PolyEyes AR Headset Enhances Your Peripheral Vision

Posted on 10/10/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

If the field of view of the individual human eye seems a bit limited to you, wearing the Hammerhead Vision System (aka PolyEyes 2.0) might be a solution to that problem.

The human body has plenty of limitations (in Battlestar Galactica, Brother Cavil emphasizes some of them in his ‘I don’t Want to Be Human!‘ speech), but technology can help us overcome at least some of them. The PolyEyes 2.0 AR headset gives its wearer a field of view larger than 180 degrees. Add to that the fact that the “eyes” can move independently, and you get some sort of big-headed animals.

Interactive Architecture Lab, the developer of PolyEyes 2.0, explained how the AR helmet fits in the big picture:

“You are alone in the room, except for two Raspberry Pi Camera Module spinning in the dim light. You use PolyEyes (aka Hammerhead Vision System) and through the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, you communicate with some other entities in another room, whom you cannot see. Relying solely on the Exo-skeletical Suit Controller, you must decide whether to share or receive stimuli. One of the entities wants to share its own visual field. The other entity wants to send you signals from its sensing body. He/she/it will reproduce through the PolyLimbs the body movement of the other entity. Your job is to explore alternative ways for communicating that distinguish your current performance from an embodied augmented reality.”

While the creators of this AR headset must have used chameleons as a source of inspiration, the name of the system, Hammerhead, points into a very different direction. Interactive Architecture Lab have clearly designed and named their invention after the hammerhead shark, which is famous not only for its unusual structure of its head, but also for the wide stereo field of view.

Inside each of the clear domes seen in both of the above pictures there is a Raspberry Pi Camera Module, that combined give the wearer more than 180 degrees of vision. As mentioned in the developer’s description, the Hammerhead Vision System is part of a larger conceptual suit, or exosuit, if you want, that Interactive Architecture Labs sees as “part of a continuing process of upgrading the human entity.”

It didn’t take long for people to question whether the Hammerhead Vision System could have any real-world applications. One of the first things that pops to mind is that it could be used by the military, but for that, it would have to be drastically reduced, unless you want soldiers to become better targets. Not at last, people have started to point out similarities between a human wearing the Hammerhead Vision System and the characters from the Warframe video game. Despite the rather consumer-centric video that you can watch above, there are no details of PolyEyes 2.0’s commercial availability or a price, so I cannot help but wander if this is ever going to make it past the concept stage.

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via Kotaku

Light L16 Employs 16 Sensors for Better Photos

Posted on 08/10/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

Just when most people thought that mirrorless cameras were the natural next step from dSLRs, Light decided to think out of the box for a moment, and introduced a point-and-shoot camera with 16 sensors on the front.

The reason why such a camera was even developed in the first place was to demonstrate that a camera doesn’t have to be hefty in order to take great pictures. Sure, some might argue that that’s the entire point with mirrorless cameras, but someone thought it could take things even further. Light, the manufacturer of the L16 point-and-shoot camera are so confident of their product’s potential, that they even claim to match dSLR quality.

“We’re trying to replace a big lens [on a DSLR] with multiple small lenses and small sensors,” explained Dr. Rajiv Laroia, Light’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.

“This isn’t just moonshot thinking,” added Dave Grannan, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “We put some of the best talent in Silicon Valley together here at Light. Our computational team and our hardware engineer team have been working for over two years bringing this to reality.”

Each of the 16 lens modules (five 35mm, five 70mm, and six 150mm lenses) packs a 13-megapixel sensor, and their combined effort results in 52-megapixel photos. The camera makes use of some software wizardry to stitch together Basically, Light L16 can handle whatever you throw at it, from macro photos to wide-range landscapes and zoomed shots.

Much like in the case of Lytro’s light field cameras, the depth of field can be adjusted after taking the picture, down to f/1.2. That would make the L16 ideal for low-light conditions, regardless if we’re talking about macros, portraits or concert photography.

Besides the exceptional low-light performance, the L16 sports 35-150 optical zoom, and a 5-inch touchscreen display. Needless to say, the photos taken with this camera will barely have any noise.

Photos are not the only think the L16 is capable of shooting. Should you want to record video, the camera can do it at resolutions of up to 4K, which isn’t something you get to see in your everyday dSLR or smartphone.

