Hasta La Gadget!

Though music usually comes from people’s voices or people thumping something on another thing or people wisping their fingers across strings, Japanese artist Daito Manabe found a new form for a musical instrument: the human face. Yep, facial songs. More »

Sitting apart from the abundance of health-tracking apps and gadgets on display here at the CES 2013 Bluetooth SIG event is a toy made for the creative-minded geek: Atoms. Fueled by a successful kickstarter campaign, these intelligent building blocks veer away from the intimidating halo surrounding other DIY entries like Raspberry Pi which require a certain level of programming proficiency, allowing any user to pick up a kit, then plug and play. Color-coded according to their usage — blue for sensors, green for action and red for connectors — the modules offer users an ‘unlimited’ number of applications (think: weaving these into clothing).

But not everyone’s going to be brimming with ideas and to that end the company’s created four separate packages that’ll begin shipping in June. On the low-end, there’s a $29 prankster kit, which incorporates an exploding block, a $49 monster set that includes eight different modules, including one for voice recording and playback, a $59 magic wand set and, finally, on the high-end, a $79 iOS tank set. Compared to the number of pieces allocated to the cheaper sets, the two motors included in this latter iOS option may not seem like much, but it does also come bundled with a Bluetooth 4.0 brick and companion app for literal remote control. If you’re looking to dig deeper into the Atoms experience, you’ll be able to purchase each individual module à la carte. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until this summer to get your own hands-on with Atoms, but in the meanwhile, check out our gallery below and be sure to check back for a brief video demo.

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As a scientist practicing actual, bona fide science, I have often found myself in need of immediate g-force readings or barometric pressure analyses for my scientific problems. Whereas before I had to use my sextant and trident and thermowhozzit, I can instead use the Node.

The Node, originally a Kickstarter project, is basically a tube of sensors. Most of the sensors are built into the tips of the tube and they include accelerometers, barometers, thermometers, and gyroscopes. You can then connect the Node to a smartphone via low-power Bluetooth 4.0 and take and record readings.

Initially created as a Kickstarter project, the Node blossomed into a fairly complete sensor array. The iPhone app, for example, offers readouts for all major sensor inputs and the readouts change dynamically as the sensors receive input. You can even record sensor inputs for a time, allowing you to see data changes in real time. They also offer an Android app.

The entry-level model is called the Kore and costs $149. Additional modules, including a thermometer and flashlight, start at $25. The platform is open source as are the apps and there is a full developer site. You can see some example measurements of me futzing around with it below. For example, I took temperature readings of stuff around me and then of my body.

Click to view slideshow.

Who needs this? Well, with the thermometer built in you have an extremely handy way to spot measure temperatures in machinery and the flashlight is bright and really cool. The Kore features themselves are great for hobbyists and the barometric measurements could be helpful to those who are into barometry. Sadly, I’m not smart enough to figure out all of the potential uses but each module has a helpful description. For example, the Kore can be used for:

Obviously this takes a bit of hacking, but that’s the fun, right? I could personally see this as being useful in, say, a model rocket launch to sense the forces applied by rapid acceleration in a physics classroom or as a method to alarm my refrigerator door so my kids don’t steal my beer. Either way, it’s pretty darn cool.

The Node is available now.

Validity Sensors, the San Jose-based maker of fingerprint scanning sensors and authentication technology, announced today that it has closed $10 million of a $20 million series E financing round. (It will close the second half in the next month.) The investment was led by TeleSoft Partners, with participation from Validity’s previous investors, including Crossslink Capital, Panorama Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Venture Tech Associates. The round brings Validity’s total funding to $78.6 million.

While there are tons of security apps and password lockers that help keep mobile devices, computers and sensitive digital info secure, the prevailing form of authentication still comes in the form of good ole passwords and PINs. Of course, most people use the same password for multiple different accounts, or have a tendency to forget the complex ones login pages ask them to create.

As we’ve all learned, these forms of authentication are difficult to remember, ineffective and fairly easy to hack. With the exploding growth of mobile payment transactions and cloud-based services, new (or better) forms of security are needed to protect our data both in the cloud and on the go, especially considering the expected growth of mobile payments — and how frequently we’ll be using our phones to pay bills, receive coupons and coupons and location based offers etc in the next few years. That’s where Validity Sensors wants to enter the picture.

Validity and companies like it believe that, even with advances in multi-factor authentication technology (facial, voice, etc.), fingerprints are still the best and simplest way to verify identity. The company has developed fingerprint sensor tech that enables authentication, device login, access to digital and mobile wallets, password management, app launching and so on — for smartphones, tablets and notebooks.

In the future, this tech will move to allowing content control for home media usage and home automation and monitoring, and really access control to a wide range of things (namely robot butlers). Collectively, all these apps need a simple way to securely authenticate the user’s identity — that isn’t going away any time soon.

The company’s mobile fingerprint solution provides handset designers with a solution that can identify users, protect mobile payments and launch (and log user into) email, social networks, shopping and banking — just by swiping their finger. Partners can then integrate Validity’s technology in under-glass solutions or add it to home and power buttons on mobile devices and notebooks. Currently, Validity’s solutions support Android and Windows operating systems.

Since launching its products in 2008, Validity has shipped more than 30 million sensors to OEMs, focusing initially on PCs. More recently, it has turned its attention to the smartphone and tablet markets, and its new $20 million round will be used to support that push.

Another few potential up-sides for Validity? In May, the company nabbed the former head of PayPal’s mobile ecosystem, Sebastian Taveau, making him CTO.

Secondly, in July, Apple bought its largest competitor, AuthenTec, for $356 million. Among other things, AuthenTec is known for making fingerprint sensor chips that are embedded in computing devices to enhance security and identification — sounds familiar, right? Apple’s acquisition came about a month after the company had signed a deal with Samsung to become its security and device management partner for its Android devices.

By pushing more aggressively into the mobile space and bringing on capital from strategic, mobile and software investors, Validity is hoping for comparable outcome.

There are a number of reasons why it might be nice to know the temperature of in a location without having to walk there and check. Wireless temperature monitoring is particularly important for geeks who are in charge of a server room where excessive heat can cause serious damage. Onset has announced a wireless temperature and humidity monitoring kit that keeps watch on critical infrastructure.

It is called the HOBO Wireless Temp/RH Monitoring Kit and to monitor critical temperature and humidity conditions as well as log data for trend analysis and notify the user of alarm conditions. The alarms can notify users via text message or e-mail without having to wire anything or set up the manual data offload. The monitoring kit is aimed at use in food-processing plants, office buildings, laboratories, and warehouses.

The system has a central point for monitoring warnings on a desktop computer. Data collected by the wireless monitors can be delivered to remote locations via e-mail or FTP. The system is flexible and can be expanded as additional monitoring locations are required. Sensors will activate an alarm when the temperature or humidity conditions exceed preset thresholds.

Alarms can also be programmed that will alert the user if one of the sensors is disconnected from the network. The wireless monitoring system isn’t cheap at $899. For the money, you get three wireless temperature/RH data notes, and the receiver, software, and sensor mounting accessories. The system supports up to 100 nodes.

Onset HOBO Wireless Temp/RH Monitoring Kit costs $899 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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