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Thursday, 24 May 2012

GenAudio Launches New Surround Format

January 20, 2012 | by Rachel Cericola

Faux surround sound is nothing new. Soundbars and other smaller audio solutions typically have some type of technology that can provide the “illusion” of surround sound, without a 5.1 (or larger) speaker setup. GenAudio is hoping to be the next great surround sound solution, with AstoundSound for CE.

This newly launched technology promises to deliver surround sound without all of the speakers. Designed to work with headphones and two speaker devices, GenAudio says that the tech can deliver a realistic 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound experience.

AstoundSound for CE is software-based, which is what allows it to reproduce those 5.1 and 7.1 sounds. The company says that this has an advantage over competing spatial audio technology, because AstoundSound for CE has no tone colorization and remains in-phase.

The company also says that the tech will work in everything from digital TVs and set-top boxes to phones and gaming consoles, and much more.

“The introduction of our software based audio IP tech on small, low-cost processors coupled with our intuitive audio tuning tools provides manufacturers a way to quickly integrate spatialized audio playback capabilities into any new product where audio fidelity to the consumer is a critical component,” says Jerry Mahabub, founder and CEO of GenAudio. “Implementing AstoundSound in consumer devices will offer device manufacturers the opportunity to differentiate their multimedia products in a crowded consumer market!”

GenAudio is already incorporating AstoundSound audio IP software into devices, including the Analog Devices ADAU1761/1701 Sigma Studio DSP system-on-chip (SoC) audio processors as well as ADI’s SHARC processors and various other chip manufacturers. GenAudio says that the first products packing AstoundSound for CE launch will debut early this year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/ee4JOdy7LYw/

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Researchers Propose TLS Extension to Detect Rogue SSL Certificates

A pair of security researchers have proposed an extension to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol that would allow browsers to detect and block fraudulently-issued SSL certificates.

Called TACK, which is short for Trust Assertions for Certificate Keys, the extension was developed by security researchers Trevor Perrin and Moxie Marlinspike and was submitted for consideration to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the body in charge of TLS, on Wednesday.

TACK tries to resolve the trust-related problems with the public key infrastructure that were highlighted by last year's security breaches at certificate authorities (CAs) Comodo and Diginotar.

Both of those breaches resulted in SSL certificates for high profile domains like google.com, hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com, being issued fraudulently. In Diginotar's case, the certificates were even employed in active attacks against Google users in Iran.

At the moment, Web browsers trust over 600 organizations from around the world to issue SSL certificates. These organizations are known as certificate authorities and every one of them can technically issue a valid certificate for any domain on the Internet.

Several proposals to improve the current CA-based system have been put forward by Internet and security experts in the past 12 months, but there's no consensus regarding which one offers the best solution.

In November 2011, security engineers from Google proposed an HTTP extension called "public key pinning" that would allow websites to effectively tell browsers via an HTTP header which certificate authorities should be trusted to issue SSL certificates for their domain names.

The browsers would then remember (pin) this information and refuse to establish the connection if they receive a certificate signed by a different CA in the future. A more static implementation of this system already exists in Google Chrome for particular domain names, including Google's.

TACK is based on the same public key pinning concept, but instead of pinning CA public keys to particular domain names, it pins public keys generated by the domain owners themselves.

With TACK, the domain owner can generate a pair of private and public keys called TACK keys. The private key is used to sign the server's TLS public key, which is currently used by browsers to validate SSL certificates. The TACK public key is then shared with connecting browsers and is used to validate the TACK-signed TLS public key.

The browsers can pin a TACK public key to a domain name if they receive it from the server on several separate occasions. If an attacker attempts to use a rogue SSL certificate to spoof a secure connection to a domain name that already has a TACK key pinned to it, the browser will not authorize it because the TACK validation will fail.

This creates a secondary protection layer, because in addition to a fraudulently-obtained, CA-signed, SSL certificate, an attacker would also need the domain owner's private TACK key in order to pull off a successful attack.

TACK is designed to be backward-compatible with both clients and servers that lack support for it. In such situations, the HTTPS connection gets negotiated according to the current CA-based validation system.

This aspect is particularly important given the slow adoption of new TLS versions by Web server owners. According to Trustworthy Internet Movement's SSL Pulse project, fewer than two percent of the Internet's top 200,000 HTTPS-enabled websites support TLS 1.1 or 1.2, the latest versions of the protocol.

