Would you be caught dead checking your e-mail or surfing the Web on this absurdly-looking device? Developed during the Next-Gen PC Design competition, one finalist's AlphaGrip Handheld Computer (AlphaGrip HC) concept is an ergonomic device with a thumb-controlled trackball and "eight multi-directional keys that enable the user to generate 20 characters, each with a single finger pressing a single key, and an additional 60 characters using three shift buttons," according to the site.
It's been a year since we first told you about the pocket-sized Pico projector, but the little gizmo has finally made its way into a device you can actually buy, if you happen to live in Hong Kong that is. The SunView PMP Projector, an otherwise unassuming Windows CE-powered touchscreen media player, will output 640 x 480 to the nearest available flat surface. No word on pricing yet, but you'll probably just want to go ahead and wait a couple years. By then these miniature projectors will hopefully be making their way into cell phones and media players that run on operating systems other than Windows CE.
Have you ever had to ask someone if they need to defecate--in Korean? No? Well, with the Voxtec Phraselator P2, at least it's now possible.
In 2001 Voxtec International was awarded a grant to develop a handheld, military-grade translation system. Early models were used in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 and 2003, and the current P2 model was released in 2004. Designed for the U.S. military as well as for law enforcement and emergency medical teams, Version 2.6 of the Phraselator is capable of translating over 100,000 preloaded phrases in over 40 languages, including Hindi, Croatian, Farsi, and Hebrew. You may never need to know how to say "Drop the weapon!" in Arabic or "Are you taking any medications?" in Sinhala, but the current model is definitely a sign of things to come. Though it's not intended to take the place of a human translator, the P2's straightforward interface, clear translations, and ease of use should mean it will lead the pack when an edition aimed at consumers hits the market in about 3 years.
A few years ago, I took a trip to Boquete, Panama, a small mountain town in the northern highlands of the country. One day I went hiking with a guide. Along the trail we crossed this pristine mountain stream in a completely unspoiled forest. I commented on how the water in that stream must be the purest on earth. "I bet you could just kneel right down and take a long drink," said I.
My guide let out a chuckle and replied, "You could, but you'd probably want to filter it through a T-shirt first. There's a parasite in that water that will attach itself to the lining of your throat and swell up until it eventually suffocates you." Whether or not the story was true, it freaked me out for the rest of the trip.
I am bummed as all get-out that I couldn't make it to Robobusiness in Pittsburgh this year, especially since odd bot wonders like this are showing up (pretty much unannounced on the show floor). The Segway RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform) could be a personal conveyance system, a futuristic skateboard or some sort of army workhorse (it can haul 400 pounds, after all).
The robot, which comes from the same company that brought you the Segway Personal Transporter (formerly known as "It" and "Ginger"), has four wheels, so it isn't doing any amazing balancing tricks. The buzz in Make's article is the wheels. Looking nothing like typical wheels, these Mecanum devices can roll in virtually any direction. That should give this movable platform a high-degree of maneuverability.
Still, questions abound:
Who will use this thing?
Why isn't there a handle or railing to hold onto for passengers?
Does it work via remote control or mind control?
Why didn't the RMP get a nifty nickname?
It was only a matter of time before someone was bound to develop a sneaker with LEDs to light your way. (There are already LED slippers, like the BrightFeet Slippers.) Such a sneaker would really come in handy, since I always forget to grab a flashlight when walking the dog at night.
Known as the Pioneer, this conceptual shoe operates the built-in light for a full 12 hours while the wearer walks or runs, due to the tiny internal battery. The shoe will light a straight path at up to 4.9 feet ahead of the wearer. Not bad.
The shoe material is waterproof, and the sole is made of solid rubber to absorb shock.
Funded by a $6.5 million Department of Defense grant, Giovanni Vignale, a physics professor at the University of Missouri, is working to create a hybrid of the magnetic memory and superconductor logic components that make up the innards of most modern PCs. The proposed single hybrid material is expected to operate at higher speeds and use far less power than today's standard components. They will also cost a good deal less to manufacture.
