Gizmodo: ambient

Ambient Football Scorecast Keeps NFL Fans Up To Date All the Time

Adam Frucci — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:45:00 EST

Watching football is clearly the best way to get scores to the games you're interested in, but if you're unable to view the games due to being busy or having them blacked out in your area, this fancy new Ambient Football Scorecast should keep you all up to date. It displays football scores in real time, allowing you see just how badly your precious Dolphins are being pummeled by whatever team they happen to be playing against this week. It also displays team and schedule info, making it a nice little gadget for the desks of football fans. Although for $125, they could just check ESPN.com like a normal person, but hey, gadgets! [Product Page]

Thought-Controlled Wheel Chair Helps the Disabled

ybaranovsky — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:56:45 EDT

A wheel chair being developed by Ambient will allow users to control its movement with just their thoughts — a breakthrough device that could be a huge help for the paralyzed. Called the Audeo, the chair works by intercepting brain signals sent to your larynx and decoding them to match previously recorded words, such as "forward," "back," or "fire laser."

Luckily, there is no complex cyborg-like surgery involved, as the device works by using a sensor-covered neckband to detect the brain signals and wirelessly transmit them to a nearby computer for processing. Theoretically, the signals can also be sent to a speech synthesizer, allowing a paralyzed user to speak with all the intensity and creepiness of Stephen Hawking. Pretty amazing in its simplicity, I'm curious to see how accurate this thing is and that it won't be sending our handicapped flying backwards into traffic. [Ambient via SciFi]

Home Joule: New Ambient Device Checks Your Power Usage

Brian Lam — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:16:31 EDT

NYC's power grid is always flexing under varying loads and prices. What's insane is that no one's tried to game that data to live green while saving a few bucks.

This Ambient device uses that same data, glowing red when its time to power down, going green when juice is plentiful. Play along and power down that PS3 during peak usage and they'll even kick a few bucks down to you. I'm not sure there's a downside, other than it could turn your light switches into an OCD game of red light, green light 1-2-3. (Think hypermilling a Prius for max efficiency, except in your house.)
For now, only in NYC.
Home Joule [Joe Brown at WIRED Fetish]

Photo Courtesy of Wired Magazine