Posts tagged gadgets
New GPS chip works indoors, shows vertical position, and uses half the power.
The unimaginatively titled BCM4752 chip from Broadcom uses data not only from the GPS satellites, but also GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS (whatever they are) to offer improved time to fix in all scenarios, more accurate real-time navigation, faster reacquisition of signals after blockage or tunnel exits and improved sensitivity. It also consumes half the power used by previous generation chips, meaning longer battery life for already drained smartphones.
By using extra satellite constellations, the chip takes data from up to 59 orbiting satellites, and also sources location information from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and handset inertial data to provide navigation apps more data than ever before. It also means it’s able to provide vertical position.
That opens up a range of possibilities for app makers, for example buildings and malls could be integrated into Google maps to allow your smartphone to guide you not only to a building, but to the right floor and position inside it as well.
Although the chip has already hit the market, it could realistically be up to a year before it’s integrated into smartphones and tablets.
Video: Custom built Delorean Quadrocopter.
I don’t know who built this or why, but I do know this: Where this thing’s going, it doesn’t need roads.
Video: Man excavates his basement using only R/C models.
It took seven years for Joe Murray to excavate the basement of his home in Saskatchewan Canada using only radio controlled vehicles. Using r/c drills, excavators, haulers, and trucks, the strange technique meant he never even had to get his hands dirty.
Each Winter he mines the walls of his unfinished basement and then hauls the dirt out each summer. He once had a conveyor belt, but now uses a spiral ramp for removal. Murray estimates that he has excavated about 2 to 3 cubic yards of dirt every year for the past seven years. The motivation behind the project is fairly simple: Murray like R/C, and he likes working in his basement over long cold Saskatchewan Winters. He first got interested in the craft back in 1996, and is now modifying and repairing his own vehicles
You can check out his YouTube channel here, which has over 150 videos with over 4 million views and counting.
Video: Early fax machine technology, in 1937.
What a crazy video. A news reporter needs to send a photo of an aeroplane taking off from the top of a moving car, so he sends it over the telephone lines using Telephotography.
Skip to around 2:30 for the demonstration of telephotography, but the first couple of minutes is also pretty amusing for the crazy 1930’s news reporters.
Video: Musical quadrotors.
Those crazy quadrotors. Last month they did this awesome video showing off their skills, now they’re back playing the James Bond theme song.
The trick is actually accomplished by filling the “stage” with infrared lights and cameras that capture the locations of the individual drones. The team then sets a series of 3D waypoints — say a C-sharp note on the organ — as well as times that the waypoints (notes) need to be hit. What’s really incredible here is that the drones have to plot their own individual courses — the UPenn website reads “figuring out how to get from waypoint to waypoint most efficiently and without disturbing their neighbors is up to the robots.”
USB-stick sized computer available for pre-order.
As covered here last November, the ‘Cotton Candy’ computer from FXI is said to be an “any screen computer”, able to be plugged in and used at almost any display.
Specifications include an ARM® Cortex™-A9 (1GHz) CPU from Samsung, an ARM Mali™-400 MP (Quad-core, 1.2GHz) GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, HDMI output and the Android operating system. It decodes MPEG-4, H.264 and other video formats and display HD graphics on any HDMI equipped screen. Operating systems supported to date include Android Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich as well as Ubuntu. On-screen content can be controlled a wide variety of ways – wirelessly using smartphones with an app, Bluetooth peripherals like mice and RF remote controls; or by leveraging a notebook’s integrated keyboard and touchpad.
The device is now available for pre-order here for US$199 plus shipping. It’s going to be a rough day for my credit card, between this and this awesome Hoverboard both going on sale!
Hoverboard pre-orders now open!
As reported here last month, Mattel are to release a limited edition replica hoverboard from Back to the Future II. As promised, pre-orders have opened today, and close on March 20.
The board won’t be produced until a certain number of pre-orders are in place, and it’s likely to be almost the end of this year before they ship, but hey we’ve already waited 22 years so what’s a few more months, right?
The board costs US$120 plus shipping, you can order here.
*Update* The clock on the order page was counting down and almost at zero when I posted this, now it’s counting UP? huh?!
Update 2 - Order page is up, here.
Microsoft IllumiShare is like Skype for your desktop.
Illumishare is currently being developed by Microsoft Research (MSR), and allows two users to remotely share any physical or digital object on any surface.
The device itself looks like a desk lamp (pictured above) and contains a camera and projector. Any changes to one surface are immediately projected onto the other. While it seems like an obvious concept that could be easily replicated with Skype, there’s more to it than that:
I remarked at how IllumiShare blew my mind because it was so “simple” yet elegant and blindingly obvious. He agreed but then went on to point out how you get to that point – by overcoming some real technical challenges - a key one being “video echo”. With a camera constantly capturing what is on your surface, and projecting, how do you ensure it doesn’t capture what you’re projecting from your surface and re-project it back. That’s where some very smart MSR thinking comes in.
In this video they show how it could be used to remotely help a student with a maths problem, for example, but I’m sure many businesses would find uses for the technology too. And if Illumishare is ever released to the public, you can be sure someone will find a way to play Angry Birds with it…
Video: Concept iPad 3 looks awesome.
Aatma Studio Animation came up with this concept iPad 3 video.
I like the bit around 0:20 where you can connect two of them together, would be a great feature if we ever get tablets that are all screen and no bezel.
iPad 3 infographic sure has a lot of info.
Hit this link for the original version if it’s not big enough to read - the original also has heaps more info.
The iPad 3 is widely rumoured to be announced on 7 March.
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