"In this approach, the coupling between magnetic and non-magnetic components would occur via a magnetic field or flow of electron spin, which is the fundamental property of an electron and is responsible for most magnetic phenomena," said Vignale in a release issued by the Univeristy. "The hybrid devices that we target would allow seamless integration of memory and logical function, high-speed optical communication and switching, and new sensor capabilities."
Vignale's work focuses on the transfer of magnetic information. He added, "One of the main theoretical tools I will be using for this project is the time-dependent, spin-current density functional theory. It is a theory to which I have made many contributions over the years. The results of these theoretical calculations will be useful both to understand and to guide the experimental work of other team members."
Unveiled to the press in May of 2007, Microsoft's long awaited tabletop Surface computer is finally making its public commercial debut later this month, thanks to a handful of AT&T retail storefronts.
Stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Francisco will be debuting the Surface on April 17, giving customers access to the interactive tabletop in order to learn more about select AT&T devices.
STMicroelectronics, the largest European semiconductor manufacturer, announced earlier today that it has developed a chip that can detect strains of influenza in human subjects. Described as a "mini laboratory on a chip" by Reuters, the chip can scan for various strains of the disease, including the bird flu (a disease that has lead to 236 deaths worldwide) within 2 hours.
"ST sees new high growth opportunities in the healthcare market, especially in areas like patient care," STMicro's Asia Pacific chief executive, Francois Guibert of the new technology.
The chip has already sparked some interest from a variety of customers, including (naturally) hospitals. Rosemary Tan, the chief executive of Veredus, the laboratory that tested the chip, has also suggested airports as potential customers for the chip--a possibility that seems all the more immediate, in light of the recent airline TB scare.
It will be interesting to see how technologies such as these are received by advocacy groups: Scanning for pathogens for entry into public places could open up new territory for issues of personal privacy.
If auto shows are about dreams, then the Milner AirCar fits right in. Tucked away in the back basement of the Javits Convention Center with the trucks and SUVs at the New York International Auto Show is the latest iteration in a long line of dreams: the flying car.
This one is from Milner Motors. It's a narrow body car with a folding wing and a pair of 150-hp pusher fans in back. As co-founder James Milner describes it, "We believe that a truly clean-sheet approach to vehicle design can produce commercially viable vehicles that respond to today's environmental and energy needs in a way never before possible."
How often do you rest or exercise your eyes? For me, not as often as I would like to. I stare at a computer screen for 8 to 9 hours while at work, go home and stare at the TV screen for 3 hours, and on the weekends I'm doing both. It's sad, but such the life of a technology editor and avid Internet user.
According to the American Optometric Association, approximately 75 percent of computer users complain of visual discomfort after prolonged computer use. If this sounds like you, then your eyes are probably working overtime. Instead of waiting to go blind, just take 10 minutes a day with the Eyeport.
Arthur C. Clarke, author of hundreds of books on science, science fiction, space, and even underwater exploration, died in his home yesterday at the age of 90. For many, Clarke embodied the future. He was a writer, the man behind epic tales such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Rendezvous with Rama," and a host of other sci-fi classics. He was an explorer, documenting his dives to the Great Barrier Reef in incredible detail. And he was a futurist, suggesting that satellites would be useful in making radio communication global long before Sputnik was launched, and predicting a world where we routinely watched men and women skyrocket into orbit long before anyone dreamt that such a thing was possible.
Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in modern history, Clarke was known to turn out several books a year. He wrote a number of sci-fi classics, but also published papers and non-fiction books on space travel and underwater exploration. Clarke postulated in 1945 that satellites in geostationary orbit could relay radio communications around the world within moments, and wrote about humanity's exploration of the moon before the Apollo missions were thought of. Clarke's science fiction visions slowly became science fact over the decades, and through it all he looked forward, dreaming of tomorrow.
