Skip to Content

WoW Insider is getting ready for BlizzCon!
AOL Tech

dsp posts

Logitech's MX Air Mouse: a witches brew of lasers, MEMS, and RF geekmagic


Oh hey, that little fella looks familiar. Sure enough, the rechargeable Logitech MX Air Mouse we spied last month is getting real this morning. Touting Logitech's "Freespace" motion control, the Air Mouse combines MEMS sensors with DSP and 2.4GHz RF technology for both gestural motion-control and traditional laser mousing about. The Air Mouse attempts to bridge the gap between mouse and remote control with a touch-sensitive scroll-panel (instead of a scroll wheel) and dedicated pause/play and volume control buttons positioned down the center of the device. Push the volume button and flick the mouse right or left to increase or decrease the volume, respectively, at distances up to 30 feet away from your PC. Niiice. Better yet, it's shaped to impress when toted about in the trousers... gaRowl! Ships in the US and Europe for $150 sometime in August.

[Via Notebooks.com]

Linux-powered VoIP uber-phone does WiFi video conferencing


We're not sayin' we'd put one of these bad boys in our living room or anything, but adorning the board room table with a four-line VoIP phone that sports a built-in 3.5-inch LCD, webcam, and Zach Morris-style handset wouldn't be a half bad use of resources. The SysMaster Tornado M20 uber-phone does a lot more than hold down IP calls, as it also manages to handle video conferencing, IPTV, video- / audio-on-demand, internet radio, voicemail, email / chat / news, and local weather information. This conglomerate even touts a dual-core processor, 32MB of RAM, and 32MB of flash memory, and the integrated Ethernet jack, WiFi, RCA audio outs, and Linux-powered UI are all welcome additions. Of course, we've no idea if you can rig up Tetris on this thing and use the 4, 8, and 6 keys to control your pieces, but it'll only cost you $260 and a tick of your time to find out.

CSR intros multi-microphone Bluetooth headset technology


The same folks bringing us the ultra sensitive Bluetooth / GPS hybrid chip are also looking to improve voice quality on vanilla Bluetooth headsets, and the firm has now collaborated with Dynamic Hearing to offer up a multi-microphone configuration. Available on the company's BlueCore-Multimedia platform, this VoiceField technology "uses two microphones to capture the speech of the headset user before it is lost amongst competing noise sources." Additionally, it was designed to suck down very little power and sport uber-low signal latency, and also includes acoustic echo suppression, automatic handsfree volume control, and programmable equalization in 33 frequency bands." Now, how's about making us look a bit less freakish while donning these things on our ear?

[Via Inquirer]

ThinkOptics' WavIt 3D Media-PC Remote gunning for Wiimote

We're hearing some fairly bold words from a startup company with a purported Wiimote killer, even though it's about as far from the gaming realm as it could possibly be. In what's likely a shameless attempt to link the WavIt 3D Media-PC Remote to the well-regarded Wiimote, ThinkOptics has reportedly "made a pointing system for the computer and TV that makes the Nintendo Wii's controller look downright primitive." Realistically, the Wavlt doesn't look much better than any other overachieving wireless pointing device, but it does hope to interact with TVs and HTPCs in order to make on-screen navigation a bit less painful. Additionally, the creator is looking to incorporate the motion-sensing device into home automation in order to raise and dim lights, crank up the furnace, or mute your youngster's blaring music from the living room. The controller supposedly utilizes both RF and infrared technologies, and although it can track minute twists, flips, and turns, it does lack both an accelerometer and built-in Bluetooth. Notably, the wand will rely on the 2.4GHz band as well as Zigbee's 802.15 protocol, and while no firm release date was set, official pricing information should be unveiled shortly. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

Casio's Exilim EX-Z11 point-and-shoot looks good in black


Regardless of what vivid color tries to replace it, black is still the new black when it's all said and done, and not too many gizmos look better on the dark side that Casio's Exilim EX-Z11. Sporting an ebony brushed-metal finish, this compact point-and-shoot screams sexy while packing a fairly respectable feature set to boot. Inside you'll find a 7.2-megapixel CCD sensor, 3x optical zoom, auto / "manual" focus options, 2.6-inch LCD monitor, SD flash card slot, anti-shake DSP to reduce blurring, up to ISO 800, and a rechargeable Li-ion battery. While there's no hard release date that we can scrounge up, the 3.76- x 2.39- x 0.77-inch Z11 should run users around £299 ($589) whenever it lands.

