Technically Speaking: Gadgets

Panasonic’s new D-Snap is called a digital entertainment center because it is a camera, videocam and a MP3 player. It is about the size of a cell phone and uses an SD Memory Card to store hundreds of 2-megapixel snapshots, up to 11 hours of MPEG4 video, and plenty of MP3 tunes or voice recordings. The SV-AV50A goes for $399 and its bigger brother, the SV-AV100, has DVD quality video and goes for $999.

Comparison: Panasonic D-snap SD Digital Video Cameras Model SV50 & SV100

This futuristic keyboard is fact and not fiction. iBIZ Technology Corp. is preparing to bring their keyboard to market in the up coming months and it is listed at a great price, $100. I haven’t read any reports on its usability so I can’t comment on that, but the overall idea of this gadget may revolutionize the keyboard industry as we know it.

The Virtual Keyboard leverages the power of laser and infrared technology and projects a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface. As you type on the laser projection, it analyzes what you’re typing by the coordinates of that location.

Unlike many small snap-on keyboards for PDAs, the Virtual Keyboard provides a full-size QWERTY keyboard including Function keys. It is also smaller and more convenient to use than the folding-type keyboards made by some manufacturers and similar to them in functionality.

There are no mechanical moving parts whatsoever in the Virtual Keyboard. It provides a projected image that is the perfect portable input device for PDAs. It’s similar in responsiveness to regular keyboards, but extremely futuristic looking.

The Virtual Keyboard requires no special training. The light-weight device weighs only two ounces and is similar in size to a disposable cigarette lighter. The Virtual Keyboard includes a self-contained, user-replaceable rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. It provides the Virtual Keyboard with its own internal power supply, so it doesn’t drain any battery power from the PDA or PC. The battery lasts three to four hours, more than enough time to do some instant messaging and SMS messaging from the handheld device or to update calendar and phone book entries.

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Some time in the fourth quarter of this year, BIZ Technology Corp. will be introducing a virtual keyboard that will work with cell phones. I am really looking forward to that model.

Japanese toymaker Takara has created a gizmo that well help you craft the perfect dream for the evening. The invention is a work in progress but the preliminary results have been very promising, indicating that the gadget can greatly improve the odds of experiencing a desired dream. The steps you have to go through to get it to work properly seem to be able to create dreams all by itself.

First, users attach a photograph or image of a desired dream to the Yumemi Kobo.

Then the hopeful dreamers concentrate on the image, playing out the desired dream in their head while making a voice recording of key words describing their fantasy.

Next they insert one of the dream machine’s scents in the fragrance dispenser and select accompanying music from the tracks offered in the device’s database.

“These (selections) are based on research done by sleep researchers who have an idea of what fragrances and music relaxes people the most – so there is a logic behind the selections,” Harwood said. “For most, listening to Guns N’ Roses is not the way to go.”

Now the dreamers are ready to hit the sack. They turn on the dream machine, and it starts to lull them to sleep with soft lights and serenades.

During the next eight hours, while the Yumemi Kobo’s owner snoozes, the device is set to activate periodically in accordance with the user’s REM sleep, the period associated with dreaming, during which the sleeper’s eyeballs jerk rapidly.

“REM occurs for around an hour, an hour and a half. The machine estimates when most people achieve this,” Harwood said.

This is when the dream controller is at its most active. It plays the selected music, releases the fragrance and repeats the recorded phrase. All are geared to trigger the desired dream in the sleeping subject.

Despite all this activity, Harwood said, the would-be dreamer doesn’t lose any beauty sleep.

“You would think it would be distracting, but the key is that it operates on a timer that coincides with REM. It basically doesn’t do anything until you are in REM phase, and then these things are very low-key,” he said.

Eight hours later, sleep time is over. The dream machine gently awakens its owner with dim lights and soft music to avoid startling the sleeper and causing the dream to be forgotten.

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This item will be selling in Japan sometime in May and it will probably make it to the US in early 2005.

This is a very interesting gadget for it helps those that have too many credit cards. It helps them by minimizing the number of cards they have to carry. The Chameleon Card, that accompanies the Pocket Vault, allows you to encode your collection of cards onto this one Chameleon Card. It even has a special security feature, a thumb scan.

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If you and your friends are looking for a way to satisfy your masochistic pleasures, this is the game for you. This item will test the nerve of your bravest friends. This is Shocking Roulette. What is the point of this game, you ask? I guess that there really isn’t a point, it is just a relatively safe way to play Russian Roulette.

Each player (max 4 players) inserts a fingertip into one of the four electric chambers, and then one player presses start…..this starts the incredibly nerve racking countdown sequence of beeps and lights which finishes with one of the players receiving the full electric shock treatment!

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Main Features:

• Suitable for 2-4 players.
  
• Not suitable for children.
  
• Includes 3 x AAA batteries for testing.
  
• Do not use if you suffer from epilepsy, a heart condition or similar…
  
• 14cm Wide, and 6cm high.
  

This game is sure to be the hit at any party and you can buy it here for only $19.99.