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High-Speed Robot Hand
A certain class of jokes write themselves here, yes, but that does not mean I am obliged to write them down. [Video Link: Len Fiorenz's YouTube. Thanks, Jess!]
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Images Of The Vuzix STAR 1200 Augmented Reality Glasses
The week of May 16th, Vuzix — makers of military and consumer grade Augmented Reality eyewear — announced their newest line of AR glasses as the STAR 1200. As their press release states, STAR stands for See-Through-Augmented-Reality and describes the killer feature of this new concept — transparent displays. Rather than viewing small, mounted video screens in the eyewear that show you both the “real” and “augmented” content at the same time (transferred from external cameras) the STAR 1200 has transparent displays for the “augmented” content and you view the real world the way you normally would. This is different from previous Vuzix models like the Wrap 920AR which uses camera mounts and displays for all viewing.
This is not really news, since the announcement went out at a couple of recent AR conferences, however I did get a hold of some demo images for you all to look at in case you were not at either of the conferences. These are prototypes and are likely to change as more accurate renderings of the product become available nearer to the planned launch in August.
I spoke with Vuzix CEO Paul Travers and he also let me know that the STAR 1200 contains autonomous motion sensors, so you can connect the glasses with software running on a mobile device (like Layar or Junaio) and use the glasses’ motion sensors to align the augmented content rather then relying on the mobile device’s gyros, etc. This will be more accurate.
So what does it look like when you peer the the transparent displays? The image below shows an example of how the augmented content is overlaid onto your view. Here, a target is placed on the gentleman in the image.
I also received a demo video that was output from the Wrap 920AR glasses. In the video you can see some different augmented content in the shape of cars, ships and, of course, dancing robots. Pretty neat.
At last, you too will be able to look at the world the same way our embattled Governator did back in the day while hopefully doing something a bit more productive than hunting down some chick named Sarah Connor.
‘Huge’
Shared by Nathan Clark
Interesting
Robert Scoble, on Twitter:
Next week will be a huge week for those of us who have lived on Twitter for last few years. Apple is building Twitter in deeply into iOS 5.
Asked then whether he knows something or is just going on published rumors, he says he knows something.
The HP Touchpad Gets A Video Demo Thanks To SanDisk
Shared by Nathan Clark
Not bad. Looks promising. But I'm left with the impression that HP is not taking it seriously if this premiere video demo is being done by a 3rd party.
HP! SanDisk just crashed your party! Deep in the seedy show that is Computex Taipei, SanDisk is showing off one of its latest partner devices. Yep, they have a fully functional HP Touchpad.
The SanDisk booth rep seems rather excited to show it off in front of the camera and runs through nearly all its functions in the 4:49 video. Overall the device seems to have changed very little since we played with it at its launch back in February. The biggest improvement seems to be the response time. It wasn’t exactly slow before, but it seems downright snappy now.
The Touchpad is set to hit retailers sometime this month and previous leaks, mainly from Walmart, stated that the tab will come in 32GB and 64GB flavors at a starting price of $599. But the SanDisk rep in this video clearly states that there will be a 16GB version, which will hopefully fill the $499 price point.
Sony Wants To Take Augmented Reality To The Next Level With SmartAR (Video)
Sony has been working on Augmented Reality technologies since 1994, and today the company took the wraps of “SmartAR”, a so-called integrated Augmented Reality solution. The company says their technology has four distinct advantages when compared to existing AR solutions.
First, SmartAR doesn’t require markers to work, which, by itself, isn’t really new for an AR solution. Second, Sony says objects can be identified and then tracked at high speed, thanks to a combination of advanced object recognition, matching and image tracking tech (as you can see in the video, SmartAR works very well in this regard).
Third, SmartAR is specifically designed for 3D, meaning the technology can identify 3D structures to let objects blend in smoothly (also when moving the camera). And fourth, Sony seems to be pretty proud of the SmartAR UI, which makes it possible for users to easily interact with virtual objects, for example to turn pages in a virtual menu via touch control (pictured above and shown towards the end in the video below).
Official Sony SmartAR video (text in Japanese, but that doesn’t matter to much in this case):
Many iPhone owners run apps before getting out of bed
When you wake up in the morning, bleary-eyed and still in bed, do you reach for your phone to check Facebook or read an email? If you answered yes, you are not alone. According to a survey conducted by telecommunications hardware manufacturer Ericsson, 35 percent of respondents grab their iPhone or Android phone and launch a mobile app before getting out of bed.
Checking Facebook and other social networks is the most popular activity with 18 percent of people reading their news feed while still in the sack. This trend of early morning Facebook-ing may increase in the future as 20 percent of survey respondents expect to buy a new mobile phone in the near future. One with Facebook, we presume.
[Via Computerworld]
Many iPhone owners run apps before getting out of bed originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 12 May 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Discussion Table: Pioneer’s (Awesome) Take On Microsoft’s Surface (Video)
Yesterday, Pioneer unveiled the WWS-DT101 Discussion Table [JP], which is essentially the company’s answer to Microsoft’s Surface – just bigger and better. The main component here is the 52-inch multi-touch “interactive” LCD display with full HD resolution that supports up to 10 points of contact simultaneously.
In addition, Pioneer squeezed in these features:
- Intel Core i7 950 CPU
- 6GB of memory
- Wi-Fi module
- 2 sub-display ports
- 2 USB ports
- PFU Scan Snap support
- TransferJet support
- DVI, HDMI ports
- 7.5 W（8Ω×2) speakers
- SCHEDA (collaboration desktop software pre-installed)
- VisualSync (software for connecting to iOS devices)
- OS: Windows 7
Pioneer says users can browse the web, view PDF, open MS Office documents, watch videos (WMV only) or view pictures on the display.
The Discussion Table is sized at 1,600mm (W) × 902mm (H) ×1,000 mm (D) and weighs 160kg. Pioneer plans to start selling the best in Japan in July for about $37,000.
Akihabara News had the chance to go hands-on with the display and shot a video (see below):
These Quadrocopters Fly In Perfect Formation, Aim For Soft Parts Of The Body
Another day, another set of robotic quadrocopters flying in formation. In our continuing series featuring the GRASP manhack quadrocopters, we present a video of the wee robots flying in perfect formation in their string cage.
These robots can hover in formation and then regroup when one falls out, allowing them to swarm more efficiently. I’m seriously waiting for the last video this lab produces revealing that all of the researchers are actually artificially intelligent computers who have finally perfected physical interaction with humans.
New Humanoid: Rollin’ Justin Catches Two Flying Balls At Once (Video)
As a German, I can tell you we don’t understand baseball at all, but apparently our robot makers do. A team of researchers at German Aerospace Center (DLR) has developed Rollin’ Justin, a humanoid whose most spectacular skill is that he can catch two flying balls thrown in his direction at the same time.
Justin’s makers say he can catch balls with more than 80% accuracy. For that, they equipped the 45kg robot with a 3D camera system, 43 joints (5 in his torso, 7 in each arm plus 12 in each hand), and a total of 84 sensors.
You can watch Justin in action in this (very cool) video:
Via Plastic Pals via Hizook
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