Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft is working on its own Google Glass alternative, a wearable computer which can overlay real-time data onto a user’s view of the world around them. The research, outed in a patent application published today for “Event Augmentation with Real-Time Information” (No. 20120293548), centers on a special set of digital eyewear with one or both lenses capable of injecting computer graphics and text into the user’s line of sight, such as to label players in a sports game, flag up interesting statistics, or even identify objects and offer contextually-relevant information about them.

The digital glasses would track the direction in which the wearer was looking, and adjust its on-screen graphics accordingly; Microsoft also envisages a system whereby eye-tracking is used to select areas of focus within the scene. Information shown could follow a preprogrammed script – Microsoft uses the example of an opera, where background detail about the various scenes and arias could be shown in order – or on an ad-hoc basis, according to contextual cues from the surrounding environment.

Actually opting into that data could be based on social network checkins, Microsoft suggests, or by the headset simply using GPS and other positioning sensors to track the wearer’s location. The hardware itself could be entirely self-contained, within glasses, as per what we’ve seen of Google’s Project Glass, or it could split off the display section from a separate “processing unit” in a pocket or worn on the wrist, with either a wired or wireless connection between the two.

In Microsoft’s cutaway diagram – a top-down perspective of one half of the AR eyewear – there’s an integrated microphone (910) and a front-facing camera for video and stills (913), while video is shown to the wearer via a light guide (912). That (along with a number of lenses) works with standard eyeglass lenses (916 and 918), whether prescription or otherwise, while the opacity filter (914) helps improve light guide contrast by blocking out some of the ambient light. The picture itself is projected from a microdisplay (920) through a collimating lens (922). There are also various sensors and outputs, potentially including speakers (930), inertial sensors (932) and a temperature monitor (938).

Microsoft is keeping its options open when it comes to display types, and as well as generic liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) and LCD there’s the suggestion that the wearable could use Qualcomm’s mirasol or a Microvision PicoP laser projector. An eye-tracker (934) could be used to spot pupil movement, either using IR projection, an internally-facing camera, or another method.

Whereas Google has focused on the idea of Glass as a “wearable smartphone” that saves users from pulling out their phone to check social networks, get navigation directions, and shoot photos and video, Microsoft’s interpretation of augmented reality takes a slightly different approach in building around live events. One possibility we could envisage is that the glasses might be provided by an entertainment venue, such as a sports ground or theater, just as movie theaters loan 3D glasses for the duration of a film.

That would reduce the need for users to actually buy the (likely expensive) glasses themselves, and – since they’d only be required to last the duration of the show or game – the battery demands would be considerably less than a full day. Of course, a patent application alone doesn’t mean Microsoft is intending a commercial release, but given the company’s apparently increasing focus on entertainment (such as the rumored Xbox set-top box) it doesn’t seem too great a stretch.

[via Unwired View]

Microsoft’s Google Glass rival tech tips AR for live events is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you thought Disneyland’s Hall of Presidents was awesome before, imagine how great it would be if you could play catch with Abraham Lincoln or Richard Nixon? That’s seemingly the goal behind this latest engineering—err, imagineering—breakthrough that let will let the park’s non-human characters now interact with guests. More »

A vast bridge of superheated gas, spanning 10 million light years and linking two clusters consisting of thousands of galaxies, has been identified by star-gazing scientists, tangled remnants of the universe’s infancy. The discovery was made by the European Space Agency team wielding the Planck space telescope, part of the mission to explore the most ancient light in the cosmos and better understand the origins of the universe and what it contains.

“In the early Universe, filaments of gaseous matter pervaded the cosmos in a giant web, with clusters eventually forming in the densest nodes” the ESA said in a statement about the discovery. “Much of this tenuous, filamentary gas remains undetected, but astronomers expect that it could most likely be found between interacting galaxy clusters, where the filaments are compressed and heated up, making them easier to spot.”

Evidence of a hot gas bridge was first identified by XMM-Newton, an X-ray telescope also operated by the ESA. That was confirmed by the Planck data, and crunching information from the two allowed scientists to figure out the temperature of the gases involved.

In fact, the huge strand of inter-cluster gas is believed to be approximately 80 million degrees Celsius, and made up of “the elusive filaments of the cosmic web mixed with gas originating from the clusters.” Further analysis of this and other such bridges will be required to confirm that, however.

The identification of the bridge – which spans clusters Abell 399 and Abell 401, each of which is made up of hundreds of individual galaxies – is the first to use the so-called Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect to reach a positive conclusion. That technique takes advantage of the fact that Cosmic Microwave Background light – the ancient light the Planck telescope is designed to track – is modified as it passes through the hot gases in a very particular way.

Planck space telescope spots 80m-degree cosmos-spanning gas bridge is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The holiday season is right around the corner, and it’ll kick in to full swing after this weekend when all of the Thanksgiving festivities wrap up. So then, what are the good little boys and girls putting on their Christmas lists this year for Santa? It seems Apple products are the go-to gadget for most kids.

According to research firm Nielsen, American kids aged 6-12 are more excited about the latest iOS devices than any other electronic devices. Almost half the kids surveyed wanted a full-sized iPad, and 36% wanted an iPad Mini. The iPod Touch and iPhone are were also on the list, with 36% and 33%, respectively.

In second place was the Nintendo Wii U, which garnered 39% of kids. It turns out that four out of the top five most wanted items by kids are Apple products. Coming in at number six is a computer with 31% interest from kids. Honestly, we’re not too surprised by the vast interest in Apple’s products, especially with kids. Apple names their products in order for people to easily remember them and they’re really simple names, so we’re not surprised that kids know what all the latest iDevices are all about.

Gaming was also a huge hit, according to the survey. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 made the list, as well as the PlayStation 3, and an assortment of Nintendo DS products. However, while Apple products dominated the top of the charts, the one item that kids were least excited about was the Apple TV. Frankly, we’re not too surprised by that, since kids probably aren’t big into televisions and all the cool video apps that you can get on the Apple TV. So for now, it seems that gaming, and playing around with tablets is the thing to do.

Study shows kids want Apple products the most for Christmas is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered “some exciting new results” during its exploration of the Martian surface, but the team behind the distant explorer can’t yet spill the beans as the data must be re-checked. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good” principal investigator John Grotzinger teased NPR, with the full reveal potentially not taking place for several weeks. However, NASA has confirmed that it’s data from the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) tool.

SAM is in fact a trio of instruments in one, consisting of a gas chromatograph, a quadrupole mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer. “Together they search for and measure the abundances of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen” NASA explains, ”elements that are associated with life as we know it.”

Curiosity’s instruments have already turned up a number of interesting findings, including the fact that the radiation levels – if not the rest of the environment, necessarily – are not dangerous to human life. Previous samples of soil have revealed unusual and previously-unseen qualities, as well as areas of the Martian surface where water may once have run.

“We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting” Grotzinger says, though warns that it’s a work-in-progress still. “The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down.”

Curiosity’s mission is to discover whether Mars ever supported – or could support – microbial life. Grotzinger’s fear is that a premature announcement could turn out to be unwarranted, should the data turn out to be incorrect; the NASA team discovered what looked like methane in a previous SAM result, but subsequent examination indicated it had been brought up from Earth by the rover.

Curiosity finds “history book” worthy Mars data, but NASA won’t tell you yet is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.