Researchers tout progress with maglev joystick, aim to bring it to market

Posted Mar 5th 2008 1:57PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Maglev technology may be best know for its use in trains (and the odd wind turbine), but a group of researchers led by Carnegie Mellon University’s Ralph Hollis have some ideas of their own for it, with them now touting a so-called “maglev joystick” that they hope to bring to market. That, they say, can provide increased feedback compared to a standard joystick, and offer an alternative to complicated gloves and robotic interfaces. Key to that, obviously, is a whole bunch of electromagnets, which are concealed in the bowl pictured above and allow the “joystick” to levitate, while also providing resistance when it’s moved in any direction. Needless to say, there’s no indication as to when the joystick might actually be available, but Hollis has recently formed a company, Butterfly Haptics, with just that as its goal, and it’ll apparently soon be shipping six of the joysticks to a consortium of US and Canadian universities for testing.

Researchers tout progress with maglev joystick, aim to bring it to market – Engadget

Simtrix trots out radically designed Swiftpoint mice

Posted Mar 5th 2008 2:26PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Peripherals

Sure, we’ve seen input peripherals stretch the core meaning of the word “mouse,” but few have done it better than Simtrix. First up in the Swiftpoint series is the TriPed (on left), which was designed to be held much like a pen if needed and is aimed primarily at tablet PC / tabletop computer users; according to the firm, it “provides seamless transitioning between mouse, pen, and text entry.” Moving on, we’ve got the equally zany Slider, which looks to grab more attention by being able to operate when sliding over a keyboard. Granted, folks with ergonomic / split boards are probably out of luck there, but that’s not to say your thumb still wouldn’t love this critter on a traditional mouse pad. Mum’s the word on pricing and availability at the moment, but we’ll keep an ear to the ground for whispers of either.

Simtrix trots out radically designed Swiftpoint mice – Engadget

Mobile Digital Scribe is the first device ever to capture natural handwriting from any surface, and store it in the receiver for future use. Based on a revolutionary electronic pen that uses ordinary ink refill to write on any paper, the Mobile Digital Scribe stores handwritten notes, memos or drawings for easy upload to any computer at your convenience. No special digital notepad is required.

Additionally, if the Mobile Digital Scribe is connected to a computer, handwritten text and drawings are displayed directly on the computer screen.

IOGEAR – GPEN200N – Mobile Digital Scribe

The main point here is the ‘from any surface’ thing: all the other pens need special (and expensive, you have to order them from internet and it’s difficult to find etc) papers to write on for them to work.

Yup, you can pass current through USB. So… you can light them up!

This goes for $ 22.99 per 6 feet

These Cable to Go ones go for between $ 2.38 – $ 9.59 depending on colour and length (look around a bit for different lengths than 2m

These green, blue and red gold plated connectors aren’t too expensive either.
These go for around $12.99

This pack of 7 port aluminium hub and 5 cables goes for $51.99

There are more possibilities with flashing heads when data is transmitted through them, with different colours at either ends, etc etc…

But you may have realised: the cable itself isn’t illuminated! AFAIK there is only one manufacturer for cables like that:

The Soundtech Lightsnakes

They can be found for around $20,- – $30,-

This lightweight piece of kit you can make yourself encases your head in a mysterious glow on security camera’s. Engadget makes the point that you’re going to have to explain yourself a lot to security guards, but hey – it’s your right to wear what you like and be private when you like!

NTT is launching a card which when you’re wearing it makes you communicate data by touching stuff.

Now I have an idea that this might be RedTacton technology – That’s been hanging around since 2005 without me having seen any practical application of it…

Back in May 2007 I had a look at brain controllers, one of which was promising to launch in October 2007. They are now accepting developers to use and program for their unit, but still not on the commercial market.

This is about the Epoc from Emotiv Systems though. The picture of the brain controller has changed quite a bit, but they are taking pre-orders (if you live in the US) and say they will be out towards the end of this year. Their software can recognise emotions, expressions and thoughts and intents.

If you work with HDs a lot, then this hard drive dock to usb2 thing might be usefull to you

This system, built for bikers, allows others to communicate with each other over a range of 500m.

G-tech/Pro is famous for its accelerometers or g-meters. They measure how fast you accellerate, how many G’s you’re pulling, how fast you brake and how that compares to your turns. Their SS ($199) / RR ($299) series are the top of the line, but it’s a bit unfortunate that you need to spend an extra $100,- to be able to export to your PC.

Of course, you could hook up your wii-mote to a laptop and let Excel do the number crunching 🙂

The Expandable Gauge System (EGS) is a real piece of engineering with shift lights, a rev meter, a digital display with loads of measurements all easily plugged in through your cigarette lighter and a controller. You can buy extra modules for it and expand it as much as you like. Starts at around $279

Link to G-Tech/Pro Homepage

Of course there is also the DashDAQ Series II which allows you to set your own gauge layouts on the screen and plug loads of third party elements into it.

But pricing at $695 is a bit steeper

PLX Devices has digital gauges you can customise and skin from your computer starting at $79,- per piece. The DM-200 ODB is full colour, 60mm and OLED.

Many more gadgets of to be found on Racergadget.com

This is a lovely story for a great development: a honeycomb structure that seems to be transparent and conducts sound, allowing you to transmit audio over just about any surface.

Looks like a good gaming keypad to me…

A great concept – put your keys anywhere on the board you want them, then program them with single keys or multi key macros. The board (tray) is clear, so you can print out templates if you like.

Sometimes a product comes along that’s so simple you wonder why you’ve never spotted it before. This is one of them. Wide enough for a keyboard and a mouse or a laptop and a mouse:

Without the balding guy (hopefully)

This seems to be the ulimate in erognomic keyboards for heavy use.

Olympus creates 360-degree HD camera and projector – Engadget

Really quick and easy video tutorial

It works by chemically filtering anything larger than 15 nanometers, thus cleansing it. Very usefull for the military or, well, anyone!

This keyboard costs more than the Optimus keyboard, also has OLED programmable buttons and even has a screen on it and easy mode changing stuff, but still manages to look like a throwback from the 60s.

There’s a video after the jump.

Want to lock up something and make it look cool too? Samsung has the answer. Pictures speak more than words.

It’s a touch sensor you build on a PCB.

A totally simple elegant idea.

Ion Audio has a tape deck you can copy your casettes to PC with, for just under GBP 100,-. They also have a system that copies LPs to PC using the USB port.

Saitek is launching some small LCDs which plug into flight simulators (please write a lot of drivers for these things!) and can be used to replace the instrumentation. These Head Down Displays turn your PC into a glass cockpit at around $99.99 per piece.

Yes, you have decided you really, really want to bluespam or bluesnarf everyone within a massive range – then this little box is the one for you. The Aircable Host XR gives 30 kilometers of unsuspecting targets to your PC.