When you think about
what makes a robot work the odds are good that what you picture is chipsets and
wires. What you probably do not picture is a big slimy hunk of mold, but that
is exactly what is happening in the world of robots.
Smartphone cameras are getting better each year, but they still don’t hold a candle to the optics of dedicated cameras. But if SonyAlphaRumors is correct, Sony will soon release two very unusual cameras that bolt onto a smartphone. Will these “lens-cameras” give you the best of both worlds? Or will the whole be less than the sum of its parts?
Supposedly, on September 4 Sony will announce the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 lenses. Each lens will have a “built-in sensor, Bionz processor, Wifi/NFC wireless connection and SD card slot”, but no LCD or controls. Those last two bits will supposedly be provided by your smartphone. SonyAlphaRumors said that the DSX-QX10 has the same 20.2mp Exmor R sensor and Carl Zeiss lens as the DSC-RX100 camera. The DSC-QX100 on the other hand will have a 10x zoom lens and the same 18.2mp Exmor R sensor that’s in the DSC-WX150.
The lenses will supposedly connect to smartphones via NFC and Wi-Fi, but I don’t know if the cameras will be compatible with all (modern) smartphones or just with Sony phones. Perhaps they will even be limited to one Sony phone: SonyAlphaRumors points out that the phone included in these leaked images is the Honami i1, which Sony also hasn’t officially announced yet.
I guess we’ll know if these cameras are real or not soon enough. But assuming they are real the biggest question here is pricing. The hardware has already been proven in previous devices so the quality is pretty much a given. But how much will people be willing to pay for a camera that seems like it would be useless without a smartphone?
[SonyAlphaRumors via Engadget via OhGizmo!]
Are you too lazy to get the door? Have you ever lugged yourself out of bed to the sound of the doorbell ringing, only to open it and find that there’s no one there? Or did you open it to find one of those annoying salesmen who just can’t take a hint?
If this happens to you more often than you’d like, then you might want to consider getting the iDoorCam, so you won’t ever have to deal with stuff like this ever again.
The iDoorCam is basically what its name implies. It’s a doorbell with a built-in camera that’s activated when someone rings it. Once pressed, it sends an alert to your iPhone or iPad (yes, it only works with iDevices), where you can then check out the live feed from the doorbell, provided you’re connected to the Internet.
You can choose to speak to whoever’s at the door (it’d be fun to watch their reactions the first time you do this) or ignore whoever is there altogether.
The iDoorCam will be available this October and it will retail for $165 (USD).
[via Engadget via Geeky Gadgets]
Facebook has acquired the company behind language translation app Jibbigo, Mobile Technologies, with the social network’s Tom Stocky having first announced the news on his Facebook page. The acquisition scored the social network both Mobile Technologies’ employees and its technologies, both of which will be heading to Menlo Park. Facebook has no plans to shut […]
Once again, World of Concrete magazine is looking to award the most innovative products in the masonry and concrete industries. If you’ve been tinkering in the construction field, it may be time to shine!
When it comes to robots sensors make the world real. It
allows a machine to help to make sense of the world around them. It tells them
when they have made contact with a wall, or when they are in the presence of a
desired chemical. One cross continent team is working on a very small sensor.
Coming as result of a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Virtuix Omni gaming treadmill is now available for pre-order. When that Kickstarter campaign launched it was describing the Omni as being a device that would let the user “move naturally and freely in virtual worlds” which in turn would let users “get full immersed” in their […]
At School For The Dogs, my training partner Kate and I have been doing something kind of silly recently: We’ve been teaching dogs to use iPads.
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Redditor anders202 built a boombox that’s perfect for summer parties. It’s called the Boominator, a solar-powered boombox that was designed by diyAudio member Saturnus back in 2007. Unlike its battery-devouring ancestors, the Boominator not only runs on free energy, it also gathers and converts enough solar power to charge mobile devices.
Anders202′s Boominator is powered by an Indeed TA2020 2 x 12W amplifier and two 10W solar panels. It has two P.Audio HP-10W subwoofers and two Monacor MPT-001 piezo-electric tweeters on each side, so it can make people sweat whether it’s behind or in front of them. Anders202 says that with eight hours of sunlight, the Boominator can play for six hours at 100% volume and still have enough power left in its 12v battery to fully charge an iPhone 3 times. The only downside to the Boominator is that it weighs about 66 pounds Then again, I weigh over twice as much as the Boominator and I’m not even half as useful.
Check out the Boominator Wiki, Saturnus’ original guide or anders202′s image-filled walkthrough if you want to make your own Boominator.
[via Hack A Day]
Remember that holographic illusion of 2Pac? It actually wasn’t a hologram, but it was done using projectors and an angled surface with both reflective and transparent properties. Now you can recreate this illusion in miniature, using nothing more than your tablet, and an inexpensive device called the i-Lusio.
Set your iPad or other similarly sized tablet into the top of the i-Lusio, then install the companion app, and you can view simulated 3-dimensional objects that look like they’re floating in space. It’s a pretty cool illusion, though it’s probably best used for things like store displays and museum exhibits. I’m not sure how useful this thing would be at home – though kids might get a kick out of it for a little while.
Check out the video below to see a few examples of what you can do with the i-Lusio:
The i-Lusio is currently available for pre-order via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. A pledge of at least $44(USD) will get you one of your own – including the app and one download – which makes it sound like there will be a charge for downloadable content once the app is available.
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