Below is a slideshow of photos taken with the Light L16 point-and-shoot camera, albeit not at the real resolution. Still you’ll be able to get an idea about the contrast, depth of field and color reproduction.

Click to view slideshow.

Not at last, here is a video of the world’s first multi-aperture computational camera:

This piece of tech can be pre-ordered for $1,299 until November 6, and for $1,699 after that. Placing an order now doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have it in time for Christmas (not even for the next summer), as Light plans to make L16 commercially available only in September 2016. By then, hopefully the company will have some competition and will reconsider its price policies.

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Via: PetaPixel

Disney Research Invents AR-Enabled Drawing Books

Posted on 05/10/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

The void between bi-dimensional drawing books and theme parks needed to be filled somehow, and Disney Research figured out that augmented reality might fit well in the mix.

Disney Research is by no means the first to bring coloring books and mobile apps together, as that merit belongs to Crayola and its Color Alive line. However, Disney’s recent invention is a tad more ambitious, as it makes use of AR to make it look like the characters colored by the kids are displayed in three dimensions.

Authored by Stéphane Magnenat, Fabio Zund, Mattia Ryffel, Gioacchino Noris, Gerhard Röthlin, Alessia Marra, Maurizio Nitti, Markus Gross and Bob Sumner of Disney Research Zurich, along with Dat Tien Ngo and Pascal Fua of Computer Vision Lab, EPFL, Switzerland, the research paper titled Live Texturing of Augmented Reality Characters from Colored Drawings (available here as a PDF file) pushes new boundaries in the way children express their creativity. Presented on the first day of ISMAR (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality) 2015, which took place between September 29 and October 3 in Fukuoka, Japan, the paper explains how digital devices are making their way even in the lives of very young children, and in this context, real-world tasks such as drawing might might seem less interesting. The solution is to bring augmented reality into the mix, so that digital devices and activities can be bridged together in a unique manner.

Developed simply as a concept, the AR coloring book presented in this paper means to show the potential of this technology. If there’s plenty of positive feedback around Disney Research’s experiment, I’m sure that plenty other augmented reality drawing books will follow. As a matter of fact, why stop the whole thing at books for kids? Geometry and even architecture would look fabulous in AR. Imagine how that could put things in a new perspective.

Back to the matter at hand, though, each character from the AR coloring book appears blank, but in 3D on the smartphone or tablet’s display, assuming that the mobile device is running the AR app developed by Disney Research. As soon as the kids get on with coloring the character, the colors are reproduced in high fidelity on the 3D figure, as well.

Probably the best part about this whole thing is that the novel texturing process developed by Disney Research applies the texture from the AR book to both the visible and occluded sides of the character. In other words, if kids are coloring the book and the mobile device running the AR app is moved around the book, they will be able to see both the front (which has been colored by them) and the back of the character. In other words, the app is deducing how the character should look like on the invisible sides.

The work of the Disney Research Zurich team has been validated with two user studies, so there’s no doubt that kids are more attracted to AR drawing books than the bland conventional ones.

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Via: Toyland

Black Diamond Is an Edgy Take on Knife Blocks

Posted on 04/09/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

Those looking to make their kitchen countertop a lot more stylish should take a look at Edge of Belgravia’s Black Diamond knife block, which does away with the dull design of these appliances while making room for some edgy lines.

Knife blocks have had a single design for a very long time, so it’s great to see that some designers are experimenting with new ideas. Until now, variety came from the use of different materials for the block itself, but the time has come to change other aspects, as well. Edge of Belgravia, the manufacturer of some of the most futuristically designed knives around, has launched the Black Diamond block to complement its main line of products, and by doing so, it has shown the whole world that knife blocks don’t have to be dull.

The knife block designed by Christian Bird provides room for up to 11 blades, so assuming that you enjoy cooking and spend plenty of time in the kitchen, there shouldn’t be any empty spots left. After all, a good cook knows that you can’t use a single knife for everything.

The manufacturer didn’t mention the material the block is made of, but with such a design, they couldn’t (and shouldn’t) have made a compromise in that department.

