CrunchGear |  |
- Video: Mini Humanoid Nao Recharges Himself Autonomously
- ShieldPRO N22G: NEC Shows Super-Ruggedized Notebook
- Daily Crunch: Coiled
- Smartphone-Powered EEG Makes For Creepy Meetings
- Nikon Hypes Up Mystery Wednesday Launch
- In-Game Ads Become The Target Of Scene Hackers
- The TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast Episode 2: Gaming, Movies, And Trackpads
- Vuzix Wrap 1200VR Glasses Can Track Your Head Movements While You Game
- Orbotix Wants Sphero Beta Testers Before The Holidays Hit
- Japan Game Awards 2011 At The Tokyo Game Show: Here Are The 10 Winners
- Take Me To Your Metro: Microsoft Releases Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta
- HP TouchPad Go Photos Leaked: Here’s What A Dead 7-Inch Tablet Looks Like
- Zappin’ To The Oldies: A Tesla Coil Plays The Hits
- “MadeInGermany”: Now Germany Has A Robot Car, Too
- A Twitter Poem: Next Nexus Leaked With Specs, Details, And Launch Info [Update]
| Video: Mini Humanoid Nao Recharges Himself Autonomously Posted: 20 Sep 2011 04:59 AM PDT  And we’re yet another step closer to the Robocalypse: mini humanoid Nao (pronounced “Now”), which was first shown back in 2005, can now walk to a charging station whenever his battery is running low to get more power – all by himself. Nao’s maker, Paris-based Aldebaran, has designed him to be a mix of autonomous and programmable robot, but so far, Nao had to be charged by its human master manually. Aldebaran has developed a charging station specifically for their flagship robot, the so-called NEST (NAO Energy Station), and plans to roll it out to existing Nao owners soon. After he’s done charging himself, Nao can unplug himself autonomously, too. Via Plastic Pals
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| ShieldPRO N22G: NEC Shows Super-Ruggedized Notebook Posted: 20 Sep 2011 04:36 AM PDT  All these ruggedized computers available on the market out there aren’t tough enough for you? Then you might want to take a look at the ShieldPRO N22G that NEC announced [JP] today for the Japanese market. It’s essentially a Windows notebook, but specifically designed for use in severe environments. According to NEC, temperatures from -20 to 50 degrees Celsisus, dust or sand (“complete protection”), falls from 90cm onto concrete, or water ( projected by a 6.3mm nozzle) aren’t a problem. For use in extreme situations, the company promises 12 hours of battery life. Spec-wise, buyers can expect a 12.1-inch touchscreen (back-lit LCD with 1,024×768 resolution), a dual core i7-660UE CPU (1.33GHz), 4GB memory, an Intel QM57 chip set, SD card/Memory Stick Duo slots, three USB ports, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Gigabit Ethernet and a dual language (English/Japanese) keyboard. The ShieldPRO N22G is sized at 290×255×47mm, weighs 2.7kg, and will be sold with an open price model (depending if you choose XP or Windows 7, on how big of an HDD or SSD you need, and other extras). No word yet on an international release, but the previous model, the N22A, actually did make its way outside Japan.
