Thursday, August 11, 2011

If You Can't Visit NASA Goddard You Should Visit This Page [Nasa]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5829900/if-you-cant-visit-nasa-goddard-you-should-visit-this-page

If You Can't Visit NASA Goddard You Should Visit This PageThe people at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have built a really nice tour of their facilities and all the stuff they do there. Being a space nerd, I find their videos and information fascinating.

Or, in the words of NASA's Karl Hille:

We thought that, being NASA, we shouldn't bore people with a bunch of building walkthroughs or campus maps. Instead it should focus on what we do—which is sending robotic spacecraft all over the solar system to monitor the whole fricking universe.

Karl is absolutely right. Now, go visit their new site and enjoy spending a few hours exploring it. [NASA Goddard Virtual Tour]

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These Little Cubes of Fun Interact With Each Other Using NFC [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5829899/these-little-cubes-of-fun-interact-with-each-other-using-nfc

These Little Cubes of Fun Interact With Each Other Using NFCIt probably helps to be a child, but in all honesty these Sifteo cubes look like so much fun, I'd definitely fiddle with them while procrastinating/waiting for pages to load.

With NFC sensors and accelerometers, they can detect the presence of other cubes plus any movement you may make. The set of three cubes comes with a USB dongle that can be plugged into computers, where a free Siftrunner app runs that controls the mini games and puzzles on the cubes. Unfortunately there's no audio from the cubes, but if you crank your laptop's volume up, you'll have a soundtrack for your kid's playtime...or yours.

Several games will be included out of the box, but if you'd like to purchase more they can be downloaded from the Siftrunner program for as much as $5 each. On sale soon, the starter pack of three cubes, charger dock and dongle costs $149. [Sifteo via Werd and Ars Technica]

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Sifteo Cubes up for pre-order tonight, gaming gets tangibly-cute this September

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/10/sifteo-cubes-up-for-pre-order-tonight-gaming-gets-tangibly-cute/

Want a game for the tabletop with on-screen pop, and a sprinkle of adorable? Sifteo is officially set to get your gears going when its interactive Cubes, up for pre-order by the end of today, ship out in September. If you'll recall, the MIT-rooted project uses blocks equipped with 1.5-inch displays to create a variety of gaming environments mixing touch, motion and on-display content. Also announced is a bundled "Creativity Kit," which enables you to make your own games on the fly. It was was briefly available to early adopters in January for $99.99, and now $149.99 gets everyone in on some good times. You'll receive a triplet of the oh-so-cute Cubes, a charging hub and a 2.4 Ghz wireless USB adapter for connectivity, as well as transferring Sifteo store apps purchased on your computer. Interest piqued? You'll find details in the PR just past the break -- unless you're a square, that is.

Continue reading Sifteo Cubes up for pre-order tonight, gaming gets tangibly-cute this September

Sifteo Cubes up for pre-order tonight, gaming gets tangibly-cute this September originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSifteo  | Email this | Comments

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Verizon opens Application Innovation Center in San Francisco, we go eyes-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/10/verizon-opens-application-innovation-center-in-san-francisco-we/

Verizon's made good on its promise to open an Application Innovation Center in San Francisco, and kindly invited us down to have a gander. It's much like its sister facility in Boston, except it eschews the LTE focus for one on mobile-app innovation. Developers both big and small will be able to take advantage of several labs, where they'll be privy to Verizon equipment and services "not available elsewhere," all while being a stone's throw from Big Red's in-house engineers and developers. On hand was Qualcomm, whose MDPs garnished the test lab, and Chomp, whose app-search tech powered an impressive nine pane multi-touch App Wall -- allowing one to find and explore apps, replete with informative videos and QR codes for each. Want to know more? Check the gallery, videos and PR after the break.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Continue reading Verizon opens Application Innovation Center in San Francisco, we go eyes-on (video)

Verizon opens Application Innovation Center in San Francisco, we go eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GameFly to launch 'Unlimited PC Play' download service, offer less incentive to leave the house

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/10/gamefly-to-launch-unlimited-pc-play-download-service-offer-le/

GameFly hasn't wasted any time jumping into the digital download waters after acquiring IGN's Direct2Drive platform a little over two months ago. Set to launch September 8th in beta form, its new "Unlimited PC Play" service will offer subscribers access to 100-plus downloadable PC and Mac titles, with hundreds more expected in time for the official end of year launch. Fans of the video game rental outfit's snail mail subscription service don't have to worry about a shift to digital only, as the company has no plans to abandon its "unique combination of console and digital PC game offerings." Interested in getting an early peek at the new platform? If you live in the Los Angeles area, you can look forward to a planned beta launch party next month, where access codes for the new, invite-only service will be distributed. The rest of you PC gaming warriors will just have to settle for a sign-up page at the source.

