Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Leap Motion - The Keyboard and Mouse of Tomorrow

Today is slowly becoming more and more about touch screen technology. First with smart phones, then tablets, now with Windows 8 computers are getting ready to step onto the market. However, a touch screen monitor costs upwards of $200 dollars. There is a cheaper option coming to you soon though!

The Leap is a small USB peripheral that senses the unique motions of your finger tips and enacts them on the screen. This means you have touch screen technology right on your finger tips without actually touching your screen. No cleaning the smudges off your computer screen and no spending $200+ dollars for the technology.
The Leap is not on the market until February 2013, but are currently accepting pre-orders. This technology will only cost you the affordable price of $70.
It is essentially the size of a little flash drive, all you have to do is plug in your USB adaptor and place in in front of your computer screen.

I imagine it will not have the ease of use that touch screens have, though. It sounds to me that there may be a little bit of programming on the users end. However, a lot of developers are working on things where you can just start up and have it ready to go. Also, I imagine once it launches there will be a variety of macros you can use to get your desired appearance.
I foresee the only downfall of this being that it will not have a user friendly hand motion editing interface. It would be really cool if it just captured what motion your hand was making during the desired effect and just saved it, but I doubt it would be that simple.

What Does It Do?

The Leap can do anything your fingers can. From navigating the Windows 8 navigation, to drawing in any 3D modelling software, to gaming! You name it, there are developers working on it right now.

The Leap uses over 200 mapped points on your fingers and you can control just about any thing with the movements of your hand. The above picture shows you just how much it recognizes your hands. Everything you see above it a point of recognition. It recognizes the difference between your thumbs and fingers and can even recognize a pencil. This makes the Leap the absolutely most advanced motion capture technology available to the general public.
If you think the XBox 360's Kinect was cool, but a bit clunky, you will probably love this. It makes every thing look so smooth.
Try as I might, I have not yet used The Leap, but their promo video below really says it all.

The Leap literally puts information at the tips of your fingers. They have sort of the unofficial tagline of being "as accurate and reliable as a mouse and keyboard and more sensitive than a touch screen."
You can edit the technology so that it will fit the unique gestures of your hand with macros. I asked the person that showed this to me if I could flip my computer the bird and have it shut off, he said you probably could with the appropriate macros.
This means you could reach into a of our solar system and turn it like you had our little bit of the universe right at your hands. It also means you can load up the latest Call of Duty and actually hold and fire your gun.
You can also link a few Leaps together and use them across a wide screen. This gives me the image of a bunch of chemists using hands free technology on a giant chalk board made out of a large computer screen.
It really makes me geek out a bit.
The Leap also brags of it's possible uses in the medical field. Making it so that a surgeon can flip through advanced medical guides during surgery without ever having to take off their gloves!
The idea for the Leap can from the idea of creating 3D models. The creators of the Leap Motion technology thought that you should be able to mold clay on a screen as you molded clay in real life. That is an idea I can really get on board with.
Personally, I will have one. This I imagine in what it seemed like when the mouse and keyboard were first created, computers even. Some invention that seemed a little weird, but became the biggest thing all over the world.

How Does It Work?

This is the big mystery. The developers of the Leap Motion technology have kept their secret just that--A secret. I can see way, I am sure there are more than a few big corporations that would love to just jack their idea right from beneath them.
A few speculators believe that the Leap works in similar ways to the Theremin, the instrument that uses the motion of ones hands to control the pitch and sound of the instrument. Theremin's use an electromagnetic field created by radio waves, people speculate that the Leap uses something similar.
I am sure we will find out the deep dark secret once this has been on the market for awhile.
If you are a developer, Leap Motion technology is giving away lots of free developer kits just to see what you can come up with. I would also like to see what people come up with, so developers, do not be shy!
For the people who are not developers, you can head on down to that link above and submit any cool ideas you have for people in the forums. There are really quite a few neat ones there already like massively multiplayer online roleplaying game controls and sign language dictation.
There is even a little idea of creating a virtual keyboard that looks very much like a real keyboard and you type on it like you would a real key board. That is perhaps the most science fiction thing I have heard all year!
I have not looked through all the threads, so have a good look and see and let me know if you find anything interesting.

