Hasta La Gadget!

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.

It might not seem like somebody with such ostentatious tastes would crave privacy, but along with these expensive toys, Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph. According to the Times, these don’t run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to grab snaps. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot the scourge of professional photography, paparazzi, loitering nearby.

We dig it, although the British courts might not be so pleased. UK photo magazine Amateur Photographer asked a London lawyer about the legalities of destroying photos from afar. Here’s what he said: “intermeddling with goods belonging to someone else, or altering their condition, is a trespass to goods and will entitle the photographer to claim compensation without having to prove loss.”

Any sentence containing the word “intermeddling” is of course wonderful. The lawyer spoils it somewhat by (inevitably) mentioning James Bond and mixing up lasers with laser guns: “I would also be worried that lasers cause collateral damage, both to the camera and/or the claimant’s health.”

Roman Abramovich zaps snappers with laser shield [Times]

Celebrity Photographer ‘Laser Shield’ – Is It Legal? [Amateur Photographer]

Top photo: An older ship owned by Abramovich’s, Pelorus, which is only 377 feet long and lacks anti-CCD lasers. Photo credit: Alexander Andreev/Flickr

How do you thread memory tasks and are women naturally better at it than men? Such were the questions that roamed our limitless minds as we sought to understand what exactly Rambus and Kingston had achieved. Based on standard DDR3 chips, the new threading tech essentially creates multiple independent channels per memory module, allowing multicore processors to utilize the available RAM more efficiently. That results, says Rambus, in systems that offer 50 percent higher throughput that the standard stuff and suckle 20 percent less power due to the compartmentalization of each module. Neat. More details are promised at the Intel Developer Conference, which kicks off tomorrow in San Fran.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Rambus and Kingston build a threaded module prototype, claim 50 percent better memory throughput originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netgear Stora NAS server.

(Credit: Netgear)

Thinking that its Ready NAS line of storage devices is too business-centric, Netgear on Monday announced a line of its network-attached storage servers, the Netgear Stora, that Drew Meyer, director of marketing for Netgear’s NAS unit, called “most definitely a platform for everyone.”…

See that? That’s the device that will forever change the way you to listen to music. At least that was the promise made in the teaser running up to today’s press event. The buttonless MH907 buds are the world’s first “Motion Activated” headphones with Sony Ericsson’s “SensMe Control” tech: bung them into your ears to automatically start listening to music, remove one bud to pause. The buds are activated by body contact and mimick the way we control sound now. What’s cool is that the headphones seem to use your body as an electrical conduit (a Body Area Network) based on this quote from the webinar:

“Requires conductive surface to activate the controls – i.e. your ears, hence it won’t turn things on in your pocket by just squeezing the ear buds”

If so, this is a first consumer application of this technology that we can recall. Available globally this week for any Fast Port equipped phone for just €39. Video fun after the break.

Update: SE has further clarified that the technology is capacitive in nature. In other words, removing an ear bud isn’t breaking the flow of current between buds (and across your noodle) — it’s destroying the dynamic capacitor formed by the touch of human skin. Right, this is technology we’ve seen before in capacitive touchscreens and trackpads.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s motion activated MH907 headset could change things forever (update: or not)

Filed under: Portable Audio

Sony Ericsson’s motion activated MH907 headset could change things forever (update: or not) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pool, the cut-down version of snooker preferred by degenerate hustlers and people who like fun, seems ripe for automation. After-all, it’s all about calculating the right angles and then holding the cue steady, both of which a robot can easily manage. Add in the fact that a robot doesn’t drink its performance into oblivion as the night deepens, and the ball-sinking pool robot known as Deep Green seems invincible. In short, once it is playing, it will never have to leave a quarter on the side of the table.

Deep green is an industrial gantry robot, equipped with a cue and hung over a standard coin-op table. A digital camera reads the scene below and the robot’s computer brain compares it to 30 pre-stored images of an empty table, using the differences to decide where, and what color, the balls are. From there, the robot can nominate a ball and pocket and slide into action.

Because the motors that move the robot are capable of error, there is a secondary camera which looks along the line of the cue, just like a human does. By comparing the line seen from this point-of-cue (effectively sighting the centers of the balls) with the ideal line seen by the overhead camera, Deep Green can adjust itself to sink the perfect pot.

It can even rack the balls with perfection, picking up and then placing each one precisely in position without the need for a rack.

But what of a machine that can pot the ball every time? It would be a kind of idiot savant without a complex physics engine that knows about spin, bounce and all the other strategic factors a pro-player’s brain can assimilate. Thus, Deep Green thinks ahead. You’d better make sure you get your first shot in, and don’t miss another, or it’ll be game over.

Or will it? Deep Green also has an “augmented reality pool” mode where it can help you make your shots. Just like a pool-sim video game, Deep Green can project the ideal line for you right onto the baize. It will show you exactly where each ball will go depending on how you hold the cue, adjusting angles and rebound lines in real time as you change the angle of your incipient strike. Of course, you still have to hit it right, and decide on the amount of power and spin you want to add.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to beat the pool-playing robot. No amount of standing behind it and shouting “Miss! Miss!” is going to help you. Asking your girlfriend to stand behind the pocket it’s aiming for is unlikely to help either. We guess you could try our cheat of last resort, which is lot lot safer practiced on an emotionless bot than the usual tattooed pool-shark we lose to: Stand nearby and, just as it makes the shot, shove it’s elbow, apologize and buy it a drink.

Project page [Deep Green Robot]

Toward a Competitive Pool-Playing Robot [Computer.org via the Giz and BBG]