Despite the fact that touchscreen tablets are supposed to be free of unnecessary accessories and other gadgets, the DUO will gladly turn your iPad into an interactive board game. Just set it on top of the iPad or iPad 2 and it will work with a game called Yoomi.

The DUO comes with tokens, so at the end of the game there is a winner and a loser. It retails for $14.99 on Amazon and is also available at Toys ‘R’ Us, and Walmart. I guess this is where board games are headed, instead of coming in a large box.

Try as you might, you just can’t escape advertising. Well, if you have a Kinect, you will soon be able to make full use of both voice and motion commands to interact with ads. I can tell, you are thrilled at the prospect. NUads will apparently be on the Xbox 360 dashboard or embedded in games and other content.

Soon you’ll be able to issue voice commands to request more information about products via email or text messages and advertisers will be able to prompt you to say ‘Xbox Near Me’ and a map to the nearest retailer will be sent to your phone. You’ll also be able to do things like vote for your favorite brands / products using motion control.

The folks who make the Fretlight guitar learning system wanted us to check it out and see for ourselves how easy it is to learn guitar with their system. The basic idea is that the frets of the guitar light up. That, along with an interactive learning system which includes videos and tutorials are supposed to make it easy.

Since my son has been learning how to play guitar by more or less teaching himself, I figured he was the perfect candidate. So they sent us the whole kit and my son checked it out. How good is it at teaching you to play the guitar? His review follows:

The old school 8-bit hit known as Punch-Out launched yesterday. And in honor of it’s revival, this guy turned his Slam Man Boxing Dummy into a handy practice buddy for Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on the NES.

There are arcade buttons on the dummy itself, allowing you to control your in-game character by punching those buttons. There are instructions if you want to build one yourself and work out some aggression. We can only guess that it makes for one hell of a workout and leaves your knuckles sore and bruised.

Literally. When I first saw this, my brain was like wtf? but it’s actually brilliant. By scaring the poop and pee out of the child, it teaches them how to use the potty quicker. I’m not so sure about the whole, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” thing. Or the gloved hand. Or the moving TP roll.

Actually this thing here is pretty messed up. A literal crap gadget. I’m kinda scared about the fact that there’s a roll of duct tape lying nearby as well.

The idea behind this gadget is that it’s never too early to teach kids the value of a dollar with a freaky fish banker. Every time your kid inserts a coin into the bank, a fish named Gill (haha) will reward your kid with an animation. Thing is, with Cartoon network available to your kid, I don’t think he’s gonna give a tuna what some gameboy-colored fish has to say.

Anyhow, the money they deposit is automatically counted and the total savings is displayed on screen. If that’s not enough, your kid will now be responsible for feeding old Gill and keeping his tank clean. Yeah right. It was nice knowing you Gill! This is gonna be either way too much fun or hardly any for $52. I call the latter.

When it comes right down to it, entertainment is all about the sensory experience. It’s about feeling like we are there, even if we aren’t. The Wii has probably come the closest, but like other consoles, it leaves alot to be desired as far as fully immersing users. The Cocoon is a new VR system developed by NAU, which is a human-sized pod that you enter and it’s actually designed with videogames in mind.

The immersion and interactivity will take it light years beyond the Wii. It includes full 3D surround sound, and graphics as well as Internet connectivity, and could be the ultimate gaming environment to challenge friends from around the world. It may not show up in the home anytime soon, but when it does one future day, everything will change. Game graphics and audio are ready for it right now, but it’s the interactivity, interface, and total immersion that will set it apart. Most of Nintendo’s competitor’s were caught off guard with the Wii, but you can bet they are taking some serious looks at this future technology.

We’ve all heard about Microsoft’s Surface touchscreen table, but now the company seems to have been inspired by the Sensisphere. Check out Microsoft’s new Surface Sphere, a giant orb planetoid whose surface is a multitouch screen.

As the video shows, you can display movies and even play one freaky game of pong. Imagine all of the uses this thing could have. Like a 360 degree security cam viewer, teaching about planets by displaying every detail, displaying robot faces and so much more. All of these things we Sci-Fi geeks dreamed about as kids are coming true.

The only way this table could possibly get any better would be if it were black. That way it would actually look like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you forget about the legs anyway. Cinimod Studio’s Illuminating Table combines three dimensional arrays of interactive color movement controlled in real time by its environment.

You won’t have to use illegal substances to see pretty colors anymore, though I suppose if you do, you’ll just see more, maybe even freak out thinking you’re trapped inside the thing. Me, being the geek that I am, would put Star Trek ships on the table and pretend they’re getting sucked into a wormhole. Oh, and you could lay on it and thrash around, recreating several classic Sci-Fi scenes. Like Buck Rogers getting sucked into the future for instance.

Today, Sega Toys announced their plans to start selling a new humanoid robot in Japan, named E.M.A., on September 26th. E.M.A. stands for “Eternal, Maiden, Actualization” Translated that means, “Hi nerd. Here’s your new companion.”

The robot is of the female persuasion and stands at 38 cm tall. According to Sega, the E.M.A. is special because of her “glamorous body” and because she’s highly interactive. (Translation:Only a nerd could love that body and she kinda puts out.) She’ll sing and dance, hand out your business cards, even walk “like a lady”. I wasn’t kidding when I said she puts out. She won’t go all the way, though I’m sure some of you will force the issue, but she will kiss you if your head comes into close contact with her. That’s when the love mode switches on.

The Wall-E merchandising train is alive and kicking. We told you about the ultimate Wall-E and we really like that one, much like the Wall-E mp3 player. Well, they’ve taken it a bit further with the Wall-E and Eve interactive toys.

Now Wall-E and Eve get the chance to get all freaky with each other. InterAction Eve has light-up eye expressions, arm movements, and sound effects. She’ll respond when you talk to her or push her along. She even has a flying mode, where you can lift her up and hear authentic blasts and whooshes. Needless to say Wall-E will interact with her.

GestureTek is planning to unveil a prototype “Wii-LIKE GAME STICK” this week at the 2008 Toy Fair in New York. It uses a camera to detect 3D position and motion. With the technology being camera-based, players are able to see their real-time, full-body image on screen as they control 3-D simulations and interact with characters and other objects. Your body motion controls the program, for a more virtual experience.

On a creepy note, GestureTek says that it can even vision-equip dolls, stuffed animals or robots. You know, so they can see everything you are doing…And interact. Interact like a cuddly friend, or interact like Chucky? GestureTek will be working with Sony, Microsoft and Hasbro and their gesture-enabled games will also be featured on Mobile Internet Devices based on the Intel Low Power Chip technology.

[Press Release]

To show off some interactive web experiences, you can perform some life-saving events on a bunny by trying to shock it back to life and then perform surgery, all under 60 seconds. Good luck.

link via Boing Boing