Category Archives: Technology

Skinput brings user interactivity to your body

Technology, Video, , , , , , , ,

Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft have teamed together to create a different type of user input system.  It’s aptly called Skinput and here’s how it works:

We present Skinput, a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In particular, we resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always-available, naturally-portable, and on-body interactive surface.

Veddy veddy interesting.  Potential applications for such a daring input system include cell phone calls, video games, mp3 players.  Is it practical?  I’m not so sure.  But the idea of having a hierarchical menu system accessible on your forearm and manipulated by the touch of your finger and its vibrations just sounds and looks (see the video above) so cool!

[Via NewScientist; Gizmodo]

Microsoft makes Surface “mobile”

Technology, Video, , , , , , , ,

Microsoft’s Surface table is fairly large and very expensive.  And those are two factors that don’t mesh well with the general consuming public.  Microsoft gets that, so they’ve gone ahead and created a prototype version of their multitouch table called Mobile Surface.  Like its older brethren, Mobile Surface uses a projector/camera combo that allows you to interact with on-screen images.  Difference here is that the image projection can be displayed on any surface (making it portable) and it allows for in-air manipulation.  For example, as seen in the video above, you can play the drums without physically touching the tabletop.  Mobile Surface links up to a secondary device, like a cell phone or laptop, to indicate what you’re interacting with.  Pretty neat if you ask me.  Currently Mobile Surface is a Microsoft Research project and Microsoft did not comment on a potential mainstream release.

[Via Pocketlint; Engadget]

The “principal” behind the webcam-spying-on-students fiasco

Hilarity, News, Technology, , , ,

You’ve probably heard this story in the news: Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia gave out laptops to their high school students and used the built-in camera to spy on them.  The administrators had the ability to remotely turn on the webcams so the students could be watched outside school grounds.  After being caught red-handed, the school claimed this was a security measure meant to find stolen laptops.  Having been sued by one student and entering a legal investigation concerning privacy issues, the school has since shut down the webcam “security” feature.

This here video is a “hypothetical look inside the webcam-spying principal’s office,” brought to you by Giz’s Adam Frucci and DC Pierson of Derrick Comedy fame.

[Via Gizmodo]

PlayStation Network error is corrupting ‘fat’ PS3s everywhere [UPDATE: FIXED]

News, Technology, , , , , , , , ,

Late last night Error: 8001050F hit PlayStation 3’s ’round the world.  At first it simply did not allow PS3 users to log into their PlayStation Network accounts and play games online.  Since then things have taken a turn for the worse.  Apparently this error is turning back the console’s clock to January 1, 2000 causing major problems like data loss.  Sony has figured out that the error is only affecting ‘fat’ PS3 models; all PS3 Slim models should be in the clear.  In the meantime, if you own a ‘fat’ PS3, Sony is recommending its customers: DO NOT TURN IT ON until the error is fixed.  Sony “hope[s] to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours.”  Look after the break for official details on the matter straight from PlayStation Blog.

Check back for updates; I’ll be sure to let you know when Sony tells us it’s safe to start gaming and Blu-ray-ing again.  What a disaster.

UPDATE: According to the official PlayStation Blog the PSN bug has been squashed.  They say it’s safe to turn on “phat PS3s” now.  Joystiq spoke to a Sony rep; check out the short Q&A if you are concerned with lost trophy data and the like.  Cue sigh of relief.

[Via PlayStationBlog]

Continue reading PlayStation Network error is corrupting ‘fat’ PS3s everywhere [UPDATE: FIXED] →

Colleges now accepting YouTube videos in applications

Education, News, Technology, , , ,

A number of colleges, including Tufts University and the University of Chicago, are now accepting YouTube videos from prospective students as part of their application.  At these select schools students have the option to include a YouTube video displaying their talent(s) along with the standard required essays.  Tufts asks for a one-minute video that “says something about you.”

Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions, said the idea came to him last spring as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. “I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else,’ ” Mr. Coffin said.

