Gadgets Blog » New Technology

A futuristic digital technology the likes of which we’ve seen in several Sci-Fi movies over the years has now become a reality. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab are working on a revolutionary prototype called “Sixth Sense” which is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

The SixthSense prototype comprises a pocket projector, mirror and camera worn in a pendant-like mobile device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to a mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The system projects information onto the surfaces and physical objects around us, making any surface into a digital interface; the camera recognizes and tracks both the user’s hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision-based techniques. SixthSense uses simple computer-vision techniques to process the video-stream data captured by the camera and follows the locations of colored markers on the user’s fingertips In addition, the software interprets the data into gestures to use for interacting with the projected application interfaces. SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

In layman’s terms, with the Sixth sense in hand, you can walk around like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, and get all the info you could possibly need about anything you are looking at with a full display report projected onto the object itself. The object in question could even be a person and you would be able to get information on him or her at first sight. By merely using hand gestures you could get mundane things done like a magician without going through the actual process. For example, You could draw a watch dial on your hand using your fingertip and the time will be digitally displayed instantaneously. You could make a picture frame in the air, and a photo would be immediately taken of the view in front of you. Similarly, you just have to look at the books in a library or the items displayed in your grocery store to get all the info you would need to make an informed decision about the product. By looking at a flight ticket, you would be informed of any delays or changes in flight plans. And what’s more, you will be able to build this dream “machine” all by yourself!

“I am trying to make this tech available to people, and I will provide all the open source software for SixthSense starting next month,” The Economic Times quoted Pranab Mistry, the the MIT grad student behind Sixth Sense as saying. “I notice that it’s hard to for these kind of things to market in some sense. . . because I don’t want this to comply with some of kind of corporate policy. People will be able to make their own hardware. I will give them instructions how to make it. And also provide them key software… give them basic key software layers… they will be able to build their own applications. They will be able to modify base level and do anything.”

The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build. For a video on how the Sixth sense works , watch below.

YouTube - Watch 

Source: SiliconIndia.com

Newest hip gadget or soup-up for your iPhone, is the FloTV offered through Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Offering television at the click of a button for your car (for the kids, not you in the front seat!) or your phone, FloTV offers 24/7 total television coverage as well as special features such as the option of parental controls.

Dedicated to a nationwide network and stable wireless connection, you know that FloTV will have you back when you need to see the news (during all those slow, grid-locked commutes) or have your kids catch up on their favorite shows. I wonder at the legal issues surrounding this device for cars, for example, but as long as your cautious I think the FloTV is the perfect accent to the minivan or mobile phone.

Get hooked up through your AT&T or Verizon Wireless provider.

Services can be paid for monthly through your AT&T or Verizon Wireless bill. Two plans are offered, the FloTV plus for $30/month and the FloTV basic for $15/month. The biggest difference in the plan is the channels–on FloTV plus you can unlimited channels, whereas FloTV basic has 15 pre-selected channels, including CBS Mobile, CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, FOX News, MSNBC, MTV, NBC2Go, Nickelodeon, CNN Mobile and Pix.

If you are constantly struggling like me to unsuccessfully pull your assortment of wired and wireless networks together, you might want to check out this new router from Netgear that will hit select retailers and online stores this fall for $139. Granted it’s more expensive but how many of us buy cheaper, less reliable brands and end up replacing them once too often due to inconsistent signal?

Netgear ‘s RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router runs on open source Linux platform and supports a wide variety of popular free applications such as DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato. Apart from the support to enable more applications from the open source community, RangeMax offers high-performance wireless range and speed, Gigabit Ethernet ports and ReadyShare USB storage access. Netgear is working with software vendors through a partner program to develop more commercial grade applications such as increased online gaming support, high-speed USB file reads and writes, easy remote access, etc.

Other specific features include a 480MHz MIPS 74K CPU core with embedded hardware acceleration, a 8 MB of flash memory and 64 MB of RAM (enough to run even business-class applications). It also has five 10/100/1000 (one WAN port and four LAN) Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology with high WAN to LAN speeds in excess of 350 Mbps. It incorporates an 802.11n access point with a wireless repeater mode to extend range. The three internal Metamaterial antennas provide enhanced wireless range and reliable connections. In addition to its Gigabit Ethernet ports to deliver ultra-fast wired network connections, the WNR3500L router includes a USB 2.0 host port for USB networked storage and for developing other customer applications, including remote access, DLNA/UPnP Media Server support, and USB modem support for 3G/4G/WiMax high-speed cellular connections.