GameFly to launch 'Unlimited PC Play' download service, offer less incentive to leave the house originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGameFly, Joystiq  | Email this | Comments

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Researchers demo 3D face scanning breakthroughs at SIGGRAPH, Kinect crowd squarely targeted

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/10/researchers-demo-3d-face-scanning-breakthroughs-at-siggraph-kin/

Lookin' to get your Grown Nerd on? Look no further. We just sat through 1.5 hours of high-brow technobabble here at SIGGRAPH 2011, where a gaggle of gurus with IQs far, far higher than ours explained in detail what the future of 3D face scanning would hold. Scientists from ETH Zürich, Texas A&M, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University as well as a variety of folks from Microsoft Research and Disney Research labs were on hand, with each subset revealing a slightly different technique to solving an all-too-similar problem: painfully accurate 3D face tracking. Haoda Huang et al. revealed a highly technical new method that involved the combination of marker-based motion capture with 3D scanning in an effort to overcome drift, while Thabo Beeler et al. took a drastically different approach.

Those folks relied on a markerless system that used a well-lit, multi-camera system to overcome occlusion, with anchor frames acting as staples in the success of its capture abilities. J. Rafael Tena et al. developed "a method that not only translates the motions of actors into a three-dimensional face model, but also subdivides it into facial regions that enable animators to intuitively create the poses they need." Naturally, this one's most useful for animators and designers, but the first system detailed is obviously gunning to work on lower-cost devices -- Microsoft's Kinect was specifically mentioned, and it doesn't take a seasoned imagination to see how in-home facial scanning could lead to far more interactive games and augmented reality sessions. The full shebang can be grokked by diving into the links below, but we'd advise you to set aside a few hours (and rest up beforehand).

Continue reading Researchers demo 3D face scanning breakthroughs at SIGGRAPH, Kinect crowd squarely targeted

Researchers demo 3D face scanning breakthroughs at SIGGRAPH, Kinect crowd squarely targeted originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:46:00 EDT.! Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Physorg  |  sourceCarnegie Mellon University, Microsoft Research  | Email this | Comments

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Archos' Arnova 7 G2 and 10 G2 tablets launch in Hong Kong, taste like Gingerbread

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/11/archos-arnova-7-g2-and-10-g2-tablets-launch-in-hong-kong-taste/

It looks like Archos' summer of the sequels is just heating up. Less than a week ago, we spied the outfit's 8-incher at the FCC, and now our brethren at Engadget Chinese are offering up a hands-on with two more second-gen Arnovas: the Arnova 7 G2 and 10 G2. These made-over slates best their predecessors with Gingerbread and capacitive touchscreens. The original 7-inch tablet ran Froyo while its big brother came with Eclair; both sported resistive displays. The pair will also see a spec bump in the processor department, with the inclusion of a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 -- likely the same processor found in their 8-inch sibling. While we do have Hong Kong pricing -- HK$1,680 (or $215 US) and HK$1,980 (about $250 US) -- we've yet to land a release date. So, for now, we'll just stick with "coming soon to a retailer near you?" If the wait is too much to bear, hop on past the break for some hands-on love from our Chinese counterparts.

Archos' Arnova 7 G2 and 10 G2 tablets launch in Hong Kong, taste like Gingerbread originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceEngadget Chinese (Translated)  | Email this | Comments

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3D glasses vending machine lets you be fashionable in the dark

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/11/3d-glasses-vending-machine-lets-you-be-fashionable-in-the-dark/

There are certain things worth paying to upgrade: earbuds, perhaps, and maybe even Spotify. But when it comes to buying fancy 3D glasses for the sole purpose of looking cool in a pitch-black theater -- well, aren't we already spending enough on popcorn and Funyuns? EX3D doesn't seem to think so. Starting August 13th, moviegoers in San Diego will be able to trade in those freebies for fashion at a 3D glasses vending machine. At $22 - $30 a pop, these "affordable" and "stylish" glasses may be a boon for those who wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same specs as their friends. Of course, you can also use these babies out of the theater on a passive 3D TV. As for us? We'll stick with the freebies, thank you very much. Jump past the break for the full PR.

