Crave

(Credit: Eizo)

Eizo Nanao has announced the inclusion of an "EcoView Sense" feature into its just announced FlexScan monitors, the 20-inch EV2023W and the 23-inch EV2303W.

The EcoView feature allows the monitors--using motion detectors--to detect if a person is sitting in front of it.

If it senses for 40 seconds that no one is there, it puts the monitor into sleep mode. It then resumes normal operation when the user returns. For example, it won't be fooled by such shenanigans as leaving a cardboard cutout of yourself in front of it. It will only resume if there is movement up to 120 centimeters in front of it.

And that brings us to ninja training. If I'm ever lucky enough to get one of these in, the first two tests I'm running are the "Can I be still enough that it thinks I'm not here?" test and the "Can I return to my chair slowly and smoothly enough, that it doesn't know I ever came back?" Yes, I have the mind of a 10-year-old. So what of it?

Angering your new Eizo monitor is never a good idea. One minute you're at work, updating your Facebook status. The next, disintegrated. Without even a speck of dust left. Co workers, coming to snatch you for foosball will never suspect that your monitor just ended your existence. Meanwhile, the Eizo waits, unsuspected, for its next victim. We advice disabling this feature after unboxing the display.

Its benefits to would-be ninjas aside, these are two of the world's first monitors to receive the recently announced TCO Displays 5.0 Certification. Why should you care? Well, according to TCO, the tests used in the 5.0 spec are just plain tougher. Also, According to Eizo these are the first Eizo products to achieve EPEAT Gold status.

The FlexScan EV2023W is equipped with a VA panel with a 1600×900 native resolution, 178-degree viewing angles, and 3000:1 contrast ratio. The EV2303W comes with a TN panel with a 1920×1080 native resolution, 160° viewing angles, and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Both monitors claim a 250 cd/m2 brightness and come with one VGA and one DVI-D input. HDMI was not mentioned as these are more business-centric displays.

According to Eizo, beginning with these models, it is introducing a more compact design for its EcoView line by reducing the number of components inside the main body. This not only makes the body thinner and lighter than the previous design, but allows both monitors to ship in smaller containers with significantly less packaging. Whether the company actually does ship the monitors with less packaging remains to be seen.

Other energy-saving features include an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display's brightness according to the amount of light in the room. And each monitor includes a power switch that allows them to turn off completely and not draw any power whatsoever.

Check out CNET's new Monitor Green Guide for more information on all things green...and monitors.

(Credit: Tech Shout)

It may take awhile for people to regularly use only hand gestures to play games on the phone, but that's not stopping new titles from coming out. The latest is called Get Cookin' from Glu Mobile, which was developed specifically for Sony Ericsson W910 handsets.

The motion sensor technology required to play the game, which lets you prepare meals Cooking Mama-style, uses the kind of accelerometer that has gotten a lot of press because of the iPhone's version: It changes the display's orientation depending on the angle of the handset. With Get Cookin', you can flip burgers, add seasonings, and create recipes with a combination of gestures and buttons.

It's not as if we'll all be bowling on mobile displays anytime soon, but you never know. After all, they already have their own "Zeemote."

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Sophisticated motion sensors are part of an Intel project to help couch potatoes monitor their physical activity from the, um, couch.

Intel's Beverly Harrison holds a cell-phone sized prototype sensor that could one day monitor physical activity.

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

Beverly Harrison, a senior research scientist at Intel, did a lot of jogging in place Wednesday at Research@Intel Day, the company's science fair of ongoing projects inside its labs. She was demonstrating how someday sensors could be used inside mobile devices to measure the frequency and intensity of a person's daily physical activity as part of a weight-loss program or to help someone rehabilitate an injury.

Sure, gyms these days have all kinds of computerized programs that tell you how many calories you've burned off or what the optimum heart rate is for your age and weight. But Intel's technology would allow you to measure those details while on the go, whether you're walking down the street, jogging around the neighborhood or riding the bike.

It works using algorithms that ascertain what type of activity you're engaged in by measuring the intensity of your movements and adjusting based on your particular gait, a process that takes time to perfect, Harrison said. All that data could then be forwarded to a PC or Web page that tracks your progress toward your target weight, or to doctors working with patients that need to exercise a repaired joint. Intel also thinks the project could have implications for its Digital Health project as the world grows older.

Intel is also working on sensors that could be used inside a personal mobile device to automatically upload messages to social-networking services like Twitter or Facebook, said Tanzeem Choudhury, another company researcher. They could tell when you're walking down the street, heading into a meeting, or in the proximity of one of your friends, and send an update to everyone on your list. Clearly, automation is needed here, as I always seem to be stuck without my laptop whenever I want to update everybody on which room I just walked into here at CNET Galactic Headquarters.

(Credit: GetDigital)

We all have days when we just don't want to talk to anyone, especially those office pests who think nothing of barging into our private sanctuary without warning. (You know who you are.) That's where the "Memo Motion Sensor" is indispensible.

This handy little gadget can record a 10-second message and play it back to whomever enters the room, informing them of your whereabouts, instructions or anything else you'd otherwise leave on a Post-It note that might or might not be seen, according to Coolest-Gadgets. Even an inspirational message, if you're so inclined.

It's meant to be used when you're not physically present, of course, but why stop there? We think it should be adopted for all situations--including times when you're just in a foul mood and don't want to talk to anybody. Come to think of it, perhaps there's a home version in the works as well.

Following up on my fetish for getting my Thinkpad's motion sensor to do more than just protect the hard disk, I checked out a clever hack that turns the sensor into a motion controller and makes games respond when you tilt the laptop. Just like the Wii's motion-sensor controller, but way more expensive.

Tilt the laptop to control the penguin.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

An introduction to the process, and relevant links, are on the Lenovo "Inside the Box" blog.

I followed the instructions and was quickly playing Tux Racer, a game where you guide a belly-sliding penguin down a snowy slalom course. The Thinkpad's tilt sensors are responsive, and the game is fun, but this ain't no Wii. Using my 6-pound T60 as a game controller got tiring fast. Still, it's a great show-off app.

Mac users: check out the old standby, SmackBook. Also, turn your Mac into a lightsaber with MacSaber. Those using Linux on their Thinkpads also can tap out their passwords.

I just got a new ThinkPad T60, and I've become a bit obsessive about it. I've been hanging out on the ThinkPad forums and reading the ThinkPad designers' blog. And I just found something for ThinkPads that's so cool it actually made me giggle: The Google Maps Thinkpad controller app, a.k.a. gmaps, by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa, an engineer at Six Apart. (The YouTube video below is his.) It uses the orientation and motion sensor of the ThinkPad hard disk's Active Protection System to enable you to navigate your Google map by tilting your laptop. Tilt left, your map goes left, and so forth. It's a hack. It runs only in IE, requires you install ActivePerl (free), it doesn't resize to a big screen, and it doesn't work with Google Earth--now that would be even cooler. But it's fun, and I dig it.

I found this when I was looking for a ThinkPad version of SmackBook for Macs. Couldn't find one for Windows, but if you have Linux on your IBM or Lenovo laptop, there is SmackPad.