SIM SIN: Parents may worry about how and when their kids are using a cellphone. In the UK the Bemilo system will give parents the power to prevent their children from going online, texting or calling during certain hours. The pack includes a SIM card on a pay-as-you-go plan. Parents can control the phone remotely from a web app, but can still reach the child if they need to. Parents can also read their child's text messages. That should lead to a good schoolyard trade in prepay SIMs. BBC details.
WING MAN: A British stuntman jumped out of a helicopter at 731 metres high and landed safely on a bunch of cardboard boxes — all without a parachute. Instead he was wearing a wingsuit. His 50 second flight terminated on 18,600 cardboard boxes laid out to be 4 metres high and designed to cushion the landing. That's a lot of faith in cardboard boxes. Sky News has more.
KINECTED SMILES: Microsoft are refining the Kinect's recognition capabilities, adding the ability to read and react to facial expressions. A new SDK for Kinect adds the facial recognition, improved speech recognition and improved skeletal tracking. Smile and your avatar smiles with you. Gizmodo explains.
BLOWING BUBBLES: Students from Japan and the US created a colloidal display that has promising applications. The display is similar to a soap bubble, but created from a mixture of two colloidal liquids. The membrane screen can be controlled using ultrasonic vibrations to change its transparency and surface states. Stargate Goa'uld communication balls anyone? A Colloidal Display has more info. Check out the video here.
38 DAYS TO LONDON: Stanford University created a Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World to help you experience what it was like to travel in Roman times. It broadly reflects conditions around 200 CE, showing cities, roads, rivers and sea lanes covering close to 10 million square kilometres. Enter various parameters and the map calculates a route and other data for you. Travelling by horseback and sea from Athens to London by the fastest route was a 38 day journey. What a great map mashup! Orbis elaborates.
