Items tagged with NIA
Not long ago we gave you a look at a product manufactured by OCZ that made use of brainwaves as a futuristic but in-the-here-and-now game controller. Dubbed the NIA, for Neural Impulse Actuator, instead of buttons and joysticks, this device gave user the ability to control in-game movement with their mind. At the time, it sounded almost a little crazy but it worked, at least in novel sort of way, perhaps for some freaky party fun. In reality, for us, the product was more of an under-pinning that if mankind can dream it up, for the most part anything can be built. Today's science fiction is tomorrow's reality, as they say.Image courtesy, Southampton University And so say...
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OCZ Announces Availability of Vista 64-bit Drivers for the nia (neural impulse actuator) gaming peripheral After much anticipation from Gamers and Enthusiasts, the 64-bit Windows Vista drivers are now available for OCZ’s ground-breaking Neural Impulse Actuator (the nia). New drivers have been in constant development since the release of the nia, and with this latest availability gamers using 64-bit Vista can now fully integrate the nia into their systems as a revolutionary new gaming device."The migration to the Vista 64 environment with the unified ver. 2.0 software suite required a complete recoding of the human interface device library, but in view of the increasing acceptance of 64-bit computing,...
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Gaming controllers, be it a gamepad, joystick, wheel or mouse, are some of the central defining elements of any gaming experience. Any gamer with a modicum of experience knows how a bad controller or control scheme can completely ruin the experience of playing an otherwise excellent game. Judging from the huge variety of input devices available, we put a high value on the kind of immersiveness that a good controller-to-game match can create. While game controllers come in all shapes, sizes and colors, the input technologies they feature are surprisingly universal. Nearly all game controllers receive some or all of their input from various switches of some type. More advanced controllers...
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OCZ lays claim to being the first company to bring a "brain-computer" interface to the retail market and they have aimed it squarely at the gamer. The device is called the NIA, which is an acronym that stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, and instead of buttons, sticks, gyroscopes or motion sensors, it reads the body's natural biosignals and translates them into commands that can be used to control PC games. No question, it's a pretty wild product. Go now and see....
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What would you say if Steve Wozniak and his entourage cut in line in front of you? Anything?What would you say, on the other hand, if they tried to "pretend" they waited in line overnight, for good PR, and THEN cut in line?In fact, according to Doug and Patrice Broussard, Woz actually never waited in line at all. The couple, who were there, said the Apple co-founder lounged on some of the mall's nearby sofas for about four hours and then ambled up to the front of the queue when the store opened at 8 a.m and simply cut in line. No discussion.And he wasn't alone. He had his posse in tow, say the Broussards, who photographed the Woz playing big shot. Didn't anybody say anything?No. Doug Broussard...
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It's a mistake to assume that people that are smart about one thing --even a genius-- will have an intelligent outlook about other walks of life. I doubt Einstein would have made a great plumber. But I'm not so sure about Steve Wozniak. One of the founders of Apple, he's always got something interesting to say about very diverse subjects. And it might be because he has an intelligent approach to things, not a fixed set of ideas. He's now turned his attention to energy efficiency gains that might be possible in home construction. And as usual, his ideas are fascinating. The term "energy efficient" is rather vague. At some level it implies some form of conservation. I have great reservations...
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Sun Microsystems has recently launched its newest CPU, the Niagara 2, which they allege is the world’s “fastest performing computer processor and one of the most energy efficient.” The Niagara 2 features eight cores and can process up to 64 individual threads at any given time. What’s interesting is that the Sun company is most famous for its software products, including JAVA. Sun is hoping to change this trend with the high-performance Niagara line of server processors. It seems that Sun Microsystems has intentions of competing with Intel and AMD in the server market. "While Niagara 2 may well be the codename of the new Sun chip and while it may become the popular name too, the official designation...