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
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| Smartphone-Powered EEG Makes For Creepy Meetings Posted: 19 Sep 2011 05:49 PM PDT  The Technical University of Denmark has put together a portable EEG system consisting of a low-cost scalp monitor and a smartphone app. It’s not the biggest technical breakthrough, but I find it comforting to see these pocket computers, more powerful than our PCs were a few years ago, being used for something other than social media and finding the nearest Starbucks. The team at milab, part of the Cognitive Systems Section at DTU, is focused on “mobile context awareness, media modeling, and user experiences.” So it’s natural that they’d want to put together something like a handheld EEG unit. It’s really a fairly straightforward system: a commercially available Emotiv headset is connected to a wireless USB receiver, which is in turn attached to a Nokia N900. The data from the EEG (live gross activity data from the regions around the contacts) is instantly decrypted by the phone and converted into an 3D OpenGL-based animation. Total time from reading to display is around 150ms. This allows for quick, on-site monitoring without the need to wheel around a station or set up a laptop. Easy deployment and natural settings are very important for psychological experiments, and I know for a fact that having one of the full-on, gel-enhanced, wires-everywhere EEG caps on kind of interferes with your normal thought processes. It can decode brain states enough, it seems, to perform some rudimentary actions like scrolling through galleries or opening and closing apps. The greatest thing, though, is the new style of meeting they seem to have invented: It reminds me of the meetings conducted by the big blue guys in Fantastic Planet. Will we be required to wear these in the future at AOL? Will we be shocked into submission if we don’t maintain proper alpha frequencies during HR lectures? Mercy! [via Reddit]
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| Nikon Hypes Up Mystery Wednesday Launch Posted: 19 Sep 2011 03:09 PM PDT  A new Nikon website has just gone live, the rather curiously-named iamcomings.com. I guess these guys didn’t want to sell. It consists of a lot of yellow, a countdown at around 43 hours as of this writing, and the ominous message “I AM COMING.” What is coming? Well, we’re guessing it’s Nikon’s mirrorless cameras, the V1 and J1. We saw some leaked specs a while back, and have been seeing patents and rumors for a months. The cameras are supposed to be quite compact, with 10.1-megapixel sensors an a 2.7x crop factor, with a new “CX” lens system. The higher-end V1 would have an EVF and the cheaper J1 would sport a built-in flash. Both would have a 3-inch LCD on the back and possibly an interesting form of motorized zoom. A whole new Nikon system could be a major win if they get a quality product out before arch-rival Canon, but it could also be a colossal boondoggle if the devices fail to draw buyers away from the rapidly-improving micro four-thirds standard and others like it. That said, launching a working product is an accomplishment in itself, and if they’re on their second iteration when Canon decides to join the party, that’s worth it whether the camera is a hit or not. We’ll be watching closely for news and maybe we’ll even find ourselves in a position to handle the new cameras come Wednesday.
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| In-Game Ads Become The Target Of Scene Hackers Posted: 19 Sep 2011 02:02 PM PDT  The “Scene,” a loosely-knit network of hackers extant in some form or another since the days of diskette-based media, is in many ways the precursor to Anonymous. Unlike that slightly schizophrenic collective, the Scene’s marching orders have always been clear: distribute movies, TV, music, and games within itself — and if they leak to the general public, well, what they do with it is their business. This rich subculture deserves a post of its own (their ASCII art and NFO banter alone, in fact), but today they are in the middle of making yet another change to the way they strip content of its unnecessary components. First it was NoCD, then it was cracked-DRM, and perhaps now, no-ads. In-game advertising is kind of a third rail right now in gaming. With many publishers and dev houses under fire for things like day-one DRM, “premium” content that should have been included to begin with, and platform-exclusive items and maps, further exploitation of gaming content might push more gamers towards the dark side. Case in point: a recent update to the long-awaited and well-reviewed Deus Ex: Human Revolution that adds advertisements for the new Star Wars Blu-rays to loading screens, sending users into a frenzy. Their frustration isn’t hard to understand. They paid for this game. Why are they being advertised to? Why wasn’t this mentioned before? Why activate it now?? Why Star Wars? Will Jersey Shore be next? While the Scene is ostensibly a private community, it has grown to be a reliable “service” that breaks the fetters publishers add to their content. Originally it was simply about freeing games and programs from their disk-based distribution method, a side-effect of which was the necessity of modifying how the program was installed and run. Later, as games began to check whether the “play” CD or DVD was in the drive, though that disc held no content necessary to run the game, Scene hackers started snipping out the portions of EXEs that looked for the disc. Still later, as more complicated forms of verifying the legitimacy of games and apps developed, an arms race developed. Circumvention methods for StarForce, SecuROM, and always-on DRM have grown increasingly complicated, and the modifications to the games themselves have become extremely sophisticated. But the goal has always been the same: free the content. Whether it’s for the Navy tech who wants to play Assassin’s Creed 2 while off duty on the carrier, or for the lazy/unscrupulous basement-dwelling game pirate, the principle is the same. Information wants to be free, be it text, graphic, video, or interactive. In-game ads present a different problem. They don’t limit the functionality of the game; in fact, they are frequently closely integrated with it. Sponsorships, real cars, everyday products, these things often make a game better and more realistic. So no one has really cared to go in and excise the code that puts a Subway ad on the virtual street. Ad-supported