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As others have mentioned what you are thinking of is Moxie - Moxi is a trademark of Digeo and is the name of a DVR

Here is some general information about MoXi provided by Technology Research News.

The software models the gritty details of paper absorbing water and pigment moving through water, including the way pigment concentrates at ink boundaries as water evaporates from drying ink. The technique promises to make computer paint programs with more realistic and could also be used in computer animation packages, according to the researchers.

The simulation is based on mathematics -- the lattice Boltzmann equation -- that physicists use to model the complex behaviors of fluids. The model simulates more complex effects than previous work, and is also fast enough to deliver ink dispersion simulations in real-time on a reasonably large canvas, according to the researchers.

Below are two images generated with MoXi, the first one being called "Lotus leaves" and the second one "Planet" (Credit: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology)

[Link to image in article]

[Link to image in article]

Here are two links to larger versions of these images, the "Lotus leaves" (1.30 MB) and the "Planet" (1.47 MB).

The researchers behind the MoXi project are Chiew-Lan Tai, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, and Nelson Siu-Hang Chu, her Research Assistant.

For more information about their projects, you can read these two pages about the Virtual Chinese Brush and about MoXi. On this page, you'll have access to several videos and images. The two pictures above come from this page.

The MoXi project will be presented at SIGGRAPH 2005 under the name "MoXi: Real-Time Ink Dispersion in Absorbent Paper." Here is a link to the paper submitted by the researchers (PDF format, 1 page, 145 KB). Here are an excerpt from the introduction.

Our paint system, MoXi, allows users to paint in the spontaneous style of Eastern ink painting, on a computer. The simulations of both brush and ink are essential for a successful extension of this traditional art into the digital domain. For real-time performance, we have implemented our ink flow model entirely on the GPU, leaving the CPU for the brush simulation.

According to the researchers, this technique "could be used practically in one or two years." But is this possible that this technology can be sold under the name MoXi? There already is a Digeo service named Moxi which offers High Definition TV (HDTV). And Digeo claims in its press releases (check this one for example) that Moxi is one of its registered trademarks.

...all standalone DVR companies are facing similar hurdles. I have been a long-time ReplayTV user, and when Charter Cable began offering Digeo's new MOXI box, I had to jump at the chance. Yes, it is lacking a few missed features like the ability to offload shows to a PC and "keyword" recording, but the ability to have a dual tuner DVR with fully integrated Digital Cable box (which has virtually eliminated all recording conflicts) along with HD recording, and digital audio outputs for under $10.00 per month with no upfront equipment costs is simply stunning. Neither ReplayTV nor TiVo can touch it from a price/performance perspective. Yes, I am now at the mercy of how the Cable company actually configures the box (for example, I'm patiently awaiting Video On Demand to be rolled out) but the overall experience, feature set, and price point is, to me, excellent. I still have my ReplayTV boxes for offloading shows, but my main DVR is now MOXI.

(Not affiliated with Digeo, just a satisfied customer running a MOXI Tips & Tricks site.)

After using a Digeo Moxi box for several months, I really feel that the likes of TiVo and ReplayTV have huge hurdles against them. I am a long-time ReplayTV user, and though I chose ReplayTV over TiVo, I certainly respect and even envy TiVo's design and imp0lementation. TV viewing without SOME sort of DVR is, to me, a huge step backward.

That said, the Moxi box is certainly not without its foults, and while I absolutely miss the ability to offload shows to my PC (thus I keep my ReplayTV 5000 running) the simple fact is that Moxi's integrated dual digital cable tuners, (eliminating virtually all scheduling conflicts) its ability to record HD programs, its inclusion of games, a Ticker (Weather, News, Sports, etc.) and forthcoming Video On Demand for under $10.00 per month with no up-front equipment costs blows the doors offf of TiVo or ReplayTV hands-down. Joe Sixpack isn't going to care if a feature or two are missing as long as he gets a high "cool factor" at a low price, and DVR's like Moxi deliver.

I packd up my standalone TiVO last week and took it back to Costco. Only 1 tuner, constant issues with not changing channels with the IR, not ble to record HDTV and the $12.95 a month recurring charge were all things I decided I could live without. Our cable provider came out with a nice new Moxi (http://www.digeo.com/) powered DVR. The picture and sound quality is far superior, it records HDTV and has two tuners.

Comcast and Digeo announced back in April they were in trials with the Moxi DVR. And, the Moxi is being deployed with Charter. I wonder if this MS deal will affect any plans for Moxi with Comcast?

Comcast and Digeo announced back in April they were in trials with the Moxi DVR. And, the Moxi is being deployed with Charter. I wonder if this MS deal will affect any plans for Moxi with Comcast?

