Gadgetstronics

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 3:32PM
Since most people spend their days behind computers expressing emotions via colons and parentheses anyway, the Digital Media Design Dept at Hongik University figured they’d just be done with it all when they created the “Mask of Emotion.” It displays LED emoticons that supposedly react to external stimuli, such as a smile when the wearer shakes hands with someone. Its creators say it was designed to hide real emotions and — literally — mask them with whatever is being presented on the mask. Peep the mildly creepy video after the break.

[Via MAKE]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 38 Comments

Filed under: Misc. gadgets

Have you noticed those insanely inexpensive HDTVs for sale at Costco? They are made by a company called VIZIO and they are currently being sued by Sony, Mitsubishi and Samsung over licensing issues.

• Consumer Electronics Daily News: Rival Manufacturers Sue VIZIO Over MPEG-2 Patent Licensing

“VIZIO’s suppliers have licenses for the MPEG-2 patents, and VIZIO believes that these licenses extend to VIZIO’s products,” the company said in a statement today. “VIZIO has notified its suppliers of the lawsuit and expects full support and cooperation by them in the defense of the lawsuit…VIZIO is working to resolve this matter with the plaintiffs and its suppliers, and it intends to defend its legal rights with vigor.”

This is a classic case of “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Sue ‘Em.” Sony, Mitsubishi and Samsung have been gouging the buying public on HD televisions for the last couple of years and BRAGGING about their profits. VIZIO comes along and sells similar televisions for a full grand cheaper and the big companies don’t like them horning in on their profit margins.

If you have been sitting on the fence about buying a VIZIO television, hop to it now before Sony sues them out of existence.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the greatest, most controversial, and most notorious game brands to ever exist. Despite the amazing success of the newest addition to the series, Grand Theft Auto IV was not released for the Nintendo Wii console. Maybe they were waiting for the right time to release the game. Say, when they had an awesome new peripheral to make their version unique.

So maybe vandalism isn’t a huge selling point for a game that features the mass slaying of prostitutes and high-speed pursuits. On the whole scheme of things, graffiti is the least of the cops problems in the GTA series. But even so, the Wii is in need of a little risque edge. Something to attract the solo angry gamer. The Wii Spray might be right up their alley.

Designed by Martin Lihs at Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany, this Wiimote turned spray can demonstrates the possibilities of the Wii console for other gaming genres. The Wiispray aims to give digital vandals all of the commodities of a real spray can, though done in a total virtual outlet.

If Nintendo were to handle a Wii Spray concept right, they might be able to conceive a new path for their very family-centric gaming system, and possibly expand into other markets. Of course it could wind up a disaster as well. It would kind of suck if the Wii Spray were to be integrated into some sort of girly-man art project. We’re just sayin’.

Design Page via PSFK

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Sony has rolled out its HT-IS100 BRAVIA Theatre Micro System that will definitely elicit “ooohs” and “aaahs” from anyone who lays their eyes on it. The main reason behind this sense of awe and wonder is the fact that the micro system comprises of five extremely small speakers which are roughly the size of a golf ball. Don’t let the tiny size fool you though, as the new audio/video system delivers a rich surround sound experience that can be easily integrated into a home theater. It comes with a trio of 1080p HDMI inputs with repeater functionality, providing support for eight channels of uncompressed audio. What is this ideal for? It will go down well with your Blu-ray disc players, playstation 3 consoles and other high-definition sources.

The 5.1 channel system, with 450 watts (RMS) of power, includes a subwoofer with integrated 32-bit S-Master(R) digital amplifier for superb audio performance. Featuring Sony’s S-AIR technology, you can add wireless multi-room listening throughout the home using Sony S-AIR Air Station speakers, which are sold separately. Television audio and music can be transmitted from the main system to multiple rooms throughout the home by connecting the Air Station into a power outlet. An optional speaker kit (WAHT-SA10 sold separately) delivers audio wirelessly to rear speakers, eliminating the need to run speaker wire from the front to the back of the room. The system features Sony’s Digital Media Port, which adds control, networking and connectivity options for music playback through various accessories, including a Cradle for ipod (TDM-iP10), a Network Walkman cradle, a PC client device and a Bluetooth adapter (each is sold separately).

