Hasta La Gadget!

Epic Games has begun to ship out official support for Valve’s SteamVR, and this will kick off with next week’s first preview release of Unreal Engine 4.8. In other words, any Tom, Dick or Harry are able to download Unreal Engine 4 without having to fork out a single cent, which means you will also have access to the source code, as well as to come up with projects for SteamVR.

With Unreal Engine 4, developers can deploy high-fidelity, high frame rate experiences consistently across all major VR platforms. SteamVR with Unreal Engine 4 happens to be plug-and-play, and it will come with the full plethora of features including room-scale VR, input, and Lighthouse, which is Valve’s very own laser-based tracking solution.

SteamVR has been totally integrated into Unreal Engine 4 across Blueprint visual scripting and native code, enabling projects to be built without the need for dependency on programmer support if the situation arises as such. Gabe Newell of Valve mentioned, “Epic is once again taking a leadership position in the technology solution space by embracing the industry-wide momentum toward VR. With SteamVR integrated into its engine tech, Epic is making it that much easier for Unreal Engine developers to be successful.”

It does look to be a brilliant move, that’s for sure.

Unreal Engine 4 Sports SteamVR Support , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Should there come a day when robots start to interact with humans on a daily basis, it would be of utmost importance to figure out our emotions, that is for sure. Recognizing one’s facial expression is definitely important in the course of doing so, and there are computer vision systems out there in the market that does just that.South Korean scientists have come up with what they claim to be a far more simple and yet precise technology, although this will require users sticking something on their face.

Some of the researchers that were led by Nae-Eung Lee of Sungkyunkwan University have decided that a vision-based emotion-reading system is not only complex but expensive, and while those work when it comes to detecting one’s smiles and frowns, they generally are not able to read things which are a whole lot more subtle – including eye movements.

Hence, this research team has come up with thin, transparent flexible sensors which will be applied to key locations on the user’s face. These are very sensitive, since they are made up of a layer of carbon nanotubes that are placed between electrically-conductive elastomer composite films. Sensitive as in, to mechanical strain brought on by facial movements, regardless of how subtle it is. I suppose one can then move on to program an algorithm that can detect whether one is lying or not then, no? [Image Credit]

Robots Could Figure Out Human Emotions Via Facial Expressions , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Tesla unveiled a line of rechargeable lithium-ion battery products on Thursday night that can use stored solar energy to power homes, businesses and communities.

Speaking at a Tesla facility near Los Angeles, CEO Elon Musk said the $3,500 home unit, called Powerwall, can be mounted to a garage wall or outside the home. A larger product, called Powerpack, can store more energy to power businesses.

The Powerwall has a 10kWh capacity, but nine can be stacked for a total of 90kWh. The Powerpack has a 100kWh capacity and is “infinitely scalable” to power larger facilities and even entire cities, Musk said.

Along with storing solar energy, the batteries can draw energy from the electrical grid during off-peak hours when rates are lower and store it for later use.

Ever the showman, Musk then revealed that the Tesla facility had been off the grid during the event and was using Powerpacks for energy.

“This entire night has been powered by batteries,” he said. “Not only that, the batteries were charged by the solar panels on the roof of this building.”

Musk began the event by speaking of the tremendous amount of CO2 emissions and how they’re projected to rise in the coming years.

“I think we collectively should do something about this and not try to win the Darwin Award,” he said, referring to a mock “award” for extreme stupidity leading to death or extinction.

The answer, he said, is the sun.

“You don’t have to do anything, it just works,” Musk said. “It shows up every day and produces ridiculous amounts of power.”

The problem with solar power has been storing energy for use when the sun isn’t shining, which requires a battery.

“The issue with existing batteries is that they suck,” he said. “They’re really horrible. They’re expensive. They’re unreliable. They’re sorta stinky, ugly, bad in every way.”

Tesla Energy products aim to change that. They work with existing solar systems and can be integrated with the existing energy grid or even be used to take consumers off the grid completely.

Musk said the larger Tesla Powerpacks could be used in remote locations and developing countries, where there are no transmission lines in place.

Musk spoke repeatedly about changing the world with solar power and batteries, but added that he doesn’t expect Tesla to do it alone. As with the company’s other patents, Tesla Energy patents will be open source, allowing others — even competitors — to use them.

Tesla is entering a market that is expected to grow, but competition will be fierce. Tech giant Samsung already sells a solar storage unit called the ESS that can power homes or commercial spaces, and a Swiss battery startup called Alevo raised $1 billion in private funding last year.

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