An amazing table like none – I want one

When a woman can do it so easily, then it must be a pretty smoothly transforming table. I soooo want one.

Panasonic’s gigantic 145-inch 8K Super Hi-Vision plasma TV (pics)

Recently Panasonic has announced its impressive 145-Inch 8K plasma HDTV, which puts the company in the position of being the maker of the world’s largest TV.

Panasonic have been working with NHK (a Japanese broadcaster) and have developed a new drive method for the TV by scanning the pixels vertically to achieve a high quality uniform picture with no flicker, which is common on large high resolution displays. It is also the world’s first self-illuminating 8k HDTV.

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This room is 99.99% quiet but can you stand it? (pics and video)

The quietest room on Earth at Ofrield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is called the 'anechoic chamber' because no sound is echoed in this chamber.

It's 99.99 percent sound absorbent and if you stay there too long you may start hallucinating. Indeed, the longest that anyone has survived in it is just 45 minutes.

Steven Orfield, the company's founder and president, explained that the room is so silent that whoever goes becomes the sound of the area. "When it's quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You'll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly", he adds.

7 Strange Robots the Pentagon is Developing

With a budget in excess of $600 billion, the pentagon is hard at work researching technology that is sometimes bizarre and out of this world. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA is busy bringing in robotic creations to the pentagon that are craziest at the least. Here is a list of some of the strange robots the pentagon has in mind.

No 7. BigDog

BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was made in 2005 and can haul, climb, and carry its way over rough terrain. Capable of traversing difficult terrains, running at 4 miles per hour, carrying 340 pounds, and climbing a 35 degree incline, BigDog is intended to one day be able to serve as a robotic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for conventional vehicles.

This strange-looking robot is powered by a two-stroke, one-cylinder and 15-HP go-kart engine operating at over 9,000 RPM.

No 6. Nano Hummingbird Drone

Developed by AeroVironmen, the Nano hummingbird drone is built to look like a bird for potential use in spy missions. It is capable of flying at speeds of up to 11 miles per hour, hovering and flying sideways, backward and forward, as well as going clockwise and counterclockwise, by remote control for about eight minutes of sustained flight.

Evidently, the technology needs a lot of polishing before being put to some actual use.

No 5. LittleDog

A quadruped robot designed for research on learning locomotion, the LittleDog’s four legs are each powered by three electric motors and are strong enough for climbing and “dynamic locomotion gaits.”

No 4. RiSE Climbing Robot

RiSE is a robot capable of climbing vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences. It has “feet with micro-claws” to climb on textured surfaces. It weighs at 4.4 punds and is able to travel at 0.68 miles per hour.

It has six legs, an on-board computer that manages the coordination of these legs and a variety of sensors.

No 3. PetMan

This is a bipedal device constructed for testing chemical protection suits. The technology is basically derived from BigDog with advanced features such as sweating; simulating both human movement mechanics and human physiology to a much realistic extent.

PetMan is capable of walking on a treadmill i.e. walking, doing squats and pumping out push-ups. It also has a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

And as Boston Dynamics President Marc Raibert said:

“Places like the Fukushima reactors could be accessed by Petman-like robots (or AlphaDogs), without requiring any human exposure to hazardous materials. Perhaps firefighting inside of buildings or facilities designed for human access, like on board ships designed for human crews.”

How do you allay your parking woes? You could walk or bike to your destination but sometimes, owning acar is just plain necessary. But the lack of parking space can be a huge hassle especially when you need to make multiple stops. Romano Artioli, ex-owner of the Lotus and Bugatti brands, has developed a tiny single-seater eco-friendly car that’s small enough to fit into an office elevator. Measuring just 1 meter in width and 1.5 meters in height, the Volpe weighs only 350 kg and can squeeze itself into the smallest of spaces.

