Guys Upstairs - Tech

HAL is an acronym for “hybrid assistance limb.” It is a robotic suit with a computer at the user’s waist and mechanical braces strapped to the user’s legs. The computer weighs 22 pounds and runs on a battery. It uses sensors embedded in the suit to read through the user’s skin the brain signals that direct limb movement. Using these brain signals, the computer relays them to the mechanical leg braces, which assist the user in walking.

HAL was designed by Yoshiyuki Sankai, a University of Tsukuba professor and chief executive of Cyberdyne. Cyberdyne plans to mass-produce HAL. On Tuesday, the company had two people demonstrate the suits as well as a video showing a partially paralyzed person standing up from a chair and walking. Starting Friday, this robotic suit will be available to rent in Japan for $2,200 a month. There is no doubt that HAL will foster new technology that will benefit the disabled and elderly.

[Yahoo via Engadget]

On October 9th or 10th we will be seeing a brainwave controlled video game at the Tokyo Game Show taking place in Makuhari, Japan. This is a collaboration between NeuroSky, a wearable bio-sensor manufacturer, and Square Enix, a well known video game developer. The headset will be the MindSet, which has two earmuff like components as well as one electrode at the user’s forehead.

The headset will monitor the EEG data (brainwave information) to track the user’s concentration or relaxation in order to perform certain actions within the game. Similar games in the future may employ more complicated actions which will be possible through “calibration” of having the user think a certain action and associating it with more specific EEG data.

[Business Wire]

Panasonic has the concept EZTouch on display at CEATEC. The remote uses two touchpads like those found on laptops so that the user will not have to look down at the remote. Instead, the remote will have a display on the screen. Sensors will be able to adjust the remote for both left and right handed users. The use of dual touchpads also allows for the inclusion of gestures as commands such as scrolling.

Panasonic also showed an Interactive TV wall which uses a camera positioned above the TV and detects movements similar to the PS3 Eye. However, it is reported to suffer from some shortcomings - mostly a lack of precision and responsiveness.

[Engadget and AkihabaraNews]

Pandora is one of the most anticipated open source handheld drvices. It is a successor to the GP32 and GP2X devices from Game Park and GamePark Holdings, respectively. Pandora was developed based on a lot of input from the community and excels where the previous devices had shortcomings. The main purpose of Pandora will be to run Homebrew games as well as emulation of older computer systems and gaming consoles.

The specs listed on their site:

Preorders are limited to 3000 until the end of 2009, and you can try to get yours here, although it comes with a price tag of $330.

T-Mobile is stepping into the arena with AT&T with the G1 (aka HTC Dream). The G1 is the first phone to be powered by Google’s Android operating system. The design of the G1 is unique and combines elements from various existing phones such as the slider to reveal the keyboard (similar to the Helios) and the trackball for one handed navigation (similar to Blackberry). Unlike the Apple iPhone, the operating system behind the G1 is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. This should allow for adding apps to the phone even easier and more importantly, free.

A quick rundown of the list of features the G1 offers:

• Touch screen
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3G and wireless
• 3 MP Camera
• Music player
• Customizable home screen
• Access to Google apps
• IM/text/e-mail
• Video playback
• Android Market

From this list you can see that it shares many of the same features that the iPhone does. One of the cool apps is ShopSavvy, an application that lets you scan the UPC code of a product with the phone’s camera and compare prices with other stores. The Google Street View works with the phone’s built in compass so that the Street View will update based on the direction the phone is facing.

T-Mobile has already been taking pre-orders from existing customers. The caveat is that only pre-existing customers who are 11 months into a 12 month plan or 22 months into a 24 month plan are eligible to pre-order. It will be available in retail stores starting October 22 for $179 with a two year voice and data agreement.