This is a $ 5 sleep mask from Archee McPhee that makes it look like you have big old googly anime peepers. Unless you’re the woman in the picture, then it makes you look like you’re Lindsay Lohan passed out with her eyes open. Always dreamed of making sweet, 2-D love to the chicks from your favorite anime series? Just ask your girlfriend to wear one and role play! “Girlfriend?” Right, put it on your love doll.
Thanks to PYY, who told me if you fall asleep with a sleep mask on and earplugs in you’ll wake up thinking you’re dead. I’m going to try it!
Most digital Braille devices are built on the assumption that the legally blind already know how to write in the format — if they don’t, they’re often forced back to the analog world to learn. PDT and Perkins hope to address that longstanding technology gap with the Perkins Smart Brailler. Going digital lets Perkins build in lessons for newcomers as well as provide immediate audio feedback (visual for writers with borderline vision) and text-to-speech conversion to give even an old hand a boost. Logically, the leap into the modern world also allows transferring documents over USB along with traditional Braille printouts. Smart Braillers will cost a weighty $ 1,995 each when they first ship in September, but it’s hard to put a price tag on mastering communication and fully joining the digital generation.
Continue reading Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide
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Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This is a video of a blind man going for a spin in Google’s self-driving car. Why does it have a steering wheel and rear-view mirror if it drives itself? No clue, I feel like you should have haggled with the car salesman a little more. Dammit, I don’t WANT pedals and I’m not gonna pay for them! The car is pretty impressive and dude even swings by a Taco Bell drive-thru for lunch because you don’t have to be able to see to appreciate a burrito. You do have to be able to taste though, so go easy on the flaming cocktails.
Hit the jump for “some of the best driving I’ve ever done”.
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Because there is literally nothing the right vibrations can’t fix, this Japanese eyeball vibrator is designed to remove under-the-eye baggage by “patented subdermal ocular jiggilation”. Okay so I just made that quote up but it sounded pretty scientific, didn’t it? I’ve been working on my doctor routine because eventually I’m going to march my ass into the hospital and come out with a rich old patient. Theeeeeeen make them sign over everything in their will to me. “You’re sick!” I am — with poverty.
This device, called “Eye Slack Haruka”, has two modes “Hard or Soft”. In the former setting, your eye luggage will be receiving mild electric stimulation while in the latter setting, it’s gentle heat and vibrations.
Although this is Japan-only, importer Japan Trend Shop does carry it, albeit it at a steep $ 132
Alternatively, just do what I do and cry a lot. It probably won’t do anything for the giant suitcases under your eyes, but it has been known to score me a free cone at Baskin-Robbins before. Food for thought. Specifically, the ice cream with the little pieces of gum in it.
Product Site via Baggy Eyes, Meet Japanese Gadget [ohgizmo]
Thanks to Carrie, who knows the real secret to vibration revitalization is sleeping on a washing machine.
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If you ever plan to lead a PowerPoint presentation projected on giant white board orbiting the Earth (we’ll leave the logistics of that one up to you) there’s only one laser pointer that will get the job done — Wicked Lasers’ S3 Krypton. The Guinness Record-pending pointer produces about 86 million lux and can be seen from up to 85 miles away, well beyond the edge of our atmosphere. Of course, at roughly 8,000-times the brightness of the Sun, serious safety precautions are needed when operating the S3. Goggles are a must (and bundled with the handheld laser), while sensors and a microprocessor regulate current to keep the tube of aluminum from overheating in your hands. The top end model is available now for $ 1,000 but, if blinding astronauts isn’t on your agenda, lower-powered versions can be had starting at $ 300. Check out the video after the break.
Continue reading Wicked Lasers’ S3 Krypton laser is bright enough to blind astronauts (video)
Wicked Lasers’ S3 Krypton laser is bright enough to blind astronauts (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Revolution of the Hacked Kinect, Part 1: Teaching Robots & the Blind to See In 2007, Nintendo introduced the world to motion control video games with the Wii. Microsoft and Sony built on Nintendo’s phenomenal success, and released their own motion control products for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 late in 2010: the Kinect and the Move . The Move is basically an improved Wiimote that looks like a sci-fi Harry Potter wand, but the Kinect just might be the most important … Read more on Business Insider
Enryu rescue robot gets Fukushima mission A rescue robot called Enryu is being deployed to the Fukushima nuclear plant. It will be the first Japanese robot to help move rubble. Read more on CNET
CMU unveils photo system that can travel back in time Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute have developed computer browser technology to create the GigaPan Time Machine Read more on Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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They’re getting ever more practical, these Kinect hacks. Two days ago it was creating 3D models in free-space, today it’s letting the blind see. Well, not really see, but better navigate through and stay informed about their environment, at least. A Kinect is attached to a helmet and connected to a backpack-mounted Dell laptop. Also connected to the laptop is an Ardunio-controlled belt that has three separate regions of vibration and a Bluetooth headset of the “obnoxious guy talking loudly to his stock broker on the train” variety. Finally, thanks to a little C#, the whole package allows someone to walk down a hall and receive verbal and tactile notifications of obstacles in their path. Wearers can also receive navigation to different areas and, thanks to ARToolKit identifiers stuck on the walls, even have signs read to them. It’s called NAVI (Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired), created by Michael Zöllner and Stephan Huber at the University of Konstanz, and it’s all demonstrated for you below. Dig that hat, man. Dig that hat.
Continue reading NAVI hack uses a Kinect to let the blind see, wear awesome headgear (video)
NAVI hack uses a Kinect to let the blind see, wear awesome headgear (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Daytona International Speedway is synonymous with speed, auto racing, and . . . blind people? Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa), along with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), recently debuted its sight-optional and street-legal SUV at the famed racetrack. Dr. Dennis Hong and his students first let blind folks drive a dune buggy without the help of a sighted copilot in 2009 — as a first step to achieving the goal of a street-legal SUV for the sightless crowd. The SUV in question was designed for the NFB’s Blind Driver Challenge, and is equipped with a drive-by-wire system — also seen in the RoMeLa autonomous vehicle — that was modified for use with RoMeLa’s SpeedStrip and DriveGrip tactile interface technology. It works by using a laser rangefinder to map the surrounding area, relaying information for acceleration and braking to the driver by rumbling the SpeedStrip seat, and passing along turning info through vibrations in the DriveGrip gloves. The system was not developed solely for the purpose of getting blind drivers on the road, however, as Virginia Tech suggests that its technology could also be used in gaming applications. We’re not quite ready to see blind drivers on actual roads just yet, but why shouldn’t our sight-impaired friends get to enjoy Gran Turismo 5 with the rest of us? Video’s after the break.
Continue reading Hokies give (tactile) sight to the blind so they can drive, no word on turning water into wine
Hokies give (tactile) sight to the blind so they can drive, no word on turning water into wine originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Thanks to the iPad queen herself, Arden Myrin, for starring as Ms. Bullock, and Josh Dubose and Douglas Sarine for being the comedy all stars they are. This is just a fun little side project. We’re editing new Ninja episodes as I write this.
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