Gadgets and Gizmos

In this edition we round up some interesting gadgets, gizmo's, hardware and software that might add something to your setup.

By the way, we don't sell any of these... (Marketing Director wants to know why we write about them).

PC FAX/MODEMS THAT DON'T NEED THE PC TURNED ON

Both Pace and Olitec have announced fax/modem packages which will both receive faxes direct to your PC, but if your PC is turned off will operate as an independent fax unit.

A great idea for home office and branch offices (HOBO). Both units also support answering message services too and Caller ID.

CAMBRIDGE SCIENTISTS SHOW POLYMER DISPLAYS Light Emitting Plastics make very thin screens.

Scientists at Cambridge UK previewed their Light Emitting Polymer displays (LEP). The LEP is a very interesting alternative to the traditional (?) LCD flatscreens. Its particular benefits are 180 degree viewing (not just head- on) light weight, low-cost to make and low power requirements. They demonstrated a 5cm square panel that was only 2cm thick. The display area doesn't change the thickness.

So, a book or magazine size display is now very practical and cost effective.

I reckon it will be a couple of years before we see proper commercial versions, but watch this space.

LOOK, NO HANDS!

BioControl Systems of California are about to launch a mouse you wear on your head!

The headband detects nerve and muccle activity to direct the cursor on screen and an armband can be used to click simply by tensing the muscles.

BioControl also have plans for other wearable devices (could be some interesting possibilities there).

How about the Exercise Mouse - you really have to work those pec's to make it move?

ALL-IN-ONE TERMINAL FEATURES PHONE AND CAMERA

Nokia launched their "Desktop Communications Monitor" this month. The unit features a 17" display with integral speakers, telephone and Super VHS camera.

Basically an all in one multi-media and video-conferencing unit.

WEB CAMERA SERVER

As a follow up to our article a few weeks ago about the possible uses of web cameras on local area networks we spotted the Web Camera Server from Leunig GmBh.

The WCS supports upto 4 cameras and is its own web server, just hook up the cameras to the server and the server to your LAN and you can use your browser on any desktop to view the cameras.

KEYBOARDS FOR THE DISABLED

Electroustic Ltd of Andover UK have released the latest of their keyboards for use by the disabled. The units have enlarged keys 38mm square which give physical and tactile feedback. Correct keypress can be indicated by an LED flash for the deaf.

Software controls built in also let the use adjust delay to accept, key repeat and toggling keys for those with motor difficulties.

These units can be used by single hand, mouth stick, stylus or feet - or even by a UK senior manager!

SMART CARD READERS THAT WORK AT A DISTANCE

There are a few of these entering the market now. The smart cards can be worn by users and are picked up automatically by the readers.

These are typically being promoted as authentication systems to provide security access to public terminals. But it seems to me their must be lots of applications. How about automatic time recording, staff location, unlocking your car as you approach or automatically locking your house as you leave.

Boring software things would include automatically bringing your personal desktop to the PC you happen to sit at. Urgent messages could be directed to the PC nearest to you (sort of PC paging). How about telling you when its time you had a rest and stopped typing to avoid RSI?

Or, if you linked one of these things to these new fangled health monitors then your PC could great you with bright happy wallpaper and music if your feeling good, or deliver aspirin and a black coffee if its one of those days!

LOCAL WEB SITE LOAD BALANCING

For large web server systems SiteScale from Radware Ltd, Tel Aviv, is a simple black box for analysing and controlling access to multiple web servers so that the load is balanced across all systems.

DONGLES MIGHT MAKE A COMEBACK

For those of you who managed to avoid dongles when they were popular in the early days of PC computing when software cost hundreds or even thousands what is a dongle?

A dongle is a little piece of hardware that contains a key that unlocks your software on a particular machine. The dongle would usually connect to your parallel port and your software would interrogate the dongle to make sure it was present and you could use the program.

Now, there was some reluctance to this kind of mechanism because if you had more than one dongle you ended up with a chain of the darn things sticking out the back of your parallel port with your printer connected at the end of that.

Well, HASP (makers of dongles for donkeys years) have released a USB dongle. The great plus about using the USB connection is that you can connect as many as you like, even disconnect and re-connect while the kit is operating.

On the other only software authors like them, end-users still hate them!

GRAPHICS SOFTWARE TO ENHANCE POWERPOINT

Three D Graphics have launched the awfully named "Compadre", which provides over 120 templates all specially designed for PowerPoint. In addition the kit includes textures, music clips, sound effects, video clips, backgrounds and 1400 multimedia buttons.

Now, on the face of it this is just another Clip-Art CD, but I must admit they have done their work in sensibly integrating this lot into PowerPoint through wizards that actually make it useable.

SCRAMBLER FOR NT HOOKS UP TO FLOOD WATCH

A sensitive topic for us in the South Midlands, but CPL's Scrambler which monitors NT and UNIX systems for software and hardware errors can also monitor the computer room and page operators (or the fire brigade) in emergencies.

A special hardware add-on lets you monitor temperature, humidity etc as well as checking on your LAN bandwidth usage and other boring stuff.

Actually we are quite impressed by Scrambler's more general software monitoring and will be writing more about this in the near future.

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