Add a touch of humor to your morning routine by having some harmless fun with this “You’ve Been Poisoned” coffee mug. The unsuspecting victim innocently sips their brew only to find out they’ve just been poisoned.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition using AltspaceVR was one of my first multi-hour VR experiences. It combined something that I was familiar with and brought it to new life with new capabilities using the power of virtual reality. Whereas Dungeons & Dragons in VR brings anyone from around the world to the same location as you to relish in the joy of tabletop roleplaying in a digital setting, AR would bring digital augmentations into the physical world to enhance a physical game. The prospect is equally as exciting, but for very different reasons.
In a recent blog post on the official Wizards of the Coast website, company President Chris Cocks elaborated on the company’s forthcoming ‘moves’ in the digital space. Chief among the announcements is the founding of a new internal Digital Games Studio at Wizards of the Coast.
Playing D&D in AltspaceVR
Jeffrey Steefel leads the team, which is made up of game industry veterans with experience at studios such as Bioware, Activision, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Valve, and more. The existing Magic Online team (a digital version of the immensely popular Magic: The Gathering card game) is now included under the new Digital Games Studio banner, in addition to several other existing digital art and design teams.
The big news as it pertains to the world of AR though, is this nugget of information: “We will bring our characters and worlds to other games and experiences,” Cocks writes. “What would it be like to throw fireballs as a Planeswalker in an MMO, or quest for treasure with your friends in a D&D augmented-reality game?” This is clearly nothing more than generalized ideas, but it has more legs than just a random statement normally would.
At the GamesBeat 2016 conference, Dungeons & Dragons Director Nathan Stewart spoke on a panel about how to revitalize old franchises. In an interview with VentureBeat after the panel, Stewart elaborated on some of the ideas as they pertain to WotC properties.
“The dream, the dream for me, on AR—when I first saw the HoloLens demo I thought, oh my god, yes,” Stewart said. “Did you see the one where it’s the electrician helping him? When I saw that, I said, yes, that’s D&D. That’s amazing. I totally want to do that..I would like to take Fantasy Grounds or Roll 20, take the virtual tabletop, and play it with an augmented reality-type thing. It’s basically like Kingsmen Table, with the people at the table, whether they’re there or not, with the DM in front, and the DM really being the key to — their version of AR being a little different from other people’s.”
In that interview, Stewart also goes on to elaborate how physical gestures and movements at the table could reveal information that most players otherwise have to ask about, such as where their characters can see or what they’d like to do. You can within the roleplaying mindset and let AR transform stats and mechanics into overlays that are easily accessible and understandable. Not to mention how much easier it would be to create digital art and objects to display on a table through AR glasses, such as 3D map, instead of physically creating all of the props and resources by hand.
Official Wizards of the Coast Artwork
There are no announcements at this time, but based on the words of Cocks and Stewart, it’s clear that WotC is cooking something up for the AR world as it relates to the long-running Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Hopefully something similar is in the works for Magic: The Gathering as well.
CES 2017 wasn’t the year of the smart mirror – but it was hard to ignore the things lurking about around the edges of the show. The phenomenon has been around for a while now, mostly as concept or Arduino-driven DIY projects, but manufacturers have clearly seen the rise of the smart home as an opportunity to really push the concept toward mainstream acceptance. Introduced at the… Read More
CES saw the reveal of the ASUS ZenFone AR, which should be the first phone to put both Google’s depth-sensing Tango augmented reality technology into the same device as the Daydream virtual reality platform. The phone is expected to ship in the coming months.
The AR functionality was shown live on stage at CES by Google’s Johnny Lee, who heads up the Tango team. Google has shown a Hot Wheels app (onstage) and Jenga (shown previously) as realistic digital representations of otherwise classic gaming experiences inserted believably into your environment. A GAP app shown at CES, however, hinted at AR technology’s enormous potential to save folks time. It overlayed clothes of varying sizes seamlessly onto a floating model in the living room, with each outfit draping realistically over different body types.
And as countless CES attendees navigated the endless casino hallways, so many of us could have saved time if we’d been given step-by-step directions. All it would take are little dots overlaid on the carpet ahead shown on the phone’s screen — something that has been shown with Google Tango in the past.
ZenFone AR was offered for hands-on after the event with its VR mode in a standard Daydream View headset, showing how the phone could be a tempting development device as it would let creators test apps for both Tango and Daydream. The ZenFone AR doesn’t integrate the separate mixed reality technologies, instead offering them separately on the same device. The device, however, may help developers prepare themselves for potential next steps in future devices when Google is likely to merge the two sides of its mixed reality development in Android.
“We’re excited about it. There’s no committed timeline for it of course. A lot of it has to do with, how well do we expect to see the overall performance,” said Lee, in an interview with UploadVR at CES. “VR has a lot of compute requirements. Tango has a lot of compute requirements. So when you start running them together…things like thermals and heating become an issue….as we work on testing out the hardware and testing out the software, we’re definitely excited about the potential of the two coming together.”
