The game has 12 levels, with 10 models per level, and you can choose “novice” or “expert” difficulty settings. It is for one or two players. So, who is this George guy? He is described as a “software engineer by day and adventurer by night,” and you are building stuff from this guy’s photo album.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This game has a ton of potential. In the future I can see them taking it a few steps further by incorporating your own creations into playable games. I’m thinking something like Little Big Planet. You can get the free Life of George app from the iTunes App Store now, and you’ll be able to order the physical components from LEGO starting on October 1st here.

[via Time]

The date on the photo says that it’s from 2001-2002 and that it comes from Daftweb. It’s hard to tell with these guys to be honest, because their helmets just look so futuristic. There are other images of this happening, but none of them looks as cool as the original.

I haven’t been able to find out much about it, but this has to be bad news. I wonder if the Empire will consider those Daft Punk guys to be friends or foes.

[via Expo7000 (NSFW)]

The inappropriately named COOL GTW18 features a 3.2-inch 240 x 400 touchscreen display, and touts a built in LED mini-projector for playing back digital video files in MP4 format. On the inside, the camera projector (camjector?) has dual SIM slots and a pair of MicroSD memory card slots for storing your media files as well.

And while the device is clearly labeled “HD 1080P”, the guys at M8Cool say they couldn’t get the GTW18 to play back files at higher resolutions than 640×480. And it’s clear from this projected image, that the resolution is way less than 1080p anyhow. Maybe it’s VGA? But even that could be a stretch from the looks of it.

At least the image looks a little bit better when the phone is turned on its side (duh), and viewed up close. But the fact that you really need a dark room to view projected images, and they’re not much bigger than the screen itself sorta defeats the purpose. And battery life is only about 30 to 40 minutes with the projector turned on and playing back video.

In addition to the projector, the GTW18 has Wi-Fi connectivity, and a no-name web browser built in. Oh yeah, and it can tune in television stations and has a DVR. Analog TV, that is, not digital. So get ready to stare at lots and lots of static. At least you can record it for later, right?

If you’ve got any inkling to send off your hard earned money to China to order one of these things, you owe it to yourself to at least check out the video clip below to see the GTW18 showing off its postage-stamp sized projection capability, while listening to some completely inappropriate elevator music in the background.

If this is really what they mean when they say “device convergence,” please keep my gadgets separate.

[via M8Cool]

There’s just something about LEGOs that is completely timeless. Even though it’s been years since I used the bricks, I still love anything that’s connected to them. When I first heard about the app, I had all of these strange fantasies about what it would actually be.

It turns out that it’s an app that turns photos in to LEGO brick mosaics. Initially, this sounds like something that’s got limited appeal, but I have to say that it looks like it’s fun to use.

I know that I’m a bit of a LEGO geek, so this app is right up my alley. Sure, you could just use a filter in Photoshop and get the same result, but this is on the fly on your iPhone! The results look pretty, but it’s a bit sad though that you can’t specify what kind of LEGO bricks should be used in the mosaic.

You can grab the LEGO Photo iPhone app here for the low price of… free.

[via Gizmodo]

The FaceID system can store digital profiles for up to 500 unique faces, and use those to validate the identity of those who stare into its camera lenses. A pair of digitial cameras allows the FaceID system to recreate a 3-dimensional image of the individual’s face, and runs it through a face detection algorithm to match their face to its internal database. The 3-D images also prevent people from hacking in by just holding up a photo. It’s even smart enough to cope with irregularities in lighting conditions, and can even work in the dark.

Designed as both a replacement for timecard systems and a door security system, the FaceID claims a less than 0.0001% margin for error in its recognition algorithm. Not too shabby. With one of these in place, you won’t be able to hand your timecard to another employee to punch in for you ever again. Unless you cut their head off and carry it around with you, I suppose.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Keep in mind that the FaceID system doesn’t actually come with an electronic door lock, but provides a standard Wiegand interface for controlling security systems. You can find the FaceID system over at ChinaVasion for $447 (USD).

I wonder if thing can detect if you’re a Replicant or not?

For his work titled 905, artist maybites suspended 67 strings of ping pong balls in a cylindrical formation, with each ball acting as a sort of pixel for projecting digital images. As an individual enters the cylinder of balls, a webcam tracks the person’s movements which in turn impact the images displayed on the ping pong balls.

By setting up a special mirror in the ceiling, the projector beams are reflected onto the surfaces of the white balls, creating an ethereal glow that almost looks like the light is emanating from the balls themselves.

Here’s a short video clip showing off the ping pong ball light curtain in action:

From the looks of it, maybites created the installation in late 2007, but there’s no information on when or where you can see 905 in person. For now, I guess you’ll just have to settle for the pictures and video above. Or you could always try and make your own ping pong projection screen.

Pac-Man pain assessment gauge, spotted on Flickr. Currently, I feel a little Woopop myself.

Referred to as Kirlian photography, the technique dates back to a 1939 discovery (by a man named Kirlian, of course) that when an object is placed on an electrified plate, tiny coronas around the item can cause photo paper to expose in unusual and beautiful ways. Over the years, the effect has been co-opted by various new-age charlatans and snake oil salesmen with claims that the images were indications of some sort of paranormal “aura”. What a bunch of hokum.

