I hate shoe shopping. The tedium and wasted time spent trying on numerous pairs of trainers or boots in crowded, stuffy shops could easily be wasted in far more creative and lazy ways.
Adidas has read my mind and introduced a virtual mirror at its store on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris. Rather than having to undo laces and expose my holy socks 15 times, I can try on models virtually by placing my foot in front of the mirror to see a variety of virtual trainers. The system, developed by the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin, uses cameras to capture your foot and create a 3-D model of it in real-time, modeling different trainers.
Brilliant. Now, if only I liked Adidas footwear….
You can catch the system in action at Cebit next week (Hall 9, Stand B36).-Martin Lynch
news technology gadgets sport footwear fashion cebit
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Scramby is today’s odd-ball offering, allowing you to hook it up to your VoIP phone and change the sound of your voice in online gaming and multiplayer environments. You can also just use it for calling your mother and freaking her out.
This is a Vocoder add-on for Internet phones/headsets and comes with software to allow you to distort your voice to suit your own tastes or, the character you are playing in the game. Yes, it does do Darth Vader.
It comes with 30-voice mods out of the box or you can do your own. There are also 130 audio clips, sounds and background noises. The voices and sounds can be linked to keyboard short-cuts and users can also import their own clips. A bit daft but not all that bad for around £11.-Martin Lynch
[Scramby]
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The cloak worn by Obi-wan Kenobi – a.k.a. Sir Alec Guinness – goes under the hammer today in the UK’s largest auction of TV and movie costumes. This has to make it the most expensive blanket ever.
I mean, c’mon, I’m a fan of the movies but regardless of who wore what, as Star Wars costumes went old Ben Kenobi’s wrap was not the one us kids clamoured for. Sure, it was the easiest to procure, with a quick stripping of the bed, but it was never up there with Vader’s back in black chic or Bobba Fett’s funky helm and jet-pack. But today, someone will fork out between £50,000-£60,000 for the pleasure. Go figure. They say:
“Using McQuarrie's conceptual drawings, John Mollo, the costume designer, produced the outfits for the multitude of aliens, droids, rebel and empire military personnel and of course the principal characters. John Mollo pursued the idea that Obi Wan Kenobi was to resemble a nomadic monk and survivor of the desert world of Tatooine, dressed in simple robes and hooded cloak and his costume was to reflect the peaceful stature of the Jedi Knights.”
You could save a lot of money by opting for Spock's space suit here.
Also under the hammer are James Bond suits, including a silk-lined dinner jacket worn by Connery in Thunderball, and outfits from Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Superman, Titanic and Indiana Jones.
Check out the full listing and photos here.-Martin Lynch
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Tired of twisting that fork to wrap the pasta around it? The Pasta Fork solves that problem for you. You just put your fingers at the top, push down and its corkscrew design makes the pasta twirl around its tines automagically.
If you have sticky fingers, it might not work too well, so you might want to have a tube of K-Y Jelly nearby, just in case. Could get messy, and who says twirling pasta around a fork is so difficult, anyway? See for yourself if these screwy forks enhance your quality of life. – Charlie White
Product Page [Presents for Men, via Coolest Gadgets]
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This is a bit Kotaku-y, but hell, we think 99.99% of Gizmodo readers love legos, so we're bringing this to you anyway. Apparently, NetDevil is going to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on Legos.
Imagine Second Life, but instead of being shitty, scammy, and filled with graphics from 1998 it's actually fun! You could theoretically build your own houses, castles, cars, helicopters, and Bat Caves out of Legos! Awesome! Exclamation marks galore! – Jason Chen
Lego MMO Revealed [Kotaku]
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A Connecticut man who was jailed on illegal gun possession is now suing Microsoft, HP, and Circuit City claiming all three companies failed to keep his computer safe from the Feds, who uncovered his porn collection after seizing and cracking into his password-protected PC. Michael Alan Crooker is seeking $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, saying MS' Internet Explorer failed to delete his browsing history, which was easily traced back to various porn sites. He's also suing HP and Circuit City for selling him an "insecure" PC. Chances are he won't see a dime from either company, but let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks tossing a file into the Recycle Bin means it's gone forever. – Louis Ramirez
Microsoft Should Have Protected My Porn Stash [Inquirer]
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By combining two random words, you can either get a semi-successful pop song or an appliance that kind of makes sense. This Holland Electric microwave features a TV on the front, which means you can either entertain yourself or make sure your food's not burning—but not both.
A great idea if you never listened to your mother telling you never to stand in front of the microwave. Plus, they've got the most subtly sadistic product shot we've seen in a while. We're really in the mood for some chicken. – Jason Chen
Stand in Front of This Microwave [Treehugger]
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
