September 22nd, 2008 by
Filed under: Peripherals
LaserGames is a mod for projectors allowing up to two players to interact with a game using a run-of-the-mill (red or green) laser pointer in place of a mouse or controller, minus the precision response. Developer Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios isn’t giving any hints on how this thing works, but we imagine it uses sensor technology similar to interactive projections — you know, the ones where a video is projected on the ground and you get to kick around a soccer ball and then watch some tacky Nokia ad at the end. If you’re up for trying this out first hand, Kasal’s prototype will soon be on public display for some wild and crazy retina burning action — no word yet on when or where. Check out his video after the jump.
Continue reading LaserGames mouse emulator: more fun than blinding a 747 pilot
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Posted in gaming, mouse, controller, laser, controllers, lasers, laser mouse, LaserMouse, laser pointer, LaserPointer, mouse emulator, MouseEmulator | No Comments »
July 18th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
Apparently not everyone at General Motors is toiling away in an attempt to get the Volt ready for its 2010 debut, as another sector of the outfit’s R&D division is busy creating a windshield that will, at its core, enable us to stop running stuff over. The futuristic glass would utilize lasers, sensors and cameras in order to help drivers see the road’s edge better, recognize obstructions and enhance things ahead of us so we’ll theoretically react faster. Truth be told, the device is being designed with older drivers in mind, though we don’t see why younger motorists won’t benefit all the same. Unfortunately, it sounds as if you’ll have to keep those toothpicks in your eyelids for a few more years, but at least we’re one step closer to full-on autopilot.
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Posted in sensor, sensors, eyes, ocular, vision, general motors, GeneralMotors, gm, laser, lasers, elderly, driving, driver, Windshield, aging, few, see | No Comments »
June 27th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables
Look, how many times to we have to explain this? Lasers + headbands = a very good time. We’re not sure what you don’t get about that, and frankly we’re a little disappointed. Alzheimer’s patients like laser headbands (laserbands, for short, artist’s rendition above) just fine, since the technology is providing a potential way to scan and diagnose brains for Alzheimer’s while the patient is still alive — doctors currently have to rely on symptoms for diagnosis, and a post-mortem look at the actual brain tissue to know for sure after the fact. There are still a few kinks to work out, but this could be a big breakthrough for the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s, and the fashion ramifications are unimpeachable.
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Posted in lasers, headbands, laser headbands, LaserHeadbands | No Comments »
March 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Desktops, Misc. Gadgets, Laptops
It’s far from the first time we’ve seen lasers touted as a means of boosting data speeds exponentially, but Sun seems to think it has a better chance than most of making it a reality, thanks in no small part to $44 million in funding from DARPA. As The New York Times reports, that cash haul will be put to use to “explore the high-risk idea of replacing the wires between computer chips with laser beams,” which would not only allow for computers to be smaller, but as much as a thousand times faster as well. Needless to say, however, there’s quite a few significant hurdles to overcome before that happens, and even Sun itself admits that there’s a “50 percent chance of failure.” They also say, of course, that the potential benefits are worth the risks, with them even going so far as to boast that the technology would be a way of “breaking Moore’s Law.”
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Posted in sun, DARPA, laser, lasers | No Comments »
February 3rd, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Unfortunately, Dr. Chunlei Guo of the University of Rochester hasn’t yet figured out how to turn scrap metals into gold, but he, along with Dr. Anatoliy Y. Vorobyev, has discovered how to colorize a variety of metals. By utilizing a “femtosecond laser processing technique,” the duo has crafted a method for turning even aluminum into aluminum with an impeccable gold finish. Furthermore, they’ve also been successful in turning tungsten dark blue, leaving reason to believe that nearly any metal could be altered to appear as a different color. Ah, just imagine what these folks could do with your MacBook Pro.
[Via The New York Times, thanks Jonathan]
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Posted in research, jewelry, color, science, Gold, laser, lasers, alchemy, colorizing, metal, precious metal, PreciousMetal | No Comments »
November 9th, 2007 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
The world is already well aware of just how potent (and useful) femtosecond lasers are, and a recent study conducted by a team of Arizona State University physicists explains how pulses could be used to dismantle viruses and bacteria without harming a single innocent cell. Rather than follow in the footsteps of indiscriminate laser treatment options, the group of Sun Devils figured out a way to “produce lethal vibrations in the protein coat of microorganisms,” which has the potential to at least treat “blood-borne diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis.” The technique, dubbed IRIS (Impulsive Stimulated Raman Scattering), has shown to not harm healthy human cells while fighting the good fight against viral pathogens, and while there’s no easy way to surmise how quickly we’ll see this in action, it sounds like the technology is well on its way out of the laboratory.
[Via Switched]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in university, research, medical, science, laser, infrared, disease, outbreak, aids, Arizona State University, ArizonaStateUniversity, asu, Femtosecond, isrs, lasers, MRSA | No Comments »
