Tag: gabrielle taylor
Regal Guest Response System: Tattle-tale device for movie goers
The Regal chain of cinemas has placed the Regal
Guest Response System in 114 of its theaters across the United States. It’s a paging device, given to a random member of the Regal Crown Club loyalty program, as they enter the theater (one device per showing). The device has four buttons: “Picture”, “Sound”, “Piracy”, and “Other Disturbance” which can be pressed so that a manager can be alerted in the event of an emergency. “Other Disturbance” is somewhat vague, though. I want a button to press that says “Movie sucks, I want my eight quid back”. [GT]
Regal Guest Response System (via SciFi Tech)
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Kansei: robot with facial expressions
Kansei, from Meji University in Japan, is a robot face capable of 36 expressions that vary according to emotional interpretations of words it hears. When Kansei hears a word, it uses software to access a database of 500,000 keywords, create word associations and determine an emotion — ranging from happiness to sadness, anger and fear — which is expressed by a system of 19 actuators under its silicone skin. Sometimes the reaction is extremely expressive, as here with the word “bomb”, sometimes very subtle. (The question arises, would it have the same expression if it was given the sentence “The party was the bomb”?) Video after the jump shows its interesting reaction to the word “president”.
(via Pink Tentacle)
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Blur: anti-paparazzi spray
Possibly ending the life of all celebrity blogs as we know them (oh noes!), the London based design firm Troika and designer Kok-Chian Leong have dreamed up Blur, an anti-photography spray, which was exhibited at the Science Museum’s exhibit, “The Science of Spying”. The highly reflective nanoparticles in the Blur spray reflect flashbulbs, blind camera sensors and whiten part of the image. This means of course that most celebrities will have to keep themselves coated from head to toe with the stuff 24 hours a day, and will appear to the naked eye even more shimmering and freaky than they already do. But that’s the price of fame, right? [GT]
The Science of Spying
Fuelvapour 'Ale' runs on 'fumes' but makes 75% less of them
The Fuelvapour ‘Ale’ is a sporty three-wheeler that consumes 2.6 liters per hundred kilometers, accelerates to 100km in 5 seconds, and generates 75% less emissions because it runs on a gasoline gas instead of liquid, courtesy of increasing the gas:air ratio from 14.7: to 20:1, with cleaner burning results. It is classified legally as a motorcycle, and seats two in tandem. Future versions of the Ale will likely replace the vehicle’s fibreglass body on a tubular steel frame with one built from carbon fibre. Video after the jump. [GT]
Manitoba natives demand compensation for mobiles using 'airspace'
Saying using ‘airspace’ is just like using water or land, Manitoba first nations chiefs want compensation from mobile providers for every cellphone signal that passes through First Nations land. “When it comes to using airspace, it’s like using our water and simply because there’s no precedent doesn’t mean that it’s not the right thing to do,” said Chief Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nation. [GT]
Manitoba chiefs want cellphone revenue
Google Maps Street View: helpful feature or voyeur's paradise?
BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey reports that the Google Maps closeup of her house is so detailed, that you can see that her cat, sleeping in the window, is a tabby. Further comments note that a nearby crosswalk has a recognizable woman walking across it, a man spots his neighbor taking out the trash, and one can very clearly see a tollbooth operator at Golden Gate Bridge. Or, if you’re bored, you can watch a strip club entrance until you gather blackmail material. (Unless they have submitted their location as infringing privacy and asked it be blocked.) CNet and Wired are both gathering more detailed reports of experiences with Street View or “inadvertant, urban snapshots”. [GT]
Google Maps is spying on my cat, says freaked out BB reader
PodXtreme Sound Box
The PodXtreme Sound Box claims to have a secret resonator (Ooh!) that gives this little speaker a great big sound. It’s powered by a built-in rechargeable Lithium ion battery which sucks power via USB or mains. Supposedly it functions the “same way as a quality subwoofer”, which seems like a suspiciously good deal at $29.95. (But it would be totally worth it if it did create “rich, powerful, party casing sound.” I always wanted to case rich parties courtesy of a dingdong in my pocket.) [GT]
Wind-powered apartment complex to be built in London
It’s not surprising from the look of the Waugh Thistleton 66-unit scheme for Ramsgate Street in Dalston, London, that it’s intended to be super-high tech: it’s thin, it’s sleek, and it’s got weird crenelations that look all futury. What you can’t see, however, is the helical wine turbine on the backside which will not only provide power for the building (and therefore reduce environmental impact) but reduce cost for the inhabitants, which is important as it’s being constructed in a low-income area. The turbine is expected to provide 15% of electricity required to run the building. Also, it looks incredibly cool and/or sexy (pick two). [GT]
Waugh Thistleton [via Dezeen]
3 megawatt solar roof will be largest in Europe
Shopping malls could be in danger of losing their cachet as bastions of gratuitous consumerism and excess if they all go the route of the Ciudad de las Comunicaciones. Located in Madrid, this office complex sports an enormous array of 16,600 solar panels on its 1km long rooftop, giving it the capacity to generate 3 megawatts of energy. Result: savings of 15% on climate conditioning in winter, and 34% in summer, plus an unknown (but non-trivial) amount on lighting. Investment on the project was 21.8 million euros. [GT]
Office complex – Ciudad de las Comunicaciones [via Metaefficient]
The Slurpr: WiFi aggregator
The idea behind the Slurpr is that it can grab open networks with its six wireless interfaces and aggregates them into one huge broadband connection. The inventor of this little doohickey, Dutch hacker Mark Hoekstra, is now working on an upgrade that will allow the user to aggregate closed networks as well. (Legality of that subject to inquiry.) You can pre-order the Slurpr for a thousand Euros, and then everyone can link all their Slurprs and it will eat the world. [GT]
Slurpr- the mother of all wardrive boxes [via Gadget Lab-Wired Blogs]
