Hasta La Gadget!

At Intel’s Computex keynote earlier today, the chip maker teased that it expects embedded 3D depth cameras to arrive on devices in the second half of 2014. Luckily, we got an exclusive early taste of the technology shortly after the event, courtesy of SoftKinetic. This Belgian company not only licenses its close-range gesture tracking middleware to Intel, but it also manufactures time-of-flight 3D depth cameras — including Creative’s upcoming Senz3D — in partnership with South Korea-based Namuga. Read on to see how we coped with this futuristic piece of kit, plus we have a video ready for your amusement.

Filed under: Peripherals, Intel

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At IDF 2013 in Beijing, Intel is again making a big push for perceptual computing by way of voice recognition, gesture control, face recognition and more, and to complement its free SDK for these functions, Intel’s been offering developers a Creative Interactive Gesture Camera for $149 on its website since November. For those who missed it last time, this time-of-flight depth camera is very much just a smaller cousin of Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, but with the main difference being this one is designed for a closer proximity and can therefore also pick up the movement of each finger.

We had a go on Creative’s camera with some fun demos — including a quick level of gesture-based Portal 2 made with Intel’s SDK — and found it to be surprisingly sensitive, but we have a feeling that it would’ve been more fun if the camera was paired up with a larger display. Intel said Creative will be commercially launching this kit at some point in the second half of this year, and eventually the same technology may even be embedded in monitors or laptops (remember Toshiba’s laptops with Cell-based gesture control?). Until then, you can entertain yourselves with our new hands-on video after the break.

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Source: Intel

Ever since we first saw Leap Motion’s hyper-accurate gesture control system in person, we’ve been waiting for the time when we can walk into a store and buy one. Sure, devs have been able to buy Leap controllers for some time and it won’t be long before Leap’s tech is baked into retail laptops, but now the general public’s going to get the chance to grab the standalone controller, too. That’s right, folks, this spring, the Leap Motion Controller will be available nationwide at any Best Buy store, with pre-orders starting in February. So, it won’t be long before you can stroll on down to the nearest big blue box and pick one up — assuming there’s still one within strolling (or driving) distance.

Continue reading Leap Motion goes retail: motion controller to be sold exclusively at Best Buy

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Haier had a pretty formidable booth here at CES, so naturally, we had to swing by and cast our eyeballs over anything and everything there. A wall of TVs greeted us, which turned out to be the company’s 2013 Roku-ready HDTVs and Android-packing smart models. Screens were everywhere, but there was also a table with some finger-friendly equipment like 9.7-, 7- and 5.3-inch HaiPads, as well as a Windows 8 laptop, touchscreen all-in-one and tab / laptop slider. The slider looked pretty nice, but all the aforementioned hardware was set up in Chinese, so we lost interest pretty quickly. A central hall booth wouldn’t be the same without a 4K TV, but not to worry, Haier had a couple on display — unfortunately, glare from all the other screens dotted around kind of dampened their impact.

What we were most interested in was all the prototype technologies on show, but all the Haier reps were from the US sales department, so not a soul could talk about the demonstrations. The eye-controlled TV we saw at IFA last year was getting quite a lot of attention, while the mind-controlled set we’ve also seen before was almost certainly playing a looping video to give the illusion something was happening. There were also several gesture-controlled models, but one wasn’t working and the other was hosting a very basic Kinect-type game. A ping-pong game played with a “Sensory Remote” was also up on one TV, but looked unresponsive and therefore, unfun. A multi-view demo using dual 3D specs did what it was supposed to, and a glasses-free 3D TV prototype showed nice depth as long as you were 12+ ft away (the camera can’t really replicate the effect, but there’s a quick video of it below anyway).

The booth also had a household section which we thought was safe to ignore, until a “wireless blender” caught the eye. “It’s just a blender with a battery in it, surely?” this editor asked. “No, there’s an inductive coil built into to the underside of the counter,” was the reply. Thus was our Haier experience at CES, and to revisit it through our eyes lens, check out the gallery below.

Kevin Wong contributed to this report.

Continue reading A look around Haier’s CES 2013 booth: HaiPads, plenty of panels and a wireless blender

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Displays, Household, Laptops, Tablets, HD

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The current crop of 4K TVs from LG and Sony are large enough that some of us would need to knock out a wall to get them inside. Enter a surprise early challenger from Hisense: its upcoming XT880 line’s 50-, 58- and 65-inch sizes deliver that 3,840 x 2,160 picture at dimensions built for mere mortal living rooms. We’re also promised a full-fledged, 3D-capable smart TV based around Android 4.0 with WiFi internet access, a remote with voice commands and a removable camera for gesture control or Skype chats. Hisense yet hasn’t committed to launch details for the XT880 line besides a presence on the CES show floor; however, it’s safe to say that the smaller sizes will bring the price of Ultra HD down from the stratosphere.

Continue reading Hisense jumps into 4K TVs with the XT880, promises Android 4.0 and a sane size

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Hisense jumps into 4K TVs with the XT880, promises Android 4.0 and a sane size originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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