This afternoon, HP was the subject of news stories that included speculation on HP’s future strategy.

In response, the company issued the following statement:

Speculation today about HP is being passed off as fact and is not accurate. HP is formulating a bold, solid plan for its future, a plan it will share with its employees, shareholders, customers and partners in due course, and certainly not in response to speculation.

“HP is thinking big when it comes to 3-D, really big,” notes Oliver Chiang over at Forbes.com. 3-D was a major theme at this year’s CES tradeshow, Chiang explains. But nothing he saw at the show matched the scale of HP’s 3-D displays.

“R&B and funk band Earth, Wind & Fire were standing around on stage, warming up pre-concert. Or at least they appeared to be,” writes Chang. In reality, viewers were watching a near-life size, wide-screen 3-D projection of the group.

Managing the projection was Pluribus, a software technology developed over the last few years at HP Labs. When controlled through Pluribus, a rack of multiple, inexpensive projectors can be combined into a scalable ‘super-projector.’

The concept is analogous to computer clustering. Take a bunch of off-the-shelf equipment and manage it in a super-smart way and you get something that’s both cheap and hugely powerful. Here, multiple projectors combine to create an image as bright as the most expensive single-source projectors on the market.

(above: Researchers using the Pluribus system at HP Labs)

Novel software aligns the multiple images, automatically correcting for issues like keystoning and photometric variations. And sophisticated HP streaming technology allows live 3-D video to be recorded, transmitted across huge distances and then correctly split up and sent to each projector as needed, all in real time.

The whole system is extremely flexible – just use as many projectors as you have at hand.  And it takes very little time to set up. Conventional multi-projector systems require a ton of time-consuming – and therefore pricey – calibration.

Thanks to Pluribus, a whole new category of ‘3-D immersive events’ should become possible, suggested HP CTO Phil McKinney at the CES event, which was co-sponsored by HP partner Monster. 

“Whereas ESPN might spend $200,000 to $300,000 to do one such event, HP’s setup costs only thousands of dollars,” McKinney explained. 

The research behind Pluribus might one day end up in HP’s consumer products, impacting markets as diverse as gaming, digital cinema, home theater, collaboration and visualization.

But its first application is likely to be – literally – massive.  Thanks to Pluribus, you may see life-size, immersive 3-D events – both live and recorded – being offered to viewers worldwide soon.

Update

Watch HP CTO Phil McKinney discuss Pluribus and the Earth, Wind, and Fire Concert at CES below (and read his blog post at HP's The Next Bench blog for more on this subject)

(Posted by Mike Cuno, HP Financial Services)

As businesses replace outdated IT equipment, the task of responsibly disposing of it can be daunting -- but it doesn’t have to be.

All too often, companies let older technology pile up in a closet or warehouse. But, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure: much older IT equipment can be refurbished and remarketed. By employing the expertise of a lifecycle asset management provider, companies can find value in equipment they no longer need.

Out of sight, out of mind? Not in this case

Old IT equipment can’t just be tossed into a dumpster – it often contains heavy metals and other potentially hazardous substances. If technology is disposed of carelessly or irresponsibly, the equipment can not only endanger the environment, but also lead to litigation and threaten an organization’s reputation.

What’s more, high-tech devices – computers, servers and storage units – are filled with proprietary data, information about customers and employees and even intellectual property. If this information gets into the wrong hands, it can be bad news. That makes data wiping an important part of the disposition process.

HP’s approach

HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and lifecycle asset management division, is responsible for managing the disposition of IT equipment for HP around the world. In 2009, HP Financial Services managed more than 1.3 million units in secondary markets, including enough notebook PCs to cover more than four football fields – plus end zones.

HP was recently named a “Leader” in Gartner’s North American Information Technology Asset Disposition (ITAD) Magic Quadrant. Additionally, IDC has recognized HP as a certified IT Asset Disposal vendor, noting that clients can have confidence in the company’s ability to safely and securely decommission IT assets they no longer need ­– whether they’re from HP or any other manufacturer.

To learn more, check out this whitepaper or visit www.hp.com/hpfinancialservices.