We already have devices that augment two our sight and hearing. But a group of Innovation Design Engineering students at the Royal College of Art built a couple of devices that provide a new level of augmentation. One is a headset that applies special effects to what you’re seeing in real time, while the other one is a mask that works like noise canceling headphones. No Typhoon explosives though.
Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara call their project Eidos. The idea is not just to help us focus on sights or sounds that we consider important, but also to provide totally new ways of seeing and hearing.
The headset for example can apply a long-exposure effect on moving objects – a bit like seeing in four dimensions. The mask on the other hand not only blocks out all sound except for the one you want to hear, it broadcasts the sound through your inner ear. The students claim that this makes it seem like the sound is being sent directly inside your head – a bit like being a schizophrenic.
Obviously the devices in their current state are silly and impractical – the cool use cases shown in the video are all hypothetical and conceptual. Still, wouldn’t be amazing if future sunglasses and hearing aids had these capabilities? I mean I didn’t ask for these, but when they arrive I can see old man Bert buying Eidoses. Eidii. Eidoes. Edeese. Eidosia.
It’s no wonder people are interested in exoskeletons. Not only do they tap into our lust for the technology of science fiction movies, but among other applications, can make a significant impact on the lives of those living with disabilities. While many offer leg support, a team from University of Pennsylvania recently took silver in an engineering competition for its TitanArm prototype, a powered upper-body exoskeleton that, as the picture above shows, allows you to out-rep anyone at the gym.
Designed to be lightweight and cheap to produce, the robotic bicep upgrade uses a (mostly) aluminum frame, battery-powered DC motor, cable drive system, racket braking and thumbstick controller for movement, with a BeagleBone board supervising the electronics that pull it all together. The group at UPenn imagines TitanArm could be employed as a lifting aid, but more importantly, in healthcare applications like increasing mobility or physical therapy — sensors and other data from the exoskeleton could even allow docs to monitor patients remotely. More info on the project can be found at the source link, while a video below shows TitanArm in use and outlines the hardware that makes those heavy hammer curls a cinch.
Microsoft’s IllumiRoom immersive projected gaming system, first shown off at CES, has broken cover again for a more comprehensive demo, complete with more details of how the “TV expanding” augmented reality works. Still described as a proof-of-concept, though thoroughly whetting appetites for what the next-gen Xbox might one day evolve into, IllumiRoom will be presented at CHI 2013 [pdf link] this week, complete with learning the topography and design of your living room and then digitally manipulating it.
The Microsoft Research team responsible for IllumiRoom is currently using a standard projector with a wide field of view, and a Kinect for Windows sensor bar, though any commercial implementation would probably be designed to sit on a coffee table. Automatic room calibration is included, projecting various patterns and sequences which map the outline of the TV, furniture, and the room’s geography in 3D; future iterations could even identify and track moving objects, such as people, as they move through the projection.
Once the layout of the gaming arena is understood, IllumiRoom’s real magic can begin. Various implementations are proposed, from fully extending what’s on the TV to greater fill the room – making for a more immersive environment – to picking out specific elements to highlight them, such as weapons fire that escapes from the primary display. By changing how physical objects in the room have their own textures projected, furniture could be made to ripple and wobble, change color or desaturate, or have their lighting adjusted.
Alternatively, the IllumiRoom system might just expand on the theme of the current game: having virtual falling snow spread across the living room, perhaps, building up on the actual furniture. The three possibilities, Microsoft Research suggests, are “negating”, “including”, or “augmenting” real-world objects: either digitally masking them, allowing them to remain visible, or adding to them with projected graphics.
“Ideally, IllumiRoom would be directly integrated into a next generation console and new games would be designed for IllumiRoom from the ground up. We envision an API that enables triggering illusions, changing surface appearance, controlling room lighting, inserting objects into the physical environment, etc.” Microsoft Research
While the best result would be if games natively supported, and integrated, IllumiRoom functionality, the system could also fashion a suitable AR scheme by analyzing gameplay in realtime, similar to how Philips’ Ambilight system tracks on-screen colors and matches them with its periphery of multicolor LEDs. The developers also suggest that audio cues could be used, such as triggering a ripple of the surrounding projection whenever the system hears a gunshot sound.
There’s also potential for how IllumiRoom could work with non-game content, such as movies and television; the team fashioned a prototype extended field-of-view camcorder – in effect pairing a standard camcorder with one that has a wide FOV – with the main screen showing the core video and the IllumiRoom projector showing the peripheral footage.
“Can a grenade from the latest Bond film explode in your living room? How would such content be authored? It would be im- portant to investigate how the movie director should deal with the fixed nature of a film and the randomness imbued by the system adapting to the user’s living room” Microsoft Research
Unsurprisingly, there’s still no (public) talk about how IllumiRoom tech and Microsoft’s Xbox ambitions might work together. As it stands, the current projection system relies on a PC for its brain, though it’s worth remembering that Kinect itself started out as a proof-of-concept peripheral, and only later evolved into an Xbox 360 add-on.
@Evleaks has been known to leak a number of devices in the past, which turn out to be completely true. But in this week’s case where they “leaked” a mystery Samsung smartphone, it turns out to be a false leak, according to SamMobile.