The router protects the network from intruders via a double firewall and Denial-of-service attack prevention. The wireless connection is secured with support for Wi-Fi Protected Access, WPA2-PSK, while Push ‘N’ Connect using Wi-Fi Protected Setup enables users to add computers to the network quickly and securely. For maximum throughput, NETGEAR recommends the RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB be used with a matching Wireless-N client device such as the NETGEAR RangeMax Wireless-N USB 2.0 Adapter (WN111).

The router is backed by a one-year warranty and 24/7 technical support.

Google describes the Wave as “how e-mail would look if it were invented today”, and claims it will transform how people communicate online. GoogleWave is an online communication and collaboration tool that combines e-mail, instant messaging and wiki-style editing. “It struck us that e-mail is still the main communication tool on the web, which seemed remarkable given that it is 20-year-old technology,” said Lars Rasmussen, who along with his brother was the developer of Google Maps as well. Wave seems to be a combination of Instant Messenger and Facebook like social media interactions. What it primarily does is allow users to share, ongoing, real-time conversations called Waves. All the participants in a wave can add more participants, but participants can also send private replies to each other. It differs from traditional instant messenger (IM) in that the conversation can continue even once everyone has logged out. Also those invited to a Wave conversation but not currently online, can then later read the message strand. There are some irritating functions like real-time typing so that fellow wavers can view a comment being written character by character. Thankfully they are working on it being an optional mode. Additionally there are wiki-style editing tools that allows for messages to be edited at any point by members of the conversation and a Playback facility so that people can see exactly who has edited what and at what time. There are also authoring tools like automatic spelling corrections, inline editing and change tracking. If you find it painful and time consuming to upload photos in other applications like Facebook, you will appreciate the fact that here photos can simply be dragged from the desktop onto the Wave platform . Also the tool incorporates popular social media games like as sudoku and chess. I’m sure there are more to come. The only problem that Google Wave faces is that it can run on almost all browsers with the exception of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer which is currently the most used browser. Users of IE will have to download a plug-in, known as Chrome Frame to use the application. It remains to be seen if Google can persuade IE users to go to the trouble of doing so. Since Wave was announced at a Google developers’ conference in May, one million people have registered on the site. Wave will have a full consumer launch early next year.

As of now Google is sending out 100,000 invites to test drive the Wave, each of whom can further nominate five people to “join the Wave”. Let us know if you enjoyed the ride if you happen to be on the party list.

It’s almost fall quarter (or semester) and you’re probably moving back into your apartment or dorm. This is the coolest personalized accessory for your kitchen that you will find.

Refrigerator magnets are a fun way to decorate your home, but these new digital memo fridge magnets allow you to leave fun videos for your roommates! It’s definitely a conversation starter when you have company. It’s got three things you want: video, memo, and magnet.

Here’s the best part:

It has a 1.5-inch LED screen and a built-in video camera that can record up to 30 seconds of video. So, you can remind yourself or your roommates to empty the trash and buy more milk! It’s the new revolution. This device is charged using a USB on your laptop.  It’s $50, but if you and your roommates pitch in, it can be totally worth the money. It is bound to improve your lifestyle. No more scribbled, messy handwritten notes to clutter up your kitchen. You simply press a button to record and playback.

This can be really handy and organized if you used this to divide up the chores for the week. No one has any excuse not to do the dishes or fail to pay the rent on time.

 Image Source: devicedaily.com

Sony Corp announced that it is coming out with an e-book reader à la Amazon’s Kindle DX in December just in time for the holiday season. It will have a 7-inch touch screen that would let you  download books and newspapers over AT&T Inc.’s cellular network.

While Kindle has managed to steal Sony’s thunder so far when it comes to e-readers, Sony might just have stumbled upon a winning strategy this time by choosing the EPUB open source format. Kindle displays material only from Amazon’s store, but Sony will embrace an open e-book standard, allowing users to read from stores of their choice, and what’s more the books can even be transferred to cell phones and other comparable gadgets. Wait there’s more! Sony takes it a step further by making provisions for reading local library e-books .

Readers won’t be charged a subscription fee for wireless access said Steve Haber, head of Sony’s U.S. reading division. The Daily Edition of the e-reader will initially have wireless access only to Sony’s e-book store until I guess Sony figures out the complications of connecting to multiple stores for free. The names of downloadable newspapers  will be announced later. In portrait mode, about 30 to 35 lines of text will be visible akin to a printed book.

The sleek, ultra polished appearance that seems to be so in vogue nowadays is almost Apple like in inspiration . Its aluminum encased body comes with a price tag of US$399.

“It’s all about access to content … it’s about expression, holding, touching and using the Sony Reader,” Haber added. “We want it to be a ubiquitous experience, not locked in — open, open, open.”

Think it will make a good Christmas present?

