The next big thing for Games

Back in late 2004 one of the most successful systems of all time was released. The Nintendo DS (shown below) caught our attention as soon as our gaming hungry eyes noticed it had 2 Screens. We were even more interested when we found out the button screen was a touch screen. Well its been 6 years. Its time for Nintendo to step up its game.

By now you have heard of the 3DS. A new pocket console that will make 3D glasses a thing of the past. The bottom screen like its predecessor will be a touch screen, while the top will be a new 3D screen that will not require any glasses to view. But thats just the icing of the cake, this little machine packs a whole lot into it.


Features:

3D photos: The new 3DS will include a 3D camera, that will let you take and edit 3D photos.

Augmented Reality: This seems to be the craze in gaming these days. Putting real life in games. Using the camera included in the system. Using "AR Cards", the camera will let you play games with the images your currently viewing. Its a little hard to explain, but check the video below to see for yourself.

Mii Studio: Ready to be freaked out some more? The 3DS will take photos of your face and then make a Mii character using its 3DS camera.

Tag Mode: The 3DS will go into a sleep/standby mode when not in use. So when you walk by another person that has a 3DS, it will swap information with them. Unlocking new content and adding new challengers to games. And you'll get their Mii in your very own DS Mii studio plaza.

New Web Browser: This feature sounds very useful for guides. Now you have the option of opening a web browser at any time when your playing a game. Imagine looking up Game Guides while your playing a game.

Activity Log: If the 3DS didnt take away your privacy enough, Nintendo decided to add in this little feature for you. The system will track what you do, and even how you walk with a build in pedometer.

3D slider: Dont want to play in 3D, no problem. On the side of your top screen will be a slider, that allows you to adjust how much depth you want with the 3D.

Virtual Console in 3D?: Yes much like the Wii, the 3DS will have a shop area that lets you buy old games. BUT they will be remade in 3D. No idea how this will work, so far only Gameboy and Gameboy Color games are confirmed.
Face Recognition: There is a 3rd Camera included on the inside that recognizes your face, in the video below you'll notice when the player puts their face close, the NintenDogs (the dog game) will try to lick her. Its confirmed that many games will recognize who is playing.
>Charging Dock: The device will include a Dock that lets you charge it when your not using it. To make things easier, while its docked, it will download new content, firmware, and demos for you to try.


Graphics and Games: There are a SLEW of games coming out for the thing. Every company wans a piece of the pie. Not to mention some very nice looking graphics that are better then the Wii itself. Check the trailer below to see them in action.

Games available for the 3DS: Samurai Warriors Chronicle, Resident Evil Revelations, Super Street Fighter IV, Dynasty Warriors Musou, Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Chocobo Racing 3D, Super Black Bass 3D, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic, Licca-chan 3DS, Animal Crossing, Kid Icarus: Uprising, StarFox 64 3D, Steel Diver, nintendogs + cats, Mario Kart, Pilot Wings Resort, Paper Mario, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Marble Mania, Deca Sporta, Bomberman, Gundam, Super Robot, Dragonball, Pac-Man & Galaga, Ridge Racer, Harvest Moon, Professor Layton and the Mask of the Miracle, Crash-City GP, VS-robo, Class of Heroes 3D x 3D, Combat of Giants Dinosaur 3D, Ghost Recon Tactics, Splinter Cell 3D, and Driver 3D.



Now for the down side, the price point and release date. 3DS is scheduled to release in Japan in Feb and the US in March. As for as price its rumored to be $250. Which is a high to me, but we wont know until the official announcement by Nintendo.

Robots and Innovation

One of my earliest posts was about robots. It dealt with the difference in technology and concept when it came to Japan and America. Recently there has been a little more innovation in Robot advancement. At this point in time we are aware that robots are being developed and do serve a purpose. Instead of having them dance or walk its time to start the next step in the evolution of Robotic design.

Quasi Robot Puppet:
Word on the street is, this little guy is coming to stores near you soon. A cheaper version of course. Watching to video below...REALLY made me want one. He is not only adorable but believable at the same time. When (or if) this toy releases, I see a lot of regretful parents buying it. Personally Im gonna use it to order fast food.


Swimming robot:
McGill University of Montreal has developed the Aqua 2. This little guy has the ability to swim and dive, as well as travel through dry terrain. You can see it all in the video below.


