Though this isn’t exactly a TV for the mass market, Hannspree certainly made a splash at CES (and on the web) with their newest anti-gadget. Surprisingly it isn’t a gimmick, either, and will be hitting the market in March for those of you who need a new TV … and love polar bears (a large demographic, to be sure). No word on weather of not the TV can catch seals for dinner, but I at least hope it comes with a waterproof remote.

Image via Gizmodo

Slingmedia showed off the beautiful new Sling Touch Control 100 this week at CES. The Touch Control 100 has a 4.3 inch touchscreen and a stunning design which was sleek enough to get it selected as a CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award honoree.

The Touch Control 100 lets you control SlingGuide enabled DVRs over IP via your home 802.11 wireless network.  Traditional IR devices are supported as well, but no mention of its scope of coverage.  Slingmedia has yet to reveal any information about pricing, but they have said that it will not be sold through traditional retail.  Instead the Sling Touch Control 100 will be offered through various cable and satellite providers as part of a new suite of Sling products.

Certainly the resemblance to another “touch” product — the iPod touch — is unmistakable. Which brings up the question: why spend so much money on developing this kind of hardware, when a solid iPhone app and dock would do just as well?

Call me old fashioned, but I still don’t get this whole gesture control movement that is being adopted for TV’s and other devices.  I get the use of it in video games — it’s more fun playing tennis in a video game when you get to at least swing something instead of just pressing a button.  There is that associated action of swinging your arm and playing tennis.  The problem is, I don’t have any motion or movement that I would like to associate with TV viewing.  Like what’s the thumb’s up gesture associated with? What was the hand wave for page up again?

This doesn’t seem to phase Microsoft and their Project Natal for the X-Box 360.  Yeah, I know Project Natal is originally for playing games but some recent talk from Microsoft shows that they are extremely interested in using Natal as a complete input for your home theater.  Granted they also want you to run that entire theater through an X-Box 360 of course.  With services like SkyTV and Netflix they want to provide all of your media content which you could control via your Natal, or Project Natal, or whatever it will actually be called.

Having your media content centralized in a single place is awesome, I love my XMBC setup but I don’t feel I need any special way to interact with it except for my remote control.  Now to be fair, Microsoft is actually touting the facial recognition and voice recognition as the main way to control your media via Natal, but do I really need a 360 and Natal for that?  The facial recognition is nice since everyone one has different tastes and you can have custom content for each user.  The voice recognition on the other hand, isn’t too special.  My Macbook has been able to recognize voice commands for a few years now, if I wanted to I could easily set all that up myself.  In fact that is a good idea, I think I’ll go do that now.

Everyone company wants to be “green” now and doing their part, or at least claim they are green, because it is so popular right now.  I haven’t seen much actual progress yet unfortunately (especially from the electronics industry), but then I ran across this interesting prototype from NEC.  They have created a remote control that doesn’t use batteries or any source of external power except for you.  It’s not going to save the world or anything but every little bit helps.

Apparently the device draws its power from the actual clicking on the buttons — something called “scavenging” or, (more appealingly) “harvesting” because it uses waste energy for a good purpose.  Basically it’s the same idea that Swiss watchmakers have been using since the late 18th century to wind watches automatically.

NEC joined forces with the company SoundPower in order to work the technology into their remotes. When a user clicks a button vibrations are created, these vibrations are what they actually draw the power from.  Each click generates enough vibrations and power in order to send the command which means the device should be “sustainable” … another one of those green words.

Personally, I think NEC has a very interesting concept on their hands. It would be very nice to never have to change the batteries in my remote again, specially since I never remember how to properly throw them out.  Then again it would probably be a whole lot greener if we didn’t have to use remotes at all, or at least 10 per household.

• iPhone controlled R/C Car
• An actual Oldsmobile
• Dance lights
• A minivan (2007)
• R2D2
• Dog feeders
• Military Drones
• A helicopter

What next? How about a bi-pedal walking robot named Walky.  The robot and controller were developed by a group of grad students from Keio University in Japan. Video after the break.

Walky understands a set of touch gestures that allow him to walk, jump, and kick.  Apparently they had attempted other methods of control like a PS3 Controller unsuccessfully and had settled on the iPhone. The touchscreen is more intuitive than a joystick since you can simulate walking using two fingers — remember the old Yellow Pages ads? Walky is pretty simple, but still seems well made and I like how they have broken the mold here with iPhone gestures.

