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A new gadget aims to give police and emergency workers the benefits of a drone or robot camera in a simpler and cheaper form: a high-tech throwable ball.

The device, named Explorer, is classed by makers Bounce Imaging as a “tactical throwable camera.” It looks like a rubber softball, but has six recesses each housing a camera lens with a ring of LED lights.

The idea is to use it in situations where it would be dangerous to enter a building or area without knowing what’s inside, such as in a police raid or a rescue team entering a collapsed building.

Once the ball is thrown, the cameras each start taking shots. The device then pieces together the imagery to produce 360 degree imagery at a rate of one frame per second, then uses a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot to transmit the feed to a nearby iOS or Android device. The device can run for 30 minutes and uses replaceable batteries.

Explorer comes in two versions. The standard version, at $1,495, uses lights totalling 240 watts with the idea being to temporarily visually stun any suspected offenders. A tactical edition, at $2,495, has the option to use near infra-red lights in stealthier missions to minimize the chances of anyone inside a building being alerted by the ball.

Creator Francisco Aguilar originally came up with the idea as a rescue aid after the Haiti earthquake of 2010. He told IB Times that he found police were most interested in the idea and has reached a deal to sell an initial run of 100 units to police departments with plans to then refine the device after testing in the field.

He’s also looking at adding a thermometer and detectors for carbon monoxide and radiation to create a first responders model.

The post Tactical Throwable Camera Ball Could Aid Surveillance appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

One of the primary criticisms of Splatoon upon release was its lack of variation in online game modes. Nintendo's been slowly working to fix that, as it has a set of free updates scheduled through August. Another of those goes live tomorrow, and it introduces Tower Control.

Available in Ranked Battle, Tower Control is defined by maps with one floating tower in the center. The objective is to hop on it -- ideally en force -- and ride it toward the opponent's base. Holding the tower takes you further into enemy territory -- closer to victory, but also closer to more people looking to splat you. Teamwork should prove necessary as it's pretty damn easy for the other side to tell when a single person is on the tower because, oh hey, look! It's moving again!

Tower Control will be added on July 1 at 7 pm Pacific. There's an early showing by Treehouse today at 3 pm Pacific on Nintendo's Twitch channel. Get ready to go paint the town.

Someone on Reddit once asked the simple question "What's your Deep Web story?"

In other words, the Reddit user was asking people to share any weird experiences they had encountered while using anonymous web services to access secret websites.

Such services, including Tor, have been around for years, letting people obfuscate their IP address to make it harder to be tracked.

They also provide access to a slew of websites known as the Dark Web (or Deep Web), which can be reached only through services such as Tor. Silk Road is the prototypical example of a Dark Web site. Though it has now closed, with its notorious founder in prison, new online black markets have surfaced to take its place. 

But here's a look at some of the bizarre and creepy things you can stumble on when accessing the dark underbellies of the web, as told by the people who claim to have experienced them.

Cale Guthrie Weissman contributed to an earlier version of this post.

SEE ALSO: How to access the Dark Web, where all sorts of illegal stuff goes down online

The Dark Web may seem scary, but sometimes it's quite innocuous ...

Though people tell tales of drugs and other illicit sites, sometimes people use the Dark Web just for silly purposes.

A scavenger hunt ...

One user was playing what was called an Alternate Reality Game. This game, "No Love Deep Web," had users accessing Tor to hunt for various things.

This user got engrossed in the game. It ended with "me driving to New York to answer a pay phone at 3:00AM. That was cool."

"The next stop is ..."

Sometimes you find weird forums. Take this user's example:

I once found a forum dedicated to sharing recordings of the automated messages that tell you the next stop on trains. People would post the recordings that they presumably made themselves and then they would discuss them.

It haunts me to this day. I have so many questions.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Many Americans have been busy celebrating last week’s historic Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states with pride marches, rainbow Facebook profile pictures and grinding with NYPD officers.

But not everyone is happy about it, including a few people in Texas, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee and some Mexican day laborers disguised as orthodox Jews.

Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe also had a very unusual response to news, but one we hope he follows through on for the sake of comedians everywhere.

During a weekly address on Zimbabwe’s national radio, ZBC, Mugabe basically told the world that he is going to propose to President Barack Obama, now that it’s legal for them to get married anywhere in the United States.

“I’ve just concluded since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, D.C., get down on my knee and ask his hand,” he said.

