Thought GPS devices were just for navigation? Oh, think again. Satsports, a London-based company, has just debuted Satsports GPS for North America. It’s a handheld GPS with apps for a variety of sports.
Satsports GPS comes with three preloaded apps: Satski (providing ski maps from around the world), Pocket Caddy (with 2D and 3D views of golf courses, plus yardage information), and Satsports Log (capturing speed, distance, time, and more for runners, cyclists, mountain bikers, walkers, and hikers).
The device can also be used as a turn-by-turn street navigator with spoken directions with the addition of a $65 miniSD card. The Satsports GPS device is all-weather and comes with a car charger and a bike mount, although not with a car window mount. It’s priced optimistically at $490.
Ripxx is already targeting athletes-in-training with its GPS-enabled Personal Measurement Device, but it looks as if that very unit may have a little competition. Satsports GPS claims to be the world’s first device to combine “true real time interactive navigation for skiing, snowboarding, golfing, running, cycling and automotive enthusiasts in a portable, all-weather device.” Granted, it’s not like you couldn’t get your hands on a rugged navigator before, but the software here is what takes things to another level. It promises athletes real-time routing and data logging, and after your runs are through, you can sync the data with Google Earth to get a good look at what all you just accomplished. As for specs, you’ll find a 2.7-inch touchscreen, 400MHz Samsung processor and a microSD expansion card. Oh, and if you’re not down with dropping $490 on this, you can opt for the Satski, Pocket Caddy and / or Sports Log apps for WinMo and Android. Check the details in the press release and demo vid after the break.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, sports, not movies or video games is 3D’s killer app, and this prototype camera from Sony is designed specifically to help bring the two closer together. Set to debut at CEATEC next week, the HFR Comfort-3D records at 240 fps through just one lens instead of two thanks to a new half-mirror system that takes left and right eye images at the same time, better for capturing fast motion and providing viewers lacking polarized glasses a 2D picture with minimal blurring. One of our few complaints during last year’s BCS National Championship 3D experience was occasional benefits caused by fast left-right motion which this system could make a non-issue. Check after the break for a detailed (in Japanese) diagram that should help make things clearer — for those that can read the language — the rest of us are waiting for ESPN or someone else to tote a few of these down to the Super Bowl in 2010 and make magic happen.
Fido conked out for the evening? Your youngster not really into “playing catch” at age 14? Enter TOTO — a brilliant robotic contraption conceived at Reinhold-Würth University — that can absolutely act as a suitable replacement. Short for Tracking of Thrown Objects, the camera-equipped system views and tracks incoming objects, and once said object is within catching range, it clamps down in order to grab hold. Eventually, the inventors would love to see the machine have an impact within a manufacturing facility, but considering just how effective conveyor belts have been over the past few scores, we’d say it has its work cut out for it. Video’s after the break, and it’s worth checking out.
The Tokyo Game Show may be winding down but a few bits of information are still trickling out. Like this new limited edition Wii Sport Resort bundle with a pair of MotionPlus accessories. The bundle lands on October 12th for a penny shy of $60 — saving you $10 if you bought the standard $50 Sport Resort with MotionPlus plus a second $20 MotionPlus separately. Hoozah?
If we’re being candid, the Ripxx Personal Measurement Device (or PMD, as the hip kids call it) looks a lot like the original SPOT with the addition of a display. But aside from the physical likeness, there aren’t too many similarities between the two gizmos. Launched this month, the handheld fitness tool is apt to be a surefire winner for any competitive athlete, not to mention competitive individuals in general who just need a statistical way to track their dominance. Essentially, an integrated GPS tracker pumps out ten tracking signals every second during, let’s say, a ski run. That information, coupled with data gathered from a trio of accelerometers and gyroscopes, is used to record your location, orientation, speed, vertical drop, rolls, spins, turns and just about any other movement you make. Once you’re done, those points can be plotted on a map for review. We’re told that the U.S. Olympic team is already using a prototype to train for the 2010 winter games, though mere lay people won’t be able to buy one until mid-December for $329.
