Katie Fehrenbacher - Engadget

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Stories By Katie Fehrenbacher

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Computing

Computing By Katie Fehrenbacher

Magic Desktop: kid-friendly OS

We guess the programmers at Easybits software got a tad tired of the kiddies always crashing daddy's laptop files, since they built the Magic Desktop software as a shield against the teething-set. And while an operating system for 2 to 12 year olds sounds a bit overreaching (not to mention that by 12 they'll probably be hacking into the Pentagon's computers, not goofing around on something like this), the system is pretty simple and filters out all non-kid-friendly material to enable safe surfing, uses clickable images to navigate the interface and ignores all those repetitive clickings with which little Billy always seems to freeze the system. The software is currently testing in Europe and the US.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Take two robot pills and see me in the morning

When did swallowable tiny robot gear become the breakout single of the summer? We're not sure (ok, so maybe it's not that popular) but first there was the robot pill crawler, now the latest is the VitalSense monitoring pill. Designed by the Mini Mitter Company and, um, the US Army, the pill checks out your inner stats with a wireless temperature sensor. We can feel a Survivor-type reality TV cameo brewing here, but more practical apps include studying how high-heat environments affect body stress. We're thinking of popping a few, relaxing at the fake-n-bake, and checking the results.
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

Diet aid devices, slow torture to thinness

We know that the diet industry's got a stranglehold on a big percentage of our hard-earned dollars, so it's natural that they would start to get a tad creative. Popgadget has some deets on a few of the more unusual dieting gadgets, like, the Powerseed (pictured at right) a device that makes rhythmic beats to which you can time your bites and chews, and every once in a while prompts you to review your hunger feelings. Maybe this could help the eating-impaired but we're thinking we'll use the pod for Powerseed dinner parties, then friends and family can all munch to the same beat. There's also the DDS system, an uncomfortable merging of dental wear and a diet aid, and uses a custom-fitted retainer to reduce the amount of food the wearer can chew by 25% for every bite. Since we're sure that any pleasure gained from eating will have been completely trounced through this bulky retainer, we ask the question begging to be asked, why not just cut portions by 25%? No, that would be too easy.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Japanese bed-ridden robotic lifter

We'll admit we're more than a little jealous that Japan's rapidly-aging population will son have a robot for every occasion. OK, so we maybe should count it as a blessing that we don't require a robotic bathtime, though the human washing machine pictured here looks like the ultimate fullbody spa. And we guess we should be especially stoked that we don't require this new robotic lifter for the bedridden that Secom will be selling in April. The user can control the lifting robot with a remote and the device can move and place the user wherever s/he needs. Sensors make sure that the user is securely positioned on the lifter and stops moving if senses his/her unsafe placement.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Crawling robot pill

While the initial response to the idea of a leggy robot crawling around your guts is naturally one of shock and awe, if you really think about the other surgical and endoscopic options, they're all a little offputting as well: tubes, little cameras on wires, so why the hell not a tiny-legged robot pill? The 25mm long and 10mm diameter crawling capsule was created by researchers in Italy and Korea and once the pill is swallowed the soft coating dissolves and the crazy-legged robot starts its course. The only issue might be one of control, since we're sure the patient won't be none too pleased when some rogue robot starts aimlessly inspecting his intenstines. [Via Near Future]
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

Wedgalicious book light

The last time we bought a book light was for one of those crappy spend-five-bucks-White-Elephant parties and with an hour before party time we just grabbed whatever was left in clearance bin at Border's. Which is why we were filled with much stokedness to stumble across a book light that actually gives a little something back in the style and innovation department. LightWedge uses a sheet of acrylic with embedded LED's that users just place over the page to illuminate it. Since it lights up the entire page, there's no more awkward positioning of those clip-on book lights, we just hope the full page of shining LEDs doesn't give us some sort of cornea burnout. [Via Funfurde]
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

The not-so-cute face corset

If the twisted look of the face corset becomes the next teen trend, then we'll just have to join the ranks of the agoraphobics. As an art aesthetic we're obviously not big fans of the Marilyn Manson-style face corset, but since the the corset was originally created to aid with facial reconstruction due to accident, then we'll admit that the device is not the obvious fashion faux-pas-in-the-making it appears to be. Engineers at the Imperial College of London developed the aid and experts of "facial reconstruction history" (what the?) are creating a "Rearanging the Face" seminar this week. We just hope that JoJo and lil' Bow Wow don't start rocking these, or it's going to be a real long shut-in winter. [Via Near Near Future]
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

