Holidays can be a dream come true for tech geeks, since many of us receive new tech gadgets as gifts. Since tech geeks love hearing about new gadgets, software, and games, let us know in the comments what new tech loot you received for the holidays, and what your initial impressions are.
Back in October, there was some geeky gushing going on about the Tron sequel. It was happening here on 40Tech – and the culprit might well have been me. I’m not saying it was… but it’s a definite possible kind of a certainty. Well, Tron Legacy has hit the box office, and even though I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, you might have – and you may well have been impressed enough to wish that you, too, could look all glowy and blue.
Ladyada and Becky Stern can help you out with that.
Check out the video and links below. If you’re feeling a little creative this holiday season, and aren’t afraid of a little EL wire and some solder, you too can be Tron-ified.
Go on, then. Get your geek on.
Tron Bag with EL Wire (Tutorial Link)
How-To: Tron Bag with EL WIre [Make:]
Microsoft’s Kinect, has already started a mini-revolution in the geeky world of modding. Since hacker Hector Marcan released the open source drivers that he created for Kinect, innovations using the technology have been appearing with speed that can only be described as plaid (my apologies to anyone who didn’t get that reference — and a cookie to the first commenter to identify it).
Some of the more interesting hacks I’ve come across are:
DepthJS (Fluid Interfaces Group) is a Chrome Extension that allows you to do some sci-fi-like web browsing with hand gestures. Make’s Adam Flaherty compared it to Spielberg’s Minority Report.
Interactive Shadow Puppets (Theo Watson) could have a future theatre and children’s entertainment — the kind they watch or do on their own time. The guy also does the entire video with what looks like a beer in hand — which I just found amusing and awesome.
Multitouch with a hacked Kinect is the first thing I was wondering about, especially after watching the DepthJS video. A fellow named floemuc put together a nice proof of concept using photos.
Real-time People Detection and Tracking with multiple Kinects is a neat (and scary) little demo put together by some students and a professor from EPFL (a French Swiss tech school).
There are also Kinect 3D art hacks, some original Mario Kart and Quake Live hacks, 3D object manipulation, cloud viewers and several others. Some of them are floating randomly about the web, but several are listed at the wiki/gallery of openkinect.org.
If you want a review of how well the straight-ahead consumer version of the Kinect works, check out Evan’s review.
What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s Kinect? What other potential innovations could you see coming out of this?
Zomm is one of those neat little gadgets that I’m not sure I would ever buy, might raise an eyebrow at if given it for a gift, but would probably find ridiculously useful if I had one. It does three things:
The Zomm, which won Best of Innovations at 2010’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show), is keychain-sized, comes in white or black with blue accents, and will fit in the palm of your hand. It costs about $80.00.
Check out the video post on the Zomm below. It’s by super-geek Chris Pirillo, and will, at the very least, remind you of exactly what level of geek you are by comparison. If five minutes of Chris is too much for you to handle, go one video down and check out the Zomm commercial – Chris is funnier, though. Enjoy, and have a fantastic weekend!
Who’s getting the Zomm on your Christmas shopping list?
How Do You Find Lost Gadgets [Lockergnome]
Brain + Computer = Mad Science at its Best
Ever wanted a computer to interface directly with your brain? Come on, we’ve all watched science fiction flicks where the mad scientist puts something akin to a noodle-strainer outfitted with wires, resistors and other electronics on top of his head (or on the head of an unwilling victi– err, participant…), and then proceeds to interface with a machine that can control space ships, the weather, or defense systems. Well, Paul Sadja has decided it would be cool to take us there for real.
Enter the C3Vision — Cortically Coupled Computer Vision.
Image by J.J. McCullough
Paul Sajda is a Columbia University professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at the Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing (who knew that even existed…?), and had this to say about his new toy:
Basically, he has created a means to tap into user’s brains and, as Curt Hopkins of Read Write Web states, “realize what’s bugging them before they consciously know they’ve been bugged” — and then take action, of course.
What’s most interesting about all of this is the similarity to contextual search and social recommendation engines — and, of course, the possibility that Paul Sadja might really be The Riddler. You know… Batman Forever?
I’m just sayin’.