Lee said they are improving Tango tracking with each update, saying “every month we’re doing improvements.” Though he enjoys the games, Lee is looking forward to mixed reality apps like indoor navigation and shopping experiences to meaningfully change people’s lives.
“I really get excited when I see genuinely provided people value,” Lee said. “Ultimately, to me, it means either saving people time or money…I really like gaming and enjoy it as an entertainment experience, but when I see things like the shopping experience and the utility apps and indoor navigation, all of those genuinely have the ability to save people time or money.”
It is a long year ahead with Facebook, Intel, Qualcomm and Microsoft already showing off VR headsets that can track their location without external sensors. This is the dream of what Google could do when it merges Tango and Daydream into a single mixed reality platform, and there is a lot of time left in the year for Lee to show off Google’s progress. Previously, Lee teased “there’s a whole new class of products that could be made” when our gadgets know their precise location within a given space.
Razer avait fait sensation au CES 2017 de Las Vegas en dévoilant deux projets assez époustouflants, Ariana et Valerie, respectivement un système d’immersion complet et un ordinateur portable à trois écrans. Malheureusement, deux prototypes furent volés. Aujourd’hui, Razer offre une jolie récompense à quiconque permettra de les retrouver. MàJ : Le projet très intéressant de […]
Tired of your cramped apartment, its moldering walls, battered furniture, and the fact that it isn’t on a pirate island or in outer space?
Well, researchers have now managed to use Google’s Tango platform to create a simple app that allows you to scan your home and then walk through it in VR. The interior of a normal building is transformed into a world complete with frolicking deer, for example, as the video below shows.
They say this is a new step for Google’s room-scanning Tango system, which so far has been used to create an augmented reality overlay on a phone screen, but not a full VR experience like this.
Misha Sra, a PhD candidate at MIT’s Media Lab and one of the developers of the project, says she wants to “democratize” VR, so that anyone can pick up a phone and create a virtual environment.
“Let’s say you want to ask your Grandma to build VR for her living room, or house. All she would need to do is pick up a Google Tango-powered phone tablet, turn on the app and walk around her house,” she explains. Your VR house is then viewable on the very same phone through a headset.
So far, the software can turn an interior into four different environments: a lush wood; a rocky island surrounded by shipwreck debris; a volcanic lava flow; and a platform floating in space. The system works by detecting walls and replacing them with barriers in VR so you don’t walk in to them, depending on the environment being mimicked – so a fence in the wood, or lava in the volcano.
You might also worry about tripping over your coffee table, but Sra says the software has that covered. Although the rooms shown in the demo video are clear of stumbling blocks, Sra explains that furniture can be visualized as things like rocks or ponds so users steer clear.
The system, called Oasis – named after the virtual world in the book Ready Player One, which Sra was reading while working on the project – also automatically detects chairs and represents them virtually so you can sit down as you luxuriate in your virtual home. Objects in your house are tracked in real time, so that if you move the chair it will follow you in VR.
The advantage of this kind of scanning system is that “the virtual world conforms to your space,” Sra says. “You don’t have to clear out your living room, move furniture out, and clear an open space like you do for the Vive [or other room-scale VR setups.]”
It’s the same idea as was on display at the recent CES conference from Intel’s Project Alloy, a headset that claims to be able to scan your room and replicate it in VR – meaning you can duck behind your real furniture while gaming. Oasis could be used to make your home more appealing, Sra thinks. “Let’s say it’s the middle of winter in Boston,” she says, and going outside is not the most appealing idea. “You say OK, I want to be at the beach – and so you’re at the beach.” Friends in VR are then able to come and hang out and tell stories in your spruced-up living room.
Sadly, Sra’s project is an early stage research demo, and not close to being a finished, available product. But next, she and her fellow researchers want to give users the ability to customize their VR house, selecting an environment to their taste.
There is no limit to the kind of virtual homes we could walk around, she says. “I could create a Paris theme…or Lord of the Rings,” she imagines. “I think it could be a pretty interesting creativity tool.”
As VR and AR mature, they’ll borrow more of each other’s expertise; from the one, more immersive environments; from the other, intelligent means of walking the line between virtual and real. One example of such a crossover is the D3-U, a physical camera made for taking pictures in VR. Read More
Even though tabletop gaming may not be what you first think of when you imagine the immersive potential of virtual reality, it fits the medium better than you’d initially think. Playing games of Dungeons & Dragons in VR feels natural and by eschewing the need for physical table space, actually being present in the same room together, or the pain of cleanup and setup, everything just flows much more easily. It all contributes to VR being a powerful way of enjoying tabletop pastimes without an actual tabletop.
Tapping into this potential is a new VR development studio dubbed Experiment 7. Today Gamesindustry.biz revealed the new studio, which is headed up by EEDAR co-founder Geoffrey Zatkin (serving as Creative Director) and former Zynga New York GM Demetri Detsaridis (serving as GM). Coray Seifert (serving as Director of Production) from Impellar Studios also joins the team.
