NewsFlash is an inventive screen-to-phone interaction technology developed by the MIT Media Lab researchers. It involves a collaborative technique to instantly scan news stories, images and other content on your handset from large screens like TV, tablet or others. NewsFlash makes use of the handset’s rear camera to capture the images without affecting the aesthetic of the original source.
The NewsFlash app transmits a high-frequency red and green light to capture data to the integrated camera of the receiving device. Once accepted, the image will turn to a readable webpage on the handset. You can save the captured items to read later. In fact, the NewsFlash technology functions the same way QR code scanning works.
Your handset with the NewsFlash will generate a flashing light, which is invisible to human eye. The flashing light lets the device’s camera capture the lively versions of the images you wish to scan. In the Media Lab’s presentation of the technology, a Samsung Epic 4G and Apple iPads are used respectively as the receiving and sending devices. (See the video clip below)
According to Media Lab researchers, NewsFlash can be used to view headlines and images from around the world. It can point a device’s camera at any screen to capture images, texts, links or metadata. The app saves the captured articles automatically for reading later. NewsFlash history will be there in your device, which you can access anytime you want.
It looks like that NewsFlash is a great concept as it will help you immediately grab texts, links and phone numbers that you see on various screens while making a brisk walk out of an airport of railway station. When you have time, you can read the scanned content with the same aesthetics of their original sources. The app can also translate other languages that you see on screens.
Via: Engadget