If the original $349 price tag for Wow Wee Robotics's eerie Alive Elvis animatronic head scared you off, we have good news. Now you can get the singing, blinking, sneering, luxurious head-of-hair and leatherette jacket-wearing "The King" keepsake for just $99. The deal is only good through WowWee's online store.
We had a couple of Elvis Alive heads in here (see my unboxing extravaganza) and can confirm they're life like (in the way that Joan River's face is still lifelike) and do offer lip-synching accompaniment to original Elvis Presley song recordings, thanks to an agreement with the Presley Estate. The robot, which offers a couple of IR sensors for minimal interaction, is big, heavy and is really no Milli Vanilli when it comes to accurate lip synching. At nearly $400, we wrote it off as a too expensive and scary oddity that only die hard fans with weekly passes to Graceland could love.
At $99, all that hair and perfectly chiseled features, plus offering the option of kareoking with The King (thanks to an included microphone remote and the ability to turn the voice but not music, off) seems somewhat more attractive.
So tell us, would you pay almost ten sawbucks for the chance to have plastic and rubber sneer at you, "Thankyouverymuch."?
If you're still not sure, I present WowWee's own Top 10 Elvis Alive Uses, after the jump.
When someone calls to ask what's on your mind, you may not have to open your mouth to tell them, someday. NewScientist reports on a device called the Audeo, a neckband that taps into nerve impulses and translates them to computerized speech.
In the video above, Ambient Corp. CEO Michael Callahan demos the device on stage at a Texas Instruments conference. His cohort calls him on a cell phone, and Callahan "thinks" his replies; there's a delay of several seconds before the computer voice answer is heard, which Callahan likens to the delay of original voice-recognition systems.
Last week, my Ugobe Pleo Robot Dinosaur underwent minor brain surgery, receiving a .0.2 upgrade to his LifeOS--the software that essentially functions as his brain. I'll admit, I was apprehensive about the procedure. Altering a computer's OS can result in side effects, and in Pleo's case, there are no external controls. If this firmware update failed, I could have ended up with a lifeless, rubber-skinned chew toy.
I followed the Website instructions to the letter, downloading the ZIP file from www.pleoworld.com/support and expanded the file in a folder on my desktop PC. Then I found a standard density SD Card (Pleo seems unable to read high-capacity ones). It didn't have to be blank, but I had to load the unzipped filed in the parent directory so Pleo could find them. Making sure Pleo was off, I inserted the card, turned him on and heard a few distinct beeps. After a minute or so, Pleo returned to life. As instructed, I quickly shut him off, removed the card and then turned him on again.
Would you be caught dead checking your e-mail or surfing the Web on this absurdly-looking device? Developed during the Next-Gen PC Design competition, one finalist's 
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It's been a year since we first told you about the pocket-sized 
I am bummed as all get-out that I couldn't make it to 
STMicroelectronics, the largest European semiconductor manufacturer, announced earlier today that it has developed a chip that can detect strains of influenza in human subjects. Described as a "mini laboratory on a chip" by 
Arthur C. Clarke, author of hundreds of books on science, science fiction, space, and even underwater exploration, died in his home yesterday at the age of 90. For many, Clarke embodied the future. He was a writer, the man behind epic tales such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Rendezvous with Rama," and a host of other sci-fi classics. He was an explorer, documenting his dives to the Great Barrier Reef in incredible detail. And he was a futurist, suggesting that satellites would be useful in making radio communication global long before Sputnik was launched, and predicting a world where we routinely watched men and women skyrocket into orbit long before anyone dreamt that such a thing was possible.
If the original $349 price tag for Wow Wee Robotics's eerie Alive Elvis animatronic head scared you off, we have good news. Now you can get the singing, blinking, sneering, luxurious head-of-hair and leatherette jacket-wearing "The King" keepsake for just $99. The deal is only good through WowWee's online store. 
Last week, my 
