I thought I loved doing laundry. But now after the announcement that Samsung made at CES, doing laundry just isn’t going to be the same.

Since College I have been frantically looking for quarters in order to clean my clothes. I remember having to go to banks, grocery stores, even knocking on friends’ doors to get quarters. Then you had to compete to even find an open laundry space. Forget doing laundry on Sundays. In my apartment, things did not get better. I still needed quarters (but more now) and it was still a fight for resources. Each load had to be taken outside and down the stairs into the garage. Rain or shine, one load at a time because that’s all I could carry.

When we bought my house the first thing I went to check out was the laundry situation. I fell in love. The laundry has it’s own little room with drawers and there it was a full washer and dryer. No more waiting and no more quarters. I think the first few months I did laundry at crazy hours just cause I could. Or I let it…sit overnight. Why? Cause no one was going to take my stuff out of it.

Silly I know, but I was happy in my ignorance. But now Samsung goes and announces their brand new washer and dryer that is a tech geek’s dream. The WiFi-enabled WF457 washer’s Smart Control system allows you to really continue living your life while doing laundry. Using an app you can monitor the cycle, remaining time and finishing alerts, as well as remotely start or pause the washer from anywhere in the house. Um..yes please? If there are any issues the system will also send warnings to your connected devices so that you know exactly what the issue is.

The washer and dryer are huge and offer seven different settings to help fine tone how you wash your clothing. There is a monitor/touchscreen for the settings as well. In talking to my mom about this she stated that she would love the idea of being able to remotely monitor the laundry. Right now she has to go out into the cold, garage and check on how the loads are doing.

The WF457 Washer and dryer will be available in Charcoal and white in Spring 2012. I think the only thing missing is the robot arm to take things out of the washer and place it into the dryer.

Researchers there have been using motion-sensing technology to help evaluate seniors’ risk for falls for years, but they’ve recently expanded to giving Microsoft’s Kinect sensor a try — the Kinect sensor only produces silhouette images, rather than an identifiable image, which alleviates some patients’ fears.

The sensors have been put into use at TigerPlace, an independent living community in Columbia, Mo., and they’re currently used to monitor behavior and routine changes in patients who live there.

Researchers are also investigating the usage of Doppler radar sensors for the same ultimate goal: monitoring increased risk of falls. Each body part on a human creates its own Doppler “signature,” and the device can detect a fall based on the “signature” motions.

“Falls are especially dangerous for older adults and if they don’t get help immediately, the chances of serious injury or death are increased,” said Liang Liu, MU doctoral student. “If emergency personnel are informed about a fall right away, it can significantly improve the outcome for the injured patient.”

Both systems provide automatic alerts to health care personnel, and residents at TigerPlace know that their falls may be detected early, helping them maintain their independence.

Watch the video below to learn more!

MU Researchers Use New Video Gaming Technology to Detect Illness, Prevent Falls in Older Adults from MU News Bureau on Vimeo.

Through twitter, I have found GamingAngels.  The staff has embraced me as one of their own and in the months I have been working with them, have found a nice little family.  Although we are spread out across the nation, gaming, social media & the internet we are able to stay in touch and run GamingAngels.com as a team.  This has impacted my life in a positive way and given me a new outlook on my life as a gamer.  I used to hide the fact that I played video games, like it was a dirty little secret.  I had a fear that I’d be judged as a non-professional, as immature.  With the help of social media, I’ve seen that there are a great many professionals who enjoy the sport of gaming as much as I do.

Of course, there is the social aspect.  With conventions, tournaments, sites like twitter and facebook, online gaming, online multiplayer and game chats, it’s easy to connect with other gamers, talk about life and have some laughs.  Through these outlets, I’ve also seen a great number of people find jobs in the industry.  It’s good to have connections.  It’s also fun.  The number one reason to play games is for fun.  What better way to end a stressful day at the office than to sit on your comfy couch and play a game of Call of Duty?  Or how about having a family game night?  A lot of games seem to be geared toward families or groups.  Who wouldn’t want their mother to issue them a beat down in a game of The Fight: Lights Out?

Many games for kids prove to be educational as well.  I’ll be honest, my kids love gaming and I feel they learn a great deal from games.  They can teach anything from Colors and ABC’s to logic and problem solving.  Yes, there are games out there that are not for kids but that is a parent’s responsibility to ensure safe and appropriate games for their child as well as to guard them from possible online connections that should not be made.