At the core of their focus is the concept of the Magic Table. “We built Magic Table as a platform for our own games, but eventually want other developers to be able to release Magic Table games as well,” explains Detsaridis. “Players on the platform can challenge real-world friends, other VR users from around the world, or face our custom AI opponents in a variety of tabletop games set in stunning and personalizable rooms. You can even play and chat with users on completely different VR hardware.”
In fact, you can play a single player preview version of Magic Table Chess for free right now on both Gear VR and Oculus Rift. Multiplayer, avatars, and motion controllers are planned additions for a later time.
The advent of VR as a social platform is a major theme for the new studio, but it’s not clear how they plan to differentiate themselves from existing options. You can already play a full game of D&D inside AltspaceVR with officially licensed materials. But even more specifically, Tabletop Simulatoris an existing game that includessupport for non-VR and the HTC Vive (as well as Rift with Touch unofficially) on Steam with essentially any tabletop game you could imagine. It even has multiplayer and motion controllers, as well as user-generated content available. You can download and play all of that right now.
It remains to be seen what exactly Experiment 7 and the Magic Table platform intend to do to set themselves apart, other than offer a mobile VR experience, so we will continue following the studio and its creations to see what happens next.
Are you a fan of tabletop gaming in VR? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
The first sequencing of the whole human genome in 2003 cost roughly $2.7 billion, but DNA sequencing giant Illumina has now unveiled a new machine that the company says is “expected one day” to order up your whole genome for less than $100. Illumina’s CEO Frank deSouza showed off the machine, called the NovaSeq, onstage at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in downtown… Read More
I recreated my favorite MythBusters experiment and tried to chop a car in half with a Rocket Knife. I also tried to chop a chicken, steak, and fruits in half! Next week.. RED HOT ROCKET KNIFE! …after my burns heal ;)
Hisense presents 4K HDR models: 65H8C 65" 4K HDR at $999, 86H8D at $5999, 65" H9D+ with ULED, 70" H8D. 8K. 70" $3499, 75" $5999. 75" 4K Roku TV at $1999, 65" 4K Roku TV at $799. Hisense has a 430 acres 4K TV factory in China and another TV factory in Mexico for the US which they bought from Sharp.
La voix est la prochaine grande plateforme technologique. "Voice is the New Search", prévient depuis plusieurs mois Google, mais, au CES cette semaine à Las Vegas, c’est son rival Amazon qui, avec éclat, a affiché une avance insolente en matière d’interface vocale, le nouvel OS de nos vies connectées, dopé à l’intelligence artificielle avec qui nous devons désormais apprendre à vivre.
A la maison comme dans nos voitures, en marchant ou à la gym, nous allons relever la tête de nos écrans et lâcher nos claviers pour parler aux machines qui nous assistent et contrôlent notre monde.
Quand les interfaces traditionnelles graphiques s’estompent, ce n’est pas un petit changement. C’est le résultat de progrès foudroyants dans la fiabilité de la reconnaissance vocale et du traitement du langage qui, au fur et à mesure de leur utilisation, apprennent et rendent les services rendus de plus en plus pertinents. En somme, l’arrivée de l’intelligence artificielle dans notre vie quotidienne.
Attention ! Nouvel usage !
En 18 mois, prenant de vitesse Google et surtout Apple, Amazon a déjà imposé un nouvel usage aux Etats-Unis, et depuis peu au Royaume Uni avec Echo, sa petite enceinte cylindrique qui abrite l’assistant virtuel à commande vocale.
Encore inédit en France, Echo, commandé à la voix, permet, grâce au cloud et à son OS « Alexa », d’écouter de la musique, de commander un taxi, d’acheter des produits, d’allumer les lumières, le chauffage, de fermer une porte, etc…
Ainsi débute le règne des assistants personnels – Alexa, puis Google Assistant dans Google Home et Pixel, Cortana de Microsoft et Siri d’Apple, moins performant — qui pourraient bien changer autant nos vies que les applications de nos smart phones.
A gauche Echo d'Amazon, à droite Google Home
Interagissant avec des machines opérées à des milliers de kilomètres de distance, nous commençons déjà à dicter nos emails ou textos, et Google assure que 20% du search sur Android se fait désormais à la voix. Les interfaces conversationnelles chatbots, alimentées par la voix, pourraient bien vite, selon certains, tuer et remplacer sites et applis.
Search pour Google Assistant
Alexa Inside ! Alexa OS de l’Internet des objets
Amazon, forçant les constructeurs de terminaux à tous s’adapter, étend maintenant cette interface très naturelle et bien pratique à de nombreux nouveaux appareils domestiques qui peuvent désormais répondre à des questions, accomplir des tâches ou contrôler notre environnement : du frigo au réveil, des lampes aux machines à laver, de l’aspirateur à la tondeuse, en passant par la voiture et les futurs robots-guides dans les magasins ou les aéroports.
Et désormais à la télévision.
Nous allons donc parler à notre téléviseur ! Et probablement, bientôt, lui demander de nous recommander des programmes.
"Qu'est ce qu'il y a de bien ce soir à la télé ?"
