Hasta La Gadget!

The Kinect hacks keep rollin’, and we just keep on lovin’ every one of ’em — despite most being decidedly non-practical. This one actually is, created by Sebastian Pirch at 3rD-EYE, a media production company. He’s made a free-space 3D modeling tool using a Kinect camera to track his hands, which he uses to create points in space and draft a model. To provide greater control he then made two Arduino-powered gloves that detect finger touches — basically DIY Peregrines. Using different connections of finger-presses he can move the entire model, move single points, create new points, create new polygons, and basically do everything he needs to do to create a mesh, which can then be imported into 3ds Max for further refinement. He even manages to make it all look fun, thus besting Lockheed Martin’s similar system that’s powered by zombies.

Continue reading Kinect + homemade Power Gloves = 3D modeling in free-space (video)

Kinect + homemade Power Gloves = 3D modeling in free-space (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Kinect-Hacks  |  3rD Eye  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading MIT’s Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video)

MIT’s Junkyard Jumbotron turns your motley collection of devices into one large display (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  Junkyard Jumbotron  | Email this | Comments

Google Chrome may have come out of Pwn2Own unscathed, but you can rip through any website it (or another HTML5-compliant browser) displays — just pull out your handy Katamari Damacy ball and wreak havok on the page. Na NAaaa, na na na na na na na, na na na na na naaaa…

Alternatively, paste the following Javascript into a bookmark, and then click it when you’re tiring of a page.

javascript:var i,s,ss=[‘http://kathack.com/js/kh.js’,’http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js’];
for(i=0;i!=ss.length;i++){s=document.createElement(‘script’);s.src=ss[i];document.body.appendChild(s);}void(0);

Katamari Hack rolls across your favorite websites, leaving swath of HTML5 destruction in its wake originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Kotaku, GamePro  |  Katamari Hack  | Email this | Comments

The Xoom may have gotten a slight software update last night to prepare it for its long-awaited Flash playing capabilities, but some of the folks over at SlateDroid have an even more impressive — though much less official — update, bringing USB host functionality to Moto’s slate. Tinkerer-extraordinaire roebeet is the man to thank, granting Xoom owners the ability to read media from USB drives, essentially giving you a limitless amount of storage — provided you own the necessary microUSB OTG (on-the-go) cable and a rooted Xoom. If you’ve safely satisfied the pre-requisites, enabling the new-new is just a few file transfers and command line entries away. Full instructions available at the source link… if you dare.

Xoom gets USB host functionality, no thanks to Motorola or Google originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Community  |  SlateDroid  | Email this | Comments

Ahead of the most recent Pwn2Own, Google made a rather proud challenge: it’d pay $20,000 to any team or individual who could successfully hack Chrome. Two takers signed up for that challenge — and then both backed down. One individual didn’t show up and a second entry, known as Team Anon, decided to focus their efforts elsewhere. There’s still time left for someone to come out of the woodwork and scrape off that polish, but as of now no brave souls have registered intent. Meanwhile, IE8 was taken down by Stephen Fewer, who used three separate vulnerabilities to get out of Protected Mode and crack that browser’s best locks. Safari running on a MacBook Air got shamed again, cracked in just five seconds. Not exactly an improvement compared to how it fared in 2008.

Safari and IE8 get shamed at Pwn2Own, Chrome still safe… for now originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Computerworld (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments