An undated photo from the Campus Bio-Medico di Roma shows Pierpaolo Petruzziello's amputated hand linked with electrodes to a robotic hand.
(Credit: Campus Bio-Medico di Roma)European scientists have successfully built a brain-controlled bionic hand that could be used to kill or maim hundreds of humans in the coming robot versus humans' civil war. Or, far more admirably, allow amputees to feel hand sensations and manipulate their limb--via the brain--as if it were still there.
Pierpaolo Petruzziello--who lost his arm under the elbow in a car crash several years ago--has done just that, Italy's University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome announced Wednesday.
(Credit:
Campus Bio-Medico di Roma)
The biometric hand was developed at Pisa's Valdera Polo Sant'Anna School and surgically attached to Petruzziello's nervous system via electrodes implanted into the remaining part of his left arm, meaning the robotic body part was actually like an extension of his body. After the surgery at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome in November 2008, it took Petruzziello just days to start using the device.
During the LifeHand trial, which lasted a month, Petruzziello, 26, was able to experience sensations when grasping, making a fist, and apparently flipping the bird. No really. (There's nothing science can't do.)
The responses from the hand to commands sent from the brain were 95 percent correct, Paolo Maria Rossini, head of neurology for the project, said Wednesday. That's more than I can say for some of the people I know.
The next step, which is still at least a couple of years away, is to work out a more long-term experiment that would hopefully lead to cybernetic arms like the LifeHand as a viable option for amputees. The EU has spent $3 million and five years on the project so far, but in the end, if the experiments prove successful, we may be living with people with Luke Skywalker-style arms in just a few short years. I will outfit mine with a place to hide my flask.
You might be expecting Doom on the iPhone to be the latest in an increasingly tedious string of ports of the original game. But it ain't no such thing. Doom Resurrection on the iPhone is a completely new game developed exclusively for iPhone and iPod Touch by iD software. We've been smearing brain against wall all afternoon.
Remember the House of the Dead games? Y'know, the first-person shooters where your dude walks a preset path? Yeah, it's like that. Only to aim, you tilt the iPhone, and all other controls are displayed as virtual buttons on the screen. Oh, and instead of a house, it's Mars, and you're the last surviving Marine in a sea of Hellbeasts.
Those of you thinking, "Cripes, that sounds to me like the epitome of tedium," let us assure you: you're only partially correct. For the most part, iDoom, as we like to call it, is impressively playable, with some of the best graphics we've seen on an iPhone game to date.
There are a range of shooty-bangs on offer, numerous enemies to dismember, some Sega Mega Drive-esque text-on-the-screen cut-scenes and heaps of blood and brain to get plastered in. And most of the time it performs well, although we noticed on several occasions that dropped frames caused the game to stutter. Maybe it'll be even better on the iPhone 3GS (ours was running on an iPhone 3G).
Doom Resurrection is available now in the iTunes Store for $9.99 and piles of screenshots are over the page. Click above to have a look at some of ours. And look out for the guy whose stomach's falling out!
(Source: Crave UK)
A bit of consolidation going on in the video game biz today, as ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3), is acquiring id Software, developer of the classic Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein franchises.
While responsible for some of the most important PC games of all time (and essentially creating the first-person shooter with 1992's Wolfenstein 3D), iD has struggled in recent years to find the same relevance among console gamers and develop new properties. The company has also needed to form a more mutually beneficial relationship with a publisher (which is why there are very few marquee standalone game developers today -- most are owned by, or have exclusive deals with, a single publisher).
Good news for iD fans is that co-founder John Carmack (also co-creator of games such as Doom and Quake) is along for the ride, signing a long-term employment contract, according to a press release about the deal. In it, Carmack says, "This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward...We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."
A handful of iD projects already in development, including a new Wolfenstein game, will be published by Activision and EA, but Bethesda would publish any new sequels.
