Sony has some plans to add facial recognition capabilities to their PlayStation Eye webcam, trying to one-up Microsoft’s Project Natal. According to Kish Hirani, Sony Europe’s head of developer services, the functionality will soon be added to the existing hardware, with developer libraries available for games studios so that they don’t need specific coding for the new system.

According to Hirani, the technology will be able to “detect gender and even the age of the face, separate facial features such as the nose, eyes and ears, and even detect whether you’re smiling or not.” Sounds a little too good to be true. It will also work with the upcoming Sony Motion Controller, with the Eye camera tracking X, Y and Z motion by using the area of the glowing sphere.

How many times have you photocopied your butt in the office and wished you had that same convenient technology at home? Well, now you can. In chair form. The iBum Chair takes the joke way too far. Whenever you sit on it, it will photocopy your rear end and the scanned image will be printed from the right side of the chair.

Sure, it ceases to funny almost immediately, but for those who need to keep tabs on their posterior, you’ll know what it’s up too every time you sit. Or maybe you just want to make sure it’s looking good. This chair will show you.

The MotionPlus may have taken a full year to arrive on the scene, but now that it’s here it’s doing pretty well. Overall video game sales dropped in June for the first time since 2000, but Nintendo can’t complain. 361,700 Wii consoles and 766,500 DS units shipped in June, but the big surprise is that the company also managed to sell 169,000 Wii MotionPlus units.

That’s not including the bundled ones like the one packaged with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (that sold 272,400 units). Plus you have to take into account that Wii Sports Resort has yet to be released.

The SB6309 Lighter Phone may or may not be real. It’s a phone with a cigarette lighter built-in. Just flip it over, slide back the protective cover, and light your smoke on the glowing square. Now smoking will not only kill you, but your phone battery as well.

It has three available colors, red, brown and black. And there’s no Surgeon Generals warning anywhere on this phone. There should be, because we think these are likely to give you third degree burns while in your pocket.

The lightsaber has taken many merchandising forms, but this one may be the most practical. This one is Vader’s flashlight stuffed with four bright LED bulbs and authentic sound effects. Sure it won’t slice anyone in half, but it will help you use the force to navigate through darkness.

It measures about 9.5 inches in length and is powered by 3 AAA batteries. So if a nerd gets lost in the dark, you’ll see them coming, swinging away and quoting the movies.

Like the Terminator, robot news just doesn’t stop. As usual, we have you covered over at Botropolis. Everything robot, all the time. And yes, the deeper we delve into the seedy underworld of robotics and robots in our culture, the more fearful fascinated we become. It’s clear that robots are our ultimate destruction friends and ultimate salvation. Seriously, I have nightmares every night. I have the shakes. I welcome them with open arms and embrace their master plan. Below are some of the things we covered this week.

*edited by the Robot Editorial Guild. Streamlining your words since 2009. Streamlining your thoughts soon after.

We’ve seen plenty of fake lighter spy cameras, but most either look fake or are in Zippo form. This one takes the form of a more generic disposable lighter. It’s a camera, a camcorder and a USB Drive with a 4GB capacity.

The device features a rechargeable Li-ion Battery. Just press-to-record. Some specs include a Pinhole Lens, 1280 x 1024 resolution, Color Video Resolution: 640 x 480, 25 frames per second. Supports JPEG for images and
AVI for video.

I have mentioned before that I have a big problem with my new car not having space for me to put my iPhone down while I am driving. The car has only two cup holders and if I am using both of them there is nothing to do but leave the phone in my pocket. With a five-speed car, it’s very hard to take the phone from a pocket and answer it when driving or to see who is calling before I answer with my Bluetooth headset. Today I am going to look at a new device form ProClip USA that is a vehicle specific cell phone holder for specific phones. I will be looking at the ProClip vehicle mount for the Ford Mustang and the device holder for the iPhone. Read on for all the details.

If there’s one thing we don’t have enough of, it’s TV. We obviously need more. Like this one from HANNSpree in the form of plush animals. HANNSpree’s new line of weird TVs include a zebra, giraffe, camel, and polar bear, with televisions embedded in their sides.

Now your kids can watch all of the cartoons that they want, while clutching a plush toy at the same time. Parents have always turned their kids over to the TV and let it raise them into adulthood. Now it’s easier than ever.

Averatec is offering this 22 inch all-in-one for your desk that doesn’t have much space left. The stylish all-in-one machine packs a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo E5200 processor, a WXGA panel, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, a 320GB SATA hard drive, slot-loading DVD burner, X4500HD graphics, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet and a 2 megapixel webcam.

Not too shabby. Vista Home Premium is the OS that’s included and the whole deal will only cost you $799. If you have to have it, you can place your order today at your e-tailer of choice.

The small and compact netbook might make for a good way to watch movies on the go. The big downside is that the average notebook has no optical drive making watching DVD movies impossible. You can download digital films or stream digital content when you are connected online though.

Blockbuster and Archos have announced that the new and slick Archos 10 netbook will be offered for sale in 1,000 corporate owned Blockbuster locations around the country. The netbook will sell for $299.99 and has a 10-inch screen and a keyboard.

There are all sorts of reasons you might want to send someone a message. You may want to tell that special someone just how much you care; you may want to announce the birth of a child or some other special occasion. You could send a card or you could send the message into space on a laser beam (insert Dr. Evil laugh here).

A company called Sentforever.com is offering to send messages into space for free in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. The messages are transmitted with a laser beam at 670 million miles an hour into deep space.

I have never purchased anything off a TV commercial like the ones the spokes people always tell you to call now for. Most of the stuff they peddle looks like junk to me. The company behind some of those oddball products — Telebrands — has announced a new gadget that works with mobile phones.

The device is called the Jupiter Jack and plugs into the headphone port of mobile phones. The idea is that the device will send the audio from your calls over the cars speaker system so you can hear while driving without having to hold the phone.

Lately when I see a new computer it tends to be a netbook or a new all-in-one machine. All-in-ones are really cool and I like the space-saving features that they offer. I hope that one day they will offer a gaming rig that is an all-in-one design then I can lose that massive tower beside my desk.

Dell has announced a new all-in-one for business users called the Vostro All-in-one that is set to launch in August. Dell offers up a few of the specifications for the machine, but many specs are still unknown. The rig will have various Intel Core 2 Duo processor options.

If you’re looking for a colorful drive alternative in key form, why not try the Key USB Drive? The Key USB Drive comes in a bunch of colors, including red, purple, blue, brown and black. Each each one measures 57 x 24 x 2mm and weighs just 1g.

They come in 4GB capacities, are slim and portable and can be attached to your other keys making these very convenient. They are available for $22 each. Pretty unique and funky looking.