Now that the super-animated almost-real movie Avatar is about to roll out (in theaters 12/18/09), here come the advertisers with spectacular new types of techno-toys to accompany the flick. For instance, if you hold a tricky Coke Zero can up to your webcam, it sprouts a controllable helicopter. Click the frame above to see a video of that. Hey, this looks like fun. This augmented reality (AR) juju will, be plastered on 140 million bottle-shaped cans, some 30 million fridge packs, as well as bags, bottles, popcorn bags and fountain drink cups.

You'll also be able to pick up a card at McDonald's that you hold in front of your webcam, and when you go to an Avatar-branded website, out pops an animation that looks like a real mechanical toy. There will be playable games associated with these controllable 3D animations, offered as bonuses with Big Macs and Happy Meals at the Micky-D fast feeder.

So that's what they mean by augmented reality. We've seen some crude AR before, first with a lame Best Buy ad, where if you held the company's brochure up to your webcam you could move around a 3D laptop. But this goes way beyond that. Whether it sells more big Macs or Coca-Cola, or makes more people go to James Cameron's film remains to be seen. But just think of the possibilities for this augmented reality. Wow. Here's a video of the Avatar card:

While you watch this gadget-laden gem entitled Pidgeon: Impossible, notice the exquisite quality of YouTube's HD. As we mentioned to you earlier this week, YouTube video has been been improved once again, and the company is now calling it "1080p." We're not so sure if it's that same 1080p you've grown to love with Blu-ray discs, but one thing's certain: Streaming video has certainly come a long way since the early 320 x 240 days just a couple of years ago.

This 6-minute animation itself is remarkable, taking writer/director Lucas Martell five years to complete. Released on May 7th of this year, it's already a recipient of multiple prestigious awards. According to Lucas:

"When the project started, it was mostly an excuse to learn 3D animation, but by the end of the project I had spent so much time reworking and polishing the story that I just wanted people to laugh."

Via Pidgeon Impossible

Home is where the heart is. That makes HOMErgent's heart an easily transportable, flat-packed, high-quality shelter designed to house the needy and help the planet.

Following a "hexayurt" design and using readily available building materials, HOMErgent uses existing eco-friendly infrastructure technologies to provide users with water, power, cooking, lighting, sanitation needs for living off-grid — whether the grid has just been destroyed or was never really there anyway.

They target the 4 billion people on earth that even subprime lenders couldn't touch: those just made homeless by disaster or who earn less than $1,500/year, the cutoff point for sustaining a "decent life."

When life is about survival, environmental concerns take a back seat. So, areas with a lot of people in this situation — like refugee camps — become squalid, health-threatening eco-disasters quickly, as residents hunt for food, water and shelter and don't worry about waste management. HOMErgent's all-in-one package solves a lot of problems quickly.

Aimed at government aid agencies and NGOs working in the field, HOMErgent's structures can be easily transported and adapted to other uses. Pricing is higher than a typical tent, but users get a lot more comfort.

Via HOMErgent

Sony is diving head-first into this whole 3D enterprise, betting the farm on everybody being really excited to wear 3D glasses whenever they watch TV or play video games. Their latest foray into the 3D realm? This 280-inch 3D LED display for public areas.

It sure looks impressive, but you've gotta wonder how much sense a public 3D display makes. I mean, wouldn't people just need to be carrying 3D glasses around just in case they came across it? For everyone else, it'll be the biggest blurry display they've ever seen.

Tech-On via Engadget

Climate-change activists are blasting gonzo economist Steven Levitt — co-author of Freakonomics and, now, SuperFreakonomics — for the heresy of writing that bigger, crazier technologies may be the cheapest way to save us from global warming, with the added benefit of letting us go about our consumerist lives without a concern.

He mentions space mirrors to reflect sunlight and other concepts, but his cornerstone science project? A perforated garden hose stretching into the stratosphere that will disperse a mist of sulphur dioxide, creating a layer that will drive down surface temperatures, much as ash from volcanic eruptions blocks sunlight and cools the planet.

It would also create acid rain, but by Levitt's reasoning that may be the lesser of the environmental evils we face. Interesting reasoning, but I say it's just a Trojan horse for rampant apathy. Continue reading for my full analysis.

There are a couple of things we really like about the Hercules eCafe EC1000W netbook, which runs Windows 7 and sports a 10.1-inch screen. It's got a nicely spaced keyboard for its size, and has Wireless N built right into it. There are also areas in which we wished the latest eCafe was a little beefier, such as with its 1GB of RAM and the same Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor the $320 ASUS Eee PC Seashell has in it. What's neither good or bad, however, is its odd storage situation.

