The WISE will be in orbit for the next nine months, snapping a photo every 11 seconds to map the entire universe in infrared. Eventually it'll cover the entire sky 1.5 times over.

It'll be looking for any objects that have a potential of hitting Earth as well as distant objects such as brown dwarfs and far-away galaxies shrouded in dust. Also, alien spacecraft. I mean, duh. [CNN, image via]

Supposedly if the tattoo has changed, either by laser removal, adding more ink or even surgery, the infrared cameras can pick up on the change, and actually illustrate what the original design once looked like. It'd prove invaluable for detectives seeking criminals who may've tried disguising themselves, though reports of cameras detecting wigs and fake mustaches are still sadly unfounded. [TechRadar]

It's unclear how the IR heating works. Does it heat everything around the unit? Just bodies? Just water-filled bodies? How about a glass of water? Can you keep a drink warm by placing it on top? How about newspapers? T-Shirts? Underwear? At the very least, you'll always have a speaker handy when it becomes available in January 2010. [Iradium via Trendir via Unpluggd]

The sidewalk in front of the store has been fitted with small infrared lights, and the installation with infrared cameras; this is how Sniff, an art project designed by Karolina Sobecka and Jim George, knows where its audience is, and can anticipate which direction they're moving.

Some might see a playful interactive exhibit here, but I see something more insidious. Walking by confused, platter-eyed puppies every once in a while is a part of city life—each time you do it, you make an easy—but still present—decision not to buy that dog that evidently loves you more than anything, for some reason. With Sniff, you don't have a choice: he seems to like you, but you physically can't take him home; likewise, there no risk that your walkby buddy is going to get incinerated at a shelter, because he isn't real. Technology, you've stolen the richness from our relationships to dogs that aren't ours. Thanks. [Sniff via Urlesque via Neatorama]

The Price

Available later this month for $30.

What's Good

I've never hunted actual ducks, but I would imagine that the real experience offers up a similar (albeit more intense) mixture of fleeting thrills, unpredictability and satisfying violence as the game—except this way you don't actually have to kill anything. Plus the action sounds the gun makes when pumping the forearm and pulling the trigger are a nice touch.

What's Bad

As I mentioned earlier, this game is fun in short increments. The typical flight lasted anywhere between 5 and 15 seconds depending on how I set the directional control pad near the tail. As you can see in the videos above, setting the tab for a straighter flight tends to keep the duck up in the air longer while setting it more to the left or right results in shorter, more compact flights. Either way, the flights were inconsistent and it was difficult to get hits before the duck glided naturally to the ground. They say you can play this game indoors, and that's probably true if "indoors" happens to be a gymnasium.

You will break Duck Hunter. Seriously, even if you didn't get tired of the game after a few hours of flying, you will probably break it well before that. The infrared gun feels cheap and the bird is nothing more than a piece of styrofoam with a few bits of plastic and wings that have about the same tensile strength as masking tape. Every time I pushed the duck down on the charging post located on the barrel of the gun I thought I would snap something. And that happens a lot because you need to charge it for 10 seconds after each flight.

The Verdict

The $30 price tag isn't a fortune, but that's probably more than you want to spend on something that will end up forgotten or broken in a few weeks. Early on, there was talk of a premium, $40 version that could be remotely controlled by a second person—I'm not sure what happened with that, but it might have been a worthwhile upgrade.

Definitely feels like a live action version of the Duck Hunt NES game.

Gun sounds and the mid-air "stumbles" when the duck is hit are a nice touch.

Flights are inconsistent. Patterns are hard to contain, so it is best used in a large open space.

The equipment feels cheap and fragile.

Sharp, at the request of Japan's National Institute of Informatics, has developed a method to ruin the camcorder footage shot by pirates in movie theaters. By placing mega IR lights behind the screen (which are invisible to the human eye, of course), the light can tunnel through tiny holes that are already in screens for the passage of sound.

The result is a wash of light protruding from the screen, ruining camcorder footage. The other result is that, while you'll still never buy a ticket to Wolverine, you'll never get to know how bad the movie really was until, hungover on the couch one afternoon, you catch it on TBS or something. [Fareastgizmos]

Note: Unfortunately, the IR blast won't look nearly as awesome as it does in this photo. I imagine a lame grid of lights, not a reworking by JJ Abrams.

Designed by Korean firm D'strict, the tech is a combination of infrared motion sensing and 3D imagery, pretty much like Microsoft's Project Natal. It's not quite as seamless as Natal, but given that it's main purpose is just to add a little flash to a cellphone announcement, we're awfully impressed—and distracted. Check out the video below for a clip of one of the announcements, and you'll see what we mean. [Fast Company]

Samsungmobile Jet making film from d'strict on Vimeo.

The Energizer Hard Case Tactical Flashlight 2AA features a 70-lumen white LED, along with four additional LEDs including red, blue, green and infrared—a selection of fine lighting choices for incognito map reading or simply an impromptu infiltration disco.

