Once again I went to It Won’t Stay in Vegas party, and as always it was a pleasure to be there. The party this year was packed, but there were some good products on display there. It was held at the Atomic Test Museum, which is full of interesting pictures from the history of US military bomb testing. Getting to the sponsors, I liked the Sonos whole house music player idea, but I wish the services that it used all worked from Canada. Otterbox was a sponsor and they had samples of some of their cell phone protectors.  Also RIM was a sponsor showing off their Blackberry phones.

Google Android was a major sponsor of the event, and they know how to pick a spokesperson: Brent Spiner who played Lt Commander Data, the android from Star Trek: the Next Generation. It sure created a buzz amongst the attendees.
In the Sony sponsored lounge, there were previews of some great new PlayStation Network games. I quite liked the cinematic qualities and bendable storyline of “Heavy Rain” a PS3 exclusive coming next month. Also EyePet which used the EyeToy for PS3 was an amazingly good use of Augmented Reality, and is due out late fall. But I spent quite a while talking to the Producer from the new PSP port of the old favorite PS3 PSN title Fat Princess.

Fat Princess for PSP is going to be a very faithful port of the PS3 classic game from last year.  I tried it out, and it was very smooth.  To achieve that, they had to make a concession and move from 32 players down to 8 players plus 8 AI players, but it works over Adhoc or the Internet.  The maps are the same as the original, with a little tuning to account for the smaller max players.  But they didn’t stop there, there are a bunch of new levels and even some other suprises.  It looks like it’ll be a really great game.

I met with Dr. Nic Lawrence from Light Blue Optics at their press event. The bar tenders there were nothing short of amazing.  But the technology they showed was even more startling.  The had a virtual keyboard that really worked.  But unlike the evoMouse cube from celluon which used a single red laser (to achieve their low $149 price point), Light Blue Optics uses three lasers: red, green and blue to generate their image.   The image that they project onto the table is bright and vivid in color.  So instead of just a keyboard, their prototype device runs Windows CE, and it generates 15 lumins when playing movies, or when doing menu navigation type tasks they focus the lasers to get as much as 35 lumins.

 The core technology is unlike the other laser based projectors I’ve seen so far, and is based on 4 years of research as a company, which was started as a spin off of phd research of the 4 founding technologists.  The interesting thing about laser based projectors, is that it doesn’t require focusing, since the laser beam is coherently focused already.  This particular projector system uses a micro LCD to act as a defuser and thus uses constructive and destructive waves of light to generate the clear images.  The main advantage of the defusing the light with a micro LCD is that there is not light wasted.  Instead they are able to focus the light where it is meaning full for the image.  The combine this with a CCD/UV light source to allow direct manipulation of the user interface on the projected surface.  The prototype units weren’t all perfectly tuned, but the well tuned ones gave an excellent experience, with feedback of for your manipulations as you try their demo applications: games, photo viewer, drink ordering application, whiteboarding/email, etc.

I spoke also with other members of their staff and they are exploring a broad range of applications.  Because the laser is always in focus, they are perfect for heads up displaying in applications such as fighter jets.  And their technology is so compact, and requires so little cooling that there are applications in retail, manufacturing, gaming, and many other possible areas.

I was at the Sprint launch party Wednesday night for the Sprint overdrive.  It allows you to connect up to 5 devices at a time over Wi-Fi and connects you up to a 3G or 4G network.  The 4G network is already available in 28 centres across the US, with no usage caps, so for as long as that lasts it’ll be exciting.  So now we have a solution to the problem of how you play Internet-based PSP games at school, at home, and while camping (maybe with a solar powered charging system?).

 The interface is clean and simple with 3 hours of active communication time or 36 hours of standby.  It autoswitches back and forth as needed.  Recharging is via a MicroUSB connector, so 3rd party charging al always an option.  The display is clear and backlist, so at the press of a button you can check the status of the device: network, signal strength, battery life, SSID for the access point, and if you like even the network password.

 It is available now, and is $99 at Best Buy or $149 with a $50 mail in rebate at Sprint stores.

In the international area of CES, I found a company called Cellulon who are working on a new product called the evoMouse pet.  It sits on your desk and using an IR range finder technology is able to sense the location of your finger on the table, and also do multitouch sensing.  Building on that, they’ve developed a series of gestures so that draging, clicking, right clicking, wheel scrolling, forward and back, and zoom all work using natural gestures, which they claim can cut down on problems such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 

It connects via either Bluetooth or USB, and even has support for Blackberry or Symbian, in addition to the usual suspects Windows XP/Vista/7 and WM5/6.

It should be available in the second half of the year for a modest $65 US.

There were a lot of vendors at CES Unveiled this year.  For gaming there are two notable trends:

1. My favorite product would have to be the introduction of pico-projectors.  Both 3M and Microvision introduced products to address this area.  3M’s offering is a projector just slightly thicker and longer than an iPhone.  It uses LCD technology to get the results we want.  On the other hand Microvision is made from a new technology: laser beam based TV.  Instant on and instant off, and infinite focus.

2. Casual gaming has now conquered social netoworking sites, and is now inching into set top boxes.  For example the new Seybas popbox HD media player has Texas Hold em and Tetris, with more games expected in the future, since it is built on an open architecture for various game types.

I also went over to the OnStar / Chevy Volt presentation, and I can’t wait until they start adding 3rd party content so that I can make car rallys avalable through the dashboard.

