Join Babel Fisk: Read what you are hearing
There have been many advancements in speech-to-text in the last few years. I’m sure that I’ll probably speaking these posts instead of typing them in the next few years, provided I’m not disturbing others in the room.
I’m sure that the hearing impaired would most benefit from speech to text technology, and this is what the Babel Fisk is supposed to do.
Designed by Mads Hindhede, the Babel Fisk has microphones built into the frame in order to pick up the voice of a person in the line of sight, and then an embedded speech-to-text program will create the text that is projected inside of the lenses.
You can even program it to record the text to a flash memory card for later use. So you can literally record everything that you hear as a text file.
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Finis Swimsense watch tells you about your swimming
This is the Finis Swimsense wrist-worn performance monitor, and it is made for swimmers.
It has some sort of internal motion sensors, and I cannot believe how accurate they area.
Apparently, the Finis Swimsense can detect how many laps that you took, and what pace that you took them at. It can even calculate how many strokes you took to get there, and what you were doing. I guess your arm reacts differently when you do the breaststroke, as opposed to the freestyle, backstroke or butterfly swimming. This is provided you enter in the proper information about the pool like its length and such.
The Finis Swimsense will also show you how many calories have been burned after you get out of the water.
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Hands on with the ZOMM
I first encountered the ZOMM at CES last January, and I finally managed to get my hands on one for review.
In case you haven’t heard, the ZOMM is designed to link to one’s phone or mobile device wirelessly via Bluetooth, and emit a high pitched noise if the ZOMM and device get too far apart. I believe that you are meant to keep the ZOMM in your pocket (perhaps with your keys), so if you leave your cell phone where you shouldn’t (like on a table of a restaurant), the ZOMM will alert you.
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Sign Language over the cell phone
Yes, sign language on a cellular phone. I realize that this sounds like an incredibly sick joke, like a Driver’s Manual in Braille, but this is a study going on at the University of Washington (UW).
Now, you might think that the hearing impaired could communicate via text message and Instant Messages, but I’m sure that we all know how easily a simple message with its tone could be misinterpreted. In other words, they want something where they are free to use sign language to communicate.
While it is true that successful phones like the EVO 4G and the iPhone 4 can do video conferencing, this feature is dependent on the user holding the phone in one of their hands. That seriously limits sign language if you are doing it one handed.
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And now, the most disturbing way to exercise, mobile phone required
Yes, this is a suggestive picture, and it is supposed to be that way, apparently.
This man is doing an Android App known as Issho ni Training. It translates to “Training Together”, but it looks like something that one would prefer to do alone. You can watch the video after the jump, which I’m sure many would rule as NSFW, to see why.
Continue reading » And now, the most disturbing way to exercise, mobile phone required
BlackBerry 9800 can hold a Torch to the iPhone
Last week, I received a call from Research In Motion (RIM), and they asked whether or not I would be in New York on August 3rd.
Clearly, they have no idea that I live in Washington State, and that I make it to New York like I make it to the UK. When I asked the RIM PR person what is going on, they said that they couldn’t tell me.
However, I learned a day before that RIM and AT&T are the unveiling of the BlackBerry 9800, or Torch. It has some really cool specs like a 3.2 inch screen, 4GB microSD slot, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, expandable memory or up to 32 GB, and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.
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Saga of the iPhone 4 antenna (one that has still not ended)
Okay, we all know about the iPhone 4, and I’m sure we all know about the problems it is having with its antenna. If you haven’t heard, the reception in the iPhone will be greatly reduced (sometimes cut off) if the user holds it in a certain way.
This has caused quite an uproar amongst the iPhone 4 community, who have began to call this problem “the death grip”. Especially by those who waited in line on launch day only to find that the newest version of the popular smartphone was not at peak efficiency.
It has now been determined by Apple that the problem is some sort of internal problem with the formula used to calculate the bars of signal strength. They intend to fix it “in a few weeks”, and are offering a money-back guarantee to those who return their iPhone 4 undamaged within 30 days of purchase.
You can read the full letter from Apple explaining this problem after the jump.
Continue reading » Saga of the iPhone 4 antenna (one that has still not ended)
T-Mobile teasing us with launch of new mobile phone, rumored to be “The Vibrant”
T-Mobile is teasing users with a new phone.
The image that you see here come from their site, and these pink blocks are slowly disappearing to reveal a rebus that is probably the name of the new phone. You know what a rebus is, right? I think the last time I saw them was in elementary school, where you add and subtract words, letters, and pictures to solve a puzzle.
I think that you can see that the first few clues are obviously “Samsung”. If that is spoiler to some, then all I’ve got to say is: “you would have figured it out eventually”. I’ve got a major spoiler after the jump.
Continue reading » T-Mobile teasing us with launch of new mobile phone, rumored to be “The Vibrant”
