Hasta La Gadget!

In the hubbub of a late evening soiree in the center of Cologne, Mad Catz unveiled its new gaming keyboard. While the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 keyboard is certainly punctuation-rich, it’s aiming to match all those periods with just as many functions and permutations. The keyboard has a modular design, including a new touchscreen interface offering up some new swipe and gesture controls across both gaming titles and day-to-day PC use. Mad Catz reckons it’s the final piece in their gaming range puzzle, complementing both the aforementioned R.A.T. mice and its F.R.E.Q gaming headsets. We take a closer look — and throw in the suitably bombastic promo video — after the break.

Continue reading Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 gaming keyboard announced at Gamescom (hands-on)

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 gaming keyboard announced at Gamescom (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not often that we stumble upon classical music on the floor at SIGGRAPH, so the tune of Bach’s Cantata 147 was reason enough to stop by Gocen’s small table in the annual graphics trade show’s Emerging Technologies hall. At first glance, the four Japanese men at the booth could have been doing anything on their MacBook Pros — there wasn’t a musical instrument in sight — but upon closer inspection, they each appeared to be holding identical loupe-like devices, connected to each laptop via USB. Below each self-lit handheld reader were small stacks of sheet music, and it soon became clear that each of the men was very slowly moving their devices from side to side, playing a seemingly perfect rendition of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

The project, called Gocen, is described by its creators as a “handwritten notation interface for musical performance and learning music.” Developed at Tokyo Metropolitan University, the device can read a printed (or even handwritten) music score in real-time using optical music recognition (OMR), which is sent through each computer to an audio mixer, and then to a set of speakers. The interface is entirely text and music-based — musicians, if you can call them that, scan an instrument name on the page before sliding over to the notes, which can be played back at different pitches by moving the reader vertically along the line. It certainly won’t replace an orchestra anytime soon — it takes an incredible amount of care to play in a group without falling out of a sync — but Gocen is designed more as a learning tool than a practical device for coordinated performances. Hearing exactly how each note is meant to sound makes it easier for students to master musical basics during the beginning stages of their educations, providing instant feedback for those that depend on self-teaching. You can take a closer look in our hands-on video after the break, in a real-time performance demo with the Japan-based team.

Continue reading Gocen optical music recognition can read a printed score, play notes in real-time (hands-on video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds, Peripherals

Gocen optical music recognition can read a printed score, play notes in real-time (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, you spend plenty of time talking to your plants, but have you ever made them sing? In partnership with Berlin-based Studio NAND, Walt Disney’s experience development arm, coined Disney Research, has found a way to take human-plant interaction to an almost freakish level. The project’s called Botanicus Interacticus, and centers around a custom-built capacitive sensor module, which pipes a very low current through an otherwise ordinary plant, then senses when and where you touch. Assuming your body is grounded, the device uses more than 200 frequencies to determine exactly where you’ve grabbed hold of a stem. Then, depending on how it may be programed, the sensor can trigger any combination of feedback, ranging from a notification that your child is attempting to climb that massive oak in the yard again, to an interactive melody that varies based on where your hand falls along the plant.

Because this is Disney Research, the company would most likely use the new tech in an interactive theme park attraction, though there’s currently no plan to do much more than demo Botanicus Interacticus for SIGGRAPH attendees. This week’s demonstration is giving the creators an opportunity to gather feedback as they try out their project on the general public. There’s four different stations on hand, ranging from a stick of bamboo that offers the full gamut of sensitivity, including the exact location of touch, to an orchid that can sense an electric field disruption even as you approach for contact. While interactive plants may not have a role in everyday life, Botanicus Interacticus is certainly a clever implementation of capacitive touch. You can see it action just past the break.

Continue reading Disney Research’s Botanicus Interacticus adds capacitive touch to ordinary plants, we go hands-on

Filed under: Household, Peripherals

Disney Research’s Botanicus Interacticus adds capacitive touch to ordinary plants, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not sure how many members of the Google army asked for it, but the second-gen, Android-friendly appBlaster’s now being delivered to all peripheral buffs. Obviously, one of the biggest improvements in v2.0 of the apptoyz accessory is its much welcomed compatibility with something other than iDevices via a new universal cage — that said, there’s also other fresh augmented reality features which, in theory, should make it a vast improvement over its predecessor. The appBlaster 2.0’s only seen a slight price bump in comparison to the first-gen, with RED5 asking for £25 (around $40) for the add-on — a small amount to pay when you consider all the attention you’re going to get. And, well, we know you love that.

Continue reading appBlaster 2.0 gets friendly with Android handsets, brings new AR features

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

appBlaster 2.0 gets friendly with Android handsets, brings new AR features originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as you’ve cozied up with “Tahiti” and “Cape Verde,” AMD has returned to grow its “Southern Islands” family of graphics cards with four fresh FirePros, offering up to four teraflops of graphics computing power. That spec can be found in the company’s new W9000, which is capable of four TFLOPs single precision and one TFLOP double precision with a price tag just shy of $4,000. That behemoth of a card offers 6GB of GDDR5 RAM and requires 274 watts of power. More humble members of the fam include the W8000, which has the same form-factor as the higher-end W9000, but eases back on the specs, consuming 189 watts of power and carrying a $1,599 price tag.

We had a chance to take a closer look at both cards at SIGGRAPH, and while they packed a significant amount of heft, you’ll likely never take a second look once they’re buried away in your tower rig. Fans of smaller housings (and price tags) may take notice of the W7000 and W5000, which are both considerably more compact and require less power to boot, with pricing set at $899 and $599, respectively. Those cards were also on hand for our demo, and can be seen along with the top two configs in our gallery below. You can also sneak a closer peek in the hands-on video after the break, and glance at the full specs over at our news post from earlier today.

Continue reading AMD launches its next-gen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go hands-on at SIGGRAPH (video)

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Peripherals

AMD launches its next-gen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go hands-on at SIGGRAPH (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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