gyroscope

Some things don't make sense. At least to one's eyes.

So when I saw the YouTube video I've embedded, I wondered whether it could possibly be real. Yet this purports to be a pool table on a cruise ship in rough water.

The poster claims that this pool table was a cruise ship called "Radiance of the Seas" on its way back from New Zealand last December.

I went to the Royal Caribbean site to check whether this might be true. And, indeed, there I found the boast that this is the first self-leveling pool … Read more

Microsoft has issued a set of guidelines for hardware certification on Windows 8 tablets--a policy it applies to all new operating systems.

While there aren't a lot of surprises (see charts below), Microsoft does specifically address a "convertible" design, which is expected to become popular on both Intel- and ARM-based devices.

Convertible: "A convertible form factor is defined as a standalone device that combines the PC, display and rechargeable power source with a mechanically attached keyboard and pointing device in a single chassis. A convertible can be transformed into a tablet where the attached input devices … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Though it won't be available in stores until at least 2012, Nintendo unveiled, and gave a name to, the hardware successor to the Wii, known at this point as Wii U.

True to many rumors and predictions, Nintendo unveiled at this year's E3 a new console with an attention-getting tabletlike controller, complete with its own 6.2-inch touch screen. This multifunctional tablet will form the centerpiece of what the Wii U will be about.

The tablet controller With a glossy … Read more

Browsing the "New Arrivals" section of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog reveals gems like a 33-in-1 golf club, a buttonhole camera, and a sun shelter designed for dogs. But what really caught my eye recently is a gyroscopic electric unicycle. It's like a Segway you can tuck under your arm.

The Solowheel BC is about the size of a briefcase, with a carrying handle on the top. It weighs 20 pounds. You won't want to haul it around like a purse, but it's easy enough to move it into the office or stash it away in your living room.

Electric gyroscopic unicycles aren't a brand-new concept. We covered the Focus Designs self-balancing unicycle before. This one looks a little different. You'll notice the complete lack of a seat. That means you'll have to expend at least a few calories when riding it.

Operationally, it works a lot like a Segway. Leaning forward moves it forward. Leaning back brings it to a stop. It does have the advantage of costing less than a Segway, coming in at $1,800 as opposed to about $6,000 for the big machine.… Read more

My hands-on impressions of the Nintendo 3DS at this morning's New York press event were largely positive, at least from a hardware standpoint. I'd never seen 3D on the device before, and it's undeniably crisp and sharp. Unfortunately, it also requires your eyes and the device to be held in a relatively stable position to work.

All of this makes me wonder about a potential Achilles' heel in the design of the 3DS, one so obvious yet difficult to solve that I'm curious to see what will become of it. Namely, this: the 3DS is a … Read more

App maker Occipital has provided a working demo of Apple's newly integrated gyroscope support in Mobile Safari using images created by 360 Panorama, Occipital's great panoramic photography App for iOS 4.2.

The site, when visited by an iOS device with a gyroscope and running iOS 4.2.1, allows you to view photographs taken with the 360 Panorama App by simply moving the device. Based on your iPhone's orientation the photograph will follow. I had to keep my iPhone fairly vertical in order for the gyroscope to read properly, but the experience was pretty fun considering … Read more

Picture this: you're in the backseat of a speeding car, trying to keep up with a flying saucer you just spotted zipping along the horizon. The only tricky part is keeping your iPhone camera trained on the UFO, which is constantly zigging and zagging out of view.

That's the intriguing premise of UFO on Tape, a simple but absolutely ingenious new game. The whole point is to see how long you can keep the UFO in your sights--a task that relies entirely on your device's accelerometer (or, if you have an iPhone 4, the gyroscope).

What makes … Read more

The Apple iPhone 4 packs a lot of cutting-edge tech--one of the reasons preorders for the iPhone sold out immediately. Here's a second look at three standout specs that elevate the iPhone 4 above its predecessor.

Gyroscope: Apple is leading smartphone rivals with this feature, according to market researcher iSuppli. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 4's gyroscope at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (see video below), he was signaling a new wave of gyroscope-equipped smartphones, as "a flood of competitors vie to emulate the feature," Jeremie Bouchaud, an iSuppli analyst, wrote earlier this month. "Mobile handset makers until recently have shown little interest in gyroscopes. However, the success of the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus video game console demonstrated the consumer appeal of gyroscopes for game playing."

What does the gyroscope bring to games? The iPhone 4's gyroscope, like those used in aircraft, measures pitch, roll, and yaw, among other capabilities. And used in tandem with the accelerometer (already integrated into the current iPhone), it achieves six-axis motion sensing. What Apple describes as "user acceleration, full 3D attitude, and rotation rate."

All of this is tied to new APIs, or application programming interfaces, "that give you extremely precise position information," Jobs said.

Retina display yields: Probably the most talked-about feature of the iPhone 4 is the high-density 940x640-pixel retina display.… Read more

Among the list of new iPhone features was the announcement of an included gyroscope in addition to the accelerometer that's already packed inside the device. Steve Jobs sounded pretty confident that this will improve the overall gaming experience on the iPhone. That sounds great on paper, but did it help the Wii when Nintendo debuted Wii MotionPlus a year ago?

Sure, Wii Sports Resort is still the best example of a game that takes advantage of the added precision that MotionPlus offers, but only a handful of titles released since really show major enhancements the extra accuracy is capable … Read more