Hasta La Gadget!

Pool tables come in hundreds of different styles, but if you really want to make your setup unique, check out OpenPool. It’s an augmented reality system that lets you project visual effects on the bed that react to the motion of the balls.

OpenPool is an open source program that uses a Kinect sensor to track the balls on the table, then feeds the visual effects to a projector mounted above the table. OpenPool also has an optional complementary device that triggers additional visual effects when a ball sinks into a pocket.

OpenPool isn’t for small time players though. You have to pledge at least $5,000 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a full OpenPool kit, which includes a PC, a Kinect and a projector – and that doesn’t include the pool table. You can also get a DIY kit – basically just the software and a mount for the projector – by pledging at least $1,000. Masse your browser to the OpenPool website to see additional information as well as more demo videos.

[via Gadgetify]

…or at least try to do so. The electronics repair specialists at iFixit put together a set of tools that will help you dust off and possibly even repair a variety of gadgets. It comes with spudgers, tweezers, cleaning swabs, and most importantly a 28-bit driver set that works with a variety of screw heads and sizes.

ThinkGeek says you can use the Refurbisher’s Toolkit to open up and clean practically any console. That includes the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, as well as Nintendo and Sony handheld systems. The kit should also come in handy with some smartphones, laptops and desktop computers.

You can order the Refurbisher’s Toolkit from ThinkGeek for $100 (USD), $20 off its selling price on the iFixit store.

[via Boing Boing]

Legendarily unaffordable Tokyo is no longer the priciest metropolis in the world—it has been supplanted by another, far more inaccessible city. Want to take a guess who it is? It’s not New York. It’s not San Francisco. The world’s most expensive city is…

Read more…

We’ve featured a couple of unusual keyboard and mouse hybrid devices, but so far it looks like people like their devices just as they are – separate and not looking like devices you’d use to pilot an alien spaceship. I wonder if Solid Art Labs’ King’s Assembly will fare any better. At the very least it’s the least weird-looking of the bunch.

The King’s Assembly is a pair of devices (a left and a right “hand”) that each have an optical laser sensor, 35 keys with Cherry mechanical keyboard switches (30 in front and 5 near the thumb rest) and an analog joystick. Because you only get 70 keys at most, one of the keys can be set to serve as a modifier. Hold that down and you can access the secondary function of the other keys, giving you a total of 139 key mappings. Speaking of which, each device will have a preset key mapping, but you’ll be able to create new mapping profiles as well.

Each hand can serve as a mouse and keyboard on its own. But if you have both hands you’ll need to link them using the included interconnect cable if you want to use them in tandem. Once they’re linked, your computer will only see one mouse and one keyboard instead of two of each peripheral. Also, each hand has its own USB cable, but when they’re linked you only need to connect one of their USB cables to your computer. This means you can connect a pair of hands to two computers at once.

How will the two mice act as one? The King’s Assembly’s built-in Atmel microcontroller will average the input from the hands’ optical sensors and send that as one signal to your computer. That may sound weird, but we’re used to using just one of our hands to move our mice anyway, so that shouldn’t be a big problem. You’ll also be able to tweak the sensitivity of each hand’s sensor separately or even disable a hand’s mouse input altogether.

Finally, the joysticks will be useful in playing video games, but you can also use them as scroll wheels.

Pledge at least $110 (USD) on Kickstarter to get one King’s Assembly hand as a reward; pledge at least $200 and you get a pair. I think I’m good with my low-tech keyboard and mouse for work and daily use, but I can see myself using these for gaming.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

A company called Tivitas is working on the gamepad equivalent of Mad Catz’ R.A.T. mice, and then some. It’s called the Sinister, a glove-shaped gamepad that’s adjustable in different aspects. It also has a haptic feedback technology that’s supposedly more nuanced compared to the rumble motors used in most gamepads.

The images here are of the Sinister’s prototype, but the major features should be intact in the retail product. Like Mad Catz’ mice, Sinister’s overall length and the height of its arch are adjustable. The customization extends to its buttons and analog stick. These switches come in small magnetized modules that can be rearranged on the fly to suit your preference.

Finally, you can pick from different ways of using the gamepad.  You can have the gamepad and your mouse emulate an Xbox 360 controller, with the mouse acting as the right analog stick. You can also emulate an Xbox 360 controller with just Sinister alone, leaving you free to use all of your mouse’s functionality. Finally, you can have the gamepad emulate a keyboard and map commands to its keys.

In its hands-on with Sinister, Polygon said that Vivitouch, the gamepad’s haptic feedback technology, is “lighter, smaller, quieter and more energy efficient than rumble devices and offers a more targeted haptic feel. A bullet shot feels a lot different to a sword clanging against a shield, or a long fall.” Polygon also said that the gamepad will have different rumble settings for different types of games, though Tivitas made no mention of that in its Kickstarter page.

Tivitas claims that Sinister is already compatible with Windows and Linux, with support for OS X on the way. Pledge about $109 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a beta version of the Sinister gamepad as a reward. I think the Sinister can make gaming on a PC more comfortable, but I can do without the rumble feature. Hopefully Tivitas will consider releasing a cheaper, rumble-less model.