I鈥橵E GOT A VIRTUAL HEADACHE
Would you pay real money to buy virtual flowers or a virtual diamond ring just to keep an artificial girlfriend interested in you? Hong Kong company Artificial Life hopes so, and is about to release a game called Virtual Girlfriend for use on 3G mobile phones.
Echoing the way the tamagotchi virtual pets of the 1990s were kept alive, the aim of the game is to sustain a relationship with the 鈥済irlfriend鈥�, represented by an animated 3D image. Ply her with gifts, and she will introduce you to her friends and let you in on other aspects of her life. But if you neglect her, she will sulk and refuse to respond to text messages. The very real cost of the gifts appears on your phone bill. Virtual Girlfriend launches first in Asia-Pacific markets in December, with a boyfriend version following in February.
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LEGLESS ROBOT GETS A LIFT
NASA has finally found a use for the Segway, the two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter that has been around since 2001. Though touted as a revolutionary new way for people to get about, the $4000 machine has never found favour with consumers.
Now engineers at NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, are using an adapted version of the Segway to allow their robotic astronaut, Robonaut, to get about. Robonaut has been designed to clamber around in microgravity outside the International Space Station, using its robot arms to do repairs. But in a gravity environment, the legless robotic torso has no way of moving about. However, fixing it on a Segway instantly makes it mobile, with no need for complex balancing circuitry as it鈥檚 built in to Segway鈥檚 control system. NASA hopes the Segway-equipped Robonaut will prove useful on future planetary rover missions.
KEY TO LINUX
Diehard advocates of the Linux open source operating system detest the Windows key on PC keyboards as it is an irritating reminder of the Microsoft operating system they abhor. To the rescue comes German computer accessories company Cherry, which is launching a PC keyboard designed with the Linux user in mind.
The new keyboard鈥檚 29 Linux hotkeys will make it possible to surf the web or check email at the push of a button. And instead of the Windows icon, the corresponding key will carry an image of Tux, the Linux penguin.