Beer Fetching Robot:
Every guy has at least thought of having this robot in their house. The robot does exactly what you think, fetches you Beer. Via your computer, you input what Beers you want. Then the Robot makes his way to the fridge and uses its cameras to determine what beers you have selected. The robot then travels to the location of the requester, and uses facial recognition to hand you your Beer. You can see it all demonstrated in the video below.


Other Worthy Mentions
Little Robots dance to Beyonce
Yes more dancing robots....theres not much to be said here. (except that when the robots laydown and get back up...it kinda freaks me out)



Robot Assistance...with a face
This seems like something out of a bad sci-fi. Its not as creative as the others I have seen. But its interesting to know some one actually made it.

The Pizza Vending Machine

Sometimes life just makes sense. With all the crime and poverty in the world, its good to see that something is right out there. And that thing is called "Lets Pizza"! Robot inventor and engineer Bob Bibleman (thats actually his name), has created a vending machine that makes you a Pizza from scratch in under 3 minutes.

The Machine has a glass window in the front that lets you watch your pizza being made in front of your eyes from scratch. It adds the dough, the cheese, and sauce right in front of you and then heats it up, and shoots it out the bottom. Each pizza will run under $5.00. Its do out on the streets this Summer. And I'll be waiting in line.

The War of Videogames (if your even willing to read)

The big 3: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have been at war since early 2000. The original rival was between Nintendo and Sega back in the 90s but that battle was won by Nintendo. Today the market has changed. We no longer receive games in cartridges and in some cases, we dont even need to go to the store to buy a game. Its all about HD, Downloadable Content, Online play,....and motion control (barf).

Yeah see this, it doesnt work like this.

Before the Wii premiered Nintendo promised they would change video games forever. That they did, but not the way we wanted. After years of being loyal to their fan based customers, Nintendo decided to take a different approach to the market. When motion control was revealed fans young and old alike were blown away. Little did we know that this was not a way to improve our gaming experience, but a way simply for Nintendo to market to every one EXCEPT Gamers. And in the end, it was a pretty smart move.

After loosing the faith of all its followers, Nintendo's little crap machine practically "prints money" (as fanboys call it). It costs nothing to make, and they in return make a killing off it. And now other companies want a piece of the "Casual Gamer" pie. See Nintendo realized that there was a HUGE market of people that did NOT play video games. And thats who they now market towards. And it worked. Look at the success of Wii Fit. The console has been a huge success.


But that comes with a price, Nintendo shares and sales....have slowed down. Apparently casual gamers....only buy games casually. While real gamers....keep buying them. Nintendo taking notice of this has made a huge shift in its marketing. Finally realizing that they have burned their resources with the casual market, they are trying to win the hearts of Gamers back. And they are doing a good job. Sadly the competition is making the same mistake.

Sony now releasing the "PlayStaion Move" which is a black and more precise (and expensive) WII REMOTE for god sake, is hoping to take a stab at Nintendo's market. Microsoft is doing the same. Their approach is more innovative, they say "why use a controller when you can just use your body. Thats what the new "Kinnect" (formally known as Project Natal) can do. It lets you play games with.....well you body. And its creepy. Like the Wii I was excited for this too. But taking a look at the games for it, it seems to just be another ploy for....the casual market. And who could blame them.

Below is a pic of Wii, below that is Playstation Movie. Same freaking thing. Just more expensive.


The picture below is of someone playing kinect. If you didnt feel like a dork playing videogames before...you will now. "KICK!"


The Rundown: Basically here is what each company is up to

Nintendo- Introduces Motion Controls, made a KILLING off it, realized they lost their appeal to the "Gamer" crowd, and are trying to win their hearts back with games like "Zelda". Currently the Wii is dirt cheap, and comes with 2 GAMES. Something tells me they are trying to wash their hands of the Wii...so that next year wii (pun) can start buy something else.

Sony- The PS3 was at first A DISASTER. It started at $600 (big mistake). But in the past few years, PS3 had a nice price drop (to something that makes sense for us normal people) and has offered us some great games. Only now they want to sell us "Playstation Move" which is obviously a gimmick copy of Nintendo's gimmick. Sony is known for stealing ideas, and trying to market them as something original or better.

