NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Get Ready for 'The Hobbit'

By Michael Gowan, TechNewsDaily

Join Bilbo, Gandalf and the others in videos, books and games. Credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment

Bilbo Baggins and his fellow furry-footed hobbits return to movie theaters this week with director Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first in a trilogy. But you don't need to wait until then to dive deep into Middle-earth and the fantasy world that author J.R.R. Tolkien created.

NEWS: New 3D Technology: Are Viewers Ready?

With apps, games, ebooks and more, you can reacquaint yourself with Bilbo, Gandalf and Gollum in time for the movie's Dec. 14 release and continue the journey afterwards.

How to Get the Story

The story of the hobbit began as a children's book, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," published in 1937. The movies are expected to stay true to the original story, so you can prepare yourself by reading an ebook version. You'll find it in a variety of formats to match your ereader of choice, including Amazon's Kindle. If you use iBooks for iOS devices, look for it in PDF or ePub formats. Or check out the enhanced version for Kindle, which adds illustrations and audio from Tolkien.

Understanding Tolkien's detailed fantasy world can require some effort. The free official iOS app for the movie includes background on the many characters in "The Hobbit" as well as a map of Middle-earth, the fictional world where Tolkien set the story.

If you prefer to listen to the tale, you can find multiple audiobook versions on the iTunes Store, Amazon and other audiobook sources. You can also listen for free on YouTube.

Options to Play Along

Indulge your inner hobbit and become a part of the action with games tied to the movie's release.

DNEWS VIDEO: Get Behind the Science of Avatar, Caddy Shack and More

For mobile gamers, Kabam's free, massively multiplayer strategy-action game "The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth," for iOS and Android, lets you destroy goblins as you build up a city.

If you want to dive deeper into the action, try Monolith Games recently released "Guardians of Middle-Earth," a multiple online battle arena (MOBA)-style game for PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360. In a MOBA-style game, you compete as a single character against online opponents in real time. You can wage epic battles playing as Gandalf, Sauron or other characters from Tolkien's books.

What Else to Watch

"The Hobbit" is the prelude to Tolkien's epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. You can stream Peter Jackson's movie adaptations of those tales from Amazon for $2 a movie or from iTunes for $4 each. If you're feeling nostalgic, you can buy a DVD (no Blu-ray) of Rankin/Bass's animated version of "The Hobbit" from 1977, but you won't find a digital version to stream.

In the new movie, Bilbo Baggins is played by Martin Freeman, who also stars as Dr. Watson in the new BBC series "Sherlock." You can check out Freeman's work by streaming the re-imagined Sherlock Holmes story on Amazon and Netflix, among other places.

DNEWS NUGGET: The Hobbit: 2 Versions, 2 Releases

You'll find plenty of behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube from Peter Jackson. He published videos throughout the process of filming and editing the movies.

Preparing You Eyes for High Frame Rate 3D

Director Peter Jackson shot "The Hobbit" in 3D at 48 frames per second, twice the frame rate of typical movies. High frame rate (HFR) films aim to better imitate the smooth motion we see in real life. But some people complain that it looks too real, like a TV newscast. "The Hobbit" will also appear in standard-frame-rate 2D and 3D, as well as IMAX and IMAX 3D.

Any way you prepare yourself, get ready for a spectacle of the big screen. Hobbits may be small, but these movies won't be.

Get More from Tech News Daily

• The 10 Most Stunning Video Games
• 5 Best Tech Gifts Under $100
• 5 Top 'Star Wars' Video Games of All Time

Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

Scrabble Goes High-Tech: DNews Nugget

Scrabble Goes High-Tech: I love Scrabble! My mom and I play it all of the time when I visit. It's one of the few remaining low-tech games that has survived decades of video games and electronic buzzers, timers and beeps.

But for an upcoming festival in Prague, Scrabble is going high-tech. Mind Sports International has created an electronic Scrabble board embedded with RFID tech, color-changing LED lights and a carbon fiber finish.

