Remember the scene in the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise uses a 3D holographic interface to track down people before they commit crimes? True holographic projection technology is still years away from being a reality, but some Japanese scientists are at least headed in the right direction.

It’s not exactly a hologram, but Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a 3D display that uses intersecting infrared lasers to create small amounts of plasma emission in mid air. By controlling the position of the focal point in the x-, y-, and z-axes, the visible plasma dots are capable of forming letters and simple shapes in 3D-space.

If you attended SIGGRAPH 2006 then you might have already seen this fancy laser projector on display. If not, here’s your chance. Check out the video here.

It’s probably only a matter of time until advertisers start utilizing this technology as a form of nighttime skywriting.

digg story | flickr | methodshop

Doom started it ( Big Force Gun ), Quake 2 made people notice it ( Big, uh, freakin’ gun ) and Quake 3 Arena made it infamous ( Big F*@$ing Gun ).

Here is a replica of the most famous / infamous video game gun ever, available from Wicked Cool Stuff, thanks Kadhal for letting us know about this in our gadget forums.

From personal experience, I know that using a traditional can opener to open a can takes way to long, and those under the cabinet ones look ugly and are tricky to use sometimes. It’s also a task for someone who is a bit older; they just don’t have the strength in them to do it.

This gadget is supposedly a hands free can opener. All you have to do is secure the opener on the can, hold a button for a second, and then the opener will travel around the can giving a clean cut. That means no sharp edges when it comes off, and the lid will come right off, there’s no pulling it and having half the contents come out on you. (Tomato soup does not come out of clothes very well, especially white ones) It can also handle larger cans, but for some odd reason, that requires pressing the button twice.
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If you want a really neat and stealthy way to get home surveillance with minimal effort and no additional wires, this gadget could be for you. The Light Bulb Hidden Camera is an amazing little camera which is hidden inside a fake floodlight for easy and sneaky surveillance.

It’s very easy to install and works with any light bulb socket. Whether it is indoor or outdoor you simply screw it into the light socket and it can send the recorded video through your home’s wiring system to the receiving device such as a TV or VCR.
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I went to the Gizoo launch party and found them all to be a real decent bunch of people with a real passion for all things gadgety. They’ve already donated a pair of bluetooth headphones and a wireless keyboard to our current gadget competition (which after playing with them I can safely say they are worth winning). The boss, John, also kindly agreed to make donations and contests a regular thing. Thanks John.

I’ve made a more detailed post about the evening over in the forums, thanks Gizoo for a very entertaining evening.

Unfortunately Dell isn’t the only company plagued by exploding defective Sony batteries. On Thursday afternoon Apple announced that they will recall 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook batteries after nine devices overheated. Two people have even reportedly suffered minor burns due to these battery malfunctions.

You can check out some of the fiery Apple laptops in this clip from NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams.

This recall is the second-biggest consumer electronics recall in U.S. history. Dell proudly holds the #1 position thanks to the 4.1 million batteries they announced a recall for last week.

So how do you know if you have a bad Sony battery in your Apple laptop? The bad batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 in the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

If you own one of these Apple laptops, carefully remove your battery and take a look at the numbers printed on the back. The battery serial number is printed in black or dark grey lettering beneath a barcode. See this flickr photo for more info.

Once you mail your defective Sony battery back to Apple, you can still use your Apple laptop sans battery. Just plug in the AC adapter to power the computer until a replacement battery arrives. Apple pays for all the shipping costs and will even send you a postage paid label to send the bad battery back. Unfortunately you’ll lose the joys of laptop portability for about 4 to 6 weeks. That’s the estimated time it will take Apple to replace your battery. Look on the bright side - at least you won’t have to worry about a bonfire spontaneously igniting in your lap for a few weeks. Flame on!

For more information on the battery recall, check out this page on Apple.com.

youtube | digg story | methodshop

You’ve got your $2,000 MacBook Pro, but the silver pain job just isn’t doing it for you. Maybe you want a unique iPod, considering everyone else has one, too. Colorware tailors exactly to you, the people with too much money!

Colorware is a third party vendor that will take your gadgets and give them a new paint job. They do a wide variety of products, including most of the current Mac lineup, except the Mac Pro. That includes Nanos and 5Gs. They also do a few Dells, only laptops though.
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The Innovan is like a portable mini-house that can be attached to your vehicle, it is made from lightweight material and designed in a form that it can be slided-on the tray back, this way you have 2 advantages: being able to drag a boat, trailer or anything else you want; and good performance on or off-road areas. This mobile home comes with plenty of features and as the name (innovan) indicates, innovation is the important part. Here some specifications with links to photos:

• 2 beds - image
• 100 liters of storage capacity under each bed - image
• 85 liter fridge/freezer - image
• Small toilet that rolls out from a compartment - image

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