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McLaren imagines a future with AI co-piloted race cars
Formula One racing will be more like a video game in 30 years, according a fanciful vision of the future unleashed by supercar maker McLaren. According to its "MCLExtreme" research project (don't try to pronounce that), future formula race cars will do everything short of flying. The cars, electric naturally, will run on Hot Wheels type tracks at up to 500 km/h (310 mph), pulling up to 5 Gs while taking 90 degree bends at 250 mph.
Universal Motion Simulator: real enough to evoke panic (video)
A fighter sim just isn't realistic unless it makes you throw up and scream for your mother, which is why the sadistic folks at Australia's Deakin University created the Universal Motion Simulator. It's a barebones cockpit attached to the end of a seven-meter robotic arm that can pull up to six Gs -- indeed it's uncomfortable enough to mimic external disturbances, mechanical failures and crash scenarios as well as normal flying. The system also monitors a pilot's brainwaves, pulse and other bodily functions to discover if they have necessary nerve. Check out the video after the break and then imagine combining it with a 360-degree viewing dome for utter perfection.
Under Armour's E39 performance shirt is electric (video)
If athletic events were accessorized with coffee, comfy pajamas, and a particular knack for sedentariness, well, we'd be champs. Alas, sports are more typically characterized by movement which, we're told, increases the participant's pulse, breathing, and likelihood of turning an arm into a tattooed sleeve. Nevertheless, we can't help but be intrigued by the Under Armour E39 ("E" for electric) compression shirt. The performance tee features a removable "bug" sensor equipped with a triaxial accelerometer, processor, and 2GB of storage flanked by additional monitors that measure the wearer's heart rate and breathing. A system provided by Zephyr can then analyze the athlete's individual movements and biometric data to help identify performance issues like when the body is moving out of sync thereby slowing down an athlete's linear speed. Scouts, coaches, and trainers can collect the data over Bluetooth from smartphones, tablets, or PCs to measure and potentially improve performance. An athlete measuring a low G-force for their particular sport could, for example, be put on a strength training regimen to help improve explosiveness. In the future, Under Armour sees the data being collected and analyzed in real-time allowing coaches to replace under performing players right on the field. The NFL has already equipped a handful of players with the E39 shirts during its annual Scouting Combine event -- the results of which you can see in the video after the break.
A lava lamp and a Nexus One tested under 3 Gs of force (video)
Neil Fraser, a true pioneer of science, wasn't satisfied with just wondering whether a lava lamp will work on Jupiter. He opted instead to build a freaking centrifuge in the middle of his living room, strap an innocent lava lamp and a Nexus One to one end with counterbalancing weights on the other, and spin that monster up to find out for himself. His instrument was able to generate 3 Gs of lateral force (despite the Nexus One's G-Force reporting 2.0 Gs due to a bug, now reported to Google), which is comfortably above the 2.5 G gravitational pull that one might experience on the solar system's biggest planet. So, did the goo keep its mojo under pressure? Did the Nexus One survive the ordeal intact? Click past the break to find out.
Blu-ray releases on December 15th 2009
The busy movie season takes a break off this week in regards to quantity, but not in quality as we have three day and date titles that're on the top 25 box office hits of 2009. The first is the animated G-Force from Disney. The other two are comedies and while we can't personally vouch for Inglourious Basterds, we can tell you that The Hangover if one of the funniest movies we've seen in a long time. G-Force (Walt Disney) The Hangover (Warner) 2009 World Series Highlights (Shout! Factory) Basilisk: The Complete Series (Funimation) HD Moods: Blu Ocean (Topics) Inglourious Basterds (Universal) La Boheme (Kultur) The Mel Brooks Collection (Fox) The Other Man (Image) Samurai Champloo: The Complete Series (Funimation) Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 (Paramount) Taking Woodstock (Universal)
Trophies: G-Force
1 Platinum3 Gold12 Silver28 Bronze Difficulty: Moderate Online Trophies? No Time to Completion: 20 hoursDLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game
3D glasses included in two new Disney games for Xbox 360, PS3 & Wii
While you'll probably have to wait for James Cameron's Avatar for a proper stereoscopic 3D experience on consoles, Disney is readying two games this summer that will not only support anaglyph 3D (good news, it will work on any TV, bad news, it's the same low quality red/blue style 3D you've seen and ignored before), but come with two pairs of glasses packed in. Just continuing on the 3D hype its been dispensing to the kids with Jonas Bros. and Hannah Montana flicks both on the big screen and at home, highlighted most recently with Up and culminating in the upcoming Toy Story 1 & 2 3D remakes in October, Disney is clearly making an effort to work the technology in on every level with special 3D modes (no cheat codes necessary.) Toy Story Mania is a Wii-exclusive game due this fall based on the ride at its resorts, while G-Force brings spy guinea pigs to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 July 21.[Via Joystiq]
Toy Story Mania & G-Force games to include 3-D glasses at retail
Disney has sent word that two of its upcoming releases, Toy Story Mania! and G-Force, will each include two sets of 3-D glasses at retail. When Toy Story Mania! was first announced in March, Disney told us it was on the fence about including the glasses right away. Both games offer unique features for use with the spectacles. In Toy Story Mania! two players can wear the glasses in a specific 3-D enhanced game mode, while G-Force will allow a spectator to view the onscreen action in 3-D. Of course, if the future of all entertainment is too much for some gamers to handle, the feature can be manually disabled. G-Force is scheduled to hit stores alongside the movie -- on which the game is based -- in July, while Toy Story Mania! ships this fall.
G-force's tiny 1Seg video recorder
Japan is currently flooding with 1seg mobile digital TV tuners after rolling out the service some 6 months ago. Most external tuners ship as USB sticks for watching TV on the go from your laptop. The G-force G-WWT-1201B 1seg tuner, however, is meant to be connected your portable DVD player or any other display with composite input. What's a bit novel here, is that this tuner also boasts 512MB of flash for recording 2 to 3 hours of highly compressed video. Just about right since you'll only get about 3 hours off rechargeables anyway. Expected to hit Japan tomorrow for ¥26,040 (about $220).
Fantom Drives releases roomy new Triple Interface G-Force MegaDisks
It's an all too common dilemma: you've thrown down some serious change for a new Mac Pro and Godot brushed metal DAP, but you've got nowhere to turn for a massive external hard disk that sports that token cheese grater look. Okay, so it's probably not "common" per se, but if it's your reality, Fantom has the solution. The G-Force MegaDisk is the latest lineup of Mac-ish looking external drives; touted as a "heat dissipating aluminum enclosure," the sleek box drive sports USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. The MDC500 and MDC800 house 7,200RPM SATA II drives with 32MB cache, each with 500GB and 800GB, respectively -- the big boys, also known as the MDC1000 and MCD1500, rock 1TB and 1.5TB of SATA II storage, but "only" manage 16MB of cache. The Fantom Four can be snapped up now for $269.95, $499.95, $599.95, and $999.95, running from smallest to roomiest, and looks to be today's surefire winner in the Mac Pro sidekick contest.[Via MacMinute]
