International Space Station in 2013 in anticipation of using it for a mission to Mars.
Ad Astra CEO/former astronaut/MIT alum/father of state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz Franklin Chang-Diaz developed the technology. The rocket would cut down the amount of fuel needed for a mission, and shorten the trip to Mars to 39 days.
After the jump, watch more video of the rocket, plus the plasma rocket Batishchev made out of a Coke bottle and a Coke can.
Called CatholicTV, the application includes reflections, Mass celebrations, recitations of the rosary and a few other features.
A test found the application to be a bit clumsy, but any newspaper stock analyst will tell you that divine hostility toward the media is no surprise these days.
The Globe takes a look at some recent developments in the 50-year old field of personal rapid transit — which is like the T, except you get your own, automated trolley, on-demand. So I guess it’s like the T only in that they both run on tracks.
The Globe story neglects to mention Belmont-based startup Rail-Pod Inc., which is looking to deploy the technology in tourist areas. I checked in with Rail-Pod co-founder Brendan English via e-mail, and he said the startup is developing its vehicle, and will be at the Rail-Volution conference at the Westin Boston Waterfront at the end of the month.
Don’t get too excited, fans of bizarre cosmetic treatments — that lady at the salon with the crazy shades isn’t getting the whites of her eyes whitened. She’s watching TV.
The Herald reports Mizu, a hair salon in the Back Bay, is offering similarly named but entirely different MyVu personal video displays to its customers to use while they’re getting their hair done. The MyVu display looks like a pair of futuristic sunglasses, but hooks up to an iPod to play video.
If I only had a nickel for every time I typed that headline … Vladimir Bulovic, of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, hooked a pickle up to what looks like a rotisserie spit, and got it to glow like an OLED pixel.
As Bulovic explains, OLED displays are 100-molecule-thick thin films hooked up to electrodes at the top and the bottom.
“The only thing you need to do next, is make sure you have a million individual little devices side by side.”
The gauntlet has been thrown — who among you will build the million pickle TV? MassTLC’s unConference is Thursday — let’s get this thing going as the next X Prize.
Billerica-based LED-maker Luminus Devices supplies the LEDs necessary to make a “puke light,” which is exactly what it sounds like. At the time, Luminus CTO and 2008 MHT All-Star Alexei Erchak joked that making weaponized flashlights was actually his original vision for the company.
Now, thanks to the Series of Tubes, you can build your own flashlight which, when you shine it at a person’s face, will make that person vomit. What could go wrong?
Incidentally, a sound cannon also briefly mentioned in that MHT story, made by California-based American Technology Corp. has been used on American citizens for the first time. Pittsburgh police fired “shrill beeps” at protesters trying to march on the G20 summit last week. After the jump, subject yourself to the same shrill beeps via YouTube.
From the windows of Mass High Tech’s newsroom, I can’t count construction cranes on the Manhattan skyline. Other folkloric indicators of economic activity, such as men’s underwear sales, are also closed to my view. However, as I chew over the good news that our recession is over, I’ve had my eye on another trend that may not augur well for our region: Business is booming on Craigslist’s Boston site. As of August, listings in the Boston site’s “business” category — where business owners go to sell unneeded furniture and equipment — have doubled over the past two years.
Similar listings quadrupled nationwide, according to a Craigslist spokeswoman. The listings include everything from officesupplies to entire businesses — such as La Bella’s Fine Foods, a catering and café business in Medford that the owner says needs a capital investment to get profitable again.
Craigslist’s overall traffic has grown steadily through the recession. In August 2009, the San Francisco-based online classified marketplace saw 11.6 million more visitors than it saw in August 2008. The site’s 25.6 percent growth, compared with its traffic a year ago, vastly outstripped the Internet at large, where the number of monthly users grew by 4 percent in the same time frame.
“Things are really slow,” said Tony La Bella, the eight-year owner of La Bella’s Fine Foods. “From where I am, it’s probably best to let somebody take it and see what they can do with it.” (more…)
The Globe story neglects to mention Belmont-based startup 
Don’t get too excited, fans of bizarre cosmetic treatments — that lady at the salon with the crazy shades isn’t getting the whites of her eyes whitened. She’s watching TV.
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