Know what’s more alluring to the five-O than glazed confectionary goods? Nintendo’s Wii, apparently. Or at least the lure of bowling without all the heavy lifting. See, a team of undercover cops raiding the home of a convicted Florida drug dealer was smitten enough by the console to quit their search and fire up Wii Sports for a bit of taxpayer fun over a period of, oh… about nine hours — unaware that the home security system was recording the whole thing. Your dose of self-righteous indignation can be found after the break.
Had your daily dose of Sal Masekela? No? Shame on you! Though, we have to say, if this here wearable camcorder takes off, you could very well hear that very fellow doing color commentary over some pretty sick footage. The Predator VX360 is a rugged, waterproof wearable video camera that’s engineered to withstand abuse from the elements while popping 1080 kickflips on the halfpipe, and unlike many head-worn alternatives, this one has its recording module (complete with a built-in LCD) strapped to an armband. The “eyeball camera” is still meant to cling tightly to your dome, but details are scant when it comes to resolution and the like. It’s available now for daredevils in the UK, though the £549.99 ($892) sticker is apt to keep most of ’em at bay.
Pool, the cut-down version of snooker preferred by degenerate hustlers and people who like fun, seems ripe for automation. After-all, it’s all about calculating the right angles and then holding the cue steady, both of which a robot can easily manage. Add in the fact that a robot doesn’t drink its performance into oblivion as the night deepens, and the ball-sinking pool robot known as Deep Green seems invincible. In short, once it is playing, it will never have to leave a quarter on the side of the table.
Deep green is an industrial gantry robot, equipped with a cue and hung over a standard coin-op table. A digital camera reads the scene below and the robot’s computer brain compares it to 30 pre-stored images of an empty table, using the differences to decide where, and what color, the balls are. From there, the robot can nominate a ball and pocket and slide into action.
Because the motors that move the robot are capable of error, there is a secondary camera which looks along the line of the cue, just like a human does. By comparing the line seen from this point-of-cue (effectively sighting the centers of the balls) with the ideal line seen by the overhead camera, Deep Green can adjust itself to sink the perfect pot.
It can even rack the balls with perfection, picking up and then placing each one precisely in position without the need for a rack.
But what of a machine that can pot the ball every time? It would be a kind of idiot savant without a complex physics engine that knows about spin, bounce and all the other strategic factors a pro-player’s brain can assimilate. Thus, Deep Green thinks ahead. You’d better make sure you get your first shot in, and don’t miss another, or it’ll be game over.
Or will it? Deep Green also has an “augmented reality pool” mode where it can help you make your shots. Just like a pool-sim video game, Deep Green can project the ideal line for you right onto the baize. It will show you exactly where each ball will go depending on how you hold the cue, adjusting angles and rebound lines in real time as you change the angle of your incipient strike. Of course, you still have to hit it right, and decide on the amount of power and spin you want to add.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to beat the pool-playing robot. No amount of standing behind it and shouting “Miss! Miss!” is going to help you. Asking your girlfriend to stand behind the pocket it’s aiming for is unlikely to help either. We guess you could try our cheat of last resort, which is lot lot safer practiced on an emotionless bot than the usual tattooed pool-shark we lose to: Stand nearby and, just as it makes the shot, shove it’s elbow, apologize and buy it a drink.
Garmin’s cyclist-minded GPS devices have sure come a long way from their earlier, bulkier days, and it looks like the company has now produced one of its sleekest units to date in the form of its new Edge 500 GPS. Like most such devices, this one is primarily intended to track your cycling progress rather than lead you to your destination, and it promises to give you precise data on things like speed, distance, time, calories burned, and even climb and descent information, which is further bolstered by a built-in barometric altimeter to pinpoint changes in elevation. The unit can also sync up with various third-party devices that make use of ANT+ technology, and it can naturally be paired with a Garmin heart rate monitor to keep a close watch on your vitals. Look for the standalone unit to set you back about $250, while the bundle with a heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor bumps things up to $350.
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