In the latest applicant pool for Tufts 1,000 of the 15,000 prospectives submitted a video.  And many of these videos are garnering a big following.  Amelia Downs’ video that combines “two of [her] favorite things: being a nerd and dancing” has over 77,000 views!  Though it’s something that might get her into college, it’s also an artifact I would not want others to see.  In the end, this is a surprising and exciting decision made by colleges; it gives students a visually creative way to express who they are outside the realm of those boring essays.

Though he may already forgotten his trip to the dentist, David is shoe-in for NYU Tisch, wouldn’t you say?

[Via NY Times; Gizmodo]

NASA’s “Project M” can send robots to the Moon in 1,000 days

space, Technology, Video, ,

This video of NASA Johnson Space Center’s “Project M” depicts a Robonaut-based, tele-operated mission to the Moon – one that JSC claims could be accomplished in 1,000 days once the go-ahead was given.

The background music alone has me pumped for sending exploratory robots into space.  1,000 days, eh?  If we can’t agree on sending more humans to the moon, why not send robots controlled by humans on Earth in motion-capture suits?  Let’s do it!

[Via YouTube; Gizmodo]

HUMAVIPS project to give robots key to our destruction

News, Technology, , , , , ,

A team of robotics researchers led by Radu Horaud began a project this year called the “Humanoids with auditory and visual abilities in populated spaces” (HUMAVIPS) project.  The goal?  To give robots the ability to possess “social skills” and mimic the “cocktail party effect,” which is “the human ability to focus attention on just one person in the midst of other people, voices and background noise.”  Natural interaction between humans and robots, huh?  If you were ever on the fence about Judgement Day being upon us…now what say you?

[Via Wired; Engadget]

Concept: Curious Displays

Design, Technology, Video, , ,

Curious Displays, designed by Julia Yu Tsao, is a way-off-into-the-future conceptual idea.  Like way into the future.  Basically, hundreds of tiny blocks scatter your surroundings and bunch together to form various things.  For example, the blocks can come together to form a screen of sorts to watch a movie, or they can collectively shape into an arrow and point to the location of your missing keys.  Tsao describes the project as such:

The project explores our relationship with devices and technology by examining the multi-dimensionality of communication and the complexity of social behavior and interaction. In its essence, the project functions as a piece of design fiction, considering the fluctuating nature of our present engagement with media technology and providing futurist imaginings of other ways of being.  ..

Curious Displays is a product proposal for a new platform for display technology. Instead of a fixed form factor screen, the display surface is instead broken up into hundreds of ½ inch display blocks. Each block operates independently as a self-contained unit, and has full mobility, allowing movement across any physical surface. The blocks operate independently of one another, but are aware of the position and role relative to the rest of the system. With this awareness, the blocks are able to coordinate with the other blocks to reconfigure their positioning to form larger display surfaces and forms depending on purpose and function. In this way, the blocks become a physical embodiment of digital media, and act as a vehicle for the physical manifestation of what typically exists only in the virtual space of the screen.

It’s all a little too far out there for my tastes, but an interesting topic to undertake nonetheless.

[Via CuriousDisplays; Vimeo; BoingBoing; Gizmodo]

Wired is coming to the iPad, looking suh-weet

Print Media, Technology, Video, , , , , , , , , ,

So this is what Wired is going to look like on the iPad.  Pretty cool, huh?  Wired teamed up with Adobe to create Wired Reader, a digital version of the real-life magazine.  The UI looks stunning and the back-and-forth between pages, images, and video is very fluid.  It runs on top of Adobe’s AIR app, allowing developers to easily convert the Reader to run on other mobile devices and even the PC or Mac.  Will the iPad revolutionize the print media industry?  Hard evidence like this points towards a resounding “yes.”

[Via Wired]

PS3 Slim gets the chrome treatment

Design, Images, Technology, , , , , , ,

ps3_xcm_chrome_casemod

After going gold, it’s only proper for the Playstation 3 Slim to receive the chrome treatment.  The XCM Cyberchrome case is not a cover, it’s a complete shell casing that fits over the Slim’s body.  It’s on sale at TotalConsole for $79.99 if you’re looking to get your PS3 a-shinin’.

[Via Technabob; Gizmodo]