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Tag Archives: Technology

Teen Takes $200 From Her Dad To “Get Off Facebook”

By David Ponce on 02/07/13 • 1 Comment

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There’s a story being reported online about a teen in Wellesley, Massachussets, who allegedly accepted $200 from her father to get off Facebook. We… think the father just got conned. The narrative goes that Paul Baier’s 14 year old daughter was having trouble finding babysitting jobs and one day turned to her dad and said “Dad, would you pay me to get off Facebook?” After explaining to him that she was finding it distracting from her school work, and managing to convince the poor man that she was “being responsible”, Baier agreed to the deal, doling out the money in increments, with the final payment coinciding with the end of the school year. She is, after all, an honor student, and this would allow her to focus on her studies…

“She turns it on, she’ll have 30 to 40, [even] 50 little alerts things popping up,” Baier said.

“It’s a responsible thing for her to do. Moderation is very good and [Facebook] in extreme, can be dangerous,”

Of course no one ever said that honor students were stupid, and we’re firmly convinced that at best, all that Paul Baier’s daughter has succeeded in doing is blocking her father and all his friends and relatives, and gotten away with $200 for the effort. At worst, this is a pretty sad attempt at getting press attention from the both of them; someone, after all, had to contact the media to tell this story.

[ 7News WHDH ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

German Super Pen Chides You When Making Grammatical Mistakes, As You Write

By David Ponce on 02/06/13 • Leave a comment!

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Before the art of putting pen to paper completely goes extinct, it is getting an opportunity for a few high tech improvements. The Lernstift pen pictured above is a German creation that is able to analyze your child’s writing in real time (or your own if you feel like you need it), and provide him with two types of corrections: orthographic and calligraphic. In calligraphy mode, the pen will vibrate when it sees that the letter doesn’t look right; maybe that ‘b’ is really supposed to be a ‘d’, for example. In orthography mode, the pen will vibrate for spelling and grammatical mistakes; once for the former and twice for the latter.

It comes decked out with a bunch of sensors and chips. Things like pressure sensors and WiFi, and even motion sensors are included to give you the ability to write in the air, should no paper be present. It’s all running off Linux, but of course we have no idea how well it performs. Given the wide range of writing styles, it would be surprising if it managed to achieve its task with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

It’s slated for release in August of this year, though there is no official price. A figure of €120-€150 (or roughly $160 to $200) is being floated, though isn’t concrete. And you can pre-order now, though it’s more of a statement of intent rather than a binding sales contract.

[ Product Pre-Order Page ] VIA [ DVice ]

When It Comes To Smartphones, Is Transparent The New Black?

By David Ponce on 01/28/13 • 1 Comment

Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies has unveiled what they’re calling the “world’s first transparent cellphone”. At the moment it’s just a prototype, but the company hopes it’ll hit the market by the end of 2013. As you can see, it’s not fully transparent, as many components are not see-through at all. As a matter of fact, we’re not sure about any of the details concerning this potential phone, and we’re just talking about it to raise the topic of whether there’s any benefit in pursuing transparency in cellphone design. What’s to be gained, other the gee-whiz factor? All else being equal, would you guys buy a phone just because it’s transparent?

VIA [ DamnGeeky ]

DNA Bullets Mark A Suspect For Easier Arrest

By David Ponce on 01/24/13 • 3 Comments

When there’s a riot or any sort of high-risk situation, it’s not easy for the police to arrest everyone. They’re outnumbered and have to make decisions on how much risk to expose themselves to. That’s often an opportunity for criminals to get away. But if the SelectDNA product shown above takes off, that might get a little harder. It’s a pistol or rifle that comes loaded with very special pellets that mark their target with an indelible DNA-based substance. This makes it possible to positively identify and arrest the perpetrators later, when there’s less danger in doing so. And it’s better than colour markers, because the specificity of the DNA makes it possible to link them to a particular crime, rather than leave open the opportunity to claim that the ink came from “somewhere else”. Each pistol or rifle has an effective range of about 40m (131ft.), and each pellet in a pack has the same DNA identifying code. The DNA is synthetic, “meaning that the number of possible unique codes is infinite. Furthermore, it cannot be analysed without prior knowledge of the ‘Key Codes’, and therefore can’t be copied by any third party.”

There’s no word on how much this would cost, but of course it’s not a consumer product, so… what do we care? It’s just interesting to know this sort of tech exists.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

$17,000 Rifle Uses Linux Wizardry And Fancy Scopes To “Auto-Aim”

By David Ponce on 01/14/13 • 1 Comment

Let’s get the moral aspect out of the way first: we’re not big fans of killing for sport. We’re not going to turn this into a debate on the topic, but we’re only covering the TrackingPoint XS1 because, frankly, that’s some impressive tech. What is it? It’s a rifle that takes so much guesswork out of aiming, a child could do it. Not that a child should, but we’re just sayin’. The company calls it a PGF, a precision guided firearm. And this is how it works:

To shoot at something, you first “mark” it using a button near the trigger. Marking a target illuminates it with the tracking scope’s built-in laser, and the target gains a pip in the scope’s display. When a target is marked, the tracking scope takes into account the range of the target, the ambient temperature and humidity, the age of the barrel, and a whole boatload of other parameters. It quickly reorients the display so the crosshairs in the center accurately show where the round will go.