Each of the 100 letter tiles contains a unique RFID tag and 225 RFID antennas -- one for each square on the board -- keep track of which letter tile is placed where. A player's tile rack also contains an RFID sensor. All of that information is collected and monitor by custom software that turns it into a graphical display showing the player, his/her score and stats. via Gizmag

GET MORE MUST-READS HERE!

---

Email:

---

Lab Gamifies Einstein's Relativity

Relativity is a hard concept to grasp. So to make it easier to understand, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Game Lab decided to turn it into a game. The developed "A Slower Speed of Light." The game itself is really simple: run around a landscape and collect multicolored orbs until you acquire 100 of them.

But it's the world of the game that gets interesting: as you collect more orbs, the speed of light slows down. The player sees more extreme effects of this as she walks around.

Clever Video Game Controls Curiosity on Mars

What are some of these effects? For one thing, you'd be able to see beyond visible light into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. This is because as an observer moves forward, the light waves she sees coming toward her from other objects get compressed -- they get shorter. Anything producing infrared light will become visible. Eventually it would possible to see radio waves.

Meanwhile, the light waves from any objects she is passing by will stretch out, making the objects look redder. As she looks behind her, the visible light will all eventually move to the infrared. Eventually, even gamma and X-rays would become visible. The phenomenon is known as the Doppler effect.

DNEWS VIDEO: COOL JOBS: HACKER

Another consequence of relativity is concentrating the light from objects in front of you -- and to the sides. It's called relativistic aberration. Objects on either side start to enter the field of view in the front, and the world starts to look like it does through a fish-eye lens. It also means anything in front of you looks brighter. Move backwards, and the world seems to go darker as the light waves you can see come from a narrower and narrower field.

The game also adds in time dilation and altering the length of space dimensions in the direction of motion. As one approaches the speed of light, time slows down –- the observer's clock moves more slowly than a stationary one. This is the source of the "twin paradox" in which one twin who travels near the speed of light for years ages more slowly than her sister on Earth, though the slowly aging twin doesn't notice until she returns to her now-older sisiter. (It's also a common plot device in science fiction novels, notably Joe Haldeman's The Forever War).

Testing Relativity With Two Dead Stars

Less well-known is the shortening of length dimensions -– a moving object looks shorter in its direction of motion, so a person running by at near light speed would look as though they had been flattened to an outside observer. The runner wouldn't see any difference.

The result is a world where everything bends and other objects seem to slow down, and it becomes difficult not to overshoot targets.

The game might be too simple for some people but it doesn't have to stay that way: the code is open source, so anyone who wants to design a game in the world governed by relativity will be able to do so.

Photo: The world at about 25 percent lightspeed. Credit: MIT Game Lab

---

Email:

---

Beamatron Turns Everything Into a Game

Forget being stuck standing directly in front of a gaming console for some interactive fun. Steerable augmented reality called Beamatron can turn a whole room or space into a game.

Microsoft Research first started showing off its Beamatron system earlier this year. With a fairly simple setup and wireless controller, players can drive virtual, projected cars around a room. In a paper presented this week at the Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) in Cambridge, Mass., the researchers discuss using gestures and speech to move the virtual objects.

SLIDESHOW: Video Game Fails

The projected graphics react in physically appropriate ways, according to Microsoft.com editor Steve Clayton, who interacted with Beamatron last spring. "A virtual car can be driven around the floor of the room bumping into actual obstacles and running over real ramps," he wrote at the time.

DNEWS VIDEO: Gadgets and Gizmos

Instead of a mounted spotlight like the kind that moves around a nightclub, Microsoft researchers mounted a projector and a Kinect camera. The setup can pan and tilt, and as it does will build up a 3-D model of the environment in the room. Then when a tiny red projected car comes into play, if you're not careful with the wireless controller, you might make the 3-D vehicle fall off a real ramp or drive into a real wall.

