According to the company behind the gadget MYO, a wearable computer may be in our future. By using gestures in combination with the armband device, one is able to control devices, robots and more, leading to a revolutionized way to work with a computer.
There are plenty of drones hovering overhead, but I have to say that mounting one of these ultra-high resolution cameras on one will make them very useful for Big Brother. Pretty soon, they’ll be able to spot what you’re having for breakfast from 20,000 feet in the air.
The highest-resolution surveillance system in the world was developed by DARPA and it’s called the ARGUS-IS. It features a camera that’s got a whopping 1.8 gigapixel resolution. The camera was designed to be used with drones like the Predator, and the ARGUS-IS (Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance – Imaging System) can spot a six-inch object within a ten square mile radius from 20,000 feet in the air.
The high-res cam doesn’t reveal facial features, but you can easily spot details like birds flying around and the color of somebody’s clothes.
The meta-camera is made up of a 368 sensors, which are just like the ones found in smartphones, but the ARGUS-IS uses its robust processing power to assemble these images into one giant image. The combined cameras can stream around 1 million terabytes of video, which is 5,000 hours of HD footage per day.
The images you see here were captured back in 2009, so one can only imagine the image resolution they could capture with today’s improved digital camera tech.
[via ExtremeTech]
Asus showed off their PadFone Infinity at the Mobile World Congress, a phone that turns into a tablet, proving that this concept may never die. While this particular device is still expensive, it does provide a lot of features for someone who may need this sort of two-in-one gadget.
Farmers may not exactly be who you would think of when you think of those people who are likely to embrace the technological revolution,but new research is showing that a growing number of farmers are actually making technology a part of their daily life in a bit to make their farms work better and run smoother than they did without the toys.
This piece will look at three of the biggest trends that are going to come about in retail stores in the near future. By examining trends such as touch screens, wireless payment processes and the use of printed electronics and e Ink technology in stores, as well as how they may be used in your local stores.
The blogosphere has been cybersalivating over the potential debut of
Google Glass supposedly to arrive in time for the Christmas holidays,
2013. As if the $1500 price tag
is a reasonable price point for the Average Joe consumer? But aside
from cost are glasses going to provide the Augmented Reality experience
people are really looking for?
As drones become better able to stay in the air for long hours, and get cameras that can zoom in and record entire cities all at once, the ACLU warns that a nightmare drone scenario could be happening sooner than we think. ARGUS, a recent advancement in spying technology, may be the first step towards this future.
Our society is becoming increasingly more mobile. Nowadays, everybody has a smartphone – you’re considered somewhat odd if you don’t. As a result, mobile gaming has become big business, and it’s not hard to see why: mobile games simple, cheap, and addictive on-the-go fun. Unfortunately, they’re also far from perfect. New technologies rarely are.
The biggest problem anyone has with them is, not surprisingly, controls – particularly when touchscreens neter into the equation.
A couple of years ago we learned about Plan.B, a concept for a map for blind people. The idea behind that system was sound, but I thought the execution left much to be desired. I like this other concept called Blind Maps much more. It’s supposed to be a Bluetooth add-on for the iPhone that provides Braille-like turn-by-turn navigation.
Blind Maps was conceptualized by Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch last year to fulfill a 36-hour project for a course that they took at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Whereas Plan.B displays a mini-map of the user’s immediate surroundings, Blind Maps keeps things simple. To start off, the user speaks into his iPhone and asks for directions to a destination. Blind Maps would then tap into the data from a navigation app on the iPhone – e.g. Google Maps – to provide turn-by-turn navigation using dots that protrude from the device itself.
It looks a bit like the Snake game from the old Nokia phones, except this one controls you. I also like its crowdsourced aspect. It would not just help blind people be more independent but also enable blind people to help others with the same disability to be independent.
[via Industrial Design Served via Fast Co. Design]
Nikon has announced a new DX-format digital SLR camera called the D7100, and it looks like a very capable camera for the price. It uses a DX-format CMOS sensor, offering an 24.1 megapixel resolution. Nikon fits the camera with its EXPEED 3 image-processing engine providing high-performance without an optical low-pass filter.
The camera promises support for lenses with a maximum aperture of f/8 and the camera has a 51-point autofocus system for quick and accurate focusing. One of the interesting features of the camera is a 1.3x DX crop that provides the photographer with increased zooming. It also has the ability to shoot continuously at up to seven frames per second. In addition to stills, the D7100 can record 1080 60i/30p resolution HD video, a nice improvement over the 1080/24p of the previous-gen D7000.
The camera also features a new Spot White Balance option and a high-performance optical viewfinder providing 100% frame coverage. The rear LCD screen is a 3.2-inch unit, offering 640×480 resolution. The camera has dual SD memory card slots and an integrated pop-up flash.
The camera ships on March 21, 2013, and is available to pre-order right now for $1199.99 for the body only, or $1599.99 with an 18-105mm zoom lens. For more details on the D7100, DPReview has a detailed hands-on preview here.
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