Okay, so we guess the idea of cuffing the Wiimote to your wrist through handcuffs bought from a sex shop didn't really take off. The whole Wiimote wielding community laments at the still open possibility of losing grip of the motion sensing controller while playing, and hitting the TV with it. Slipping Wiimotes equals broken TVs and broken Wiimotes. What now?

Thankfully, there's the Retractable Wii Sports Cuff For Remote control. Made of neoprene this time and not cold metal anymore, you attach the cuff to the Wiimote and slap it to your wrist. It is retractable up to 13 inches, with an adjustable wrist band, and it's available in black.

Come to think of it, the retractable 13-inch cord could be of help when using the Wiimote as an innovative weapon, ala rodeo cowboy. Haha. The cuff doesn't come in different colors; we'd appreciate a Wii-color scheme. And a bad thing is that the price tag reading US$ 5.99 is already a discounted price.

In Star Wars, the characters talk with each other by 3D holographic images. Remember when Yoda and Obi-Wan saw the tiny 3D image of Anakin killing the Academy padawans in Episode III? That was my favorite 3D holograph moment. Anyway, the point is that 3D imagery often found in science fiction may now be available in ordinary real life soon.

Actually, the idea of holographic 3D images is not new. 140 years ago a man named John Henry Pepper manipulated mirrors on stage to create "ghost" images used for the theatre. And yeah, some fake séance experts used this technique to con the naive. But now in the digital age Cheoptics 360">Peter Simonsen invented Cheoptics 360, a technology that displays free floating images on air.

Cheoptics 360 makes it possible for life-like three dimensional videos to appear mid-air by using four 3D projectors. The images are re-assembled and re-generated in a transparent prism-like pyramid chamber that displays these free floating videos in mid-air. We think this idea is big, and could possibly even phase out the HDTV technology.

Then again, you see the images at only one angle at a time. Plus the machinery is kinda bulky. But before we think up all sorts of views about Cheoptics 360, check out the vid for more details.

 

Some people don't really pay attention to the comfort in the comfort room itself. Which is such a shame; one must always get rid of their bodily wastes in style and coziness. It will make you feel a lot better, know what we mean? Thankfully, here's a gadget to make your lonesome moments in the loo a lot more enjoyable.

This throne of sanitation has been made by Japan's largest manufacturer of flush toilets">TOTO, Japan's biggest manufacturer of flush toilets. It boasts of a wooden finish (nature-loving, eh?), a drop down top for comfortable sitting, a heated rim to eliminate those freeze-your-butt moments, and of course, the automatic bidet controls on the side.

The bidet is what makes the toilet great. There's control for strong butt wash, soft butt wash, and the off button. There's also a tray on the bottom that catches the wastes, for easy clean-up. The whole thing is so portable, weighing only 44 lbs. It can easily be toted from one room to another.

The downside to owning this is its regular need for clean-up. The scum doesn't flush away directly to the sewers. What if you were too lazy to throw away the poop? Well...

 

Just lookee at this thingamajig here. It's an arch that tunnels, with red rods on the sides. Betcha never thought this was a toaster. Yes siree, this weird contraption has been built to "brownify" bread. This came straight from the creative genius of designer Atil Kizilbayir.

The Mool Toaster should be okay for your morning bread, except that it's unsafe with kids (and pets) around, it's heat inefficient and an unecessary waste of space. Kinda reminds us of a tanning bed actually, and we bet that a person-sized version of this gizmo is enough to make a New York Times bestselling horror novel idea. Eww. Just imagine tiny people passing through this tunnel of roast.

We'd be more enthusiastic of other foodstuffs passing through this heat tunnel. Apart from your daily bread slice, we could pass spam slices, and eggplants, tortillas, maybe, or cheese slices. We wonder if we could do that? Too bad we'll never know, because this design is but a prototype. A cute concept, nevertheless...

Oh, we love expensive stuff. They're totally likable just because they cost a lot of money. And expensive techie stuff? Much, much better. Just like this platinum and diamond Gundam over here. This would look really great under glass in any gadget fan's dream geek palace.

This 5-inch, 1,400 g. Gundam robot soldier is 89 percent made of 1000 platinum and boasts of 0.15 karat diamonds for eyes. It's been manufactured by Bandai and will be on display next month at Baselton, Basle Switzerland. We think it's a great collector's piece, if you happen to have pocket money worth US$ 250,000.

If we had a 1:1 scale Gundam, we'd rather have it in original materials - y'know, for authenticity and all. But platinum Gundam? This may strictly be for those who have plenty of money to burn ... or plenty of pantyhose masks to wear.

