Some graduate students at Universität Konstanz in Germany put together a project based on Microsoft's popular Kinect system. Instead of using the system as a gaming controller, they take the Infrared camera's visual data from a helmet mounted Kinect and uses it to relay audio instructions through a wireless headset. This could possibly give the blind warnings about obstructions and directions at a larger distance than the current white cane and/or seeing eye dog system in popular use today. They call it the NAVI, Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired.
The pair of students wanted to do more than just implement that system. They also put together a limited Augmented Reality system utilizing the standard camera mounted alongside the dual IR cameras that allow the Kinect to have stereoscopic vision. The AR system is set up to read various AR bitmap tags like the one pictured below. This allows the system to work with the external world to give the handicapped access to more information. It also works to prove other AR concepts like having bit mapped tags trigger virtual events.
So for example, if you walk towards a door the output will be "Door ahead in 3″, "2″, "1″, "pull the door" where each part of the information depends on the distance to the marker on the door.
These systems put together allow the student to pass blindfolded through a short course with the NAVI working as a guide. The team put together this short demonstration video showing the components and operation of the system. They talk a little bit about the vibro-tactile arduino system in the belt, but I don't quite understand what's going on there. I'll venture a guess that as the user gets closer to walls the belt will begin to vibrate harder as a tactile warning system.
[via HCI Blog @ Universität Konstanz]
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Sun.com, the twelfth oldest domain on the internet, will be decommissioned on June 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sun | Email this | CommentsNintendo's 3DS isn't just a 3D portable games console, it's also apparently a style judge. According to the handheld's user guide, players with beards, bangs or even glasses could end up confusing the 3DS' facial recognition system.
Piercings and bangs can also apparently confuse matters, while the environment you play in – what's behind you, how good the lighting is – can also have a big impact. Basically, it sounds like the 3DS would prefer you to follow the same guidelines as for passport photos: clear face, plain background and, whatever you do, no smiling.
Now, we've been confused by beards before ourselves in the past, but we do worry about long-sighted gamers forced to squint at their screens because the 3DS forces them to take off their reading glasses if they want to be recognized properly. Bearded, glasses-wearing and riddled with piercings? Perhaps you should just save your money for an NGP.
[via Kotaku]
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Continue reading PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth's rotation
PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth's rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hack-A-Day | pabr.org | Email this | Commentshttp://www.engadget.com/2011/03/15/in-lasers-we-trust-nasa-researches-5kw-galactic-trash-disposal/
The whole idea is stinking "conspiracy" from miles away :p
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The Apple iPad 2 started selling last Friday, March 11th to massive lines at major flagship Apple Stores. One NYC woman was able to sell her first place spot in line for $900. This could become an interesting trend for future Apple product launches…
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College student Sahas Katta was able to beat his speeding ticket in traffic court using…drumroll please…his Android smartphone, and a handy app. Katta was pulled over and charged with going 40mph in a 25mph zone. But he wasn't going 40, only 26mph. His word against the officer's right? Not so much, since he was running My Tracks by Google in the background on his Motorola Droid phone.
The free app records and visualizes GPS data on a map, tracking distance, average speed, average moving speed, and max speed. Katta downloaded this information to Google Docs and brought it with him to the courtroom. He was able to convince the judge that the officer might not have been using his radar gun correctly, introducing enough reasonable doubt that he was declared "not guilty". Nice!
[via Android Community]
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http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/MF3wSMXXYJ8/
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http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/ix2yhSsV7_Y/
A quite interesting study with a quite reasonable outcome :p
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Good times, a really nice article that kept me company during the trip to work:
http://www.eetimes.com/design/embedded/4213842/Using-PCI-Express-as-a-fabric-for-interconnect-clustering?pageNumber=1
When the iPhone 4 first debuted on AT&T users experienced the famous "death grip" as their reception plummeted after holding the phone in a certain way. Consumer Reports has tested the new Verizon version of the iPhone and the reception problem seems to have followed the device to its new network. While complaints rained down on AT&T and Apple when the iPhone launched, complaints have been far fewer for Verizon's iPhone.
Consumer Reports ran the device through the same series of tests as AT&T's iPhone, as well as five other Verizon smartphones: Motorola Droid 2, HTC Droid Incredible, Samsung Fascinate, Motorola Droid X, and the LG Ally. All tests were done in a radio-frequency isolation chamber which blocks outside signals. Sending a signal to the phones, they were then tested by placing a finger on different parts of the phones to see if there was any signal degradation. The only phones who experienced a signal drop were the iPhones.