He also described lawmakers in the U.S. as “perverted Satan-worshippers.”

Back in February, Mugabe fell down some steps after speaking at Harare Airport, and the Internet quickly turned him into a meme, much to his dismay.

Fortunately, that photo and this news of his planned proposal makes for the perfect opportunity to imagine all ways he will pop the question.

Here are a few:

Under the Magical Rainbow at the Grateful Dead Show in California

On Hidden Camera in Bobby Jindal’s Backyard

On Paris Hilton’s Plane

During the NYC Pride Parade

Live on CNN

In the Raptor Pit At Jurassic World

Near Shia LaBeouf’s Rattail – Just Do It!

On The White House Lawn

The post Proposal of the Day: Zimbabwe President Mugabe Says He Will Ask President Obama to Marry Him appeared first on The Daily What.

Back in the day, I loved to go to carnivals. I’ve never been a big fan of things that flip upside-down, but I was all about the Zipper and that boat thing that swings back and forth. I haven’t been to a carnival in years, but I would certainly stop if I saw the Tourbillon in action. Tourbillon means “whirlwind” in French, and this new ride looks like it lives up to its name.

The ride starts with the maroon section spinning riders head over heels. After a few rotations of that section, the light blue section starts to spin sideways. Then the outermost ring starts spinning, so the end result is that you’re spinning on three axes at once.

Even though the ride doesn’t spin that fast (at least not during its test runs,) I can only imagine that shoes, change, and vomit will be flying. This also looks like the perfect ride for some sort of cinema catastrophe to happen in the next Final Destination flick.

[via BGR]

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Alex Trebek might have a future career in rap… or not.

On Monday night, the “Jeopardy” host was forced to recite some of the lyrics to the theme song for “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

And he didn’t just read them, he actually injected a little attitude into his mini-performance which included a backing track.

Last year, the show had an entire category called “It’s a Rap” which had Trebek reciting various lyrics to the contestants.

And another category of ’90s Rap Songs had him channeling his inner Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill.

The post Rapper of the Day: Alex Trebek Reads ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Theme Song appeared first on The Daily What.

Spoiler alert for Inside Out. At the climax of the movie, we see that emotions can combine for deeper, more complex feelings, and it's these combinations that get Riley through a tough time. Christophe Haubursin for Vox provides the matrix of emotions if you combine each.

Tags: emotion, Inside Out

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From 20 People Who Are Technologically Illiterate

 

 

The post Helping Mom Out appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

You're a squid now, you're a Demoman now. It might be missing the same ring to it, but that's what's going on in this Team Fortress 2 mod. Two teams of four face off to paint the environment and splat one another.

Admittedly, it's a lot uglier than Nintendo's recent shooter, with clearly demarcated squares to paint. It also looks like it's missing a good chunk of features; most notably there are no Splat Rollers or Chargers in play. (I'd nominate Pyro and Sniper for those weapons, respectively.) Additionally, it looks like the Super Jump functionality isn't present either.

Still, PC players who want to get their ink on can give this a shot, at least until Nintendo shuts the mod down for using its character models.

Splat Fortress Gameplay Reveal [DrLilRobot via GoNintendo]

One of my personal crusades is to raise awareness of the fact that Mercedes-Benz did not invent the car like they claim to, and that automobiles have been around far longer than most people realize — viable cars have been around since at least the early 1800s. That’s why I’m so delighted to tell you about the first car to be repossessed, and used to run from a cop — way back in 1867.

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Cisco has announced that the networking giant will be buying cloud security and alternative DNS operator OpenDNS for $683 million. OpenDNS gained popularity over the years by offering alternative DNS services to customers frustrated by prolonged and repeated ISP DNS outages. Cisco was one of the company's investors in a $34 million funding round about a year ago. OpenDNS' cloud platform is accessed by roughly 65 million users daily.

In a FAQ posted to the OpenDNS website, the company proclaims (as all acquired companies do) that nothing should change for current OpenDNS customers.

"Cisco loves OpenDNS, too, and has been an investor in the company and supporter long before this deal was announced. We are still selling and supporting our products. We re all on the same page here, committed to making sure that what makes OpenDNS so great stays intact, and that includes the team."

Of course that's an impossible promise for any acquired company to make. In a blog post Cisco states that "over time, we will look to unite our cloud-delivered solutions," but also tells DSLReports.com the company will continue to offer OpenDNS' free alternative DNS services.
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