Developages - Development and Technology Blog

savuporo writes “NASA and its industry partners organized a two-week lunar in-situ resource utilization field test in Hawaii. The tested machines included a few different rovers and prototype plants for generating oxygen and water from lunar regolith. Astrotoday has picture gallery and video report. This follows on the heels of recent ESA lunar robotics challenge event held on Tenerife, which tasked student teams to build a lunar robot that would be able to search for water ice in lunar polar craters.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

We’ve already seen early pictures and heard a release date for GamePark’s newest handheld — the Wiz — but now Engadget Spanish has gotten their hands and eyes all over the device, and they’ve brought back photos to prove it. As you can see from the pics, the portable console will be offered with more than one style of casing, and apparently the company is setting up some type of App Store-like service which will allow users to purchase and download software, as well as share their own homebrew apps. According to our team, it looks like that October 8th street date will be pushed back till sometime in November due to issues with the right control pad (which GamePark is working to correct). Until then, you can just feast your eyes on the gallery below.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Be still our hearts! After months upon months (upon months) of waiting, the tight-knit team behind the ultra-potent Pandora gaming handheld has finally divulged the information we’ve been clamoring for: the ARM Cortex ʒ-powered device will begin shipping before Christmas 2008 for £199.99 in the UK. The first batch will consist of 3,000 units, and the team is hoping that all of those will be sold out before the first one leaves the dock. There’s no word on how costly it′ll be for Americans, though we’re crossing our fingers that it′ll sell for a few bucks less than the $360 we find when simply converting pounds to dollars.

[Thanks, Andri]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

It looks like the Pandora project is really coming together nicely. EvilDragon has just posted this video on the GP32x boards of a development model up and running. It’s pretty exciting stuff if you’re a homebrew fan (and we know you are), featuring demos of the device smoothly running emulators like PicoDrive, PSNES, booting up a build of Linux, and even getting its Quake 2 on (at high frame rates and looking crystal clear). It’s still going to be awhile before we’ve actually got our grubby mitts on one of these, but this is certainly doing a good job of whetting our appetites. Watch the video after the break and see for yourself.

[Thanks, Chris]

Continue reading Pandora project demoed on video, shows off hardware, Linux, and Quake 2

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Storage

16-layers — that’s how many layers it takes to the hit the center of a 400GB Blu-ray disc, pops. That’s 25GB per layer just like those dual-layer 50GB discs available for retail. Best of all, the technique used by Pioneer is expected to be backward compatible with existing Blu-ray gear since the specs and lenses required for pickup are identical. The prototype is read-only for the moment but R&D’s on it so let’s give them some time to work it out.

[Via Impress]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Displays

Forget schools, forget lighting, forget easy access to drinking water… it’s that sweet TV goodness that people living off the grid really need. Well, that and laptops. You’re looking at Sharp’s 26-inch LCD prototype which uses just a quarter of the power (or a third measured annually) of a conventional CRT with the same screen size. That’s low enough to be suitably powered by a Sharp, triple-junction thin-film solar cell module whose surface area is roughly equivalent to that of the LCD screen. Sharp hopes to market the two items as a pair in a bid to “contribute to the environment.” Good thing too, ‘cause nothing fills a billion empty bellies like an eye-full of boob-candy.

[Via Impress]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Around this time last year, we got wind of CCD-based projectors and cameras from Olympus that were outfitted with a curious “axial symmetrical free curved surface lens.” Now, said company is finally providing a few details about its current prototype, which essentially enables 360-degree photographs to be taken. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on perspective), the sensor isn’t quite ready to be pushed out into the world, but as you can certainly imagine, it’ll likely make a B-line for surveillance outfits just as soon as it’s ready.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

With just about every other automaker on the planet champing at the bit to showcase its newest electric prototypes, Subaru’s doing its best to hang on to the briskly moving bandwagon. Said company has just recently announced that its plug-in STELLA concept will be showcased at the upcoming ˎ Hokkaido Toyako Summit, and four of the five on hand will actually be used to “transport government officials and other participants” while the other offers itself up for test drives. The four-seat vehicle in question utilizes the same EV (electric vehicle) system employed in the R1e, suggesting that it can cruise around 80-kilometers (50 miles) on a full charge and hit a top speed of 100km/h (or just over 62mph).

