Hasta La Gadget!

The idea of having superhuman powers is one I’m sure many of you can relate to as being able to fly, superhuman strength and invisibility are some of the powers you’ll probably want to have. But a group of students at the Royal College of Art in London created a set of masks that offer as close as an experience to having superhuman powers as you’ll probably get in your lifetime.

The two masks that were developed cover certain portions of the wearer’s face, the first one being worn over the ears, mouth and nose, while the other is worn over the eyes. The first prototype uses a directional microphone that makes it possible to hear isolated sounds within an environment filled with ambient noise. The second mask uses a camera to capture video to then send it to a computer which can apply a number of effects in real-time, which the wearer can then view. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: TitanArm Exoskeleton Can Help Its Wearer Lift Heavy Stuff, Google+ Hangouts get live captions,

Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop hinted a new Nokia Lumia should be expected to be announced ‘later this quarter‘ a few weeks ago, with a rumor of the device possibly being unveiled today. That rumor turned out to be false as we have yet to hear of any announcement for Nokia’s future Lumia, but we did receive an invite for an event happening on May 14 in London.

The invite has the words “The Nokia Lumia Story Continues” displayed along with the date, location and Nokia’s logo. The left side has a hidden message that you may not see at a quick glance, but staring at it for several hours will result in seeing the words “see what’s next.” Since Nokia isn’t outright saying what they plan on announcing, we could only assume it could be a number of rumored handsets such as the Lumia 928, Nokia Catwalk or whatever its 41-megapixel camera equipped smartphone turns out to be. Considering the event is expected to last for 6 hours, it could very well be all three devices.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nokia 105: Rugged And Dirt Cheap, LG Optimus F5 And Optimus F7 At MWC 2013,

So, previous taxi WiFi solutions were too slow, or you weren’t underground. What’s a smartphone-tethered Londoner on the hunt for WiFi supposed to do? The current answer is to flag down one of London’s 40 4GEE taxis, all of which will be loaded with WiFi router connected to EE, the UK’s only LTE network. If you’re not dahhn sahhf, you’ll still be able to pick up the signal in ten cabs that’ll be circling Birmingham. Ironically, these 4G-ready black cabs will no longer be black. Nope, they’ll be coated in the turquoise hues of the EE network, which should make them easier to spot. Anyone living in either metropolis should have no troubles keeping up with new Doctor Who, Downton Abbey or Peep Show ever again. At least for the next three months, which is how long the service is set to last.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet

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Before quadrocopters become Skynet’s roaming recon fleet, they’ll begrudgingly entertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London “spring” to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness of Earth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete with epic music and movie cut-scenes sure to send even the most Vulcan of trekkers to sickbay with hysteria. If anyone behind the promotion is reading — please, whatever you do, just don’t give them phasers.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: Ars Electronica (1), (2)

If you are in London you can’t miss the 2013 Kinetica Art Fair. Kinetika—which opened yesterday—is a fair dedicated to kinetic, electronic, robotic, sound, light, time-based and multi-disciplinary new media art, science and technology. So yes, it’s pretty cool. Take a peek: More »