Kinect 2 so accurate it can lip read

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No voice required.

Microsoft plans to release a next-generation Kinect device so accurate it can lip read, sources have told Eurogamer.
Kinect 2 will come bundled with future Xbox consoles, we understand.
The intention is that Kinect 2 will offer improved motion sensing and voice recognition…

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Fun-Vii: Toyota’s futuristic concept car a giant ‘smartphone on four wheels’

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Toyota Fun-Vii

A futuristic concept car resembling a giant smartphone was unveiled by Toyota’s president to demonstrate how Japan’s top automaker is trying to take the lead in technology at the upcoming Tokyo auto show.

 

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Malls go Big Brother with holiday shopping cell phone tracking

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Where are you going and where have you been? No need to tell me, I already know.

With mobile phone privacy in the forefront of our minds, it was a bit disconcerting to hear that this holiday season (Black Friday through New Years) certain malls will be tracking shoppers’ phones. Right now, just two US malls have said they will be anonymously tracking visitor’s phones, the Promenade Temecula in Temecula, California and the wonderfully-named Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Virginia.

A notice was posted at the Promenade stating that anonymous data will be collected using the signals from visitors’ mobile phones. The data will be anonymized and is collected using a number of “monitoring units” placed around the mall. The purpose of the data collection, according to both the mall’s signage and website is to “enhance the shopping experience,” something we’re not quite sure all the visitors will appreciate as much as the malls might hope…

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House built on top of a volcano

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House built on a Southern Calif. volcano.

Not every day you come across a unique home that looks like a UFO.  And you certainly wouldn’t come across one that is built on top of a volcano.  But there is a curious dwelling located between Las Vegas and Los Angeles that is sitting atop a volcano.  To be precise, the home is located in Newberry Springs, CA on top of a volcanic cinder cone. (Pics)

 

 

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Cherpumple, the Turducken of the holiday dessert table

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Behold the Cherpumple!

For Charles Phoenix, the turducken apparently wasn’t enough. The turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken – an increasingly popular Thanksgiving treat – was in need of a dessert counterpart.
So he came up with one worthy of the holiday, and he called it … thecherpumple. The dessert is a weighty, three-layer cake with an entire pie baked inside each of the layers.
Phoenix, a humorist from Los Angeles, describes his creation on his website this way: “Cherpumple is short for CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE pie. The apple pie is baked in spice cake, the pumpkin in yellow and the cherry in white.”
Hmm.
He further explained that the inspiration came from the typical dessert table at his family’s holiday celebrations…

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Mouse fetuses help mother’s hearts

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Cardiomyocytes damaged by a heart attack.

As it turns out, nature has its own method for transplanting stem cells. When a pregnant mouse has a heart attack, her fetus goes to work to help repair the damage! The experiment mated female lab mice with males who had the genes to produce green fluorescent protein (GFP). Around half the embryos produced also had the ability to produce the protein. This way, scientists could track fetal cells separately from maternal cells. Then heart attacks were induced in the pregnant mice…

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Pakistan bans “Monkey Crotch” and other offensive words in text messages

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Pakistan takes a stand on offending texts.

Texting is safe again: gone are offending words like “monkey crotch,” “love pistol,” and “flatulence” from ever invading your text messages, at least in Pakistan.

The guardians of linguistic purity there have issued a list of more than 1,000 words and phrases to be banned…

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