Slashdot Mirror

"And then you get several people in the same room, and the system doesn't know who it's supposed to display the contents for."

Did you stop reading after you got to that sentence? Because the very next sentence says: " If there's multiple people it should be able to change according to whoever's closest and looking at the windows."

I also wrote that Logitech has been making facial recognition software that follows your face since 2005 so go ask them how the 5 yr old software with the lowly Pentium 4 1.4ghz system requirements managed to determine who to follow without the assistance of quad cores.

Ah, i fed the troll, how stupid of me!

"While I think $10 is absolutely reasonable - if you look deeper many of the scenes he shows are not available for sale. I'm sure if you were building the thing from scratch you would probably capture your own footage too. But non tinkerers rejoice - a kit may be for sale later for ~$3K"

I agree, $10 is reasonable. My problem is you have to wear a giant ugly IR-emitting necklace for the system to recognize you. Gee, a computer that can track a IR-emitting necklace? That's 1990s tech my friend. Facial recognition software has been around for many years, you'd think a webcam could determine where you are in the room and change the image based on that alone without a IR necklace. Logitech added face tracking to their webcams in 2005 and people were playing with it on Youtube in 2006. If there's multiple people it should be able to change according to whoever's closest and looking at the windows. Here's a example from 2008 of using a webcam for the same effect without giant IR necklaces. Here's one you can test at home yourself if you have webcam.

When I saw the video that's what I thought he had done, I thought it was just watching the user. Requiring a IR necklace made this absolutely not impressive because any day someone will make a webcam version.

I'm even less impressed that this guy's system requires a $2,000 Apple Mac Pro running a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 which is Apple's version of 2008's low-budget Geforce 9500 GT, and is a bit slower than a ATI 4670 for those of you more familiar with ATI. Not high end graphics folks, and making people buy a $2,000 system when you could probably suffice with a PC under $500 is ridiculous, and being Mac based means this will remain expensive for several years while a PC version would continue to drop.

Also, don't plasma screens suffer from screen burn-in? Why is this guy running basically static images for hours on two 46" plasma screens?

Imation have been offereing DVD media since at least 2002.

Why the delay?

Are Toshiba and the DVD6C group really suffering at the hands of solid state memory devices so badly that they need to reduce Imation's market share through a costly lawsuit? With Imation also owning TDK and Memorex, surely they could sell their products through their licences instead anyway? Or at least, 'rent' their facilities to them?

I'd like to know what the 'real' catalyst was for this situation...

"..you need to buy an extra "output adapter" and "remote control" to unlock all its features - but that's only to make up on the money lost by MS on the base system..."

Actually, making the remote control as a seperate purchase was a slick way to avoid paying licenses to the DVD consortium (or whateverTF they're called). At first I thought this was stupid, but now I realize it makes sense. You would have to pay another $15-20 per Xbox if they shipped it as a viable DVD player, and what if I don't want another DVD player? If I do want that feature, I buy it for a nominal fee. It's a great solution. When the XBox does drop low enough for me to consider making it my 3rd console, I don't need a 3rd DVD player, and don't incur the cost.

As to the extra video cables, that's just the sellers choice. Their are currently 4 ways to hook a console up to a TV (RF, Composite, SVideo, and Component), and I don't mind the fact that they don't ship every console with all 4 different types of cables. That also doesn't really count as an Xbox 'weak spot', since the other consoles also do the same.

Oh, and I try very hard to avoid excessive bias. Case in point, I don't own an XBox, still think it's an awkward, although interesting duck, yet will defend it's good points.

"... but that's only to make up on the money lost by MS on the base system."

So in conclusion, no.

What is with Americans stealing other people's colloqualisms and then missing out fundamental parts of them like the fact that APRIL FOOLS JOKES END AT MIDDAY. It's 18:05 in the timezone of the poster...

<sigh!>

If you don't understand the tradition then don't get involved in another role other than that of The Fool.

"You know what irony is? Irony is the fact that while the hottest category in all of electronics is portable music devices like MP3 and CD players, almost nobody who buys one of these players ever hears just how good they really sound. Do you own one of these portables? Let me ask you something - did you just go ahead and use the terrible, crappy, el-cheapo headphones that came bundled with the player? Of course you did. We all do. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"What do the Etymotics sound like? Like no other headphone I've ever heard. Because they seal out all surrounding noise, you hear the music so purely and cleanly that's it's almost unnerving at first. But listen to these headphones for a few songs and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life. The Etymotics sound so much more natural and free of distortion and coloration than even the most expensive audiophile speakers and headphones it's silly. "

"Just for laughs I compared the Etymotics to the generic headphones that come with the Nomad MP3 players. You see these 'phones all over the place - they' re the ones with the headband that goes behind the listener's head instead of over the top. Really cool looking, right? Well, after enjoying some music on the Etymotics, I switched over to the generic 'phones and lasted about five seconds before yanking them off my ears! Ugh! Get that crap offa me! We're not talking about good vs. better. We're talking stinking, rotting death vs. crystal clear mountain streams and fresh ripe peaches and backrubs by Mrs. Olsen of coffee commercial fame. Hey, I'm Mr. Pack Rat - I can't bring myself to throw away anything related to gadgets. But I threw away the generic headphones. The Etymotics sounded like music and the generics sounded like the squawk box you shout your order at when you go to the drive-thru at Mickey D's. "

It's hard to imagine that such superb sound can come from such tiny objects, but trust us--these are a traveler's best friend.

I haven't heard them, but my boss has those headphones and swears that they're worth every penny. He told me he saw them on the Today show, so I found the review where the Today Show 'consumer correspondant' claims these things are incredible. To quote: What do the Etymotics sound like? Like no other headphone I've ever heard. Because they seal out all surrounding noise, you hear the music so purely and cleanly that's it's almost unnerving at first. But listen to these headphones for a few songs and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life. The Etymotics sound so much more natural and free of distortion and coloration than even the most expensive audiophile speakers and headphones it's silly.

I haven't heard them, but my boss has those headphones and swears that they're worth every penny. He told me he saw them on the Today show, so I found the review where the Today Show 'consumer correspondant' claims these things are incredible. To quote: What do the Etymotics sound like? Like no other headphone I've ever heard. Because they seal out all surrounding noise, you hear the music so purely and cleanly that's it's almost unnerving at first. But listen to these headphones for a few songs and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life. The Etymotics sound so much more natural and free of distortion and coloration than even the most expensive audiophile speakers and headphones it's silly.

the Royal Linea may be a good platform for you, since it has a built in modem, and is reasonably priced.

i don't remember anything... my friend was getting a tivo for his HDTV, and was see-sawing between getting the $1000 tivo or the $500 one and adding on an HDTV decoder later in a sepearte unit.

i did a quick google and found these links:

link 1

link 2

previous slashdot story

No problem, just sit one of these down at the controls of one of these and you're all set. It'll even clear away the floor if you want the room really clean.

1986 or 1996? I didn't think HDTV was conceived that early.

HDTV was introduced in the early 1980s with the FCC bringing it to attention in 1986. Related Article.

-dk

You should get the official Sony Remote for PS2. Updates the DVD drivers and adds several features to the playback.

http://www.beststuff.com/article.php3?story_id=235 4&section=MoviesEntertainment

Well, then by your logic the Nintendo Gamecube will easily win. The Xbox costs $299, and Sony has no plans to drop the $299 price of the Playstaion 2 by the time Gamecube and Xbox are out. This means you can buy a Gamecube and two games for the price of just a Playstation 2 or Xbox. ($199 for the system and $49 per game).

This is why I'm getting a Gamecube. I'm just a poor boy, Sony doesn't love me ;)