You can pick up the HT-IS100 system when it hits retail stores this July for approximately $700.

Press Release

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 11:29AM
The new ATC5K and ATC3K, Oregon Scientific’s action-packed followup to its ATC2K camera from 2006, bring a few common-sensical upgrades to the waterproof, shock resistant original. They still shoot VGA, but the 3K has new 48 degree field of view and a new CMOS sensor, while the 5K bumps it 53 degrees and a 1.5-inch LCD. The cameras run on AA batteries and can handle up to 4GB SD cards, but where these cheap-cams really “shine” is the multiple included mounting attachments for recording your various extreme sporting exploits. Or when you really just need to set yourself on fire and put it on YouTube — that works too. The ATC3K will be out in July for $150, with the ATC5K following in August for $200.

• Permalink
• Email this
• 17 Comments

Filed under: Digital Cameras

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 10:36AM
If only Mark Ecko had a Wiispray when he was developing Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, perhaps people the world would have understood his vision for a videogame-based, graffiti-tagging urban dystopian angst. Anyway, this Wii Remote turned into a spray can is the product of a student’s thesis at Bauhas-University in Weimar, Germany. Martin Lihs crammed the controller into the can-like structure and plans (hopes?) to create a communal — but not illegal — virtual graffiti wall in which people can add their digital tags and keep it real clean, yo. Curious that he’s using playstation-based triangle and square buttons, though.

[Via SlashGear]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 31 Comments

Filed under: Gaming

It is the game that has become the longest running industry joke since Daikatana. The game that after 12 years of well-publicized delays and disappearance was considered to surely be vaporware. The game is, of course, Duke Nukem Forever by 3DRealms, but the world is finally seeing some proof of its existence.

On the premiere episode of Jace Hall’s new gaming show on Crackle, viewers got to see Jace play Duke Nukem Forever for a couple minutes, and while the footage was brief, it actually looked pretty good, graphically at least. There simply wasn’t enough shown to get a sense of the gameplay, but visually the game looks crisp and up to par with most current shooters.

From Crackle: Jace Hall, Ep 1: DUKE NUKEM FOREVER - SNEAK PEEK!

Kenneth’s Opinion

First off, I like the format and feel of this new gaming show. It has a sort of Japanese feel to it in concept, as quite often in Japan major celebrities will come onto talk shows and play Wii games for the audience. The focus on celebrities who game could give this show a broader appeal than just hardcore gamers. It would be nice to see more of the gaming content and less of the personalities, balance wise, but perhaps this will come about as the show finds its rhythm.

On the Duke Nukem side of the trailer, one has to wonder how much promise to take from this clip. Sure, the game looks presentable as far as the graphics and the abbreviated look at gameplay show, but after 12 years of delays, the cynical side of me says that 12 years from now we could still be hearing (and laughing) about the development of the game.

The internet pornography industry is massive, of that there is no doubt, and the USA hosts 89% (244,661,900) of them. This is a staggering figure, and one that first points towards a degrading society, and then to what impact this is having on the children of today. Statistics show that the average age that a child first sees pornography on the internet is 11, and that within the 8-16 age bracket 90% of children have viewed porn online. So is it really surprising that children are putting naked photos of them selves online? Not really.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation after he posted pictures of his ex-16 year old girlfriend on his MySpace page, but is now being prosecuted for the above offenses. But this is not a singular event, news stories of young girls (and boys) sending graphic pictures to girl/boyfriends are growing exponentially, and the main problem is that if the relationship breaks up the pictures quickly get spread around and within minutes the whole world can see them.

