Hasta La Gadget!

Performance artists. What won’t they do for attention? One guy, French artist Abraham Poincheval, is spending 13 days inside a taxidermy bear. That’s right. He is camping out inside of a dead bear.

He is doing this for his performance art piece “Dans La Peau de l’Ours” (“Inside the Skin of the Bear”) at the Hunting and Wildlife Museum in Paris through April 13, 2014. And also for attention. It’s just how artists are. Poincheval will remain enclosed in a cramped compartment inside of the bear. Kind of like a bear baby in the womb.

The “performance” is being streamed live via two cameras if you’re into that kind of thing. Watch man and bear co-exist in a truly weird way.

Whooah, we’re half way there
Livin’ in a bear
Take my hand and we’ll make it – I swear
Livin’ in a bear

[via BBC News via Laughing Squid]

Some things just look too good to be true, and this extremely polished hands-on — purporting to be the rumored, as yet unconfirmed budget iPhone — is possibly one of them. However, this comes via sources associated with M.I.C. Gadget, which has previous form in this area, and it does tally with previously seen incarnations. So, is this just a collection of design cues put together in order to sell the “Bear” brand Android imitation shown later in the same video (past the break,) or could it be the real iPhone housing? At the moment we’re buying neither, but with such a detailed set of images (at the source,) it provides a tantalising taste of what could be, if nothing else.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Techdy

A new stuffed bear toy has turned up on Indiegogo that is mostly cute and just a little bit creepy. The bear is called the Teddy Sitter and is supposed to be a fun and educational interactive toy aimed at kids from age 4 to 8. The people behind the project say that the bear knows songs, stories, games, and can play music.

Parents can pre-set reminders for kids to shower, snack, or take medicine. Here’s where the creepy part comes in – the bear also allows parents to monitor their children remotely using a mobile phone application. Using the app, the bear can take pictures and send them to parents, and allows parents to send and receive text messages from the bear.

Oddly enough, the bear can also measure the room temperature and humidity levels. Teddy Sitter includes the ability to call your child by name, has an integrated nightlight, can tell bedtime stories, sing songs, and play MP3 music.

Teddy Sitter will cost you a minimum of €100 (~$132 USD) over on IndieGogo.

This Teddy Bear USB Drive is as cute and adorable as flash drives can get. Heck, they’re so fluffy and doe-eyed that kids would mistake them for toys and grab them from your desk.

When they do, I suggest that you get the USB back though because aside from possibly containing your confidential data, it also has the potential to break their hearts and scar them forever.

I think the picture says it all. Dear Teddy, headless? Oh, the sheer horror of having to comfort the kid when he accidentally (or purposefully) pulls Teddy’s head off. That said, this flash drive is probably best for storing back-up files or other data that wouldn’t require you to bring it to an actual office. For obvious reasons.

On a side note, it’s totally appropriate for Halloween. The Headless Teddy Bear USB Drive is priced from $22 to $38 (USD), depending on the storage capacity. 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB drives are available.

[via BitRebels]

It worked just fine for Pinocchio, so why not animatronic stuffed bears? A group of researchers from the Tokyo University of Technology are on hand at SIGGRAPH’s Emerging Technologies section this week to demonstrate “Stuffed Toys Alive!,” a new type of interactive toy that replaces the rigid plastic infrastructure used today with a seemingly simple string pulley-based solution. Several strings are installed at different points within each of the cuddly gadget’s limbs, then attached to a motor that pulls the strings to move the fuzzy guy’s arms while also registering feedback, letting it respond to touch as well. There’s not much more to it than that — the project is ingenious but also quite simple, and it’s certain to be a hit amongst youngsters. The obligatory creepy hands-on video is waiting just past the break.

Continue reading Stuffed Toys Alive! replaces mechanical limbs with strings for a much softer feel (hands-on)

Filed under: Robots

Stuffed Toys Alive! replaces mechanical limbs with strings for a much softer feel (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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