Hasta La Gadget!

When he’s not trash-talking Windows 8, Valve’s Gabe Newell is pondering next-gen wearable computing interfaces and playing with $70,000 augmented reality headsets, the outspoken exec has revealed. Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference this week, Valve co-founder and ex-Microsoftie Newell presented head-up display lag and issues of input and control for wearables as the next big challenge facing mobile computing, VentureBeat reports.

“The question you have to answer is, “How can I see stuff overlaid in the world when you have things like noise?” You have weird persistence problems” Newell said, asked about the post-touch generation of computing control. “How can I be looking at this group of people and see their names floating above them? That actually turns out to be an interesting problem that’s finally a tractable problem.”

Tractable it may be, but so far it’s not cheap. “I can go into Mike Abrash’s office and put on this $70,000 system, and I can look around the room with the software they’ve written, and they can overlay pretty much anything, regardless of what my head is doing or my eyes are doing. Your eyes are actually troublesome buggers” Newell explains. The second half of the issue, though, is input, which the Valve CEO describes as “open-ended.”

“How can you be robustly interacting with virtual objects when there’s nothing in your hands? Most of the ideas are really stupid because they reduce the amount of information you can express. One of the key things is that a keyboard has a pretty good data rate in terms of how much data you can express and how much intention you can convey … I do think you’ll have bands on your wrists, and you’ll be doing stuff with your hands. Your hands are incredibly expressive. If you look at somebody playing a guitar versus somebody playing a keyboard, there’s a far greater amount of data that you can get through the information that people convey through their hands than we’re currently using. Touch is…it’s nice that it’s mobile. It’s lousy in terms of symbol rate” Gabe Newell, CEO, Valve

Google’s Glass has sidestepped the issues somewhat, not attempting to directly overlay or replace exact objects in the real world with a wearable display, but instead float more straightforward graphics just above the wearer’s eye-line. That removes the precision problem, but means Glass will be less capable of mediating reality – i.e. changing what of the real world the user actually sees – and more about augmenting it with extra data.

As for control, Google has already shown off its side-mounted touchpad on Glass, and a recently published patent application fleshed out some of the other possibilities. They include voice recognition and hand-tracking using cameras, though Google also describes using low-level artificial intelligence to reduce the amount of active navigation Glass users may have to do.

For instance, Glass could recognize – using microphones built into the headset – that the wearer is in a car, Google explains, and thus automatically show maps and a navigation interface. Those same microphones could be used to spot mentions of peoples’ names and call up contextually-relevant information about them, working as an aide-mémoire.

Somewhat more bizarre, though, is research within Valve to use the human tongue as an input method. “It turns out that your tongue is a pretty good way of connecting a mechanical system to your brain” Newell explained. “But it’s really disconcerting to have the person you’re sitting next to going, “Arglearglargle.” “You just Googled me, didn’t you?” I don’t think tongue input is in our futures.”

Valve’s Gabe Newell talks wearable computing, touch and tongues is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to the land of good complexions, whiny mopeds and surprisingly early Canon hands-on videos. While most English-speaking journos have only been given the briefest glimpse of the new $800 mirrorless EOS M, Italian site PMStudioNews has posted a full hands-on video to YouTube. It shows a red variant of the 18-megapixel, APS-C shooter, in addition to the black and white models we’ve already seen, plus a beige leather case if you fast-forward around seven minutes. More importantly though, it shows off the touchscreen UI in some detail, including touch-to-shoot and a screen layout that looks quite different to what we’ve known from the button- and dial-heavy G1 X and its predecessors, and more like that of the Rebel T4i entry-level DSLR. Sure, it offers full manual control, but it also looks kinda fiddly — something we’ll look out for when it comes to review time in the Fall.

Update: Canon has produced some sample stills and videos to show what the camera can do. Also, a helpful reader just spotted that DigitalCameraWorld has posted a hands-on video too, and it’s in English.

Continue reading Canon EOS M video shows off touchscreen UI, accessories, color variants (updated: link to sample images)

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon EOS M video shows off touchscreen UI, accessories, color variants (updated: link to sample images) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 05:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anyone who owns a smartphone almost certainly has smudges all over its touchscreen. Most of us have learned to live with it, but scientists are trying to come up with a solution that involves using the same ingredient that goes into sunlight-activated plastic for keeping lawn furniture clean for long periods while kept outdoors. The same sort of thing could potentially be realistically worked into a coating for touchscreens to create a smudge-resistant surface.

Titanium dioxide is a chemical that’s commonly found in a number of cosmetics, sunscreens and paint used to stop any slimy layers from forming at the surface. “If you apply a thin coating of titanium dioxide to a glass surface such as a smartphone screen, the skin oils and fingerprints gradually disappear from the display by themselves,” a statement from the study said.

At this point in the research, the glass coating with the chemicals needs to be exposed to sunlight for about an hour in order for it work. It’s a big step up from the previously needed three full days of sunlight exposure, but it’s still not exactly idea since most people wouldn’t consider leaving their smartphones or tablets out in the sun for so long. Researchers are currently also working on a way for the glass coating to be activated by indoor lighting in place of direct sunlight.

[via Mashable]

Scientists try to develop smudge-free touchscreens is written by Elise Moreau & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you want to buy a stylus that works with touchscreens on modern smartphones and tablets, you’re restricted to those with capacitive nibs that don’t have a great deal of accuracy. Microsoft is reportedly working on a stylus that will work with any computer screen by directly tracking the output of the LCD screen. The company’s solution would place an angled camera within a stylus that would capture the LCD at a resolution of 512×512.

The camera then determines which pixels are in and out of focus, and sends the information back to software which translates where the stylus is being placed on the screen, including the angle. Because the camera is tracking at a pixel level, it allows for a more accurate stylus. The technology isn’t new, but Microsoft is hoping to cram a sensor into a stylus that’s accurate yet small enough to fit.

Microsoft is still working on the technology, but there’s still the question of pressure sensitivity. That’s something that the company won’t be able to track on ordinary displays for fear of breakage, but the stylus might still see use as an accurate pointing tool or aid that can be used on a wide range of computer and mobile displays.

[via Extreme Tech]

Microsoft’s prototype stylus is your iPad’s best friend is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung has outed its latest WiFi-enabled digital camera, the point-and-shoot MV900F, complete with social networking integration and a flip-out touchscreen. Packing a 16.3-megapixel CMOS and 5x optical zoom, the Samsung MV900F records Full HD 1080p video and then can squirt it over a WiFi connection directly to Facebook or YouTube.

There’s also the facility to remotely control the camera from a computer, again using WiFi as the link. If you don’t have a PC handy, though, Samsung has added “Gesture Shot” which recognizes hand gestures to control zooming and shutter-release from across the room; that’s extra handy given the 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen can be flipped all the way up so as to be seen from the front of the camera. Circular motions control the zoom, while moving your hand up and down fires of a shot.

Other features include onboard retouching tools, a Low Light Shot mode which – HDR-style – pairs multiple frames taken at different settings to piece together the best overall image, and SMART LINK for easily connecting the MV900F to a TV. The f2.5, 25mm lens is paired with a backside-illuminated sensor.

Facebook, YouTube, Photobucket and Picasa are all supported out of the box, and there’s a Motion Picture feature which creates GIF-like animated stills set on a solid background. The Samsung MV900F will be priced at $349 when it drops in August.

Samsung MV900F packs WiFi, gesture control and AMOLED touch is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.