Hasta La Gadget!

So we know that Valve’s Team Fortress 2 will play nice with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, ultimately providing gamers with an extremely immersive gaming experience. While we have no idea what the experience is like, the team at Tested managed to get their hands on the headset and had the opportunity to try their hand at Team Fortress 2 with the headset on, recording a little over 30 minutes of gameplay footage for the good folks on the internet to see. Granted this isn’t exactly the same as trying it out yourself, but the descriptive comments should be able to give you a rough idea of what you might be able to expect, assuming you are one of the few people who have backed up the Oculus Rift Kickstarter project. The video itself is pretty lengthy, around 44 minutes so you might want to grab some popcorn if you plan to watch this from start to end, but if you don’t want the time to spare, skip on ahead to around the 5 minute mark where the headset is fired up.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nintendo Wii Remotes May Finally Be Getting Rechargeable Battery Packs, Batman: Arkham Origins Coming October 25 For PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U,

We already know the first, lucky six who have the honor of paying Google $1,500 in exchange for Glass and the adventures and general ridicule that will follow. But now, @projectglass is in the process of announcing the rest of the lucky winners by replying individually to each of their past #ifihadglass tweets. Here’s a sampling of the trailblazers in all their glory. There will be 8,000 in total. More »

This week a patent has been revealed as filed by Google for what very much appears to be a laser-projected set of controls emanating from a pair of smart glasses. This of course could mean that Google’s Project Glass is about to see some amazing virtual reality controls as their two upcoming developer events come to fruition at the start of next month. And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen wild, futuristic control possibilities for Google’s Glass, either!

The patent we’re seeing today looks at first to be rather similar to what we’ve seen in the 2012 version of Total Recall – but this phone isn’t embedded into our hand, it’s projected unto it. Here we’re being shown a phone number dial pad as projected to a human hand as well as a series of numbers projected to a human arm. Of course the imagery is vague enough that it could be any sort of projection-friendly glasses that are making this all possible, but really, this would be a perfect fit for Glass.

The patent includes the ability to work with such a system physically, this meaning you’ll be able to use your second hand to tap numbers on your first, the system recognizing the interruption in the projected light and reacting accordingly. The above patent was found by Unwired View this week while in the months that’ve lead up to this have shown several other means of control for Google’s futuristic pair of goggles.

One of these instances shows a set of six patents for the near-final shape of Project Glass as well as Kinect-style motion control using rings or temporary tattoos. Another instance included a set of tap controls on the sides of the glasses as well as through virtual means with swipes across the space in front of the person wearing said unit.

You’ll do well to have a peek at our archive of Google Project Glass articles while we head into our first up close and personal experience with the developer-ready unit at the start of February. Expect more action from Google at Mobile World Congress 2013 as well!

Google Glass sees laser-projected keyboard possibilities is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The fine folks from Oculus VR are here at CES 2013, and though they don’t have a ton of new details to announce, they are showing off their newest prototype of the much loved virtual reality headset. Keep in mind that the headset you’re seeing isn’t a final version, but with each new revision, we’re getting closer and closer to a final product. Those who backed the Kickstarter will also like to know that the gang is still on track to ship developer models out in just a couple of months.

What’s more, we learned tonight that the team has completed Unreal and Unity integration, two features that were previously announced. The team also stressed that they’ve developed a new motion sensor which they claim is the fastest on the market. That motion sensor was recently announced on their Kickstarter page, so while it’s not necessarily new, it’s something you can tell they’re excited about.

Oculus Rift launched on Kickstarter last year and quickly became a smashing success. With major gaming icons like John Carmack and Gabe Newell singing the praised of Rift from on high, the VR headset blew up extremely quickly within the gaming community. More and more big name developers have signed on in the time since, so Oculus Rift has won a lot of major fans within the industry.

We shall see what the general consensus of developers is soon enough, as developer kits will begin shipping out in just a couple of months. Oculus told us that they aren’t ready to begin talking about when the consumer version will ship, so it seems like they want just the developer launch to go smoothly. That definitely sounds reasonable, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll stop pressing them for that consumer release date. Stay tuned.

Oculus Rift completes Unreal, Unity integration, reveals new prototype is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A Japanese company called Solidray who specializes in virtual reality systems has developed a clever way to simulate flowing water using both visual and tactile feedback. And while the technology is neat, the practical applications that come to mind are a little unsettling. More »