There are two concerns related to this particular design. First of all, there is a safety issue coming from the fact that the blades are exposed. Keeping it out of children’s reach would probably be for the best. Another problem, which also derives from the open design, is the amount of dust that could get deposited on the knives. If conventional blocks enable cooks to just grab the knife they need and proceed with their job, owners of the Black Diamond might have to run the blade through the water prior to cutting and slicing.

I enjoy seeing designers who are not afraid of going off the beaten path, as far as their ideas are concerned. In a bland kitchen, conventional knife blocks fit perfectly, but people who care about contemporary design will undoubtedly appreciate the Black Diamond, despite its rather stiff price. Edge of Belgravia offers this knife block for £89.90, the equivalent of approximately $135, which is a bit more than what most people are willing to pay for such a product. What we need to keep in mind here is that this is not a common product and innovative designs often come at a price that not all people can afford.

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SipSup Social Drinking Glass Saves the Party’s Best Moments

Posted on 30/06/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

With the launch of the world’s first social drinking glass, connected glassware is about to become a thing. SipSup won’t share any details about the beverage you’re enjoying, but it will save photos from the attendees’ smartphones.

Mind you, SipSup doesn’t only store the photos, but it also facilitates sharing them to other smartphones. On top of that, the social drinking glass (as its Slovenian developers like to call it) doubles as a photo album, so you can watch the party’s best moments even if your friends are long gone.

The social drinking glass may have been designed by the eponymous startup, but it’s Slovenian glassworks company Steklarna Hrastnik who is manufacturing it. The quality is attested by a Vitrux certificate that guarantees that SipSup is dishwasher safe up to 3,000 times.

I only wish the glass came in different sizes. I’m sure that’s possible, but probably the developers wanted to see first how beer and juice lovers feel about SipSup. I definitely wouldn’t recommend drinking wine or spirits in such a high-capacity glass. After all, this social glass is only dishwasher safe, not shatterproof, something that people might want to test after ingesting such alcoholic drinks.

Click to view slideshow.

Since it is a connected device we’re talking about, it has to come with a companion app. According to the developers, the app will be available for both Android and iOS devices (it looks like Windows Phone users are not getting any love, but given the market share of that mobile OS, it’s quite understandable). As for how the glasses connected to smartphones, NFC and visual IDs were used.

SipSup is currently the subject of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, where its developers are looking to raise $30,000, so that the connected drinking glass makes the jump from a concept to mass production. At the time of writing, backers had pledged $2,104, but there were 31 more days to go, and with some proper support, SipSup could become a reality. The awards range from virtual cheers to SipSup glasses (which cost $22 or $40 for early birds, and $25 or $50 for regular backers, depending on whether you want one or two glasses), to ten customized glasses and a trip to Slovenia to meet the team behind all of this. For that you’d have to spend $4K and get your plane tickets.

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Tempescope Replicates Tomorrow’s Weather in a Box

Posted on 02/06/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

Some people are just too lazy to get out of bed and look out the window to see what the weather is like. The Tempescope is a little gadget build specifically for those people.

There was a joke running a few years ago (at least where I live) about one kid telling another that it’s raining outside, and the latter asked for a link, to see for himself. Jokes aside, that might be exactly where we’re heading, since it’s getting more and more difficult to detach our eyes from the computer screen. Japanese designer Ken Kawamoto has developed a unique way of displaying the forecast, using a connected device that acts as a micro-environment.

Tempescope, as this innovative gadget is called, has a limited amount of weather conditions it can replicate, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. Kawamoto employed LEDs, water, and ultrasonics to simulate sunshine and lightning, rain, fog, and clouds. There won’t be any snow or blizzards, but these could be some great additions for the next version of Tempescope.

DIY enthusiasts will find here a tutorial on how to create an open source version of the gadgets. On the other hand, if you are looking for the commercial version of the Tempescope, you will have to wait just a bit longer, as the developers will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter later this year.

The following video demonstrates how the weather simulator works and the specific weather conditions it can replicate. Tempescope might as well be considered a mood lamp, since it has all the necessary elements to qualify as one. The only requirement is an Internet connection, as the device needs this to gather information about tomorrow’s weather. It would be great if in the absence of an Internet connection, Tempescope displayed all of the possible weather conditions in a cycle, for a predetermined amount of time.

