If you’re really, really into driving video games, you know that using a regular controller or a keyboard is for chumps. It’s a driving game, so clearly you need a steering wheel. But while most people are satisfied with just a wheel, some people need more. A lot more.

Enter the VirtualGT Racing Simulator. This behemoth is designed for realism, coming loaded with a 37-inch plasma TV and a whole seat/wheel/cockpit contraption. It also has tons of high-fidelity speakers to make you feel like you’re in a real car. Of course, for the $20,000 price you could be in a real car, but I guess some people have different priorities than others.

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The woman in this photo is freaking out because she’s wearing the 3rd Space FPS vest by TN games. The technology was supposedly developed for doctors to work via the Internet, but it didn’t fly. In a nutshell, it’s a vest that lets you feel the force of getting shot. The vest has an air source that can fire eight pneumatic cells that are embedded in the vest. Those cells simulate the direction and force of a bullet fired at you in a first-person shooter game.

Am I missing something here? Because I don’t think this one will fly either — who would want to feel what it’s like to get shot? Back to the drawing board, boys. No word on price or availability yet, anyway.

No, this isn’t the new Batmobile from The Dark Knight; it’s a super-slick concept car from Mazda dubbed the Furai. It’s got a “Cougar C65 chassis and a three-rotor rotary engine capable of 450 hp,” which means it’s fast. Really fast.

Of course, since it’s a concept, you’ll probably never get to drive one. And even if they did release it to the general public, it’d cost much more than you could afford. Cars like this aren’t for driving to the supermarket in anyways: they’re for racing and for ogling on the Internet. We’re happy to provide you with the ability to at least do the latter.

GM showcased a “green” Hummer run by algae at last year’s Los Angeles Auto show: it was really just a concept by someone with neat Photoshop skills.

This year at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, GM introduced a physical version of an “environmentally friendly” Hummer concept car, the HX. The HX has some elements of a sports car: It’s convertible and has only two doors. It’s lighter than previous Hummer models, with a V-6 engine that can run on E85 ethanol. Because news about the environment can get so dreary, the HX comes without a radio. Instead, it has a USB dock for MP3 players. Though the HX is just a concept design, it does signal GMs intention of equipping future Hummers with E85 FlexFuel engines.

Meanwhile, this year’s 2008 H3 uses old fashioned gasoline and gets 14 mpg on a good day.

Here’s a sure sign that the International Space Station is a solution looking for a problem: The space platform might be launching a Space Shuttle-shaped paper airplane that will glide back to earth at 5300 miles per hour. The Japan Origami Airplane Association was tapped by researchers at the University of Tokyo to fold up a 3.1-inch plane made of specially treated paper that’s tough enough to fly in space and return to earth.

Before the fastest paper airplane in history is released on its historic journey, first it must survive an ultra high-speed wind tunnel test that will take place tomorrow, to see if the tiny craft can withstand the hellish heat and buffeting forces of re-entry. But damn, NASA. There’s not even any way to track the thing, as far as we can tell, so what’s the point? Other than it being just a cool thing to do, of course. But after this experiment is done, could we go to Mars already, or get cracking on that moon base we’ve been hearing about for the past four decades?

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With a pair of Anti-Gravity Boots worn over your shoes, you’ll feel taller, have more of a spring in your step, and will probably have a higher chance of getting horribly injured just by simply walking around. The Boots utilize a heavy-duty rubber T-spring that you can swap out if anything happens to it, and it transfers a bit of downward energy back into your step, sending you bounding along. The Boots claim to be easy on the joints and offer a nice workout akin to power walking (or bouncing?) for people looking for a nutty way to lose weight.

The Anti-Gravity Boots by GeoSpace sell for around $180 and are suitable for anyone 190 pounds and lighter.

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Dyson vacuums may seem like the best of the best for the bagless vacuums, but Philips is ready to jump into the ring with a canister vacuum that is more powerful and cheaper than anything Dyson has to offer. Philips’ Marathon FC9208/01 is a canister vacuum that includes a 2000W motor capable of 350W of suction power, which is significantly more than the comparable Dyson DC21 that only has 220W of suction power. Its 15-pound weight is also significantly lighter than the DC21’s 23 pounds. It may be strictly an opinion, but I would have to admit the Philips is quite a bit prettier than the Dyson, if you care about the aesthetics of a vacuum cleaner.

At 76 dB, the Philips is one of the quieter bagless vacuums and the HEPA 12 filter is capable of capturing 99.5% of the dust. You can buy the Marathon for approximately $350, which is $150 less than the Dyson DC21 and others.

