Hasta La Gadget!

In a world where facial recognition is becoming more and more prevalent, more and more citizens are concerned about their privacy, and with good reason. However, National Institute of Informatics professor Isao Echizen has created what’s called the “Privacy Visor”, which are essentially a pair of glasses that fool most facial recognition scanners.

The glasses emit a near-infrared set of LEDs that block facial recognition cameras from identifying wearers. According to Echizen, the glasses are the answer to what he refers to as the “invasion of privacy caused by photographs taken in secret.” Facial recognition software collects a lot of data about patrons. Not only can it identify you, but it can also figure out your body type and age.

These prototype glasses aren’t the most appealing, and they likely won’t be adopted by the masses, but if the idea takes off, we may see versions that are much smaller and more stylish than the ones we’re seeing today. Plus, in order to keep the LED lights on and working for this prototype privacy visor, you have to carry around a small power supply in your pocket.

Echizen says that he’s already received offers from companies that want to work toward mass-producing the visors in the future. Echizen says that he and his development team are working on “an improved version of the privacy visor without power supply consisting of transparent materials that reflect or absorb specific wavelength.”

New prototype glasses protect you from facial recognition scanners is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It should come as no surprise that quite often, lurking in the shadows, a security camera is secretly leering at you. In stores, in banks, even on the street; and now they can recognize you too. Of course, there are ways to fight back, but unfortunately they include wearing these goofy-looking glasses. More »

The wearables market is becoming a growing obsession here at CES 2013 — and it’s been the first chance we’ve got to handle the Vuzix M100 — its new lightweight set of smartglasses. It’ll have some stiff competition from Google’s incoming effort, although the premise is a little different — less augmented reality, more a wearable smart screen that pairs to your tablet or smartphone. We’re uploading our video as we speak, and we’ll have more first impressions after the break.

Continue reading Vuzix Smart Glasses M100 hands-on at CES 2013 (update: now with video!)

Filed under: Wearables

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Bummed that your $700 Moverio BT-100 headset doesn’t have video input? Well, Epson’s here to tease you with a board that plugs into the trackpad and accepts any composite video source. Despite best attempts to hide the identity of hardware it’s being tested with and give the lawyers a weekend off, it’s shown to receive feeds from a PS3, an iPad and a 360 with Kinect. Check out the honk-filled video of all the fun you’re not having, and contact Epson if you’ve got an interesting idea for using the board, because they might just give you one. How about — “I want to play games on it?” That sounds like a pretty good reason to us.

[Thanks, Joe]

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Wearables, HD

Epson’s video board pumps composite inputs to the Moverio BT-100 headset (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those of you waiting for the ultimate head-mounted computer in Google’s Project Glass will be glad to know that it may be coming with a nose piece that changes based on your desires – and nose size. What we’re seeing today is a patent at the USPTO that’s been granted to Google which shows a technology that allows for a malleable nose bridge controlled by the touchpad that sits on the side of the Glass unit (by your temple). Just incase you’ve got an extra-stuffy nose, you’ll be set!

This new bit of gadgetry has the ability to harden and soften using electrically controlled fluid. The fluid has a changeable viscosity which is controlled, again, by the touchpad at your temple which also tends to control many items in the full unit. Those of you that wear glasses on the regular know that having a nose piece that’s too hard can lead to the ol’ “nose dents” while too little support has a tendency to keep your glasses closer to your chin than your forehead.

At the moment it does not appear as though this tech will be present in the first edition of Google’s Glass units, but perhaps the future “final” iteration will be bringing the fire. The Explorer Edition of the Google Glass gadget is still set to be sent out in the first half of 2013 to those that pre-ordered back at Google I/O 2012. This edition will be tending to developers and those that really, really want to check the gear out early rather than the public.

The public will be waiting an undisclosed amount of time before the final iteration of Google’s Project Glass is released. The final market edition of the technology will likely have several different iterations, some made for those that don’t normally wear glasses, some for those that do. There will also be a hefty premium, we must expect, for a future-looking bit of uniqueness like this, especially considering the price of the Explorer Edition.

[via Engadget]

Google Glass gets transforming nose piece patent is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.