The Plantraco Desktop Rover Micro Vehicle Explorer

"Every Desktop Rover is equipped with our Infrared Laser Tag system, enabling up to 4 Desktop Rovers to have mock 'laser' battles complete with spacey sound effects and flashing LED's to keep track of your 'ammo' and score. After receiving 10 'hits' your Rover is 'neutralized' until the next game begins. This is the smallest R/C tracked vehicle ever to be equipped with laser tag!

Add our Miniature Wireless Video Camera (The PTV16C) to the Desktop Rover and now you have a Remote Operated Telepresence Vehicle that can transmit a view of the world from the Rover's perspective - throughout your home! Place the Rover in the dining room and maneuver precisely by using the broadcasted television picture as your objective navigational reference." [via Gizmodo]

Damn, Christmas is 344 days away....

Sure, the kids would totally love this little toy, but I'm thinking more along the lines of office fun. Kate, we have to start saving up for this!

Hitachi Unveils Portable Projectors

"Hitachi on Tuesday announced its first portable LCD projectors with wireless capabilities.

The two new projectors – the CP-X885W and the CP-X880W – can tap into a wireless network via an optional module that plugs into the projector's DVI port. This allows users to control multiple projectors remotely; the system can support up to 255 IP addresses.

In addition, the module allows multiple users -– up to four laptops –- to communicate with a single projector wirelessly and lets them send up to 8MB of data to the projector through the network....

The CP-X885W and CP-X880W projectors are priced respectively at $12,995 and $10,995 and are available now. The wireless module is $1,499." [allNetDevices Wireless News]

After prices drop on these (and drop steeply), I'd love to see something like this in a classroom full of students and Wi-Fi during a lecture. Now that would be participatory education.