That's where the asterisk comes in. Only 250 gigabytes of the aforementioned 300 is on the laptop. The missing 50GB is, curiously, offered up through the eCafe online portal, where you can store whatever you like. Of course, storage like that isn't free forever, and after the first year you're going to have to start paying for it. (Hercules didn't have a price for us yet, it's still being worked out.) You could always ignore that extra storage by never signing up for it, as we understand it.

With all that in mind, the eCafe appears o be a capable contender in the netbook space. It didn't seem to bottleneck running Windows 7, though we didn't get to try too many processor intensive applications. The eCafe has its own suite of proprietary applications for managing updates, email and messaging that puts it all up front — accessibility that casual users attracted to netbooks may appreciate.

The Hercules eCafe is available now for the aforementioned $400.

Via eCafe

Gallery: Hercules eCafe, a $400 netbook with 300GB of storage* (10 images)   view full gallery

One the common perils of gaming and cola-fueled geekdom is the ever-present specter of insomnia. Now a UK-based company has produced a solution called the LightSleeper that marries cool device design with a natural sleep aid.

The white orb, created by a student at the University of Central Lancashire, projects a soft light on your ceiling that moves in a manner designed to slowly lull you to sleep. The LightSleeper will go on sale sometime next year for 125 British pounds ($209) here.

Via Core77

In a tech overview at its Mountain View headquarters, Google announced that its highly anticipated Chrome operating system is a year away from reality. In the meantime, the Chrome OS exists in an early form, with the company using it to deliver a presentation to the press today. Google says the netbook-friendly operating system will feature the same kind of speed, simplicity and security that characterizes its Chrome browser.

An enticing factor of Chrome OS is its instant boot time (the demo showed a 7-second boot time, though), quickly giving you access to its apps and data, all of which will reside in the cloud. That'll let you access your personalized OS, settings and apps from any computer, as long as it's connected to the internet.

We like the tabbed interface, looking a lot like the Chrome browser, but with applications in each tab at the top left instead of the website tabs you see in the Chrome browser. Expect to hear a lot more about this budding Chrome OS in the next few months, with availability around next year at this time.

Here's a clever video from Google, explaining the new Chrome OS:

Your digital camera sucks. At least it does compared to the new Hasselblad H3DII-50 MS. The moter of all DSLRs is insanely expensive at $34,000, but I'm sure it's totally worth it. Maybe?

This monster camera can now take four consecutive shots, recording full RGB values at each position. I'm sure that justifies the price! Granted, the photos that this guy takes are exquisite, but are they exquisite enough to justify spending 10 times more than a high end DSLR from Sony or Canon? I'm gonna guess not.

Digital Photography Review via Engadget

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc. debuted their Focus-Fusion-1 dense plasma focus research reactor in mid-October, after nearly 8 years of research and building. In the blink of an eye, this freezer-sized nuclear fusion demo machine can push more than 100 gigawatts of power through a space smaller than a pin point. By comparison, the entire U.S. uses about 430 gigawatts of electricity every hour.

Unlike standard nuclear fission — which involves bombarding a fuel, like plutonium or uranium, with neutrons to break it up into isotopes and releasing massive amounts of energy — the Focus-Fusion-1 bombards boron atoms with neutrons, turning it into helium and even more massive amounts of energy.

Then there's the price. A new nuclear fission plant costs billions, and requires a community willing to have one. Focus-Fusion-1 costs several hundred thousand dollars, and could shrink the land footprint of typical power plants from acres to basement-water-heater-size, while reducing the cost of electricity to 1/10th of our cheapest available power today.

And the end-products are way better. While the waste from fission will make the lab techs glow in the dark and die horrible deaths if exposed, Focus-Fusion-1's waste products will just make them talk funny.

Via FocusFusion.org and Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Inc.

You must be tired of being jolted out of bed with a honking, clanging, shrieking or buzzing alarm clock. Those days are over with the Shake N Wake Silent Alarm Clock, either adorning your wrist or nestled under your pillow all night, ready to shake you awake with its gentle vibrations. The best part is, if you're getting up earlier than everyone else in the house, the only one awakened will be you.

We do wish they would've rounded off the design a bit, which could get in the way if you're up for some nocturnal spooning with that significant other.Wearing a bulky alarm watch on your wrist is not that comfortable, either. But it must be popular, because this $25 wrist vibrator is currently out of stock at Thumbs Up UK.

Thumbs Up UK, via Chip Chick

Gallery: Shake N Wake gently nudges you out of your slumber (2 images)   view full gallery