Hasta La Gadget!

The latest generation of gaming gadgets do some nifty tricks, and one of the niftiest they might perform is assisting the realm of medicine. Microsoft’s Kinect sounded like a candidate for surgery, and this month real-life surgeons have actually put it to use — Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Canada rigged the Xbox 360 depth camera to its medical imaging computer. Now, doctors don’t have to scrub out to manipulate an MRI scan, or even appoint a peon to the task — rather, they simply raise their bloodied glove, and dive into the digital imagery with a wave of a dextrous hand.

Meanwhile, the American Optometric Association has expanded upon its initial praise of Nintendo’s 3DS, saying the autostereoscopic 3D handheld “could be a godsend for identifying kids under 6 who need vision therapy.” Though Nintendo’s warning labels had originally incited a bit of fear among parents, the organization says that kids who can’t experience the 3DS to its full potential may have amblyopia (or other vision disorders) that can be more easily treated the earlier it’s caught, though one doctor interviewed by the Associated Press contends that kids with amblyopia may not know what they’re missing to begin with — so don’t necessarily expect a panacea, folks.

Kinect keeps surgeons on task, Nintendo 3DS might assist optometrists with diagnoses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They thought it would be easy, but they were wrong — AndIRC developers reportedly spent the last 72 hours readying the new HTC Thunderbolt for custom ROMs. Today, they emerge victorious, but that victory is bittersweet, because it may signify the end of a generally hacker-friendly era from the folks at HTC. While devices from the Taiwanese manufacturer have traditionally been easy to modify, the hacker community found Verizon’s LTE flagship fully locked down, with a signed kernel, signed recovery image and a signed bootloader. FOF. Of course, if you’re just looking for a way to overclock your Thunderbolt, you probably don’t care about all that. You’ll find all the (exceptionally lengthy) instructions you need at Android Police. Just be careful out there!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC Thunderbolt rooted for real, locked files nearly soured the deal

HTC Thunderbolt rooted for real, locked files nearly soured the deal originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Kinect hacks go, this one’s not going to bowl you over with its technical complexity, but the effect of what it does is quite dramatic. One of Microsoft’s sensor-rich, camera-laden Xbox accessories has been repurposed to communicate with a Pufferfish spherical projection display — via the magic of WPF and openni — with its motion tracking algorithms serving to control the image on the giant ball. Naturally, the first thing the tweakers behind this mod thought up was a Tolkien-inspired eye that follows people around the room. Sadly, the single Kinect box isn’t enough to provide 360-degree coverage, but it’s probably just a matter of time until they splice an array of them together and creep us out completely. Video after the break.

Update: You asked for the eye of Sauron and now you’ve got it. Second video added after the break.

Continue reading Kinect meets a Pufferfish display, produces wonderfully creepy all-seeing eye (video)

Kinect meets a Pufferfish display, produces wonderfully creepy all-seeing eye (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opening doors with wireless RFID cardkeys is old hat at this point, but opening those doors with a smartphone is rather more intriguing. Doing so without permission of the people who put the locks on the doors, well, that brings things up to a whole new level of awesomeness. That’s what Caribou does, a little Android app that remotely connects to a server managing the locks at a supposedly secure location. The app then diddles the ports and security settings of that server until it finds the magic phrase and, in a couple of seconds, it’s open sesame time. Doors are unlocked remotely and then, 30 seconds later, automatically locked again. How thoughtful.

We first saw this demonstrated a few days ago but weren’t entirely convinced of its legitimacy. But now, after exchanging a few e-mails with Michael Gough, who discovered the exploit, and Ian Robertson, who wrote the app, we’re convinced. They’re actually working with US-CERT on this issue so that appropriate measures will be taken but, in the short-term, if you have a system like this and it’s sitting out there, IP open to the internet and being caressed by every passing breeze, you might want to think about pulling that in behind your firewall. Lots more info at both source links below, though you can see it working for yourself right here in a video after the break, running on an HTC Incredible.

Continue reading Caribou Android app opens doors over the internet, needs neither permission nor keys (video)

Caribou Android app opens doors over the internet, needs neither permission nor keys (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh Arduino, is there anything you can’t do when put in the right hands? The hands in this case belong to a guy named Joven of ProtoDojo, and they whipped up the contraption you can see in the video below. Basically, it’s a wired NES controller that goes to an Arduino board, which in turn controls a set of servos. Those servos articulate conductive arms to touch the screen in just the right places. The whole contraption enables a rather playable version of Reckless Racing, making it feel all the more like the RC Pro Am successor it’s trying to be. Check it out in the video below, and then hope that Jovan hurries up and posts the instructions so we can start building our own.

[Thanks, Chad]

Continue reading RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video)

RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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