Hasta La Gadget!

Researchers at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria have developed a new kind of image sensor that could one day revolutionize the form factor of digital cameras. Instead of a postage stamp-sized digital eye, the sensor is a flat, flexible, transparent plastic sheet that could be invisibly overlayed on displays, or just used as is. More »

If Choose Your Own Adventure books weren’t your go-to in fourth grade there’s something seriously wrong with you. But you’re going to have another chance to dictate the creative process thanks to a movie that chooses its ending based on sensor data from the audience. More »

When I was a Christmas postman, many years ago, some of the bored guys in the sorting office’s loading bay liked to play a boisterous game of “catch” when parcels marked “video recorder” and “fragile” arrived. How they guffawed when one landed in the bottom of a skip with a sickening crunch, ruining somebody’s Christmas. More »

This week the folks at Paramount Pictures have released a very special app for the next blockbuster science fiction film in the Starfleet universe: Star Trek Into Darkness! This app is not just your everyday average movie companion app, it’s a straight up scavenger hunt that uses the camera on your smartphone as well as the sensors you’ve got under the hood of your device to sent you out into the wild to collect a series of media bits as well as real physical location markers. This technology is made real with Qualcomm Labs’ Gimbal technology and Qualcomm Vuforia augmented reality platform.

Interestingly enough, the Qualcomm technology we’re using here in this app isn’t limited to the Qualcomm processor you may or may not have in your smartphone or tablet device. Instead its built in to the app itself, allowing you to use the app on essentially any iOS or Android device you’ve got on hand. This app takes you diving directly into the Star Trek universe with a selection of media bits you unlock yourself, each available right out of the box or revealed at a later date as we drive closer to the final release of the movie itself.

The original announcement of this app took place back on January 7th at CES 2013 where Qualcomm’s CEO Paul E Jacobs made it clear that the company here demonstrates the ability to “harness the power of the smartphone to bridge the digital and physical world” with Gimbal! In addition to collecting images with your smart device’s camera, you’ll be playing sounds with your computer that your smartphone hears and recognizes and actually moving out into the real world (outside your office or home) to find the full collection of locks.

This app uses a geofencing function that has you heading to specific GPS-based lock points – and the Star Trek Into Darkness movie itself down the line. This app currently brings a series of photos and video to the viewer that they’d otherwise (for the most part) be able to grab online if they know where to look – but the finding of everything is fun, and the content can be used as wallpapers, lock screens, and more, and it’s all sized appropriate to the device you’ve got on hand – iPhone 5 for us here in this test.

The real reason you’re going to want to download this app is to stay up to date on Star Trek Into Darkness news straight from the source and to attain exclusive opportunities you wont be able to get anywhere else. You can get this app right this minute for free from the iTunes App Store or the Google Play App Store by heading to the Star Trek Movie website right this minute. You can also simply search for “Star Trek App” and poof! There it will be – believe it or not!

Star Trek Into Darkness will be released to theaters in May 17th, 2013, and you’ll be blown away by everything inside it. Without a doubt. Stay tuned to our Star Trek tag portal for more information and news updates galore up until and through that time too!

Star Trek Into Darkness app Review: dive in with Gimbal! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve got a pair of shoes that are so old that your feet touch the ground, you’re going to need a new pair – this will no longer have to be a scenario where you have to make that judgement if Apple’s newest patent application is realized. In the application revealed this week, Apple has shown an outline for how they might place sensors in shoes that track the wear and tear on the soles of the footwear in a variety of ways. The end result will be a pair of shoes that informs the wearer if they get worn out while walking then warns every subsequent wearer (if there are any) that they are not fit to use.

This system in one case decides how much you’ve used the shoes based on the movement of a “body bar.” This bar works with a coupling mechanism attached to a detector that senses movement of the bar when they’re active. This way you’ve got a sensor that only activates when enough weight is placed in the shoes, then only when you’re pressing down on the soles (not while you’ve got your feet dangling). Another suggestion from the patent includes notes of how you’d be able to use this system for more than just knowledge of wear.

If you’d have sensors such as this showing the pressure along the sole of your shoe, you’d also have the ability to track your movements in an advanced way. If you’re seeing how well a person is walking, how much and with how much pressure they’re moving, you’ve got an advanced physical activity system in the making. These systems are being suggested to be paired with wireless connectivity (wi-fi or Bluetooth), LED displays, speakers, and more.

While we’ve never seen Apple create a shoe on their own in the past, we’ve seen collaborations between them and Nike more than once. This patent application is likely set for a bit of footwear that could potentially exist in the future, but there’s no real sign at the moment (other than the patent itself) that any such footwear is currently in the works. What do you think, readers – is it time for Apple to create their own brand of clothing and shoes?

[via CNET]

Apple patent shows shoe sensor for information on sole death is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.