Imagine a sniper who is able to change the course of the bullet fired in mid-air before it hits its target - that’s what Pentagon is working on, dumping nearly $22 million to Darpa to find out. Dubbed EXACTO (EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance), this project will “provide a dramatic new capability to the U.S. military” if it is successful. Guess snipers no longer need to be at the top of their game in order to hit the target, and experience won’t count as much anymore with such technology. It still makes me wonder just how fast the reflexes of the sniper must be to fire a bullet and quickly navigate it before it reaches the target - after all, you don’t have that many milliseconds to react. (Read the full post about ‘EXACTO Project Features Guided Bullet Technology’…)

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It is amazing how close we’ve come to associate remote controls with their owners - this voice recognition TV remote control from Oki and a Waseda University team is capable of pulling a single target voice out of the babble of other speakers and background noise, thanks to a quartet of microphones located in the front of the remote in addition to “a proprietary algorithm for voice frequency analysis [that] detects talking that originates from directly in front of the device and automatically separates this out from other sounds being picked up by the microphones.” Well, if you can’t bark orders to the missus, at least you can boss your TV around, especially after a particularly hard day at the office! (Read the full post about ‘Voice Recognition TV Remote Control’…)

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All 171 UK outlets of Pret A Manger will be going wireless from next April onwards with Near-Field Communications (NFC) equipment installed, allowing customers to enjoy reduced queuing times so that they can get to their meal faster than usual. Guess there is no slowing down when living in this world, eh, where everyone wants things to be done fast and in an instant. Currently, a few restaurants have already installed similar wireless payment technologies, including Yo! Sushi, Coffee Republic and selected O2 stores. Tags: speaker, consumer electronics, cameras, MP3 (Read the full post about ‘Pret A Manger Go For Wireless Transactions’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 2:51PM Many may still be scratching their heads at why exactly Blockbuster decided to delve head first into the world of digital downloads this late in the game with such a weak (on paper, anyway) offering. CEO Jim Keyes recently sat down with E-Commerce News to clarify a few things, and here’s the skinny. For starters, it’s not using a pure “streaming” method on the MediaPoint; instead, it’s using a “progressive download” in hopes of improving the quality of the experience for those without a pure, continuous connection. Next, it’s solely relying on an à la carte way of delivering films in order to bring new releases to the home faster, and if you’ve taken a look at Netflix’s online availability of those very titles, you’ll start to see the difference. (Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster CEO talks up 2Wire MediaPoint, says rentals coming to BD decks in Q1 2009′…)

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Do you still have that streak of cheekiness in you despite being all grown up? Well, perhaps it is worth considering the £17.99 R/C Black Widow Spider. Definitely a hoot when you place this on someone who’s sleeping and is a known sufferer of arachnophobia, although you might have to perform CPR due to a heart attack after the prank. Created by London’s Natural History Museum for that added touch of authenticity, this 12″ long R/C Black Widow spider is able to creep in all directions or even spin itself around on a time, as long as it remains within a 30-foot radius of the remote control. Don’t worry, it doesn’t bite. Tags: pvr, Gadget, hi fi, hdtv (Read the full post about ‘R/C Black Widow Spider’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 5:32PM Oh sure, there’s bound to be some protrusion when shoving a retro console into a gaming handheld, but inelegant styling was a way of life for Sega back in the mid-90s. Modder Chris Koopa has achieved the impossible by stuffing an Atari 2600 (or the important parts, anyway) along with 40 games into a hacked up Game Gear and enabling it to operate for nearly a full workday with just five AA batteries. And yeah, there’s totally a 2600 cartridge slot to allow for playback of original titles. (Read the full post about ‘Atari 2600 stuffed into Game Gear, Sega Nomad seen casting envious glances’…)

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by Jacob Schulman, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 9:42AM With Black Friday a thing of the past and the holiday season rapidly approaching, you want to hook up everyone you know with something nice. Amazon’s trying to make that a bit easier on the wallet by offering up refurbished Kindles for $329 straight up — a first for the funky little ebook reader. While it’s not as much of a price reduction as we would have liked, it is a start, but with new devices and pricing rumored for early 2009, to us it just seems like too little, too late. (Read the full post about ‘Refurb Kindles now available for $329; please, try to contain yourselves’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Nov 30th 2008 at 12:16PM Sadly (very, very sadly, in fact), this isn’t the first device we’ve seen that poorly attempts to mix your iPod into a karaoke-type device, which probably means you’ll be glancing right over it. Memorex’s recently released SingStand MKS-SS1 Microphone and Speaker System was apprehended and photographed by the iPod fanatics at iLounge, and while the powered speaker base, auxiliary input for an additional microphone / instrument and the audio controls were swell, the lackluster ipod integration sort of left the critic wondering why Cupertino’s darling was even associated. (Read the full post about ‘Memorex SingStand iPod karaoke mic critiqued and in the wild’…)

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If you are super rich person, then you can buy the Harion Glass Speakers. These speakers were made of Heat-resistant glass manufactured by Hario, a glass maker in Tokyo. Priced at a hefty 16 million yen or approx. $168,000, the speaker system consists of a center speaker, a sub woofer, a couple of tweeters and mid-range speakers. The company also announced that if you order a minimum of ten units of these speakers then you may be able to receive a lower price tag at around $105,000 per unit. However, there is no info about the sound quality of these super expensive speakers. (Read the full post about ‘Super Expensive Harion Glass Speakers’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Nov 29th 2008 at 11:54PM Hey you, hot-shot movie cutter! Now that we’ve got your attention, have a look at this. Adobe’s research laboratory has been toiling away with a sophisticated interactive video-object manipulation system, which gives video editors all sorts of creative windows with next to no rendering lag. An After Effects demonstration shows an editor selecting the outside of a cab and typing “taxi” — once the text is imprinted on the vehicle, it stays on the car as it moves up and down the street. We know, you’re totally scratching your head trying to envision what we just said, so why not just head past the break and give it a look?Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.Read PermalinkEmail this82 CommentsFiled under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Video: Adobe dabbles in video-object manipulation’…)

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