[NEWS] New HomeStar Planetarium from Sega Toys

The Japanese toy manufacturer Sega, who has brought us home planetariums like the Pure Mini
and the Spa
, has now released a second edition of the popular HomeStar Pro model.

It is the ultimate version of the previous HomeStar and HomeStar PRO, you can have more stars, ultra bright and a sharp starry sky in your home.

Also, it comes with full moon disk for your project in the ceiling.



Product Features

* SEGATOYS HOMESTAR PRO 2nd contains 6 Lens while HOMESTAR only contain 4 lens. The sharpness of HOMESTAR PRO is improved.
* SEGATOYS HOMESTAR PRO 2nd utilize 3W White LED while HOMESTAR use 1W White LED for projection. HOMESTAR PRO is 3 times brighter than the project of HOMESTAR
* SEGATOYS HOMESTAR PRO 2nd comes with new FULL MOON and EARTH Projection Disk
* Number of Stars: 10,000
* Projection Distance: 10 ft (around 2m-2m30cm)
* Projection Angle & Focus: Freely Adjustable on shooting angle 0-90 degree.
* Diurnal Motion Function: Revolve Counterclockwise(imitate the movement of the stars in the Northern Hemisphere)
* Shooting Star Function: Projects Shooting Stars at random intervals.
* Starry Software Tray: Changeable for different Starry disks.
* Light Resource: High brightness White LED to avoid heat and provide clear and sharp image.
* Timer Function: Allows you to program the planetarium before you go to bed to switch off automatically once a certain time has elapsed.
* Power Source: AC(100~240V, 50/60Hz)
* Colors: MAT SILVER or MAT BLACK
* Light Weight Design
* HxWxD(approx.): 15.9cm x 14.3cm x 15.1cm


The Sega Toys HomeStar PRO 2nd Edition (21st Century Home Planetarium) is available over at the Toys Brando website for $224.90

[News]4-in-1 Portable GPS Location Finder

This handy little device comes with four different GPS functions for the price of one: a GPS receiver, a location finder, a data logger and a photo tagger.

Before you leave your car, just press the button for two seconds to save the location’s coordinates. You can now enjoy the game without worrying about remembering where you parked your car. When you need to find your car again, just follow the red LED pointing toward the saved position. When you come within 50 meters of the saved location, the arrow will begin flashing, and when you are within 15 meters the arrow will turn blue.




This gadget can also turn your computer into a GPS system. This USB GPS receiver dongle is the only hardware you need to transform your laptop, notebook, or netbook computer into a fully functioning GPS unit. Just connect this dongle to your computer’s USB port and locate your position right on your screen. This is great for finding your place on a map when you’re camping or planning the next day’s route.

You can also use this GPS receiver’s data logger function to record all the GPS data of your trip. The data logger records your position, speed, and altitude. When you get home, connect the dongle to your computer and use the included iTravel Data Logger software package to view all your logged paths right on Google Maps or Google Earth. This powerful, easy to use software lets you view data such as the start time, end time, duration, and distance of each path, as well as your speed, altitude, and GPS coordinates at every point along your path.

Now the fun really begins! Use the included software to paste your photos and captions onto your path. Next, embed GPS info into your pictures and upload them to Flickr. Now your family and friends all over the world can see your pictures and the exact location where you took them!




The 4-in-1 Portable GPS Location Finder is available from Chinavision for $54.

[News]Bhuvan - India's Very Own Google Earth Now Available For Download

As announced earlier India's own geographic information system (GIS) dubbed 'Bhuvan' is now available for download, currently under BETA release country's indigenous Google Earth is capable of Indian specific features not available in any other competing product, Bhuvan features multiple layers of information showing topography, altitude, depth weather and other features helpful in managing public services, internal security, town planning, and infrastructure development activities.
The web-based portal requires an initial plugin download in order to provide promising high-resolution 3-D satellite imagery with smooth video acceleration, Bhuvan offers images of the globe similar to Google Earth but provides best resolutions over the Indian sub-continent with ISRO having plans to expand high-resolution images globally.


Bhuvan Features :

* Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
* Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
* Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
* Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
* Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
* Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
* Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
* 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
* Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
* Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
* Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
* Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
* Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)
* There would be many more value added functions and facilities which will be added into the package from time to time.
* Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

pAdvanced functionality to be rovided in future versions

Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
o Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
o Terrain profile ( Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
o Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
o Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)

You need to register and download the plugin in order to view the virtual earth in 3D space