Hasta La Gadget!

Looking to spruce up that nondescript living room table? So are a smattering of folks from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. At this week’s SIGGRAPH E-tech event, a team from the entity dropped by to showcase the deadly cute MoleBot table. At its simplest, it’s a clever tabletop game designed to entertain folks aged 3 to 103; at the other extreme, it’s a radically new way of using Microsoft’s Kinect to interact with something that could double as a place to set your supper. Improving on similar projects in the past, this shape-display method uses a two-dimensional translating cam (mole cam), 15,000 closely packed hexagonal pins equivalent to cam followers, and a layer of spandex between the mole cam and the pins to reduce friction.

When we dropped by, the Kinect mode was disabled in favor of using an actual joystick to move the ground below. In theory, one could hover above the table and use hand gestures to move the “mole,” shifting to and fro in order to pick up magnetic balls and eventually affix the “tail” onto the kitty. The folks we spoke with seemed to think that there’s consumer promise here, as well as potential for daycares, arcades and other locales where entertaining young ones is a priority. Have a peek at a brief demonstration vid just after the break, and yes, you can bet we’ll keep you abreast of the whole “on sale” situation.

Continue reading MoleBot interactive gaming table hooks up with Kinect, puts Milton Bradley on watch (video)

MoleBot interactive gaming table hooks up with Kinect, puts Milton Bradley on watch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think SIGGRAPH‘s all about far-out design concepts? Think again. A crew from the Tokyo Metropolitan University IDEEA Lab was on hand here at the show’s experimental wing showcasing a new “musical interface,” one that’s highly tactile and darn near impossible to walk away from. Upon first glance, it reminded us most of Yamaha’s Tenori-On, but the “universal input / output box” is actually far deeper and somewhat more interactive in use. A grand total of 16 solenoids are loaded in, and every one of ’em are loaded up with sensors.

Users can tap any button to create a downbeat (behind the scenes, a sequencer flips to “on”), which will rise in unison with the music until you tap it once more to settle it (and in turn, eliminate said beat). You can grab hold of a peg in order to sustain a given note until you let it loose. There’s a few pitch / tone buttons that serve an extra purpose — one that we’re sure you can guess by their names. Those are capable of spinning left and right, with pitch shifting and speeds increasing / decreasing with your movements. The learning curve here is practically nonexistent, and while folks at the booth had no hard information regarding an on-sale date, they confirmed to us that hawking it is most certainly on the roadmap… somewhere. Head on past the break for your daily (video) dose of cacophony.

Continue reading PocoPoco musical interface box makes solenoids fun, gives Tenori-On pause (video)

PocoPoco musical interface box makes solenoids fun, gives Tenori-On pause (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Avada Keduster! That’s right Potter fans, magic may not be real (sorry), but if Du.static ever makes it to market, get set to eliminate household dust with the flourish of a wand. Designed by Hongik University’s Won Suk Lee, this 2011 Spring Spark Concept Design winner combines the functionality of a feather duster and air purifier, into a two-in-one, Hershey-kissed silhouette. The standalone unit’s base-mounted induction fan sucks your room’s filth into a fine particle filter, releasing fresh air out its other end, while an LED light keeps track of environmental detritus — signaling red for “polluted” and blue as “pure enough.” Impressive powers of purification aside, we have a feeling its removable electrostatic stick cleaner is going to get more cosplay (and cleaning) mileage. Head to the source now for extra shots of the device in action and while you’re at, petition Dyson for its real-world equivalent.

Continue reading Du.static dust-busting concept clears the air, won’t vanquish Voldemort

Du.static dust-busting concept clears the air, won’t vanquish Voldemort originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading OutRun AR project lets you game and drive at the same time, makes us drool

OutRun AR project lets you game and drive at the same time, makes us drool originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know the US Army has already experimented with vibrating clothing, and soon it could be our turn. The trendy figure-hugger above is rigged with haptic actuators across the arms and torso, which respond when the wearer’s body ‘touches’ virtual objects created via Microsoft’s Kinect platform. The outfit’s designers at the University of Aachen spent just a few hundred dollars on components, aside from the cost of the Kinect, so this might well have commercial potential. Click the source link if you’re really keen to see a concept video — although it doesn’t consist of much beyond a German dude doing the Hey Macarena in his socks.

[Thanks, Jarod]

Kinect-driven tactile bodysuit makes you tingle in eight different places originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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