Microsoft showed off a new version of Surface, its tabletop touch computer, during the company’s keynote address at CES on Wednesday night.
Gone is that cumbersome cube-shaped box with cameras inside. Now, there’s a piece of super-tough Gorilla Glass (the same glass that’s on the front and back of the iPhone 4) on top of what looks like a parson’s table. The whole thing is only four inches thick and works with faster processors and sophisticated infrared sensors that give it finer resolution.
The real secret sauce is what Microsoft calls Pixel Sense, a miniaturized version of all those cameras that were formerly mounted underneath the glass surface of the table. Not only is this new version a lot tougher than its predecessor, making it a much more appropriate tabletop for rowdy bars; it’s also a lot smarter. As Microsoft put it, “Every pixel is acting as a camera, so the surface of the PC can actually see.”
Source: Mashable
Jan 5, 2011
Datatilsynet er kritiske til Facebook Places
I formiddag ble den omstridte tjenesten Places rullet ut for norske bruke av den populære sosiale nettjenesten Facebook.
Med Places kan Facebook-brukere rapportere til vennene sine om hvor de befinner seg, laste opp bilder fra stedet, og samtidig tagge hvilke andre venner som eventuelt er med dem.
Facebook Places ble lansert for noen måneder siden i USA og flere europeiske land.
- Du mister litt grepet over hvem som får vite hvor du er. Og det kan være problematisk i forhold til arbeidsgiveren, familie, venner eller andre relasjoner, sier informasjonsdirektør Ove Skåra i Datatilsynet, til DinSide.
Kilde: DinSide
Med Places kan Facebook-brukere rapportere til vennene sine om hvor de befinner seg, laste opp bilder fra stedet, og samtidig tagge hvilke andre venner som eventuelt er med dem.
Facebook Places ble lansert for noen måneder siden i USA og flere europeiske land.
- Du mister litt grepet over hvem som får vite hvor du er. Og det kan være problematisk i forhold til arbeidsgiveren, familie, venner eller andre relasjoner, sier informasjonsdirektør Ove Skåra i Datatilsynet, til DinSide.
Kilde: DinSide
Jan 3, 2011
Oct 23, 2010
Bokode: bokeh used to transmit info
What an interesting idea: researchers are using bokeh (lens blur), instead of sharpness, to transmit lots of data into cameras (think barcodes/QR codes on steroids). Check out the demo:
Check out the project page for more details.
Via John Nack
Aug 8, 2010
Living life in augmented reality
Augmented reality smartphone apps allow users to view the world through their phone's camera with an overlay of useful local information. But with the advent of augmented reality games, could fantasy finally become reality?
A shadowy organisation is stalking a lone individual across London. Its goal? To capture a young woman who has knowledge which could blow the lid off this outfit's nefarious activities in Zambia.
Can a group of ordinary people protect this whistleblower and expose a conspiracy involving oil, a sinister multinational and a library in an African village?
This is not a movie script, but it is the scenario being played out in an augmented reality game called Conspiracy For Good.
This interactive game invites players to engage in a modern day treasure hunt, and springs from the mind of Tim Kring, the writer behind superhero television show, Heroes.
Source: BBC News
A shadowy organisation is stalking a lone individual across London. Its goal? To capture a young woman who has knowledge which could blow the lid off this outfit's nefarious activities in Zambia.
Can a group of ordinary people protect this whistleblower and expose a conspiracy involving oil, a sinister multinational and a library in an African village?
This is not a movie script, but it is the scenario being played out in an augmented reality game called Conspiracy For Good.
This interactive game invites players to engage in a modern day treasure hunt, and springs from the mind of Tim Kring, the writer behind superhero television show, Heroes.
Source: BBC News
Jul 17, 2010
Augmented Reality Becoming More Like the Read/Write Web
This week, augmented reality (AR) took a significant step toward becoming more like the read/write Web with the launch of an online mobile AR CMS for creating content on the Layar platform.
Source: Read/Write Web
"Augmentation" - a Web-based tool for generating mobile AR content - was created by Layar Partner Network member Hoppala. With a Layar developer account, users of Augmentation can easily and instantaneously place their content in Layar with zero code and a few clicks on a map. Custom icons, images, audio, video and 3D content can all be added by way of a full screen map interface, and Hoppala will even host all of the data.
The company has been providing content management solutions for Layar since launching a beta test of its Layarserver in August of 2009. This project, however, is new in that it provides a tidy user-friendly GUI for adding myriad AR data instantly to Layar. For a more detailed look at how the Augmentation Web app works, watch the video embedded below.
As more tools like Augmentation lower the bar of entry for augmented reality, a flood of AR data will begin to fill platforms like Layar, junaio and Wikitude. This progression is not unlike that of the Web with the widespread popularity of blogs. With the Web, however, powerful search engines make finding relevant content much easier and Websites are (for the most part) browser agnostic.
Source: Read/Write Web
Jul 10, 2010
Situated Simulations
«Situated Simulations»-applikasjonen, utviklet gjennom Inventio-prosjektet ved UiO, har fått en innebygd nettleser som viser fram relevante nettsteder uten at 3D-omgivelsene forlates. Applikasjonen kan også gi mer informasjon om objekter som brukeren peker på med mobilen.
Applikasjonen utvikles i samarbeid med svenske CodeGrind. Det arbeides også med en applikasjon til iPad, og i løpet av høsten skal det også komme en versjon for Android.
Kilde: Situated Simulations
Applikasjonen utvikles i samarbeid med svenske CodeGrind. Det arbeides også med en applikasjon til iPad, og i løpet av høsten skal det også komme en versjon for Android.
Kilde: Situated Simulations
Jun 30, 2010
Transformerbare skjermer??
Bruksområdene kan være mange for denne teknologien, som riktignok bare er på forsøksstadiet:
En kan for eksempel se for seg fleksible skjermer, som så kan endre form ved hjelp av løsninger som dette.
Kilde: Nature News
En kan for eksempel se for seg fleksible skjermer, som så kan endre form ved hjelp av løsninger som dette.
Kilde: Nature News
Jun 18, 2010
sound:frame Festival Lightrails
The interactive audio-visual installation ‘Lightrails’ was a project that Strukt created together with unheilbar architektur for Project Space inside the Kunsthalle Wien, commissioned by sound:frame festival. ‘Lightrails’ is a light sculpture with the intention to re-define and re-interpret the exhibition room. An easy but effective mapping technique was used to create seamless projections on both sides of the object. Light-beams were triggered by the visitors and ran through the room, following the surface created by the sculpture. Each ‘reflection’ of the light-beam was accompanied by sound. The speed and brightness of the beam was directly influenced by the force the visitors used when triggering the beam stepping on pedals on the floor. This also influenced the volume of the sound-effects. The audio signal was played back on a surround sound system that allowed a spatial positioning of the sounds and created a truly immersive experience. |
The sound-design was courtesy of Digitalofen Audiobakery, which also created the ambient sounds that were pervasive through the room. As usual, we used our favorite real-time multipurpose toolkit to create the installation.
sound:frame Festival Lightrails / Strukt
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