Tech Watch

Lara Croft, Here I Come
The karate master, a mean-looking dude with a Fu Manchu mustache, attacks me from the left. I knock him out with a swift kick to the stomach. Kazaaam! He comes back at me from the right, so I retaliate with a masterful chop to the chin. Pow! This fight sequence is playing out on my TV screen, but it's really me in the picture.

Thanks to EyeToy, Sony's latest advance on the computer game, anyone can be an action hero. Launched in the U.K. last week and due across Europe this summer, EyeToy is a PlayStation 2 add-on that uses a motion-tracking camera to transfer a player's own image into one of 12 available games — in my case Kung Foo. The player then controls the game and interacts with other characters by moving his arms, hands, legs and feet. No joystick, no buttons: if you want to kick virtual butt, use your real leg.

Each EyeToy game encourages energetic movement — players

Through the Looking Glass PHILIPS TV Mirror brings the digital age into the bath Can't bear to look at yourself in the mirror? Maybe you'd prefer to look at Larry King while you shave (ouch!), or read your e-mail while brushing your teeth. That, at any rate, is what Philips thinks you might want to do in your bathroom. The Dutch electronics company is launching a mirror that triples up as TV screen and Internet monitor. Plug in a laptop or video feed and the polarized mirror lets through close to 100% of the light from the LCD screen behind. Philips says its first buyers later this year will likely be Dutch hotels, which will also use them for pay-per-view movies and settling the bill; a home version will be available by 2005. The Mirror TV is the first commercial product from Philips' HomeLab — a two-bedroom, ultra-wired house in Eindhoven, where live-in guests test-run the company's latest gadgets. Coming soon: a stereo that recognizes the tune you're humming and plays the song. Come to think of it, that might be handy in the bath, too. — By Michael Brunton

can throw punches in Boxing Chump or bang on the drums in Beat Freak. And then there's Wishi Washi, where you clean virtual windows and score points for washing speed and thoroughness. (An unlikely premise, but then no one expected the Sims to be a hit either.)

The whole package retails around €60. Eventually, Sony plans to merge the technology with other PS2 franchises, like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid. In the meantime, that nasty karate master is coming straight at me: a kick to the groin should do the trick.

A Foggy Idea
It's guaranteed to leave car thieves mist-ified. SecuFog, the latest auto-security device from Germany, is a small metal cartridge filled with a mixture of glycol and water and attached to a vehicle's regular alarm system. When the alarm is activated by a break-in, a 12-volt impulse turns the mixture into an impenetrable fog, filling the cabin in seconds and preventing thieves from driving away. Even with all doors open, it takes 10 to 15 minutes for the fog to clear — leaving a vanilla scent. Considering how often car alarms go off for no reason, there might be too much vanilla in the air for anyone's good. The cylinders (three sizes, from €398), are available from ePyron (secufog.de). — By Ursula Sautter/Bonn