Continue reading 3D glasses vending machine lets you be fashionable in the dark

3D glasses vending machine lets you be fashionable in the dark originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceEX 3D  | Email this | Comments

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Dell's Latitude XT3 goes up for pre-order, swivels your way September 22nd

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/11/dells-latitude-xt3-goes-up-for-pre-order-swivels-your-way-sept/

Are you a fancy suit, known to occasionally dabble in the fine art of scribbling? Have a seat bud, because Dell's gone and put up a pre-order page for the touchscreen convertible that you've been waiting for: the Latitude XT3. When we last espied the drop-top in February, we came away mighty impressed with its spiffy 13.3-inch dual-digitizer display, which recognized the attached stylus in addition to three of our meaty digits. We also liked the inclusion of the Core i3 -- upgradeable to an i5 or i7 -- which packs a punch, unlike the miserly Core 2 Duo's found in its predecessors. The magnesium-reinforced piece of kit starts at $1,789, unless you have it your way and toss in the optional $49 backlit keyboard or spring for the $100 outdoor-viewing display. We'll take ours with both, and with a ship date of September 22nd, you've got plenty of time to get a customizin' at the source below.

Dell's Latitude XT3 goes up for pre-order, swivels your way September 22nd originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceDell  | Email this | Comments

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Visualized: Objet's 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/11/visualized-objets-3d-printer-breathes-plastic-life-into-hollyw/

It ain't easy being plastic, you know? Objet -- the 3D printing house that aimed to replace your office's all-in-one Epson back in July -- brought a few of its snazziest pieces here to SIGGRAPH, and we popped by to have a gander. Targeting the animation-inspired crowd that showed up here in Vancouver, the company brought along some Hollywood examples of how its multi-material Objet260 Connex helped movie makers craft prototype creatures before they were inserted into the storyline. Thor's Destroyer and Avatar's Na'vi were both on hand, as well as the two critters shown above. The hothead on the right was crafted in around 18 hours (and subsequently painted), while the cool cat on the left was built in three fewer. Wildly enough, that fellow required no painting whatsoever; so long as you're cool with shades of grey, you can program your object to be colored from the outset. Oh, and as for his cost? Around $80 for the materials -- slightly more for the printer itself.

Continue reading Visualized: Objet's 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer

Visualized: Objet's 3D printer breathes plastic life into Hollywood creatures, layer by layer! origina lly appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceObjet  | Email this | Comments

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DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft launches today, does New York to LA in 12 minutes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/11/darpas-falcon-htv-2-hypersonic-aircraft-launches-today-does-ne/

All eyes are on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California today, where DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 unmanned aircraft is scheduled to launch into space at hypersonic speeds, as part of a critical test flight. Measuring just 12 feet in length, the HTV-2 maxes out at a speed of about 1300 16,700 miles per hour (Mach 22), theoretically allowing it to jet from New York to Los Angeles in just 12 minutes and to reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The main obstacle, however, has been transitioning from theory to practice. During its first test flight back in April, the craft lasted just nine minutes before intentionally crashing, due to technical failures. DARPA still doesn't know what went wrong during that fateful test, though the agency speculates that the Falcon may have simply overheated. This time around, engineers have adjusted plane's center of gravity and angle of descent, in the hopes that their creation will fare better when it launches on the back of a Minotaur IV rocket, later today. If the test proves successful, it may help fuel similarly inter-galactic defense projects that the Pentagon is exploring as a means to combat terrorism and enemy states. We'll have to wait a little longer to find out whether this initiative actually takes off, but in the meantime, head past the break for a demo video from DARPA.

Continue reading DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft launches today, does New York to LA in 12 minutes

DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft launches today, does New York to LA in 12 minutes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Daily Mail  | Email this | Comments

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The Classiest App To Get People Naked [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5829664/the-classiest-app-to-get-people-naked

The Classiest App To Get People NakedDespite the great things the internet has done, it's also made us prudish about having naked images of us captured, and that's made it harder to get people to take of their clothes for you. Until now...