Droppable from 15 feet and including a swiveling head with a range of motion of nearly 180 degrees, it's pretty neat for a flashlight, but it'll set you back $125. And you can call me cheap, but I just don't assassinate world leaders in the dead of night often enough to justify the purchase. [Popular Mechanics via Newlaunches]

The Samsung SCH-W760 is a pretty typical slider for Korea (the only place it will most likely be released), but it features a 3MP camera that can shoot video calls in the dark. The system uses an old technology, infrared, to capture your black and white video transmission in the absence of visible light.

Just don't do anything we wouldn't do, you young adults of Korea. In other words, always pretend that your end of the video transmission is broken and that you've "never done this before." [Telecomes Korea via unwired view]

Probably not, you're right.

Anyway, the program, as you may know, is called Google Book Search, and it's pretty simple: Google is right now busily scanning as many books as it can get its hands on and adding the images to a search database. It's just another way the company is slowly taking over the world, but who cares—you can click links in the books when they mention locations and Google Maps will take you there!

But on their way to putting public libraries out of business, Google ran into a decidedly low-tech problem when scanning the physical books for uploading into their new digital medium. Basically, the character recognition software requires a relatively flat 2D image of the text to work 100% properly. The books' bindings aren't cooperating, however, as they cause the pages to arch upward on either side. This has made the process take far longer than our future overlords would have liked.

Luckily, Google knows a thing or two about frickin' laser beams (but thankfully not how to attach them to the heads of sharks—yet). By casting an infrared beam over each book, the Google team can use infrared cameras to map the 3D shape and filter out the distortion with some nifty error correction software. And now the books are just flying off the shelves and into the digital ether. [New Scientist]

In order for the system to work, a receiver must be placed on top of the screen to capture pen movements, but the result is a decent-sized screen for your doodles. That sounds like a pretty handy device for around $104. [Hanwha via Akihabara News]

Designed by Dr Gordon Dougal, apparently just a GP, the helmet bombards the patient with intense waves of infrared light for a few minutes a day to stimulate growth of brain cells. The device will undergo clinical trial 'soon', but the doctor sees promise:

Sir Terry used the helmet for about three months. Over that period there was a small improvement. Not significant, which was a bit disappointing, but it didn’t get any worse.

One mildly positive report is basically meaningless when it comes to treatments like this, but for the sake of the good Knight (and the aesthetic future of medicine—look at this thing!) I hope it works. [Dailymail via BoingBoing Gadgets]

The LightSpeed system exploits free-space optics—the ability to pass data between two points via an optical beam. The method usually involves lasers, but this system uses eye-safe infrared LEDs, similar to those used in TV remotes, says Leo Volfson, president of Torrey Pines Logic, which created LightSpeed. “The binocular has an attachment that fits over the ocular side,” Volfson says. “It produces a beam that comes out of the right eye of the binocular. On the left side is a receiver. If you look at me and I look at you, we’ll be able to talk or send information.” Range is determined by the strength of the optics. Unlike radio-wave transmissions, data transfer through the LED beam is undetectable.

There is no word on how much these things might cost, but the Volfson believes that his product has potential outside of the defense industry. That's right—bird watcher's worlds are about to get rocked by technology. [Popular Mechanics]

Whereas your typical night vision system operates in the visible light and near infrared ranges (0.4 to 1.0 micrometres), a forward looking infrared (FLIR) is an imaging device capable of capturing infrared radiation in real time, assembling a video image that pilots can use under any weather and light conditions.

A forward looking infrared (FLIR) is an imaging device that can capture infrared radiation in real time.

The whole package includes and interface distribution (I don't know what those ports are, but they don't look like your mom's USB ports), a precision pointing system with infrared imager unit, a hand control unit, and the box and manuals. [eBay]

As you can see in the schematics, the fire-control system uses thermal optic, day-sight, laser range finder, compass and IR light to exactly measure the distance to the target, programming each of the rounds' fuses so it explodes next to the target using a wireless connection. According to the US Army, this gives maximum destruction power and minimum collateral damage, while allowing to save barriers that previously didn't allow to reach the target.

The capability to program the rounds is what allows this weapon to go "around objects." If, for example, there's a sniper hidden behind a trench, the soldier can program each round so it explodes just above the target. The bullets will explode at that exact range, taking down the target thanks to their air bursting power.

The XM25 is capable of firing an air-bursting round out to 600 meters with a 360-degree explosive radius, all with extreme precision according to testers. However, each round doesn't have to be lethal: There will be two kind of non-lethal rounds (blunt and airburst) to neutralize enemies without killing them.

The new system is also user friendly. Apparently, each type of bullet—high explosive air bursting, armor piercing, door breaching, anti-personnel, non-lethal—is color-coded:

All this technology comes at a price, however. The US Army will have to pay $25,000 for each weapon, plus $25 for each programmable 25mm round. The rounds, however, will be absolutely free of charge for terrorists or anyone at the other side of the battlefield, bad guy or passerby. [Defense Tech]

The Noveon cooks onychomycosis (toenail fungus) using two near-infrared wavelengths, but leaves healthy tissue untouched, as seen in this diagram. [Medgadget]