gaming on Android is blowing up. Targeted ads on browser-based gaming networks boast huge viewer minutes per display. Yet this addition by Eidos, or whoever made the decision, has been harshly criticized, and a number of cracks and fixes have shown up on the net that address the ad issue. Why was this time worse than, say, Need For Speed: ProStreet, which rubbed sponsorships in your face and had raceways fairly wallpapered with ads? Because not only are these ads totally unrelated to or integrated with gameplay, but they were added after the fact and without any warning. It’s a breach of trust. So the “fixes” began to appear. I wouldn’t download any right now, as none of the reputable groups have made a patch, but Reddit user go1dfish has put together a simple guide for Windows that should work. The outpouring of frustration and resultant support from the hacking community suggests a dire future for in-game ads. DRM has grown to be a punishment for legitimate users, and in-game ads will soon be the same way — not because either one is fundamentally a bad thing (even Blizzard’s always-on DRM in Diablo III has some good reasoning behind it), but because companies are going to refuse to implement them reasonably. There will likely be a bit of an internal war in the Scene over whether a no-ads version of the game is “proper,” as technically the ads may be part of the game. But I remember the in-Scene conflict over CloneDVD groups, which more or less worked itself out as the situation evolved. In the end, ads will be a burden to the user (because publishers have no common sense), and people with the skill to remove them will develop the desire to as well. DoubleFusion, the firm responsible for the DE:HR ads, says that according to its research,
I’m sure many of us would find something to disagree with there. But my impression is that there simply isn’t enough data right now. In-game ads aren’t nearly as prevalent as banners, text ads, flash ads, interstitials, 30-second spots on Hulu or broadcast, or on-screen placement. It seems unwise to draw conclusions so early in the game, but I would submit that gamers as a demographic are far more technically savvy than the average, and I’m pretty sure that correlates with rejection of online advertisements. In-game ads not being rejected yet speaks more to the scarcity and relative mundaneness of attempts so far. When Chun Li starts chugging Red Bull between rounds and attributing the power of her tatsumakisenpukyaku (I write from memory) to that drink’s refreshing taste and unique blend of… well, you get the idea. Gamers aren’t going to buy it, so to speak. The decreasing relevance of moddable platforms, however, suggests that this imminent advertising revolt may be a small one. After all, you can’t patch iPhone games, or at least no one but a microscopic set of users are going to. So unfortunately, the process of consumers wising up to tricks like in-game ads is counteracted by the process of them being less and less in control of the platform on which they are advertised to. They’ll make a ruckus, but like so many boycotts, complaints, and petitions before, they’ll end up buying the game for their favorite console anyway and cursing the publisher for a few seconds the first few times they see an ad. After that, like on every other platform, they’ll cease to perceive the ads as an intrusion, but simply as an unwanted but natural extension of the medium. So unfortunately, the Scene’s battle against in-game ads won’t result in a groundswell of casual gamers cutting the advertisements out of their games. And the fact is that they are more of a vestigial component of the games distribution system now. Game-as-service is the new word, and things like Valve’s free-to-play TF2 and Call of Duty’s $50 yearly Elite service are likely more representative of the future of gaming. Fairlight, Skidrow, Razor 1911, Myth, Class, and all the rest of the groups are proud holdovers from a simpler time, a marginalized Illuminati of piracy.
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| The TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast Episode 2: Gaming, Movies, And Trackpads Posted: 19 Sep 2011 01:06 PM PDT  Is the second time the charm? Probably not, but Devin, Matt, and I all discuss the gadgets lying around our offices including Logitech’s new remote trackpad. We also discuss Deus Ex, Qwikster, and the value of disk-based video services. A little bit of housekeeping: We’re still shaking out some of the bugs in this system but, in general, I think we’ve got the formula down here. Next up we’ll try to grab some HD video of ourselves and improve the motion quality considerably. Let us know what you’d like to see out of these and we’ll try to take your suggestions into account.
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| Vuzix Wrap 1200VR Glasses Can Track Your Head Movements While You Game Posted: 19 Sep 2011 12:29 PM PDT  Looking for a nice pair of new glasses? What about glasses that make you feel like you’re watching 3D content on a 75-inch display? Well, that’s quite a specific request you’ve made but Vuzix has what you’re looking for. The company today announced its new pair of virtual reality glasses called the Wrap 1200VR. These are almost identical to the Wrap 1200 3D glasses we saw in August, but have special head-tracking capabilities for gamers. The WVGA displays in front of each are 800×480 but can handle video input in 720p, and can be individually focused for each eye. The user can also position the displays to account for their unique inter-pupillary distance. As far as that head-tracking technology goes, it comes with a compass and nine sensors. The new glasses support more than 100 titles for 3D video and/or head tracking, including titles like COD: Modern Warefare, Fallout 3, and F.E.A.R. If you wear contacts or even glasses, no worries. The Vizux Wrap 1200VR can fit “comfortably” over most prescription glasses. And just like when you go to the movies and slap on that super cool pair of RealD specs, your contacts will remain unaffected. The glasses connect to almost any Windows laptop or desktop, with support for Windows 7, Vista, and XP in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Optional interfaces also allow for a connection to component video devices like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. If you have $600 laying around and no fear of looking like a gadgets geek, check out the Vuzix Wrap 1200 VR glasses available now at Vuzix.com.
