Boy, this kid is fearless. Actually, I’m not sure Kahlei Stone-Kelly from Australia is even old enough to be called a kid. He’s just a baby. A two-year-old toddler in diapers who’s already better at skateboarding that many full grown human adults. Just look at him go and display excellent balance, a little bit of trickery and a whole ‘lotta cool as he glides on that board.
     |
Adorable. We’ve seen dogs ride skateboards before and though it’s extremely cute when they’re pawing the ground to lunge forward and crashing into walls, they’re not really busting tricks with the board. This cat though? It does its feline version of ollies and skateboard grinds.
| |
Yo dude, it would be badass if we used a quadcopter and a GoPro to get good air footage of ourselves. Let’s do that. Dude don’t worry, it’s gonna be great.
| |
Quantified selfers who are also surfers, skateboarders (or skiers/snowboarders) won’t be feeling so left out of the tracking trend if this Kickstarter campaign hits its funding goal. Trace is a monitoring device for action sports practitioners to catch data on every wave, turn, flip, landing and so on — and a corresponding app so they track their performance and see how they rank against others.
The sensor is a two-inch-in-diameter gizmo that attaches to the bottom of a skateboard or the top of a surfboard (or on a helmet if you prefer) via a mount, and captures motion data using inertial sensors and GPS. Specifically it contains 9-axis sensors, advanced multi-Hz GPS, BT 4.0, plus its own processor. Motion data is offloaded via Bluetooth and your smartphone’s connectivity to Trace’s servers for processing and then fed back to the your Trace app as a visualised session sheet.
Trace’s creators, who also previously created a tracker app/social network just for skiers and snowboarders called AlpineReplay, claim their speed/distance/jump height/rotation algorithms can “identify a tre-flip down 10 stairs, detail every turn on a 100-yard Rincon right, and measure a backflip off a 20-foot kicker at Mammoth”. So expect Trace to provide detailed pictures of your wipeouts, as well as your triumphs. That said, its creators note they are are also still working on fine-tuning their surfing and skating algorithms to be sure of their accuracy at correctly identifying tricks and turns in a variety of scenarios.
The idea behind using a dedicated hardware sensor device — rather than just relying on the sensors built in to a smartphone — is that it enables more sophisticated data to be captured. And of course allows the device to get wet. And take more knocks than you’d probably want your phone to. Trace is apparently shockproof, waterproof and durable, as well it needs to be. Its battery charges over USB – each charge apparently lasting up to seven hours.
Trace works with three free apps — one apiece for surfing, skating and snow-related sports — allowing users to view their performance stats and plug into a social network of fellow practitioners to rank and compare their sessions. The device can currently be bagged for a pledge of $129 — all early bird pledges of $99 having gone. Assuming its creators reach their $150,000 crowdfunding goal, they are aiming to ship Trace in February 2014.
Gorilla Glass 2 and a chassis forged from magnesium lend Microsoft’s Surface slates some durability, but the firm’s decided to prove just how tough its tablets are by turning one into a skateboard. The wheeled slice of Windows 8 is said to have been rolled out during a tour of Redmond’s Surface skunkworks, but Windows chief Steven Sinofksy couldn’t resist hopping on the board today and tweeting a pair of photos. You can pre-order your deck now, though something tells us this mod isn’t covered under Ballmer and Co.’s warranty.
Filed under: Microsoft
Microsoft turns Surface tablet into a skateboard, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky takes it for a spin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Microsoft News, Neowin | 
Steven Sinofsky (Twitter) (1), (2) | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