Au CES, Amazon a noué des partenariats avec des fabricants chinois de TV 4K (Seiki, Westinghouse, Element) en proposant sa plateforme Fire TV fonctionnant à la voix.
Samsung a intégré la voix depuis un an dans son interface et LG propose désormais le bouton voix au beau milieu de ses nouvelles télécommandes.
Google a donc profité du CES pour annoncer l’arrivée dans les prochains mois d’Assistant dans les Android TV et les boxes. Mais aussi dans les voitures et les montres.
L’enceinte Google Home, similaire à Echo, a été lancée cet automne et intègre la possibilité de commander des séries Netflix à la voix sur le téléviseur. Lenovo a montré la sienne au CES, tout comme Mattel celle pour les enfants. Le constructeur de cartes graphiques Nvidia a lancé un assistant personnel « Spot », petite boule qu’on accroche au mur.
Mark Zuckerberg a montré en fin d’année qu’il avait construit lui même son propre assistant personnel virtuel, Jarvis :
La nouvelle console Shield de Nvidia exploitant Android TV dispose d’une commande du téléviseur et des programmes à la voix, intégrant Google Assistant.
Démo :
Turner Sports intègre Alexa à son appli de télécommande pour réduire le stress du téléspectateur noyé par l’océan de contenus sportifs disponibles. Huawei l’a fait pour nouveau smart phone Mate 9.
Après "mobile first, AI first" !
Les médias, à l’image de Hearst, commencent à monter des équipes autour de ces nouvelles interfaces naturelles qui suscitent un très fort engagement avec le public.
L'activation par la voix témoigne d'un nouvel âge de l’informatique vocale et conversationelle : « depuis le début de l’informatique, nous avons dû apprendre le langage des machines, il était temps qu’elles apprennent le notre ! », note le CEO de Narrative Science.
Déjà 72% des Américains qui possèdent des objets connectés souhaitent que la voix soit la principale voie d’accès. 6 millions de foyers américains possèdent déjà des smart speakers, nouvel assistant numérique du foyer familial. Le CES s’attend à un doublement cette année.
L'automobile est une des premières cibles. Dans quelques semaines Ford intégrera Alexa à son tableau de bord pour se guider sur la route, écouter sa musique ou acheter sur… Amazon.
Dans peu de temps, écrit cette semaine le Washington Post, « nos voitures ne seront pas seulement plus sûres et plus fiables, elles deviendront les compagnons attentifs à tous nos faits et gestes, mémorisant nos goûts, préférences, trajets, voix, etc… ».
Et il est probable que les enfants nés cette année n’auront pas à passer un permis de conduire.
Déjà des problèmes, bien sûr !
Tout nouvel usage a évidemment des bugs, voire soulève de vrais gros problèmes.
Les assistants apprennent vite mais ont encore mais encore beaucoup de difficultés à comprendre les contextes d’utilisation.
La protection de la vie privée est un enjeu majeur. Pour être activés, ces assistants écoutent en permanence ! Qui peut écouter ? Où seront stockées nos conversations ?
Des incidents avec des enfants se produisent déjà :
Des problèmes mais aussi des situations inédites : ce week-end, sur Twitch, la plateforme live qui retransmet des jeux vidéo, des milliers de personnes, sidérés, n’ont pas pu quitter l’écran où se parlaient en direct deux robots !
Pour l’instant la France, hormis via Siri ou Google Now, est épargnée par cette nouvelle vague technologique vocale : Alexa n’y est pas encore disponible et le nouveau téléphone Pixel de Google qui embarque le performant Assistant ne sortira pas avant le 2ème trimestre. L’interface en Français n’est pas encore prête. Mais ça ira vite !
"On comprend ici qu'on est en train de passer du Big Data à l'Intelligence Artificielle", résumait cette semaine à Las Vegas, le patron d’Orange, Stéphane Richard.
Si financièrement parlant, Samsung se porte plus que bien, cela ne l'empêche pas de continuer à chercher de nouvelles sources de revenus. Sa dernière idée en date : utiliser son parc de dizaines de millions de téléviseurs connectés... pour y diffuser de la publicité.
The HTC Vive tracker is a little black "puck" that opens the door to a new wave of VR simulations, the kind where we aren't confined to the limitations of a controller.
Imaginez un frigo connecté, une télé connectée et un PC de bureau qui soient tous les trois munis d’une petite encoche permettant d’y glisser un morceau de métal de 94.5 mm de long pour 55 mm de large et 5 mm d’épaisseur. A l’intérieur, un coeur de PC complet : Processeur, mémoire vive et stockage avec en prime une connexion Wifi, c’est le Intel Compute Card.
L’idée n’est pas nouvelle, de nombreux constructeurs ont déjà promis ce genre d’idée au travers différents formats. Des fabricants de téléviseurs qui ont promis des formats de cartes évolutives pour rendre leurs solutions un peu plus évolutives. D’autres type de produits avec ce genre d’évolution au travers différents formats. Jusqu’à Nvidia qui a lancé un format Tegra sur carte SoDIMM capable d’être intégré facilement à diverses machines. On ne peut pas dire que cela fût un succès, à chaque fois la promesse de pouvoir changer le coeur de l’engin était faite, à chaque fois le constructeur n’y donnait pas suite.
