For all the amazing experiences virtual reality enables (the illusion of flight, the exhaustion of exercise and even the emotional fatigue of trauma), it still has one major flaw: Virtual objects are intangible and have no physicality. If you want to...
If you are a fan of Pac-Man, you need to check out this video of a basic Pac-Man level recreated in real life. The idea is to find out what would happen if a guy ran around the maze in real life while watching the traditional top-down perspective you see while playing in the arcade.
In this video from Rooster Teeth, this guy has to try to avoid ghosts and beat the level, all while wearing video goggles that only display a top-down view of the maze. Imagine how messed up you would get. Spoiler alert! He kinda sucks at it. Granted, the maze is kind of small and not totally accurate. He also can’t send the ghosts back to the middle when he eats them, so…
We are basically years away from an authentic experiment. We just don’t have the ghost or power pellet or even maze technology, but it is still fun to watch.
Over two decades ago, I was in a theme park near London and in a small room tucked out of the way and with a far smaller queue than any of the vomit-inducing rides outside, sat two large seats with...
Have you ever experienced sound as an actual tactile sensation? Or truly felt the difference between firing an M14A4 and a SCAR-L in Battlefield 4? That’s the promise of ViviTouch technology:...
We've had early previews thanks to leaks, but Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi -- more recently known as the new home of former Google exec Hugo Barra -- just took the wraps off of a new flagship Android phone and smart TV. The MI3 candy bar phone is available with either a 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor (on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network) or Snapdragon 800 CPU (China Unicom and China Telecom, which are WCDMA and CDMA2000, respectively) that provide a 40 percent performance boost over the MI2S. It also sports a 5-inch 1080p IPS LCD built by Sharp or LG with "ultra sensitive touch" that works even when the user has wet hands or has gloves on. %Gallery-slideshow79640% %Gallery-slideshow79643%
Immersion is known for guarding its haptic feedback patents with enthusiasm -- just ask Microsoft, among others. Motorola learned first-hand when Immersion sued over the use of basic haptic technology in May, but all that's water under the bridge now that Motorola's new parent Google is settling the matter out of court. While the exact sums aren't public, Google will pay Immersion to address any relevant past shipments, license the patents for future Motorola shipments and take care of "certain issues" with Google-badged hardware using the disputed vibration techniques. Immersion's end of the bargain is simply to end its legal action, including an ITC complaint, although the company makes clear that non-Motorola Android phones aren't covered by the deal. We're sure Google isn't happy to shoulder additional costs on top of its $12.5 billion Motorola acquisition, although it may see the settlement as a matter of establishing focus. After all, there's bigger fish to fry.
For all the amazing experiences virtual reality enables (the illusion of flight, the exhaustion of exercise and even the emotional fatigue of trauma), it still has one major flaw: Virtual objects are intangible and have no physicality. If you want to...
