Sony Party-shot Snaps Pictures While You Party You’re throwing a big party, and you want it be a night to remember. You’ve invited some cool friends, stocked up on good beer, and have the stereo cranked up to 11. Only one thing could make this shindig any better – a robot photographer! Well fear not, Sony’s got your back with the new Party-shot robotic camera dock that automatically pans, tilts, and takes snapshots while you go for the cheese dip. [...]
PrimeSense Paints Future of Home-Tech Interaction Nintendo certainly created a stir when it introduced motion-sensing controls to the video game industry, but subsequent developments that are no more than a year or two from fruition are already threatening to confine this relatively new technology to the proverbial scrap-heap. The latest of these is PrimeSense, the winner of CableLabs’ Innovation Showcase and ‘best new product’ at the event. On paper at least, PrimeSense appears to be versatile and innovative enough to have widespread impact on the way we interact with modern technology.
The product is essentially a 3D camera that allows devices like televisions to ‘see a view of the surrounding area’ by scanning a room to determine who is present through a combination of shape recognition and thermal imaging. Among other things, this would allow you to interact with games by making hand gestures and movements without the need for a dedicated controller. [...]
Entertainment Weekly Embeds Video in Print Ad The rise of the Internet has seen some pundits label print media as an increasingly obsolete medium whose death is imminent, but U.S. showbiz mag Entertainment Weekly, along with CBS, is attempting to bring magazines into the multimedia age by embedding a video player in a print ad promoting CBS’s fall TV lineup and Pepsi.
Like the novelty greeting cards that play music when opened, the player activates when the page is opened to display video on the small display. The ad is stored on a chip that can hold up to 40 minutes of video and is powered, for some mysterious reason, by a rechargeable battery. [...]
Self-healing Paint is Just the Beginning Human skin has an amazing capacity to heal itself from scratches and cuts, so it’s not surprising that scientists are looking at transferring the self-healing properties of skin to materials. Efforts to embed tiny liquid-filled capsules that rupture when a scratch occurs to spill healing agents into the damaged area of electroplated coatings have previously been hampered by the size of these capsules. But now researchers have developed a process for producing electroplated layers with nano-capsules that measure only a few hundred nanometers in diameter that could solve the problem. [...]
In a Twirl With the Chukka Kinetic Music Player Listening to music became a truly personal experience when Sony first introduced the Walkman all those years ago. Technological advances since then have seen music players store more songs, become more compact and include color screens - and now they're even beginning to liberate themselves from the shackles of the battery. To achieve its battery free charge, the Chukka Kinetic Music Player combines electromagnetic induction with a unique design that positively encourages the user to twirl it around the fingers, throw it about and otherwise toy with it. The result - an eco-friendly personal media player that also gives you the recognized relaxation and stress relieving benefits of tactile interaction and repetitive physical motion. [...]
Holograms You Can Feel Star Trek’s Holodeck has just became a little closer to reality with news researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a technique that allows 3D holograms to be “touched”. By blending a holographic display, a couple of Nintendo Wiimotes and an ultrasound phenomenon called acoustic radiation pressure, the researchers were able to create the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display. A system that can give the feeling of holographic raindrops hitting an outstretched hand or a virtual creature running across a palm. [...]
Phase Change Materials for the Perfect Cup of Coffee You know how it is … you make or buy that perfect cup of coffee or tea only to have it go cold before you’ve finished because the phone rang or your boss interrupted your break with some urgent assignment. Well, there’s great news for coffee-lovers (and tea connoisseurs). Two German scientists have put their heads together to come up with a hot drink receptacle that keeps your beverage at the perfect drinking temperature for up to 30 minutes.
And no, it’s not a thermos, it’s a mug that employs the benefits of phase change materials (PCMs). [...]
TOOB Dome Screen Delivers IMAX Experience at Home Alexander McDonnell, founder of TOOB (Think Out Of Box) confesses to a fascination with the Mugar Omni Theater in his hometown, Boston – so he decided to build a mini-version for himself. The result is much smaller plastic half-dome screen that’s big enough for a couple of people to sit in front of to watch a movie or enjoy a video game.