Yotel, London's version of Japan's capsule hotel

Yotel, a new London hotel concept, claim they're design is based on Japan's capsule hotels, but we suspect they've never actually stepped into the curtain-covered beehive holes that are the Tokyo capsule hotels. Don't get us wrong, Yotel is swanky and say our company (given we had a company with a budget for the £70 bill) was sending us to London, we'd vote for Yotel every time. It's got an iPod connector to blast our music surround sound-style, WiFi access, and the classic Japanese hotel control panel to dictate everything from air temp to tv remote to dimmer mood lighting. But unlike Japan's capsule pods which don't allow even the ability to turn around, let alone standup, Yotel's spacious 10x12 rooms look large enough to feel roomy. We're thinking that the usual Japanese capsule hotel clientele, trashed afterwork salarymen looking for a place to pass out, might steer clear of Yotel's chic suites and just opt for the dirty hostels down the street. [Via IDfuel]
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Japanese broker bots: millionaire machines

While one part of us hopes that these stock buying and selling robots don't completely outdue their human counterparts, replacing all of Wall Street with teenage programmers might be kind of therapeutic. Japanese computer programmers have been invited to create virtual robots to compete in KabuRobo Programming Contest, a stock investment returns contest put on by Waseda University, Nomura Research Institute and IBM Japan. Contestants will program their virtual robots to buy and sell orders for 40 stocks out of the 225 leading stocks in the Nikkei in response to market events or whatever factors they choose. Once the contest starts the contestants have to refrain from giving their robots any input and have to just let the bot broker on its own.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Lamppost-climbing CCTV-bots

We're not sure how accurate this story is, but since it sounds similar to some other goods readily available out there, we're not going to question at least the possibility of lamppost-climbing robots with CCTVs strapped to their backs. We just going to pass the rumor along and deal with our lack of journalistic efforts later. In the English region of the West Midlands, police and firefighters unveiled the devices at an arson task force, hoping to catch future arsonists in the act and hopefully prevent them from committing their firey misdeeds.
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EVs and Transportation

EVs and Transportation By Katie Fehrenbacher

Road Sign Aid, most annoying back-seat driver ever

Road signs have always been more like gentle suggestions than rule-of-the-road iron fist, at least to us. There's a hairpin turn ahead, ok, noted, now let's see how fast we can take it before sliding off into the ditch. But the National Information and Communications Technology Australian lab wants you to follow every road sign you see and has made a driver's aid system that detects and reminds drivers to pay attention to the road signs in front of you. It's kind of like having your nagging grandma accompany you on every car trip you ever take. The system, DAS - driver's assistance system, uses 3 cameras, one to scan the road for signs and the other two to watch where you're watching. The camera's vision is connected to a PC under the dash, which is also connected to the speedometer. The only potential problems might be with low-vision issues, such as bad weather or lack of lighting, assunming that you can actually stand the incessant headache of the computerized back-seat driver in the first place.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Demonstrate, robotic webcam protests

If you've ever been in town for a Berkeley protest then you know they're one part Che-t-shirt-wearing freshman, one part scraggly middle-aged 60's-era throwback and one part People's Park drifter (where's the free food?). So lucky for us all, we can now watch the ugly planned mayhem of the Sproul protests over a new robotic webcam, which has been installed under a project called Demonstrate made by Berkeley's engineering school. Users can sign into the project's site, control the webcam through point-n-click, take still pictures and write comments for their own and other user's pics. About 20 users can control the cam at a time and the site uses an algorithm to share all of the user's requests and determine the ultimate lens focus. For example if you're a user who has taken more pictures and commented on more images, then you're control over the cam carries more weight than a first time user. Starting noon today (just in time for the 40th anniversary of Berkeley's claim-to-fame free speech movement) the engineering school will be displaying and lecturing about their webcam. Though we really don't want to see the sad "you should have been there, man" old hippies or the "Mean People Suck" students, we might check it out just in case someone gets arrested.
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Wearables

Wearables By Katie Fehrenbacher

Mobile tie: neck fashion for the forgetful

The only folks who might be tempted to download this are either recent grads who've yet to have the everyday tie-knotting drudgery instilled in them or those that "work at home" most likely never changing out of their pjs, let alone donning a tie (right, we don't know any of those). Well, we guess if you wanted to start getting really clever with neck fashion, since the database has 14 famous ties that teach you the step by step theatrics that is the tie knot. But if you really can't remember the simple steps to the classic knot, then you probably really don't need one anyway. [Via TRFJ]
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Gaming

Gaming By Katie Fehrenbacher

GPS-cellphone swordfish game

We're not sure how this Swordfish-themed, GPS-based cellphone game managed the coup that was their John Stewart's Daily Show shout out last month. Of course the show belittled the game, but hey press is press, right? To play the game, you look on your screen, see where the "swordfish" are, then move to that location to attempt to catch them. In real life, you don't "virtually" go there or any of that crap. Sounds like a whole lotta work, and miles covered, for the hollow claim that you caught a non-existent swordfish. The game is only available in Canada right now, and the company says that they are the first location based fishing game, which we're sure is true, since we're not even sure there is a market for one of these things. [Via TechDirt]
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

The Boeing 727 meets crazy Mexican limo co.