I've been researching chipsets for digital TV. Here are my links to current hardware products:

STMicroelectronics System on Chip (2) Get Linux here
ATI Xilleon 220 (Products)
Sigma Designs Digital Media Processors (Products)
IBM PowerPC405 STBxx (Zarlink [2], Araneo)
Texas Instruments DM642 DSP (i3 Mood Box , X-Designs Flikit + Softier MediaLinux)
NEC EMMArchitecture2 (Galaxis + LinuxTV , PRISMIQ + Linux)
Equator Technologies BSP-15 boards
Via CN400 (Mini-ITX Board), PM800 and PM880 (w/ HDTV for Pentium 4) , ShowShifter HMN, Soyo Multimedia Ready Motherboard (with TV Tuner, $129.99)
Toshiba TX System RISC (MontaVista Linux)
Windows chipsets:
Intel 815 VisionPlus terrestrial box (Korean OEM)
AMD Geode (CoCom)
ARM (Samsung, etc.)
Digeo X-Stream (Paul Allen company)

Maybe Tivo is acquiring technology to put them in a place to compete w/ Moxi. Well, that is if the thing is ever released anywhere...

Not sure. The Digeo website mentions Q4-2003 availability but nothing else about whether that's direct to consumers or only cable companies/OEMs.

If it does become available though I'm all over it. I built a MythTV box and used it for a few weeks but overall it was just too much hassle and we ended up getting rid of it.

Assuming this thing is no more crippled than preventing moving video off the machine, this is exactly what I want to have. DVD burner would be nice but not the end of the world by any stretch.

The Moxi Media Center is an old idea. It was designed to use 802.11a. The only difference is these students switched the .a to the .g...

Why are we supposed to be impressed again?

Personally, I'm looking forward to the release of the Digeo Moxi. This thing is a PVR with a lot of the functionality of this Lancaster product and more - a PVR, DVD player, MP3 jukebox, DOCSIS cable modem, support for multiple TV's, cable and analog tuning, and connectivity with home PC's.

make sure you provide the moxi box to your customers :)

While the various larger distributions are geared towards multimedia functionality to different degrees, it obviously depends exactly what you want out of your box and how much you want to play with the guts (hardware and software). Many people would be happy with a DVD/VCD/mp3 player rather than a full-blown PVR, and I'm not sure how much freedom you'll get in this area with Media Center Pc's - I doubt this version of XP is designed around being able to rip, mix and burn ;) This is where some of the other Linux projects come in (some focussed on the embedded market only though). Maybe distribution in the classical sense was not the best of description for me to use, although projects like Flamethrower Linux are aiming for that - RedHat and Debian are working on multimedia based distributions, altho they are aimed more at the multimedia worker rather than player.

Projects like Dave/Dina, homeDVR, OpenPVR, MythTV and FreeVo aim at homebrew boxes somewhat akin to the Media Center idea and there are a myriad of sources for building boxes that do as much if not more than the Media Center. Flexibility is always good IMHO, and if you can start with a box that may just do DVD, DivX, CD's, mp3's and ogg, but expand it into a classic gaming machine running MAME et al as well as serving up content to the rest of your flat/house/hovel then that is "a good thing". More info at ding, eboxy.

Remember that Linux is used for commercial PVR's (and the Moxi Media Center) too and while there are companies that do these things commercially, that's normally a sign of open versions being around somewhere, especially if you like to get your hands dirty :) If you don't, then it won't be long before you new (or old) console will be able to fulfill many of these functions, again, they already can to a degree, if you don't mind hacking away a bit.

While the various larger distributions are geared towards multimedia functionality to different degrees, it obviously depends exactly what you want out of your box and how much you want to play with the guts (hardware and software). Many people would be happy with a DVD/VCD/mp3 player rather than a full-blown PVR, and I'm not sure how much freedom you'll get in this area with Media Center Pc's - I doubt this version of XP is designed around being able to rip, mix and burn ;) This is where some of the other Linux projects come in (some focussed on the embedded market only though). Maybe distribution in the classical sense was not the best of description for me to use, although projects like Flamethrower Linux are aiming for that - RedHat and Debian are working on multimedia based distributions, altho they are aimed more at the multimedia worker rather than player.

Projects like Dave/Dina, homeDVR, OpenPVR, MythTV and FreeVo aim at homebrew boxes somewhat akin to the Media Center idea and there are a myriad of sources for building boxes that do as much if not more than the Media Center. Flexibility is always good IMHO, and if you can start with a box that may just do DVD, DivX, CD's, mp3's and ogg, but expand it into a classic gaming machine running MAME et al as well as serving up content to the rest of your flat/house/hovel then that is "a good thing". More info at ding, eboxy.

Remember that Linux is used for commercial PVR's (and the Moxi Media Center) too and while there are companies that do these things commercially, that's normally a sign of open versions being around somewhere, especially if you like to get your hands dirty :) If you don't, then it won't be long before you new (or old) console will be able to fulfill many of these functions, again, they already can to a degree, if you don't mind hacking away a bit.

If you check out the Moxi product page you'll that feature is still listed. I'm sure the journalist/press release writer just didn't feel that was one of the "cooler" features.