The TOOB screen comprises a 3ft x 6ft screen with an 18-inch reflector that projects the image (from any home theater projector) onto the screen. You can use any source that your projector allows for your entertainment i.e. gaming console, DVD or Blu-ray player, etc. [...]
The TOOB dome screen costs a miserly USD$1,400 for that scaled down IMAX experience (plus project and sound system) but if you’re still not sure or don’t have the cash, there’s an option to hire one at the website.
QUOTES Success-related happiness is a very short term state.
You have to treat acute suffering before you treat lack of happiness...you put the biggest fire out first.
Neutral (state of the brain), generally speaking, is mildly exploratory, mildly positive...if your basic needs are met and you're satiated, you're going to be mildly curious about your surrounding.
We're too focused on happy...We want the outcome but we don't wish to undergo the process for getting there.
The root to happiness is to be maximally resposive to everything that happens in your life - the good, the bad, the blah - the everything.
Why do we need to be this ideal? No one is perfect.
There are lots of pathologies associated with excessive positive emotion. Mania, for example, is a disease of positive emotion.
Cocaine is unhealthy happy.
People can adapt to environments that are incresingly stressful so that after awhile they can live and survive within those environments.
We can train ourselves to be more present in the moment.
It's a notion that's dying that the brain is set in stone after a certain time.
Stimuli that indicate you're making progress produce positive emotions.
Mindfulness can bring their attention back to the present and help them see the beauty and value of things that are immediately in front of them and that's not trivial.
People are very fragile.
Our nervous systems are tilted to protect us.
There are people that need meds...but they're not everything.
We're starting to see this type of mindfulness practices and contemplative practices being put into the curriculum of K through 12 and it's inevitable now that we're going to start using this type of therapy as a way of developing the mental muscle.
You don't want to limit the options that are available to people who are suffering.
The advantage to the mindfulness training is that it's a non-drug option and because it involves learning it's likely to be more permanent. Also the probability that it's going to produce negative side effects is very low which is something you can't necessarily say about medications.
DEATH KNELL FOR THE DENTIST'S DRILL?
INVISIBLE BLUETOOTH EARPIECE BRINGS OUT YOUR INNER SECRET SERVICE AGENT
HYDROFILL PERSONAL DESKTOP HYDROGEN STATION
ENTERTAINMENT AT THE WAVE OF A HAND - THE GESTURE CUBE
'GREEN ROOFS' PROVE EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE IN FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING THAN FIRST THOUGHT
RADICAL ELECTRIC BIKE CONCEPT SAVES ON SPACE
AIPTEK PROJECTORS ARE POCKET ROCKETS
INTEL POINT-OF-SALE BY FROG DESIGN: HOW SHOPPING SHOULD BE
IMPLANTABLE SILICON-SILK ELECTRONICS COULD MEAN LED TATTOOS
HIDDEN RFID TAGS COULD MEAN END OF BAR CODES AND LINES AT THE CHECKOUT
B&W COMPUTER SPEAKERS BRING TRUE HI-FI TO THE DESKTOP
TIME TO RELAX WITH THE STRESSWATCH
FACE-LESS WATCH CONCEPT USES LASER HANDS
DYSON DITCHES BLADES ON AIR MULTIPLIER DESK FAN
SUPERBUS: ON-DEMAND LUXURY PUBLIC TRANSPORT AT OVER 150 MPH
NEW ZEALAND HOME-MADE 'HOVERWING' FLIES 5 FEET ABOVE WATER
JETMAN YVES ROSSY'S AMBITIOUS INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHT
HEAVY METAL CONCEPT BIKE WITH GREEN CRED
CITROEN REVEALS ITS VERSION OF THE ELECTRIC SUPERMINI
THE DOWNSIDE OF NANOTECH: DO TINY PARTICLES SPELL BIG TROUBLE? 
