Hasta La Gadget!

At the end of last year, Panasonic’s DMP-BD35 earned the first Editors’ Choice award given to a standalone Blu-ray player, because of its excellent feature set and reliable playback. The DMP-BD60 is the follow-up to the DMP-BD35, offering nearly the same feature set plus access to VieraCast, Panasonic’s …

(Credit: Thanko)

Once again, Japanese retailer Thanko proves that virtually everything can be given a USB port, from butt coolers to lunch boxes, and now the e-cigarette. Thanko’s USB Tabako, which comes with 11 filter butts and an atomizer for $33, even lights up at the end like a …

That PlayStation 3 price drop rumored to be coming tomorrow? Not happening, according to Sony. In a statement given to Joystiq, SCEA public relations manager Al De Leon says, “we do not have plans for a PS3 price drop, and any rumors to that effect are false and are the result of speculation.” Although we wouldn’t put it past the company to deny it up until the second before an official announcement, we seriously doubt Sony would announce any sort of price cut on the day it’s most likely to get drowned out by fake PSP2 mockups. No word on that speculated $100 PS2, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up here, either.

Filed under: Gaming

Sony: ‘no plans’ for a PS3 price cut originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers at the University of Calgary tricked out an iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner to react to signals such as muscle tension and eye movement in a bid to test limited brain-computer interaction between humans and robots.

"As far as we know we are amongst the very first to pursue
bioelectric signal interfaces in human-robot interaction, where we
program a robot to react to the user’s emotional state rather than just
direct control," says Paul Saulnier, a graduate student at the University. Saulnier presented his findings at the
Human Robot Interaction conference in San Diego earlier this month.

Saulnier’s team used NIA, a gaming peripheral from OCZ that reads bioelectrical signals from gamers and translates it into on-screen actions. For instance, gamers who wear the NIA (neural impulse actuator) headband can use some basic thoughts and eye movements to control a video game.

The team mapped NIA to the Roomba and used indicators such as muscle tension to control robot speed. The more tense a muscle, the greater the indication of stress, which in turn acts a signal for the Roomba to back off. (Read the complete paper)

The idea is to prove that mapping the emotional state of a user to the emotional state of a robot is possible with existing technology, say the researchers.

"People have often
asked me about the potential real-world applications of this," says Saulnier. "The
example I like to use is an emotion-sensing robot could that could be used to monitor the health of an elderly relative and react if something is detected of concern."

While it may be an interesting idea, there are technical challenges currently, says Saulnier. But it is something the team hopes to investigate next.

Photo: Paul Saulnier/University of Calgary

We can’t say there are an awful lot of folks out there looking for a single mobile broadband card that’ll play nice in both PC Card and ExpressCard slots, but for that niche that’s intently paying attention, have a look at this. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 is the company’s first to offer such 2-in-1 functionality, and it’s designed to operate on EV-DO Rev. A networks handling speeds of up to 3.1Mbps (downlink) / 1.8Mbps (uplink). Users can also bank on the company’s TRU-Locate GPS service to “quickly and accurately establish location for local searches and navigation.” There’s no mention of a price or release date, but it should be on hand for us to peer at during CTIA this week.

[Via ExpressCard-Info]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 plays PC Card and ExpressCard roles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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