The vast majority of websites still support SSL 3.0, the precursor of TLS, and TLS version 1.0, which was designed in 1999. Over 30 percent of them still support SSL 2.0, the first publicly available and most insecure version of the protocol.

Under these conditions, it's hard to imagine TACK becoming widely implemented anytime soon, even if the extension ends up receiving approval from the IETF.

Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=d53c2d1f3df9fa57e3571eb4593ec8d6

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Hot Deal: Sony NAC-SV10i Wi-Fi Speaker Dock: $109

January 20, 2012 | by EH Staff

Every iPod and/or iPhone needs a resting place. We’re not talking about the kitchen table or an underwear drawer. There are a lot of docking stations out there, which not only gives you a spot to put your portable, but can charge it for later use.

Adorama is currently selling Sony’s NAC-SV10I Wi-Fi Speaker Dock for $109. This price is 53 percent off the list price, and also includes free shipping.

It’s a nice price for a nice product. Besides the charging, this docking station can also expand the use of that device—and a variety of other music. Plug your iPod or iPhone into the NAC-SV10i, and you blast music all over the house. For times when you don’t want to dock, the NAC-SV10i can wirelessly stream music from that device, as well as networked computers or the web. Sony also offers a free app that can transform that smartphone into a wireless remote.

Perfect for the kitchen, bedroom, office, or any other room in the house, the NAC-SV10i has DLNA support, BRAVIA Internet Music features, and PartyStream so you can sync with other compatible Sony products.

To get this discount on Adorama, log in and add the product into your shopping cart. That’s when you’ll see the discounted price.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/GhIuFBJDxj0/

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Thoughts on the 7th Annual Maker Faire

Another Faire has come and gone, leaving thousands of people hyper-inspired and super tired. I no longer have a voice, but I’m sure it’ll be arriving any moment now at my front door, like a piece of hand-delivered lost luggage.

I’ve been to every Maker Faire Bay Area from the second one (and both World Maker Faires in NY). Every Faire seems “special,” but this year’s was special in some unique ways to me. I could feel something stirring, amongst the 3D-printed tchotchke and ‘Duino blinky-things. The maker movement keeps growing, expanding into new corners of society, and in many ways, this year felt like a true rite of passage, a Débutante ball or Bar Mitzvah for makers. Here are some of my notes and takeaways from the weekend, with emphasis on those areas of expansion:

* From makers of things to makers of tools and hardware for making things – Those who’ve been involved in making for awhile now are starting to focus their attention on passing on what they’ve learned, creating new tools and hardware that bring making to more people; they’re interested in “going pro.” Tuesday and Wednesday’s truly inspiring Hardware Innovation Workshop featured dozens of makers who’ve become maker pros and are doing well at it.
* Pros are understanding the R&D value of the maker movement and maker tools – One of the goals of the Hardware Innovation Workshop was to introduce mainstream tech companies to the innovations of makers and to show them how they too can use the tech being developed for more rapid R&D. The maker movement can, on a whole, be seen as one big and playful rogue R&D department. A stellar example of this is the development of game company Toys for Bob’s Skylanders title, which was very much inspired by maker tech (and used prototyping parts purchased from Adafruit!). Skylanders is now one of the best-selling video games in the world. (See some of my takeaway notes from the Hardware Innovation Workshop.)
* The distance between imagination and physical expression is getting shorter and ever-cheaper – Repeatedly, makers showing me their wares were excited to tell me how quickly they’d gone from having an idea to having a physical rendering of it. There really is a magical cocktail out there now of knowledge communities and resources that can teach you what you need to know, and then affordable, powerful, and accessible tools to render your ideas into atoms. Every year, the resistance between imagination and physical object gets lower.
* The four C’s of being a maker: Curiosity, Control, Confidence, Connoisseurship MAKE Editor-in-Chief Mark Frauenfelder shared a list of four hallmarks of making during one of his talks that I really liked. They are:

Curiosity — How do things work? How are they made? How can I learn the skills I need to make them?
Control — I want to have more control over my environment, the tech in my life. I want to be able to solve problems myself instead of always buying solutions.
Confidence — As I learn to make things, I develop a sense of self-efficacy. With every mistake, and every successful build, I become a better maker.
Connoisseurship — Making things myself has opened my eyes to the manufactured world around me. I appreciate things other people have made, and I am more observant of the designed and built world.

