Gadget Review
In this article we take a closer look at the USB NailGunner. This awesome gadget is made by Japanese firm Qanton Gadget City.
It's truly a forceful way to defend your computer!
What others wrote...
...Described as a 'professional grade high office defence system' the NG echoes the design and ethos of the popular and very highly regarded Qanton series of USB gadgets and is unusual in having superb accuracy... Yjuon TechMagazine, Aug 2006
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Qanton Gadget City
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USB NailGunner
review written by blubbie.com
Announced almost a month ago - and rumored for a long time before - the USB NailGunner was always going to be something of a niche product. Originally released only in Asia, the NG has recently made its way to Europe and North America, though you're still unlikely to find it on the shelves of your local computer store.
So does the NG live up to all the hype or is it just another gadget with pretensions? Let's find out, starting as usual with the headline features:
- kicks in automatically when your screensaver turns on
- 360 degrees track zone
- fires a round of 6 2" household nails when intruder invades your space
- staggering 85% hit count
- clear warnings given by the screensaver
- legal actions as result from injuries are due to be ruled out
- hits are monitored with a tiny 1Mb camera
- loud speaker and 1gb usb memory card to store mp3 'Kaboom' files
- Package comes with an 'auto learn' suite for additional commands
What is it?
it's a high tech gadget to plug into your computer. It acts as your personal PC or laptop defender. Once installed on your desk it kicks in when your screensaver turns on. It tracks movements in a 360 degrees angle and secures your perimeter.
The nail gun is guided automatically and fires a round of 6 2" household nails when objects are within a 2 meter range. Hence the nickname iKill. Tests have shown a 85% hit count.
Legal actions as result from injuries are due to be ruled out by the clear warnings given by the screensaver. This is checked by top lawyers. User can enter the secured zone only after positive voice recognition.
Package comes with an 'auto learn' suite for additional commands. This way it can be used for combined zone defence at your own office.
The NG is sold excusively by Japanese firm Qanton Gadget City. Retail price starts from Yen 11.499 including legal insurance in Japan and several other countries. One could say they 'hit the nail on the head' because this sure is one of the most awesome USB Gadgets we encountered this year. And in case we forgot to tell you: inside this gadget is a 1gb usb memory card and a luidspeaker to store your own mp3 'Kaboom' files. Counts are monitored with a tiny 1Mb camera to give you that great instant visual playback once you're back at your work place.
Poor sound files
To be honest: sound quality is poor! Just like the camera resolution the sound of the NG is a weak point. The tiny loudspeaker is to small and yet they didn't connect it to the PC! That's a major flaw in the NG design! We downloaded the standard sound files for you, courtesy of QGC Japan. Some files proved to be fairly good.
We sure like the sound of the Russian made Kalashnikov.
Face recognition version 1.05 soon to be integrated in the NailGunner
Many of today's image acquisition and recognition technologies and systems can zero in on faces from live video feed and still photographs, and can then perform one-to-one or one-to-many searches through a database of faces, searching for a match. Solutions offer a vast array of options for storing enrollment templates locally or across a network, and verification and identification techniques take no more than a few seconds.
Trespassers are captured by video camera, and image-processing algorithms extract a feature set from the digitized image, which the software compares to the users reference set, stored on the NailGunner.
Next version 1.05 which is scheduled for late 2006 will be significantly better.
The system uses biometrics in combination with parallel processing to identify suspects through a mathematical
formula that uses the eyes as a reference point. The formula generates a data record representing the face, which is
used to compare against a digital database of enrolled images.
Images from scanned photographs, mugshots, suspect composites, or video surveillance may be queried using the program, and millions of images may be searched to identify unknown suspects, as well as criminals with multiple aliases. The recognition program is resistant to changes in facial expression, hairstyles, disguises, lighting, and pose variations of up to 35 degrees in all directions.
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