Up until now, there wasn’t a good way to produce your own Kirlian images without building your own homebrew high-voltage rig, risking life and limb in the process. The $250 Kirlian Photography Device lets you to make your own electrified images without having to hack together your own. The metal imaging plate can be used with any 4X5 color or black & white sheet film and paper or even Polaroid film. Different film types and frequency adjustments create a virtually limitless array of image effects. You’ll need a 4×5 camera to use this out-of-the-box, or you can spend an additional $99 on a transparent plate which lets you capture the images with a standard 35mm or digital camera.

Now keep in mind that this thing isn’t a kid’s toy. It’s a serious electrical device, and you actually have to sign off on a disclaimer form before you can buy one. For some reason, I doubt these things are UL-approved.

The system used an array of thousands of individual mechanical irises, each designed to react to the amount of light in front of it. The darker the subject, the wider the aperture would open, resulting in a real-time halftone effect.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Designed by Berlin interactive artists Gunnar Green and Frederic Eyl, Aperture never made it past the prototype stage. It’s a really cool idea, reminiscent of the mechanical mirrors of Daniel Rozin, and I hope someday they decide to resurrect it for more of us to see up close.

China’s Oculon has revealed their new pocket-sized Hikari Pro920 projectors. Available in both VGA ($299) and SVGA ($399) models, the pair can crank out a front-projected image onto any white surface. Don’t expect to run your home theater with one of these, though. They’re designed to project very small images (12-inches diagonal from 1 foot, 24-inches from 1 meter), and brightness drops of pretty dramatically at any size larger than that.

Still, if you’re looking for the smallest projector you can buy today, these are worth a look.

[via Engadget]

While its design might be a bit outlandish, functionally, it’s pretty robust for a dedicated photo printer. Retailing for $249.99, it’s not as cheap as some other standalone photo printers, but its definitely more feature rich. The A826 can handle edge-to-edge photo prints in wallet, 4×6, 5×7 and panorama sizes, but nothing larger. HP claims the printer’s premium grade Vivera ink and paper technologies offer instant drying, water-resistant prints.

Thanks to its built-in memory card slots, Bluetooth connectivity and and 7-inch color LCD screen, you can do all of you photo importing and selection without ever having to touch your computer. The printer’s touchscreen interface lets you easily select images, and even embellish your photos by adding text, borders and special effects. The image editing capabilities can remove red eye, slim down your portly friends and enhance colors directly on screen. There’s even the ability to use the screen for running slideshows when the printer tray is closed.

So if you’re looking for an easy all-in-one photo printing solution, it’s definitely worth a look. For more details on the A826, check out HP’s online store.

The piece, entitled I, ball used a webcam along with special processing software to detect people as they pass the display window. A series of digitized eyeball movements then follow the those who approach the window. The installation was on display at the recent Exposed @ VillaNuts show in Den Haag, Netherlands.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I think I’m gonna have some weird dreams tonight.

Loaded with light leaks, and a propensity to shoot slightly out-of-focus images, the camera shoots on glorious old 120 roll film. No megapixels or flash memory here. Just cool, artsy-fartsy photos.

The original Diana went out of production over 25 years ago. So to bring back the magic to a whole new generation of artists, the gurus at Lomography have dusted off the original camera design and are starting to manufacture Dianas all over again. They’ve added a couple of tweaks to the original, including a 4 F-stop settings and removable lens for pinhole shots, but otherwise the cameras look remarkably unchanged.

Set to ship this October, Unica Home is taking pre-orders now for the $50 “new” Diana camera.

The D-Lux 3 is a compact 10-megapixel digital camera with 4x optical zoom. It offers support for both compressed JPEG and uncompressed RAW format images for the ultimate in picture quality (if you can afford a big enough SD card). The Leica can shoot 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 ratio images, and the widescreen 2.8″ diagonal display lets you view full 16:9 images at their maximum size. It’s loaded with both automatic scene settings for ease of use as well as pletiful manual settings including aperture, shutter speed, color balance among others. The D-Lux also features an optical image stabilizer to keep your images sharp in challenging situations. Keep in mind that Leica cameras aren’t for cheapskates – expect this camera to retail for about $1000 (street prices will likely be a bit less.)

[via Chip Chick]

The guys over at Technology-Ninja put together this tool that lets you make any silly achievement badge you’d like. With some real Xbox 360 achievements having such obscure titles like “Buddy with Porcupines!,” “Diggerling,” “Raining Zombies,” and “The Crushinator!,” pretty much anything you come up with will look legit.

Feel free to make some new ones and post a link to your own creations.

[via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

USAA is now offering the ability for its members to deposit checks without ever leaving their house. Simply endorse your check, scan the front and back, and upload it to the USAA Deposit@Home service, and the deposit is immediately credited with no need to ever bring the physical check into the bank. Let’s hope more banks start to do this in the near future.

[via The Consumerist]