La position d’Intel est un peu différente. D’une part le fondeur a les moyens de rendre son Intel Compute Card populaire auprès des fabricants, d’autre part sa proposition n’est pas construite autour d’un format de machine sortant des standards actuels.
La promesse d’Intel tourne autour d’un PC pouvant être un processeur Intel Kaby Lake de septième génération, vous pourrez avoir un core i7 dans ce boitier de 9.5 sur 5.5 cm… Et si un adaptateur sort un jour, ce qui semble des plus logique, le même PC pourra vous servir à piloter un appareil connecté ou devenir un PC classique en branchant un clavier, une souris et un écran sur le dock.
Le tempo est également différent, Intel promet un objet disponible dès la moitié de l’année et se base sur une connectique devenue un vrai standard aujourd’hui, l’USB type-C. Un seul port peut servir à alimenter la carte et ses composants tout en proposant une bande passante suffisante pour profiter à plein des capacités de l’objet. Intel parle d’USB, de PCIe, de HDMI et de DisplayPort et de fonctions additionnelles. Ce n’est pas un scénario de science fiction ou le vœu d’un unique constructeur de téléviseur ou de frigo mais bien une solution qui pourra être adoptée par l’ensemble des fabricants du marché, de manière assez simple.
Pour le moment, nous n’avons pas de date précise pour cet Intel Compute Card. Pas même de détails de ses caractéristiques complètes et encore moins de prix. Mais après le Compute Stick comme PC d’appoint à brancher sur un téléviseur, l’Intel Compute Card pourrait devenir un standard où de simples constructeurs n’auraient qu’à respecter un cahier des charge connectique: Une prise au bon format correctement alimentée et les éléments pour faire transiter les données vers les différents ports (affichage, USB, mémoire de masse) pour être, de facto, compatible.
Plusieurs partenaires internationaux se sont déjà déclarés intéressés : Dell, HP, Lenovo et Sharp pour commencer mais également des consrtructeurs ou développeurs plus locaux comme Seneca Data, InFocus, DTx, TabletKiosk et Pasuntech.
Si l’offre est intéressante, suffisamment performante et pas inabordable on peut imaginer foule d’usages pour cet Intel Compute Card, de la traditionnelle télé connectée au PC à brancher sur un dock, on peut imaginer plein d’outils qui seront ravis d’être boostés par une carte de ce type : Machines CNC et autres imprimantes 3D pour les plus connues mais également tout type de robot et autres développement industriels : Affichage numérique, écrans d’information, distributeurs, systèmes de sécurité ou domotique. On imagine que pour un partenaire industriel, réduire l’ensemble des “cerveaux” de ses machines en activité à une seule et unique carte de ce genre rendrait le dépannage et la manutention de ses engins beaucoup plus aisée.
Mise à jour à 18H36 : Gogogadgeto a pointé un lien vers Gizmodo en commentaire où l’on découvre des prototypes de docks et la connectique de l’Intel Compute Card.
Celle ci est donc bien originale et dérivée de l’USB-C. Elle servira à tous les éléments entrants et sortants de l’objet. De l’alimentation à l’affichage en passant par le pilotage des différents composants.
Le format carte permet une intégration très discrète et efficace . Ce dock imaginé par Sharp en donne une bonne idée. On insère l’Intel Compute Card comme on manipulait une disquette auparavant. On pourra brancher ce type de dock affleurant à un bureau et profiter ainsi d’une connectique complète avec un clavier et une souris en USB ainsi qu’un port RJ45 pour un accès au réseau. D’autres connecteurs sont peut être disponibles de l’autre côté de l’engin.
On apprend, au passage, qu’Intel a développé l’engin avec Foxconn qui se chargera de sa fabrication. Le format carte de crédit est presque atteint ce qui, même si on n’a pas le détail précis des spécifications de l’objet, est assez impressionnant.
Ce dock prototype imaginé par Intel pourrait être votre PC de bureau du futur au travail. Avec un Intel Compute Card que l’on voit juste émerger via le liseré argenté en façade, on imagine très bien pouvoir l’éjecter pour le glisser au sein d’un portable d’entreprise pour retrouver ses données mises à jour en mobilité.
Flir, une référence dans le domaine des caméras thermiques, profite du CES pour lancer la troisième génération de son capteur One pour smartphones. Il est accompagné d'une version Pro avec une précision multipliée par quatre. Tarif de base, 199,99 dollars.
At its CES 2017 press event, HTC gave us the rundown on all of the latest Vive developments, including wireless adaptors, a Deluxe Audio Strap, and even a subscription service for virtual reality games and applications.
