The days of air-punching invisible
Daleks and making your own sound effects are over: a team from
Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction course have built a glove that does it all for you. The Augmented Hyper-Reality Glove can identify upper-cuts and karate chops using flex and tilt sensors and play the accompanying sound effect using an
Arduino-powered
Adafruit wave shield. We can see some potential downsides — flirtatious finger-gun fusillades accompanied by the sound of cannon fire might just ruin your date. If you’re undaunted by such social faux pas, see the toy your inner-child always wanted in action after the break.
Continue reading Arduino-powered glove brings real sound effects to your make believe gun show (video)
Arduino-powered glove brings real sound effects to your make believe gun show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re not gonna lie: we’re on one. One heck of a crazy week, that is! Two big phone launches kept our feet close to the fire, and a couple of odds n’ ends rounded out the week in the way that only odds and ends can — oddly. It’s the Engadget Podcasters, live in a room together, at last, and with devastatingly informative consequences.
Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guest: Dana Wollman
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Devil’s Haircut
02:30 – Samsung and Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich event liveblog!
03:30 – Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus gets official: Android 4.0, 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display (video)
06:22 – Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on (video)
07:57 – Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus launches in November on NTT Docomo, Verizon, and more
08:18 – Android Beam takes us to the future of close-proximity data exchange (video)
18:00 – Motorola Droid RAZR unveiled: LTE, 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, available November for $299
27:00 – Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on (video)
29:15 – Motorola RAZR to get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012
34:45 – Samsung’s Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn’t designed just to skirt Apple patents
38:37 – Motorola Motoactv hands-on (update: video with Dean Karnazes!)
41:45 – Research in Motion announces BBX, ‘combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX’
43:36 – Lytro camera hands-on (video)
46:45 – ASUS’ Jonney Shih: Padfone will ship in Q1 2012 with Ice Cream Sandwich
46:55 – Microsoft’s Andy Lees: Nokia will announce ‘its Windows Phones’ at Nokia World
51:36 – The Engadget Show
56:04 – Listener questions
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Filed under: Podcasts
Engadget Podcast 261 – 10.21.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When Al Gore first created the internet (hard wink, everybody), we’re pretty sure the plan was for Big Brother to collect your data, not Silicon Valley titans. Now Google, the company that mainly tends the gates to the web’s vast array of information, is stepping up to its “Do No Evil” motto, and making encrypted search the norm — for account users. While Gmail’s long had SSL set as a default login, good ol’ Joe Public’s had to specifically access Mountain View’s dedicated encrypted search page for anonymous surfing privileges. No longer, as Gmail users signed in to Goog’s suite of web services will be automatically redirected to https://www.google.com where their searches and results will be hidden from prying eyes. The protection doesn’t extend out to web advertisements, so those specific clicks will deliver the same metric-relevant info that helps marketers optimize their hyper-targeting. Any of that put you conspiracy theorists at ease? Good, now you can open those curtains again.
Google encrypts search for users, paranoiacs unsure how to respond originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Case in point: the guy on the right. Sure, he’s probably a mild-mannered, law-abiding citizen, but with NEC‘s Tele Scouter strapped to his spectacles, he looks just a wee bit sinister, doesn’t he? The system he’s wearing consists of a paperback-sized computer powered by an ARM 500MHz CPU and an AirScouter display mounted atop a pair of glasses. The display, manufactured by Brother, projects images upon the naked eye, but NEC insists that it won’t completely block a user’s field of vision. To the viewer, in fact, these projections appear as if they were displayed on a 16-inch, 800 x 600 screen standing one meter away. According to NEC, the idea is to allow employees to view manuals or other important documents while working with their hands, though that kind of multi-task wizardry certainly won’t come for cheap. The Tele Scouter will begin shipping on December 26th, with the device priced at
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Remember how badly you wanted a PlayStation phone, only to find out that “experience” was headed to a multitude of devices across the Android spectrum? Well, it looks like Sony’s finally making good on that retro-gaming promise. Starting today, the company’s one stop shop for its classic games of yesteryear goes live in nine countries — although, you’ll have to be a Tablet S owner to partake of the PlayStation Certified nostalgia. Helping Sony usher its fanbase back into the quaintness of 32-bit graphics are ten titles familiar to PSOne fans: Cool Boarders, Destruction Derby, Hot Shots Golf 2, Jet Moto 1 & 2, Jumping Flash!, MediEvil, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Rally Cross and Wild Arms. So, if you happen to be packing the electronic giant’s non-foldable slate, get your thumbs primed for a capacitive walk down memory lane. No word on when those other certified devices will get to mine the company’s gaming archives, but there’s always the Vita for that.
