NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Virtual Tech Lets You Swap Bodies

Google Street View already offers virtual tours of Rome, Paris and London. But imagine if virtual travelers could feel the sun beating down on their faces as they toured the Colosseum? Or could feel the burn in their quads as they walked up the Eiffel Tower? Or could smell the old tapestries hanging in Westminster Abbey?

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If Ikei Laboratory has anything to say about it, that soon may be no stretch of the imagination. A part of the Tokyo Metropolitan University Graduate School of System Design, the lab is developing so-called "virtual body technology."

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Revealed at the Digital Contents Expo 2012 in Tokyo, the system will engage all five senses and make users feel as if they're inhabiting another person's body, the designers say.

Ikei Laboratory's system includes a vibrating chair that leans back and forth, a 3-D monitor, headphones, a fan for odors and breezes and foot pedals that replicate the sensation of walking and running. How taste enters the picture remains unclear. Perhaps it's on the tip of their tongue?

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"The chair will move to provide directional and vestibular sensations," Professor Yasushi Ikei said in a promo video. "The legs will move to create a sense of actually walking or running and a sense of moving in parallel or up and down, or to create a sensation as if the feet are touching the ground. Extremely large vibrations are felt when you are running, so it is possible to create vibrations from the shins to the knees. When you walk in the city there are various scents and breezes, and these are also recreated."

It will be the next best thing to going there.

via Gizmag

Credit: YouTube screengrab

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Sinful Robot: XXX Virtual Reality

If news of the impending apocalypse has you bummed that you won't get to sow your wild oats at Yub-Yum, Amsterdam's android sex club of the future, here's something else you're going to miss out on: Sinful Robot. Hyped as the "world's most immersive virtual reality erotic encounter," Sinful Robot, created by a California startup of the same name, is being designed for the forthcoming Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

In what I imagine to be a cross between the Batsignal and the Mudflap girl, Sinful Robot put out a call for 3D programmers, artists and animators on Reddit, also known as the Gotham of the Internet.

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Among a lascivious list of, ahem, open positions at Sinful Robot is a 3D character artist. Applicants should be engorged with "expert knowledge of creating realistic female models" and have the ability to create orgasmic "organic models." For those with expert knowledge on the male anatomy, it's not yet clear where you measure up.

Reddit user Illusionweaver69, who claims to be Sinful Robot's co-founder Jeroen Van den Bosch, is giddy about what Oculus Rift and the future holds.

"I have been waiting for many years for technology to become immersive enough so it [can] trick your brain to accept the virtual reality as reality, but the Rift does really do that," he wrote. "So now we can finally make an erotic adventure game that will actually be exciting!"

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However, if the Earth does open up like a split piece of fruit on Friday, only to reveal a fiery chasm of magma and crumbling rock, here's a good soundtrack to usher in the end of days. "You Don't Know What's Going On," so take your best friend's hand, shrug, and leap into the great beyond.

via Gizmag

Credit: Sinful Robot

 

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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

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Google Street View Hits the Trails

There was a time when I saw the Google Street View car a lot in my town. It became almost a daily event. And then as quickly as it came, it disappeared. Now, in attempt to leave no stone unturned on this planet, Google is taking it to the trail.

In their blog post this week, Google introduced the Trekker, a 40-lb backpack with one of those big-balled camera systems, to span rugged terrain those little hatchback cars can't handle. The ball has 15 cameras inside that capture images every 2.5 seconds.

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On its first outing to the Grand Canyon, the Trekker was able to capture 360-degree images of the landmark through its Android-controlled platform. The Street View team is continuing this week through the South Rim in the Grand Canyon National Park, as well as the Bright Angel Trail and South Kaibab Trail.

So, aside from rugged terrain and national parks, where else could the Trekker go? How about Venice? The narrow streets and unpredictable water has made it virtually impossible to get shots of the famed streets through traditional Google means. That's just one of the places they hope to get into. For now, panoramic views of their current travels will be up on Google Maps within the coming weeks.

via Laughing Squid

Credit: Google

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Disney Patents Augmented-Reality Food

In the not-so-distant future, we'll be able to have our cake and eat it too. Disney recently outlined patent plans for augmented-reality cakes and other food products. This means the ability to watch interactive videos projected onto the icing just before guests dig in. Though Disney's plans are still on the drawing board, two methods are outlined for bringing this tech to life.

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The first involves a small projector incorporated into a cake topper equipped to store and display digital images across the cake's surface. Imagine a montage of photos or video clips from the birthday boy or girl's favorite Disney movie and you get the picture. Developers also suggest adding motion-tracking sensors so users could interact with the images. For example, users could wave a wand over the cake to make images of flowers bloom.

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However, for an even more mind-blowing experience that may make you think twice about eating the cake, Disney plans to role out the big guns: a computer connected to an overhead projector with depth sensors and motion trackers.