If you enjoyed Eric Franklin's post on 8-bit NES-style hip-hop, you'll definitely enjoy Team Teamwork's "The Ocarina of Rhyme." It's a mix tape of mashups that combines hip-hop tracks with the score to the Zelda game Ocarina of Time.
Team Teamwork produced the mix, which features unique tracks by Spank Rock, Common, Aesop Rock, Clipse, and my personal pick: MF Doom. Most of the songs fit well with the background score; for example, in "Fumbling Over Words," artist Edan Portnoy's intensity melds seamlessly into the rumblings of the "Battle" music from OoT, but other tracks, like Common's classic "I Used to Love H.E.R.," just sound too silly over the theme from the Hyrule Marketplace.
Stream the album above or download it here, and let me know what you think in the comments!
Id Software, the video game developer behind Doom, announced Thursday that it has tapped British author Graham Joyce to write Doom 4. The fantasy novelist has won numerous awards for many of his 14 novels and 26 short stories.
"I can say that Id has hired me to help develop the storyline potential," Joyce said in an interview with CVG. He chose not to offer any more comments about the pending release of Doom 4.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to Doom 4 even though Id first announced the game back in 2007 and has made no mention of it since. The original Doom became an iconic franchise that helped start this whole anti- video-game-violence nonsense, but more importantly, it set the tone for gaming today. It brought first-person shooters to the mainstream and left an indelible mark on the entire industry.
Doom was an important part of my formative years, as well. Maybe that's why my love for Doom, even through rough patches (I'm looking at you, Doom 3), has ever diminished.
Remember when Doom first hit store shelves in 1993? It wasn't like any other game on the market. It included off-color remarks, a gun named BFG (the "F" stood for... you can guess that yourself), and unprecedented violence. Unfortunately, it was that violence that got all the media attention.
But for the rest of us, Doom was something special. It was the graphical king of its time and we marveled at Id's ability to bring it to life. More importantly, it led to the 1990s gaming boom that changed the industry (and its consumers) forever.
... Read moreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
(Credit:
Circuit City Stores/Richard Cadan Photography)
I have never been a fan of Circuit City, so I wasn't exactly broken up when it announced it was closing 155 locations. (I mean, I don't want people to lose their jobs, but I've never had a good experience shopping at "the City.") However, with those closings comes inventory liquidations on home and office electronics at 154 locations (PDF) with discounts up to 30 percent.
Like most inventory clearance sales, though, I wouldn't expect to walk in and find 30 percent off that digital camera, home theater, or HDTV you've been eying. And actually, while I was writing this, CNET Reviews' Editor in Chief Scott Ard confirmed that the deep discounts just aren't there (at least in the Dublin, Calif., store).
He said prices were only down 10 percent on most merch, with DVDs and CDs down 20 percent, and 5 percent off laptops. This was after the prices were brought up to MSRP, mind you. What's worse is that by taking the discount the item is yours to keep--no refunds, no exchanges.
If you live near one of the closing stores it might be worth a look-see as the sales grind on toward the holidays, as rumor has it that the bigger price drops are still to come. But again, I wouldn't get your hopes too high for a big-ticket item at a bargain price.
(Credit:
id Software)
After Doom 3's less-than-stellar reception from the gaming world, it was safe to say that the franchise that changed gaming forever would be put to sleep. However, word from Slashdot says that id Software is very much into production on Doom 4. In fact, the award-winning developer is looking for some help:
We are looking for talented, ambitious, and passionate individuals eager to join our accomplished team of developers working on the industry's most innovative and anticipated games.
No word yet on which platforms we'll see Doom 4 on, but our money is on the usual threesome of PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
(Credit:
Musician's Friend)
Nothing is sacred. Even the venerable Fender Stratocaster has fallen prey to the evil Hello Kitty.
The iconic guitar has the traditional Hello Kitty script/logo scrawled across the back, like a criminal's calling card. But if you or your teenage daughter have outgrown your pink phase, Popgadget notes that there's also a black version of the "Fender Hello Kitty Stratocaster" that comes with ransom-note-style lettering to match your darker moods. Clearly, no one is safe.
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