With the Wii, PS Move and Xbox Kinect, games have taken a hard right.  The fact that sitting on your butt for hours is not very healthy can be countered with the Fitness and Motion games on the market.  These games are fun, educational and many of them can get you to work up a sweat after a while (fitness games or not).  This can get you out of those boring gyms, keep you away from repetitive work out videos and give you a customized program on your personal fitness level with progress tracking and in-game rewards for reaching your goals.  In our GamingAngels forum, we recently finished the “90 Day Challenge: New Years Edition!”, and another challenge will be starting soon.  Through our forum we are able to encourage and support each other in our fitness goals, along with a few rewards along the way.  Some people have turned to good old exercise and healthy food choices, while some of us have combined them with fitness and motion games.  It gives us a whole new way to keep in shape.  I myself have been playing Dance Central lately and I love the workout mode which calculates your workout time as well as estimating your calories burned.  On those days I don’t feel like going for a run or if the weather is bad, I still find myself turning on my Xbox for a few rounds of dancing.  It really seems to take the work out of workout!

So, with all things said and done, I feel there is a good deal of positive that can come from gaming which outweighs the negative.  I think people who oppose gaming altogether should be more open to the possibility that games could bring a positive change in their life.

Now, the question on everyone’s mind is what does this have to do with technology? Well, the Girl Scouts have begun to offer a new service which will be using Smartphones to accept credit cards while they go door to door. That’s right, smartphones to accept credit cards. The 200 troops in Northeastern Ohio are using GoPayment, one of the many existing credit card payment applications, that are available. This method of paying for those wonderful cookies is great for those of us who just don’t carry cash.

“Normally I think a lot of customers would love to buy cookies, but they have to walk by the booth because they’re not carrying cash,” said Marianne Love, director of business services for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio. “I know I never carry cash when I’m out shopping.”

This is a great movement to see new ways to use technology to support cause, as well as teaching girl how to use technology. So in a few years, as those girls go door to door, they might be offering this payment plan to you.

They’re currently utilizing something called MotionScan to add a level of realism to character faces that we honestly haven’t seen before. In fact, we may be getting closer to completely negating the concept of the uncanny valley in gaming, and that should be welcomed. (This certainly explains why it’s taking so long to create this game – I have to wonder, however, if the character models that fit into the “random people walking around” category are going to suffer and ruin the overall effect – we’ll just have to see.)

Watch the video below to see how the process works (men with 1940s hairstyles are involved) and get a look at a few more scenes from the game.

Each day technology is entering the school system. Better computers, smartboards, projector units, software for core subjects and let’s not forget the technology that is used each day in terms of students and even teachers to communicate. The “21th centery” school has begun. With that being said, what should this school include? Should the technology be used only for the benefit of students and the educational process or should the use of technology be extended to the monitoring, or dare I say policing?

This fundamental question arrises because a school district within Connecticut has decided to place RFID chips within the I.D Cards of the students and staff of their schools. They have also decided to include the chips within a number of educational items within the school. Items that this would include would be T.V units, Projectors and Laptops.  For clarification, I shall do into a lengthy discussion of the article, before I begin looking at the possible pros and cons of such a system. I will also sprinkle in my own personal opinion as we continue on.  RFID chips are chips that send out radio signals which is specific to each chip. That way each signal would be specific to each child or educational item.  The chip then could be tracked down to the location of the chip holder.  The idea was purposed by SecureRF Corporation, a company specializing in secure RFID software, which then got a grant of $100,000, from the National Science Foundation. What the purpose of the whole science experiment of the RFID chips is to do a number of scientific experiments, which could help with budgeting, such as one that was suggested, to tracking how many students actually ride the bus. To date, there is still a wait for getting a green light for this project, yet it is suggested by the article, that this will indeed go ahead.

First, let’s discuss the cons of a system like this. There is one con that bring up huge red flags. The first is privacy in general. I say in general because I want to look at the rights of the teacher as well as the hotly debated rights of the child.

So what about privacy? Where are the child’s rights? Are we not invading their individual rights are a human being?

When I read the original article, the comments where all directed towards the rights of the child.   Since there has been such a huge push for the rights of children, and young adults in terms of privacy within the school environment, this flies completely in the face of what child advocates have been working towards.

And, what about the teachers? No where in the article comments was there a discussion about the rights of the monitoring of a teacher or in this case, whole schools of teachers. If it is ok to monitor teachers, then wouldn’t it be ok to monitor children, who should be treated like adults,  if an actual adult is being monitored? I do understand that I am playing Devil’s Avacate, and I know that many people will say, “A child can not speak up for themselves.” Well, if you have never taught in a grade 8 English class, then you know, they can very well speak up for themselves, as well as have their parents ringing the same prospective as their child.

