Aug 7 2009 Why Not?: Playing Half-Life With A Real Gun
This is a video showing how, with a piece of sheetrock, a handful of accelerometers and a digital projector, you can play Half-Life by firing at the projected screen with a real gun. The first two minutes of the video explains how the system works, so if you don't care you can shoot(!) straight to 1:55 to check out the game play. Which, I should warn you, won't work with a regular LCD television. Or will it?!
UPDATE: It won't. And, uh-oh, looks like the Geek Squad is calling the cops.
Thanks to Alexandra, who actually knows the guys who made this and should introduce me so that I can shoot guns with them. pew pew!
Mar 11 2009 Race Car Controlled With Blackberry Storm
So apparently some guys programmed a Blackberry Storm to control a little toy race car using its accelerometers. Then they posted the video on Youtube. Then McLaren saw the video and contacted them about using the device to control a real race car. And that's what they did (second half of the video). Pretty neat. Sure, not as neat as controlling a race car with your mind, but hey, we'd have to go to the aliens for that technology. Which would probably require a few sacrificial probings. Just saying, I'm friends with them. Ladies? No? Okay, plan B. Effeminate gentlemen?
Thanks to Curtis and Troy, who both know race car is the same spelled forward and backwards. It's palindromic!
Oct 2 2008 Cool!: New Phone Can See Through Walls
Apparently software developers are working on a cell phone application that can "see" through walls.
The 'Real Space See-through Mobile' software comes from KDDI's R&D laboratory and Tokyo University and is - you'll not be surprised to learn - still just a prototype.
Although we weren't able to see it in action, we can tell you that it is supposed to be able to judge its surroundings, including those on the other side of a wall, using six different sensors. Three acceleration sensors combine with a similar number of geomagnetic sensors and a GPS chip to work out exactly where the phone is and in what direction it's pointing.Using some sort of digital voodoo, the software then uses OpenGL to draw on the screen what it has 'sensed' is in the immediate surroundings.
Awesome, locker room spy shots without having to disguise myself as a water fountain!
Bizarre phone lets users see through walls [techradar]
Thanks to Jesus, who's a friend of mine.
Sep 10 2008 Apple Announces New iPod Nano, Whee!
If you haven't heard you probably live in a bomb shelter like we all should be, but Apple announced a new generation of iPod nanos yesterday at their "Let's Rock Out With Our Mac Loving Cocks Out" event in San Francisco. The new nano is thinner, curvier, and comes in a bunch of different colors, as well as 8GB and 16GB capacities. It also has an accelerometer so you can shake it to shuffle your songs and turn it sideways for a wide-screen experience. The device has the new 'Genius' feature as well, meaning it can create playlists by finding songs in your library that go well together. Neato. 8GB's are $150, 16GB's are $200, and I'll throw in some hand action for another $10. Toothless smiles are always free.
Hit the jump for the official commercial.
Nov 30 2007 'Bar Of Soap' Predicts Your Use For It
The 'Bar Of Soap' comes to us from MIT Media Lab's Brandon Taylor and Michael Bove. The idea behind the device is that it determines its functionality based on the way you hold it. If you hold it like a TV remote then its little accelerometers tell the device to display the appropriate controls like volume and channel. If you hold it like a phone it will act like a phone. Granted the device made doesn't actually have TV remote and phone functionality, just the capability of determining if you're holding it like one. And right now only 60-70% of the time. Making it far less effective than a Wii-mote.
"Bar of Soap" Prototype Detects Intent from Your Touch (You Scoundrel) [boingboing]
Oct 19 2007 New Rubik's Sucks, I Want A Fentix Cube
Andrew Fentem has developed the Fentix cube, which is everything the stupid Rubik's Revolution wishes it could be, and more. Each side is a multi-touchscreen, and the system also packs "a 3D system of accelerometers for gesture sensing a la Wii." All sorts of games have been developed, and I want one yesterday. They go on sale at London's Kinetica Museum soon. Someone please buy me one. I've never played with a box before, and all my friends say it's the cat's meow.
A short video of the unit in action after the jump.
Continue Reading " New Rubik's Sucks, I Want A Fentix Cube "
Sep 4 2007 Sony's Rolly An Egg Shaped Media Player
What is that blurry egg shaped thing in the video you ask? Well apparently that's Sony's new media player, the Rolly. When I first saw it I thought it was football sized, but when you watch the end of the video you see that it's really just the size of an emu egg. It doesn't have a display and may be controlled with only one button and a possible accelerometer. I just don't know about this thing. The video made me want to claw my eyes out, and I don't think I need a media player that rolls off the desk and breaks itself.
Sony's Rolly An Egg Shaped Media Player [engadget]
