News Archive
Thu 20 July 2006
Talking mirror takes care of your security and automated home
Craig Barr producer of the King Kong attraction at Universal Studios Florida and significant contributor to the animatronics in the movie "Jurassic Park" has turned his experience and talent to lead a new start-up company, Themeaddicts Inc. whom among other things, makes a talking mirror.
When nothing is happening the mirror appears ordinary, but then when a pre-determined event occurs, like someone has opened the pool gate or the Jacuzzi is now at the selected temperature, Basil, a Disney-esque character fades into the mirror to inform you of the news. If Basil the “quitessential snooty British Butler” isn’t your bag then how about a talking toucan or pirate skull? Still no good? In that case, Themeaddicts will also quote custom animatronic and mirror characters if requested.
This patented “theme-park grade” product is made from proprietary hardware custom-engineered and manufactured to operate in the portrait mode and to actively mix video images. The mirror integrates with Anitech Systems, normally used for controlling theme-park rides but Themeaddicts are working to interface their industry strength products with Crestron via RS-232.
The CEDIA expo will be where Themeaddicts demonstrate their Magic Message Mirror 30p (30-inch portrait mode) and Magic Message Animatronic Skull reacting to a Crestron automation system.
Clearly this sort of technology “will be expensive," as Barr says, justified by the very costly development costs for animation and the "anticipated relatively low production volume." Reserved for the wealthy enthusiast and perhaps the lonely heart although that obviously didn't prove to be such effective therapy if the vain Queen in Snow White was anything to go by.
For more info on automation: What can be controlled with Home-Automation?
Wed 19 July 2006
Sony's Home Entertainment ‘Happy Meal’
Like a home entertainment ‘happy meal’ here’s an all-in-one HD system from Sony. Introducing the Sony TAV-L1, this sneaky new set looks like a single-stand speaker in ‘audio mode’ but then at the tap of the touch-sensitive front panel the speaker grill automatically slides down to reveal a 32-inch flat-panel Bravia HDTV. The system offers a slot-loading DVD/CD/SACD player, 2.1 stereo outputting 50W per channel and a 100W subwoofer, HDMI input, Sony's S-Master digital amplifier, and Sony's S-Force Pro virtual surround sound processing. Needless to say aesthetics is a main consideration for this system so although the TAV-L1 comes standard with a black speaker grill there are optional grills available in gray, burgundy and green.
The 32-incher is expected to cost around £4000 and will hit shops in May, watch out for a 40-incher that should launch soon after.
Related article:
Custom Install v. ‘Off-the-shelf’ home entertainment systems
Wed 19 July 2006
Free Sky Broadband (for BskyB customers only)
Sky has launched their free broadband service available exclusively to existing BskyB customers. Speeds of up to and including 2Mbps with a download limit of 2GB will be free. Higher speed connections are available at a budget price of £5 for 8Mbps and £10 for 16mbps a month, both of which are uncapped. Don’t forget though, these low prices are bolted onto your, at least, £20 per month Sky subscription. The premium services are uncapped whereas the free service has a 2GB download limit.
Rather than an act of pure generosity Sky are adopting the fashionable strategy of triple / quadruple play services to catch more customers, much like Orange, BT Total Broadband, Carphone Warehouse’s Talk Talk, and Telewest’s tv, broadband and phone service. The allure of ‘free’ services is an attractive proposition which although is slightly misleading as you have to subscribe for other non-gratis services, at the end of the day or as the bottom line of your bill reveals, rolling your telephone / broadband / digital tv / voip etc into one big data/telecoms pie reduce costs. Furthermore, this ongoing price war between service providers consequently means lower prices, oh goodie!
Tue 18 July 2006
'Standby' buttons to be banned in UK
A week after the ‘The Rise of the Machines’ report from the Energy Savings Trust (EST) which revealed that devices on standby accounted for 8 per cent of all domestic energy used, the Government is set to ban standby buttons on electronics devices like TVs and DVD players in an effort to reduce power consumption. It’s nice to be able to flop onto the couch and reach for the remote instead of hiking all the way over to the TV to turn the thing on but then again the Earth is quite a nice planet, it suits us homosapiens quite well so not much of a trade off there, good call UK gov.