* The audience is starting to look like all of us – Several of us commented on the diversity of the audience this year. More and more, Maker Faire is starting to look like America — with people of all ages, all walks of life, all colors and cultures.
* Arduino and 3D printing won – The market penetration of Arduino is amazing. And 3D printers are not far behind. It seems as though every table at the Faire, if it displayed a tech project, involved an Ardunio microcontroller, and frequently, 3D printed components. (See our 3D printer census from the Faire and Shawn Wallace’s 3D Printer Trading Cards series.) It’s exciting to think of what the next big thing in maker tech might be.
* Kid makers are coming into their own – Increasing numbers of kids have discovered making in a major way and kid maker “stars” are breaking out. Super Awesome Sylvia, Joey Hudy, Schuyler St. Leger, Caine of Caine’s Arcade, the teens from Team Viper, and many others were out in force at this year’s Faire. And talking to these kids, you realize that they’re as smart and engaged as any adult maker. It’s staggering to think where they, and all of the maker kids they represent, will be in ten or twenty years.
* Moving beyond “Hello World” making – One of my obsessions these days is about us moving beyond “I can do it” making (aka the “Hello World,” blinky-light, 3D-printed whistle phase of making) to making for the day-to-day world. If the maker movement is more than a hobby, more than a curiosity, more than just about having fun (and there’s nothing wrong with any of that), many of us are already armed with the tools we need to more deeply impact the quality of our lives, to make things that make a difference. I talked to a lot of makers about this and everyone agrees. I asked a fairly large number of people: How many Arduinos or other microcontroller projects have you done that you now use in your day-to-day life? The answer was sadly few. This is something I’d like to see change and something I want us to help change, in the magazine and here on the site.
* The world of education has discovered MAKE and making – Every year we see increasing numbers of school groups, educational initiatives, after-school clubs, and other educational groups getting more heavily involved in the Faire. During the week of the Faire, the Maker Educational Initiative was announced. This is a non-profit we’re involved in, with Cognizant and Intel, designed to support educational programs that get kids making. Even the White House chimed in with a congrats.
* More media leaking out of the Faire and into the world – There were more media crews on the ground and video feeds beaming out of the Faire than ever before. This was the first year we streamed the entire event live, through a windowed “fishbowl” studio we built in the MAKE booth in Expo Hall, and via a roving team with a wireless streaming camera. In the past, we’ve had something of an attitude that you need to be here to be here, but this year, it felt right to pop the lid off of the event and let it pour out into cyberspace. We consider this test a great success and will be doing more live event streaming in the future. We also teamed up with Google+ and did a Hangout from the Make: Live fishbowl on 3D printing that was a lot of fun and showed us some of the possibilities for this sort of remote engagement for future events.

Photos by Eric Weinhoffer

This year I had a palpable sense that we’re standing on the threshold of a much larger maker-embracing world. We’re breaking out with the potential to significantly impact formal (and informal) education, tech development, the business of technology, and the overall quality of people’s lives. As computer pioneer Alan Kay once said (and Tim O’Reilly quoted during his Innovation Workshop talk): “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” We now have powerful tools to do just that. One of the many challenges is going to be doing this without losing the heart, soul, and child-like wonder that sparked all of this in the first place. I love a challenge, how about you?

If you were at the Faire (and/or the Hardware Innovation Workshop), I’d love to hear your thoughts and top-level takeaways. Please leave in the comments below.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/XRaWwndBtBw/

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2 Nights at an Automated Hotel with Control4

January 20, 2012 | by Lisa Montgomery

After a long day pounding the show floor pavement at the Consumer Electronic Show, it feels oh so nice to get back to the hotel room—even more so when that room is automated. I use the term “automated” loosely, as the only part of my two-night stay at the Aria that was truly automated was the first minute or so. As I entered the room for the first time, the drapes and sheers opened, music started playing the lights gradually brightened. Was I impressed? Yes. More than that, though, the welcome scenario made that smallish space seem a lot friendlier, and well, welcoming.

In typical Control4 style, wall-mounted keypads let me set groups of lights for reading, sleeping and waking up by just tapping a button. My favorite was the keypad by the door. Here, I could press a button to request that my room be serviced or that I not be disturbed. The appropriate icon by my door in the hallway illuminated to alert the Aria staff—kind of like hanging out a modern-day, electronic “Do Not Disturb” sign.

