By Shane McGlaun

Spring has sprung and in many parts of the country and before you know it the heat will be sweltering and many of us will be heading to the pool to hand out and have fun. One key ingredient of a pool party is music (and babes in bikinis), the catch is that water and most electronic devices don’t get along.

Grace Digital Audio has announced a new floating wireless speaker called the Aqua sounders retailing for $149.99. The speaker floats around the pool or hot tub and has a pair of mood lights integrated for nighttime fun.

The submersible speaker is only part of the kit; a transmitter is included that sends music from any audio source with a 3.5mm jack to the speaker. Range is 150 feet from the transmitter and the battery inside the speaker is good for six hours. One transmitter can support up to ten speakers. You will need a really big pool for that many speakers though.

[ Grace Digital ]

By Jonathan Kimak

Researchers at Queen’s University have created a robot that can play a decent game of pool, billiards or snooker. Dubbed Deep Green(likely a nod to the chess playing computer Deep Blue) the robot is ceiling mounted and uses a Global Vision System to see all the balls on the pool table. It also has a Local Vision System which detects objects in front of the cue ball so as to better select the right shot.

The robot can produce power from none to 3 m/s for the average shot and up to 12 m/s for the initial breaking shot using a pneumatic break cue actuator.

There have been pool playing robots around since the 1980′s but this one is touted as the best of the best. It is ranked at slightly above amateur status for now but improvements are being made constantly so that eventually the robot could become a true pool shark.

With the name Deep Green it’s clear the designers want it to eventually challenge a true professional in some televised(and sponsored) matches.

[ Computer.org ] VIA [ Tech Digest ]