Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Eye tracking Tobii Glasses enable 'fully valid research' from a bodaciously styled pair of shades

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/eye-tracking-tobii-glasses-enable-fully-valid-research-from-a/

If you're looking to get in touch with some styling cues you left behind in the '80s, or perhaps just perform a study on effective product packaging, Tobii Technology would like you to get a load of these. They're called Tobii Glasses, a pair of eye-tracking specs that look a little less obtrusive than some others we've seen, but despite that are also a bit less practical. These glasses pack a VGA camera, write to a hip-mounted unit with SDHC storage, and rely on IR emitters ~~that apparently must be~~ scattered about the field of vision that the researcher is looking to study. Those emitters enable very accurate and reliable monitoring of where the research participant is looking, but also seem to restrict the glasses' to use in rather contrived circumstances. So, perhaps not the best solution for seeing just how far your husband's eyes wander on an average day, but possibly an ideal accessory for all you marketing research managers out there.

Update: We got a note from Rasmus Petersson at Tobii Technology indicating that, indeed, the glasses can be used without the IR transmitters -- you just lose some automation when it comes to data aggregation at the end of the study. So, married dudes, look out if your wife buys you a new set of specs for your birthday.

Eye tracking Tobii Glasses enable 'fully valid research' from a bodaciously styled pair of shades originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Tobii Glasses | Email this | Comments

Motorola Droid X first (official) hands-on and unboxing! Update: video!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/motorola-droid-x-first-official-hands-on-and-unboxing/

Yeah, we kind of already saw this phone, but if you don't tell Motorola and Verizon, we won't. We just got our hands on an official, final Droid X at the NY launch event, and it tastes just as sweet. Here are a few notes:

It's built of basically the same material as the Droid, but there's something almost kind of "taut" about the phone, where when you thwack it with a finger it resounds like a drum. The phone vibration seems to work on this same principle, giving it much less of the typical buzz (in the funky, cheap sense) you expect.
There are three mics, and in video mode you can select between "scenes" based on which mic you want to use: outward facing for regular shoots, inward facing for narration. The third mic is up top for noise cancellation during calls.
Yeah, there's not kickstand, but the EVO 4G really does seem chunky up against the Droid X, and the camera bulge on the latter is not annoying at all.
PHYSICAL BUTTONS.
You get your choice between Swype and Motorola's multitouch keyboard, which is really pretty great. We were typing at speed within a few seconds of using it.
You can tell that the processor is fast, but the UI still has a jerky quality to it -- it's not totally fluid. We'd say that's more of an Android thing, though.
The new version of Motoblur is much, much more attractive than before -- the widgets are sleeker, smaller, and less in your face. You can also resize them, and they rearrange themselves somewhat intelligently.

Update: Video after the break!

Gallery: Motorola Droid X unboxing

Gallery: Droid X vs. Evo 4G... fight!

Gallery: Droid X car dock hands-on

Continue reading Motorola Droid X first (official) hands-on and unboxing! Update: video!

Motorola Droid X first (official) hands-on and unboxing! Update: video! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

HP buys Melodeo, brings Nutsie music streaming service into the fold

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/hp-buys-melodeo-brings-nutsie-music-streaming-service-into-the/

Well, it looks like HP's year of acquisitions isn't showing any signs of letting up just yet -- it's now reportedly bought Melodeo, the parent company of the Nutsie music streaming service, for between $30 and $35 million. While the service doesn't exactly have the name recognition of the now Apple-owned Lala, Nutsie's mobile applications (for iPhone, Android and Blackberry) have reportedly been downloaded more than two million times, and the company already has partnerships with a range of carriers and cellphone companies including Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. As TechCrunch reports, however, what might be most interesting is what the company has in store for Nutsie 3.0 -- it will apparently let you copy your entire iTunes library to the cloud and access any song on demand (it currently offers a more limited service that only offers a shuffle mode). We'll let you take the Palm / WebOS speculation from there.

HP buys Melodeo, brings Nutsie music streaming service into the fold originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

TechCrunch | Email this | Comments

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G screens go head-to-head under the microscope

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/iphone-4-and-iphone-3g-screens-go-head-to-head-under-the-microsc/

We got up pretty close to the iPhone 4's retina display in our review, but we can't say we got quite as close as PhD candidates Ryan White and Bryan Gauntt of Penn State University, who have kindly provided us with some images of the screen under a microscope (along with an iPhone 3G for comparison). According to their measurements, the iPhone 3G's pixels measure 13 x 40 microns, while the iPhone 4's measure 6.5 x 20 microns, which adds up to exactly four times as many pixels. As impressive as sounds that sounds, however, it's the pictures that really tell the story -- hit up the gallery below to check them out.

Gallery: iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 3G under the microscope

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G screens go head-to-head under the microscope originally appeared on Engadge t on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

SD cards branded with an upper-case 'I' are faster, yo

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/sd-cards-branded-with-an-upper-case-i-are-faster-yo/

Since they're theoretically capable of 300 megabyte per second transfer rates, we knew SDXC cards wouldn't stay slow forever. How will we separate wheat from chaff when faster models do appear, though? You're looking at it. This week, the SD Association unveiled the UHS-I specification for SDXC and SDHC cards capable of transferring data at up to 104 megabytes per second -- reportedly fast enough to record HD videos in real time. Why the association chose the phrasing "up to" is a little iffy, as we thought the point of such specifications was quality control, but considering how many Class 4 and Class 6 SD cards we've tossed that didn't match up to spec, we suppose we'll make do with a ballpark estimate... until the inevitable UHS-II makes the rounds. PR after the break.

Continue reading SD cards branded with an upper-case 'I' are faster, yo

SD cards branded with an upper-case 'I' are faster, yo originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ! | | Email this | Comments