Hasta La Gadget!

Grower’s Cup is the world’s first disposable French Press. But can it make decent coffee? More »

Thanks to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect motion-sensing device, hand gesturing is becoming more and more popular, and a lot of innovative companies are trying out the device themselves to come up with new ways to control things through hand gestures. Toyota has made a skateboard concept using a Kinect camera and a Windows 8 tablet to demonstrate some of the technology that the auto manufacturer may possibly implement into their vehicles in the future.

The skateboard’s speed is controlled by the hands of the operator. Moving your hand down close towards the Kinect camera speeds up the skateboard, while moving it further away slows it down. Toyota says this kind of hand gesturing could be used in vehicles to raise and the lower the volume of the radio, without ever taking your eyes off the road.

Toyota and Microsoft announced a partnership last year that would allow Toyota to test out the Kinect’s technology for possible use inside of vehicles. Toyota has said that hand gestures would go well with voice recognition that’s already implemented in some vehicles, and may even replace voice recognition, since the technology is sometimes hindered by accents and dialects.

Toyota is also experimenting with skeletal tracking technology from Microsoft, which can track the movements of passengers in a vehicle. Some functions on a navigation system in newer cars are locked out if they’re going faster than 6mph (for safety reasons). Microsoft’s tracking technology would be able to differentiate between the driver and passenger, allowing the passenger to operate the navigation system even if the vehicle is moving.

Obviously, these are all just concepts for now, and the Toyota team is simply using this as inspiration for future ideas. However, it may not be long until we see Kinect-like motion sensors inside of vehicles to not only track movements of passengers, but also to offer hand gestures to make driving even safer.

Nokia Research has worked up a sweat with the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology by taking a Maemo-powered N900 and tinkering around with it, throwing in a new resistor which would basically enable the handset to register as well as interpret squeezes. Hmmm, we do wonder whether this was in any way inspired by the Like-A-Hug Facebook vest, or is it the other way around. Basically, when the hacked Nokia N900 that sports a new resistor interprets squeezes, it has to be called by a far more nifty name, so why not go with the moniker ForcePhone?

No Jedi Knights or Sith were harmed in the process of developing the ForcePhone and its nuances, where the squeezes on it can be interpreted by the handset at a quartet of different levels of intensity, which will then be translated into vibrations for both the squeezer and the person on the other side of the call. It can even be applied to a Skype session if you were to take this idea even further, and we do wonder what happens when anger is conveyed through the ForcePhone – would it go bust in a plume of smoke?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nokia Lumia 920’s exclusivity on AT&T reportedly only for six months, Nokia patent reveals possible tablet designs,

There is nothing quite like the tender touch of a loved one, especially when you are feeling particularly lonely and low at that point in your life. Well, perhaps the same kind of treatment can be extended to your clothes, and this was made possible thanks to the Tender touch sensitive garment which lights up whenever you touch it (but of course). Needless to say, all it takes is a tender touch to have this interactive illuminated garment light up, hence resulting in its name. What makes this particular garment pleasing to the eye? Well, the conductive surfaces were said to be beautifully knit and integrated into the garment, making it all look seamless.

The Tender is a project that saw shared development by the Textielmuseum Tilburg and designers Kristi Kuusk, Martijn ten Bhömer, and Paula Kassenaar. Needless to say, sending this to the laundry could prove far more tricky than your usual load of soiled clothes. You might want to warn your regular launderette owner beforehand though.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 16 crazy things we learned about Google’s data centers, ForcePhone sends good vibes,

Those in the US can brag about having the range, indoor friendliness and other advantages of 700MHz LTE, but few other countries have that edge so far: Latin Americans who have any LTE at all usually have to contend with less tolerant 2.6GHz bands. Colombia isn’t happy with that state of affairs, and its National Spectrum Agency is spearheading a rapidly growing 4G movement in the region by testing 700MHz LTE between the fall and winter. Its strategy echoes proposals from Brazil and Mexico that will use the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity band plan, providing more efficient airwaves as well as wider device and network coverage. It will take beyond early 2013 before Colombia and its neighbors are actively using 700MHz bands — the digital TV transition is one of the bigger obstacles — but there’s desires for a fast-track spectrum handout that could bring blazing speeds to Bogota before too long.

[Image credit: Kinori, Wikipedia]

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

Colombia to start testing 700MHz LTE, joins a Latin American trend in 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink RCRWireless  |  Agencia Nacional del Espectro (translated)  | Email this | Comments