The image @Evleaks leaked was assumed to be a new Samsung product that might point to a new design for an upcoming Samsung device, but it turns out what they “leaked” was a Samsung Galaxy S4 developer prototype. SamMobile’s insider sent them an image of the prototype they just so happened to have on hand, and it seems to resemble the image of the device @Evleaks leaked. (more…)
So, first things first. Sega actually shipped some pretty insane gear. A handheld console that used full-size Genesis cartridges? Check. A sophisticated Tamagotchi that our own editor-in-chief developed games for? Yessir. Something called a “32X” that stacked on top of an already sizable home console? Sure, why not? Given the outfit’s history, the item you’re peering at above doesn’t feel all that outlandish. According to one Super Magnetic — a self-proclaimed ex-employee of Sega — this is Pluto.
As the story goes, Sega was pondering the release of a Saturn variant that included an embedded NetLink device. At the time, online console gaming was in its earliest stages, and someone likely assumed that they could kickstart things by including an Ethernet jack from the get-go. Of course, Pluto never saw the light of day in the consumer world — thankfully, you can partake in a few more shots of what could’ve been at the source link below.
The modern smartwatch market hardly even exists, and yet it’s already starting to feel very crowded. Hot on the heels of plans (official and otherwise) from Apple and Samsung, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has also been shopping around for parts to build a “watch-style device.” While details are scarce as to what that would entail, unnamed supplier executives tell the newspaper that Microsoft has been asking for 1.5-inch touchscreens. We wouldn’t count on seeing an ultra-small Surface anytime soon, however — these executives say they’ve visited Microsoft’s campus, but they don’t know whether the Windows developer is fully committed to its wrist-worn endeavor or just experimenting. If the project exists at all, of course. Still, there’s finally a glimmer of hope for anyone who’s still mourning the loss of their beloved SPOT watches.
I don’t really care much for tactile feedback in videogames, but if you’re into that sort of immersion, Tactical Haptics is working on a device that’s right up your alley. At the 2013 Game Developers Conference, the company showed off a prototype motion controller with a unique haptic feedback system.
The company calls its technology Reactive Grip. The current prototype, which uses parts from a Razer Hydra motion controller, has four bars on the grip that can move up and down independently of each other. Not only does it look like a naughty toy, apparently it’s also great at emulating a sense of weight and movement.
It seems like many people believe that first-person games will continue to be central to the future of gaming, what with technologies like the Reactive Grip as well as the Oculus Rift. I’m waiting for floor tiles that light up and a machine that spews numbers into the air to make tactical RPGs more immersive.
The 30- and 56-inch 4K OLED monitor prototypes that Sony introduced yesterday are sitting prominently in the company’s booth here at NAB, and they’re really quite something. These sets offer wider viewing angles and reduced color shift compared to previous-gen monitors, and Sony is emphasizing the technology’s color accuracy. We got a taste of the 56-inch, 3,840 x 2,160 model back at CES, but it looks like we can extinguish all hopes of this monitor making it to the consumer market anytime soon. Instead, it will be available to professionals working with 4K content. Even though the prototype won’t make it to our living room, we couldn’t help but marvel at the image quality: to say that the footage of Carnivale popped off the screen would be an understatement — colors were just that vibrant and details were incredibly lifelike.
Meanwhile, the 30-inch, 4,096 x 2,160 model is destined to hit the market sometime in 2014, and it’s plenty striking itself. Like its larger sibling, the relatively petite model looked fantastic, with very sharp details and bright, vibrant colors. Sony wouldn’t share pricing information — heck, booth attendants wouldn’t even let us get close enough to get a good shot of the monitor itself — but we did manage to snag a clip of both panels in action. Granted, it’s impossible to judge the quality from our compressed eyes-on video, but if you can’t make it out to NAB, you’ll just have to take us on our word that these really are quite stunning.
Last year we heard about how Teague Labs was able to make a pair of headphones with 3D printed components. While that’s revolutionary in and of itself, that proof of concept still used store bought and manufactured parts. Industrial designer J.C. Karich set out to try and make a pair of headphones that anyone with access to a 3D printer and basic electronics raw materials can make.
Karich succeeded in his task. He was able to make a plug, a headband and bases for the speakers using 3D printed parts and a fabric ribbon for the cord. As for the “speakers” themselves, Karich used nothing but copper wire and magnets.
As you can imagine, the sound coming from the headphones is quite weak and of low quality, hence Karich’s clever name for his creation – Low-Fi, High-Tech. But hey, it works!
If you want to try making your own headphones from scratch, head to Karich’s Thingiverse page for the instructions as well as the 3D files.
We know by now that Apple has adopted a more-or-less annual update cycle for the iPhone. In between major revisions, we’ve seen the company release “S” versions that feature upgrades to the previous version’s internal hardware. But GSM Arena received a couple of pictures showing what their tipster thinks is a prototype of the iPhone 5S. If – and that’s a huge if – these images are legitimate, then it looks like the iPhone 5′s thin and tall form will be discarded in favor of that of a Nokia Lumia.
If this is a legitimate leak, it appears that the iPhone 5S is going to be wider than the iPhone 5 and will have a curved edge-to-edge screen. The curvature of the screen in the device is mimicked by its rear panel. As I said, I think it looks a bit like one of Nokia’s Lumia phones.
Another thing that it looks like? An illustration in one of Apple’s patents, which describes a phone with a transparent housing and a flexible wraparound display. But obviously neither of these features are present in this alleged prototype.
Again, the pictures could be a hoax or those of a knockoff. Or it could be legit, but as with many prototypes, one that is not destined to become a commercial product. It’s also possible that Apple will skip the iPhone 5S and go straight to the iPhone 6. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has decided to cash in on the demand of people who want an iPhone with a larger screen. It wouldn’t be unprecedented.
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