[Thanks, David]

Parrot intros A2DP-enabled MK6100 handsfree Bluetooth car kit


Our favorite Bluetooth gurus are readying yet another in-car handsfree kit, but unlike the run-of-the-mill offerings already crowding store shelves, the Parrot MK6100 adds a bit of musical delight as well. Aside from giving users the opportunity to hear conversations through their stereo system, this two-piece system boasts a built-in microphone in the horizontal display (which just so happens to be a svelte OLED), and also plays on the emotions of audio lovers everywhere. The A2DP-enabled kit features a separate wireless remote that can be used to cycle through the tracks on your handset, play and pause the tunes, and easily fit into your glovebox when you exit the vehicle. Additionally, users will be graced with DPS, automatic phonebook synchronization, text-to-speech capabilities, and voice dialing, and while we're not quite sure of the pricing deets just yet, you can probably expect to find out for yourself in Q2 of this year.

Aliph's Bluetooth Jawbone headset sports military-grade noise cancellation

We've seen our fair share of Bluetooth headsets (with and without DSP), and we hold a soft spot in our heart for the hardcore, rugged devices out there that can withstand next to anything, but Aliph's Jawbone earpiece blends the best of both worlds into one fashionable piece of kit. While the firm already has a wired version on the market, this Bluetooth-enabled set rocks a silver or red color scheme, dual microphones, lightweight design, and a noise cancelling sensor that is literally military-grade. Crafted after conducting research for DARPA, the goal was "to create a mobile phone headset capable of erasing background noise," even in less-than-amicable (or safe) situations. Although there's no pricing or availability information just yet, the unit has already made its way on the Award Honorees list for CES 2007, and if you want to see this bad boy in action, be sure to continue on after the jump for a YouTube demonstration.

[Via BlueTomorrow]

Bongiovi Acoustics unveils miracle DSP chip for car audio

If there were ever a time where we'd need to hear it before we believed it, this would be it. Tony Bongiovi, an audio engineer who's been around the block a time or two (read: he worked with Hendrix), has finally crafted the miracle chip he's been missing for decades. Dubbed the Digital Power Station (DPS, not to be confused with DSP), the microchip is described as a "very sophisticated equalizer," and while it was originally "the size of a refrigerator," he looked to Glenn Zelniker, a specialist in digital signal processing, to program a wee chip to do the same thing. The result is a dynamically programmed microchip based on an off-the-shelf DSP from Freescale Semiconductor, which is housed in special headunits (like JVC's KD-S100) and has more than "120 points of adjustment" to tune the tunes to fill each vehicle perfectly. Reportedly, the chip even turns factory speakers into high-fidelity drivers, as it calculates the dimensions of the vehicle and the abilities of the cones while outputting the audio. The JVC unit will cost "between $700 and $1,000 installed," since you'll have to schedule an appointment with your service department to get the correct software installed for your make and model, but we'd suggest a trial listen before you plunk down your one large.

[Via PhysOrg]

Meizu M6 SP gets better for less yuan

When we eyed the Meizu M6 Mini Player earlier this year, it was almost love at first playlist -- it was slick, small, and inexpensive. So you can imagine our joy in informing you that the new Meizu M6 SP will be just like its predecessor, only better and cheaper. The SP model will bring a new Samsung chipset that purportedly offers "advanced DSP functionality" for 150-300 yuan ($19-$38) less than the old version. The M6 SP comes in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB sizes, and will cost between 700 yuan ($88) and 1,300 yuan ($164); hopefully, that'll translate into price cuts for the US markets as well.

[Via DAP Review]
    Follow us on Twitter
    Engadget Video


    AOL News

    Joystiq

    Download Squad

    TUAW

    BloggingStocks

    Asylum

    Autoblog

    Switched.com

    FanHouse

    Autoblog Green