Microsoft- A power house in entertainment. The 360 not only has a HUGE online social network community that not only rivals Facebook, but also SYNCS with it. Xbox and Xbox Live know what gamers want (America ones that is). While it still doesnt sell well in Japan, here is sells like McDonalds Cheeseburgers. And after making tons of money and keeping fans happy, Microsoft might just stab us in the back with that "casual gamer" knife. With games like Kinnectamles and Kinnect Family fun. Its obvious what they are trying to do. It might just be....SELL OUT!

Things you should know:
-Nintendo is Cheap, everything they release is usually a remake of something already available.
-The name "Wii" is actually taken from the "i" in iPod. That way they can market things like Wii-motes, Wii-stands, Wii-care. Just like iDock, iTrip....get it.
-Sony is pushing 3D games with the PS3 now. Fun fact...you need a Sony 3DTV to play them. Suck it Sony!
-Microsoft charges monthly for its online service, its worth it. But its still overpriced.
-Microsoft and Sony do not plan on releasing PS4 or Xbox 720(name subject to change). The economy is bad right now, and it costs MILLIONS to even get a system started, so instead they made 10 year plans to keep their current systems selling.
-Nintendo made the mistake of only making a 5 year plan. This works out for them since development didnt cost much on the Wii, that way next year when they reveal Wii2 or WiiHD (and they will, mark my words) they can make you feel outdated.
-The videogame business is EVIL. It use to be about making games that were good and fun. Now its about making games that appeal to more people.
-GameStop is the freaking DEVIL!....that is all.

The Real Cyborg

Below is a screenshot of Claudia Mitchell. She lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident in 2004. Years later, she became the first human being to have a functional prosthetic limb, that she controls with her mind. She was a 3 Million dollar project from Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. And their goal was to give her a robotic arm that could do everything a normal one could.



"How does it work? Mitchell's arm is "myoelectric," which means it picks up electrical signals coming straight from her brain, down her nerves. Electrodes help the signals jump from her body, to the prosthesis, which uses a computer to figure out which motion Mitchell is thinking about." -io9



"Surgeons made this process easier by routing many of the nerves from Mitchell's arm to her chest. While there are some weird results of this process - for example, when she showers, Mitchell can feel the water hitting a phantom "arm" when it hits her chest. There are several spots all over her chest muscles that, when touched, trigger feelings like "that's my elbow" or "that's my hand." When she identifies those, researchers attach electrodes to those spots and program the computer in her arm to recognize signals from them as "elbow" or "hand" signals. This gives her fairly granular control over the arm."-continued from io9

There are several companies (like darpa) that are coming up with different sorts of robotic mind controlled prosthetics. Some have even gone as far as developing robotic hands that can FEEL!

3D right here

The following images use the "Steroscopic" effect. Taking 2 images that are similar but at slightly different angles. And then repeatedly shifting them in front of the viewers eyes. The result is a some what 3D image with out having to use 3D glasses. I wrote a post similar to this about a month ago. Using this effect (seen from the images below), and using a parallax barrier screen it allows for the images to flicker so fast that the viewer will not notice they are looking at two images. Instead the 3D effect will only be apparent. Enjoy.

Cant get this song out of my head now....

3D without 3D glasses?

The success of Nintendo's DS is almost sickening. As of today, there are 129 Million sold! Making it the biggest selling game console ever. Its obvious what Nintendo's strategy is: Cheap but, Innovative. Both the DS and the Wii are in no ways impressive when it comes to hardware. Both are made cheap and could barley run a Window's Application (like firefox). But no one cares or notices because the only thing we see is the Touch Screen and the Motion Controller (audience: ooooo.....aahhhh).

That brings us to Nintendo's next big ("Secret") pocket console. And yes like the post title says it displays in 3D with out using 3D glasses. They call the new system "3DS" (how creative). Below, is a video demonstrating the DSi's (NOT the 3DS) capabilities to create the illusion of 3D.



This pocket console (seen above) is not a 3D system or the 3DS, but demonstrates one trick that can be used to create a 3D environment using cameras. So just imagine what Nintendo will reveal with the actual 3DS console.


Unlike the video above, the 3D will actually pop out and feel like its right in front of you. Nintendo has yet to reveal or show any screen shots of the new 3DS. So in the mean time we are teased with that video (being only a 3D illusion using cameras).

