Hasta La Gadget!

At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), voice recognition specialist Nuance unveiled Dragon Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant for Intel-powered computers and laptops running Windows 8. It’s not as smart – or sexy – as Samantha from Spike Jonze’s Her, but it’s a start.

Dragon Assistant works a lot like Siri, Kinect and other voice-activated assistants. To start using it, you just have to say “Hey Dragon.” From that point you can then use everyday language to open applications, search online and of course dictate text. The program’s voice can be set to either “British Butler” or ”American Female.” Aww man, no German Shepherd?

See that? Now we’re all Dragonborn. Nuance says Dragon Assistant is already available on various Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops, ultrabooks, tablets and all-in-one computers, with ASUS and Toshiba computers to follow suit this year. Like other voice assistants, you’ll need an Internet connection to use all of Dragon Assistant’s features, although it can still execute certain commands even when you’re offline. Check out the Dragon Assistant support page for more on that.

[via Nuance via Gear Diary]

Hercules has unveiled a new and reasonably-priced controller for aspiring DJs to learn their art. The device is called the DJControlWave and it is designed especially to work with the iPad. The DJ controller connects to the iPad using Bluetooth and has no speakers of its own.

That means that you will need a set of speakers for the iPad or headphones for jamming out in privacy. The DJControlWave has a wireless range of 33-feet from the iPad. It has an internal rechargeable battery good for up to eight hours of use per charge.

The DJ controller has two jog wheels, two pitch sliders, and buttons for effects, samples, and cues. It also has rotary encoders for EQ settings. The controller works with a free app called DJUCED DJW. It can also be connected to a Mac or PC via USB using the included software.

The DJControlWave will launch this spring for $299.99(USD).

I don’t mind shopping, by myself. I hate shopping with my wife because she expects me to carry everything. I think she waits all year until I go with her and then tries to buy everything at once. Typically, I end up with a 75-pound bad of clothes in each hand, with nothing in the bags for me. People like my wife need Budgee.

Budgee is a lightweight robot that carries your stuff for you. The ‘bot is a three-wheel unit with a soft bag attached for you to put your stuff into. It can carry up to 50 pounds, and uses a rechargeable battery good for up to eight hours of use per charge.

Budgee is designed to follow you from a preset distance. The robot knows to follow you because of a small transmitter you carry with you. The robot works in conjunction with a smartphone app to warn you if you get too far away from it as well. You can also control the robot thought the smartphone app.

Budgee is on Kickstarter now seeking funding and a pledge of at least $1299(USD) by February 1, 2014 will get you one of the first robots with delivery set for July.

Tobii’s eye-tracking technology continues to make its way to mainstream devices. We’ve seen it work with laptops, arcade machines and Windows 8 tablets, and now Tobii has partnered with SteelSeries to release the EyeX, an eye-tracking accessory meant to work with PC games.

In case you’re not familiar with Tobii’s technology, its eye tracker uses microprojectors to beam near-infrared light to the users’ eyes. Then the trackers’ sensors analyze the reflections of that light along with the user’s facial features to accurately detect where he’s looking.

In the demo below, Tobii shows three ways that eye-tracking can be used to augment StarCraft II. First is the ability to move the view to a particular location by looking at an enlarged view of the mini-map (i.e. a map). Second is the ability to center the view to the point where the user is looking, and finally the ability to order units where to move, attack and more just by looking at the target. Skip to around 2:45 in the video for the demo:

The EyeX can also be used in e-sports broadcasts and to help developers improve their game by showing where a player is looking as he’s playing. Skip to around 12:30 in the video below to see that function in action:

As you can see the hardware seems quite capable, but it’s not going to succeed if developers don’t integrate it – and integrate it well– into their games.

Tobii & SteelSeries will release EyeX developer kits this year for $195 (USD), but for a limited time they can be bought for a steep discount: $95 for US customers and €75 for non-US customers. Just enter the promo code ‘CES2014′ on Tobii’s online shop when prompted. As with its tablet incarnation, I can see the EyeX being a boon not just for creating better or new ways to play games, but to help the disabled play conventional games as well. I hope developers and hardware hackers will explore that possibility too.

[via Tobii via Destructoid]

Projection mapping makes for eye-catching presentations, but for now it’s mostly used in advertising, live performances and for artistic purposes. The folks at animation studio Leviathan think they can simplify the technology for commercial and personal use. The studio’s proof-of-concept is called Ghost Box.

As with other projection mapping setups, Ghost Box uses projectors – in this case two of them – to beam dynamic visuals to a three dimensional object. The kicker here is that instead of requiring sophisticated knowledge or equipment, the system is self-contained and the projectors are controlled by easy to use mobile apps. For instance, in the video below you can see Ghost Box was used as a car configurator. Users simply tap and swipe on a tablet to change the properties of the car, and their choices are projected in real time to a scale model.

Nothing beats seeing and handling an actual object, but I can see Ghost Box being useful for educational purposes. A Ghost Wall or a Ghost Room would be way better though.

[via PSFK]