Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Peripherals
Unify4Life AV Shadow app to soon turn BlackBerry Storm into remote originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Radio-controlled cars are cool and all, but you know what’s even cooler? Radio-controlled cars that turn into Robots. B2X’s RCRC switches from a sports car to a truck to an upright robot.
The RCRC has fairly basic controls, moving forward, up, down, left, right, and spinning in place. Users can control it up 1o 100 feet away. Check out a full video of the RCRC transforming, after the jump.
While we’re happy to eschew buttons for touchscreens on some things, we’re still not entirely sold on the Harmony 1100‘s (relatively) minimalist design, an update to that display-focused layout first seen on the 1000. Most like to use remote controls without looking down, and that could be a bit of a challenge here. However, as the buttons on most Harmony remotes tend to start failing after about 12 months or so, perhaps ditching most of them is a good move for Logitech. Regardless of the intent, if you’re so sick of multiple controllers you’re willing to spend $500 on the company’s latest and greatest, you’d better get that credit card warmed up and click the read link. Our failing economy thanks you.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Logitech’s Harmony 1100 now shipping to tidy living rooms everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s hard to tell from the absolutely riveting two minute and seven second video (hosted up after the break, just so you know), but somehow or another, the gurus at Macpod Software managed to get a T-Mobile G1 to control a robot. Actually, the code used to pull it off is hosted up for download, but a fair bit of robotics knowledge is necessary to pull it all together. The best part? Forknife just loves cupcakes — sorry, we couldn’t resist.
[Thanks, Corey]
Continue reading Video: T-Mobile G1-powered Forknife robot goofs off, eats cupcakes
Filed under: Cellphones, Robots
Video: T-Mobile G1-powered Forknife robot goofs off, eats cupcakes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Now here’s a novel concept. The Amulet Remote, designed specifically for Vista Media Center but likely adaptable to other setups, is a voice-activated controller that enables users to record a series, watch a recorded show, skip to a new playlist or queue up a photo slideshow by simply hooting and hollering. The built-in microphone is there to take whatever vocal abuse you feel is warranted, and there are even a few actual buttons if you’re still fond of the tried-and-true approach. It’s expected to ship in March for a palatable $299; have a look at what it can do for you in the video after the break.
[Thanks, Vanbrothers]
Continue reading Amulet Remote actually listens when you yell at it
Filed under: CES, Home Entertainment
Amulet Remote actually listens when you yell at it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Crapgadget CES, round 8: Remote Control Cooler originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It’s been in so many movies and TV shows that you probably think it already exists, but open-air hand-gestured controlled TVs are a thing of the future–the near future that is. Canesta, the “pioneer in low-cost, single-chip based 3D sensors,” announced today at CES that it has collaborated with Hitachi to create the first prototype of a TV that can be controlled by just the wave of a hand–no remote needed!
The prototype uses Canesta’s 3D sensor for gesture recognition. Visitors at the Hitachi booth at CES will be able to control the TV up to 3 meters away with just their hand gestures. For example, you can turn on the TV with a rapid wave, and change the channel with a circular motion. The new technology can also tell the difference between gestures using one hand and gestures with two hands.
Yeah, sure, name any IR-equipped phone in existence and odds good to excellent that you can find a universal remote app for it, but you probably can’t think of many for the iPhone, now, can you? They exist, yes, but they tend to carry a home-automation slant since the lack of an infrared port leaves the thing relegated to WiFi duty. Enter UiRemote, an ambitious little project undertaken by a handful of scrappy University of Toronto students that uses a fingertip-sized IR blaster connected to the headphone jack paired with a totally customizable app to get the job done. Novel? Not necessarily, but when you consider that a dedicated remote with these specs would probably run half a grand, it’s an interesting way to save money and still end up with the coolest AV controller on the block. The devs are still tweaking both the module and the app, but hopes are high that they’ll be available to all interested parties in the next couple months.
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment
UiRemote is like a remote… in your iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nothing is more frsutrating than when your IR remote “misses” a piece of gear — your whole carefully synchronized setup goes out of whack, especially if you’ve got macros programmed on that remote. Hillcrest Labs is hoping to save you some headaches by joining up with Texas Instruments to produce RF remotes that comply with the RF4CE standard that came out last summer. They’ll be showing some of these new wares off at CES, and we expect RF technology is pretty much essential for use with Hillcrest’s Freespace motion control where the whole point of the device is to wave it about with reckless disregard for a chicklet-sized IR sensor. Press release past the break.
Continue reading Hillcrest Labs hops on the RF4CE remote control bandwagon with TI
Filed under: CES, Home Entertainment
Hillcrest Labs hops on the RF4CE remote control bandwagon with TI originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The idea of gesture-based remote control isn’t new, but GestureTek has added in 3D tracking to the mix for, you guessed it — even more expressive interaction with your TV. After all, you don’t live in flatland, so why should your remote control gestures? Of course, adding in depth perception requires the use of more than one webcam, but maybe that’s not a big tradeoff in our age of six and more speakers in the living room. The setup will be on display at CES (sans Xpletive), so we’ll try and swing by for a, um, hands on while we puzzle over how to add voice commands to this system. Watching the big game with your buddies just might get even more entertaining yet.
Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets, HDTV, Home Entertainment
GestureTek brings 3D and gestures together for remote control originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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