No Control4 system is complete without a touchpanel, and my room had one, as well as a hard-buttoned handheld remote. The touchpanel—the far sexier of the controls—happened to be on the nightstand by my side of the bed. Nice. My hubby got the remote. Both eager to test drive the controls, we started pushing buttons—in my case, icons. We toyed around with the window treatments, parting the shades half-way, leaving the drape open, closing both—any arrangement we could think of. The controls worked flawlessly. We played around with the lights, again, success. At times, the system got confused and devices failed to respond—we chalked it up to too many commands being thrown at it at the same time. Obviously, we needed to take turns.

If you need a little instruction in the use of the control system, Aria provides an online .PDF so you can study up before you arrive.

A nice feature of the Control4 system that came in particularly handy for my remote-wielding husband was the on-screen display. Using the buttons of the remote he could navigate the same interface that I could on the touchpanel. The only difference was that his interface showed up on the screen of the room’s ample-size flat-panel TV.

The main menu of this interface presented icons for controlling the motorized draperies, the lights, the thermostat, the audio and the video. The A/V should have been fun, but it ended up being quite frustrating. There were an awful lot of choices; scrolling through them was quite a chore, considering the “slow” response time of the Control4 system. I’d press a button; when I didn’t hear or see anything I’d naturally press the button again, which brought up a song I really didn’t want to hear or a show I really didn’t want to watch. Eventually, I learned to be patient—to let the system catch up with my commands. The same punch-and-wait exercise had to be applied when setting up a wakeup routine, which was one of the coolest high-tech features of my room. Using the touchpanel, I told the Control4 system to wake me up at 6 by opening the sheers and drapes, gradually bringing up the lights and playing music from a soft-rock station. It’s a much better way to wake up than to the sound of a blaring alarm.

All said and done—my stay was a hit. The automation system enhanced the luxurious design and atmosphere of the room. Once I was in that room, I never wanted to leave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/HNEAeAVn0Jk/

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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Yahoo Launches Stand-alone Mobile Search App

Yahoo beefed up its search offerings on Wednesday when it launched Axis, an HTML5-based browser app that delivers search results as page previews rather than as links.

Axis shortens the time it takes a user to get from an initial query to the desired result, whether it's finding a fact or making a reservation, by about a third, according to Ethan Batraski, Yahoo's director of product management for special projects.

Batraski explained that most search interfaces require a three-step process -- query, results page and the selected result -- which Axis has tried to reduce to just two.

"That's an archaic experience. It's been the same for 12 to 15 years. We decided to get rid of the middle step, because nobody really likes the middleman," Batraski said.

The app is a browser as well as a search engine, with browsing functions including navigational arrows, an address bar and bookmarking. A search query in Axis returns a set of visual page previews, rather than links with text summaries. Any structured content results, such as showtimes or sports scores, that would appear in a conventional Yahoo search also appear in Axis. Search results appear across the top of the screen, and the user can swipe left to display lower-ranking results without reloading.

Even after a user selects a given result, by swiping downward, he or she can call the search results back up across the top of the screen without leaving the selected Web page.

Users who log in with a Yahoo, Google or Facebook ID can save searches across their various devices. Axis also comes as a plug-in for most browsers so users can also run it on the desktop. A menu option allows for sharing through email, Pinterest or Twitter. Yahoo will roll out Facebook sharing in the future, Batraski said.

Page previews could pose challenges of their own on the small screen of a smartphone. But Batraski indicated that the visual results mean fewer "back and forth" trips between the results listing and specific pages. When Batraski searched for "Adirondack chair plans," for example, he could quickly see which pages included actual plans.

"I never have to look at a title-abstract URL again. I can see what's behind it," he said.

Axis' search functionality is built with HTML5 and runs off Yahoo's "Cocktails" platform, which blends elements of Javascript, SQL (structured query language) and HTML5.

Cocktail provides "intelligent caching," which is what allows Axis to serve up so many images without significant delay, Batraski said.

Yahoo entered into a search partnership with Microsoft in 2010 in which it outsourced the back end of its search system to Microsoft. Yahoo has continued to work on the front end of the search experience, although it has struggled to retain its 14 percent market share, according to comScore data. Axis will tweak the search algorithm based on which results prove most useful for its users.

Axis is debuting with keyword and image searches only. Search results do not yet include advertisements. The app is currently available for iPhone and iPad. An Android app will launch "soon," Batraski said.

Cameron Scott covers search, web services and privacy for The IDG News Service. Follow Cameron on Twitter at CScott_IDG.

Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=2f64a67a8904fe50e6e86f8c99534d65

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Hot Deal: Sony NAC-SV10i Wi-Fi Speaker Dock: $109

January 20, 2012 | by EH Staff

Adorama is currently selling Sony’s NAC-SV10I Wi-Fi Speaker Dock for $109. This price is 53 percent off the list price, and also includes free shipping.

To get this discount on Adorama, log in and add the product into your shopping cart. That’s when you’ll see the discounted price.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/GhIuFBJDxj0/

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Hot Deal: Sony NAC-SV10i Wi-Fi Speaker Dock: $109

January 20, 2012 | by EH Staff

Adorama is currently selling Sony’s NAC-SV10I Wi-Fi Speaker Dock for $109. This price is 53 percent off the list price, and also includes free shipping.

To get this discount on Adorama, log in and add the product into your shopping cart. That’s when you’ll see the discounted price.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/GhIuFBJDxj0/

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LED Matrix Glasses

Garrett Mace was rocking a pair of LED matrix glasses at Maker Faire:

The shades are a 20×6 matrix (with some pixels missing of course) driven by SPI from an integrated Arduino-compatible in the right temple. There is a Lithium-Polymer battery on the left temple. You can charge the glasses through USB, and download new code to it over the same connection. A button on the right temple allows switching between modes or auto cycling animated patterns.

[via HaD]

Makers in this post:

Garrett Mace –

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/WiocbetEYpc/

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Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Facebook to Settle Class-action Suit Over Sponsored Stories

Facebook is to settle a class-action lawsuit in California that accused it of appropriating its users' likenesses for its Sponsored Stories advertising feature, according to a court document filed Tuesday.

Sponsored Stories highlight brands that a user's social contacts have "liked." If a Facebook user likes Levi's brand page, for example, her friends may see an advertisement accompanied by text that says, "Jane likes Levi's."

When Facebook introduced the feature in 2011, it showed the user's profile photo alongside their endorsement. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, said that was a violation of California state law, because Facebook didn't give users the chance to opt out of having their image used.

Terms of the settlement haven't been disclosed yet, but Facebook has reached a deal "in principle" to settle the suit, according to the filing. The suit was filed by Angel Fraley and two other named plaintiffs on behalf of other, "similarly situated" users.

The complaint points to a statement on Facebook's website that read, "While there is no way of opting out of seeing all or being featured in any Sponsored Stories, [users] can remove specific stories by clicking the 'X' displayed in the upper right side..."

An edited version of the statement still appears on the website.

One legal issue in the case was whether Facebook could be said to have authored the statements that informed users that the plaintiffs had "liked" a particular brand.

The plaintiffs' attorneys did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Both Facebook and its lawyers declined to comment.

Sponsored Stories began as a desktop feature. In March, the company began delivering Sponsored Stories in mobile users' news feeds, the first advertising to come to Facebook's mobile app.

Cameron Scott covers search, web services and privacy for The IDG News Service. Follow Cameron on Twitter at CScott_IDG.

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Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=031272cad056465232c45073ebf54f08

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2 Nights at an Automated Hotel with Control4

January 20, 2012 | by Lisa Montgomery

If you need a little instruction in the use of the control system, Aria provides an online .PDF so you can study up before you arrive.

All said and done—my stay was a hit. The automation system enhanced the luxurious design and atmosphere of the room. Once I was in that room, I never wanted to leave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/HNEAeAVn0Jk/

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2 Nights at an Automated Hotel with Control4

January 20, 2012 | by Lisa Montgomery

If you need a little instruction in the use of the control system, Aria provides an online .PDF so you can study up before you arrive.

All said and done—my stay was a hit. The automation system enhanced the luxurious design and atmosphere of the room. Once I was in that room, I never wanted to leave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/HNEAeAVn0Jk/

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L.A. I’m Yours Interviews Mark Frauenfelder

Check out this interview with Mark on L.A. I’m Yours in which he talks about Boing Boing, his interests, and how he got his start. [via The Fox is Black]

Makers in this post:

Mark Frauenfelder –

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/u4VQVieDuUM/

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Monday, 21 May 2012

Math Monday: Grocery Geometry

By Glen Whitney for the Museum of Mathematics

MoMath colleague Dave Masunaga and I were chewing on some of the tasty macadamia nuts, while chewing on some interesting problems that may show up in the Museum of Mathematics this December, when we realized that the pleasant and unusual geometry of the packaging of these nuts provided excellent fodder for some spur-of-the moment mathematical makery. A couple packs of binder clips and not too many minutes later led to the first of this week’s offerings, the Siernutski Tetrahedron:

If only Dave had been hungrier when shopping and bought another box, we could have extended this to order three. But the conveniently flexible nature of the packaging does lead to a number of other interesting, dynamic structures, such as this ring of Tumbling Nutrahedra, which rotates about itself in the manner of a smoke ring:

(You can build a paper model of this structure using this template.)

