Technabob » body

Electric Cars Might Work Like Blanka in the Future

Lambert Varias — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:35:01 +0000

The Imperial College of London is currently working on a composite material that can store and discharge electricity but is also strong enough to be used as material for something like a car’s body. Volvo is one of the sponsors of the €3.4 million project, obviously hoping to find a way to build electric cars that lasts a long time between charges.

In the video below, Dr Emile Greenhalgh of Imperial College explains a bit more about how the material looks:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Imagine how light our laptops and phones would be if their cases were also their batteries. Or how awesome it would be if our cars could project an electric shield.

[via EU Infrastructure]

Project Natal for Xbox 360 Could Put Microsoft Ahead of Wii With Controller-Free Gaming

Technabob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:10:24 +0000

Microsoft today took the wraps off of their new input device for the Xbox 360, known as Project Natal. The new technology does away with traditional controllers and lets player use their full body to interact with video games and the Xbox 360 interface.

Unlike Nintendo’s Wii-mote, the Project Natal (pronounced “na-tall”) sensor box can detect movements of your entire body, and can also recognize voices. The compact device will mount above or below your television set and has an RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphones to detect movements and voices around your room.

From the looks of Microsoft’s demo footage shown today, the system aims to significantly improve on the basic gesture control found in devices like Sony’s EyeToy. There’s also full gesture control for interactive with menus without the need for a controller.

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Project Natal’s cameras can even detect faces and scan objects in real time and inject them directly into the games you’re playing. This concept footage should give you a pretty good idea of where Microsoft wants to go with Natal:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While most of the demo footage shown was for more traditional fare like fighters, racing and sports games, one standout was Peter Molyneux’s “Milo”.

Milo is sort of like a modern-day take on Seaman, but with a boy who can respond to your emotions, voice, facial expressions and movements.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Cool stuff, but a little bit creepy. We may have officially crossed into the Uncanny Valley. Keep in mind that all of the tech demos and video footage shown at this point are only conceptual, and the features and functionality of the final product could (and probably will) change.

Microsoft hasn’t announced a release target for Project Natal, but if they manage to work out all the kinks, I’m hoping we could see the system as early as the 2009 holiday season. On the other hand, we could be waiting until some time in 2010. Stay tuned for more details.

[Project Natal for Xbox 360]

Decorate Your House With Own Your Body Parts

Technabob — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:05:46 +0000

Paris design studio 5.5 Designers recently unveiled their series of household items based on your own unique body parts. My personal favorite among these oddities are the eyeball lamps, which are modeled after your very own peepers.

Other objects in the studio’s “Cloning” collection include vases, mirrors and other home accessories, all derived from your own personal body attributes. The series even goes as far as to produce wallpaper based on scans of your own skin, and carpets based on your body hair. Yuck. And what could be more lovely than a pillow based on the shape of your own beer belly?

How about a clothing valet that’s actually structured from the dimensions of your skeleton? It’s perfect for keeping your clothes ready and wrinkle-free for the next day at the office.

Why not have a mirror made from your own personal silhouette? It’s not like anyone else will ever need to look at themselves, right?

I suppose if you’re particularly self-absorbed, you might want to furnish your pad with this stuff. For the rest of us, just chock this up to the annals of the Hall of Bizarre Interior Design.

[via Generate Pipeline]