Here comes every stalker's dream

And every celebrity/victim's nightmare. This little camera ring by designer David Münscher with its single-button interface may be a concept model for now. But given the way things are speeding along, with camera-phones packing 5-megapixel sensors, these spycam-like shooters aren't Mission Impossible. Anytime Canon wants to pick up on Munscher's blatantly branded idea, it should be a Snap to make happen. So smile, 'cause you never know when you'll be on candid camera.

Via Yanko Design

Robotic suitcase that follows you

The next time you go on a trip with Tony, he'll be sitting in the cargo space of the plane. Better yet, he won't complain, won't make demands every night, and will dog your footsteps like a lovelorn puppy, short of wagging his tail. Tony is robotic suitcase developed in Russian. Whether there's a market for this remains to be seen, though you'll have to wait preeety long to get ahold of on. The developers from Robotronic.ru are testing the waters by scheduling this for sale only in 2009, and via a Russian catalog. Vy govorite po-angliyski? Speak you Russian? Pray the instructions aren't in Russian, either.

Tony sounds intriguing enough even if the photo shows a oddly impractical design. We're guessing the suitcase will also be weighed down by all that machinery. So forget packing in extra footwear.

Onboard are an internal gyroscope, light, sound and infrared detectors and sensors which allow Tony to detect stairs as well as follow you without bumping into anything. A card in your pocket allows the suitcase to track you. And if some twerp were to steal it, an alarm will sound. Though at a US$2,000 sticker shock, we'd suggest you take out a nice insurance package on Tony. Stay, boy, stay.

Via Russia IC

Virtual credit card up for real-world award

First Meta, a Singaporean firm that created a credit carding facility that's available for use in Second Life, is fishing for new virtual world denizen customers for its MetaCard. At the same time, it's also aiming to net a place in the Top 100 Global Awards for the most promising private technology company.

For a virtually virtual product from Singapore, that's a fair bit of recognition from the real world.

New computer interface: Blow on the screen

Perhaps huffing at your computer might get you somewhere if research at the Georgia Institute of Technology comes to fruition.

Shwetak Patel and Gregory Abowd from Georgia Tech have published a paper that describes how to use a computer microphone to determine where on a screen a person is blowing. The technique, which they call BLUI for Blowable and Localized User Interaction, can distinguish between the different sounds air makes depending on where the breath is directed.

"BLUI supports blowing at a laptop or computer screen to directly control specific parts of an interactive application, such as blowing at a button to activate it," the researchers said in their paper (click for PDF). The technique requires a period of "training" to calibrate the system--blowing on each region of the screen for 3 to 5 seconds.

The handsfree user interface approach could be useful for situations where a person's hands are busy, or for people who can't control computers with their hands or arms in situations where speech control is impractical. Although speech "is reasonable for complicated or command-based tasks, it is not well-suited for direct, low-level controls such as scrolling, button pressing, or selection," the researchers said.
Read more »

Samsung introduces 128GB memory card

No, your eyes are fine, and no, it's not a typo on our part.

The current reigning king of flash memory pushes the envelope for NAND flash a little further with a 64Gb (gigabit) memory chip. Put 16 of them together and it amounts to 128GB (gigabyte) which is enough to put some hard drives to shame.

Samsung claims the mega memory card is capable of storing 32,000 MP3 files.

Built with a new manufacturing process that Samsung dubs the self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT), we are sure it's pretty heavy stuff, seeing that Samsung has applied for 30 patents in connection with the new 64Gb flash device.

But don't expect this drugged-up memory card before Christmas--Samsung is expecting production to commence only in 2009.

Via Dcviews

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