Well, once again Steve Sutherland and Dale Wick are in sunny Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. This week they are expecting 100,000 attendies to look at the all of the various vendors. We will be surveying the robotics area, and posting the highlights throughout the week.

In the Robotics TechZone, put together by Robotic Trends, will be some old favorites: anybots, hitec, Hagisonic Co Ltd, Husqvarna, RoboWare

But we are looking forward to seeing what’s new from players like Radio Shack, LEGO, Wow Wee, and Mechano, and even more from some new entrants.

Well the wait has been a long one for people who want a flash cart for the Sega MegaDrive/Sega Genesis system, but NeoFlash has really outdone themselves this time.  I got one of the first MD Flash Carts to ship, and I was pleased with how well it performed and how easy it was to use.

The packaging was what I’ve come to expect from NeoFlash — if you know what it is you’ll know what you’re getting. In the package there was the blue adapter, the flash cart itself, and a USB programming cable.  The adapter is for the MegaDrive/Genesis/Sega CD/Sega 32X and then their core technology as 512 MB flash cart for the NDS/NDS Lite/GBA.  The genius with this design, is that the cart module needs to be built once, and then can be reused for flash carts for NES or SNES, Genesis or any number of other potential systems.  You know my work, and I am very active with the ColecoVision, but no word yet if they will go that route.  Not included in the initial shipment is the Windows based upload manager software on the CD mention on the packaging.  A quick check on the forums offered me a download of the latest version of the interface software, and a recommendation to check back for updates as they refine the software.

So for a homebrew programmer and enthuasist like me, it is a dream come true.  I can load up multiple versions of my various homebrew projects.  The only real problem that some people might find is that you need to reformate a given flash cart for a specific system.  That is, you can’t have SNES and GBA homebrew on the same cart at once.  We are working on the Genesis today, so really you format it for that, and there is not issue.

The software was easy enough to use, and it let me know right away when I’d successfully cabled up the cart to be reprogrammed.  Before I got this, all of my Sega Genesis work was tested exclusively in emulators, so being able to use the original controllers and real hardware was quite satisfying.

I think that 512 MB is plenty of space for Sega homebrew projects, but for the ultimate collection you can swap out the small flash cart for one of the many larger ones that are announced or available.  Definately a great way to leverage the economies of scale that this product offers.

Overall, I recommend this product.  It was clear and easy to use.  The boot menu on the Sega worked cleanly.  And homebrew on the Sega will never be the same.

- Dale Wick

Our intreped reporter Steve Sutherland made it to iREX organized by JARA, and saw a lot of cool robots going on there.  With a theme of “Challenge for the Next”. 

iREX is billed as the largest robotic exhibition in the world and has been running every 2^nd year since 1973!   Personal service robots shared the limelight this year with a new generation of adaptive industrial robotic systems.

One of the most intriguing “robots” on exhibit at iREX was an integrated towel folding system.  Employing two robotic arms assisted with controlled jets of compressed air, towels arriving on a conveyor in piles were separated and then drawn along a plane to expose at least one corner.  Various gyrations, air bursts, and sculpted grippers eventually correctly positioned the towels into a conventional laundry folding machine which then piled the towels neatly.  It was roughly 70% effective, with the remaining 30% of towels falling beneath the system (presumably, in production, such towels would then be moved back into the stream).

Another interesting feature of the show, a series of toy robots competed for the best dancing abilities.  Although not the winner, one talented robotic dancer was the size of a young teenage girl, complete with schoolgirl dress, which swung fairly naturally with the motion and music.

Elsewhere on the show floor, the Fraunhofer research organisation’s Care-O-bot v3 served bottles of juice from it’s built-in tray which also serves as a handy order tablet.  Care-O-bot has one large arm, rear mounted, which was consistently able to pick up bottles and place them on its tray.  After delivery, customers then simply take the bottle from the tray… no need to risk the robotic arm hitting or otherwise interfering with the customer.  Care-O-bot looks like a production-ready system. 

Other highlights include:

•     Met a cool inventor who can send very high data rates using light… useful for the robotic displays – and possibly the head tracker in cases where it is not easy to run a line from the camera to the display.
•       Saw Willow Garage’s new data log display tool… looks like a video timeline, but shows all data logged… joint position, video, amperage, etc.  They say it only took them a few weeks to develop, but that it is one of the best things about ROS.
•      Willow Garage confirmed that they are carefully monitoring motor current… I suspected that this was how they were closing grippers, etc., but now it’s confirmed.  They do plan to add pressure-sensors, etc., but for now, it’s current.  Their new PR2 has 2, yes 2 independent Xeon 8 core processor systems – weighs over 400lbs.
•      Discovered that Harmonic drives are now being produced (with original components) from a large variety of manufacturers.
•     I’ve been at some great sessions – am amazed at how much Japan and Germany (the gov’ts) are spending on robotics!  I saw one of their lightweight arms which at 15kg, will lift 8kg!

costumed participants at NAF 2009

Originally uploaded by Dale Wick

I always go for the blue or purple hair, and this group didn’t disappoint. More pictures of the Nothern Anime Festival if you follow my link onto flickr and look at my photostream.

Cloud with his massive sword

I can’t believe he carries that around with him all day. But that sword was really nicely done, and I’m sure it will please people at the Masquarade tonight. Notice also that the sword holder requires an equally massive amount of leather.