The added equipment may make the birthday cake look more like a science experiment, but the added sensors allow for added interactive elements on cakes that don't have flat surfaces. Entire digital worlds could then be mapped over the cake's rugged surface where waterfalls, snow-capped mountains and flowing volcanoes could be brought to life. Anyone could manipulate the landscape by using certain props to trigger stimuli. For example, a tree placed onto a field could cause a digital forest to grow.

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Disney envisions the augmented reality tech turning the surface of cakes into digital coloring books or story books where narratives are advanced by remote-controlled figurines. The patent mostly describes concepts using cakes, but explains that the tech could be applied to almost any other food.

Augmented reality shepherd's pie, anyone?

via Gizmag

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Laser Beams Shoot from Printer

Lasers are everywhere -- in DVD players, fiber optic communications and even displays. They are so useful it would be great if they were flexible and easy to make, but that hasn't been the case, until now.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. have developed a way to print lasers on a variety of surfaces, using a printer not too far removed from the one on an average desktop.

The team, led by D.J. Gardiner of the Center for Molecular Materials for Photonics, used liquid crystals similar to those used in liquid crystal displays. With the right kind of stimulation, the molecules in liquid crystals emit laser light.

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The molecules are arranged in spiral patterns, which causes them to act as optical cavities. Optical cavities are one way to make laser light, because the cavity confines light in such a way that all the light waves are "in step," or coherent -- a laser beam. Because the liquid crystal molecules can change their arrangement, it's possible to change what wavelengths are reflected.

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Ordinarily a lasing material has to be "pumped" with some external source of energy. In this case it's pumped with laser light. To get that final bit of "gain" a fluorescent dye is added to the liquid crystals, and it's that gain which produces the extra energy for the laser.

Gardiner told Discovery News that while it might seem odd to produce laser light with another laser, that can be more efficient than other methods. The ability to control what wavelength of laser light comes out by controlling the size of the spiral and the color of the dye is also a big plus, because there are some wavelengths for which lasers are expensive or harder to build.

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This technology isn't unusual; such lasers are often laid down between sheets of glass. Gardiner and his team found a way to print the liquid crystal on any surface using an ink jet-type system. The liquid crystals are printed as tiny dots on a wet polymer that covers a substrate. The polymer dries out and in the process aligns the liquid crystal molecules. Since it can work on any surface, the lasers can be flexible rather than rigid as on glass displays. Once laser light is shined on the printed dots, they emit laser light in either one or two directions. If the material they are printed on is opaque the laser light only goes one way, and if it is transparent it is emitted both front and back.

This kind of technology can be used in the display industry, but Grdiner said he sees more immediate applications in sensing and diagnostics. Currently, everal kinds of medical tests involve using a bio-marker that attaches to the molecule one is interested in and hitting it with laser light. Being able to print an array of hundreds of cheap test sites (each with its own combintion of test substances) would speed those processes tremendously.

The research was published in the Journal Soft Matter.

via University of Cambridge

Credit: University of Cambridge

 

Tilted 3-D Screens Coming Around The Bend

Whether for television or mobile devices, most 3-D displays have used autostereoscopic parallax barriers, such as liquid crystal displays, to give users a three-dimensional viewing experience.

However, a team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have chosen a different route. They've developed Tilt Displays, a new type of screen composed of nine smaller panels that physically tilt and contort to give the impression of depth.

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Collectively, its display surface is approximately half the size of a standard tablet, with each individual screen capable of tilting on one or more axes and moving up and down.

Imagine looking at an image of a soup bowl where the screen mutated itself into the shape of a bowl.

While Tilt Displays only exists as a three-screen by three-screen prototype, one could easily imagine a screen composed of tens, hundreds or even thousands of smaller individual screens capable of turning the surface into an undulating display full of tangible contour.

Researchers from the Bristol University's Department of Computer Science presented the the display in San Francisco this week at MobileHCI 2012, an influential conference in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

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"The ability to tilt along multiple axes distinguishes our display from previous actuatable displays. Such screen versatility opens a range of opportunities for providing an additional integrated information channel to the user," Sriram Subramanian, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science's Interaction and Graphics group and co-chair of the MobileHCI 2012, said in a press release.

He added: "These opportunities include collaboration, terrain modeling, 3D video that is beyond auto-stereoscopic 3D and tangible gaming. We can imagine many scenarios that would benefit from the physicality offered by Tilt Displays. However, we need to establish whether users can relate to the new experiences and advantages of using such a device."

via Eurekalert

Credit: Bristol University

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Supermodels, Google's Project Glass Hit Runway

If we know anything by now about eyewear trends it's this: what was yesterday's fashion faux pas is today's must-have accessory of haute couture. Case in point: black, thick-rimmed glasses. Once the hallmark of nerds everywhere, now they're a hipster-chic trademark, worn everywhere from the streets of Williamsburg to NBA post-game interviews.