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| Orbotix Wants Sphero Beta Testers Before The Holidays Hit Posted: 19 Sep 2011 12:25 PM PDT  Everyone’s favorite smartphone-controlled robotic ball got a minor facelift when we saw it last, but it may need just a bit more polish before it officially gets pushed out the door. That’s why Orbotix has quietly put out a call for private beta testers to play with the Sphero ahead of its launch later this year. Of course, not just anyone will get their hands on a Sphero of their very own: Orbotix will only choose from US-based applicants who have already reserved a Sphero. Those chosen few should also be willing to play with the thing on pretty consistent basis (Orbotix suggests a few minutes every day) to see how well it holds up to real world use. Beta testers will be able to spend a month with a near-final Sphero, but fret not in case you aren’t chosen: Orbotix is looking at adding new users on a rolling basis between October and November. While it’s a great way to reward those who already pre-ordered, Orbotix seems to be cutting it just a little close with their timing. By the time their beta program finishes, the holiday launch window will be right on top of them. It won’t pose much of a problem if the feedback is unanimously good, but Orbotix could be caught in a dicey position if something unfortunate is unearthed during their pre-holiday trial period.
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| Japan Game Awards 2011 At The Tokyo Game Show: Here Are The 10 Winners Posted: 19 Sep 2011 10:21 AM PDT  The Tokyo Game Show 2011 closed yesterday with not too many spectacular announcements, but several interesting games were on display. Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) asked the 222.668 attendees of the show this year what their favorite titles were. And here’s the complete list [JP, PDF] (no ranking) of Japan’s most loyal gaming geeks for the 10 best new (yet unpublished) titles of the Tokyo Game Show 2011:
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| Take Me To Your Metro: Microsoft Releases Robotics Developer Studio 4 Beta Posted: 19 Sep 2011 10:14 AM PDT  I popped into the Microsoft tent at Maker Faire yesterday and spied the new Robotics Developer Studio 4, a beta product that allows programmers to control robotic platforms from within Windows. Microsoft is focusing on the software for these robots and will depend on outside vendors to produce hobbyist and production systems for those who want to give things a try. The program also features a simulator that allows you to send your robot out into the virtual world in order to see how it will react in certain situations. A company called Parallax will sell the robot kits in October, namely their clever little $999 robot named Eddie. Eddie requires a laptop and Kinect unit to run correctly. The Kinect gives Eddie stereo vision and voice sensing capabilities while the laptop runs his brain.
Like Micosoft’s .NET Gadget Toolkit, Eddie and the RDS let hackers and hobbyists cobble together powerful tools using Microsoft software, a move that I suspect Microsoft hopes will discourage the use of the traditionally open source software platforms used for many robotics projects. While it doesn’t matter if Windows ends up in some kid’s school project, it does matter if that same kid installs Windows 10 on the Mars Rover prototype she’s building for Grumman a decade or so later. Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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| HP TouchPad Go Photos Leaked: Here’s What A Dead 7-Inch Tablet Looks Like Posted: 19 Sep 2011 08:10 AM PDT  Gather round, young and old, for our first and last glimpse at the never-to-be-released HP TouchPad Go. The seven incher was supposedly a couple weeks away from shipping when HP decided to send webOS hardware to rest in pieces, but one forum-goer claims to have had one for three months. From what we already know, which is basically just the information from the tablet’s FCC filing, this seems like the real deal. Just like in the filing, the pictured TouchPad Go has a noticeable processor upgrade, clocking in at 1.5GHz rather than running the 10-incher’s 1.2Ghz processor. This model in particular comes with 16GB of internal storage and touts front and rear cameras, along with another awesome little surprise. Apparently the HP TouchPad Go was equipped with what appears to be an NFC module, which will unfortunately never get any use because this tablet will live on only in our memories (and the cache). The ZooPDA tipster (first noticed by TIMN) said that the screen has the same resolution as its 10-inch counterpart, with 1024 x 768 pixels. The slate also appears to have a 4:3 aspect ratio. If only that bezel was a bit thinner, this thing would be a pretty complete package. As far as TouchPads go, that is. But that doesn’t really matter. This TouchPad Go leak is the equivalent of our first look at a recently extinct animal. Exciting, but utterly inconsequential. Check out the full gallery below. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA. HP is one of the world’s largest information technology companies and operates in nearly every country. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products....
