Filed under: Digital Cameras, Wearables

What’s up with Japan getting all the cool toys first? Yeah, we can claim little victories like Pleo and basketball (shared with Canada, some say), but the two 1.5 of those don’t even come close to measuring up to Her Cuteness. Differences aside, we’re thrilled to see that Liquid Image’s underwater digital camera mask is available anywhere after missing its March launch date by quite a bit. These face-swallowers pack a 3.1- or 5.0-megapixel CMOS sensor, LCD screen, 16MB of built-in memory, a microSD card slot, a USB port and even a VGA video mode. It’s supposedly available as we speak in Tokyo and the surrounding ‘burbs for just over $100, and yes, the urge to import is extraordinarily high.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Filed under: Robots

Traditional fish should definitely start keeping their guard up, as we’ve seen a noticeable influx of robotic alternatives flapping around here recently. Joining the school today is the Robofish, a robotic swimming creature developed at the University of Washington. Reportedly, a trio of the units have been built, and during a recent workshop, the bots were able to communicate with one another and successfully swim in either one direction or in different directions. Eventually, researchers hope that these mechanical animals could explore underwater caves, track moving targets or plunge beneath ice sheets, but there’s still work to be done before the creature’s coordination ability is up to the challenge. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Attention wet people: Sealife has released the DC800 Underwater Digital Camera. This modular unit — it drops into a waterproof case or will operate as an out-of-water point-and-shoot — includes an 8-megapixel camera with 2.7-inch display, wide-angle lens, SD/SDHC card support, and 4x optical zoom. So what makes this camera diver-friendly? Its menus and modes are designed for sub-surface snappers with five underwater modes to deal with the various water bodies’ muck, grime, and color. The DC800 will function at 200 feet, weighs about 17 ounces and will set you back $549. Sure, you could get another point-and-shoot and waterproof case, but prepare to suffer the ridicule of your diver friends.

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Filed under: Networking

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/world_news/Fourth_undersea_cable_cut_near_UAE_suspicions_rise’; For the fourth time in a week, an undersea communications cable has apparently been cut (or “failed due to a power outage,” as some sources suggest), and while no official reports of subversion have surfaced just yet, things are beginning to get suspicious. Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, has had two cables damaged in the span of a week — a quandary it has never dealt with until now. As it stands, traffic from the Middle East and surrounding areas is being routed through various other cables in an attempt to remain online, but any more snips and we could be dealing with ping times eerily similar to those seen in 1993 (or much, much larger issues).

[Image courtesy of DivingCo]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

There’s already plenty of waterproof cameras out there for those looking to engage in a little casual underwater photography, but those wanting to step up their game a bit may want to consider Liquid Image’s new underwater digital camera mask, which’ll let you capture those action packed moments as you fight off a shark, or pick up sea shells. You apparently won’t be able to do that any deeper than 15 feet, however, and you’ll have to make do without an optical zoom or most of the other features you’d expect from a regular camera. On the upside, you will get crosshairs on the googles themselves to help line up your shot, and you’ll be able to capture as much VGA video as you can cram onto a microSD card (or the 16MB of internal memory). No word on a price, but you’ll apparently be able to get your hands on your choice of a 3.1 or 5.0 megapixel version sometime in March.

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