How Does it Work?
Today movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland allow you to view them in 3D using seemingly clear glasses. The truth is each eye of the glasses uses a different lens. One has vertical lines while the other has horizontal. When wearing these glasses the screen you are watching will flicker between vertical and horizontal lines at an extremely fast rate. This creates the illusion of things popping out or having depth.



Think of it like a holographic sticker that looks 3D. It only looks 3D when you turn if from side to side. Thats because on the sticker the vertical and horizontal layers are overlaid. And when the sticker is moved, from certain view points, the lines shift and create the 3D effect. This is the trick the new 3DS will use (but has not been demonstrated or revealed yet). It will take the vertical and horizontal lines on the screen, and automatically flicker them at a high speed creating 3D with out 3D glasses.

What to expect: your personal pictures and TVs
The entertainment industry is already jumpy ALL over this! HDTVs will be replaced with 3D HDTVs (some are already available in stores but require glasses). Sharp has already revealed a 3D TV that doesn't require glasses. And there are already 3DTV stations. Also the photos you take with your camera will be 3D soon as well. Several companies have developed cameras that take pictures in 3D, and can be displayed in a 3D picture frame (available this holiday season).

Is 3D a gimmick? YES! The entertainment industry has been suffering, and this has made the industry considerable profit, and will continue too. Part of me is excited, because I hate 3D glasses, but another part of me is dreading the idea of all the marketing and advertising thats going to happen with TVs. I'm just hoping it doesn't become a standard like HD.

Drink your Cell Phone battery

"Ill call em....wait my Phones dead!"
SAY NO MORE!....(unless your miles away from a Soda)

The Concept is simple, a small pocket Cell Phone that runs on SODA!



This little Flash Drive shaped Phone is an Eco-Friendly idea from Nokia. It uses enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates found in soda. Which then charge the battery.




(Coke goes in here)

Believe it or not, reports state that the phone's battery lasts 4 times as long as a normal Lithium Ion Battery (commonly found in Phones and other portable electronic devices) On top of all that, its Biodegradable.


(Wonder if you can drink it out)


(pour it out when your done...charging....shaking...eh)


(Comes in 4 Flavors....I mean colors!)

P.S. I opened a second blog called "Pizza Archives" its a photoblog. Im not sure if Im going to actually keep up with it. But let me know if its even worth the extra work.
Link:
http://pizza-archives.blogspot.com/

Japan vs. the US in - Robotics

Years ago, there was a race between Russia and the US to see who could get to the moon first. Thus putting Nasa on the map, making the US one of the dominant leaders in technology. Today its a little different. Japan is the leader, and the new race is "who can make the best Smart Phone". That topic is in no way impressive or interesting to me. Instead I decided to share how the United States and Japan, progress in Technology with Robotics (notice my header, and user icon). The videos below may make you laugh and give you nightmares.

Japan:
Honda, Toyata, and Sony, are the big names in Robotics in Japan. Sony has actually released a robotic dog named "AIBO" years back. It went on sale for few grand. As a result you had a K9 companion you didnt have to feed or pick up poop after. Sony has been successful in robotics because of its knowledge of weight, balance, and pressure engineering. "Qrio" (a bipedal humanoid robot) was Sony's attempt at showing off Robot movement and intelligence. In the video below you will see not only a demonstration of the movement of "Qrio" but also the amazing A.I. that syncs it to other robots, and.....the beat of the music playing in the background.

Sony robotics technology + Music = Dancing Midget Robots




America:
The Us does not take the same approach to technology as japan. While Japan focuses on the fun and economic aspect of robotics, the US concentrates on Power (in weapons). Most robotics are tested at NASA and the US Military. Below is a video by Boston Dynamics. They are the creators of "BIGDOG". As stupid as the name is, the robot is the opposite. Because of this video....I had nightmares about robots chasing me (kinda like Metal Gear). Why? Well you will have to view it for yourself. "BIGDOG" is a robotic....dog that can travel through almost ANY terrain. The video is VERY impressive and towered the end, you'll even see the thing jump! Boston Dynamics is currently developing "BIGDOG" for the US Military.

US military + Dogs = nightmares



There are tons of videos demonstrating how far technology has gotten with robotics. The race to creating to most realistic moving robot is almost over. But the race to create a perfect learning and growing A.I. is just starting (Ill post about that another time). Heres hoping that we dont end up like John Conner in the movie Terminator. Long live Skynet!...I mean Humans.