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| Zappin’ To The Oldies: A Tesla Coil Plays The Hits Posted: 19 Sep 2011 07:09 AM PDT  The folks atMIT’s Electronics Research Society know how to put on a show. In this short video they show us a Tesla coil connected to a keyboard that can play jaunty tunes using pure, unadulterated energy. While these guys are no musical virtuosos, they make up for their lack of training by creating an instrument that can feasible flatten you like a blast of heat lightning. Sadly, no one yelled “Play Freebird.”
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| “MadeInGermany”: Now Germany Has A Robot Car, Too Posted: 19 Sep 2011 07:02 AM PDT  Japan and the US aren’t the only countries in the world boasting advanced robot cars. Now Germany has one, too. A team of researchers at Freie Universität Berlin has roboticized a conventional VW Passat [homepage in English], which has successfully finished trial runs in central Berlin “several times” over the last weekend without causing an accident. The car (which is called “MadeInGermany” for some reason) made its debut in 2007 when it drove around autonomously in a closed area in a closed down airport in Berlin. But now the vehicle was able to finish a 20km round trip in the center of the city, between Kaiserdamm to Brandenburg Gate, for the first time – roundabout traffic, speed limits, pedestrians and a total 46 lights on the way included. The car is equipped with a drive-by-wire system, three cameras, a radar system, a set of laser rangefinders, and a GPS module boasting an accuracy of 10-20cm. It’s insured for 100 million Euros. The university says the concepts of the ”MadeInGermany” and the Google car are pretty similar and that it frequently exchanges information with its American colleagues. Via Heise Online [GER]
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| A Twitter Poem: Next Nexus Leaked With Specs, Details, And Launch Info [Update] Posted: 19 Sep 2011 06:08 AM PDT  Late last night the Android community was taken hostage by a rogue Twitter user. @tfleming223 started tweeting lines from a cryptic poem said to contain launch details about the upcoming Nexus phone and Ice Cream Sandwich Android release. But in true Internet douchbag fashion, this guy would only release parts of the poem when certain users followed him and he reached 1,000 followers. Well, as shown after the jump, the poem so far hints at a November 3rd Verizon release, along with stating the next Nexus would be a world phone. And he might be right. @tfleming223
This isn’t the first time unannounced details were revealed through a Twitter poem. @black_man_x, aka The Panda King and the supposed creator of this latest poem, played the same silly game with surprising accuracy concerning the then-named HTC Incredible HD. The details were spot on and pegged the phone, later named the Thunderbolt, as Verizon’s first LTE device — although simple logic could have done that as well. The same user later tweeted another poem about the Droid Bionic and stated that the release date would be in the later part of April. “Till after Passover,” he said. While the Bionic just recently hit the shelf, the phone did suffer numerous delays, some of which likely hit at the last moment. This guy is clearly familiar with Verizon Wireless’ road map. It’s hard to say whether this latest poem correctly names November 3rd, the death of Batman’s creator (his “real father”) Bob Kane, as the phone’s release date but that date does fall in line with previous rumors and Google’s own timetable. Also, the next Nexus would of course be a worldphone as previous incarnations where only available in GSM form. The last two came unlocked, but it’s unlikely that the US’ Verizon edition would follow that precedent. Of course more could still be revealed by our poetic friend. Apparently there’s more to the poem, which will be revealed sometime today. Blame Jay Cutler: per one of @tfleming223 last tweets yesterday, he was going to reveal the rest if the NFL’s Chicago Bears pulled out a win against the Saints. However, Cutler couldn’t complete a pass last night and the Saints proceed to roll the Bears 30 to 13. (But how about those Lions!?) Even if this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about, Google will likely announce the next Nexus and Ice Cream sandwich in a few weeks. It’s unlike Google and its hardware partners to do a reveal and then immediately sell the device. My money is on an October announced, November release, and the Detriot Lions to go deep in the playoffs.
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