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Gadgets
The Computer that Reads Hand Signals
By Abby Seiff Posted on 6.16.2008 7 CommentsYou don’t have to fumble with a remote control to pause a video on Toshiba’s Qosmio G55-Q802. Simply hold your palm up in the universal “stop” sign. The laptop reads this and other hand signals instantly using the Cell, the supercomputer chip best known for powering the PlayStation 3. An Intel CPU performs most of the tasks on the G55, but a special version of the Cell tackles complex video-manipulation jobs by breaking them into bite-size chunks and parceling them out to four processors on the chip.
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