We've heard of MP3 players on shoes, MP3 players on sunglasses, but an MP3 player on a grill? Now that's ... uh, delicious. This gadget, the Memphis Barbecue, combines the best of both worlds for any pyromaniac Rockstar-wannabe out there. It boasts of two gas burners, a 1950's styled front, and an MP3 Plugin which can attach an MP3 player in the grill's back.

The unit's price is US$ 451.77 and should be available in most local shops. We think this will be a great addition to your next backyard party. Just be careful; the cook might enjoy the music so much as to be forgetful of what they're cooking. We don't want music-happy but poorly-fed party goers, don't we?

  

If you're blind-as-a-bat (without contacts) like me, or blind as a - uh, log like our fellow blogger Glen D. here (sorry dude), or if you're completely blind, never worry. IBM is to launch a new multimedia browser to make audio and video content accessible to sight challenged people.

Dr. Chieko Asakawa, a blind employee at IBM's research lab in Tokyo, has created a browser, codenamed Accessibility Browser or A-Browser. The browser will give both partially sighted and blind people the same control over multimedia web content that sighted people have. The A-Browser will enable a vision-impaired person to control media content by using predefined shortcut keys rather than having to look for the control buttons using a mouse.

Entirely controlled from the keyboard, the player allows video to be slowed up or speeded down, and accommodates additional audio description or narration track to make video content useful for the blind. There are also volume controls that will enable the dim-sighted to adjust the sound of various sources independently.

IBM hopes to ready the A-Browser this year, and to make it free, to "open source" it. They're hoping it will reach the largest possible numbers of people. Frances West, director of IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Centre says of the A-Browser;

We're beginning to look at accessibility as a very important business area ... This is not just from a social responsibility standpoint, but with ageing baby-boomers we think that such technology could really benefit the population in general because all of us will be on this ageing journey.

 

Are you ready for the biggest i-gadget ever? A couple of years back we told you how Apple announced its partnership with some car manufacturers: Acura, Audi, Honda and Volkswagen. These auto makers wanted to put the ever ubiquitous iPod into their stereo systems and Apple obliged. Now, having your car iPod-integrated is already old news.

What's probably fashionable now is having your car name sounding like an Apple product. Only recently Volkswagen released its new iGolf with a big bang. iGolf is just like Volkswagen's best selling model in history, the Golf, only the i-toting model has a matching iPod dock hidden away in an armrest.

The VW iGolf is worth the equivalent of US$ 24,171 in Spain.

Robots have been the subject of many human speculation. In fiction and in film, robots have been viewed as potential competitor, and even controller of humans. Regardless of how popular culture views robots, though, there are folks working round the clock to bring these machines to life.

Wired caught up with Lee Gutkind, who wrote a book that was published this month entitled Almost Human: Making Robots Think. Lee's book discusses the lives of those living with the dream of someday making humanoid machines that would learn to behave, and even feel like humans do. Some of those geniuses just can't let go of their dream, working obsessively to "breathe robots to life".

In his book, Lee also mentions this "roboticist's syndrome". This condition happens whenever a robot genius is plucked out from their computerized sanctuary and plunked down into the middle of the desert. They just explode.

Lee mentions how women influence roboticists. He names Manuela Veloso, who got her roboticists colleagues involved in some social interaction through amiably competing in games. It was also Ms. Veloso who said that "15 years ago no one would have guessed that a robot would do science or that a robot would play soccer".

Which reminds us. Lee touches "robot humanity" in his book, in the way the roboticists began "humanizing" their robots, referring to the Mars rover as "she" or "her" and calling the robot Zoe.

Lee dabbled a bit on the subject of humans' fear of robots replacing them. He says that most roboticists aren't yet worried about that; we're still very far away from the point where we're going to have to deal with a lot of human-robot interaction.

Many were delighted to hear about an upcoming gadget announced months ago that will allow players to use PS2 accessories on the PS3. In case you haven't heard of this news, Nyko Technologies announced the Nyko adapter that will let you use your Dual Shock controllers, racing wheels and the Guitar Hero controller on your Playstation 3.

Sounds interesting, huh? Hate to be the wet blanket here, but that gadget is never going to come out. Bummer. Then again, this means you will still have to use your PS2 in playing Guitar Hero as much as you want. Nyko claims that certain limitations in the PS3 hardware prevented it from releasing the product with support for Guitar Hero.

We guess that with the adapter not coming out, it's more reason to keep the PS2 active and out of the attic. Every gamer knows you can never have too much gaming consoles in your living room.