facials

Unix admins: Meet the Beard Head

Some of you have beards. I know, I've seen them. Now, I know this isn't a gadget per se, but it's not fashion, either. It's got a function. You need to protect and care for your beards, lest you lose your Linux admin superpowers.

Meet Beard Head, the hat that gives you a warm layer of artsy hair to cover your face in the cold.

My editor mentioned these to me and I jumped at the chance to write about them as my friend Michael Karikas just got a Beard Head and wore it out a … Read more

Gadgettes 90: The 'No Way' Episode

Some items make us go "No Way!" Others make us go "No Way?!" That question mark makes all the difference in the world. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 90

The KickTrack http://medgadget.com/archives/2007/12/baby_kick_counter.html

Fusion man soars above Swiss Alps on Personal Jet Wing http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/ photos.rocketman/index.html

Japan plans face recognition cigarette vending machines http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/japan_plans_fac.php

Analyst: Amazon.com’s Kindle to generate $750 million by 2010 http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9945112-1.html… Read more

Viewdle makes those horrid in-text links useful with celebrity mugs

You know my stance on bad e-cards, and in the same vein comes my dislike for in-text ad links that you find on some blogs. I'm not talking about Snap's little Web site previews with its Snap Shots service, which people either love or hate, but the IntelliTXT stuff--the kind where you accidently moved your mouse near one and it opens up an ad that doesn't go away for several seconds. Ryan Block from Engadget had a good missive on the matter back in August of last year, and I have to agree with the guy that it ruins the reader experience.

With that said, I'm really digging Viewdle's new Name Widget service, which will cross check any names you mention in a blog post and serve up a tiny little video morsel of the person's face when you hold your cursor over his or her name. The video clips in question come from larger pieces of video that have been run through a facial recognition database and cropped down to fit in an area the size of your thumb. Anyone can add to their blog posts or Web site free of charge with a few lines of JavaScript.

The best part is, to actually trigger the video you need to hold your mouse over the link for a good 3 seconds before the video starts playing, so your reading experience won't be too bothered if you make the occasional brush. If you end up actually clicking the name link, Viewdle will kick you over to Reuters, which has a bunch of links to videos where the person appears. Each link jumps you right to that spot. However, Viewdle doesn't require you to link back to its Reuters page, which means you can jump the link wherever you please.

The service works with a variety of popular blogging tools like TypePad, Blogger, and WordPress. However, LiveJournal, Facebook, and MySpace users are out of luck since these sites don't allow JavaScript from outside sites.

You can give it a spin on the names I've added after the break.

Gizmoz rolls out new face-mapping video service

We're total suckers for video products that let us use our face. A few months back, Caroline put my head on a woman's body with the launch of JibJab's Starring You service, and shortly before that, Rafe played around with Fix8, which lets you overlay live video with avatar and object overlays. Both are vastly different technologies, but the idea is the same: quick entertainment with very little effort on the part of the end user. Along the same lines, Gizmoz, which has been providing 3-D face-mapping technology to the masses since late May, is launching a … Read more

Border IDs checked without leaving car

Contrary to popular belief, not all of Japan's R&D goes into robots and Hello Kitty (or so we're told). In fact, it's not even all destined for the consumer market.

NEC, for example, has applied its technological prowess to "the world's first automated border control system that uses facial recognition technology capable of identifying people inside their automobiles," according to Pink Tentacle, and it's already being used at checkpoints between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The biometrics system was developed to break immigration logjams in China and elsewhere, checking chip-embedded national ID … Read more

An MP3 player that does facials

We at Crave love our jobs (sometimes), but we're also driven by the entrepreneurial spirit that is the soul of consumer technology. So we may have to give up our day job to pursue this brilliant business concept: the computer spa.

Not just a manicure salon with a few PCs scattered around, mind you; we're talking about a computer system that actually provides the services itself. We already have a mouse that massages, after all, and now there's an MP3 player on the Japanese market that gives facials. The latter, called the "MPION," claims to … Read more

Gizmoz launches personalized avatar service

Tonight Gizmoz is launching an upgrade to its service that brings photo face-mapping technology to user avatars. Originally the service allowed users to add voice clips to various pre-existing characters, including celebrities, inanimate objects, and house pets. With this new technology, users can upload a photo of themselves and the service will automatically map their face to a moving, talking character.

Once user faces have been mapped, the service takes on a look and feel a little similar to that of Meez [review] with a build-it-yourself creation tool. Users can adorn their avatar in all sorts of clothing and hairstyle … Read more

Your face is your password

Gone may be the days of remembering passwords or scanning your fingerprint to log on to your PC. If NecSoft's new authentication software catches on, all you'll need is your face.

The NecSoft BiodeLogon system uses a Webcam to take your mugshot, then matches it up to your assigned user photo. If it's a match, you're logged in. So if you need to change your password, just get a haircut or pierce your nose.

Sounds easy...maybe too easy. If you have an identical twin, can they access your PC? What if you're just not … Read more