Touchscreen technology has redefined the ways we interact with electronic devices, but while controls have gotten more precise over the years, touchscreens themselves haven’t been able to truly replicate the human sense of touch. Tanvas wants to add the ability to feel texture on a touchscreen with a new haptic feedback technology showcased at CES.
In my short demo, I played with a few sample applications. One lets you drag your finger through a virtual pool with pebble floors. The haptic feedback makes it feel like water ripples are following your fingertips, and the pebbles underneath create a slight “bump” between every other stone. It feels really zen.
Another interesting application is with one of Tanvas’ partners Bonobos, the...
Every company tries to be the first with the biggest CES announcement, but Asus has been preempted today by hardware partner Qualcomm, which has revealed the upcoming ZenFone AR smartphone with Google Tango support. At the same, prolific leaker @evleaks has provided an image of both the front and back of the new phone.
Spotted by GSM Arena and others, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Blog today disclosed the news about the Asus ZenFone AR, which will follow in the footsteps of the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the first phone with Google Tango. Tango is a souped-up version of augmented reality from Google that holds a lot of promise, but still needs work.
The ZenFone AR will be powered by a Snapdragon 821 processor, same class of chip as in the Google Pixel...
Many of us will have seen robotics or prosthetics operated by the electrical impulses detected from a person’s nerves, or their brain. In one form or another they are a staple of both mass-market technology news coverage and science fiction.
The point the TV journalists and the sci-fi authors fail to address though is this: how does it work? On a simple level they might say that the signal from an individual nerve is picked up just as though it were a wire in a loom, and sent to the prosthetic. But that’s a for-the-children explanation which is rather evidently not possible with a few electrodes on the skin. How do they really do it?
A project from [Bruce Land]’s Cornell University students [Michael Haidar], [Jason Hwang], and [Srikrishnaa Vadivel] seeks to answer that question. They’ve built an interface that allows them to control a robotic hand using signals gathered from electrodes placed on their forearms. And their write-up is a fascinating read, for within that project lie a multitude of challenges, of which the hand itself is only a minor one that they solved with an off-the-shelf kit.
The interface itself had to solve the problem of picking up the extremely weak nerve impulses while simultaneously avoiding interference from mains hum and fluorescent lights. They go into detail about their filter design, and their use of isolated power supplies to reduce this noise as much as possible.
Even with the perfect interface though they still have to train their software to identify different finger movements. Plotting the readings from their two electrodes as axes of a graph, they were able to map graph regions corresponding to individual muscles. Finally, the answer that displaces the for-the-children explanation.
There are several videos linked from their write-up, but the one we’re leaving you with below is a test performed in a low-noise environment. They found their lab had so much noise that they couldn’t reliably demonstrate all fingers moving, and we think it would be unfair to show you anything but their most successful demo. But it’s also worth remembering how hard it was to get there.
We’ve covered a huge number of robotic and prosthetic hands here over the years, but it is a mark of the challenges involved that we’ve covered very few that are controlled in this way. Even those that have are usually brain-controlled rather than nerve-controlled, and are thus considerably more complex. We applaud this team for their achievement, and we hope others will pick up on their work.
Apart from Iron Man’s transparent smartphone looking exceptionally cool, it really doesn’t make much sense to have one.
“Transparent screens by their very nature make what’s happening on the front of the screen happen on the back of the screen,” Jennifer Davis, vice president of marketing and product strategy at Planar Systems, explained in an interview with Inverse.
“There are lots of things people do on their phones that they don’t want everybody watching.”
The transparent smartphone may still be some years away. Credit: Paramount Pictures/Marvel Studios
Besides, today’s technology still hasn’t advanced to the point where it can recreate these see-through smartphones. But that’s not to say we can’t have some form of cool tech inspired by Tony Stark’s gadget arsenal.
For larger screens, like televisions, not only is the technology more appropriate, it’s also more feasible—and is actually commercially available. In fact, Panasonic already showcased a demo screen at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which featured a widescreen TV that could go partially transparent to display the shelves behind it.
Planar Systems
But Planar Systems is taking this concept a step further—by adding touch screen functionality. The screens will be given a sense of functionality, which opens up a wealth of new possibilities.
“If your experience with the display is going to be transparent, and I mean that in every sense of the word, and it’s going to be visible and [have] an element of publicness to it, why not make it a social experience?” Davis says.
As a television screen, the many applications for the technology would be pretty extraordinary. Imagine having a living room window that could transform into your TV?
But beyond interiors, Planar Systems has some very interesting ideas about how their technology can be used.
For instance, museums could use the screen as interactive, augmented reality displays that allows guests to enjoy the experience minus clunky headgear. Visitors could view a particular artifact through the glass, with graphics and visuals overlaid to provide more information. It can basically transform the traditional augmented reality (AR) experience—which is largely a personal activity because of the required headsets—into a more social setting.
A concept for interactive museum glass displays. Image Credit: Planar Systems
In retail, it can be applied as a storefront window that incorporates the actual products and the digital visuals. Or imagine the technology’s use in hospitals, where such display screens could be used in tandem with a digital assitant that provides instructions, directions, and assitance for filling out digital forms through mobile interaction with patients for added privacy.
