Jul 21
input, jewelry
PopSci - Any sentimentalist knows why we carry cameras: to capture memories. And a memory captured is one you don’t need to remember yourself. That’s more or less the idea behind the new Vicon Revue. The device, which is based on a Microsoft Research project, is a three-ounce camera that automatically snaps away all day long, remembering events so you don’t have to. [Popular Science] took it out for a test drive.
Worn around your neck, the camera takes the pictures as you move around and enter new environments with their different levels of light, temperatures or even wind speeds. It has built-in sensors, including an infrared eye and an accelerometer, to register these changes and tell it to shoot at a rapid-fire speed of one picture per second until conditions settle
Apr 19
display, gadget, input
Wearable Computing — Christian over at Tailor Made Toys has created a way-cool Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Augmented Reality Headset. The headset is composed of Eye-Trek goggles with the addition of a USB laptop webcam. On his blog, Christian says:
“First thing I should probably say here is that I built this without even thinking what its function would be. I just thought it would be cool to add a cam to the front of my Eye-Trek goggles. As it turned out these where ideal for use with augmented reality applications. I am also working on putting them to use for other software. Such as gps overlays and night vision (like being the terminator, but more scrawny).” [...] “Other idea is to have it on all day and log on to chat roulette, give them that “being john malcovich” feeling.”
Mar 29
input
engadget — In December 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart introduced the world to two brand-new computer peripherals. The first was his invention, the computer mouse — which, as you’re well aware, revolutionized user input two decades later. The second, the chorded keyboard, still has yet to take off outside the Braille community. But after forty years, Doug Engelbart hasn’t given up on the latter device; he recently commissioned an industrial designer, Erik Campbell, to modernize the antiquated keyset into this lovely jellyfish-inspired, five-fingered keyboard replacement. Made of silicon rubber and recycled plastics, the concept peripheral uses pressure-sensitive pads at each fingertip to detect key-presses, turns combinations of presses (the “chords”) into letters and words, and sends them over wireless USB to the host computer. Sure, chorded computing isn’t for everyone (else we’d all be sporting iFrogs and typing gloves), but if this concept ever comes to fruition, we just might be tempted to learn.
Mar 26
input
BBC News — Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets.
US researchers have found a way to work out where the tap touches and use that to control phones and music players. Coupled with a tiny projector the system can use the skin as a surface on which to display menu choices, a number pad or a screen. Early work suggests the system, called Skinput, can be learned with about 20 minutes of training.
Jan 29
input
cnet – crave — Canadian firm Deanmark’s wearable mouse comes almost close to aping the glove interface worn by Tom Cruise’s character in “Minority Report.” Though it’s no power glove or highly calibrated gaming hand sock like the Peregrine gauntlet, the AirMouse does seem capable of addressing repetitive strain injuries. Even with the best of ergonomic mice at your fingertips, there’s no avoiding wrist fatigue. Take it from yours truly.
Since a certain late entertainment icon has made the one-gloved look chic, you shouldn’t feel weirded out donning the AirMouse around your palm. This rodent works on wireless, uses an optical laser, runs a week on a single charge, and is said to be pretty fast and accurate as it functions by aligning itself with the ligaments of your hand and wrist.
Mar 10
display, gadget, input
Google Hosted News — US university researchers have created a portable “sixth sense” device powered by commercial products that can seamlessly channel Internet information into daily routines.
The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures. The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.
The MIT wizards cobbled a Web camera, a battery-powered projector and a mobile telephone into a gizmo that can be worn like jewelry. Signals from the camera and projector are relayed to smart phones with Internet connections.
“Other than letting some of you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report’ it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you,” said MIT researcher Patty Maes.
Maes used a Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference stage in Southern California on Wednesday to unveil the futuristic gadget made from store-bought components costing about 300 dollars (US).
Mar 31
input
ETH Life — Sometimes the diagnosis of episodes of illness in schizophrenia, rotatory vertigo, or reading and writing deficits needs electro-oculography (EOG), performed using a special medical apparatus. Andreas Bulling, a doctoral student at the Wearable Computing Lab of ETH Zurich, has developed spectacles that could in future make this technique portable.
The special spectacles fitted with additional sensors record the wearer’s eye movements. This recording is based on the principle of electro-oculography (EOG), a technique that has been known for more than 30 years and in which eye movements are measured using electrodes – similar to an electrocardiogram (ECG).
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