The drop in reception comes from the design of the iPhone 4. The sleek and stylish design places the antenna on the outer metal band of the phone, and on the lower left is the antenna where the signal loss happens. If you bridge the gap it will result in signal loss, something easily done while holding the phone normally. The design problem is easily alleviated buy putting a case on the iPhone, which lead Apple to hand out their Bumpers for free when the problem first came up. Consumer Reports concludes their test by not including the Verizon iPhone 4 on their recommended smartphone list, despite receiving high marks on their ratings.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2011/02/verizon-iphone-4-reception-problems-consumer-reports-lab-test.html
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Chinese physicists reckon they've figured out the tech behind a staple of science fiction: the tractor beam. Fudan University's Jun Chen and team found a way to create a backward pulling force from a forward propagating laser beam, basically turning the photons into a tiny tractor beam.
When we say tiny, we really mean it; this isn't going to snatch a Klingon Bird of Prey out of the sky and drag it into your cargo bay. Currently, the system will only work if the momentum in the direction of propagation is sufficiently small – basically beams that simply glance off an object – and if the photos can simultaneously excite several multipoles within the particle.
That excitation causes the beam to scatter and, if it's at the right angle, work against the direction of momentum. Space capture isn't the scientists' end goal, however; they believe the system could be useful for manipulating particles at the nano level.
[via Technology Review]
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Opera browser gets an over-17 rating in Mac App Store, reacts in good humor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A team of researchers taught macaques how to maneuver a joystick to indicate whether the pixel density on a screen was sparse or dense. Given a pixel scenario, the monkeys would maneuver a joystick to a letter S (for sparse) or D (for dense). They were given a treat when they selected the correct answer, but when they were wrong, the game paused for a couple seconds. A third possible answer, though, allowed the monkeys to select a question mark, and thereby forgo the pause (and potentially get more treats).
And as John David Smith, a researcher at SUNY Buffalo, and Michael Beran, a researcher at Georgia State University, announced at the AAAS meeting this weekend, the macaques selected the question mark just as humans do when they encounter a mind-stumping question. As Smith told the BBC, "Monkeys apparently appreciate when they are likely to make an error…. They seem to know when they don't know."
These findings aren't applicable to all species of monkeys: The researchers also trained capuchin monkeys, and this species never selected the uncertainty button. These findings may have important evolutionary implications because macaques and capuchins have different lineages: macaques are old world monkeys, and capuchins are new world monkeys.
Smith told the BBC:
"There is a big theoretical question at stake here: Did [this type of cognition] develop only once in one line of the primates – emerging only in the line of Old World primates leading to apes and humans?"
This research is more than just monkey business too: It could shed light on our own cognition. Smith explains to the BBC:
[The] capacity to think in this way was "one of the most important facets of humans' reflective mind, central to every aspect of our comprehension and learning…. These results… could help explain why self-awareness is such an important part of our cognitive makeup and from whence it came," he added.
HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkAli Waqas | xda-developers | Email this | Commentshttp://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/AZYrw8qKerI/
Another license deal for ARM, another step towards the conquest of the world :p
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If you were around in the early days of the video game, you will remember classics like Asteroids and others with blocky graphics and the iconic pewpew sound of lasers being fired. There are still a lot of video games that are made for fans of that old school style fare and a new one has turned up with the name PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew.
The name of the game might not roll off the tongue, but the game is interesting. You don't get a controller as you expect to control the game play; you get a pair of microphones. One player has the mic that controls the thrust of the jetpack by blowing into the mic.
The other player controls the firing of the laser weapon by… wait for it… saying pewpewpew. The game is a left to right scrolling type in a 2D world with vectorized obstacles you have to shoot and fly over or under.
[vimeo 19687592]
Via Geekosystem
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A new study has found that radiation from a cellphone can cause increased brain activity. Areas of the brain close to where the device is held are most affected. However, it is not certain yet whether this increased activity is good or bad. So that smartphone of yours is either making you smarter or increasing your risk of brain cancer.
Ultra-high-frequency radio waves are emitted during calls and data transfers. Some researchers suspect but cannot conclude that this could contribute to health risks such as brain cancer. The new study to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that areas of the brain close to the cellphone use up to 7 percent more energy.
Unlike previous approaches, this new study employed 47 test subjects monitored over a longer time for more significant data. "We have no idea what this means yet or how it works," said neuroscientist Nora Volkow of the National Institutes of Health. "But this is the first reliable study showing the brain is activated by exposure to cellphone radio frequencies."
Although the study cannot conclude whether the increased brain activity is safe or harmful, for the time being Volkow recommends using wired headsets or the speakerphone function to further reduce risk.
[via Wired]
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Continue reading DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird spybot takes flight (video)
DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird spybot takes flight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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