Until the internet came, you only needed a fancy-looking camera and a beret and the clothes would drop to the floor in the name of Art (with a capital A). Before that, "I want to paint you," was arguably the best pick-up line ever (it sure worked for Picasso), but these days even that might get someone's hackles up. No, the super old ways, are the super best ways. "Let me sculpt you!" Yes! Oh God yes, I'm already naked! The problem is, you need talent and clay. Well, now there's an iPad app for that, so you don't need either.

AutoDesk (from the smart folk behind AutoCAD, SketchBook Mobile) has added Sculpt 123D to their product portfolio. You start with a blob that is something like the shape you want to sculpt (human, elephant, T-Rex, etc.), and then you can turn it and manipulate it at will. I was surprised to see just how much control you have the over forms and how detailed you can make something. Check out the quick demo video which is, sadly, totally safe for work. FREE for a limited time, and it will then be $.99. [Autodesk via TechCrunch]

Image credit: Shutterstock/Fancy


You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Google+ or Twitter.

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The Amazingly Seamless New Apple Cube [Apple]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5829710/the-amazingly-seamless-new-apple-cube

The Amazingly Seamless New Apple CubeThe massive glass cube hovering over the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue is truly iconic: It's transformed a store where people buy iPhones into a legitimate New York City landmark. And it's about to be reborn, made even more striking by its sheer simplicity.

The Amazingly Seamless New Apple CubeThe current, cross-hatched style cube is composed of 90 panes of glass. The new cube will use just 15 expansive pieces of glass—around 32 feet long—erasing all but a handful of seams. So the cube will appear to be almost weightless, as if it's truly suspended in mid-air. We'll see it sometime in November, apparently.

That is how you build a store. [Gothamist]

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How The Magical Windows Work in Boeing's 787 Dreamliner [Airplanes]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5829395/how-boeings-magical-787-dreamliner-windows-work

How The Magical Windows Work in Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner has the best airplane windows ever. It ditches that small window with a pull-down plastic shade and replaces it with a larger, dimming window that can be adjusted to let in various amounts of light.

The windows are a dreamy 19 inches tall and 65% larger than the standard airplane windows so you'll get to see a lot more of your surroundings. And did I mention they dim?

The dimming effect is the result of an electrified gel sandwiched between two thin pieces of glass. As the electric current increases, the gel darkens and as it drops, the gel lightens. The system is brilliant in its simplicity.

Each passenger in the coveted window seat will have control over their window. They're also networked together so flight personnel can control the windows, too. Attendants can adjust each window, adjust windows in an entire section of the plane or adjust them for the entire plane.

These new dimming windows are just the beginning for Boeing and its research partners PPG Aerospace and Gentex Corporation. The trio hopes to add other features to the windows like automation that would brighten your portal during take off and dim it at night. [Boeing]


You can keep up with Kelly Hodgkins, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google + or Facebook.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Organic Motion's OpenStage motion capture system grabs 200FPS, no backdrop required (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/10/organic-motions-openstage-motion-capture-system-grabs-200fps-n/

At just under $40,000 for an eight camera setup, we're hardly in hobbyist territory here, but Organic Motion's new OpenStage 2.0 motion capture system could certainly make do in the average basement. Unlike a few competing solutions shown here at SIGGRAPH, this one actually has no backdrop mandate, and better still, doesn't require you to latch a single sensor onto your subject. The magic lies within the cameras hung above -- kits are sold that contain between eight and 24 cameras, and even the latter can be handled with a single workstation. Multi-person tracking ain't no thang, and while you aren't capturing HD footage here, the high-speed VGA capability enables up to 200 frames per second to be logged. Not surprisingly, the company's aiming this squarely at the animation and medical realms, and should start shipping bundles as early as next month. Looking to take down Pixar? You'll need a lot more than 40 large, but perhaps the video after the break will give you a bit of inspiration.

Continue reading Organic Motion's OpenStage motion capture system grabs 200FPS, no backdrop required (video)

Organic Motion's OpenStage motion capture system grabs 200FPS, no backdrop required (video) origin ally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOrganic Motion  | Email this | Comments

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