One of the best things about the Tempescope is that it’s not obtrusive. The small dimensions make it look great both on a desk and on a nightstand. If people decided to display this at the office, it would undoubtedly become at least a conversation starter, if not even an attention grabber that does away with any productivity people may have left.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Bright Night umbrella that shines light on your path, or the Lampbrella water-activated umbrella for British rainy days.

Keep Warm During Winter with a Nerdalize eRadiator

Posted on 29/05/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

We keep hearing that winter is coming, so we might as well prepare for it. Dutch startup Nerdalize suggests to replace radiators with heat-producing data servers.

The Nerdalize eRadiator, as the Dutch company named its brainchild, is what others call a data furnace. In other words, behind the radiator looks there is a small server that generates up to 1000 watts of heating.

Tech giants know that maintaining a data center can often be a nightmare, due to all the heat that needs to be dissipated, so that the servers run properly. Nerdalize has figured that all that excess heat could be put to good use, and looked to a target audience that needs it: common householders.

There are two per-requisites to getting an eRadiator (well, three, if you also take money into consideration). Householders need to have a fiber-optic connection, as well as an external wall. Since this is basically a data server, it’s pretty obvious what the fiber-optic connection might be needed for. As for the external wall, it is required for dissipating the heat when it is not needed inside the house. That’s right, people are giving the option to turn off the eRadiator, case in which the server keeps going. Come to think of it, if people couldn’t turn it off, it would be impossible to stay indoors during the summer.

This is not the first time a company is considering using the heat generated by data servers to warm up something. The concept has also been studied by Microsoft Research, who also published a research paper about it, back in 2011. Three years earlier, in 2008, IBM used the waste heat generated by a data center in Zurich to heat a swimming pool in a nearby town. Nerdalize just proves that this could also be done at a smaller scale.

For the time being, only Dutch people can have a Nerdalize eRadiator set up inside their homes, and the whole operation costs between €400 and €500 ($440 to $550). It takes less than a year for the investment to return, which is pretty spectacular. Hopefully, the Nerdalize data furnace will find its way to other European countries, as most people with a fiber-optic connection wouldn’t mind hosting a data server in exchange for heat.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the fierce thermosaurus radiator that keeps you sweating, or the electric radiator heater shaped like a paper clip.

Stained Glass Window Turns Solar Power Into Electricity

Posted on 22/05/2015 by Alexandru Chiuariu

Surfaces that collect solar energy and turn it into electricity don’t have to be aesthetically appalling. This stained glass window is able to achieve that while also looking great.

Marjan van Aubel, a London-based Dutch designer, has found a way of harvesting solar power by integrating photovoltaic cells into stained glass windows. Fully transparent solar cells will also become a reality soon enough, but for people who are also interested in the design, and not only in the functionality of solar panels, these windows might actually represent the better option.

People whose eyes are sensitive to sunlight might actually prefer stained glass windows, as unlike the fully transparent ones, they don’t allow all of the light to pass. Besides that, the projections you get to see in the room when light passes through are simply fabulous.

The Swiss-made Solaronix dye-sensitized solar cells are made of layers of semiconductor crystals, titanium dioxide, and dye that are applied on glass in order to achieve this magnificent effect. Upon absorbing sunlight, the solar cells start exciting electrons, action that leads to the production of electricity. Storing the resulted energy isn’t a problem, as the current is transmitted to a battery located at the bottom of the ledge. Using the battery, users can charge smartphones or even provide power to USB lamps. That might not sound like much, but wouldn’t you rather rely on solar power to charge your gadgets, rather than increase the electricity bill with that? I know I would!

“I imagine these in a church,” said van Aubel. “They would be so amazing there, but you could also have them in offices, or as facades in libraries or museums. They’re good for when you don’t want to have 100% glass, because they block some of the light. The metal parts of a window normally heat up, but these generate electricity.”

Van Aulden is not at her first attempt at creating a uniquely-designed solar panel. The Current Table, as the solar table she developed is called, uses the same principle and the same solar cells as the stained glass window.

Along with her business partner Thor Schuitemaker, van Aubel set up a company named Caventou that sells solar-incorporating products such as the ones described above. Hopefully, the commercial versions won’t be very expensive, even though that’s to be expected, given the innovative nature of these products.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about London’s phone booths that will become solar-powered charge stations, or the Solar E power cube.

