We’ll see you next year suckers….

“Christmas Clix is a family friendly casual arcade game. The game features festive Holiday graphics, original music compositions, 100 levels of entertaining arcade fun, several mini games to unlock and more!”

Check it out at: christmasclix.com

Red Games has released all their games so far for free, so stop over at RedGames.net for a nice Christmas gift for yourself.

Well, we’re not far from paprika I’d say. Here’s the article:

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”

The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.

Source: pinktentacle.com

Takara Tomy’s Omnibot 17? i-SOBOT, a miniature humanoid robot recognized by Guinness as the smallest mass-produced robot of its kind, has been named Japan’s 2008 Robot of the Year, it was announced on December 18.

The annual Robot of the Year Award was established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in 2006 to stimulate the development and commercial application of robots in a variety of industries.

Judges awarded this year’s Grand Prize to i-SOBOT due to its advanced technology, its high entertainment value, and its reasonable price of under 30,000 yen (around $300). Equipped with 17 miniature servo motors and a set of gyro sensors for balance, the 350-gram (12 oz), 16.5-centimeter (6.5 in) programmable humanoid can walk, play air guitar, dance the hula, and perform 200 other moves. The tiny hobby robot is also equipped with a set of gyro sensors for balance, and it can be controlled via remote control or simple voice commands. The robot runs for about an hour on 4 AAA batteries.

In addition to the Grand Prize, this year’s Small to Medium-sized Venture Award was presented to “Book Time,” an automatic page-turning robot developed by Nishizawa Electronic Measuring Instruments.

Designed for use in hospitals by people with limited use of their hands and/or arms, Book Time turns the pages of books with either a simple press of a button, a breath-activated switch, or a large button activated by the user’s foot. The robot is compatible with a wide range of book sizes and is easy to set up and use.

This year’s Special Jury Prize was awarded to a rice-planting robot developed by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO).

This GPS-equipped machine is designed to assist farmers by working autonomously to plant rice within a set of programmed coordinates. It takes the robot about 50 minutes to seed 3,000 square meters (0.75 acre) of land.

Source: pinktentacle.com

“We’ve seen a lot of great ‘AAA’ titles released by the usual big name publishers this year. But we don’t think games need huge budgets to be fun. That’s why we put this list together. In it, you’ll find links to download or play some of our favorite free games from independent developers and smaller studios that have been released over the years. They may not smell like money the way a grandiose blockbuster like Grand Theft Auto IV does, with its expensive licensed music and state-of-the-art everything. But they’re all loads of fun – and in the end, that’s what really matters.

Whether you’re looking to sink your teeth into an awesome RPG that’s full of retro goodness or just want to kill five minutes of free time with an addictive Flash game, you’re sure to find something worth playing on this list during your spare time this holiday.”

Source: gamesradar.com

See the list at: gamesradar.com

Minotaur China Shop Trailer from Flashbang Studios on Vimeo.

Play it at: blurst.com

Air Assault is a classic arcade-style scrolling shooter game. Control your helicopter, destroy enemies. It’s based on “River Raider” but it’s more like a classic scrolling shooter.

Get the demo at: tamestorm.com

Mightier from Ratloop on Vimeo.

Step away from the computer!

Welcome to Mightier, the action puzzler that pulls you away from the
screen to solve puzzles by hand with pencil and paper.

Using a color printer and web camera, the game prints puzzle pages for
you to draw on, then captures the results when you’re done.

From your drawings, Mightier constructs a landscape and characters for
a fun and engaging 3d platformer.

Drawing by hand is a lot more fun, but the game also supports mouse
drawing for those without a printer, webcam, or spare paper.

Get the game for free at: ratloop.com