Diffuse Laptop Light Makes Screens Easy on the Eyes: Ambif.lux

Carolina Ferrari, Ilaria Vitali and Mengdi Xu designed Diffuse, a lamp designed to make laptop screens easy on the eyes in two ways.  Diffuse can provide complementary ambient light or it can compensate for a dark environment with a soft white light. It’s Ambilight and F.lux in one.

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Diffuse consists of a felt diffuser and a wooden box containing its electronics, which are mainly an Arduino Uno, two RGB LED strips and a light sensor. The box also houses a 12v rechargeable battery and a switch between the “Eye Pleasure” and “Eye Relief” modes. The felt diffuser attaches to the box via two magnets.

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To use Diffuse, you just connect it to your laptop via its USB cable, turn it on and select which mode you want to use. In Eye Relief mode, Diffuse’s light sensor will analyze the brightness of the area immediately behind your screen. The lamp’s LEDs will then emit a white light to balance the brightness of your screen and your surroundings. To use Eye Pleasure mode you also need to install an application on your laptop. The application will read the average color of your screen in real time and relay it to Diffuse, which will then match the given color.

Sit back, relax and check out the Diffuse Team’s website for more on the lamp.

Logicool – 9.3mm Ultra-thin USB wired keyboard “Logicool Illuminate Keyboard” featuring PerfectStroke

Logicool - 9.3mm Ultra-thin USB wired keyboard "Logicool Illuminate Keyboard" featuring PerfectStroke

Logicool is releasing a 9.3mm ultra-thin USB wired keyboard “Logicool Illuminate Keyboard” on June 7.

The illumination intensity of the built-in backlight is adjustable. Since the keyboard is featured with the PerfectStroke key system, typing feels smoother and quieter than regular keyboards. “Logicool Illuminate Keyboard” is less straining on your fingers for a long period of use.

Price is 8,980 yen.

Size: 457 × 190 × 9.3mm
Weight: 1050g
Compliant OS: Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Connection: USB

Sanwa Direct – Flat and beautiful Bluetooth backlight keyboard – “400-SKB036″ series

Sanwa Direct - Flat and beautiful Bluetooth backlight keyboard - "400-SKB036" series

Sanwa Direct released the Bluetooth compliant backlight keyboard “400-SKB036″ series. There are 2 models: Japanese keyboard (400-SKB036J) and English keyboard (400-SKB036E).

It’s 13cm thick and weights 269g. It’s almost the as same size as an iPad mini and easy to carry around.

You can select “Keyboard input mode” or “Mouse input mode”. When you select “Mouse input mode”, you can control the cursor or right/left click by touching on the surface of the keyboard. 

The “Vibration function” is a way to get feedback from the keyboard, where vibrations are felt when keys are pressed.

Price: 6,980 yen (including tax)
Compliant models: Windows computer, HIS profile compliant Smartphone/Tablet with Android OS
Compliant OS: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, Android Ver. 2.3 or later
Size: 191x115x13mm
Weight: 269g
Communication distance: About 10m
Accessories: USB cable for charging

Insert Coin: Lightpack turns your computer display into an ambient backlight (video)

Insert Coin Lightpack turns any display into an ambient backlight

While Philips did eventually bring its Ambilight technology to PC monitors, it wasn’t before others had decided to roll their own. Now you can add ambient backlighting to any computer display without any of the attendant soldering and Arduino-wrangling, thanks to the folks at Woodenshark. The team has built Lightpack, an Ambilight-esque system that’ll connect to a Windows, OS X or Linux PC and project the display’s colors onto the area surrounding the screen.

Plug the hockey puck-sized device into your computer, attach 10 LED modules to the back of your display and install the open-source software and you’re good to go. Once ready, you can even set up custom alerts to measure CPU temperature or email volumes, and even control the lighting with your smartphone or tablet. The team has asked for the unusually specific figure of $261,962 in order to fund an initial production run of 5,000 units, with early backers able to snag one of the units for $50 instead of around $90. Interested to watch it in action? There’s a video after the break, friends.

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Source: Kickstarter

Toshiba – First WQHD LCD Monitor touch panel Ultrabook – “Dynabook KIRA V832″

TOSHIBA - First WQHD LCD Monitor touch panel Ultrabook - "Dynabook KIRA V832"

Toshiba is releasing “Dynabook KIRA V832″ – the first 13.3 inch WQHD LCD Monitor touch panel Ultrabook – on April 24.

The screen features a 3.7 million pixel (2,560×1,440) high-definition LCD, which is better than full HD display. The battery life is 9.5 hours long. Intel Core i5-3337U processor, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, and keyboard with backlight are built-in.

Price: open price
Size: 316 x 207 x 9.5-19.8 mm
Weight: 1.35 kg
OS: Windows 8 64bit

Buffalo – Bluetooth wireless keyboard “BSKBB16″ series for iPhone 5 and “BSKBB17BK” for iPad

Buffalo - Bluetooth wireless keyboard "BSKBB16" series for iPhone 5 and "BSKBB17BK" for iPad

Buffalo is releasing Bluetooth 3.0 wireless keyboard “BSKBB16″ series for iPhone 5 and “BSKBB17BK” for iPad in mid April.

BSKBB16 series for iPhone 5
Color: Black (BSKBB16BK), White (BSKBB16WH)
Price: ¥8,400 (including tax)
Size: 126 × 21.5 × 60.5mm
Weight: 105g
Charging time: 1.5 hours
Battery life: 1.5 months (when it’s fully charged)

– You can slide and store the keyboard on the bottom of iPhone 5 when you carry it around
– The keyboard is removable so you can take it away and use the case as a regular iPhone 5 case
– You can adjust the iPhone’s angle to an easy-to-view angle
– Backlight LED for making the keyboard more visible in a dark place

BSKBB17BK for iPad
Color: Black
Price: ¥8,400 (including tax)
Size: 244 × 12.3 × 194mm
Weight: 285g
Charging time: 1.5 hours
Battery life: 1.5 months (when it’s fully charged)
Compatible iPad models: iPad2, iPad Retina display model, iPad (2012 Spring/Summer model)

– When not using the keyboard, you can attach it to iPad to use it as an iPad cover
– By fitting iPad to the rut, it enables you to type comfortably as if you were using a laptop