Inspired by these constructions, a quick trip proved that the grocery store is a fertile hunting ground for the raw material for momathematical creations. For example, some octahedral cookie packs lent themselves to this Truncookied Cube. Note that all three flavors meet at every triangular opening, providing a pleasingly uniform mathematicogustatory experience:

However, this construction seemed as though it might be a bit dry — a situation quickly rectified by the introduction of antipodal pairs of six different flavors of tea, to produce the TruncaTea-ed Biscubottihedron:

Enterprising readers are invited to send images of their own grocery geometry — we’d love to see what you’re up to.

More:
See all of our Math Monday columns

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/PqlVy-aDqbM/

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Laser Cut Animatronics Robot Comes to Maker Faire, Needs Your Help

Brian Roe playing with Roy's brain (battery) @Maker FaireMeet Roy. He's a swell guy, really. He's also a robot made largely out of parts cut on a laser cutter, and with your help on Kickstarter, you can own a piece of Roy, or even your own whole Roy robot.

This past weekend, Roy the robot made an appearance at Maker Faire and officially launched on Kickstarter. Roy is an experiment in animatronics--it's a robot designed to imitate human behaviors and even move and look like a human in some senses. Roy is made from servo motors, wires, various mechanical fasteners, and some micro controllers and other electronics.

But the notable aspect of Roy is his "skin" and frame, which is made from wood cut on a laser cutter. Using creative patterning, Roy's maker was even able to curve the wood around for the base of the arms.

Roy's arm. Credit: Brian Roe on Kickstarter

Roy is a creation of tinkerer and mechanical designer Brian Roe, and Brian wants to make Roy's awesome-looking skin and bones (wood and mechanical fasteners?) available to you. Since Roy is made up of so many parts and components, Brian decided that the simplest way to do it would be to create a Kickstarter project for just the arm, for now. But don't worry, you can still hook up electronics and use the hand and fingers to grip things and to learn about animatronics.

If the arm is successful on Kickstarter, Brian plans to offer up other parts on Kickstarter down the line, including the eyes, upper arm, shoulder, etc. and eventually you will have yourself a full life sized robot to tinker with.

Depending on how much you pledge, you can get anything from a finger to Roy's hand, the full arm, or even the entire arm completely assempled including electronics. If you vouch for a cheaper donation then you'll have to provide your own control electronics to whatever limb or limbs you decide to get.

Make sure to check out the video below and to check out Roy on Brian's Kickstarter page for the full details.

[Brian Roe on Kickstarter]

Follow James Mulroy on Twitter and on StumbleUpon to get the latest in microbe, dinosaur, and death ray news.

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Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=28311fff26726a5600845930f2cc34c8

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Music - CD and music reviews, news and clips - Boston.com

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Source: http://syndication.boston.com/ae/music

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2 Nights at an Automated Hotel with Control4

January 20, 2012 | by Lisa Montgomery

If you need a little instruction in the use of the control system, Aria provides an online .PDF so you can study up before you arrive.

All said and done—my stay was a hit. The automation system enhanced the luxurious design and atmosphere of the room. Once I was in that room, I never wanted to leave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/HNEAeAVn0Jk/

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2 Nights at an Automated Hotel with Control4

January 20, 2012 | by Lisa Montgomery

If you need a little instruction in the use of the control system, Aria provides an online .PDF so you can study up before you arrive.

All said and done—my stay was a hit. The automation system enhanced the luxurious design and atmosphere of the room. Once I was in that room, I never wanted to leave.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eh/rss/recentlyfiled/~3/HNEAeAVn0Jk/

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Sunday, 20 May 2012

Music - CD and music reviews, news and clips - Boston.com

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Maker Faire First Day Favorites

Maker Faire Bay Area opened Saturday with an excited rush of the gates. Here are some of the favorite things I saw from the robotic orchestra to Christian Ristow’s metal face and the lock picking workshop organized by Christina Pei. There’s a solar oven popping popcorn and a village made from masking tape with a colorful backdrop of coat hangers. It was an amazing day.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/Q8uZ6tHz6ZM/

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