Vudu Software Update Adds More HD Content
The battle for the living room continues: One week after bringing down the price of its video downloading box to $300 to compete with Apple Television, Vudu has updated its software to version 1.2, adding about 80 more movies to…

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Elliptic Touchless UI Puts the Input Interface in Thin Air [UIs]

Touchscreen interfaces are great, but all that touching, like foreplay, can be a tiny bit of a drag. Enter the wonder children from Elliptic Labs, who are hard at work on implementing a touchless interface. The input method is, well, in thin air. The technology detects motion in 3D and requires no special worn-sensors for operation. By simply pointing at the screen, users can manipulate the object being displayed in all three dimensions. Details are light on how this actually functions, but what we do know is this:

Sensors are mounted around the screen that is being used, by interacting in the line-of-sight of these sensors the motion is detected and interpreted into on-screen movements. What is to stop unintentional gestures being used as input isn’t entirely clear, but it looks promising nonetheless. The ideal part? Elliptic Labs says their technology will be easily small enough to be implemented into cellphones and the like. iPod touchless, anyone? Check out the video to see it in action. [Elliptic Labs via Technabob]

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Ideal Ancient Gadgets According to Gadget Lab [Retromodo]

This week’s retromodo installation kicks old-skool ass, and it is not because we’ve found a follow up the Death Ray Machine, or found the dad of the first cupholder, oh no. It is mainly because we have left the hard work up to the guys at Wired, and they really have out done themselves. They weren’t settling for just one seriously retro gadget—they found them all.

We won’t list the lot here, but the best of the bunch include the:

• Antikythera Computer 
c. 1st Century B.C. Discovered in 1900, amongst relics of an ancient shipwreck, the mechanism contained in the device was uncovered in 2006. Though it is unclear how it worked exactly, the navigational tool was thought to be used onboard ships as an early pre-compass type tool.

• The Baghdad Battery 
c. 250 AD. Where would we be without portable power? Not in ancient Baghdad for sure. The galvanic cells were discovered in the 1930s, but their use remains a mystery. The terracotta urns had small copper and iron fixtures, and they were filled with an acidic agent that propagated a chemical reaction. The reaction caused a small amount of electricity to flow. It was theorized that they might have been used to electroplate dull metals.

• The Turk 1770. The Turk may well have been the first gadget prank in history, which means it should be contender for first joke post in ancientmodo’s archive. Essentially, the device concealed a chess player within it. When an unsuspecting player tried it out, the pieces would appear to move autonomously, but were in fact being moved by a series of cogs controlled by the hidden chess master. Those ancient pranksters sure were crazy.

To get the full low-down on other great age-old gadgets, including the first true compass, planetarium, watch and GPS (kinda), as well as a few others, hit up Wired’s excellent feature. It is awesome. [Wired]

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