How to Make XBMC Easier to Use (Especially for Non-Geeks) [Xbmc]Lifehacker
So you’ve created a kickass, play-anything media center with XBMC, but it’s a too hard for your less tech-savvy friends and family members to use. Here are a few ways to make your home theater PC so easy that your four year old could use it. More »
I would rip tracks off Sega Saturn discs and record them onto tapes (I didn’t have a CD burner back then). Wouldn’t mind adding those blasts from my past to my iTunes library.
Turn Your Rare and Homemade Cassette Tapes Into MP3s with Audacity [Music]Lifehacker
Cassette Tapes aren’t exactly the highest quality audio, but if you have a few rare tracks that you can’t buy on CD (or a few homemade cassettes you want to back up for posterity), CNET shows us how to easily record them to an MP3 file with Audacity. More »
Qumarion 3D modeling mannequin coming soon for $750, still won’t play with your kid (video)Engadget
Trying to get convincing, natural poses out of 3D models can be tricky, so it’s a relief that two Japanese universities’ joint ventures, the University of Electro-Communications’ ViVienne and the University of Tsukuba’s SoftEther, are close to wrapping up work on their posable mannequin. Now called Qumarion, the model formerly known as QUMA uses 32 sensors across 16 body joints to translate the humanoid statue’s pose to the computer screen simply by bending limbs, much like you would the legion of action figures you had when you were eight. Neither you nor your kids will be using Qumarion to storm Fort Barbie anytime soon, but the 120 frames per second sample rate over USB does mean that poses are mirrored in your modeling tools almost instantly. You also won’t have much longer to wait to buy one for your fledgling anime production: the mannequin and custom modeling software from Celsys should be bundled together sometime within the summer for a comparatively frugal $750.
Qumarion 3D modeling mannequin coming soon for $750, still won’t play with your kid (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
And it was made by a college student, too. Very impressive.
Heartbeat visualizer lets your ticker power a light show (video)Engadget
It may look like something that’d be at home in iTunes, but this visualizer developed by NYU student Phan V is linked to something even more unique to you than your music collection. With the aid of a mic’d up stethoscope, it’s able to visualize a person’s heartbeat in a manner that has quite a bit more punch than the usual means — the person’s pulse rate determines the speed of the animation, while the volume of the heartbeat captured determines the brightness. Practical? Maybe not, but you can check it out in action in the video after the break.
Continue reading Heartbeat visualizer lets your ticker power a light show (video)
Heartbeat visualizer lets your ticker power a light show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What Is?
Hey! I'm Mike, this is my blog. and my dream is to use my middling tech skills to make the world a better place (not in the techno-libertarian, "the world is a better place if I get mine" sense, but in the actual, "I want to help" sense).
