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Sega urinal game 'Toylets' goes on sale to general public, sink companion still missing (video) May 1st 2012, 11:14 In an effort to reduce male patron's messiness (and grab some cash from locales not necessarily associated with gaming) Sega's Toylets can now be found in restrooms across Japan -- and even in a handful of cities overseas. You won't need to make the laborious trek to your nearest bar or arcade to beat the high score any more, however, as Sega's now put the urinal games terminal up for sale to (Japanese) Joe Public. A sensor at the base will detect pressure and, er, volume which acts as the controls. A screen at eye level will show your progress, and you can expect several short-but-sweet games in the style of Rhythm Tengoku or Warioware. It all comes a price though -- you'll need to stump up 140,000 yen (around $1750) for the device itself and 10,000 yen ($125) a piece for games. The porcelain is (unfortunately) not included. Continue reading Sega urinal game 'Toylets' goes on sale to general public, sink companion still missing (video) Sega urinal game 'Toylets' goes on sale to general public, sink companion still missing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Engadget Japanese (translated)  |  Sega Toylets (Japanese)  | Email this | Comments Phi: a wireless re-routing card that puts you in control of the airwaves (video) May 1st 2012, 10:46 For all the talk of convergence in mobile devices, there's relatively little chatter about the coming together of wireless signals themselves. In other words, why should we have a separate device to interact with each type of wireless signal? And so, with that intriguing question, begins the pitch for a new device call Phi. It's a $750 antennae-laden PCIe card that slots into a desktop and gathers up wireless signals that are flying around the home -- so long as they have a frequency below 4GHz and don't involve bank-busting neutrinos. The card then allows custom apps to re-direct those transmissions as you like: potentially acting as a "base station" so you can make free calls from your cell phone, or receiving over-the-air HD transmissions which you can play on your tablet, or doing whatever else hobbyists and devs can cook up. Phi is still version 0.1 and Linux-only while the startup behind it -- Per Vices -- looks for a Kinect-style blossoming of third-party interest, but with nothing less than a deity-like command over the domestic ether on offer, how could it ever fail? Continue reading Phi: a wireless re-routing card that puts you in control of the airwaves (video) Phi: a wireless re-routing card that puts you in control of the airwaves (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 06:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink TechCrunch  |  Per Vices  | Email this | Comments Researchers make an RGB laser with a regular laser and quantum dots May 1st 2012, 10:06 The problem with lasers is, they tend to generate just a single color or light.To get more than one hue requires actually combining more than one type of laser to produce red, green and blue. But researchers at Brown University have figured out a solution to creating small RGB lasers by using colloidal quantum dots, or CQDs. The idea of leveraging the properties of the thin film isn't new, but past attempts to use CQDs in semiconductor lasers have failed because the necessary energy tends to wind up as heat instead of light. The work around scientists found was to excite the various dot sizes with a laser then filter out original light source. Unfortuneately, the solution is far from practical for use in commercial products, but it does represent a milestone in the march towards a single-material multi-wavelength laser. For more details check out the source link. Researchers make an RGB laser with a regular laser and quantum dots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Ars Technica  |  Nature, Brown University  | Email this | Comments Navy awards Aerovel Flexrotor contract to develop marine surveillance tech May 1st 2012, 09:26 The high seas and UAVs go together like -- well, they go together really well. The Navy's cooking up 3D laser imaging technology for spotting pirates and the like, but it will need some aircraft for the task. Right on cue, a helicopter / airplane hybrid for maritime surveillance is inching toward reality. Aerovel's Flexrotor, an ultra-compact craft with a wing span of three meters (9.8 feet) and a weight of just 19.2 kg (42.3 lb), has already been demonstrated to switch between horizontal and vertical flight, but the next step is enhancing its propulsion system to improve its performance for longer distances and in windier conditions. Today the Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded the company a contract for developing that tech. For now, you can check out a video of the Flexrotor's first test flight, which demoes the UAV transitioning from vertical and horizontal orientation and back again. Continue reading Navy awards Aerovel Flexrotor contract to develop marine surveillance tech Navy awards Aerovel Flexrotor contract to develop marine surveillance tech originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 05:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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