ANALYSIS: Ginormous Armed Robot Controlled by Phone

Much though I've enjoyed playing games that involve standing in front of a video console to navigate imaginary obstacles, bowl strikes, and mimic silly poses for points, there were usually friends stuck on the couch. Tech like Beamatron could draw even the most reluctant wallflower into the action.

Photo: Beamatron lets you steer this car all over the room -- and your friends. Credit: Microsoft Research

---

Email:

---

Human-Powered Bike Set To Break Records

Over a decade ago, Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree broke records with his  bicycle he called Old Faithful. The handlebars for the bike sat right under the rider's chest, which gave it aerodynamic advantages. The advantages were so great, that after Obree's victory in 1993, the position of the handlebars was banned.

PHOTOS: Work It! Human-Powered Machines

DNEWS VIDEO: JET PACK: IS IT POSSIBLE?

Obree set about designing a new bike and with it, hopes to be the first man to break the 100 mph record for a human-powered vehicle. (The current IHPVA land speed record is 82.81 9mph, held by Canadian Sam Whittingham.) Obree's bike, named Beastie, has a compact front and a slim width, and unlike standard bikes, is not pedaled by foot using a circular motion but powered using a push and pull method. The design keeps the rider's knees from having to dip, which aids in aerodynamics. In addition, the bike has skin. Obree worked with the Glasgow School of Art to create a clear cover to encase the rider and make him resemble an engine.

EXCELLENT IDEA OF THE DAY: Bike Lanes in the Sky

Originally, Obree set his sights on this year's International Human Powered Vehicle Association event in Battle Mountain, Nev, which is being held from Sept. 10 to 15. But, according to Obree's website, the bike isn't ready for prime time. A statement says, "This is disappointing but we have had technical issues in particular with regard to the fairing construction. We are not 100 percent happy with what we have and do not want to travel to Battle Mountain with any part of The Beastie unsatisfactory."

While the bike isn't ready for this year's event, Obree and his team are planning to attend a future speed event in the U.K. to try and break the record in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

via Humans Invent

Credit: Graeme Obree

---

Email:

---

Personal Orb Annoys You Into Exercising

As someone who spends most of her day sitting in front of a computer, I can attest to the fact that I don't get outside as much as I would like to. It's really difficult to get away from the glow of my screen when I know there is work to be done and cat videos to be watched. Maybe a device that annoys me to the point of walking away from my computer would help. That's what the Personal Energy Orb concept device was created for.

NEWS: Low-Calorie Diet May Not Extend Life

Ok, so it wasn't really built to annoy its users, it was built to encourage them to ride their bikes. The device connects to a person's computer and slows down their mouse's reaction time as the orb's energy level gets depleted. The longer you stay on the computer, the slower the mouse response. Eventually, it gets to the point where your cursor barely moves.

That's pretty friggin' annoying.

The only way to recharge the orb is to connect it to your bike and go for a ride. A mount on the bike counts revolutions and sends that information to the the orb. Its brains are from Arduino, an open-sourced platform that uses a micro controller board to develop interactive objects. Once the orb goes from red to green, you're good to get back online.

BLOG: Fitness Headphones Drown Out Gym Noise

The orb was conceived by Janko Hoffman and Fabian Pammer of the University of Munich. Hoffman and Pammer created the device for a class, they wanted to create something that would help people balance sedentary computer time with an active lifestyle. According to the duo's website, "The virtual energy level serves as a metaphor for time as a limited resource that is wasted in front of a computer which should rather be used more consciously."

Check out the video below for a full demo.

PEO - Personal Energy Orb from Janko Hofmann on Vimeo.

 

via PSFK

Credit: Janko Hoffman and Fabian Pammer

---

Email:

---

Just When You Think It's Safe to Use Your iPad

It’s that time of year again to celebrate and explore the ocean creature we avoid all summer: the shark! To get as much as you can from the 25th year of Discovery Channel's Shark Week, download the Discovery Channel's HD iPad app with the new Shark Week Plus feature. It syncs content from five nights of programming with exclusive photos, peeks behind the scenes, production shots, quizzes and interactive factoids, all about our favorite non-cuddly creature.

