Hasta La Gadget!

Another prototype from DoCoMo aimed at Nihon‘s commuters, the i beam concept tablet forgoes any touch at all, allowing the user (once they’re at the specified ‘sweet spot’) to navigate around apps and screens using your eyes. Two sensors along the bottom edge of the tablet track both of your eyes and after a slightly laborious configuration setup, we were able to tour around the prototype slabs features without laying a finger on it. The navigational dot was a little erratic, but we’ll put that down to prototype nerves. The tablet was otherwise able to follow our eye-line and fulfill what we wanted it to do.

Returning to the home screen by targeting the kill box in the top right corner proved to be the most difficult thing — we soon resorted to tapping at the screen for that. DoCoMo showcased an eye-controlled game, alongside picture galleries, a web browser and a reader app. The e-book client seemed to be the most heavily involved, with the ability to look up words with a hard-stare, and flip pages by eyeing the two lower corners. The Japanese carrier isn’t planning a consumer launch any time soon — and the hardware comes with a pretty pronounced chin at the moment, but if you like staring at someone staring at a tablet, our eyes-on is after the break.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo’s i beam tablet prototype is driven by your eyes (video)

Filed under: Tablets, Alt

NTT DoCoMo’s i beam tablet prototype is driven by your eyes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. This week, we have our very own Nicole Lee!

My fondest memories of growing up in Malaysia don’t consist of balmy weekends by the beach or the bounty of fresh mangosteens in my grandmother’s kitchen. Instead, my childhood is a blur of video games, Saturday morning cartoons, Apple Macintosh Classics, IBM PC clones, and frequent trips to the local library where my parents would leave me alone for hours. Out of sheer boredom, I read every book I could get my hands on, and a lifelong love of reading was born. Parental neglect or ingenious education tactic? You decide.

Continue reading Growing Up Geek: Nicole Lee

Filed under: Misc, Alt

Growing Up Geek: Nicole Lee originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Dimensions, they’re like buses. You wait for ages, and then three come along at once. And then another one right after that. While that might be about where the analogy ends, this week sees us off to the moon, where we then leap from the third, right into the fourth. Once there, we’ll learn how we could eventually be controlled by lasers, before getting up close and personal with a 300 million-year old bug. Sound like some sort of psychedelic dream? Better than that, this is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 9.29.12: 3D pictures of the moon, 4D clocks and laser-controlled worms

Filed under: Misc, Science, Alt

Alt-week 9.29.12: 3D pictures of the moon, 4D clocks and laser-controlled worms originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AAC files and the arcane don’t have much in common on the surface. After some digging, however, PBS’ Idea Channel has found that magic is an uncannily good analogy for digital music rights and explaining the thorny ethical issues that come with them. Both music and spells stem from grassroots cultures that give away their content for free, but (at least until an anti-magic clampdown at eBay) have since become businesses. That nature poses a key ethical question: when we’re used to a free experience and can copy songs or spells as much as we like, what does it take to keep us as honest customers? As show host Mike Rugnetta suggests, it’s a matter of personal responsibility — if we want more of either, we have to think of the commerce as showing support for future work. You can catch Mike’s clever train of thought after the break, and ponder what constitutes DRM for a potion while you’re at it.

Continue reading PBS draws link between digital music ethics and magic spells, somehow makes it look simple (video)

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Alt

PBS draws link between digital music ethics and magic spells, somehow makes it look simple (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 22:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If little Johnny thought Build-a-Bear had nothing for his tech-savvy toddler sensibilities, he’d better think again. The plush toy-seller has just launched a new high-tech store concept that it hopes will help re-engage children otherwise distracted with tablets, phones and game consoles. The new additions include a 55-inch interactive digital sign out front, with touchscreen and Kinect functionality, complete with unlockable content via barcodes. Once inside, four Samsung SUR40 smart tables loaded with custom software offer a range of different parts of the teddy-making process, as well as interact with the toys in real-time — like a virtual bubble bath — thanks to a purpose-built tagging system. The sound side of things also gets a lick of paint, with six audio “zones” created, using ultrasonic speakers that can target sound to specific parts of the store and stop all the collective noise from reverberating like something from a bad dream. The first such shop is already open in St Louis, with five more locations to follow: Pleasanton CA, Annapolis MD, Troy MI, Fairfax VA and Indianapolis IN between October and November.

Continue reading Build-a-bear’s new store concept wants you to choose, love, stuff and fluff with high-tech (video)

Filed under: Misc, Alt

Build-a-bear’s new store concept wants you to choose, love, stuff and fluff with high-tech (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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