If flossing a converted Boeing 727 limo around on American freeways was in any way legal, we would be the first to take the plunge—well, if we had the $1,500 for the 3-hour trip, that is. We aren't transportation experts or anything, we just have this feeling that the Highway Patrol isn't going to cut the 60-foot long, 13-foot high monstrosity too much slack, especially when there's 50 people crowded around the limo's bar and spilling onto the dancefloor.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

AMouse, the looks-nothing-like-a-mouse bot

Engineers seem to have a real soft spot for rat/robot combos like the Cyborg Rat, which we took a look at last week, though the AMouse (Artificial Mouse), a fully robotic rat with natural mouse whiskers, looks admittedly nothing like a mouse (we guess they weren't going for the realistic look). We're thinking that rats and labs have gotten a bread-n-butter partnership because, beyond all those lab-friendly characteristics, they tend to score pretty low on the public-sympathy-meter. And though we're not sure of the exact method by which the AMouse gets its real McCoy whiskers, it's probably not such a great outcome for the de-whiskered rats. Engineers at Universities of Tokyo and Switzerland created the AMouse to climb into small spaces and use its whiskers as sensors to detect different changes in environment. They're hoping one day to create robotic whiskers to replace AMouses' borrowed real ones, but until then some unlucky labjockey will have the honorary job as rat-whisker plucker (not to mention the unlucky rats).
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Mobile

Mobile By Katie Fehrenbacher

Richard Branson loves him some cellphone

You know CNN is really going for that Emmy when it features Richard Branson's love note to his trusty cellphone. We're not sure what is more disturbing, his 5th grade book report writing style, the fact that he makes it sound like the cellphone made its debut last week, or his suspiciously unbuttoned chest hair flash. "Before I had a mobile phone I would try to get away from my desk as often as possible but it was definitely a lot more difficult. . . Now I'm never behind a desk. I am always out and about and on the move." And free to write truly lame articles for CNN's tech pages, lucky us. We know he's just trying to promote Virgin Mobile so we'll cut him some slack, but CNN's really got no excuse.
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Science

Science By Katie Fehrenbacher

Mercury-free silver oxide battery - those things had mercury in 'em?

We always knew that batteries have the honor of being the single most toxic element out of any electrical device we own - we're thinking that's why our battery-sucking kid brother developed that weird tick. But Sony announced that they've made the silver oxide battery disc battery a little greener. The silver oxide battery is the one used in wrist watches and handhelds games, and in the past the battery always needed mercury to stop corrosion. But now Sony says they've developed the technology to take out the mercury without the previous corrosive result. We really have no idea how they did it, but we applaud taking mercury out of the occasion. Now start working on those thermometers.
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

The Urballoon

You might be heading to Manhattan's Spectropolis festival this weekend for the Mary-Poppins (well, if she were a Valley programmer) meets Lite-Brite fun that will be UMBRELLA.net, but Urballoon, a floating balloon equipped with WiFi and projector, stands to be just as dinner-theater showy through its user-submitted content which gets projected and lights up the ground space below the balloon at the entrance of City Hall Park. The balloon is tethered to the ground, floating three stories high, so you can be sure that the plug you're going to make for your blog (or whatever) will be nice and big for everyone to see. We're not sure if they'll be censoring the content (probably not), but if you have kid make sure to have your shield-hand ready for the array of explicit and hardcore content they're sure to receive within mere moments of the Urballoon going live. Gotta love the Internet. [Via textually.org]
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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By Katie Fehrenbacher

America's Next Top Models meet the Sidekick

We guess Tyra and the catty minds behind America's Next Top Model agree with Paris over the joys of the Sidekick, since the newbie model flock got a new Sidekick from T-Mobile to kick around on last night's episode. We're not sure how all 14 (well, by the end of last night's show, 12), are gonna share the thing, though they'll probably be too busy purging their lunches and posing with only body glitter and a snake to take time to properly test it out.
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

A Pez-dispensin', MP3-playin' American dream

We have a feeling this was the result of someone having an "aha!" moment while eating a lot of Pez and listening to some MP3s, though we're not sure it's quite on the same level of inspiration as that whole cookie-dough-meets-ice-cream thing. This guy wants to mesh the classic Pez dispenser with a USB keychain that doubles as an MP3 player, thus creating the world's first PezMP3 player. OK, stranger partners have been produced, though admittedly not by much, and we're thinking he might be waiting a long time before he gets he go ahead from Pez Inc. [Via Boing Boing]
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News