Volpe, world's smallest car

So tiny is the Volpe that it can zip about your workplace and even fit in your office to be charged from your desk. The small car is meant for city commuters and though it doesn’t touch high speeds – just 30 mph max – it’s perfect for congested areas. There’s also not a lot of space for baggage but unless you plan to cram in plenty of goods, the Volpe makes the ideal small city car.

Volpe electric car

Volpe, world's smallest electric car fits in an elevator and can be parked and charged at your work desk.

Artioli worked with coachbuilder Zagato which is responsible for styling limited edition models of Aston Martins. The idea was to design a car that could help ease traffic congestion which is becoming a daily nightmare for commuters.

To further limit its size, Volpe sports scissor doors and a miniature motor that’s street legal as a quadricycle. This means that anyone who’s as young as 16 and has a motorcycle license can drive it. The eco friendly car will sell for about 5,600 pounds and is set to hit European markets by 2013.

The unique car has generated quite a buzz in online forums with many praising it for its aesthetics and functionality. As small as it is, however, it still doesn’t beat the record of the Peel P50 microcar which measures just 54 inches in length and 41 inches in width.

The Japanese are now know for their passion to mechanise every thing. This time they have decided to make a robot that can be put in a hair salon and offer its automatic services to the customers. This robot which has been built by Panasonic is having a trial run in a hair salon.

A glass doorknob shows who’s standing behind the door

Designed by a Japanese architect Hideyuki Nakayama, this doorknob shows who is standing behind the door. The only drawback is that it also shows the room you are in to the other party.

Latest release of Spacieleaks!

Did man really landed on the Moon? Or …

Latest release of Spacieleaks!

Did man really landed on the Moon? Or …

DARPA's HTV-2 hypersonic vehicle, which splashed down in the Pacific Ocean during its second test flight

"We've confirmed that the HTV-2 made impact with the Pacific Ocean along its flight trajectory as planned in the event of an anomaly," explained Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager and PhD in aerospace engineering. "This flight safety system is a significant engineering advance in that the system prompts a vehicle to monitor the parameters under which it is operating and exercise safety protocols completely autonomously should those parameters be breached."DARPA has confirmed the splash down of its unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) following the hypersonic vehicle's second test flight on August 11. While a "controlled descent" generally refers to a human directing and guiding an aircraft to an unscheduled landing, safety systems onboard the HTV-2 kicked in after an anomaly was detected a little over nine minutes into the test flight and autonomously directed it into the ocean.

DARPA says that changes made to the vehicle following the first test flight, which also ended with a controlled descent into the Pacific, appear to have been effective and aren't being blamed for the anomaly detected during the second test flight. These changes include adjusting the HTV-2's center of gravity, decreasing the angle of attack and using the onboard reaction control systems to augment vehicle flaps during the second test flight.

"According to a preliminary review of the data collected prior to the anomaly encountered by the HTV-2 during its second test flight," said DARPA Director Regina Dugan, "HTV-2 demonstrated stable aerodynamically controlled Mach 20 hypersonic flight for approximately three minutes. It appears that the engineering changes put into place following the vehicle's first flight test in April 2010 were effective. We do not yet know the cause of the anomaly for Flight 2."

Having successfully separated from the Minotaur IV launch vehicle and transitioned to Mach 20 flight on the second test flight, the anomaly appears to have occurred as the HTV-2 attempted to enter the glide phase of flight. DARPA says an independent Engineering Review Board will attempt to identify the most probable cause of the latest anomaly over the coming weeks.

Worlds smallest one-man helicopter

It has has two rotors turning in opposite directions to maintain stability, and four engines that enables a 30-minute flight with a top speed of about 56 miles (100 km) per hour.Controlling the GEN H-4 is not difficult at all.
For going forward, you pull the control bar toward you; to go to the right, you the control to the left and vice versa.
If you push the throttle lever, it goes up, you let go of it and the helicopter goes down.

Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.

Luigi Colani has designed many amazing things. Here you can see some of the trucks he has come up with and how interesting they look. These trucks are actually in use today and were actually originally designed in the 1980’s. Changes have been made to them through the years to what you see today.

Project Glass: One day...

