Do you enjoy watching TV shows, streaming videos, and movies on your laptop? Why not output that video to a big-screen TV, then? It’s easier than you think, and there’s even a wireless solution.
July is upon us — do you know what that means? For starters, it’s Canada Day, but secondly, today marks the first day that turn-by-turn capable GM vehicles as old as 2006 can search for destinations using Google Maps and have those destinations beamed directly to their vehicles. The OnStar eNav feature is now fully Google-fied, and we’re desperately hoping that other factory navigation systems take notice of the awesomeness and begin to do likewise in the not-so-distant future. Till then, have a peek at the GM demonstration vid just past the break, and feel free to let us know how it works for you in comments below.
OnStar users now sending Google Maps directions to their cars, definitely living in the future originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A research project from Intel can turn any surface into a touchscreen. Instead of propping up a tablet or putting a touchscreen computer in your kitchen, picture yourself tapping on the counter top to pull menus, look up recipes and add items to a shopping list.
“There’s nothing absolutely special about the surface, and it doesn’t matter if your hands are dirty,” says Beverly Harrison, a senior research scientist at Intel. “Our algorithm and a camera set-up can create virtual islands everywhere”
Intel demoed the project during the company’s annual research-day fest Wednesday to show touchscreens can go beyond computing and become a part of everyday life.
The project uses real-time 3-D object recognition to build a model of almost anything that’s placed on the counter and offer a a virtual, touchscreen-based menu. For instance, when you put a slab of meat on the counter or a green pepper, they are identified, and a virtual menu that includes recipes for both are shown.
“The computer in real time builds a model of the color, shape, texture of the objects and runs it against a database to identify it,” says Harrison. “And it requires nothing special to be attached on the steak or the pepper.”
Smartphones have turned touch into a popular user interface. Many consumers are happy to give the BlackBerry thumb a pass and instead swipe and flick their finger to scroll. New tablets are also likely to make users want to move beyond a physical keyboard and mouse.
But so far, touchscreens have been limited to carefully calibrated pieces of glass encased in the shell of a phone or computer.
Intel researchers say that won’t be the case in the future. An ordinary coffee table in the living room could morph into a touchscreen when you put a finger on it, and show a menu of music, video to choose from. Or a vanity table in the bathroom could recognize a bottle of pills placed on it and let you manage your medications from there.
Some companies are trying to expand the use of touchscreens. For instance, Displax, based in Portugal, can turn any surface — flat or curved — into a touch-sensitive display by sticking a thinner-than-paper polymer film on that surface to make it interactive.
Intel research labs try to do away with the extra layer. Instead, researchers there have created a rig with two cameras, one to capture the image of the objects and the other to capture depth. The depth cameras help recognize the objects and the difference between the hand touching the table or hovering over it. A pico-projector helps beam the virtual menus. The cameras and the pico-projector can be combined into devices just a little bigger than your cellphone, says Harrison. Sprinkle a few of these in different rooms and point them on tables, and the system is ready to go.
At that point, the software program that Harrison and her team have written kicks in. The program, which can run on any computer anywhere in the house, helps identify objects accurately and create the virtual menus. Just make a wide sweeping gesture to push the menu off the counter and it disappears. There’s even a virtual drawer that users can pull up to store images and notes.
Harrison says all this will work on almost any surface, including glass, granite and wood.
“The key here is the idea requires no special instrumentation,” she says.
Still it may be too early to make plans to remodel the kitchen to include this new system. The idea is still in the research phase, says Harrison, and it may be years before it makes it to the real world.
Photo: A counter top acts as a touchscreen display.
Priya Ganapati/Wired.com
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E Ink explains the new Pearl display used in the updated Kindle DX originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
So, you’re glamping out on Mars, and of course you need someone to buttle you as you relax within your well appointed, synthetic diamond-reinforced space tent; who better than a robotic butler? Good thing we’ve come a long way in the last 100 years or so, can you believe that early 21st century humans had to get by with this bot built by Intel named “HERB,” who could barely manage to drop an empty into the recycling bin? Sure, he wasn’t totally worthless, he could sort dishes and put them in the dishwasher (edible flatware wasn’t the norm back then), and managed a vague approximation of speech synthesis (this was before Google blew the lid off the whole artificial voice problem in the 2030s), but it’s hard to call any of these capabilities truly useful to any modern family. Check out the video after the break, and there’s no need to don your 4D glasses: this holovid is flat and scentless.
Continue reading Intel shows off ‘HERB’ the robotic butler, the future is unimpressed
Intel shows off ‘HERB’ the robotic butler, the future is unimpressed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Das Keyboard Model S series was forged in the fires of the original IBM Model M keyboards that shipped with all IBM-branded computers back in the 1980s.
A car by the same guys who brought us those famous Coke/Mentos geysers takes a test drive on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
The enterprising youngster you see above had a dream. A dream to become like his superhero, Spiderman, who isn’t real. Nobody really believed him or thought his ideas about how to achieve his goals were very good, but, as you can see from the photo, he’s got the last laugh. Hibiki Kono, using two cheap, 1,400 watt vacuum cleaners he bought at a grocery store to begin scaling walls of local buildings, and impressing all of his new friends. His mother’s not that into him doing it in the house — she’s afraid he’ll destroy the walls and ceiling — but as you can see from the video below, the sight is pretty impressive.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Little Spiderman uses vacuum cleaners to climb buildings, win the hearts of the ladies originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
I come to bury Sidekick, not to praise him. Less than 24 hours after Microsoft killed Kin dead, T-Mobile has abandoned the granddaddy of messaging phones. Sidekick sales will cease tomorrow, July 2nd, and honestly? No one will care. More »
Whether you’re going on a vacation, a hike, or you just like to watch where the day takes you — from an almost voyeuristic viewpoint –, the Trackstick II is the tool for you. The Trackstick II combines 4GB USB flash storage with a GPS tracking and geolocation device, and a pedometer.
Using the tool, you can geotag the photos you save to the drive with your current location and save them to Flickr, see where you are at any point in time using Google Maps, and count the number of steps and see how far you’ve traveled in a day.
The Trackstick II is powered by a pair of AAA batteries, and once it’s turned on, it’ll keep track of where you roam. When you plug it in to your computer, a Google Map will conveniently show you where you’ve been. You can share that Google Map, along with your path and waypoints, with friends.
The Trackstick II reminds me a lot of the SPOT Satellite Messenger, except without the emergency assistance, or check-in features. In other words, not as useful, but still fun. The Trackstick II will set you back $199 US, and is available now.
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