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The big brains at DARPA are at it again, this time teaming up with Oklahoma State University to develop unmanned aerial vehicles that will be small enough to fit into a soldier’s pocket. The heart of the project is the experimental propulsion system that has no moving parts and utilizes plasma thrusters. The need for such a tiny UAV comes after the realization that most of the unmanned reconnaissance vehicles used at the moment are poor indoors and in urban areas. OSU’s UAV would allow all soldiers to carry UAVs and see what they’re getting into before hand.

And what else is OSU cooking up for DARPA? “One of our projects is to keep an aircraft in the air for five years without landing,” an aerospace student told the Daily O’Collegian. “The other is to put an aircraft in a ballistic missile, which would serve as a launching system, the aircraft would fly out of the missile and provide us with immediate surveillance anywhere in the world within 45 minutes.”

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f your desk is located inside a pirate ship, these “Goth Style Speakers,” shaped like skulls with knives through them, are sure to look just perfect with all of your other decorations. If you live in a normal-looking house or apartment, well, these will look ridiculous.

I mean come on, I can understand being super into the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but to such a degree that you’d want a set of tacky skull-shaped speakers? That doesn’t make a lick of sense. These things even light up from the inside when they’re being used, making them even more embarrassing-looking. Trust me, you don’t want these.

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HBO is testing a new Broadband On Demand service on Time Warner Cable in Wisconsin right now, allowing current HBO subscribers to download any of its movies or shows whenever they want. It includes pretty slick features like season passes that start downloading new episodes of selected show 5 minutes after they air.

There are catches, of course. You can’t watch the videos on portable devices, nor can you burn them for viewing on your TV. The videos automatically expire after a few weeks, and you need to be connected to Time Warner Broadband to both watch and download the episodes. But hey, if you’re already paying for HBO, it’s a pretty sweet free bonus. If you live in Wisconsin, that is.

LawnBott has been upgraded. When we covered the previous incarnation of the lawnmower robot, we weren’t sure the concept would fly — but we were wrong and congratulations are in order. KA Home Robotics announced a new model, the LawnBott LB3200, which adds Bluetooth tech to its mowing arsenal, letting you program and control it from any Bluetooth-enabled cellphone or laptop.

For the initial setup, you use the included perimeter wire to set the boundary around the lawn edge, flowerbeds and bushes. Utilizing two lithium-ion batteries for power, the LB3500 leaves the docking station at its preprogrammed time to start the mow. It will work on slopes up to 30 degrees and cut an area as big as 38,000 square feet and then it return to its dock automatically. For safety there’s a free-floating 360-degree bumper, a blade-stop sensor, and an onboard alarm system if an unauthorized user picks up the Lawnbott. Lawnbott 2.0 is available now for $3,250.

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The Day-for-Night solar dress is made up of 448 white circuit boards that can be swapped out for all kinds of goodies — kinda like Batman’s utility belt, but a hell of a lot sexier.

The tiles can be solar cells, photocells, RGB LEDs or even jumper connectors, and the whole thing is tied together by a microcontroller that provides power, keeps an eye on the tiles and can transmit data via radio frequencies. A USB board on the dress allows it to be plugged into a PC for programming. Tiles can also be added to or removed from the assembly to adjust skirt length.

So are women’s purses filling up with enough gadgetry to warrant turning them into walking power chargers, or is this dress just a trap for nerds? I can only confirm the latter.

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f the Australian Tourist Board wants to dispel the Crocodile Dundee bigger is better, Texas with a funny accent image many of us have of their country, they’d better slap an export ban on Lenard Audio speakers pronto. I also hope the buildings north of Sydney are earthquake proof, because Lenard’s new Opal speakers are available with not just one, but a pair of massive 27 inch woofers in an enclosure that’s almost eight feet tall. These custom built to order behemoths are built one pair at a time to order, so if your sweetie isn’t willing to go with the quad 27 inch assault, you could always tell her that you’ll stick with the more modest 18 inch woofer option, just for her of course

Lenard Audio doesn’t appear to have US distribution, but I’m sure they’ll be willing to ship you a set of Opals the next time the Queen Mary II is steaming your way.

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Have you ever been in a snobby restaurant where when it comes to dessert time, the offerings include some highly unlikely frozen concoction like camembert sorbet? If so, chances are the dessert chef got a Pacojet for Christmas. This device is to blenders what a flame thrower is to kitchen matches, taking slicing and dicing into a whole new realm.

Take any type of food, whether it’s Mars bars, a whole lobster, a pile of anchovies, or yes, even a whole sea bass (take that Bass-O-Matic), freeze it solid, and then the Pacojet will whip it into a smooth and creamy frozen delight through a process they call Pacotizing. With more savory items, you can also create your own mousses and spreads (pickled onion topping anyone)?

The Pacojet is available now for $3450

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