Daily News Briefs

Rod C. Alferness, optical networking research senior vice president at Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, in Holmdel, N.J., has been named the winner of the 2005 IEEE Photonics Award, "for seminal contributions to enabling photonics technologies and for visionary leadership in their application to networks and systems." The award will be presented at OFC/NFOEC, to be held March 6-11 in Anaheim, Calif., and is sponsored by the IEEE Lasers & Electro-Optics Society. . . . KVH Industries Inc. announced it has received $1.2 million in new orders for its high-performance fiber optic gyro (FOG) systems, to be used in defense-related applications, including stabilization and pointing of remote gun turrets and precision navigation and guidance. The orders are scheduled for shipment in 2005. KVH, based in Middletown, R.I., makes satellite antenna and fiber optic products for mobile communication, navigation and precision pointing. . . . Susumu Tachi, a Tokyo University professor of computer science and physics, demonstrated technology today that could enable the beaming of holographic images from phone booths, the Associated Press reported. He used a 360-degree digital camera to photograph of a person inside a booth then sent data to a cylindrical tube that displayed the image, which appears to be about eight inches in diameter and 10 inches high. Tachi and Tomohiro Endo developed the cylinder, or the SeeLinder, by combining fiber optics, electronics and LEDs. The image is fuzzy, the article said, and the prototype cost nearly $97,000, but the team said it plans to refine the technology and the price for the commercial market.