Mobile Devices

A series of demo runs were held with the Robovie robot in the Universal Citywalk Osaka shopping center earlier this week in Japan trying to see how good the droid is at helping out lost shoppers. Here’s how it works.

A series of cameras, laser range finders and RFID tag readers are scattered around the 1000sqft section of the shopping center. Each of these things help scan humans and determine what one of 10 categories they fall into, one of which is “lost”. Once a person is ID’ed, Robovie goes up and provides directions to where they want to go.

You may think this robot is friendly, but just look into its soulless, human-hating mechanical eyes. [Pinktentacle via Robot Watch via Yomiuri via Nikkei]

You may not have heard of Google’s Innovate or Die competition, but it was a $5000 contest for coming up with a method to provide rural communities with water—an endeavor that doesn’t sound glorious, but is quite important to thirsty people. Aquaduct, the winning team, created a bicycle that can both help transport water quickly and easily, but clean that water at the same time! Congrats to Aquaduct, whose team of 5 easily averted a tense situation by being able to divide up the prize with simple math. [Google - Thanks Diem!]

HP iPAQ hx2700 Pocket PC series comes loaded with various upgraded features which ensure ultimate configurations of performance, connectivity, expandability and security. It comes in the market with operating system of Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 5.0 for Pocket PC (Premium Edition), which obviously is another crowd-ulling attribute of this pocket PC.

Technical Specification

HP iPAQ hx2700 Pocket PC series is obtainable in the market with the technical specification of:

• Marvell PXA270 processor
• Integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b)
• Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology

This product is further capturing the market with its attractive dimension of 3.01 x 0.65 x 4.71 in (76.6 x 16.3 x 119.4 mm) and weight of 5.8 oz (164.4 g). This touch screen miracle is available in the market with 1 year of warranty and market price of $499.

Via: HP

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Adam of Lifehacker showed you how to install OS X on a home-built PC, but now he’s got a walkthrough that lets you do the same thing but with much, much less hacking involved. Convenience for the lazy or the uninspired (like us). [Lifehacker]

So you really like turntables, do you? Perhaps you’re a self-styled DJ, or maybe you’re just one of those awkward vinyl aficionados who tut-tuts every time someone talks about MP3s. In any case, I’m sure you’re looking to rub what you consider to be such a sweet hobby/obsession in the faces of others. This turntable watch is modeled after the classic Technics 1200 down to the tiniest detail, so much so that you’d swear you could spin some wax on it if only records came in such wee sizes. It’s available now for $65 and a small shred of your dignity. [Product Page via Book of Joe]

Sony has a smaller Blu-Ray optical module that can be used to produce thinner drives for laptops, including slot-loading drives, which raises the possibility of a Blu-Ray MacBook, especially given Steve Job’s comments about Blu-Ray during the recent MacWorld. The size reduction also comes with a price reduction – which was expected and very appreciated.

In typical Valentines Day anticipation we are beginning to see a whole range of pink gadgets coming. The latest addition comes from Verizon in the form of the Blackberry Pearl 8130. The specs will be the same as the regular silver 8130 which includes Broadband Access Connect, built-in GPS, 2-megapixel camera with flash, video capture, microSD storage and Bluetooth.

The Pink 8130 is not officially for sale yet, currently its just listed on their upcoming handsets page, however the rumored date is January 28.

Product [Verizon] Via [PhoneMag]

I don’t know how lazy you must be to pick up the Walking Chair, but this is just plain nuts! Designer Karl Emilio Pircher and Fidel Peugeot worked on this idea that is constructed from a bunch of chrome plated steel tubes, plastic, and houses an electronic heart within. Sure, this seater will bring you places (I wonder if it can handle stairs and slopes, or is it just limited to a level segment on the ground) but with a price tag of 15,000 Euros, your heart will probably make a quick jump to your mouth first.

Despite looking like a freaky PC case-mod for your head, researchers say this helmet may serve as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. It directs low levels of infrared light at the skulls of Alzheimer’s sufferers in order to combat the disease by stimulating brain cell growth.

A medical team from Sunderland and Durham Universities in the UK believe this could help combat the disease, having already tested the idea on mice. In that test, the mice gained better learning ability afterwards. A human test will go ahead in the summer.

Current therapy for Alzheimer’s sufferers doesn’t correct for cell-loss, which is why this technology may be promising. Infrared treatment, thought to stimulate cell re-growth, was developed first for cold sores (better known by snickering bloggers as “mouth herpes”) and according to doctors at the research company Virulite, shining IR lasers at Alzheimer’s sufferers led to improvements in eight out of nine cases.

The helmet design uses the same principle, and its trials on real people will use levels of IR equivalent to sunshine in the hope of reversing some of the crippling damage caused by this disease. No word yet when we’ll be able to use TV remotes to try and stave off Alzheimer’s at home. [BBC News and Daily Mail]

PC Mag reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, “Research in Motion’s 2-megapixel camera sensor, first seen on the Curve, finds its way into the new Pearl 8130. It’s quite good here, too, taking sharp, detailed photos, even in low-light situations. Compared with a standalone camera, the images were a little flat on color and soft on contrast, but they’re surprisingly good. The LED flash helped brighten things a bit, but it also gave an orange tint to some photos. The Pearl records 240-by-176 videos—a new development for RIM—although recorded files showed too much motion blur. The trim handset delivered excellent battery life for an EV-DO device, lasting 5 hours 24 minutes on a talk-time rundown test.”

Read more about the BlackBerry Pearl 8130.