http://droolr.com/ Droolr en-us Hand Touch - Screen Input Say goodbye to smeared screens and cracked glass, Chris Harrison has done it again. The prolific computer scientist's latest creation, Skinput, turns the human body into a giant touchscreen. Developed as a response to the increasingly uncomfortable miniaturization of modern keypads, the third year Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) produced Skinput with Microsoft researchers Dan Morris and Desney Tan. Harrison had already developed a way to turn ordinary tabletops into finger input surfaces, but says it wasn't enough. "We strap iPods and other devices onto our arms. Why not utilize all the external surface area that's already with us?" said Harrison. "What's great about skin, unlike tables, is that it travels with us." At this stage, the Skinput armband contains a pico projector that displays the 'touchpad' on the user's hand or forearm, along with biosensors that recognize skin taps on corresponding locations of the body, based on bone and soft tissue variations. The possibilities are staggering. Among other examples, Harrison envisions a future device no larger than a small stack of coins, worn around the wrist or bicep, with all the capabilities of an iPhone. Imagine typing an urgent email onto a projection on your hand. The world has noticed. Harrison and his colleagues will be presenting their paper at the ACM Computer-Human Interaction Conference in April, where they've already been awarded one of 14 Best Paper Awards out of more than 1,300 submitted. In addition, Harrison recently won one of 10 coveted Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowships. He credits his time at Carnegie Mellon. "My training and my inspiration come from the people that I work with," he explained. "The graduate students in our HCI Ph.D. program are the smartest bunch of students in the world. They inspire me every day, and my advisor, Scott Hudson, does the same. It's not an accident that I'm able to create these new technologies. It's the environment that I'm in." Harrison's larger goals include teaching others and bringing useful new technologies into the public domain, but his research has brought a welcome surprise. "As someone who grew up loving technology, getting emails from people all around the world saying, 'This project is so cool, I'm thinking of studying computer science,' is an incredible reward. To get other people excited about technology and interested in pursuing technology in their education and careers is an extra bonus," he said. http://droolr.com/products/357-Hand-Touch-Screen-Input http://droolr.com/products/357-Hand-Touch-Screen-Input Automatic Marshmallow Bazooka $49.95 This battery-powered bazooka launches edible, full-sized marshmallows up to 40', forever changing the rules of engagement for marshmallow gun confrontations. The integrated microprocessor automatically regulates air pressure, allowing you to launch up to five marshmallows in 60 seconds without manual pumping. Simply load a marshmallow into the chamber, wait for the LED on the reticle to illuminate, and pull the trigger to bombard your mark with confection. Requires six AA batteries. Ages 6 and up. 7" H x 3 1/2" W x 25" L. 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While 15-inches is small, it easily trumps the world's first production OLED TV, Sony's $2,500 11-inch XEL-1, and is a reasonable size for the bedroom (if you must) or kitchen counter. No word on specs but we expect the production set to offer the same million:1 contrast, 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution, and 30,000-hour shelf life as the prototype unveiled in January. The TV will launch first in Korea for an undisclosed price that is bound to be punishingly expensive. http://droolr.com/products/347-LG-15-inch-OLED-TV-on-sale-in-December-Engadget http://droolr.com/products/347-LG-15-inch-OLED-TV-on-sale-in-December-Engadget iPhone 3GS in 18ct Gold and Swarovski Crystals Design details include a front bezel with 300 Swarovski crystals embedded and 12 crystals on the main navigation button. http://droolr.com/products/355-iPhone-3GS-in-18ct-Gold-and-Swarovski-Crystals http://droolr.com/products/355-iPhone-3GS-in-18ct-Gold-and-Swarovski-Crystals Wacom's new Cintiq 21UX pen display We'd sell any number of our children and internal organs in exchange for a Wacom Cintiq pen display, but unfortunately we're not sure any of them are quite valuable enough. The holy grail of drawing on you computer has just upped its game with the newest Cintiq 21UX. First