As I explained this morning over at MacUser, I'm reporting this week from the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Boston. There's a lot of neat tech on display here, but what makes it more interesting than a lot shows is that there's a focus on what people can do with the tech.
The Emerging Technologies/Art Show and Guerilla Studio sections of SIGGRAPH have quickly become my favorites. Both of these are examples of applying technology for surprising results, and the kind of things they're showing off are often eye-popping. Take for example, Jeff Han from New York University and the multi-touch display system. My colleague at MacUser, Cyrus Farivar, interviewed Han back in March after seeing the same system displayed at O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. If you've seen Minority Report, you might get an idea of what kind of interface they're shooting for. In truth, it has to be seen to be appreciated, so take a look at the videos on his webpage.
Now, I did actually crash the interface while trying it out (I'm blaming the Windows backend), but Jeff quickly recovered and there was no noticeable ill effect. He was also showing off a similar idea that used water as the medium: computer generated "fish" would scatter when someone splashed it, for example. Cool stuff.
I've been meaning to rip my entire CD collection to MP3 for some time now, but I never seem to have the time to sit down and feed the discs into my computer, then import them one-by-one. It seems like this is the perfect kind of menial labor for which we invented robots.
Disc Makers knows what I'm talkin' bout, Willis. That's why they're selling this Pico Automatic CD/DVD duplicator with MP3-ripping capability. Feed 25 discs into Pico's caddy, and it'll rip each one to the format of your choice, even retrieving information from the CDDB while it does. 12 CDs per hour may not seem like a lot, but that's an hour that I don't have to spend doing the same thing.
Since it's USB compatible, it'll work with Macs or PCs. The only thing holding me back is the $700 pricetag. Hey, Disc Makers, need somebody to give this sucker a review?
[via Ubergizmo]
This inflatable car passenger creeps me out. Especially these pictures of him in the inflating process. I guess the idea here is to make it look like you've got more people in the car, so that when you're driving late at night, you don't get car jacked. Or maybe it's to abuse the HOV lanes in some cities. I don't know. Either way, it reminds me of the automatic pilot from Airplane. Apparently he's small enough (when deflated) to fit in the glove compartment...so don't think he won't be a little ticked off when you finally let him out.
As the product suggestion reads:
Four out of five women* (80%) say they feel safer behind the wheel when there’s someone sitting beside them – but of course it’s impossible to always travel with a partner, friend or relative.But how many women feel safer when there's a scary inflatable man sitting next to them, hmmmm?
I've just can't get this freaky image out of my head of driving by a car with one of these, and then doing a doubletake as it turns and looks directly at me. Thank god it's just a prototype...for now.
[via Shiny Shiny]
Flash (or solid state) memory has become ubiquitous in digital devices: cameras, music players, video players, keychain drives. About the last place that it hasn't hit are traditional PCs. But Samsung and Microsoft are about to make that happen.
We've previously mentioned Samsung's plans to release a hybrid flash/magnetic hard drive as well as their intention to release laptops boasting flash memory hard drives. Now we can shed a little more light on what flash memory might be doing in the computer.
Samsung has announced a 4GB flash memory drive in conventional 2.5" and 1.8" sizes for PCs; it'll sell for under $200. Since 4GB is a little small to be used for storing all your data (you can't even install an operating system in 4GB nowadays), the devices will be utilized by a Windows Vista feature called "Ready Boost," which will essentially cache frequently read data on the flash drive, so the hard drive doesn't have to constantly spin up. Think of it as a middle ground between your RAM and your hard drive. A cool idea, and one that I'm looking forward to. Too bad it's only in Windows at the moment.
If you're a PC gamer, your mouse defines you. Yeah, the keyboard's important, but it's the mouse that shows just how hardcore you are. Logitech has been at this whole mouse-building thing for a while, and I've been impressed by a number of their products. While it's not necessarily new, I'm thinking of snagging a Logitech G5 gaming mouse that one of my friends has. Not only does it use superior laser tracking for efficiency on glossy surfaces, not only does it boast the ability to switch scanning resolution from 400 to 800 to 2000 dpi on the fly, but it also has a removable, adjustable weight cartridge.
That's pretty crazy. But on the other hand, it does give us a handy excuse whenever we play him in first person shooters. "Oh, well, sure, but have you seen his mouse?"
Just one more food-related item, then I promise: this madness will end. But how could I resist Oliver Beckert's Slice-o-rama? From the catchy name to the brilliant idea, this is one product that would find its way into my kitchen and—dare I say—my heart. A combination table-saw and cutting board. Come on, now. Show some love.
To those of you afraid of digital injury (the kind not involving computers), don't worry. The saw blade used is the same type of vibrating blade used for cutting casts off people; it won't cut your finger, but it will cut vegetables. The Slice-o-rama also includes an adjustable metal guide for determining how big your slices should be.
Personally, I totally can't cut straight, so I'd love one of these. Unfortunately, they're still a concept device, so it's not yet for sale. Blast. Back to cutting the old way.
[via Oh Gizmo!]
That's literally. If you're big into Japanese food, but are still somewhat curious as to how you get the California into the California roll then Shaberu! DS Ryouri Navi—aka the Talking DS Cooking Navigator—may be just what the master chef ordered.
Containing over 200 Japanese recipes (including pictures), the DS cart provides you with each step of making a dish. When you verbally assent to having carried out that step, it provides you with the next step. The downside is that, of course, the program only exists in Japanese right now. Still, if you happen to know the language, but just lack the cooking skills, you can pick up a copy for around $35.
[via Gearlog]
Yesterday we had a bit of a food thing going on: there were square eggs and cupcake protectors. Today, in an effort to eat healthy, we have fruit. And with it, the eternal dilemma: how do you buy the freshest fruit? There are any number of techniques for determining how ripe your produce is. Let's see: knocking on the outside, squeezing, bouncing off the floor, etc. But how could technology solve this problem?
Simple: the RediRipe strip. Somewhat reminiscent of the Timestrips that tell you when not to eat food from your fridge, the RediRipe strip tells you how fresh the produce in the supermarket is. How does it know? No squeezing, knocking, or injecting is involved: it simply changes color depending on the amount of ethylene gas—a byproduct of the ripening process—given off, turning from white to blue. The bluer the sticker, the riper the fruit.
Perhaps this can aid me in my constant battle to get bananas that are just slightly short of ripe. Expect to see them in grocery stores in a couple of years.
[via SCI FI Tech]
