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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[CEATEC 2012] At CEATEC this year, there have been quite a lot of trends that many companies seem to be trying to cash in to. Smart homes, wireless charging, and going green. Rohm is no execption. At its exhibition booth, the company showed off its upcoming high-capacity hydrogen fuel cells. A joint project with Aquafairy, it was announced earlier last month and at CEATEC we got to see it in action. Demonstrated with a portable charger, one relatively small fuel cell is said to be able to fully charge an iPhone within a couple of hours. Pretty impressive for something so small. However, the cell isn’t rechargeable and needs to be disposed after it has  been depleted, and when coupled with its plastic container it can quickly pile up to a huge amount of unrecyclable waste (despite the battery being eco-friendly). The good news is that these batteries produce no harmful emissions and can be combined to produce more power – at a fraction of the weight of regular batteries (car batteries were used for comparison here).
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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: CEATEC Japan 2012 – Day 1 Round-up, Clarion full digital speakers are power savers for your vehicle,

Folded in between DoCoMo R&D prototypes and One Piece-themed smartphones unlikely to make it across the Pacific, NEC’s new Android tablet caught our eye. The 7-inch NEC Medias Tab UL is one very svelte slab. Measuring in at just 7.9mm (0.3 inches) thick and weighing a mere 250g (0.55 lbs), the tablet still manages to house a 3,100mAh battery, and a Snapdragon MSM8960 1.5GHz dual-core processor. If you’d compare it to the Nexus 7, Google’s own effort look a little weighty and thick against this white-finish tablet. Performance from the dual-core chip is also suitably impressive, despite the curious DoCoMo-decked Android skin coating the Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

In true Japanese style, there’s a TV aerial embedded within the side and while it won’t broadcast the crisp high-definition delights of NOTTV, there’s plenty of terrestrial viewing available — if you stay in the Land of the Rising Sun. We were pleasantly surprised with its crisp WXGA screen, which looks to be TFT. The 1,280 x 800 resolution display meant videos and websites looked sharp, while there was barely any color degradation at wider angles. On DoCoMO’s network, users can expect to see download speeds up to 75Mbs, and upload speeds hitting up to 25Mbps. The tablet is now on sale across Japan, but there’s still no word yet on it launching elsewhere.

Continue reading NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on)

Filed under: Tablets

NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eye-tracking technology looks to be one of the major tropes at CEATEC this year. One of many companies demoing a gaze-following setup is Fujitsu, which is showing off a prototype desktop PC with a built-in sensor and infrared LED. This configuration should be cheaper than many other eye-controlled solutions out there, as the components are integrated directly into the computer and no external hardware is needed. It’s sweet and simple: the camera captures the reflection of light on the user’s eye, and image processing technology then calculates the user’s viewing angle to allow for hands-free navigation on-screen.

We got a brief eyes-on with Fujitsu’s demo, which shows off the eye-controlled tech working with a map application. Even without any detectible calibration, the system did a respectable job of navigating around Tokyo based on how we moved our eyes. Panning from right to left works especially seamlessly, but moving up and down required a bit more effort — we caught ourselves moving our whole head a few times. This is an early demonstration of course, though Fujitsu has already enumerated several applications for this technology, from assisting disabled users to simply eliminating the need to look down at the mouse and keyboard. See the gaze detection in action in our hands-on video past the break.

Continue reading Fujitsu eye-tracking tech uses built-in motion sensor, infrared LED for hands-free computing (video)

Filed under: Desktops, Misc, Peripherals

Fujitsu eye-tracking tech uses built-in motion sensor, infrared LED for hands-free computing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota is showing off its new Smart Insect prototype at the company’s CEATEC booth. The fully electric car charges via a standard 100-volt AC outlet, and it’s decked out with gull-wing doors and motion detection courtesy of Microsoft’s Kinect. The on-board motion sensors allow the car to recognize its owner based on face and body shape, and it predicts the owner’s behavior by analyzing movement and determining when to open the door, for example. (It also allows for the front and rear displays to show a welcome message when the owner approaches the car.) There’s also voice recognition for opening the car door and other functions, with a speaker on the hood of the car and dashboard-mounted “dialogue monitors” on the front and back.

The tech carries through to the Insect’s interior, which sports a wireless charging pad, a dash-mounted monitor that connects to the driver’s handset and a button for dialing up Toyota’s virtual agent. As a connected car, the Insect naturally ties in with entertainment and navigation services (in this case, via Toyota’s Smart Center). There’s also integration with a home energy management system, which allows the owner to adjust air conditioning and lock the front door via a smartphone app. As this is a proof of concept — and one we couldn’t test out, at that — it’s unclear how well these features work, and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see the prototype make it to market. Still, it’s fun to dream, and you can do that by tuning into our hands-on video just past the break.

Continue reading Toyota’s Smart Insect concept EV packs Kinect motion sensor, voice recognition (video)

Filed under: Transportation

Toyota’s Smart Insect concept EV packs Kinect motion sensor, voice recognition (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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