Hasta La Gadget!

We already know that Siri can send texts, check the weather or find you a restaurant, but did you know she can also fetch you a beer. Well, sort of… with a little hacking. The folks at Redpepper dreamed up Beeri, an RC truck that cracks open a can of brew whenever it receives a tweet instructing it to “pour.” Since you can text updates to Twitter (40404) and Siri can text, that means it’s perfectly simple to tell Beeri it’s Miller time. Whenever the Arduino embedded in the truck detects a mention with the word “pour,” it drives forward, slamming a beer can into a puncture wall that drips into a funnel, filling a cup beneath the table top. It’s a pretty ingenious system, and you can see it in action after the break. We just hope Beeri has a day job — looking at all that head, it’s clear she wouldn’t last a day as a bartender.

Continue reading Beeri: Siri’s new best friend cracks open a cold one (video)

Beeri: Siri’s new best friend cracks open a cold one (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just toss the ball in the air and it will shoot a full, 360-degreee panorama. Photo Jonas Pfeil

Imagine spending the time to take 36 perfectly spaced photographs and then later combining them into a fully scrollable 360-degree panoramic image. Now imaging doing the exact same thing, only instead of all that tedious work, you just toss a football-sized ball into the air.

This is just what the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera can do. Developed by Jonas Pfeil, Kristian Hildebrand, Carsten Gremzow, Bernd Bickel and Marc Alexa of the Computer Graphics Group in Berlin, the ball automates everything but the actual throwing.

Arranged around the ball are 36 2-megapixel fixed-focus cellphone cameras. When the ball is thrown, they fire simultaneously at the apex of the ball’s flight, capturing the scene in every direction (and including the photographer). Back at the lab (or home), you pull the images off via USB and view them in custom software developed by the team.

The result is somewhat akin to Google Street View, only more spectacular. This video shows it in action:

Because all the cameras in the 3-D printed foam-padded ball fire together, there is no ghosting between images. And because it is airborne, it can even fire downwards — something impossible if mounted in a tripod.

I’d love to play with this. I’d also love to see a video version, although the processing involved in stitching 360-degree movies together might make this less practical. Still, these pan-able panoramas are pretty awesome as it is.

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera [Jonas Pfeil via Petapixel]

See Also:

• Camera Designed For Tossing
• Lomo Spinner Puts 360-Degree Panoramas Onto Film
• 18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague …

Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today we have Hacker Extraordinaire (and host of his own show), Benjamin J. Heckendorn!

As a kid growing up in Richland Center, WI, I sometimes had to be extra creative in finding things to occupy my time, and my creativity naturally gravitated toward all things technology. Soldering, erector sets and deconstructing toys were the epicenter of my young life. Taking things apart to find out how they worked was essentially a rite of passage for me to becoming the geeky man I am today.

I got my first taste of programming in elementary school on a collection of even-then old Apple II’s, but I really got into it wholesale when, at age 11, I got my first computer – an Atari 800. While still ancient for the time, I did a lot of programming on it and learned a lot of fundamentals that are useful to this day.

Continue reading Growing up Geek: Ben Heck

Growing up Geek: Ben Heck originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There isn’t actually much new about this awesome DIY project, but it’s the way it brings the various parts together that has us impressed. Designed by Instructables user XenonJohn, with help from software developer David Findlay, the Magic Music Table RFID was designed to let a child with a disability select albums to play back from an iPod touch playlist. The iPod is connected to an Arduino, which tells the device to start playing a particular track based on a selection made with RFID cards. The whole setup is built into a coffee table and the RFID tags are sandwiched inside clear plastic blocks with the album art. You can see it in action in the video after the break and, if you’ve got the patience and skill, you can build your own using the directions at the source link.

Continue reading Arduino, iPod and RFID make beautiful, accessible music together (video)

Arduino, iPod and RFID make beautiful, accessible music together (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nearly two years ago, a French court dismissed a lawsuit that Nintendo filed against a group of vendors accused of illegally selling DS flash carts. At the time, the game-maker argued that sales of the cartridges should be halted on the grounds that they could be used to illegally pirate software, but the presiding judge thought differently, countering that the R4-like devices could be used to develop homebrews or other DIY projects. Last week, however, the Paris Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, in a decision that Nintendo has met with understandable delight. In a statement released today, the company confirmed that Divineo SARL and five other flash cart retailers must pay a total of €460,000 in criminal fines, along with €4.8 million in damages to Nintendo, as ordered by the appeals court. Details behind the ruling remain vague, though Nintendo hailed it as a “strong message to French companies… that such activities are illegal and will not be tolerated,” and that convicted vendors will “risk prison terms, face substantial fines and obligations to pay damages.” Sail past the break to read Nintendo’s statement, in full.

Continue reading French court reverses DS flash cart ruling, Nintendo smiles

French court reverses DS flash cart ruling, Nintendo smiles originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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