No offense to Motorola, Verizon, or their Droid commercials, but this doesn’t seem like a very closed development system to me. Yeah, it’s true that the App store requires some approval, but that doesn’t seem to be discouraging too many people. The iPhone SDK is well thought-out and by far the easiest mobile development platform out there. Period. Plenty of people are using it to develop for reasons other then making money in the App store, including academic and scientific pursuits such as this one. I’m not going to be looking for the Walky Robot app on iTunes, but it’s nice to know that I could develop something like this if I wanted to.

I’ve seen a few cars being driven by the iPhone, that’s cool and all, but the guys from Mythbusters have basically been doing that for years.  Starting your car with the iPhone makes sense, but driving hands free?  The people from Engineer Awesome, which is a part of Waterloo Labs at National Instruments, make it clear… why drive inside of a car when the outside looks so much more fun?

Weather it is called Redneck Surfing or Ghost Riding, it’s most certainly dangerous (i.e., don’t do this at home), but for the sake of science and engineering it’s pretty cool.  The system is pretty simple, though they destroyed the in the process (seeing how it’s an Olds ’88 I doubt anyone will cry over that).  I’d like to see someone try this out on a Ferrari, although they should wear football pads.

People continue to find some pretty random uses for iPhone, not to mention the 100,000 apps that are already out there, but there are still quite a few more things we’d like to see come out for the iPhone.  At least we can cross ghost riding off that list now.

Bowling can be pretty frustrating — unless you have those awesome bumpers we used at my 5th birthday party.   I’ve always wanted to bowl a perfect game like Mort Goldman, but to be honest I think the LHC has a better chance of actually getting started first. Until now. With the RC900, a remote control bowling ball from 900 Global I could cheat my way there.

The RC900 uses internal mechanism to control the direction the ball rolls. For those who like to roll in style, it also has flashing lights.  Of course you have to charge a battery in the ball, but if that wears you out, you can launch it from from a ramp instead of getting up out of your seat.

Normally we’re pretty big on remote controlled gadgets, but the RC900 just takes the fun out of the game.  Still, if your an amateur and your goal is roll a 300, then the RC900 may be right up your alley.

P.S.  Holding back on the Big Lebowski jokes thanks to Gizmodo…

Plexidor Pet Door is an electronic doggy door with vertical sliding door (i.e Awesome).   The Plexidor opens when your pet nears it, thanks to an RFID chip that is placed in your furry friend’s collar.  The hope is that this intelligent doggy door can prevent unwanted intruders from sneaking into of your house while letting your pet come and go.

The Plexidor Pet Door for large dogs comes in at a hefty $800 dollars, which seems pricey.  Plus, it most likely will have to be professionally installed since it needs to be hardwired for power.  If bragging rights is your thing, then the electronic doggy door may be the new gadget for you.

Happy Halloween to all of you from all of us on the MoreControl/RedEye team. In case you missed them, here are some Halloween-themed posts from the last few weeks:

• Remote Controlled Techno-Spider Pill Invades Your Insides
• $20 Pumpkin Gadget Destined To Become Sidewalk Splatter
• E-Hijacked: Electronic Death Threats Haunt Family
• ToyBots WooZee: Internet- and iPhone-Enabled Dream Toy or Nightmare?

Apparently the police plan to use the system in order to direct traffic at peak hours.  Details are sketchy, but it seems that rather than relying upon standard traffic light automation, they will be manually releasing slugs of cars across a particular bridge bottleneck. In some cases they will be able to convert both lanes to send traffic in one direction to handle peak volumes.  I just hope they have some pretty skilled remote control wizards out there, or things could get interesting.

I am interested to see whether or not the system really helps, and if any other cities try it out. At first I was concerned about the ugly precedent for centralized control, but then I started to think that if an automatic light would halt traffic for no reason, there could be a certain efficiency here. And this certainly has to be better then the two officers with walkie talkies direct traffic by hand — which is what they do now.

Of course it is possible to remotely control many traffic lights here in the US using a MIRT. But unless you carry a badge or drive an ambulance, it’s also a federal offense and could land you in hot water.