What Planar Systems wants to do is go beyond the obvious display applications and integrate these screens into the very architecture of structures—so that they become as natural a building material as concrete, rebar and I-beams.
“We’d like to see video walls and displays and transparent displays be integrated into the design—in fact, integral to the design,” Davis added.
For now, the screens are currently commercially available for $18,500 (for the smallest, 55-inch 1080 full HD display). That’s a hefty price tag, but hopefully, as businesses and wealthy private owners shell out the money for these early models, the prices will come down and someday we’ll consider transparent, invisible TV screens just a normal part of 21st Century life.
Last week we announced a comprehensive list of nominees for our 2016 Game of the Year Awards. There were over 20 categories selected with approximately 4-8 different games and experiences nominated for each category. That all adds up to a ton of amazing content we saw in VR’s first full year of consumer adoption.
We teamed up with the prolific Christopher Sabat (the voice of Piccolo, Yamcha, and of course Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z as well as Roronoa Zoro in One Piece) to record a video announcing each winner in every category. In my opinion, getting a glimpse of gameplay combined with that epic voice is absolutely the best way to experience our award selections. Check it out:
Since there were so many categories to decide and so many voices to hear, we actually had a true deliberation process in real-time using AltspaceVR. That means for three hours I, the Games Editor at UploadVR, Staff Writer Joe Durbin, Staff Writer Jamie Feltham, and Senior Editor Ian Hamilton, all discussed the nominees and who we thought deserved to win each and every category. That entire process was recorded, so get your popcorn ready.
We know it is three hours long, at the very least the first 25 or so minutes are pretty funny. The whole thing is embedded below.
We also have the third, and quickest, way to digest our selections and that’s in plain old text format.
Check them out below!
Best Music/Sound Design Winner: Thumper
Bound
EVE: Valkyrie
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Thumper
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Art Direction Winner: Bound
ADR1FT
Bound
The Climb
Obduction
Robinson: The Journey
SUPERHOT VR
Thumper
Best Online Game Winner: Werewolves Within
Arizona Sunshine
Battlezone
Dead and Buried
EVE: Valkyrie
Onward
RIGS
The Unspoken
Werewolves Within
Best Narrative Winner: The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
The Assembly
Edge of Nowhere
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Obduction
Robinson: The Journey
Best Immersive Film Winner: KÀ The Battle Within
Ctrl
Gnomes and Goblins
Henry
KÀ The Battle Within
Best Productivity App Winner: Bigscreen
Bigscreen
Envelop
LightVR
Virtual Desktop
Best Creativity App Winner: Tilt Brush
Gravity Sketch
Medium
Quill
Tilt Brush
Best Racing Game Winner: DiRT Rally
Blaze Rush
DiRT Rally
Driveclub VR
Project CARS
Redout
Best Horror Game Winner – A Chair in a Room: Greenwater
A Chair in a Room: Greenwater
The Brookhaven Experiment
Dark Days
Sisters
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Action/Adventure Game Winner: Vanishing Realms
Chronos
Edge of Nowhere
SUPERHOT VR
Vanishing Realms
Windlands
Best Puzzle Game Winner: SUPERHOT VR
Fly to KUMA
Hitman GO: VR Edition
Neverout
Please, Don’t Touch Anything
SUPERHOT VR
Water Bears VR
Best Shooter Winner: Onward
Arizona Sunshine
Damaged Core
Onward
Raw Data
RIGS
Space Pirate Trainer
Most Surprising New Game Winner: Onward
The Brookhaven Experiment
Eagle Flight
Onward
Space Pirate Trainer
Thumper
The Unspoken
Vanishing Realms
Best Mobile VR Game Winner: Minecraft
Dark Days
End Space
Minecraft
Neverout
Sisters
Tactera
Wands
Best Rift Game Winner: The Unspoken
Arizona Sunshine
Chronos
The Climb
Damaged Core
Edge of Nowhere
Lucky’s Tale
SUPERHOT VR
The Unspoken
Best Vive Game Winner: Arizona Sunshine
Arizona Sunshine
The Brookhaven Experiment
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
The Lab
Onward
Raw Data
Vanishing Realms
Best PS VR Game Winner: RIGS
Battlezone
Bound
How We Soar
Job Simulator
Rez Infinite
RIGS
Thumper
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
Best Social Variety Experience Winner: AltspaceVR
AltspaceVR
Bigscreen
Destinations
High Fidelity
Rec Room
Toybox
Most Innovative VR Game Winner: Fantastic Contraption
Accounting
Damaged Core
Eagle Flight
Fantastic Contraption
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
The Lab
SUPERHOT VR
Breakout VR Game Studio Winner: Owlchemy Labs
CCP Games (EVE: Valkyrie, Gunjack, Project Arena)
Cloudhead Games (The Gallery)
High Voltage (Damaged Core, Dragon Front)
Insomniac (Edge of Nowhere, The Unspoken)
Owlchemy Labs (Job Simulator, Rick and Morty)
Playful Corp (Lucky’s Tale, Wonderland)
Squanchtendo (Accounting)
Survios (Raw Data)
Best VR Game of the Year Winner: Arizona Sunshine
Arizona Sunshine
Damaged Core
The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed
Job Simulator
Onward
Rez Infinite
SUPERHOT VR
The Unspoken
Most Anticipated Upcoming VR Game of 2017 Winner: Star Trek – Bridge Crew
Arktika.1
Fallout 4 VR
Farpoint
Lone Echo
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Rock Band VR
Star Trek: Bridge Crew
Wilson’s Heart
What are your picks for some of the best games and experiences this year? Did your favorite not win what you thought it would? Let us know in the comments below!
