Hasta La Gadget!

A new technology that could make its way to production cars is being tested in a handful of Ford police interceptors. The new tech is called “Surveillance Mode,” and it essentially gives police officers eyes in the back of their heads when they’re in their cars to prevent sudden sneak-ups coming from the rear.

It’s a fairly simple technology and it uses current rear cameras used for backing up to detect movement going on behind the car. When it detects a person moving in the camera’s view, the inside of the car makes a beeping noise and all the doors automatically lock and the windows automatically roll up to prevent any possibly sudden attacks.

The technology is obviously designed to keep police officers safer while they’re out on patrol, especially when they’re alone. Interestingly enough, the idea for this was thought up by Ford engineer Randy Freiburger who went on a ride-along with a police office in Los Angeles. The officer had to get out of the car to chase down a suspect on foot, leaving Freiburger alone in the car.

A screen in the rear-view mirror shows the video footage of the rear camera, and unlike in production cars when the camera is only enabled in reverse gear, this camera can stay on at all times and remain activated until the driver chooses to disable the feature when it isn’t needed.

The technology will come standard in all 2014 Ford police cars, and older models can have the system retrofitted for just a few hundred dollars. No word on whether or not this technology will make it to production cars at some point, but everyday drivers could certainly benefit from such a feature to prevent robberies and carjackings.

SOURCE: Ford

Ford Surveillance Mode gives police cars protection from rear approaches is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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If there’s one thing geeks love as much as video games, it’s setting things on fire. And while these nerdy candles won’t give off the kind of a lightshow you might get from fireworks, they’re a nice way to bring a little mood lighting to your nerdy pad.

Rox and Tom over at Frostbeard Studio came up with this handmade line of candles inspired by games, movies and comics from geek culture. Each candle is made from clean-burning soy, and scented with pleasant aromas like apple clover, cedar mint, rosemary, pineapple sage, or other welcoming, non-granny scents. The line of candles includes simple jars in color and scent themes like Zelda Potions, Adventure Time, Doctor Who and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

They’ve also got a “Level Two” line of candles with little nerdy ceramic sculptures hiding inside the jars, including Han Solo, a Baby Metroid, dinosaur bones or Cthulhu among other things. Oh, and Han Solo is “carbonite” scented – which is designed to smell cool, clean and metallic. Sounds about right to me.

Or you can level up to one of their nifty handmade ceramic candles in the shape of a Poké Ball, Bob-omb or a Piranha Plant. Bob-omb has a slightly smoky scent, and the Piranha Plant smells like clover and aloe. You can choose from Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Pikachu scents for the Poké Ball. Gotta smell ‘em all!

Head on over to Kickstarter now to order your Nerdy Candles now. Prices for the candles range from $15(USD) for the “Level One” designs, $30 for the “Level Two,” and $50 for the “Level Three” versions. There are also other special rewards for higher pledges.

We think of flowers as some of the most delicate creations in nature. We think of bone as hard and durable. Japanese artist Hideki Tokushige disagrees with that traditional separation, and in his spellbinding Bone Flowers (Honebana), he shows that artistic brilliance can turn flowers into stone and bone into silk.

Comcast’s advanced cable-box footprint keeps getting bigger. While currently you can only get the X1 set-top box in 18 of its service areas, that’s growing, as it’s come to several new markets recently. A company spokesperson recently told us that the cable giant is still on track to have the new unit as an option for all of its customers by year’s end. As of now, new and current Triple Play subscribers in Nashville and Knoxville, TN; Jacksonville, Sarasota and Naples, FL; Baltimore and Frederick, MD and Brunswick, GA can snag the hardware as a free upgrade with select programming packages. Or, if you’re patient, you could wait for the X2.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Comcast X1

Tourbillon horological machines are quite spectacular at times, and the Swiss manufacturer Romain Jerome has made some incredible ones. Their latest flying tourbillon watch features a unique design with tremendous depth, and looks gorgeous.

The Moon Orbiter Tourbillon was designed as a tribute to space. In fact, they’ve used melted down parts from the Apollo 11 shuttle and moon dust in the dial. The case measures 49mm wide, 45mm long and 20mm thick. There are lugs mounted on pneumatic cylinders to ensure that it’s comfortable. The case holds the Caliber RJ300-A-Mechanical self-winding movement watch system. Time is displayed on the right and the flying tourbillon on the left.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to mortgage your house to get this watch, because there will only be 25 made and each will sell for approximately $115,000(USD).

[via Luxuryes]