So, let’s look at the pros.  The two red flags in this area are security and financial.

Security within a school, no matter what the size, population, or social-economic area has become a highened issue. With so many school shootings, abduction of children, bomb threats, bullying and fighting; children need to feel safe when they enter a school. One of the first things I learned while finishing my B.Ed was that if a child does not feel safe in the school or classroom they can not, or will not, learn. So, would the chip system detour bullies? When I posed this question to a academic English class, they believed that it could. They thought that if the system existed within their school, teachers would be able to see who was being bullied and who the bully was. At the same time, if charges were ever filed that way there is a documentation of time and occurrence.

The second of the  pro for a system like this is financial. According to the article, the school wishes to take the money that they would save from the replacement of stolen items such as a laptops, and reroute the funding into areas of the school that have been suffering, the one that is being discussed is the arts programs. For those of you that do not know,  the arts programs, be it music, visual or theatre arts is normally the programs that suffer the most when it comes to the school budget. So, if you are able to track down that missing laptop, projector unit, or science equipment, That was a personal favourite of my generation for stealing, then next year, you would not have to factor in that new laptop into the budget to buy. That money can be placed into art supplies for at least the first term. So, the school, and hopefully students would benefit from having more programs, and opportunities to offer the students.

What do you fine readers think? Are is the school system steeping across the line in terms of the rights of the students? Is this movement of the new 21st century school too Big Brother? Or are we all over reacting?

Rude Gameware has launched a brand new gaming headset, the Primal PC Headset and mouse, the Fierce 3200 targeted to those PC gamers that are looking for the extra edge in their performance.

As suggested by the press release, the Primal PC headset is designed for the maximum in comfort for those long gaming sessions. Some very notable features of the headset:

• Can work with any PC, Portable gaming and audio device with a 3.5 mm audio jack.
• A battery pack adapter to power the feedback feature.
• In-line volume control.
• Noise cancelling technology
• Force feedback feature
• Lightweight, and fully adjustable for comfort
• Soft fabric ear cups and padding the headband
• Detachable noise cancelling mic

The Fierce 3200 DPI, is a laser gaming mouse which promises to provide comfortable with this specificly designed form, non-slip grips and slick pads.  Some important features of the mouse:

• A real-time adjustable DPI
• A high quality laser sensor
• Adjustable weights
• USB connection

One of the goals for the Rude Games is to provide affordable gaming peripheral for all gamers.  Each of these wonderful products are available at a suggested retail price of  $49.95 US.  If you compare similar products that are on the market for gamers, this is helping gamers get though this big bad recession.

For more information:
http://www.rudegameware.com/

Razer(TM) had released their first Gaming Mouse which was specifically developed for those of us that are left handed. The Razer Deathadder Left Handed Edition. Lefty will no longer have to deal with the horrid right handed mouse that has been mocking them for generations.  Now, those of the lefty army can get that competitive edge while gaming.

The Status:

• A unique ergonomic form factor to give lefties a comfort for extended gaming sessions.
• Five programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
• The trademark 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ technology, for speed
• Loaded with a 3500dpi Razer Precision™ 3.5G infrared sensor
• Ultra-Large non-slip buttons
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Always-On™ mode

The Razer DeathAdder Left Hand Edition is selling for 59.99 US.

For more information
http://www.razerzone.com/

They are doing this as part of their “Changing the Game” campaign, which aims to equip youth with the ability to create games with social content. They do this by encouraging science, math, technology and education skills. AMD believes that teaching video game design also encourages this.

The Awards, which have a storied 87-year history, represent the cutting edge of youth creativity, and adding a prize for young developers fits right in. The grant provided by AMG will allow them to host multiple workshops and fund several scholarships. The Alliance anticipates 700 entries for the video game design category.

We’ll get to see the debut of this technology in Rockstar Games detective title “L.A. Noire.” Rockstar went with them due to the ease of reducing the budget through less post-production time.

MotionScan technology is different from anything around right now because it uses 32 High Definition cameras at up to 30 frames per second. It is able to capture up to 50 minutes of final footage and process up to 20 minutes of facial animation every single day. This gets every emotional detail and mannerism digitally processed as 3D models. Unlike most other motion capture technology, this is done with no physical markers – just the image itself. In addition, you don’t even need people to clean up the data afterward. Directors can see clips from any angle and re-light scenes without multiple lighting setups.

“L.A. Noire” will definitely be the ultimate test of this new technology.