A Japanese company called REAL-f has gotten itself in the dubious business of manufacturing ultra-realistic 3D replicas of your face, which they call 3DPFs (“3 Dimension Photo Forms”). These can be made into mask form or full head form and cost a truckload of money. The first mask is $3,920 while each additional replica of it goes for $780. But the full head starts at $5,875 and each additional copy a mere $1,960. They make these masks by taking a series of photos from different angles and heat molding a piece of vinyl chloride resin. The photo-realism is so accurate that it’s said even blood vessels and iris details are replicated accurately.
Of course the obvious thought is that Halloween is coming and wouldn’t these make an awesome disguise? But at $4k+ a pop, we think we’ll settle for getting ourselves a Bieberlicious mask and terrorizing the neighborhood on the cheap instead.
So this product is called the iPet Companion and what it does is let you play with your kittens or other domestic animals from the comfort of any Internet-connected computer. Once setup, a web-based control panel will let you watch a live stream through a panning and zooming webcam (which you control) and a few buttons which activate the toys the pets are supposed to play with. Now I’ll be honest, these toys are pretty terrible. You’re really looking at a small electric actuator that swivels back and forth. Attached at the end of it can be any furry, colorful darn thing you please. You press and hold the button on the control panel, and the thing swings back and forth. That’s it. If your cat doesn’t get bored of this within a minute, you’ve got one special kitty.
The best part is the price: $850. Although it’s mercifully on sale now for $350. Still a good chunk of change. But if you absolutely must indulge your obsession, why don’t you try it out with some iPet Companion systems currently setup at several animal shelters? You can access these at the company’s website which we’ve linked to below.
Researchers at the Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a method for determining stress levels that can fit inside a computer mouse. It uses a pulse-wave sensor to measure bloodflow in the fingertip by bouncing infrared light off your flesh and analyzing the variations. And while bloodflow itself is not a marker of stress (certain hormone levels are), the researchers have found a correlation between the stability in your cardiac rhythm and these hormone levels, 70% of the time.
Of course this begs the question of why anyone would want to know how stressed they are, not to mention that any given person is likely already aware of their stress levels without a device having to tell them. At least that’s what you’d like to think, but the truth is that we really don’t pay that much attention. We trudge through our days rarely making an effort to manage our stress. This device could help harness the power of feedback loops, much like newer street signs showing you your actual speed (even though you can easily glance at your speedometer) have proven to be effective at slowing motorists down. We can envision a program that constantly monitors you and flashes a warning sign when it’s time to cool off.
The entertainment value of such a system of course would pale in comparison with the fun to be had watching your cubicle neighbor finally lose it in a fit of keyboard smashing melodrama.
A few days ago, a company called Brikk announced the release of a line of cases for the iPhone 4 and 4S called “Trim”. Their claim to fame was that they were made of pure titanium milled from a single slab of material and fetched between $2,500 to $4,500. Also the company promised that for every case sold they’d donate one metric ton of rice to a charitable NGO of their choosing. Atonement for this unbridled excess, we imagine. Now, Brikk CEO Cyrus Blacksmith has divulged that they’re working on a case that one-ups all those other ones and is expected to cost north of $100,000. It will be released in January 2012.
Covered in 600 diamonds (weighing a total of 6 carats), Brikk will work with each customer to fine tune “diamond color and sizing specifications, engraving details, and more.” What’s more, since these cases cost just a tad more than the original “Trim” cases, 25 metric tons of rice will be donated instead of the original 1. While they only sell in Roseark stores in LA (where else?), roll-outs in other cities are expected in the future.
The HP Pavilion dv6t has been described like this by one reviewer:
Consumers looking for a stylish and affordable multimedia laptop with strong performance, convenient fingerprint security, and impressive sound should snatch up the $769 HP Pavilion dv6t.
“HP direct store is offering a huge 25% web-use coupon code on the redesigned HP Pavilion dv6 15.6-inch HD-LED display laptop. It’s customizable in Dark Umber (default) or Steel Gray with your choice of 2nd generation “Sandy Bridge” Intel 2011 Core i3, i5 or i7 dual-core processor. HP is also offering a free 500GB hard drive upgrade, a free 6GB RAM upgrade, free Blu-ray upgrade, 50% off 6 cell and 9 cell batteries and FREE shipping.”
You might be tempted to wonder why you’d ever need a radiation detector, let alone one that works with your iPhone. But that probably means you don’t live in Japan where it would seem normal to be worried over radiation poisoning following this year’s terrifying Fukushima meltdown. Big name iPhone accessory maker Scosche is releasing the RDTX, a portable Geiger counter that works with the iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s already calibrated and has a ton of features:
Displays detailed measurements for the advanced user.
Place map markers to report radiation levels.
Deliver precise radiation reports to keep you and your family safe
The Pro version of the RDTX has already been released in Japan for $330, though this version promises to be much less expensive. Initial availability will go entirely to Japan, though we have no information for the rest of the world at the moment.
Nothing says aging, excessive drinking, smoking and lack of sleep like bags under your eyes. You can try to rock the look… or do your best to get rid of it. Sure, doing less of the things that give you bags to start with would seem like a good idea, but life’s too short to sleep or not drink. Right? So stick some Japanese gadgets under your eyes for three minutes a day and see what happens. This device, called “Eye Slack Haruka”, has two modes “Hard or Soft”. In the former setting, your eye luggage will be receiving mild electric stimulation while in the latter setting, it’s gentle heat and vibrations.
Although this is Japan-only, importer Japan Trend Shop does carry it, albeit it at a steep $132.
Call it a purse or a European carry-all or whatever you want… the important point is that you’re looking at a fancied up winebag that looks like a purse. It’s designed by one Jakob Wagner, appears to be called Baggy Winecoat, comes in polyester or leatherette, holds 3 liters of booze and has a solid rubber bottom so your swill doesn’t spill over when you put it down. It even has a spigot.
It’s $52.82 and you can buy it from what appears to be a Scandinavian design store.
Oh and this is old news (April of this year?), as per a quick article-already-written Google search reveals. Still interesting, so there you have it anyway.
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