Hasta La Gadget!

Keyboards aren’t always high on the list of considerations for folks buying a new computer or looking to upgrade an old one. Some may be more likely to splurge on a high-end monitor, or cram in as much RAM as possible. For this writer, though, the keyboard is one of the most important components of a computer, if not the most important. For the past 10 years or more, that’s meant a split-design ergonomic keyboard in the vein of Microsoft’s Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 — at least when not exclusively using a laptop. That style certainly takes some getting used to, and is always guaranteed to start a conversation, but it has some clear benefits for comfort (not to mention the well-being of your wrists) over the long term.

More recently, however, that old standby has given way to a mechanical keyboard with a traditional design — the Matias Tactile Pro 3, specifically. A split-design mechanical keyboard would be ideal, but those are unfortunately quite a rare breed. While a something like the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 has advantages over your average keyboard in terms of overall comfort, it still feels like a regular keyboard. That is, it’s slightly mushy and generally less tactile given its use of a rubber membrane for the keys instead of the individual switches found in a mechanical model like the Tactile Pro.

As anyone who’s used both can attest, the difference is immediately noticeable. With a good mechanical keyboard, you don’t have to worry about a key press not registering; the keys have more spring to them for a crisper feel and (here’s the contentious part for some) they make more noise. It’s not a typewriter-level racket, but there’s a good chance you’ll be frowned upon if you’re sharing a desk with someone, or are trying to take notes while on a conference call. It’s that potential issue that led Matias to try something different with its latest keyboard — one that it claims is the world’s quietest mechanical keyboard. Did it deliver? Read on to find out.

Continue reading Matias Quiet Pro review: a mechanical keyboard with less clickety-clack

Filed under: Peripherals

Matias Quiet Pro review: a mechanical keyboard with less clickety-clack originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I love flipbooks. They just have this classic and nostalgic feel to them that makes them so special, both to the creator and to the spectators of the moving art that they hold within their pages. Now bringing mechanical flipbooks to the mainstream are kinetic artists Mark Rosen and Wendy Marvel.

Mark and Wendy created a series of motorized flipbooks last year, which became such huge hits after they were released to an adoring audience. Now they’re back with their flipbooks, but this time they’re giving everyone a chance to create their own masterpieces using this unique art format through FlipBooKit. These little mechanical wonders are available in either hand-cranked or motorized versions.

FlipBooKit is currently up for funding on Kickstarter. For a minimum pledge of $43(USD), you can get your very own kit with includes a vintage-looking flipbook shell, 30 flip panels, you-print-it printer sheets, a pre-printed trotting horse animation, a single hub, and assembly tools and on-line step-by-step instructions and flipbookit creation tools. A pledge of $66 to $76 lands you one of the first of the motorized versions of the FlipBooKit, dubbed the MOTO-FLIP. (Doesn’t that sound like a phone from the 1990s? – Ed.)

They begin shipping out this December, so they’d totally make a cool Christmas gift for both budding artists and art enthusiasts.

How many times have you been at the airport and waited what seemed like an eternity for your bags to show up. Oftentimes, this is due to the long, slow process of unloading bags from the gate and driving them all the way to the baggage claim area. This new baggage conveyor system hopes to speed up that ponderous system and make it more efficient.

Daifuku’s Baggage Tray System can move bags at speeds up to 600 meters-per-minute. To put that in perspective, that’s a speedy 22 miles per hour. Sure, Usain Bolt can run faster, but probably not with a bag strapped to his back (though the Cheetah robot might be able to.) Anyhow, here’s a video of the system in action, showing off just how fast it truly is.

I certainly wouldn’t want to try and catch up to a bag moving around on the fast straightaway right behind the guy in the video.

The baggage trays in the conveyor have RFID tags on them so their location can be monitored, as well as the position of each individual bag placed on the trays. Daifuku also offers equipment to automatically load and unload the conveyor. In addition to being useful for airports, this system could be very handy for moving parts around quickly in large manufacturing operations.

[via DigInfo.TV]

We’ve seen quite a few NES mods in our day, but we can’t say we’ve ever seen one hooked up to anything quite like this. Built by DIY-er Martin Raynsford, this contraption / work-of-art makes use of an Arduino (naturally) to relay signals from the NES controller to the Donkey Kong screen brought to life above, which was constructed with near pixel-perfect accuracy out of laser-cut parts. As Raynsford points out, though, things are still a bit limited in the game’s V1 state. There isn’t much of an actual “game,” for starters — just Mario stuck in the middle with a never-ending loop of barrels / ball bearings that you can jump over. A second version is planned with a greater degree of control, but we’re guessing the video for it won’t be quite as hypnotic as the one after the break.

Continue reading Mechanical Donkey Kong game tests your barrel-jumping skills, patience

Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Alt

Mechanical Donkey Kong game tests your barrel-jumping skills, patience originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you have trouble getting popcorn into your mouthhole? Yeah, I know it can be tricky to reach into the bowl and perfectly align your hand with your mouth to ensure the popped kernel ends up in the right spot. Well, there’s finally a solution to this first-world problem, courtesy of the Popinator.

The fine folks at Popcorn Indiana conceived of this ridiculous gadget, that’s sole purpose is to locate your mouth and fire a single kernel of popcorn at it from up to 15 feet away. According to the “electrical engineer” in this video, the machine uses binaural microphones to detect when somebody says “Pop!” and then triangulates their location so it can adjust the popcorn launching mechanism.

Whether this is a real device, or simply a publicity stunt for a viral video, it’s pretty awesome. (Especially the screwy blinking lights on the front.) Though I doubt they’d ever be able to bring the Popinator to market, as they’d probably be inundated with choking lawsuits from idiots who don’t know how to catch popcorn in their mouths properly.

[via VVV]