The shooting mechanism is also different than a regular gun. Once you’ve pulled the trigger, the shot won’t go off until you line up the reticle with the previously set pip; at the precise moment they’re lined up, the bullet leaves. This eliminates a lot of the shakes associated with pulling the trigger and dramatically increases accuracy. But you can also change your mind and take the finger off the trigger altogether, and cancel your shot.

Hit the jump for a promotional video with a few seconds of the mechanism in action, as well as links.

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Party Buzzer Works Only While Drunk

By David Ponce on 12/20/12 • Leave a comment!

Who said that tech hardware has to be useful all the time? What’s wrong with having a bit of pointless fun with it? The Buzzed Buzzer contains an alcohol sensor and will only work if it detects booze on your breath. Use enough of these at a party to ensure that anyone that looks like they’re having fun, is actually having fun. Well… not that you can’t have fun without alcohol, but you get our drift. Using a $16 Teensy 2.0 Microcontroller, a $5 MQ-3 Alcohol Gas Sensor, and a handful of other easily obtainable supplies, the Buzzed Buzzer is a surefire way to have drunk peeps making noise, eager as drunk people often are to prove their drunkenness. Unfortunately, this is not a product you can purchase at a store; the link at the bottom will lead you to very detailed instructions on how to make your own.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Engadget ]

FlyVIZ: Is The Ability To See 360 Degrees Worth Going Outside Looking Like This?

By David Ponce on 12/17/12 • Leave a comment!

The FlyVIZ is an interesting visor whose sole purpose is to project a 360 degree panorama right on your eyes. A camera mounted at the top is able to see all around, and the resulting video feed is pumped to a pair of LCD screens that allow the wearer to see all around him. If he turns his head, so does the view, meaning that after an average of 15 minutes of initial nausea and disorientation, most wearers are eventually able to start navigating the world “normally.”

Presented at INRIA in Paris, the FlyVIZ is an exploration in “sensorial augmentation”, with some practical applications in mind:

In safety and security applications, soldiers, policemen or firemen could benefit from omnidirectional vision to avoid potential dangers or locate targets more rapidly. In less critical situations, some surveillance applications with a high visual workload, in all directions of space for instance, could also be concerned, such as for traffic regulation. Considering the novel perceptual experience proposed, FlyViz could also be transformed into entertaining applications and devices, as well as experimental materials for new perception and neuroscience studies.

This is clearly not a commercial application at the moment, but it’s interesting to know it exists.

Wanna know what it looks like from the wearer’s perspective? Hit the jump for a video, in French, as well as links.

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Delightfully Obtuse: Contraption Pops Corn One Kernel At A Time

By David Ponce on 11/23/12 • Leave a comment!

Sometimes you just have to stop asking “why” and enjoy something for what it is. The Oncle Sam pictured above is an elaborate device that pops corn, one kernel at a time. That’s… all it does. It was recently presented by Laurent Beirnaert, Pierre Bouvier and Paul Tubiana as part of the ‘low-tech factory’ exhibition at Designers’ Saturday in Langenthal, Switzerland. When you turn a handle at the bottom, a single kernel falls into a metal cooking receptacle where it is heated in oil, above a candle, until it pops. There’s some salting going on as well. The popped kernel then falls into another glass cup where you can retrieve it and enjoy it. It’s all pretty grandiose, and pretty awesome.

Ok… you’re still wondering “why”. The closest we have to an explanation is this:

The work celebrates and values the means by which a product is created – slowing down a type of manufacture that is usually en masse to a visual spectacle that can be appreciated, acknowledged and savored.

Right, so it’s a piece of art. That’s nice. If you want to know what it looks like in action, hit the jump for a totally worthwhile video.

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Projecteo is an Ultra-Portable Instagram Projector You Can Take Anywhere

By Hazel Chua on 11/16/12 • Leave a comment!

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What better way to show off your favorite Instagram photos than with this miniature Instagram projector that’s worth showing off as well? This is the latest in a series of Instagram-related projects by the same team that brought you Foldable.me and Stickygram.

The projector is called Projecteo and it’s as small and miniature as projectors can get. It will fit snugly into the palm of your hand and uses tiny wheels of 35mm Kodak film stock where your images have already been embedded on. You’ll have to use a companion app to select the photos that you want to include in your reel, which Projecteo will then embed into slide films.

Hit the break for a video pitching the project.

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