Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts

Friday, October 17, 2014

KEECKER: The World's First HomePod

A new project on Kickstarter has gotten a lot of attention, it's the KEECKER, billed as The World's First HomePod, a rolling egg-looking robot that moves from room to room in a person's house, bringing personal entertainment functionality with it.

The idea is that instead of having music players, television sets, etc. in multiple rooms, have just one that can be summoned to wherever you want.


KEECKER is white and looks like a giant egg (a little less than knee high) with just a camera, lamp, microphone and a button mounted on it.

It's very plain looking, but offers a wide variety of entertainment options. It receives commands via smartphone (iOS or Android). It also comes with some smarts.

When brought home it moves around the house creating a map (with assistance from the new owner) learning which room is which by name so that when summoned, it knows which room to come to.

Pierre Lebeau
Once it arrives, KEECKER can play music or broadcast a video (or artistic renderings such as the moving galaxy) on a wall, browse the web or serve as a gaming unit.

It can also be used for video conferencing courtesy of a built in 360° camera and microphone, and because it runs on Android, it can run any Android app.

As if that weren't' enough, it can also be used as a sentry (or pet sitter) constantly monitoring the home (movement, temperature, CO2 and noise levels) while everyone is away.

KEECKER has motion sensors, WiFi, audio/video, an adjustable projection lamp, a processor (a quadcore mobile chip),

1 terabyte of local storage and a battery that can go for several days between recharging. Its makers promise that it's also quiet and doesn't get hot.

They also plan to release both an SDK and API in the near future and promise that it won't operate like Roomba, constantly running into walls to learn of its limitations. Instead, the robot will lean more the longer it "lives" in a home, and has software that prevents it from running into things.

It's not difficult to see the usefulness of KEECKER, if you're working in the kitchen, you could call your little robot to offer up a recipe, or provide music as you cook.

Likewise, it could be summoned to other areas, such as the bathroom or other parts of the house where traditional electronic devices don't exist.

On the down side, it clearly wouldn't work if there are stairs and may have trouble navigating cluttered environments.

Initial prices for KEECKER range from $3000 to $4000, depending on configuration.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

ISS Astronauts broadcast multimedia experience from Space Station - Video

Nasa's Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) and ESA's Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) posting incredible content captured from the International Space Station on their Twitter feeds.

In between conducting ISS experiments and research, the astronauts are taking videos, timelapses, Vines, photos and panoramas on the ISS.

The pair have so far shown off the Earth's beauty like never before, posting some fascinating demonstrations of zero gravity, inserting cameras into water bubbles and giving insight into daily life at the station.



This timelapse video from space was taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from the Cupola observatory module on the International Space Station as it orbited Earth at around 400 km altitude.

As the Space Station passes over Earth at night we can see city lights and lightning.

Below is a Vine clip of the spectacular Aurora Borealis taken from the ISS.


Saturday, September 25, 2010

NASA - Multimedia Video of Soyuz TMA-18 lands in Kazakhstan



The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010.

Russian Cosmonauts Skvortsov and Kornienko and NASA Astronaut Caldwell Dyson, are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 23 and 24 crews.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

NASA Multimedia Video of Gulf Oil Disaster



Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This series of images shows a space-based view of the burning oil rig and the ensuing spill through May 24. The images come from the MODIS instruments aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Compianos' Upright 1904 Grand Piano PC

Compianos' Upright 1904 Grand Piano

Nothing says elegance like a grand piano, so why not gut an old 1904 Chickering upright grand and load it with computing power? This mod, created by eBay user compianos, popped up on Dvice.

Compianos says his computer has a 6.8GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. The Chickering mod has a built-in 26-inch LCD screen covered by a sliding panel that opens via remote control. The piano also has a hidden drawer for remotes and other goodies.

I love the 3 pedals controlling the mouse!

Photo: Dvice