Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen an iOS app that can translate text from one language to another in real-time. The engineers at Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo thought it would be easier for users if the translator was integrated into a pair of glasses. If I had these the first thing I’d do would be to use it to play all the Super Robot Wars games. Damn you Banprestoooo!

Similar to the voice translator Sigmo, NTT DoCoMo’s prototype needs an Internet connection to be able to translate text. It will then display the translation over the Japanese characters.

2020? There’ll be a billion SRW games by then!

[via Reuters via UniqueDaily]

Earlier this week Valve teased the free, gaming-oriented and Linux-based SteamOS and the PC-console hybrid Steam Machine. It soon completed the establishment of the fundamentals of its living room invasion by unveiling the Steam Controller. As with the Steam Machine, the controller is Valve’s attempt at bringing the best of PC and console gaming together.

The Steam Controller doesn’t seem to have biometrics or gaze tracking capabilities – two features that Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has cited as desirable input options – but one look at it and you can see that it’s still quite different from most gamepads. For starters, instead of a d-pad or analog joysticks, the controller has two high-resolution trackpads. Valve added “super-precise haptic feedback” to trackpads in the form of weighted electro-magnets. The feedback will be used not only to add tactility to the trackpads, they can also be used to provide other in-game cues and can even function as speakers. How about that?

Chris Remo of developer Double Fine claims he was able to test a prototype of the controller a few months ago and said “…the cursor pads worked amazingly well.” When asked if the haptic feedback helps, Remo said, “Yes, it makes it feel like you’re actually operating a real physically mechanical device, not just a touchscreen.”

Perhaps Remo was actually referring to the trackpads in the second statement that I quoted, but the controller does have a high-resolution touchscreen. It’s the small square at the center of the controller. When you touch the screen, an overlay of the touchscreen’s display appears on your TV or monitor, so you won’t have to look down at the controller while playing. Makes you wonder why they even made it a screen right? Then again, it could be used to display data that should be kept hidden from other players. Take that Lambert!

Aside from its touch-friendly input options, the controller also has good old buttons. There are a total of 13 standard buttons – four face buttons at the corners of the touchscreen, three narrow rectangles below the touchscreen, four shoulder buttons and two rear buttons – but because the two trackpads and the touchscreen are also clickable, you have a total of 16 buttons.  The image below shows a sample key binding setup for Portal 2. Note that the touchscreen is divided into four buttons in the setup.

What makes this controller extra special in my opinion is that it has a “legacy mode” that fools your Steam Machine or your desktop computer into thinking that the controller is a keyboard and mouse. This makes it compatible with all Steam games, which is why the diagram above indicates the mapped keyboard and mouse buttons and not just the functions. Finally, Valve promises that the controller will be hackable, and that they will provide tools to help people mod the controller.

If you’re interested in owning or building a Steam Machine but don’t want to use the Steam Controller, don’t worry. Valve says you’ll still be able to stick with your trusted keyboard and mouse combo.

Valve will pick 300 lucky Steam members to participate in a closed beta. The beta testers will be given both a prototype Steam Machine and Steam Controller. The prototype controller that Valve will distribute to the testers will be wired and have no touchscreen, but the final version will be wireless and have the aforementioned touchscreen. Check out the Steam Machine FAQ page if you want to know how to apply for the closed beta.

[via Valve via Kotaku]

Ben Heck’s Steam box will soon be a legitimate Steam Box. The avid PC gamer can build his Steam Box, the console gamer will be able to buy a Steam Box, everyone can have a Steam Box! That’s all in the near future – hopefully not in Valve Time – with the announcement of SteamOS, a free Linux-based operating system “designed for the TV and the living room.”

According to the teaser page, Valve has progressed far enough with SteamOS Valve to have “achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing”, and now they’re working on “audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level.” Valve also claims that developers are already working with the standalone operating system, with “hundreds of great games” already running natively on SteamOS. In the event that your favorite game doesn’t have a SteamOS version, Valve says you’ll be able to stream a game from a PC or Mac running the Steam client to the machine running SteamOS.

Valve also said that they’re working with media providers to tie in to Steam and SteamOS. Add in Big Picture mode, cloud syncing and the propensity of Steam to drop prices like it’s hot and you could have an all-conquering entertainment machine.

Can Valve finally bring about the rise of the PC-console hybrid? A machine with the idiotproof user interface of a console, but with the futureproof software and hardware options of the PC? Is Valve saving Half-Life 3 for the SteamOS? The bastards?

[Steam via Joystiq]

With few exceptions, 3D printers can’t be used to print edible things, but wouldn’t it be extremely cool if we could one day print whatever food we can imagine using 3D printers?

That’s the idea behind the Atomium. The concept device would be equipped with a 3D-imaging camera and software that could turn 2D drawings or photos into 3D objects. When powered on, users could turn their doodles of burgers into the real thing. Cakes, cookies, pasta, pastries – the sky’s the limit.

The idea is that the device could develop foods based on the individual users tastes and desired shape of food. It would even take into account their individual medical profile. Of course, you can’t make food out of nothing. Ingredients would have to be placed inside individual bins on the Atomium’s base. These are then used to “print” edibles, which can be removed from the device’s head.

The goal is to make the Atomium as simple as possible so that even kids can use it. This is definitely one of those concepts that seem pretty far out as of the moment. But that’s how many current technologies started out, so maybe this will become a reality one day.

[via Dvice]

Every year, many diseases are transmitted between people because some practitioners use unsterile or reused syringes to administer injections, sometimes unknowingly. Data from the World Health Organization indicate that almost 40% of the annual 40 billion injections being administered worldwide use these dirty syringes.

Trying to bring this number down is Dr. David Swann from the Huddersfield University in England with his ABC Syringe. It’s described as a tamper-proof syringe that comes delivered in a nitrogen-filled pack. The syringe’s barrel is actually coated with a special ink which changes color upon exposure to the carbon dioxide in air.

Once it’s exposed to CO2, the clear ink changes color to a very bright and very striking red–a color that can’t be easily missed or ignored.

Dr. Swann explained: “When you compare a sterile syringe just out of its packaging with a syringe that’s been washed, how do you determine the difference? We conceived an intelligent ink that, if exposed to air by taking it out of the package or if the package is breached, would activate it and turn it red.”

The ABC Syringe is currently a finalist at the Index Awards in Denmark.

[via C|NET]