Obviously this is a big problem, and various governing bodies are trying to tackle this, but who is to blame? The parents for letting young people view this stuff, the people who run these websites or the internet in general? Or just the sometimes, it could be the idiot teenagers themselves?

Read [Porn Statistics]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

There has yet to be any official word from LucasArts, but it is widely thought that up to 100 staff have been let go from the company. The news follows the departure of Jim Ward, former president of LucasArts, back in February for personal reasons, but also thought to have left under pressure from the company according to an anonymous Gamasutra article comment.

Kotaku has also spoken with former LucasArts employees where it has been confirmed the jobs have gone. Apparently Shawn Storc, producer on the just-released LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures as well as LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Adventures, is one of the casualties. A different source also believes most of the job cuts were made in Production, QA and Compliance with a view to the company outsourcing those services in future.

If this rumor is true then we could see the company going in a new direction, re-focusing on its core IP and raising its profile. At least, that’s what gamers may hope happens.

Could we see some better Star Wars games appearing beyond The Force Unleashed? Will we get a fan favorite new Monkey Island? It’s clear something has happened, but exactly what we will will have to wait and see. All we can hope for is that this is a shake-up to try and re-focus the studio and nothing more sinister.

Read more at Kotaku.com

I used to do a lot of international travel and as a result have tried a number of low-end and very high-end noise canceling headphones. For some reason when wearing them I always get nauseous, so as a result I have had to instead endure the roar of engines, and conversations of those nearby. Either that or I’ve cranked up my traditional headphones in hopes that they would block out the noise around me.

I thought that the nauseous feeling was just something that came along with noise canceling headphones for me, but that changed when I tried the Clear Harmony Active Noise Canceling Headphones from Able Planet Inc. To my surprise, once I turned them on, not only was the noise around me blocked out, but I felt perfectly fine. That was reason enough to go for the Clear Harmony brand, but I still wanted to put the headphones’ sound quality to the test.

Before I talk about the sound quality, I want to take a moment to describe what’s “in the box”. The Clear Harmony Active Noise Canceling Headphones come in a carrying case and ship with a five foot cord, and two adapters for different audio devices (dual-pin airline adapter; 1/4 inch stereo adapter). The headphones themselves feature an in-line volume control and full-size ear cups with soft cushions. The coolest part about the headphones is that they swivel to not only adjust on your ears, but also fold flat to fit perfectly in the carrying case.

It takes just two AA batteries to get the headphones humming, but they were actually comfortable enough that I found myself just leaving them on my ears, with the power off and no audio source playing.

As for the sound, the quality comes from Able Planet’s proprietary Linx Audio technology. It “creates high frequency harmonics that enhance sound quality and speech clarity of difficult to hear words or notes, and increase the perception of loudness without increasing volume.” What that means is that you can listen to your music at a lower volume, and still enjoy the richness of the highs, the heart pounding bass, and even hear spoken words with more clarity. Linx Audio actually does a lot more, too. I did notice the intense bass, but found the highs were clipped a lot of the time. Not being an audiophile, this didn’t really bother me that much and a quick adjustment on my mp3 player’s EQ fixed the clipping, so I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the player or the headphones.

I mentioned above that I took these on a road test. In my case I was flying from Providence to Seattle, with one stop over. Because the headphones fold into the carrying case, it was easy to take them on board and put them in the seat back in front of me. Once we took off, I fired them up and the roaring of the engines disappeared as I settled in and watched movies I had ripped for the trtip. I then played some podcasts, including NBC’s Nightly News, and enjoyed some Jazz and New Age music. As you can see, I tested with a wide range of audio styles and the headphones performed exceptionally in all instances.

The final test still occurs everyday and that’s tuning out the noise around me. I work from home and have a three month old and a three-and-a-half year old. I’m happy to report that the Clear Harmony headphones also cancel out cries, yells, screams, and just about anything else my kids can dish out.

Read more about the Clear Harmony Active Noise Canceling Headphones at Able Planet.