about-electronics.eu

Engadget: Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won’t like this… not one bit. If you’ll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple’s slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case. Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming. Before long, you’ll be dictating your home entertainment setup sans any external accessories, and heck, you may even improve your phone’s reception all the while. The only downside to this approach compared to ThinkFlood’s is that the iPad is obviously not supported, and once you upgrade to the iPhone 5, your trusty IR case becomes a glorified paperweight. If you’re kosher with that, though, you can get your pre-order in now for $69.95, with initial shipments expected to make their way out in Q1 2011.

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Automated Home: Russian developers, iRidium Mobile, have just released the new version of their home automation control application.  Available on a range of platforms, – most notably now the iPad too – the system can be used to control AMX, EIB/KNX, ABB, Berker, GIRA, Jung and Modbus with DALI , X10 and Domintell protocols in the works too.  iRidium can also control XBMC, with support coming in the near future for Boxee, Windows Media Center and Apple TV. Read more

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Wired: Ever thought remote controls are getting too clever for our own good? Well, here’s a lo-fi solution from blogger extraordinaire Swiss Miss and Storage and Glee.

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Automated Home: Following on our story about touchscreen phones possibly spelling doom for universal remote controls, The OpenRemote guys have been pretty busy over the last few months.

From launching their new website and Twitter feed, to publishing a new YouTube channel. But perhaps most tantalisingly this weeks blog post for the open source project shows prototype hardware up and running – sending commands from an iPhone, across Wi-Fi and out of their hardware device to an IR signal.

Even more interesting it promises that “two more weeks or so and you’ll be able to try it out for yourself”.

The Open Remote project sets out its mission to – “provide high-end automation software and hardware for the masses and without vendor lock-in.” They are building an open community in an effort that contrasts the proprietary systems currently on offer.

Off-the-shelf hardware is being targeted and the group aim to increase consumer choice by building interoperability and therefore reduce hardware cost. We share their belief that high-quality smart homes should not be exclusive to millionaires, but available to a larger audience of home-owners. Finally OR believe that by being an open source project they remove the barriers to user innovation, freeing the community to innovate with their hardware prototypes and the features they build into their software.

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Newlaunches: The remote revolutionised the way we watched TV, it turned a busy hard working man into a couch potato every evening.

The Universal Remote control has now taken centre stage in our lives, from controlling the TV, to DVR, Lighting, curtains and so on. However juggling through these components on a single device could mean you will need a PhD to operate them.

Many manufacturers have tried keeping it simple, some bizarre with many buttons and many times even touchscreen enabled.

But now designers find that the mobile phones are the ideal solution to be used in the home or office scenario as a remote to every gadget available.

The launch of new touch enabled phones has made it easier to control numerous devices from one point, and that seems to be prevalent thought resonating in the minds of software vendors.

However, if all the members of the family have a remote control in their hands, who gets to decide what to watch? In any case the outlook for most Universal remotes appears bleak.

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Newlaunches: At the TV of the future conference, Spare is demonstrating the basics of what Canesta’s technology can enable. It includes videos provided by Canesta that shows various different implementations of gesture controls for TVs and for extended TVs that can serve as entire household environmental control and multimedia centers.

Using a tiny camera that sits on top of a TV, one can control the entertainment center by simply waving one’s hand in various ways.

It is built by Kicker Studios using Canesta’s camera technology and the end results appear to work surprisingly well. Gesture controls have the potential to revolutionize the way one uses TVs and PCs as well as many other products.

The sophisticated technology provided with Canesta’s 3-D sensor chips are proving to be the missing link to make this kind of technology on a mass market basis.

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Techradar.com: Remember the days when your remote could control both the TV AND the video? Heady days indeed.

Well, now we have the TV, the DVD players, the Blu-Ray, the amplifier, the surround sound, the HiFi, the sky and BT boxes and a million other things to consider.

Luckily Philips has had a look at the problem and decided to unveil a remote that could control absolutely anything at all by the looks of it.

The Prestigo range can control up to 15 devices from a choice of 26 different categories, and covers products from just about all decent consumer electronics brands.

An on board screen, a little click wheel that says ‘Thank you Apple’ for easy controlling, and the lovely white backlighting so you can see the keys IN THE DARK!

Apparently, the range can control more than one device simultaneously…we have no idea why, or even how, that might be accomplished, but still, it’s there for you to do.

The SRU8008 controls 8 devices, and the SRU8015 controls up to 15.

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Newlaunches: It has been a fantasy to some, a dream to others, a possibility to some and even a task for a few. Man has always wanted someone or something to obey him.
The InVoca 3.0 voice controlled remote does not exactly match neither the slaves nor the robots mentioned before, but allows you to change a channel on your TV, increase the volume on your VCR or eject your DVD from your player.

The remote can control a maximum of four devices and learn voice commands from four users. The InVoca 3.0 provides with the ability to learn 25 single word commands as well as 25 multi step macros and effectively perform the tasks as per the given commands.

Powered by 4 rechargeable AA batteries, the package includes a power adapter as well as a recharging cradle to recharge the batteries in case of wear out. (…)
Mouth watering, isn’t it? Expensive? No! Just $60 (47 euro)! That’s very affordable a price for those who seek comfort and ease. The InVoca 3.0 IR Voice-Activated Remote Control is worth every penny, after all who wouldn’t want to save the painstaking effort pressing a button on an ordinary remote.

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Slashgear: Remote controls are becoming difficult to use or we’re becoming too lazy to punch in the channel numbers? I’m thinking the latter, but apparently it has been problematic enough that new motion-sensing controllers with minimal buttons have been developed. (…)
The motion-sensing TV remote called the Loop, produced by Hillcrest, is said to be the first Freespace-enabled product (Freespace, by the way, is some motion control technology patented by Hillcrest).

The Loop is shaped like a bracelet and has only two buttons and one scroll wheel. The user holds it in one hand and moves it about, while the motion is translated to onscreen cursor movements. So, imagine a mouse that you could operate without a solid surface and use simply by waving it around in the air. Will be interesting to see this technology used in more and more consumer electronic devices.

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