News By Katie Fehrenbacher

Oculas: the mod O-Pod

We've been thinking about selling the farm (well, the studio apartment) and living out our days in the confines of the Barbarella-pod that is the Oculas. It's kind of like if the Chill Out Room was a place you'd actually want to spend some time in, or if you could trick out Metronaps and take it to the next level. You can customize your Oculas however your twisted heart desires, but you know the design team had serious visions when the standard interior options are suede or Scottish leather. Don't forget to include all those needed items like an X-Box, multiple flat screens, retinal-scan entry system with electrical door riser, and massage chair. Awww, yeah. [Thanks, Anthony]
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Mobile

Mobile By Katie Fehrenbacher

Welcome to Kyoto: here's a free cellphone

We really wish all our past Japan trips had been accompanied by this free cellphone service which provides translations in Korean and English (and later on Chinese), road maps and GPS system of the surrounding landscapes and cultural events alerts around Kyoto prefecture. We're definitely not knocking the age-old Tonto-style pointing which can usually deliver your basic needs (point sushi, point stomach, smile, repeat), but what better way to get a Japan-immersion experience then to have your full service cellphone act as your new best friend guide. Kyoto Prefecture plans to launch the service in December, and is loaning 500 cellphones to to lucky tourists.
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Robotics

Robotics By Katie Fehrenbacher

Animaris Rhinoceros Transport: Not your typical day at the beach

We know this unhinged, genius Dutch artist created these At-At-Walker-looking creatues just so he could play lion-master with his walking stick (argh, stay back unruly beasts!), but that's definitely the first thing we would do if we encountered one of these creatures lumbering around the beach. The artist created these skeleton things, which he named Animaris Rhinoceros Transport, out of a steel skeleton and polyester skin and since they're almost 5 meters tall they actually move (must look at the videos) by wind power. The Animaris' weigh about 2 tons each and can carry passengers, though the artist says that he's going to make living quarters in the beast since travel can only be accomplished during strong winds. Right, good thinking, the artist also wants to set the beasts free on nearby beaches so that they can "live their own lives". Alright so he's completely loopy, but in that brilliant "It's Alive!" kind of way. [Via Near Near Future]
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Mobile

Mobile By Katie Fehrenbacher

Micro-management with GPS/cellphone

That crafty mid-level manager has been watching you over your work-cellphone for awhile now, so it's probably best to resist the urge to head over to O-Malleys for a quick tipple. The GPS-cellphone as employee-monitor has been the cause of endless privacy vs. security squabbles, and confused workers might be best off tossing their spying handsets in a ditch. While the leader of the mobile-monitoring pack has been Nextel with their Mobile Locator, recently the mobile tracking firm Xora has released services like "geofences" which sets off an alarm when the employee goes to a previously no-no designated area (we bet 80% of these are bars). The technology should remind you of that pet GPS collar which sends email alerts to the pet owner when Rover dashes outside of the confines of his monitored fenced-in yard. Though since the E911 mandate (which says that cellular carriers must enable 95% of their cellphones to be tracked when the user dials 911, by the end of 2005) has been creating the boon for GPS/cellphone systems, then we guess that most employers using GPS/cellphone tracking are just trying to look out for their employee's safety - right? Though that excuse doesn't really hold up with the geofences alert system, unless the employer's going to claim it's aiding with employee alcohol abuse.
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Science

Science By Katie Fehrenbacher

Pain Ray, no fun but fun to say

You know the Pentagon has been mining old sci-fi flicks when the good old ray gun shows up as the latest Iraq-intended weapon of the day. (full disclosure: the cartoon image is not the real Raytheon product). We understand that these non-lethal weapons are supposed to be the nice version to putting a bullet in you're opponent, but do they all have to be so disturbing? Raytheon's Pain Ray shoots an invisible beam of energy that burns the skin, they say like touching a light-bulb all over your body. That might sound all warm and fuzzy, but it's probably more like falling on a searing hot grill. We're thinking that the Pain Ray probably won't turn Fallujah into an American-loving Wal-Mart haven, but could really piss off a lot more peeps who don't appreciate the kitsch factor of the ray gun.
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Mobile

Mobile By Katie Fehrenbacher

Mobile Snoop Service

Most times commute hours are just that half hour space you zone out in, eyes glazed over, spittle forming, and any kind of forced social bonding session sounds like true torture (well, unless you're a show 'em your O-face guy). But an artist (same one who made the sketchy Sketch-a-Move toy car) designed the Mobile Snoop Service using the 3G videophone interface, enabling voyeurs and exhibitionists to peek into fellow traveller's text messages and cellphone images. Tested on London's Bus No. 52, the passengers could sign up for the service, open up their inner cellphone data as little or as much as they wanted, and then view other's text secrets in relation to their own degree of reveal. If you let it all out then you could fully ransack the offered personal data. We're not exactly sure if the project actually worked like the artist's plan describes, or if it was more abstract concept "art", since how many people riding the No. 52 commuter bus have fancy 3G videophones? [Via Near Near Future]
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