This particular chair is on display at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo this week, but since it is on wheels, I am surprised it was not on display last week at the Tokyo Motor Show.

It looks like it would be quite a comfortable chair, doesn’t it? Of course, if you are claustrophobic, you probably don’t want it closing you up. There is a picture of this closed mobile cocoon after the jump.

This is the “Media Vehicle”, a virtual reality chair/capsule created by Iwata-Yano Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba. The purpose of the spherical screen is so that the user can be in a virtual reality environment.

Read the rest of this entry »

3M is back in the security market with Gold Privacy Filters that are touted to be the most advanced privacy screen for laptops in the market today, where they will offer increased visual clarity while ensuring no busybodies sitting beside you on a full flight are able to check out just what you’re working on.

Utilizing multiple state-of-the-art 3M technologies, 3M Gold Privacy Filters protect sensitive data on your laptop by revealing a reflective golden screen when viewed from the side. This new privacy screen also features a gloss surface that allows the user to experience sharper and brighter text and images with no blurring or distortion.

Depending on the screen size you choose, the new 3M Gold Privacy Filters will retail from $50 to $100. Any takers?

Press Release

If you have a co-worker that really just needs paid back for their charming personality, here’s the way to do it.  It’ll allow for you to sneakily drive them crazy, but not do any actual harm to their computer.  This USB drive can be jammed into the back of the computer where they’re highly unlikely to find it, unless they should inspect the back.  However, by that time you’ll have gotten at least a little enjoyment out of their frustration.

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t work from home as an investor, but I can imagine that the life of constant up and down stocks is enough to drive any man crazy. This is why Philips is working on a device known as the “Rationalizer”, a device that serves as a “mirror for your emotions”.

Here is the concept behind this concept device. The user wears an Emobracelet on their wrist which measures the “arousal component of the user’s emotion through a galvanic skin response sensor”. This EmoBracelet is synced wirelessly with the EmoBowl, a bowl with lighted patterns to show a user’s emotional readout. The range is a soft yellow, orange, or deep red.

When the user sees that the bowl is flashing red, that is like an alert. It signals to the user that they should take a break before making a decision that might be primarily based on intense emotions rather than study.

Read the rest of this entry »

HP will be making a splash in the world of multitouch computing by unveiling a trio of HP TouchSmart PCs alongside the company’s very first 42″ high-definition digital signage touch display known as the HP LD4200tm. The new HP TouchSmart PC range will comprise of various screen sizes that range from 20″ to 23″ (that’s not pretty wide, but it ought to be good enough for most desktops) in the form of the HP TouchSmart 300 and HP TouchSmart 600. Both models will come in a sleek, award-winning design which can come with either a stunning HD-capable or HD widescreen display with a multitouch enabled screen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Love teasing your fellow cubicle mates at the office? How about scaring the pants of those who are weak-hearted and yet work late into the night all alone? The Eviltron from ThinkGeek fits the bill berfectly.

This fiendishly small device features six creepy sound choices perfect for frightening your “friends” and co-workers. Simply choose your favorite sound (or use the random mode), place it in a dark hiding spot and watch the madness begin. Perfectly suitable for dorm, office and home use. Or try putting it in someone’s car – that gets them every time.

Among the sounds available include some unsettling creaking, unidentifiable scratching sounds, gasping last breaths, a sinister child laughing and an eerie whisper of “Hey, can you hear me?” – turn on the Random Mode if you’re going to have some real fun. Retailing for $9.99 each, it will be able to last for slightly more than a month of continuous use.

Lexmark is an old hand when it comes to printer technology, and their latest T656dne single-function monochrome A4 (8.5″ x 11″) laser printer will be the first in the industry to come with the current rage these days – a touch screen display. What’s the point of this, you ask? Well, we will take a look at it in greater detail after the jump, but before we do that, we will provide a further introduction of the T656dne. Utilizing Lexmark’s award-winning Embedded Solutions Framework (eSF), the T656dne is able to offer businesses the ability to tap into its powerful solutions platform and function more efficiently as eSF is able to expand the usefulness of the T656dne by meeting specific needs within the business.

Read the rest of this entry »

Have you watched enough horror movies, especially those involving zombies, to be prepared for a zombie apocalypse? Well, just in case the undead start walking about one of these days (with you sleeping soundly throughout the events that led to such a catastrophe), you’ll surely be pleased to know then that all the practice and tactical training that you and your buds went through with the Zombie Shooting Gallery would have paid off.

Take aim with the included laser assault rifle and blast the zombies as they pop up from the windows of the dark mansion. Too slow and they dine on the human hostages inside. Remember, practice hard…not much time before the real hell spawn arrive to feast on flesh of the living.

Powered by 9 AA batteries, the $34.99 Zombie Shooting Gallery will come with an electronic and mechanical shooting gallery which lets you practice your undead killing skills by using the included assault rifle which shoots a laser that can be detected by the zombie targets. Should you miss, the zombie will devour a human hostage represented by a red silhouette in an upper window. As time progresses, zombies get faster and faster, so hold your nerve and make sure your high score on the LED display stays!