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A handful of prototype laptops spotted at CES with Microsoft's Kinect hardware built in are currently generating some serious buzz.

Originally a hardware add-on for the Xbox 360 game console, the Kinect has the potential to be built into a lot of devices, at least those that run Windows. Enterprising hobbyists have already hacked it to work on PCs, and the next step is to take the bulky oversize Webcam hardware and shrink it down so it fits inside a laptop, with no external hardware required.

The Daily originally pointed out these prototypes, and described them as follows: "The devices, which at first glance appear to be Asus Netbooks running Windows 8, feature an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where the Webcam would normally be. At the bottom of the display is a set of what appear to be LEDs."

My colleague Scott Stein was aptly dubious: "The real question here is, who's going to use this?" he wrote recently, adding, "Based on my experiences with Kinect, accuracy could be an issue for fine movement controls such as video editing (or, any sort of virtual touch-pad analog)."

I'll take it one step further. This is not the first time we've seen an attempt to incorporate serious motion control into a laptop. The last big push in a consumer product that was available on store shelves was the Toshiba Qosmio G55, a desktop replacement laptop we reviewed in 2008.

I recall seeing the G55 demoed behind closed doors by Toshiba at CES earlier that year. The motion control software, which used the system's built-in Webcam and a list of hand gestures to act as media controls, seemed to have potential, but clearly wasn't quite fully cooked--a fact lost to no one in the room at the time.

When the final system was released later that year, the motion controls were disappointingly no better. In my review of the Toshiba Qosmio G55, I said:

The gesture controls work by using the built-in Webcam to detect hand movements. The controls work specifically in a handful of media programs, including Windows Media Center and Toshiba's proprietary media player. You have to sit 3 to 10 feet away from the laptop and hold up your hand (there's a menu setting for left- or right-hand preference). At its most basic level, holding a hand up, palm facing the screen, will start and stop playback. That works about 70 percent of the time, just shy of being actually useful. By holding up a closed fist, one can move a cursor around like a mouse pointer, raising and lowering the thumb to left-click on any icon or window. That part of the gesture control system is much trickier, and at least in this initial version, will be more frustrating than helpful.

In hindsight, my description was overly generous, if anything. You can see some of the gestures demonstrated in the First Look video for the review (jump to 1:10 in to see some gesturing).

Needless to say, this was the first and last laptop we saw with this gesture control system built in. Aside from facial recognition software, now common in many laptops (but still a bit unreliable), there have been few, if any, attempts to work new and more-useful camera controls into laptops.

Would a Kinect camera in a laptop work better? Undoubtedly, but that's setting the bar very low. Kinect for Xbox works well, but is easily hamstrung by small apartments, poor lighting, or much more often, badly designed games that have terrible gesture recognition.

If some company actually puts out a Kinect-powered laptop, I'll be the first in line to review it--but with some serious skepticism about how the two elements will work together.

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Sorry Kinect, we've already tried motion control in laptops and it flopped

08-03-2011 08:05 The series is devided into 10 parts and is created to unveil the hidden policies of media and mind controling and it contains some extremely important information. It is time for you to Wake Up and understand what is going on in the world.

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Mind Control (Part 5): Mass Media Entertainment - Video

14-07-2011 09:15

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Media G324: Out of Control - Video

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, speaks to the media after the Senate passed a two month extension of the payroll tax cuts, unemployment benefits and payments to Medicare providers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on December 23, 2011. The House passed the bill a short time later. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg 

Published: Feb. 2, 2012 at 12:02 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Control of the U.S. Senate is going to be a close call with candidates' war chests playing a key role, a review of the year-end fundraising reports indicated.

Roll Call rated seven seats as toss-ups, all the candidates -- incumbents and challengers alike -- have healthy bank accounts, the publication reported Thursday.

Democrats have 23 Senate seats to defend compared to the Republicans' 10. The GOP must add four seats to pick up a majority.

Democratic strategist Jeff Pollock of Global Strategy Group said, "It's no secret our side has more seats to defend, and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] has made sure our candidates have their campaigns in order."

Pollock said Democrats expanded the playing field by good recruiting in Arizona, where Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is retiring, and Massachusetts, where Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren is challenging GOP incumbent Scott Brown.

"So we have reason to be optimistic about how things will turn out when the American people choose which party they want leading the country," Pollock told Roll Call.

"As much as I would like to believe that 2012 will be a wave election for Republicans, it is unlikely to be so at the presidential level," Scott Bensing, a former executive director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said. "It will be close, meaning that high-quality Senate candidates and well-run campaigns will win the day."

Roll Call lists as toss-ups open Democratic seats in New Mexico, Virginia and Wisconsin; the seats of Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, and the seats of Republicans Sens. Brown and Dean Heller of Nevada.

Financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission indicated Heller collected $1.1 million.

Brown raised $3.3 million during the last quarter to try to retain his Massachusetts seat.

McCaskill, Tester and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine led Republican opponents, with all having at least $1.3 million in the cash advantage, Roll Call said of its review of the FEC documents. In Wisconsin, Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin, raised $1.2 million last quarter and likely will face either former Gov. Tommy Thompson or former Rep. Mark Neumann in the general election.

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Control of the U.S. Senate a toss-up

Pfizer Inc is reaching out directly to women consumers to warn them about its U.S. recall of one million packets of birth control pills as concerns mounted that a manufacturing error could raise the risk of unplanned pregnancies.

The world's largest drugmaker recalled 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 and 14 lots of the generic counterpart Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol late on Tuesday, prompting panicked exchanges on social media like Twitter.

Litigators began soliciting new clients who may have suffered health problems or unplanned pregnancy as a result.

"Unfortunately, this manufacturing error diminishes people's confidence in an extremely important and safe method of contraception," said Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president for external medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Cullins noted this version of birth control has been in use for decades and remains safe and effective.

Pfizer said on Wednesday that the error may have been limited to 30 packets of the birth control pills, in which the "placebo" tablets taken at the beginning of a woman's menstrual cycle were placed in the wrong order with the pills that contain the contraceptive's active ingredient.

The placebo pills, which are different color from the active tablets, were placed in the blister pack out of order during the automated packaging process in a few random packets manufactured throughout 2011, company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said.

Pfizer was alerted to the problem when a consumer noticed a discolored pill in the middle of a pack, she said. All lots possibly affected were recalled, the problem was fixed and prevention measures are now in place, she said.

The company is now using social media and video messages on its own website to notify women of the recall.

But even if the error was more limited, women who took pills from any of the recalled lots should use a non-hormonal form of birth control immediately, experts said.

"If pills come from those lots, she should consider those pills ineffective from the standpoint of preventing pregnancy," Cullins said. "She is at risk of ovulation, of eggs being released and of becoming pregnant."

Pfizer manufactures and packages the birth control pill, but it is sold by Akrimax Pharmaceuticals.

The pills were distributed nationwide with no specific geographic concentration, Pfizer said. Expiration dates on the affected packs range from July 2013 to March 2014.

Dr. Natasha Johnson, a gynecologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, said most women these days take generic forms of birth control pills.

She called the affected brands "fairly popular, well tolerated pills."

The Pfizer recall comes on the heels of increased attention surrounding birth control and possible health risks.

In recent months, U.S. health advisers have recommended stricter labels on a more widely used, newer generation of birth control pills, based on data showing they may put women at a higher risk of dangerous blood clots. They include Bayer AG's popular Yaz and Yasmin tablets.

A new federal rule requiring religious universities and other affiliated institutions to provide free birth control coverage has also drawn fresh opposition from religious groups.

The rest is here:
Pfizer cites packaging flaws in birth control pill recall