igargoyle

New POV Cam

While looking for miniature cameras that would work well for my glasses, I ran across the Jonescam Lipstick POV Cam, which is pretty nice. No word on pricing yet, I'll update this entry when I find out. In the meantime, enjoy this menacing image of this police officer. It seems like the DejaView cam, this is marketed towards the anti-terrorism personal and big brother lovers, also known as Law Enforcement SWAT, Public Safety, [and] Homeland Security. Hopefully it will at least make it cheaper for us individuals.

Update (Nov 29th, 1:52PM): The price for these units are $1,900USD. They are available for purchase, unlike the DejaView. I have spoken at length with the JonesCam people, and will be publishing another article regarding these unique cameras.

New Pocket PCs

Two new Pocket PCs have hit the market which look pretty tempting.

The first is the Toshiba e805, which sports a really nice 640x480 display (the first of it's kind). In addition, the e805 has a wireless card built in (like the newer iPaqs), 160MB RAM, and a 400MHz processor. The e805 is available now from Amazon for $559.99.

In the footsteps of the iQue, MiTAC announced the first Pocket PC (as opposed to a Palm PDA) with Built-in GPS. The unit, called the Mio 168, has 64MB of RAM and can do 300MHz. Unlike Tohiba's model, the Mio 168 has a regular sized 240 by 320 display. Pretty neat, but only available in Taiwan now, and China soon. No plans for the US.

Now why can't someone include a good display, GPS, and WiFi? Is this too much to ask?

Found via Gizmodo - e805 / Mio 168.

IR Augmented Vision POV Cam

Here's a new POV cam called the X-Reflect Goggles, which is aimed at the voyeur market. This is obviously an area where people are more likely to shell out $2,400USD to capture data. I get the feeling that like the toy market, the sex industry may provide a strong source of gargoyle hardware, at a much more competitive price.

This POV cam is aimed at '[seeing] through some type of clothing material (mostly swimwear and many types of synthetic materials)', but it would also make a great augmented vision camera for low light conditions where you'd like to provide a spotlight for your POV cam without using natural light. All you would have to do is attach some IR emitters from the sides of these things, and attach the video cables to your computer.

It boasts 470 Lines of resolution, built in IR chips and IR pass filters. color output, adjustable exposure, auto IRIS, auto white balance, light weight, and a year warranty. Here are some non-worksafe examples of what kind of output you'd get in the daylight. Honestly, TekGear should pick these up and market them to the wearable market. After all, if you're staring at women in swimsuits wearing this thing, they probably know what you're up to.

Thanks to FleshBot's 'Spy Glasses' and Gizmodo's (yes we love them) 'For all the voyeurs in the house: get x-ray vision'.

Updated Design

Hey everyone, things seem to be moving a bit around here, and I finally fixed up the templates with some new design that works on IE and Moz pretty well. I also added a full RSS feed to satisfy the newshounds out there. Hopefully this feed will include all our images. I added a donate button to the site, as it would help me allocate time to interview people, and write more articles for infogargoyle.

Hope you enjoy the new site design!

Prototype HMD/POV cam from Motorola and Frog Design

In Time's new article, Coolest Inventions for 2003, they profile a device from Motorola and Frog Design which part of their Offspring Wearable prototypes. It's odd that Time would list a device that isn't really available, but it is quite cool. It houses a digital pinhole camera above the right lens, a miniature display on the inside of the left lens, and an ear piece that pops out the side. They intend to market this as a cell phone accessory available for the public in 2006.

I for one applaud a major hardware manufacturer such as Motorola to produce a Head Mounted Display with a Point Of View Camera included. The design looks pretty nice too, but I hope they anticipate their male market as well as their female consumers.

Three years seems like a long time to wait to buy this gadget, but since it's a Motorola product, HMDs and POV cams are going to be commonplace when it is available to the public.

In addition, if you're interested in exoskeletons, check Time's bit in this article about Keijiro Yamamoto's Power Suit, which uses air power to augment your strength. Costs 15-20k, so only sutiable for rich gargoyles.

Update (Nov 10th, 4:53PM):
This turns out to be the same prototype that was popularized a while ago with a variety of other wearable toys, all of which utilize bluetooth to communicate. I also really like the wearable camera they are producing, although it's not nearly as sweet as the POV cam in the shades.

From PhoneScoop:
Goggles: Integrated into the frame of exciting,
stylish sports eyewear, this device incorporates a
heads-up display, digital camera, ear bud and
microphone. Due to the power requirements, there is a
tethered cord that runs out the back to an external
power supply. You can view 800 X 600 displays while
simultaneously staying in touch with the world around
you.

Wearable Toys for X-Mas

I saw an ad for this on Cartoon Network, and completely missed the name, but was recently able to figure it out by browsing the ToysRUs website.

This is much like a walkie-talkie, except that it uses a mini keyboard and head mounted display to display the message, which can be up to 23 characters. They claim a range of 200 feet, which would work okay for paintball, or other sneaky activities. I'm guessing these would be pretty easy to hack, although you might just want to mount a short LCD on the inside of some glasses.

In any case, it's a neat toy, one that I would have enjoyed as a child. I loved pretending I was some spy trying to avoid detection around the house.

In addition, this company is producing a funny looking POV camera that uses traditional film, and apparently needs to be taken apart in order to remove a 'strange circle thing centered on the middle of the photo with the words "Spy Cam" (kind of like a gun sight.)'. I think if they tried to do this again with a cheap digital cam, it could actually be decent. Again, for reasonable use, you could probably just stick a wireless mini cam in a pair of sunglasses, and get a much better effect.

All in all, I was surprised by these products, but only likely to get the first toy because it only costs about $35 for two. Should be fun stuff to mutilate for next year's Burning Man.