Hasta La Gadget!

Most approaches to capturing 3D models of real-world objects involve multiple cameras that are rarely cheap, and are sometimes tricky to calibrate. The University of Glasgow has developed a method that ditches those cameras altogether. Its system has four single-pixel sensors stitching together a 3D image based on the reflected intensity of light patterns cast by a projector. Reducing the pixel count lowers the cost per sensor to just a few dollars, and extends the sensitivity as far as terahertz wavelengths. Real-world products are still a long way off, but the university sees its invention as useful for cancer detection and other noble pursuits. Us? We’d probably just waste it on creating uncanny facsimiles of ourselves.

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Via: New Scientist

Source: University of Glasgow

As wearable computing technology continues to improve, companies are looking for more and more ways we can use the data received and technology at hand to better products, and ourselves. With Sensoria Socks from Heapsylon, they are using new technology to not only track fitness like the Nike FuelBand and others, but also prevent injury before they happen.

Sensoria Fitness and their new Sensoria Socks is a patent-pending wearing technology that aims to do exactly that. Bring an entire new level to our fitness and daily lives, as well as help with sports athletes and injuries. Products on the market like the Nike FuelBand, FitBit, Jawbone UP and more all track steps, speed, calories, and more, but imagine a product that can track weight distribution on the foot as you stand, walk, and run. Sensoria Socks rely on sensor-equipped textile materials, as well as the accompanying band pictured below.

With more than 25 million runners in the US alone, more than half are prone to some sort of running related injury or pain, and this isn’t even counting other athletes. Instead of dealing with injury we should be looking at ways to prevent it before it happens. This is where Heapsylon come into play. Sensoria Socks can identify poor running types, then using a custom designed app to coach the runner to reduce those tendencies, thus reducing the risk of injury. Then like any other fitness apps runners can benchmark and analyze performance, limits, distance and more.

According to Heapsylon and their demo when an injury or issue does happen, Sensoria can also track patient adherence, progress and much more. The accompanying application will sync the data over Bluetooth to your smartphone, letting users track anything and everything with this new technology. The app as mentioned above will show poor running techniques, but everything else will be available too.

Their anklet tracks activity type and level, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, then relays this to the app dashboard to show how far, how fast you run, calories burnt and more. Even those with good technique can study and learn better habits, reach higher goals, and train harder without strain.

The idea behind wearable computing for more than just fun (read: Google Glass) and really opens the door for many different things such as Sensoria Socks. We’re hearing they’ll be available later this year and will help runners and athletes dodge and prevent injuries, and up their game at the same time.

Sensoria Socks technology aims to prevent injury before it happens is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Like most of you, I’m patiently waiting for the day when I can buy a robot that will take care of all the irritating things around house I want to deal with. I want a robot to wash the dishes, bathe the dog, mow the lawn, and take out the trash. While this breakthrough might not solve that problem for me yet, a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have invented something dubbed “smart skin” that could give robots a sense of touch.

The researchers working on the smart skin used a bundle of vertical zinc oxide nano wires along with an array of about 8000 transistors. Each of those individual transistors is able to independently produce electronic signals when subjected to mechanical strain. The researchers say that these touch sensitive transistors, which they call taxels, have sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger. They say that the artificial skin can feel activity on its surface and the sensation could be translated into control signals for robot in the future.

Having a sense of touch is important because it will allow a robot to know when something is in its hand and how hard can grip that object. It wouldn’t do to have a robot breaking all your dishes after all.

[via BBC News]

Red announced its new Motion lens mount prior to opening its booth at NAB, and now we’ve had a chance to see this guy in action. The mount, which is compatible with the company’s Epic and Scarlet cameras, is meant to fix the CMOS rolling shutter problem. The Motion includes a liquid crystal shutter that’s placed in front of the main sensor and is timed to engage when the sensor is fully open. It also adds up to 8x neutral density, which can be enabled electronically through the camera UI with 1/100-stop precision. In a demo at Red’s NAB booth, the camera captured every flash of a strobe — without the new mount, some flashes would likely slip through the cracks. It’s set to ship for $4,500 in the fall (or possibly this summer), and will be available with Canon EF or PL mounts. You can see it in action today in the hands-on demo after the break.

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Red has announced that Dragon sensor updates will start tomorrow for Epic-M and Epic-X owners and, interestingly, is letting owners (and the public) see the operation for themselves at its NAB booth. The new sensor will bring 6K resolution, 120 fps at 5K and 15+ stops of dynamic range in a slightly larger format, according to Red. Early adopters will be able to pre-order now for $8,500, while Epic owners who wait until Thursday or later will be able to grab the update for $9,500. Filmmakers hoping for a new Epic-M with the Dragon instead of the Mysterium-X sensor will be able to pre-order tomorrow for $29,000 or so. Meanwhile, there’s good news for those with the more budget-minded Scarlet — they’ll be able to upgrade to the Epic directly or get a 6k Dragon sensor and ASICs, with pricing details coming tomorrow and pre-orders launching on Thursday. Red may have a tough row to hoe with recent NAB news from the likes of BlackMagic Design and Vision Systems, but how many companies will actually let you watch your camera get operated on? Check the source for more.

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Source: Red