Dynamic Chair Replaces the Mouse with Your Body

Posted on 16/10/2014 by Alexandru Chiuariu

Now that there are all sorts of mindblowing computers out there, maybe it’s time to bring office furniture into discussion. More precisely, the chair you sit in while using the computer.

What if, through some wicked engineering, the chair would enable your body to be used as a mouse? Starting from idea that sitting still in a chair all day long (or at least 8 hours) is bad for your health, Govert Flint, a recent graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands created the Dynamic Chair, a seat that motivates you to keep moving all the time. Either that, or the pointer on the screen won’t move at all.

Flint, who enjoys dancing quite a lot, thought of ways to integrate fluid movement patterns into the design of this bionic chair: “It started with my questions about why I like to dance so much, and how it was possible I couldn’t enjoy my work as an architect in an office environment.”

The designer is well aware of the health problems caused by conventional chairs: “Standing desks damage cartilage similarly to sitting. While we sit, we don’t massage our cartilage. Even in our sleep, our body needs to move the joints and therefore has frequent motions.”

At the moment, the bionic chair is but a prototype, but I really hope that Flint will get the necessary support for turning this into a mass-produced item, regardless of how expensive it will get. This product achieves something that not many chairs are capable of: making the user happy, not just fit.

Of course, Flint also knows that there are still a lot of improvements that could be made: “It gets quite close to a comfortable sensation, but will need serious development before someone can work in it for a full day. But many people say that it feels much better than how it looks.”

Don’t expect to use such a chair for gaming, though! The pointer’s movement isn’t that fluid, for the time being, not to mention that a simple RTS or MMORPG game could exhaust the player in just a few minutes.

“At the moment it feels like playing a game to click on an item,” pointed out Flint. “The aim is to make a computer interface that allows people to work with typing, graphics, editing software, browsing and music making for daily use, without having the feeling it goes against their intuition.”

This exercise in design has a simple, but beautiful goal: “My quest is to find an integration of movement, function, and emotions.”

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Stir kinetic desk that’s aware of every breathe you take, and the portable laptop case that turns into a desk while on the go.

New Smartwatch Projects Skin Buttons Instead of Using Physical Ones

Posted on 14/10/2014 by Alexandru Chiuariu

For some people, letting go of hardware buttons in smartphones and wearables is pretty difficult. The one’s who don’t think touchscreens are that appealing should give laser skin buttons a try.

The problem with wearables is that they really don’t have enough room for physical buttons. Apple claims to have found a solution to displaying images and other things on tiny displays, in the form of the digital crown that enables zooming in and out. Still, maybe people are looking for more functionality in a smartwatch, not just to zoom and scroll. For example, since these wearables are designed to display notifications, among many other things, maybe it would be useful if one button was used for cutting some text, and another one for pasting it somewhere else. Getting one button for each function is not exactly desirable in this day and age, and creating shortcuts by pushing multiple buttons at once would actually defeat the purpose of a variable. What if there was a way to project buttons on the skin, and this way assign their functions depending on the app that’s currently running? That’s pretty much what Carnegie Mellon’s Future Interfaces Group did with the ‘skin buttons‘.

The skin buttons, which are quite thoroughly documented in the accompanying research paper, are currently but a proof of concept. Four micro lasers are used for projecting icon shapes on the skin. It’s possible to display any button with any functionality, supposing that everything is linked to the smartwatch’s software.

If there had been only the four lasers, it wouldn’t have been possible for you to trigger any actions when touching a skin button. However, there also are infrared sensors that can detect when you’re tapping on the skin. The concept used here is very similar to the one that made projected keyboards functional.

There’s plenty of room for improvement, and the researchers who developed skin buttons are well aware of that. The buttons could be assigned various colors, in order to help users differentiate them. On top of that, there’s work to do on the software side of things. I think that skin buttons could become particularly useful for games on smartwatches and other wearables. Now I wonder if any of the tech giants will pick up this idea and implement it in the Android Wear smartwatches.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Wristify personal cooling and heating bracelet, and the TomTom Golfer smartwatch.

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