PHOTOS: Sharks...in Space!

Programs this week include "How Jaws Changed the World," "Shark Fight," "Great White Highway" and more. You can even play games like “Shark Week Bingo,” where players keep an eye out for pictures on shows airing between 10-11pm e/p that coincide with a virtual game board. What do you get if you win? Bragging rights on Facebook, which definitely beats the hangover that comes with “winning” that "Shark Week" drinking game that's making the rounds.

Credit: Discovery Communications

---

Email:

---

Animated Characters Printed in 3D

Avid gamers everywhere may soon be able to print action figures of their favorite game characters. Graphic experts and computer scientists from Harvard have created software that can turn any three-dimensional animation (think, Pixar) into a "fully articulated action figure,” according to a press release from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

According to the release, the software returns a virtual character to the real world, which means it has to abide by real world physical constraints. When animating characters from the game “Spore,” surface points are used to determine weight relationships and skeletal positioning. In the animated world, these figures lack joints and other body features that produce real-life movement. The software addressed this problem by identifying the best places on the image for joints, and then adjusted the character’s physical attributes. (i.e. a thin arm equals a smaller joint.)

NEWS: Olympic Doping Scandal Over Chinese Swimmer Grows

Skin textures were also optimized for 3D printing. The software analyzed the way light reflected off of the virtual skin and mapped it to a physical form.

Moritz Bacher, author of the study and a grad student in computer science, describes the use of this kind of software for animators, saying, “Right now, perhaps they can print a static scene, just a character in one stance, but they can’t see how it really moves. If you print one of these articulated figures, you can experiment with different stances and movements in a natural way, as with an artist’s mannequin."

Harvard has filed a patent application for the software and plans to commercialize it to either license it to an existing company or creating a start-up, with a focus on customized user-generated toys and enhancing animation.

Credit: Moritz Bacher

---

Email:

---

Card Game for Wannabe Hackers

Control-Alt-Hack: $30.00

Think you’re an expert hacker? The “Control-Alt-Hack” card game will put your so-called skills to the test. Developed by professor Yoshi Kohno of the Security and Privacy Research Lab at the University of Washington, this old-school game is geared toward a younger generation with basic knowledge of computer science.

BLOG:Hackers Hit Iranian Oil Facilities

Three to six players can become part of “Hackers Inc.,” a fictional computer security auditing company that instructs players to break into different kinds of systems and expose security flaws. Fifty-six mission cards lay out different hacking challenges. Each player gets a mission and has to decide what tactic he or she will take when the dice is rolled.

Different methods of hacking include hardware hacking, hacking software through coding, accessing networks, social networking hacks or constructing/deconstructing cryptographic ciphers. The different tactics and a points system that goes along with the dice rolls are a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it makes for a fun and challenging way to test your skills.

The game isn’t necessarily for educational purposes, but Kohno and his team did incorporate real-life hacker issues into it. While it may not be completely educational, U.S.-based educators can request a free copy of the game before it goes on sale in the fall.

via GeekWire

---

Email:

---

Game Archive Sells for $1.2 M: DNews Nuggets

Game Archive Sells for $1.2 Million: A video game collection consisting of full game catalogs and the hardware for 22 different gaming systems sold on eBay for $1.2 million. The games included ones from Nintendo (Famicon, Famicon Disk, Virtual Boy, Super Famicon, N64, NDD64 and GameCube with 3,299 games); Sega (Mark 3 & Master System-Japan, Master System-Europe, Game Gear, Megadrive, 32 X, Mega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast with 2,864 games); PC Engine (Hucard, Supergrfx, CD, Super CD, Arcade CD and FX with over 738 games); Pioneer Laseractive, with total games not listed. All were reported to be in mint condition. via dvice

GET MORE MUST-READS HERE!

---

Email:

---