Hasta La Gadget!

Just because virtual reality displays let us interact with 3D interfaces doesn’t mean there isn’t room for the ol’ two-dimensional view inside of them. Oliver Kreylos, a developer who’s been working with 3D software for nearly 30 years, recently demonstrated a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client that sends a 2D feed of a desktop computer to a 3D virtual reality environment.

Oliver’s VNC client allows him to open and interact with any number of 2D desktops on a virtual reality environment. Why would you want to do this? Well for one, you can reverse telecommute: imagine working in an island paradise environment while you’re actually in the office. Because you can (theoretically) open multiple desktops at once, the setup also supercharges multitasking and group meetings. You can watch a video walkthrough while playing a 3D game, look at a hundred fullscreen documents at once, have multiple large video chat screens like they do in science fiction flicks and more.

As you’ll see in Oliver’s demo video, developers can also make 2D applications that interact with the 3D environment. In his demo he measured a table that was in his virtual space and then used a Razer Hydra to send those measurements to Microsoft Excel on his 2D desktop.

We really don’t know how far the rabbit hole goes with this one. Note that the video below may cause dizziness because of the constant change in perspective. It almost made me throw up to be honest. I’m ill-equipped for the future.

Head to Oliver’s blog for more on his custom program. I wonder if you can emulate this feature on the same computer that’s running the VR environment. That would be more useful, although it would probably take a beefy computer to pull it off. Also, watching Oliver’s demo, I can almost – almost! – visualize a four-dimensional space, where you can fit infinite 3D environments. Now I’m really dizzy.

[via Fast Co. Design]

GBA4iOS is a popular Game Boy Advance emulator for iOS. The latest version lets you play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games without the need to jailbreak your device. The unavoidable downside of GBA4iOS is that you’ll have to use virtual buttons. AJ Design Studio wants to change that with the G-Pad.

The G-Pad is a rubber sleeve for the 5th generation iPod Touch and the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C that gives you physical buttons to press, which will in turn press the corresponding virtual buttons.

How fitting is that? A controller emulator for a handheld emulator. It has a glaring flaw though: it doesn’t have shoulder buttons. I’m not sure how the inventor missed that. Skip to around 0:50 in the video below to see it in action.

Is it just me or does the kid have unnaturally smooth hands and arms? It’s like he’s CGI. Anyway you can pledge at least $13 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a G-Pad as a reward. AJ Design Studio will make an iPad Mini version if it raises at least $25,000. I doubt it’ll get that far without shoulder buttons though.

[via The Gadget Flow]

Bacman member Bungle made this polished, compact and portable Nintendo 64 mod. As far as portable N64 mods go, this is one of the cleanest ones I’ve ever seen. It’s not that pretty – it reminds me of the Sega Genesis controller – but it looks comfortable to hold, which was Bungle’s goal with this mod.

The main reason why this handheld looks so clean is its case, which Bungle made through a process called vacuum forming. Bungle also made the buttons and the d-pad. The portable has a 3.5″ screen and internal batteries that provide up to 4 hours and 15 minutes of play time. You can skip to around 1:10 in Bungle’s demo video below to see him play a game on the portable.

Make a portable browser and head to Bungle’s thread on Bacman for more on the mod. You can also read his build log on Bacman. Bungle said he’s going to make more units of this mod to sell. If you’re interested, register on Bacman and send Bungle a private message.

[via Hack A Day]

Hackers Bunnie Huang and Sean “xobs” Cross have launched a fundraiser for their open source laptop, the Novena. It looks very different from its prototype, but the idea behind it remains the same: a computer with transparent and easily modifiable hardware and software.

The Novena comes in four platforms. There’s a barebones board…

a compact desktop version with an easy access case, a 13.3″ 1080p TFT LCD screen, internal accessory connectors and an LVDS to eDP adapter board…

a laptop version which mainly adds a battery pack and a 240GB SSD to the desktop version…

and a high-end Heirloom version put together by custom gadget and furniture maker Kurt Mottweiler. It’s based on the laptop version but has a handcrafted wood and aluminum case, a Lenovo Trackpoint Bluetooth keyboard, a 480GB Intel 730 SSD.

As you can see the standard desktop and laptop versions don’t have a keyboard included and have a reverse clamshell design. This makes it easier to access the Novena’s internals and keeps them well-ventilated. The cases of the laptop and desktop also have what Bunnie and xobs call Peek Arrays, which are M2.5 mounting holes for installing additional circuit boards and other parts.

Finally, the panel with matching port holes is replaceable. If you reconfigured the Novena board and ended up with a different arrangement or lineup of ports, you can replace the vanilla panel with one that matches your rig.

Head to Crowd Supply to pledge or learn more about Novena. Pledge $500 (USD) and you get the board as a reward, pledge $1,195 for the desktop, pledge $1,995 for the laptop and finally pledge $5,000 for the Heirloom laptop.

[via MAKE]

Poor 3PO. He was never as popular as R2 and he never will be. At least someone thought enough of the prissy protocol droid to make an electric guitar out of his action figure collectors case.

Everyone knows the Darth Vader collector’s case, but not as many people had the C-3PO version because, well because no one seems to like him. Though his action figure case makes a great body for an electric guitar once you ad a neck and strings. The case still opens up and it even talks. C-3PO says three different phrases. That’s a little disappointing since he’s supposed to be fluent in over six million forms of communication.

This protocol guitar measures 41″ tall X 15″wide and is 5″ thick. It was made by Etsy artist RainyDayInstruments and will cost you $465(USD).