About Electronics

Digital Trends: Electronics maker JVC wants to bring surround sound out of the realm of super-pricey home theater setups and down to the level where gamers and mere iPod owners can improve their audio experience.

The new inexpensive TH-L1 surround system is designed to appeal to gamers and iPod owners, as well as home theater buffs, who will appreciate the HDMI input and 1080p pass-through.The TH-L1 consists of a main unit, a subwoofer, and five small cubic satellite speakers. The main unit sports two HDMI inputs (for hooking up, say, a game console and high-def video source) and an HDMI passthrough output, along with Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Pro Logic II decoding. The system pushes 40 watts to the four side channels and 100 watts to the center channel and subwoofer, and offers gamers a realistic sound field which—in surround-enabled games, anyway—may allow them to hear enemies approaching before they can be seen.

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ZD Net: Playing video games appears to help surgeons with skills that truly count: how well they operate using a precise technique, a new study says.

There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon’s capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published Monday in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.  

Laparoscopy and related surgeries involve manipulating instruments through a small incision or body opening where the surgeon’s movements are guided by watching a television screen.

Video game skills translated into higher scores on a day-and-half-long surgical skills test, and the correlation was much higher than the surgeon’s length of training or prior experience in laparoscopic surgery, the study said.

(…)

It was surprising that past commercial video game play was such a strong predictor of advanced surgical skills,” said Iowa State University psychology professor Douglas Gentile, one of the study’s authors. It supports previous research that video games can improve “fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, visual attention, depth perception and computer competency,” the study said. “Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons,” senior author Dr. James Rosser of Beth Israel said.

While surgeons may benefit from playing video games, the study did not give parents a pass if their children play the games for hours on end.

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BBC Technology: The games industry is failing women by not producing suitable content, according to a senior executive at Electronic Arts (EA).

EA’s own research found that 40% of teenage girls played video games versus 90% of teenage boys and most girls lost interest in games within a year.

David Gardner, chief operating officer for EA’s worldwide studios, was speaking to a conference in Edinburgh.

“We are only reaching a small proportion – not only geographically but also genetically,” said Mr Gardner.

He said if EA cracked the problem the firm “could add a billion dollars to its sales.”

Mr Gardner said one of the biggest problems was that the content aimed at women gamers was not appealing.

“They don’t want ‘pink games’. They are not trying to play girly games where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears go shopping and put make-up on. “

He added: “One of the things that is going to make games for girls happen is creative teams. It’s going to be new people and experiments. Four of our 11 studios around the world are run by women. That’s an important start.

“Investing in new and upcoming talent is critical.”

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