The technology is called Touché, and is nothing short of revolutionary. Unlike the Microsoft, Corning and Samsung future, where every wall, window and surface is actually a touchscreen, the Disney future is one where objects still look a lot like the ones we have today, except they’re wired and can recognize different gestures, positions and even our presence. Touché has two main differences from capacitive conventional touchscreen technology. First of all, it doesn’t just have an on or off state (i.e. touch or no touch), and second, as I said, it works on a variety of materials, even on human skin and liquids.

That’s awesome. Pair this with Kinect and you can truly have a smart environment where the artificial surroundings – offices, houses, furniture and electronics – respond to us in more intuitive ways without us having to deal with buttons, switches, knobs or even touchscreen devices. Combine this with biomechatronics and paralyzed people will be able to “feel” again and be more independent. Mate this with life-size dolls and… No. Let’s not go there.

[via Disney Research via Hack A Day]

While I’m 1000% certain that this thing isn’t official Disney merchandise, it definitely captures the iconic mouse-head and conveys a strong sense of Disneyana on your wrist. It tells time using 33 LEDs arranged into three rings. Not-Mickey’s head shows the current hour, while left ear displays single minutes, the right ear displays tens of minutes. It also displays the date with a press of the button.

While the build quality definitely looks suspect, and Disney’s lawyers might come knocking on your door if you wear one, it’s actually not a bad looking watch.

The best part of course is because it’s a cheap, unlicensed Chinese gadget is that it sells for just $7.35 (USD) over at VKAmobi, so if it sucks, you won’t feel like you flushed too much money down the drain.

Right now you can get Tow Mater, Lightning McQueen, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell in October when they launch. Not enough for you? Well, Francesco Bernoulli and Shu Todoroki are coming in November.

[via Guardian]

Tour the surrounding structures – the Dark Tower, Mount Doom and more. Take them to heart, because you’ll probably be working – or slaughtered, or eaten, or whatever horrible thing evil beings do to foolish tourists – in one of them soon.

The Happiest Place in Middle Earth t-shirt was designed by Famousafterdeth and you can order it from Red Bubble for about $25 (USD). Frodo, Sam and Pippin each had one. Merry was left with the kitschy “Someone I love went to Mordor and all I got was this lousy robe.”

[via Shirtoid]

Kier didn’t actually build the case – it belonged to a Cars-themed TV and DVD combo – but he did add a lot of neat little touches to make the PC even more Cars-themed, like stickers on both the side of the case and on the RAM sticks and a Cooler Master V8 CPU cooling system.

The computer isn’t blazing fast either, but should be plenty adequate for his son’s needs since the lucky fella is still in kindergarten: A 15″ screen, MSI MATX Micro P4M890M motherboard, Gainward GTX285 1024 DDR3 GPU, Intel Dual Core E6400 CPU and two CORSAIR XMS2 DDR2 2GB RAM sticks.

Check out Kier’s original thread at Highflow for more details and pictures. Now I want to see an Up house casemod that actually floats.

[via Nowwhere Else]

Disney is working on a system that will be able to be integrated into your computer chair for gaming and seats at the movie theater. Created by Ali Israr and Ivan Poupyrev at Disney Research Pittsburgh, the system is called the “Tactile Brush” and it has a series of 12 vibrating motors inside. The motors are able to trick the body into thinking it feels certain things like a touch or G-forces.

The team says that the system will even be able to make the person feel like water or rain is running down their back. Talk about bringing some realism to games, let me feel the Gs in a racing game along with a force-feedback system and motion control and I will be a happy camper.

[via New Scientist via Gizmodo]

I wonder how the residents of the Grid would fare against the destructive Experiment 626. Here are the some more sketches:

BeastTron is my favorite, although JafarTron is pretty wicked too. I was looking for BoltTron though. And the 101 DalmaTrons. Check out the rest of the sketches at CalArts Character Animation’s Facebook page.

[via GeekTyrant]

The pictorial features models Irina Voronina and Sasckya Porto posing in not much more than their birthday suits, painted with glowing with the ethereal cybernetic blue and orange hues of the world of TRON. If you look closely, you’ll notice that they’re riding those awesome real-world lightcycles from Parker Brothers too.

We’re only comfortable showing a little bit of what’s revealed in the pictorial here, but if you head on over to Playboy’s TRON tribute gallery, you can find plenty more glowing boobies and buns to whet your whistle.

They’ve also got a fully nekkid version behind the pay wall if your hormones are raging and you just can’t take it anymore.