Nokia, world leader in cellphone related products, now attempts to seize a piece of the PC market with the launch of the Intel Atom Powered Booklet 3G, a bite sized netbook with 12 hrs of battery life, impressive advanced computing capabilities, 3G HSPA data connectivity &WiFi connectivity for high-speed local internet connections and HDMI-out port for high-definition viewing on a television. 

The mini laptop with a sleek aluminum shell weighs 1.25 kilograms, measures slightly more than two centimeters thin and comes in shades of gray, black or blue. It accommodates a camera set above the display for video conferencing, supports Bluetooth and includes an SD card reader.

It is certainly not at all surprising that this world leader in mobile devices has gone out of its way to make its PC inspired netbook, an extremely portable, on-the-go and apps friendly machine armed with a 10-inch glass HD ready display and an A-GPS to precisely pinpoint your location in seconds. The Booklet 3G has also been cleverly designed to showcase Ovi, Nokia’s data internet services that allows access to games, maps, media, messaging and Nokia’s Music Store. If the delivery matches the promise, the netbook will provide an unprecedented unison between your cellphone and laptop.

Pricing and availability have not yet been announced. More details are expected to be revealed at Nokia World on September 2, 2009.

Shop for netbooks at Smarter.com.

As a society we are now all about efficient time management and multi-tasking. It has led us to demand more from our everyday gadgets and appliances as well. Chumby is a $199.95 customized alarm clock that just does not relax! It works over time as a WiFi-connected personal Internet appliance that gives you access to widgets providing games, news headlines, weather, Internet radio, current stock prices, music, short movies, social-media websites and picture files .

For getting access to these online applications, you register on the Chumby website ,select and download for free the 1000 or so widgets that catch your fancy to your individual Chumby through a WiFi broadband connection .What’s more, it can also be used to monitor incoming e-mail on any POP3 account, track eBay auctions or play an iPod through Chumby’s on-board stereo speakers. A WiFi access point though is a must have to play the widgets.

If you are a fan of open-source, Chumby industries provide a totally open hardware/software setup providing access to everything from the hardware schematics to an open-source Linux-based software client so that users can hack the device and develop new applications for the platform. The cuddly beanbag exterior with soft leather cover surrounds the device’s internal printed circuit boards and 3.5″ touch screen LCD interface. A soft-touch top button hidden underneath the skin activates WiFi connection. It even comes with its own drawstring canvas bag. Never been a fan of cardboard boxes…

So, is $200 worth it? It depends of course on your budget and specific needs. But if you are looking for a great gift to give someone who loves high-tech, who is very difficult to please or who is a teenager on his/her way to becoming a software applications guru, this just might impress!

Source: EE Times

If you were not a part of the at least 5+ million fans who rushed to make this version of Firefox capture about 2.5% of the global browser market last week, be sure to give this free download a try here.  (Firefox already possesses about 22% of market share thanks to its earlier avatars).  Available in 70 languages, it promises improved speed (boasts of a new Java script engine) and enhanced compatibility with new online video standards (supports HTML 5 audio and video features) even allowing you to watch videos directly on a webpage without plug-ins.  In addition, it has introduced a private browsing mode that lets you wipe out your browsing history including cookies, searches, visited pages and passwords.

You can also expect to find a geolocation technology that customizes your searches according to your location, fancy downloadable fonts and a long awaited “tab in waiting” feature denoted by  a plus sign.  As for Internet Explorer users, you will probably find many features in this Firefox version that are strikingly similar to IE, and frankly I find it advantageous on many occasions to have more than one browser on my system.

And I thought voice command was cool.

The BSI-TOYOTA Collaboration Center (RIKEN, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Central R&D Labs, and Genesis Research Institute) announced yesterday that it has developed a system that successfully uses brainwaves to control a wheelchair. 

Applications are aimed at rehabilitation, assisting the elderly and those using wheelchairs.  The company is improving on its electrodes and anticipates the possibility of expanding the system to analyze brainwaves from various mental states and emotions.

This goes way beyond changing the song on the car radio or dialing your cell phone with a few words.  It’s telekinesis in action.  Ooh , the power and the possibilities!

The brain machine interface technology is one of the fastest in the world, reacting in as little as 125 milliseconds, and analyzes brainwaves using “signal process technology” commanding smooth forward motion and left and right turns.

The data is displayed in real time so drivers feel no delay and operate the vehicle efficiently and have done so thus far with 95% accuracy.

Check out the video from BBC News below:

No info on when the technology would hit the market, but it’s obvious how that would benefit so many people, not to mention how the system could advance other daily activities.

I’m fascinated and cautious at the thought of the BMI system reading and reacting to emotions though.  There’s gotta be a safety filter or censor system in place when that arrives, for obvious reasons.

Sources: Toyota, Computerworld. BBC News