Most games intend to bring the player into a virtual environment, but Philips is taking the opposite approach by bringing the in-game experience into the real, corporeal world. The Philips amBX system aims to achieve that by letting you feel the lighting within a game, thanks to a rather low tech solution. The amBX system will envelope your room in the corresponding light depending on where you are in the game. I suppose this concept will work well when you’ve holed yourself up in a small, dark room without any lights on.

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The advent of VoIP services like Skype certainly ushered about a brand new era in communications, where an entry-level computer coupled with a broadband connection is more than enough to provide you with the necessary tools to hold long distance conversations with someone else across the globe without forking out a cent. This means you kiss goodbye to monstrously high phone bills at the end of the month. But does that make the regular house phone obsolete? Not quite yet, as there are still plenty of older folks out there who do not even know how to operate a computer, let alone a cellphone, hence their reliance on the traditional landline to keep in touch.

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If you’re not the confrontational type and prefer to let words instead of fists do the talking at work, perhaps the magnetic LED Scrolling Badge will be the perfect device for your personality type. This interesting USB peripheral is a pretty thin device that comes with a red LED display in the front and some magnets at the back which enables it to be stuck on any metal surface such as your PC case or notice board. Since the magnetic LED scrolling badge does not have any wires attached to it, that means it’s use is not restricted by the length of a wire.

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I was on TechEBlog the other day and found this great YouTube clip from Nextfest 2006. It’s an interactive installation of an Atari touch-sensitive “Pong Wall” game. No video displays or game controllers needed. You just touch the wall and use your hand to position your paddle. The Pong Wall detects hand movement by using embedded sensors on the wall. And the game interface/score is projected on the wall with LEDs.

It’s fun to watch this technology in action but unfortunately the two guys playing in this clip aren’t very serious competitors. Actually, they look a little tired. So don’t expect to see riveting game of Pong. Just marvel at the geek fun of it all and not the sleepy players.

If you’re really itching to play Pong again, Atari released a retro game system called the Atari Flashback 2 ($30). It features the same wood grain paneling and look of the Atari 2600. Games include Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missile Command, Combat and…. Pong.

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Just like the iPod, nearly everyone has a digital camera today. Despite being able to take far more photos than before, one of the biggest stumbling blocks of digital cameras is the fact that many of us do not process our photographs unlike the good old days where there were negatives to be developed. Instead, we just store all our memories in a digital format on some hard drive or memory card somewhere, without ever showing them off to the world. This is where Digital Photo Frames enter the picture, enabling you to share your memories with loved and close ones.

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There’s nothing quite like catching up on some reading just before you turn in for the night. Unfortunately, bedside reading lamps are more often than not hot and extremely bright which causes a distraction, while it keeps your partner tossing and turning. There must be a better way to read in a comfortable bed, and the BeamBag Hands-Free Flashlight could be the answer to such a problem. The LED light is attached to a microbead-filled pouch which is capable of sitting on virtually any surface comfortably, even on your shoulder as you won’t even realize that its there after a while.

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Have you ever wondered how it feels like to hold a Victoria’s Secret catalog in your hands which could interact with everyday household items like your notebook, home PC, as well as television? Wonder no more as the TouchBook brings TUI technology into lives worldwide with a reader that enables users to interact with the icons and words inside that subsequently retrieve digital content from another device. This means printed material can be turned into a remote control for digital content. Imagine clicking a product on the catalog, only to have it fire up the Web browser on your PC that brings you to the store’s online checkout counter with the item in mind already in the shopping cart.

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One of the things that worries me the most when going to university with my laptop is forgetting about it somewhere or maybe some funny guy can have the brilliant idea to steal it, not that it happens all the time but it can occur once every blue moon. To keep things safe and the devices the proper owners, I found a gadget that can be useful in some situations, it can’t be trusted in all scenarios or else you would have a real bodyguard protecting your stuff instead of an electronic device.

This bodyguard consists of 2 objects: a small and light clip that you attach to your laptop/mp3 player/cellphone/digital camera or any other small gadget you can think like a USB flash drive; and a small monitor that stays with you all the time. You can setup a maximum distance like 30 or 100 feet and if the clip that is tagged with your device passes that distance, the small monitor will alert you. In order to know if the monitor is working in coordination with the clip there is a LED system to confirm this, so you might want to double check before using.
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