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Bethesda's 'Prey' reboot makes you fear everything
Prey is all about deception. The first-person shooter starts off simple enough: You're a scientist beginning a new job at your brother's massive research company. You wake up in your bedroom, do some exploring and board a helicopter on top of your roof to head to work, where you're then subjected to some first-day testing. Everything seems to be going fine, until -- much like Valve's 1998 classic Half-Life -- all hell breaks loose. Aliens run rampant in the compound, and you black out during an attack. That's when Prey, the upcoming retelling of the 2006 game of the same name, twists the notion of what you know. You wake up in your bedroom again, just like before, as if the first 30 minutes of the game were a bad dream. But once you start exploring, you discover you're not in an apartment. You're in the middle of a giant sound stage simulating parts of your life, Truman Show-style. Once escaping the sound stage, you learn you're not in a futuristic version of San Francisco but instead on a space station that seems to be largely deserted. But one part of that earlier vision is true: The station is overrun with aliens.
Chinese androids wear tracksuits, play sports, but not at the same time (video)
When we last caught up with the Beijing Institute's family of bots, their abilities extended to slow (but pretty) tai chi moves. Returning three years later, we see that they're coming along nicely: BHR-4 is still going through the old graceful routines, but now he's wearing a human face and fetching sportswear to look like one of his creators. The 140-pound android beats certain Japanese alternatives by having both a fully-actuated body and a face that can mimic emotions, like surprise and fear when someone tries to give it a decent hair cut. Meanwhile, brother BHR-5 doesn't bother with appearances, but instead has graduated to playing ping-pong in the hope of one day taking on rivals from Zhejiang University. He uses high-speed image processing and 32 degrees of freedom to pull off rallies of up to 200 shots, and he'll do his utmost to impress you in the video after the break. [Image and video credit: CCTV-4]
Mimics helps you cope with your Sync-less existence (video)
Much as we hate to admit it, we can't all afford a fancy new car with Sync or Mini Connected inside -- I mean, come on, we're not made of money, people. Thankfully, it seems MP3Car has a pretty slick and affordable solution to the problem of fumbling with your iPhone when you should probably be focusing on the road and not crashing into things. Mimics is an in-car solution that transmits the contents of your handset to a touchscreen display in the vehicle's dash, letting you listen to music, use GPS, take calls, and check email without having to deal directly with the phone. The system is available now for pre-order at $630 for the full version, $530 for people who have standard double DIN-sized radio openings in their cars, and $205 for hobbyists who want to put the thing together -- here's hoping they're parked when they do. [Thanks, Sean]
Touch pad prototype works without movement, makes fingertips feel like they're sliding (video)
This comes from the same touchy-feely Kajimoto lab in Japan that brought us the tactile kiss transmission device and we totally see where they're going with it: maximum sensation, minimum effort. You only have to exert the gentlest of pressures on this prototype touch pad and it zaps your fingertip with little electrical signals, mimicking the feeling of sliding your finger over a surface. We imagine it's a bit like the little red pointing stick in the middle of a Lenovo ThinkPad keyboard, for example, but with the addition of "position-dependent data input" to create the illusion that your finger is actually touching different areas of the screen. For now though, if you don't mind stretching a finger to your old-stylee mouse or trackpad, then check out the video after the break.
Robot fish demonstrates leadership, could lead real aquatic life to safety (video)
It may look like a lobotomized coconut and a stray bit of tin foil, but Maurizio Porfiri's robot fish is something we don't see often: an attempt to naturally control wildlife. With an electroactive polymer locomotion system designed to mimic the powerful motions of fish leaders, his fake fish can trick schools of real ones to follow. The idea is to one day steer helpless creatures away from dangerous objects like turbines, but there's still loads of work to do before then -- presently, the robot can only swim in two dimensions, and requires a battery to operate. Porfiri's team at NYU Poly is already researching ways to harvest energy from the water itself, though, and he expects to have his fish powered by waves before long. Watch an early prototype in action after the break.
Pets get confused by video games
Over the holiday there is a cute little dachshund staying at my place. He's pretty old now, but dog-sitting when he was younger caused me to change gaming habits to accommodate. For example, any games with dogs or cats in them (or similar animal sounds e.g. Final Fantasy) would cause him to flip out. The same holds true for a cairn terrier I dog-sit. While playing Zelda: Twilight Princess the dachshund didn't go all out like the dog in the video above, but he did perk his head up and looked around feverishly to see what was going on. Any humorous animal stories out there? Have a cat that flips out with the Wii pointer on the screen? Do you also have a dog who howls along like he's wolf Link? After the break see how not to treat your pets -- nobody likes to get yelled at, not even Nintendogs.
