Digital experience – cell booster, haptic controls and Knight Rider GPS

I stopped in to the “Digital Experience” in NYC – new gadgets, it was Safari theme and there was a live parrot, in 2020 I suppose they’ll be showing off replicant parrots. Here are some of the things that caught my eye (more photos here).

The zBoost, this is one of those things that I’d like to try for a week to see if it really works. I actually have access to a spectrum analyzer so I’d like to see if it worked. The signs seemed to indicate some type of war with Femtocell.

The zBoost YX230 signal booster extends a Cell Zone for a single user in vehicles. The YX230 captures the signal outside of your vehicle and amplifies it on the inside for a better signal. The zBoost YX510 for your Home or Office extends a Cell Zone (up to 2500 sq ft) for multiple users and protects the carrier networkusing patent-pending technology.

The Wi-Ex YX500-PCS unit will work only in the PCS frequency range (1850 – 1990 MHz), and the Wi-Ex YX500-CEL will only work in the Cellular frequency range (824 – 896 MHz).

Cell phones from providers like Cricket, Metro PCS, Suncom, T-Mobile, and Sprint (excludes Nextel) normally work with our YX500-PCS model, and cell phones from providers like AT&T and Verizon will normally work with the YX500-CEL model. Most of the wireless phones in use today are in the PCS or the Cellular frequencies. Some wireless service providers are PCS only while others will operate in the Cellular and PCS frequencies. This varies from city to city. If your service provider shows both 800 and 1900 MHz the YX500-CEL will probably work. If your service provider shows only the 1900MHz, the YX500-PCS booster will work.

Next up, the Novint Falcon.

The Novint Falcon lets you control a game in three dimensions, and also lets you feel high-fidelity three-dimensional force feedback. The Falcon controller moves right and left, forwards and backwards, like a mouse, but also moves up and down. When you hold the Falcon’s detachable Grip and move your cursor to interact with a virtual object, environment, or character, motors in the device turn on and are updated approximately 1000 times a second, letting you feel texture, shape, weight, dimension, and dynamics. The Falcon lets you control and interact with games in more realistic way, allowing you to develop real physical skill and muscle memory, adding a new dimension to gaming.

I’d like to check one of these out and play around with the SDK, this and a 3D printer and/or Spore seem like a lot of fun.

And finally, Mio’s Knight Rider GPS with sounds and the “look” of Knight Rider – audio from William Daniels too. I can’t help it, it’s really neat.