With such a high-falootin’ product name as the TRON Legacy: Coliseum Disc Battle Play Set, you’d think this thing would actually feature glowing discs that could derezz (or is it derez) your friends in a second. Instead, you get a set of toys that remind me of those cheezy Star Trek phaser toys from my childhood. You know, the type that fired those little plastic discs, and scratched the occasional cornea?

Disney’s updated version definitely echoes the style of the TRON franchise, with a tiny Sam Flynn atop one of the handheld disc launchers, and a miniature Rinzler on the other. Having not seen the new movie yet, I’m not sure if Rinzler is a big deal, but I’m guessing he is, or else they wouldn’t stick him on top of this thing, right?

If you’re ready to shoot your eye out, you can grab the Disc Battle Play Set over at the Disney Store now for $22.50 (USD).

The Pop-Up Shop will be in Cali for six weeks and will offer all the cool gear we have seen branded with the TRON style and logo along with a café and art exhibition. The store will be in Culver City, CA November 19 to December 23, and will operate from 10-6 daily with hours until 10 p.m. on Wednesdays.

According to Disney, new TRON gear will be unveiled during the six weeks the store is open. The design of the store is inspired by the safe house that will be in the movie with curves and lights, and loads of epic thrown in for good measure.

While I don’t get why they decided to make these V.I.N.Cent collectibles blue instead of red, I still think they’re really cool. Something about being inspired by TRON, but that’s a completely different movie, eh? Each one of these vinyl collectible toys is handpainted, measures in at 10-inches tall, and weighs in at appx. 5 pounds. At $129.99 (USD), they’re not cheap, but your memories are worth more than that, right? Want one? Head on over to Sideshow Collectibles and place your order now.

By the way, did you ever notice that the Rescue Toaster in Sealab 2021′s classic All That Jazz episode looks an awful lot like V.I.N.Cent’s long lost cousin? Check it out…

It’ll be a pirate’s life for you when you install these new add-on packs. The costume kit ($5.99 USD) includes everything you need to dress Sackboy up as everyone from Will Turner to Elizabeth Swann to Davy Jones, complete with tentacle face. Of course, most of you will probably dress up as Jack Sparrow and wander around with a drunken swagger.

The premium level kit ($5.99 USD) adds 5 completely new Pirates’ themed levels, along with a variety of new materials, and some great new gameplay creation objects like a bubble machine, scuba gear and global water – sweet! There are even 4 additional music tracks – hopefully they included the familiar “yo-ho-yo-ho” one.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So what are you waiting for, saunter on over to your PS3, head over to the Playstation Store, and get to downloadin’!

Created by sculptor Dave Bondi, AKASHI is the ultimate mashup between Mickey and Mario. There’s something just so wrong it’s right about Mickey with a mustache.

The 9-inch tall vinyl toy is available in a limited edition of just 250 pieces, and can be found over on UrbanRetro for £$43.99 (appx $65 USD).

I’m pretty sure that neither Nintendo nor Disney would approve, but I do – and isn’t that all that counts?

Here’s a closer look:

I don’t know anything about woodworking or sculpting, so I’ll leave it up to you guys to think of how long it could have taken to build this and how much it’s worth.

[via Neatorama]

Built by official LEGO Master Model Builder Dan Steinenger with the assistance of a bunch of visiting kids, the giant R2 unit was assembled as part of the recent Festival of the Masters event at the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The giant R2 even had functioning red and blue LED details, and was backed up by sampled sound effects from the popular motion picture series.

Looks like R2-D2 can finally see eye-to-eye with Chewbacca and tell him who’s really boss.

I suppose that this is what things would look like if worlds collided between the Mushroom Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom.

For some reason, I’m betting neither the Big N nor the house that mouse built endorsed this display. I wonder what Minnie would have to say about Mickey’s newfound interest in Princess Peach.

[via bbps]

When not attached to your computer, the connectors provide Mickey with his ears. When connected though, the Vincent van Mouse look is a bit disturbing. While the hub’s cartoon design might to appeal to Disneyanna collectors, it’s nothing to write home about in the utility department, giving you just two additional USB ports.

If you’re a Disney fan and can forgive the oddly interpretive character design, the Yujin Mickey Mouse USB Hub can be found at StrapYa for just about $19.

The kid-friendly Disney Mplayer features a bubbly personality inspired by Mickey Mouse’s famous ears. Playback and volume controls are cleverly integrated into the ear designs.

While the images above might give you a sense of what these players look like close up, they’re actually quite tiny from the looks of this early prototype image that surfaced earlier this year…

The Mplayer should be hitting the streets of Asia this month, but it’s not known if and when the device will show up in other parts of the world.

[via iriverfans and dapreview]