Hasta La Gadget!

You know the old story, right? You come into possession of plans for the Empire’s moon-sized space station, and now they’ve come to capture you. What to do? Well, if you’ve got access to a Kinect, an iPad, and the String SDK, you’re in luck. The folks at LAAN Labs demonstrated a nifty little hack that can turn 3D data recorded using the Xbox 360 peripheral into a Princess Leia-esque augmented reality image playable on the Apple tablet. Check the video below — unless you’re a scruffy-looking nerf herder, that is.

Continue reading Kinect / iPad hack should help you get Obi-Wan’s attention (video)

Kinect / iPad hack should help you get Obi-Wan’s attention (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gun accessories for your Wiimote or Move wands are old hat but, we can’t help but be at least a little intrigued by this rifle-like dock for the iPhone. The appBlaster is an accessory from apptoyz designed specifically for use with the company’s Alien Attack iOS game. Slide in your iDevice and fire up the AR shooter and you’ll be treated to a bit of Piper-vision, exposing the invisible aliens in our midst. Pull the triggers and two capacitive pads touch the screen to fire at the invaders that only you can see. The appBlaster is available for pre-order now at RED5 for £19.99 (about $32) and will official hit shelves on July 7. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading appBlaster iPhone accessory lets you kick AR alien butt, bubblegum not included

appBlaster iPhone accessory lets you kick AR alien butt, bubblegum not included originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Airbus has been consulting its crystal ball recently and its findings have now been shared with the world in the shape of a new concept plane. Looking entirely detached from the economic and physical realities we know today, this futuristic people carrier includes auto-morphing seats that adjust to your size and shape and also harvest excess heat you produce. How is this achieved? Smart materials is all we’re told, leaving us to use our imagination to fill in the gaping blanks. Eschewing the usual class system, this Airbus concept instead offers three functionally distinct areas: a Smart Tech Zone at the back is the closest to what we’re used to today, an Interaction Zone in the middle uses holograms to help you relax or conduct some mission-critical meetings in flight, and a Vitalising Zone up front is where more “bio-morphing” seats will provide you with massage or acupuncture treatments. The ceiling in that front part of the plane can also be turned transparent, letting you soak up the panorama (and get a good tan while you’re at it). You can see and hear more about it in the videos after the break.

Continue reading Airbus’ plane of the future will harvest energy from passengers, earn Agent Smith’s approval (video)

Airbus’ plane of the future will harvest energy from passengers, earn Agent Smith’s approval (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Be honest, you’ve been waiting for an affordable augmented reality headset ever since Schwarzenegger rocked the robot vision Terminator 2. And while $5,000 still seems like a lot for consumers to pay for a pair of glasses that let you see stuff that’s not actually there, it’s certainly cheaper than the sort of military-grade options currently available. Vuzix’s Star 1200 feature motion sensors and a camera that track reality in order to augment it via 3D computer generated graphics. The headset is available for pre-order now and will start shipping in August, so you can finally get down to hunting and destroying all of the people who make fun of you for wearing funny looking glasses.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Vuzix Star 1200 headset augments your reality, not your bank account originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still waiting to get our first big bite of the full Mango experience after this morning’s liveblog, but we were able to get a quick hands-on with a few of the apps making use of the operating system’s new features. Chief among them is the History Channel app, which is making use of the augmented reality features that have been enabled. Using the internal gyro and accelerometer the device was able to overlay landmarks, which with a tap can be added to the phones home screen — you know, in case you really want to know what’s up at the Brooklyn Bridge. We also got a look at the updated Weather Channel app, which will not identify cloud types using any augmented reality trickery, but will give you quick and easy access to what’s up — and about to start falling. Check out the pics below, and get ready for a video after the break.

Continue reading Windows Phone Mango augmented reality hands-on

Windows Phone Mango augmented reality hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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