Hasta La Gadget!

Sculpteo takes two photographs of your head – one face-on and one profile – and combines them through the magic of computers and 3D printing to make you a plaster bobble-head avatar. The resulting mini-figs are slightly disturbing, looking a lot like a 3D video-game character from the era of Nintendo 64’s Goldeneye.

Should size matter to you, you can pick from 7cm (2.7-inch) or 10cm (3.9-inch) heights, costing €60 ($80) or €80 ($106) each. Clothing and other styling tips need to be described in text, so you’d better find a writer friend to help or risk ending up like some five-armed nightmare.

Ordering one of these for yourself is clear, undiluted, Dr. Evil-style vanity. Buying one for a friend, however, is a lot more acceptable. Just be prepared for him to say “Who’s it supposed to be? Wait. Is it me?” Better still, make one for a hated neighbor and leave it on his doorstep, wrapped in a scrap of sack-cloth along with a few scary-looking dressmaker’s pins.

Customized Mini Me [Sculpteo]

See Also:

• Han Solo Lego Minifig Encased in Carbonite
• So… Encased in Carbonite You Are
• 2001: A Space Odyssey Monolith Action Figure

No doubt sensing a little heat from Apple’s own AirPrint, Epson and Thinxstream have now announced that their PrintJinni wireless printing app for iOS devices will soon be available completely free of charge — a permanent price drop, mind you, not simply a holiday promotion. Unfortunately, you can’t grab it for free just yet, as it will still demand the regular $6.99 until the App Store processes the price change, which is apparently expected to happen before the end of the month. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

Continue reading Epson and Thinxstream making PrintJinni wireless printing app available for free

Epson and Thinxstream making PrintJinni wireless printing app available for free originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That plastic ball up there might look like a simple plastic ball, but it is in fact a simple plastic ball packed with tech. Inside the Orbotix, as it’s known, are robot guts that let you control the ø74mm (2.9-inch) sphere with an Android or iOS device.

It works via Bluetooth (along with some secret-sauce robotics and motors), and charges via induction, so you don’t need any plugs. We first saw the Sphero, then nameless, back in August when it was just a prototype. Now the cute rolling toy is almost ready for production, and will be shown off in Las Vegas at CES next month.

The ball isn’t just for rolling. Well, actually, rolling is all it will do, but the programming hooks into the ball’s control systems have been given to developers so that they can write games. This, you could tilt your iPad to control the ball in a hybrid real-virtual blend of Marble Madness, or go head-to-head with another Sphero ball in a game of spherical Sumo.

So we lay down a challenge: Gizmodo guys – we’ll meet you at the ShowStoppers event on the night before CES begins and kick your asses. Cool?

The Ball Revealed – Sphero [Orbotix. Thanks, Meghan!]

See Also:

• Video: Rolling Robot Ball Controlled by Android Phone

Yeah, we’re a sucker for a good Kinect hack, and we’re a sucker for anything involving RC cars, too. Happy day for us, then, as the two come together in blissful harmony with this project from Michael Schweitzer and Michael Himmelsbach at the University of Bundeswehr Munich. It’s a 1:10 scale auto with Microsoft’s fancy cam mounted up front and what looks to be a surplus Dell XPS M1330 riding in style on the back. The laptop is running a simplified version of the object-avoidance software used by the team to propel a full-sized and similarly autonomous VW, obviously shrunken down a bit for this application. This little ‘un is a little shaky right now, but that’s largely because they haven’t managed to get an accurate odometer working yet. Still, it does avoid obstacles, as you can see, and now all it needs is some Lexan bodywork before it can look pimpin’ when cruising the strip — autonomously, of course.

Update: This post was updated to clarify how the object avoidance software was used previously.

Continue reading Kinect gets own set of wheels, drives a car, nothing can stop it now (video)

Kinect gets own set of wheels, drives a car, nothing can stop it now (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on December 17, 2006 by CyberNet.

I’m not sure if many of you have heard of Script.aculo.us before but it is often the code used to provide Web 2.0 styled effects. Usually you’ll find it implemented in expandable/collapsible menus where it applies a sliding effect to the menu instead of just disappearing right away, so Script.aculo.us basically smooths out animations. Of course, it can handle more than just menus and you should checkout the demo page for more examples of where it would be useful (different examples are listed in the right column).

I have considered using it in the expanding/collapsing sidebar elements that this site has but the downside is that it will eat up some bandwidth. Depending on the effects that you want to use it could total over 100KB of additional downloads required for every visitor on the site. If you just want a sliding effect to collapsible menus then that isn’t quite so bad and will typically just use around 15KB.

The newest version of Scrip.aculo.us, version 1.7 Beta, is throwing in even more effects that could change the way websites present information to us. Now there are two new morphing effects and one transformation effect that is sure to make any site look professional. This site has setup a demo so that you can see the three different effects in action along with how you can implement them yourselves.

The transitions are so unbelievably smooth that it feels like something you would see in a PowerPoint presentation and not on a website. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll refresh the page at least once so that you can try each of the effects again. I’ve refreshed the page well over 10 times.

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