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California passed a law in 2005 that, if it had taken effect, would have prevented minors from being able to purchase violent video games. That law has now been deemed unconstitutional by Federal Judge Ronald Whyte, and cannot take effect unless his decision is overturned. Left with the options of appealing or drafting a less unconstitutional law, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has opted for an appeal. Some people might wonder why “The Governator”, who is no stranger to violent media, has taken such a firm stance with video games? Are they any different than movies? Apparently the argument in this case is that games require active participation instead of just passive observation....
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Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, has decided to back a new firm called Hotswap. Hotswap specializes in video compression technologies, and they are currently offering technology that focuses on making digital media file sizes smaller thus enabling shorter uploads while increasing both image and video quality.The potential applications for various types of e-commerce are quite exciting. If this technology becomes widespread, we might start seeing much clearer pictures and videos of the products we’re shopping for online. There’s no word yet whether or not this technology might be used to shorten delivery time of digital media from pay-to-download movie services, but that would seem another...
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Estonia might be the most web-savvy place in the world. They even cast their votes in national elections online. So it's of interest to people who value the utility and security of web applications everywhere that Estonia seems to be the first place singled out for massive targeted cyber-warfare attacks. Denial of service attacks on their government bureaus, banks, and even their news outlets have slowed their web traffic to a snail's pace. The Estonia case also shows how easy it is to cause massive panic on a shoestring budget. All you need to deploy a cyberattack is some malicious software, a bunch of zombie computers distributed around the world, and an Internet connection. Sure,...
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According to a story on EE Times, Sun Microsystems has taped out its next-geNiagara 2 and Rock processors, but the company faces a major hurdle getting access to leading edge 45 and 32nm process technology for its future Sparc CPUs... "In an exclusive interview with EE Times in his Menlo Park office, Yen showed the first wafers back from the fab for Niagara 2, set to ship in systems before the end of the year. He also discussed the issues Sun faces now that its longtime silicon partner, Texas Instruments, has decided to rely on foundries to develop next-generation semiconductor process technology. Chief executive Jonathan Schwartz appointed Yen, a long time Sun veteran, to head...
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The shooting at Virginia Tech is big news, and it's certainly bad enough without the pond scum of the net impersonating charities and swindling you out of your hard earned cash. Information week is running a story that warns users to steer clear of any such emails or other online solicitations: "Security researchers are warning people to be watchful for phishing scams and malware attacks that take advantage of this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech. U.S.-CERT issued a warning that users and IT managers should be aware that new phishing campaigns generally are launched in the wake of tragedies and natural disasters. Researchers at the government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team advised...
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eWeek has a funny story about a self-described "Romanian" hacker who posted 15 e-bay users' sensitive personal and financial information on an e-bay forum, along with a bunch of taunts. By "funny," I mean only if you're not those 15 people. For them, it's more like:"very bad." "read many opinions here.... All I saw it's just [misspelled obscenity]....Alot of things about scamms..stupid things I think. Romanian guys are the best boys !!!! We are in each country...each city...and every day alot of money from your pocket intro in pur bank accounts....You know why ?? I will tell you my opinion...because you are so stupid ..... anyone can scam you very easy....not...
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Traian Basescu, President of Romania, during a joint news conference with Microsoft's Bill Gates told press members that he thought piracy had done quite a deal of good for the nation's developing IT industry over the last decade. This comes as no surprise to Romanian President Traian Basescu. It is estimated that 70% of the software used in Romania is pirated -- and President Basecu is proud of it. In a recent joint news conference with Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates, Basecu had this to say about piracy; "Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania."...
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Well now, I'm glad at least some of you have taken a 5 minute Half Life 2 breather here and can focus your eyes on something other than a gun sight and mutant alien baddy. ;-) Sad truth be told, I haven't even played the game yet. There's just been too much work to do around here lately. Ahh but that's the life of a Tech Journalist I guess. We get so caught up in all the analysis, that we don't get to enjoy it all enough sometimes! Speaking of work, we've been pretty busy with a number of functionality and feature enhancements that we've added to the site. Thanks to our resident Developer extraordinaire, Dom, we have a few new areas for you to peruse...
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