We believe technology should work for you — to be there when you need ...

SOURCE: G.CO/PROJECTGLASS

Rail laying automation: easy, fast, and cool

IT professional Nat Morris created a system that feeds his dog while he is away at work. The system releases food from an automated food dispenser when Nat sends a message to ‘@FeedToby’.

A National Sleep Foundation poll found that 60% of people experience a sleep problem every night or almost every night. Why? The reasons vary from snoring to restless legs syndrome to technology addiction, but one thing is for sure: Adults need 7.5 hours of sleep a night, and only 37% are getting it.

If you don’t have the time (or the funds) to plan a rejuvenating bed and breakfast getaway, worry not. There are plenty of at-home remedies that will help you fall asleep faster and wake up more refreshed. From the ultimate alarm clock to cutting-edge pillows, here are 8 of the best snooze technologies:

Philips Wake-up Light

End the daily battle with your alarm clock and wake up as nature intended. Starting 30 minutes before your set wake up time, this nifty clock/lamp combo gradually fills your room with light that imitates the rising sun. When the highest level of light is reached, you’ll hear your choice of pleasant natural sounds (think chirping birds, jungle noises or windchimes) or a pre-selected radio station.

Price: About $100

LUMI Mask

The LUMI mask has the same basic concept as the Wake-up Light, but in addition to simulating sunrise, it also blocks light (perfect if your spouse reads into the wee hours or if you live on a bright street). The mask is made from soft neoprene foam and has an eye cavity to allow for normal blinking, as well as a built-in controller to set your wake-up time and preferred light intensity.
Price: About $75

ZEO Sleep Set

Through the magic of a brainwave-monitoring headband, Zeo tracks your sleep patterns nightly from the comfort of your own bedroom. Each morning, it tells you—in real time—when you were awake, when you were in REM and when you were in Deep Sleep. All of the information is stored on a memory card that you can upload to Zeo’s website, where you can track your patterns and receiving daily sleep coaching tips.

Price: About $399 (including 6 months of daily email coaching)

Chillow

Tired of flipping your pillow over and over to find the cool side? Well, flip no more. The Chillow is a thin, soft, medical-grade, non-electric thermoregulating device. Just fill it one time with water, smooth out the air and you’re good to go—no freezing required. So how does it work? The water inside the Chillow absorbs your excess body heat, then the special foam core releases it back into the air. When the device eventually reaches your body temperature, all you have to do is set it aside until it cools itself down.

Price: About $25

SleepTracker Watch

These little watches (his and hers) contain a tiny motion sensor that measures your restless nighttime movements. While they can’t tell you when you’re in REM or Deep Sleep, it can wake you up the moment before you’re about to wake up anyway. Just set the watch with a window of time (half an hour, usually) prior to your desired wake up time, and the watch will wake you up in a natural point in your sleep cycle. And in addition to the alarm, you can also download your sleep patterns to your home computer and track your habits.

Price: About $150

BedPhones

Bedphones are headphones specifically designed for sleep—perfect for those finicky sleepers who need background noise in order to drift off. They’re made of soft, ¼” foam that lays flat against your ears, and the earhooks are made from rubber-coated memory wire for a custom fit. Bedphones even come with an app that not only turns your smartphone into a giant play/pause button, but also shuts off the sound completely when you fall asleep (when you stop moving, that is).

Price: About $30

Pzizz App

Pzizz is an audio app that sets out to solve yours sleep problems, boost your energy and reduce stress. It has over a billion combinations of voices, instrumental music and ambient sounds, prepping your mind for either deep sleep or relaxation, depending on the settings. You can also choose separate volume levels for voice and music, adjust the track length and set an alarm.

Price: About $10

Sheex

Sheex “Performance” bed sheets are made of the same type of breathable material used in professional-quality athletic fabrics. They regulate temperature better than cotton, keeping you cool and dry while you slumber, and allow your body to prepare for a good night’s sleep by cooling off naturally. They sheets are even wrinkle resistant and fit all mattress types, including pillow tops.

Price: About $200 for a sheet set

source:infobarrel

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