and foremost is a new level of pen sensitivity, with support for a "near-zero" starting pressure and a total of 2048 levels of sensitivity. The 21-inch LCD display also has rear mounted "Touch Strips" running along the sides that let you adjust different parameters based on what you select with the thumb-convenient Touch Strip Toggle button. Unfortunately, there's no mention of that rumored finger-friendly multitouch (or even finger touch of any sort) on this new display. It's hard to blame Wacom, it has a priority to serve artists first and Microsoft Touch Pack dabblers second, but hopefully we can get a second, multitouch version of this display that's a little less extravagant on the pen end and a little more affordable than the $1,999 pricetag affixed to this display. The new Cintiq 21UIX should ship later this month or early April. PR is after the break. http://droolr.com/products/348-Wacom-s-new-Cintiq-21UX-pen-display- http://droolr.com/products/348-Wacom-s-new-Cintiq-21UX-pen-display- Luxury Tissue Box Diamond-encrusted TISSUES??? What has this world come to? http://droolr.com/products/360-Luxury-Tissue-Box http://droolr.com/products/360-Luxury-Tissue-Box Lomo Camera with 24 Carat Gold Finish Lomo cameras (back in the day) were popular as they were cheap as chips and almost disposable, made from just flimsy plastic. Now, they're coated in 24-carat gold and in limited edition runs of 130 pieces. It'll still produce the same dreamy photos full of saturated colors and vignetted corners, but at $600 a piece it'll probably be relegated to a dusty shelf than actually be used. Still, I definitely want one—especially now that I can spoil the aesthetic completely with http://droolr.com/products/352-Lomo-Camera-with-24-Carat-Gold-Finish http://droolr.com/products/352-Lomo-Camera-with-24-Carat-Gold-Finish Portopong: World’s First Inflatable Beer Pong Table For those who haven’t heard of the game yet, Beer Pong, or Beirut, is a fun drinking game involving a table, multiple cups of beer set in triangles at both sides of the table, and a ping-pong ball. http://droolr.com/products/346-Portopong-World-s-First-Inflatable-Beer-Pong-Table http://droolr.com/products/346-Portopong-World-s-First-Inflatable-Beer-Pong-Table Nike launches a limited series for Aston Martin and Kobe Bryant Nike launched a limited edition for the Hyperdunk range, named Hyperdunk Kobe Bryant Aston Martin edition. http://droolr.com/products/344-Nike-launches-a-limited-series-for-Aston-Martin-and-Kobe-Bryant http://droolr.com/products/344-Nike-launches-a-limited-series-for-Aston-Martin-and-Kobe-Bryant Microsoft Courier's - Ipad Competitor 窶「 Shifting from using Windows 7 as its core as Mary Jo Foley first reported to Windows CE6 and mobile guts puts it more squarely against the iPad, using a similar philosophical approach of scaling up to a tablet, vs. scaling down as Microsoft's always done before. (Which makes sense, given that this is supposedly J. Allard's project窶派e'd want to use E&D's own goods to power his tablet.) Also, mobile guts are cheaper than low-power laptop guts. As you can see, the device seems even smaller (Update: maybe not), the interface, though still pen-based, seems less whizzy based on these stills than the wildly complex and sophisticated (or maybe just complex) interface shown earlier: This take is built on the same mobile OS core as Windows Phone 7 and Zune HD, powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 hardware. It's supposedly thinner than an inch, under a pound, and about the size of a 5x7 photo when closed. These fresh images and details of Microsoft's Courier paint a slightly different device than the one uncovered a few months ago窶杯inier seeming, perhaps less genre-busting, and a more direct iPad fighter. http://droolr.com/products/356-Microsoft-Courier-s-Ipad-Competitor- http://droolr.com/products/356-Microsoft-Courier-s-Ipad-Competitor- Cool CarbonFiber Leather Shell for Iphone Combining with supple stitched leather wrapped around the iPhone, the shell is perfect designed for Apple IPhone and includes microfiber cleaning cloth. http://droolr.com/products/354-Cool-CarbonFiber-Leather-Shell-for-Iphone http://droolr.com/products/354-Cool-CarbonFiber-Leather-Shell-for-Iphone Jupiter Jack™ - Talk and Drive Hands Free and Safe #Step 1 Plug Jupiter Jack into any phone and mount it on the dash. # Jupiter Jack - Step 2 Preset your radio to 99.3 FM. # Jupiter Jack - Step 3 You're ready to start talking hands FREE and Safe! * No Plugs. No Wires. 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