by stephanlange on January 23, 2012
Researchers in Germany, Canada and the US may have come up with an elegant solution that can work with any smartphone and an external display: virtual projection.
The system works by using a central server that constantly takes screenshots of the external display and compares them with the images from the phone’s camera to track its location.
It then replicates what’s on the handset’s screen, while allowing you to add multiple image windows and position and rotate them.
Additionally, multiple users can collaborate and virtually project pictures or videos onscreen at the same time.
Personally I think your battery life will suffer the most, but in general it is a cool idea.
check it out in action below:
@maniac13
by stephanlange on November 7, 2011
I have been writing about Microsoft Research quite a bit and lately it seems that they are showing off our future every few days.
Last week was no different and they gave us 3 different projectors that allow you to interact with them through shadows and augmented reality.
3 devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company’s Kinect to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. The environmentally aware systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting.
Pretty cool you think? Check out the video
One day we might all have one of those to check out the latest furniture and what they will look like in our home.
@maniac13
by stephanlange on October 18, 2011
What is SideBySide? – an Ad-hoc Multi-user Interaction with multiple handheld projectors. Multiple people can play and work together using handheld projectors anytime and anyplace.
SideBySide does not require any fixed sensing in the environment and can be used anywhere: at home, at the office, or even inside the car during long road trips. The system consists of a hybrid mobile projector that outputs both visible and invisible projections at the same time. The invisible projection contains tracking data that can be recognized by the device camera, allowing accurate location tracking of multiple projections and lightweight communication between devices.
Check out the video
Cool? – Definitely, all we need now is better batteries so we can put these puppies into our mobile phones.
@maniac13
by stephanlange on September 28, 2011
If you have kids and a tablet you know that your kids love them and you hardly get any time with it yourself.
Disney is going to release their Appmates toys next month and then you won’t get your tablet back at all from your kids.
So what is Appmates? It seems to be a new iPad interface which lets the user (or small and big Kids) control a Cars-themed iPad games using the toys above.
The toy cars have special conductive pads that are recognized by the iPad and interpreted by the app.
As you drive around the virtual environment of Radiator Springs, you’ll hear the character’s voice react to each bump or jostle. Mirrors inside the toy car will reflect light from the iPad through the toy’s headlights, and Mater’s siren as well.
Check out the video after the break
[click to continue…]
by eunmac on August 19, 2011
Video content tends to play a standard role in most websites. The functionality is seldom messed with : Users click a play button to start (or get annoyed it played without your permission) and play only one video at a time. Normally video sits in a fixed position and will be of a set size. Indeed, screwing around with ‘standard video UI design’ can be a dangerous game but when it’s done right, it’s easy to start believing that video should be some much more in so many sites. Check out the Uniqlo website… it’s cool, fun, breaks some boring old rules and is our site of the day.
http://www.uniqlo.com/nyc/voices/
HT to @lyndonjhale
by stephanlange on August 4, 2011
tWe all remember the original 8bit Outrun Game from 1986. I remember playing it until my fingers were bleeding.
So what would it be like if you could have this in real life? That is what the people at the University of California Irvine ask themselves and they created a system that, with the help of cameras and some customized software, looks in front of the vehicle and reproduces a map of what lies ahead of you onto the screen in 8bit rendering just like Outrun.
All you have to do now is follow the route. Simply awesome.
check out the video
@maniac13
by stephanlange on August 3, 2011
Promoting the launch of Cosmo For Guys, Viral marketing company Thinkmodo thought it would be a great idea to put a girls head in a 4 iPad contraption and turn heads. Some people will call it awesome, some will call it creepy, I am just wondering how she is seeing where she is going and if that guy touching her “face” is really annoying her.
Cosmo for Guys is a new digital magazine that is exclusive to the iPad.
check out the viral in actions
@maniac13
by stephanlange on June 26, 2011
We have all heard of synchronized swimming and we have all seen people jump out of planes and do some synchronizing.
But when you take the whole thing inside a smallish tube with lots of wind it somehow becomes a beautiful indoor ballet in the air.
Check out the video, it is pretty cool
by stephanlange on June 16, 2011
The mouse (first one ever displayed below) has been around since the first PCs hit the market and it hasn’t really changed much.
Now 2 German students sat down and started to think about how to improve the mouse and they came up with this prototype.
The roll of your mouse slows down, giving files the feeling weight based on the size of their contents. Depending on how much a given file has been used the mouse starts to breathe.
Check out the video. An interesting thing I thought is that they brought back the mouse ball – remember those – always clogging up with dust?!?
DataBot Mouse from Jan Barth on Vimeo.
They also dreamed up a hard drive concept which expands and contracts based on the amount of space being used up.
DataBot Harddrive from Roman Grasy on Vimeo.
Pretty cool concepts, I am just not sure how useful they would be.
Let me know what you think.
@maniac13
by stephanlange on May 24, 2011
Augmented reality has been around for a while now and we have been using it in the past as well, but we always found it to be sluggish, laggy and unreliable.
Now it seems that there is a light at the end of the tunnel a Sony is holding the torch. Sony announced their SmartAR everybody thought that it is just another technology that has the same issues.
But check out the video below and prepare to be blown away – fast response times, markerless object recognition and original anchors can be out of sight and your virtual object just keeps animating.
There was no availability date announced yet, but I am sure AR will get a lot more coverage once it is out.
@maniac13
