Remember Bot & Dolly's awesome Kinetisphere from Google I/O 2012? Today the San Francisco-based design and engineering studio released Box, a film of the first ever synchronized live performance featuring projected 3D computer graphics, robots and actors. Imagine two Kuka industrial robots moving walls around and a projector displaying CG onto them in complete sync. Add a second projector aimed at the floor. Now introduce an actor and capture the entire scene with a 4K camera mounted on a third Kuka robot in sync with the other two. The result is a mind-blowing experience that takes CG into the real world. Flat walls transform in to 3D cubes, objects levitate and teleport -- it's magic.
In fact, it's even more impressive in person. The company believes that "this methodology has tremendous potential to radically transform theatrical presentations". We briefly talked with Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Creative & Technical Director and Bradley G Munkowitz, Design Director (of Tron fame) about the technology behind the performance. The project uses two IRIS and one SCOUT robotic motion control platforms (based on Kuka robots) plus two powerful high-resolution projectors. Bot & Dolly's in-house software, which integrates with Autodesk's Maya, is used to synchronize and control the performance. As such, the work serves "as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration." See the video for yourself after the break.
Filed under: Misc, Robots, Alt
Source: Bot & Dolly
Okay, so we didn't quite know what to make of Gigabyte's lamp / Ultrabook hub. But what about its new smartphones? The company is showing off three handsets here at Computex 2013 -- the Maya, Sierra and Simba, in ascending order of impressiveness -- all of which have dual SIM slots, IPS displays, 1GB of RAM and a stock build of Android 4.2. To tell the truth, none of them are exactly high-end (even the top-tier Simba runs just a dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor), but we were impressed by the quality of those IPS screens, which offer wide viewing angles even under harsh lighting.
They've all got thick, plastic builds too, but some are at least nicer-feeling than others. The 5-inch Sierra has a slightly metallic finish that could possibly pass for metal at a glance. The 5-inch Simba is done up in a trendy white, but with a glossy, tacky sort of look. And the lowest-end Maya (4.5-inches) is made of plain, drab plastic. Not much to see there. On the inside, as we said, the Simba has a Snapdragon 400 (Krait) SoC, while the other two make do with a 1.2GHz, quad-core processor from MediaTek. As for screen quality. the Maya has QHD resolution whereas the Sierra and Simba step up to HD; either way, no 1080p flagships here. That's about all we have to share at this point -- Gigabyte hasn't announced pricing or availability -- but a company rep did tell us these phones should at the very least be headed to Asia and Eastern Europe. For now, head past the break for a quick video tour.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Picturing how a few characters from a cartoon series would like like in real life is an interesting exercise in … 
For a country that dominates the Latin American landscape, Brazil hasn't had much of a presence in Google Street View outside of major cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo. A fresh update to Street View coverage has just gone live that fleshes out the the more far-flung corners of the map. It's now possible to see what it's like on the ground in much of the southern tip of the country as well as the northern coastline. Further north, Mexicans get their own treat: Google is now providing the panoramic views for ancient ruins such as Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan, just in case you'd rather not try to blend in with all the other tourists. The widened reach is undoubtedly no match for booking a flight and visiting in person, but it will save you the trouble of brushing up on your Portugese or ancient Mayan.
Filed under: Internet
Google Street View expands to cover swaths of Brazil and Mexican ruins, won't substitute for a vacation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Twenty native speakers of Yucatec, Mexico's most widely spoken Mayan tongue, met last Thursday to help bring the language to Google, Mozilla and Wikimedia projects. The event, dubbed Mozilla Translathon 2012, was organized to provide translations for Firefox, Google's Endangered Languages Project, the WikiMedia software that powers Wikipedia and 500 crowdsourced articles, to boot. Finding the right words, however, can often be a tricky proposition. "There are words that can't be translated," Mozilla's Mexico representative Julio Gómez told CNNMéxico. "In Maya, file doesn't exist. Tab doesn't exist." Gómez continues to explain that the group may keep foreign words as-is, or find other terms to represent the same ideas. In addition to software localization, it's believed that the effort could allow Maya speakers to "recover their identity and their cultural heritage," according to Wikimedia México president Iván Martínez. If you'd like to peruse wiki articles in the indigenous language, check out the source links below.
Filed under: Internet
Google, Mozilla and Wikimedia projects get Maya language translations at one-day 'translathon' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What you see here is arguably be the coolest thing on display at Google I/O 2012 -- an 8-foot, 300-pound Nexus Q replica (complete with LED ring visualizer) mounted on a robot arm. This interactive installation called Kinetisphere was designed and fabricated by San Francisco-based Bot & Dolly and is controlled by three stations each consisting of -- wait for it -- a Nexus Q device and a Nexus 7 tablet. How meta is that? One station controls the height of the sphere, another its angle, and a third lets you pick the pattern displayed on the LED ring. Of course, it's all carefully synchronized to music for maximum effect.
We spent a few minutes talking with Jeff Linnell of Bot & Dolly about what went into the making of Kinetisphere. As it turns out, there's a lot more to the installation than a Kuka industrial robot, fiberglass, plywood and steel railing. In addition to using the Nexus Q and Nexus 7, the company combined its expertise in motion control and automation with Google's Android ADK 2012, Autodesk's Maya and even Linux. Take a look at our gallery below then hit the break for our video interview and a lovely behind-the-scenes clip.
Visualized: Kinetisphere takes Nexus Q into another dimension at Google I/O 2012 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Linux comes in all sorts of flavors -- it's part of what makes the OS so confusing to new comers. To make matters worse, some of the most popular variants are actually based on other distros, such as Linux Mint, the refreshing desktop that's based largely on Ubuntu. So, if you're wondering what's new in the Mint 13, a good place to start is probably our review of the aubergine OS. Of course, Maya has a few wrinkles of its own -- including a pair of desktop options dubbed MATE and Cinnamon. MATE, as you may recall, was introduced in the last version, but Cinnamon is all new (read: a tad unstable) and built on a modern framework using Gnome 3 and Clutter. There have been a few other new additions, including a new display manager in MDM and a switch to Yahoo! as the default search engine. As usual with these things, you can download it and try it out for free at the source.
[Thanks, Mohamad]
Linux Mint 13 'Maya' released, just in time for the next piktun originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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