There’s a lot going on with the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro smartphone, a dizzying array of things to consider. The first is that it’s massive, barely qualifying as a phone, with a 6.4-inch display and hard, chamfered edges that make it feel like a weaponized phablet. The second thing to consider is that this a Lenovo phone. For people in China, India, or Vietnam, this is not an anomaly. But in the US, where we prize our high-priced iPhones and Samsungs and various other Android phones, Lenovo is a brand-new entrant.
The third and most important thing to consider is this is the only device you can buy right now that supports Google Tango. Tango is Google-made software that, combined with specific hardware, offers advanced 3D sensing. If basic...
Does it feel like the only time you hear about Bitcoin is when the price is either abruptly soaring or sinking? Us too! This time it’s soaring. Bitcoin is up about 30% over the last month, and about 50% over the last 3 months. The current price is hovering right around $950. The last time it traded this close to $1,000 was in January 2014 when the price hit $1,023 – right before… Read More
I’d wager most people who bought the HTC Vive love the unit but wish a new version would bring key improvements. A slimmer design and lighter cord, a better fit for the face and more ergonomic controllers without hard-to-reach grip buttons are all near the top of the early adopter wish list.
HTC relies on Valve’s lighthouse tracking technology to make the Vive and its controllers work. Earlier this year, Valve opened up that technology to a wide range of partners. While none of these partners have officially announced products compatible with this SteamVR Tracking technology yet, early buyers are anxious because future headsets and accessories could be lower cost if you already have the VR tracking system installed.
This means anticipation is high for CES next week. Really high. The event, spread across Las Vegas, is one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics conferences. Last year, HTC used CES to offer a first hands-on demo with the Vive Pre developer kits, giving early adopters their first look at what consumer room-scale VR looks like. Given this anticipation, rumors have been circling that HTC is set to reveal the next iteration of its Vive VR headset at CES. To put it plainly: they’re not true.
HTC confirmed to UploadVR that it will not be announcing a “Vive 2” at this year’s show.
“There is no truth to the rumor of launching Vive 2 at CES 2017,” the official statement from HTC reads. “At Vive, we are laser focused on building out a strong and growing ecosystem for current and future Vive owners so they can experience the best room-scale VR with the most compelling content available.”
It is also worth noting that, while we expect major announcements and VR-related reveals next week, Oculus is not listed as an exhibitor at CES this year. Facebook is, but there is no booth listed. Last year at CES Oculus had a very large booth on the show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center. That doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. It makes sense on multiple levels, given that Facebook seems to be absorbing the Oculus brand, and they just shipped Oculus Touch a couple of weeks ago. CES isn’t really necessary for Facebook because if you want to check out their latest VR efforts you can go into one of hundreds of stores around the country for a demo of the Oculus Rift.
Lorsque vient le moment de préparer un paquet cadeau, certains prennent à peine le temps de faire la chose correctement et d’autres, a contrario, y mettent une intention toute particulière. Il fallait au moins ça pour réaliser ce troll parfait. À première vue, c’est une guitare qui se trouve sous le sapin, mais… « Mon frère […]
CES 2017 wasn’t the year of the smart mirror – but it was hard to ignore the things lurking about around the edges of the show. The phenomenon has been around for a while now, mostly as concept or Arduino-driven DIY projects, but manufacturers have clearly seen the rise of the smart home as an opportunity to really push the concept toward mainstream acceptance. Introduced at the… Read More
As VR and AR mature, they’ll borrow more of each other’s expertise; from the one, more immersive environments; from the other, intelligent means of walking the line between virtual and real. One example of such a crossover is the D3-U, a physical camera made for taking pictures in VR. Read More
The first sequencing of the whole human genome in 2003 cost roughly $2.7 billion, but DNA sequencing giant Illumina has now unveiled a new machine that the company says is “expected one day” to order up your whole genome for less than $100. Illumina’s CEO Frank deSouza showed off the machine, called the NovaSeq, onstage at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in downtown… Read More
Does it feel like the only time you hear about Bitcoin is when the price is either abruptly soaring or sinking? Us too! This time it’s soaring. Bitcoin is up about 30% over the last month, and about 50% over the last 3 months. The current price is hovering right around $950. The last time it traded this close to $1,000 was in January 2014 when the price hit $1,023 – right before… Read More