[Via AutoblogGreen]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

Compared to the other single-seat electric vehicle that we had the misfortune of laying eyes on recently, Topia’s HUVO looks just magnificent. This clearly minuscule roadster, which officially tips the scales at 150-kilograms (or just over 330-pounds), holds one lucky motorist and a small briefcase (if you’re lucky). Reportedly, the frame is constructed from high-tensile steel plate, the doors and the back panel from aluminum alloy, the roof from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), the windshield from polycarbonate and the interior / wheels covers from ABS resin. Your guess is as good as ours when it comes to crash test ratings, but we suppose we should wait and see if this thing even sniffs the commercial market before worrying over that.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Look out 1366 Technologies, you’ve got yet another solar-based MIT spin-off company vying for business in the alternative energy sector. The company’s name is RawSolar, and in due time it could end up selling solar dish arrangements that could power factories or even heat / cool office buildings. Recently, a team of students and faculty celebrated as a prototype dish proved that it could concentrate sunlight by a factor of 1,000, which obviously bodes well for converting that into useful energy here on Earth. Another standout feature of the dish is its small size, and furthermore, the material required to build it is relatively inexpensive and accessible worldwide. Sounds like all the ingredients for a successful startup are there, now we’ve just got to wait and see if anything becomes of it. We’re watching you, RawSolar — don’t let us down.

[Thanks, Spencer]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Whoa, has it been a hot minute since we′ve seen a Pepper Pad 3 or what? Straight from the depths of left field comes Hanbit’s Pepper Pad 3, this time with a slightly more adept processor at the helm. Reportedly showcased ever-so-quietly at Computex (alongside a Tablet PC prototype), this critter was purportedly packing an Intel Atom CPU and a Linux-based OS. Further specifications included a 7-inch VGA touchscreen, QWERTY (loose interpreters, we see) keypad, integrated WiFi and a 20GB / 30GB hard drive. Not a clue when this thing is scheduled to slip out, but it will certainly give the Everun a run for its money in the ugly department.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

If you’re tired of worrying about carpal tunnel syndrome setting in and ruining your ability to surf the intarwebz, Martin Tall is cooking up an alternative to the tried-and-true mouse / keyboard control combo. The NeoVisus Gaze prototype, quite simply, enables computer users to control the action on screen with just their eyes. Granted, this setup works entirely better when viewing photos than, say, typing up a thesis — but there’s always voice recognition software for that, right? Check out the demonstration video below.

Continue reading Video: NeoVisus Gaze prototype enables handsfree computer control

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays

Looks like Honlai had more than one mini-projector on display at Computex. The M𓣥 is capable of throwing a 15- to 27-inch display form your iPhone or iPod touch in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Unfortunately, we’re talking just 10-15 lumens and a 200:1 contrast. Still, it’ll do for a quick and dirty LCoS jones. See a working prototype after the break.

[Via AVING and DisplayBlog]

Continue reading Honlai’s QingBar MP101 iPhone projector makes us want more

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Oh sure, GalleryPlayer enables your HDTV to instantly turn into an art display, but it doesn’t even pretend to be anything classier than a multifaceted television. Samsung, however, is looking to change the game by partnering with Thomas Kinkade on a new 46-inch prototype Digital Masterworks Art-TV. The unit was recently showcased to news media, and it’s said to be “housed n a Thomas Kinkade frame designed to accentuate the fine art theme.” From what we can gather, it’s being aimed at folks who′d love a nice piece of art sitting above their mantel, but when the time comes, they can switch off the paintings and throw on a day’s worth of NFL in HD. The wild thing here is how important the actual art aspect is to the display, with hidden touch controls planned to enable viewers to flip through artworks and zoom in / out as they please. Heck, there’s even integrated WiFi, a 40GB hard drive, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms response time and 500 nits of brightness. The set is due out exclusively through Thomas Kinkade’s Signature Gallery later this year, with iffy plans to release it to other retailers in 2H 2009.

[Via CNET]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Hah, did you really have the nerve to doubt CraigIX? The iPhone gamepad add-on that we heard about just last week is already inching closer to reality, and there’s a video to prove it. In the somewhat unexciting clip posted up after the jump, you’ll see a PCB mockup of the device doing its thang, though it’s quite inelegant in its current form. If you just needed one more something to boost your interest / confidence that this critter was real, you know where to head.

[Via zodttd]

Continue reading Prototype iControlPad proves itself on video

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Original post by Darren Murph