PlayStation Store hits the Tablet S today, lets gamers relive the glory of the mid-’90s originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What’s this spy blimp doing next to an 18-wheeler? We’re not entirely sure, but it’s certainly not being subtle about it. This jumbo-sized floater, codenamed “Blue Devil Block 2,” measures some 370 feet in length and comprises a whopping 1.4 million cubic feet. Originally inflated in September, the definitely-not-blue
Blue Devil took flight for the first time last week in North Carolina and, if all goes to plan, should head to Afghanistan by the middle of next year. The Air Force says the blimp will hover above the country for five days at a time, collecting surveillance data from 20,000 feet above the ground and transmitting its findings to US intelligence officers on the ground, via laser. When that’s taken care of, it’ll be used to make the biggest omelette
ever.
This giant military spy blimp is really hard to miss originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Old PR2 can already fold towels, play pool and grab an ice cold beer — really, the Willow Garage robot is just one task of short of mastering the day-to-day activities of your average college student. What’s that? It can get a sandwich, too? Never mind. And this isn’t just any “get me a sandwich” command — the stout white ‘bot uses semantic search to infer possible locations for sandwich, using knowledge of similar objects and environmental models. In the below video, you’ll see PR2 make its way to a refrigerator, in search of sustenance, only to come up empty-clawed. Undaunted, it hops on an elevator and makes its way to a Subway sandwich shop. The joint project from the University of Tokyo and University of Munich was recently shown off at recent robotics conference. No word on when PR2 will be programmed to hold the onions.
Continue reading Robot uses semantic search to get a Subway sandwich, do Jared’s evil bidding (video)
Robot uses semantic search to get a Subway sandwich, do Jared’s evil bidding (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It looks like Touch Bionics is bringing the classic “try before you buy” racket to the world of bionic hands. Say hello to the Virtu-LIMB, a simulation and training setup for myoelectric upper limb prostheses. This little yellow dome tethers to a patient’s arm and transmits their myoelectric signals to a nearby computer via Bluetooth — the data is then used to either control an i-LIMB Ultra prosthetic hand or, failing that, a PC simulation of one. The rig was shown at the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association National Assembly this week, and can be used to help clinicians fine-tune prostheses for their patients, train patients to manipulate their bionic digits, or even demonstrate the Touch Bionics’ i-LIMB to a potential user. The i-LIMB Ultra itself is an upgraded replacement for the outfit’s i-LIMB Pulse, featuring a new variable digit-by-digit grip mode, increased flexibility, extended battery life (and low battery audio warning), and the ability to create custom gestures. The new unit even returns to a natural resting state after a period of inactivity, keeping the devil out of your idle hands.
Virtu-LIMB lets prospective patients take upgraded Touch Bionics hand for a spin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve spent a few click days shooting click with click Sony’s new click NEX-5N click click click and were very click impressed with its click still image performance click click but click noticed some… Oh man, we’ve gotta hit Stop. As you can see, the camera suffers from a rather significant yet-to-be-diagnosed condition that outputs a mysterious clicking sound whenever you move it about. Since it’s quite faint, this is little more than a minor nuisance when shooting stills, but when you go to playback video click it’s impossible to ignore, rendering the audio component of your video virtually useless.
We’ve been able to isolate the sound to the camera body itself, so it’s completely independent of the lens and other accessories. We also happen to be testing a variety of new Sony products this week in San Diego, and had Sony reps on hand to acknowledge and confirm the issue, which seems to plague every NEX-5N that we’ve tried. This is still very fresh, so Sony doesn’t have a fix or even a statement to issue, but because 1080/60p video is one of this camera’s headline features, we’re going to recommend holding off on your purchase until the company can confirm what’s causing the issue. Jump past the break to hear it for yourself in our demo video.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading Sony Alpha NEX-5N makes clicking sound when moved, renders captured audio useless (video)
Sony Alpha NEX-5N makes clicking sound when moved, renders captured audio useless (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Medion enjoyed a pretty eventful weekend at this year’s
IFA in Berlin, where the German PC maker unveiled a new Android tablet and a rather obtuse Gingerbread smartphone. Known as the Lifetab P9514, the company’s 32GB, 1.6-pound slate is powered by a 1GHz
NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, runs Honeycomb 3.2 and features a capacitive multitouch display with 1280 x 800 resolution. The device also supports both quad-band 3G and WiFi connections, along with the usual smattering of HDMI, microUSB, and microSD ports. Medion’s new phone, meanwhile, remains decidedly more mysterious. At this point, we know that the 4.3-inch handset rocks a five megapixel shooter and comes pre-loaded with the manufacturer’s GoPal satnav app, but further details remain murky. Both devices are expected to ship within Europe during Q4 of this year at unconfirmed prices, though rumor has it that the LifeTab will run for €399 (about $564). No word yet on whether we can expect to see either product hit the US anytime soon, but you can catch a glimpse of the freshly unveiled smartphone, after the break.
Continue reading Medion announces LifeTab P9514 tablet, mysterious Android smartphone at IFA
Medion announces LifeTab P9514 tablet, mysterious Android smartphone at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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