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Though they'll likely experience a quicker ascent to cool-kid-christened popularity, augmented-reality glasses are still stuck in the getting-beat-up-on-the-playground phase. Remember Steve Mann? He's the University of Toronto professor who was physically assualted in a Parisian McDonalds restaurant because he was wearing self-designed, augmented-reality glasses.

But bullies beware, there's a new kid on the block.

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Because they were developed by celebrities of the tech world's cool, new Babylon -- Silicon Valley -- Google's Project Glass augmented-reality glasses already have a fashionable leg up on the competition. However, now that they've done their thing down the runway, they might have both legs up.

The glasses are being used to record behind-the-scenes footage of designer Diane von Furstenberg's show for New York Fashion Week. They may not be too sexy for Milan, but this marks the first time the glasses have been publicly used for anything other than an arguably less-vogue tech demo.

The culmination of this project will be "DVF through Glass," a short film offering a first-person glimspe of what it's like for designers and models to prepare and perform during fashion week. Though the video won't be released until September 13th, Furstenberg has been publishing runway photos at DVF's Google+ gallery.

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If augmented-reality glasses and New York Fashion Week are just too funky for you, remember, you have the freedom to wear whatever you like. However, if staying ahead of the curve is the name of the game, Steve Mann might be one of the coolest guys in the world. 

Personally, I think Mann has a long way to go before he becomes a pioneer of style. For starters, when at a McDonald's in Paris, don't order a Chicken Ranch Wrap. Everyone knows the cool cats order the Royale with Cheese.

via The Verge

Credit: Aygul Zagidullina

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Reagan Hologram Was Slated For RNC

If the surrealist Dada dinner theater that was Clint Eastwood's speech last night at the Republican National Convention made you think your mind was playing tricks on you, you might have really gone a little bonkers if former President Ronald Reagan rose from the dead to deliver a speech.

While the GOP is quite firm in their beliefs on resurrection, the Gipper was scheduled to appear as a holographic projection similar to the Tupac Shakur recreation that dazzled audiences at the Coachella music festival in April.

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The hologram was organized by Tony Reynolds, founder of crowdsourcing website A KickIn Crowd, who obtained rights to a Reagan speech where he discussed small businesses. Reynolds worked with AV Concepts, one of the companies involved with the Tupac hologram, to develop the hologram.

"It wasn't officially going to be part of the convention," Reynolds told Yahoo! News. "It was going to be outside of the convention at the Lakeland Center."

Despite this, Republican strategists quickly pulled the plug on the holographic machine, fearing that the optical illusion would upstage Mitt Romney's acceptance speech.

"At the time" Mitt Romney "hadn't chosen Paul Ryan, so I think they were a little worried about his energy," Reynolds said. "Even in a hologram form I think Reagan's going to beat a lot of people in terms of communicating."

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After all, Reagan was called The Great Communicator. But RNC honchos made a wise decision to keep Dutch under wraps. Getting upstaged by someone who's been dead for eight years was probably not the way the Romney campaign wanted to kick off their run for the White House.

The official unveiling of Reagan's holographic projection has been put off until later this year or early 2013. But if you're starving for some sort of reanimated puppet version of ol' Ronnie, there's always Genesis' "Land of Confusion" video.

via Yahoo! News

Credit: Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS

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RNC Fortified by Behavior-Recognizing Cameras

As the nation shifts its gaze to Tampa, Fla., host of the Republican National Convention, another set of eyes has been installed to monitor any suspicious activity that could go down as Mitt Romney accepts his party's nomination for President of the United States.

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Tampa spent more than $2 million installing approximately 90 high-tech security cameras that use behavior recognition software designed to study body language and movement.

BRS Labs, developer of the AISight software used in the cameras, says it's system perpetually learns what activities commonly occur in a particular environment. When somethings occurs that is out of the ordinary, authorities receive real-time alerts.

"AISight works with patented learning and analysis engines that enable the system to observe events, analyze them, and remember them similarly to how [a] human brain makes and stores memories," explains the company's website. "When new events differ from AISight’s memories, it determines that a suspect event is occurring and alerts security personnel."

For example, the system could differentiate between a uniformed police officer carrying a weapon and a civilian carrying a weapon.

Just as frequent observation of objects and events reinforces AISight’s memories, memories that aren’t reinforced degrade. This means that AISight not only learns about commonly occurring activity but also “forgets” when that activity becomes less frequent, enabling it to alert on events that are no longer commonplace. Because of this unique ability to learn, remember and forget, AISight’s ability to provide currently relevant, accurate alerts evolves alongside the environment. It adapts to moving vegetation, lighting changes, repositioning of furniture, weather patterns and myriad other environmental aspects that challenge video analytic systems.

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If you're feeling less patriotic about this platform, Web developer Jon Gales created an app that has mapped out all of the cameras.

"We have concentrated on mapping the cameras meant to watch you," explains Gales' website. Log on to rncctv.com to download the app and learn more about the cameras.

via ABC

Credit: RNCCTV

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