March 29, 2006
Robolobsters!
[DARPA spokesperson] Walker said nature has done all the work and figured out that the lobster's design is perfect for operating in heavy surf."The lobster is able to maneuver inside the surf zone where the water is very rough," she said. "We want to know, 'How does it do that and keep from being knocked around?'"
"Ain't they cute?"
[ Link via John Champlin. Thanks John! ]
Device Alerts You if You're Boring
Wearable computing is helping the boring and and irrating by giving the wearer cues when the person they're talking to is loosing interest or getting annoyed. Most people don't really need devices like this, but for those with autism have an inability to pick up on social cues that are natural to the rest of us.
The "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
Now it would be great to have something like this that was designed to do the opposite, give information to the wearer when they're being interesting. Instead of getting negative signals, they would get positive signals. This stuff is very similar to lie detection with facial recognition. Expect the robots / cyborgs / big brother to be very hip to what you're up to in that near near future.
[ Link via Google News ]
March 27, 2006
WIRED Article on Smart Clothing / Wearable Computing
WIRED has an article on smart clothing and wearable computing entitled "What You'll Wear in 10 Years". In my opinion, they're not so far off. They discuss the trends, but most interestingly they describe this concept in smart clothing:
Suzanne Lee, a senior professor at St. Martin's School of Fashion in London and the author of Fashioning the Future, describes a " spray-on dress" made from a chemical formula that allows you to create a temporary dress from virtually nothing. The chemical is sprayed directly onto the skin to form a cloud of non-woven cloth, which can be styled as desired. At the MIT Media Lab, students have also conjured up "epi-skin," a piece of jewelry made from epithelial skin cells that are cultured in the lab and grown in a test tube.
Talk about skin tight. Instead of being poured into a dress, people will be pouring dresses onto themselves. Or maybe not, but it's a neat idea.
[ Link via del ]
Another Wildplanet HMD!
Wildplanet, the company behind the now discontinued Spy Gear Night Vision Goggles is coming out with a new toy this fall that may well serve as a great replacement for us wearable computing makers. This time, instead of going the pure infrared approach, they decided to put the camera on a remote control car instead, which reminded me of the 1st person helicopter HMD I blogged about last month. This new toy is recommended for all hackers ages 8 and above, and has a suggested retail price of $100 to $160 USD.
Because plain-sight video monitors are not acceptable in the spy world, you’ll need the one-of-a-kind private screen of the Spy Video Car to keep your secrets safe from enemy eyes. Wear the lightweight frames with the single LCD lens to ensure you’re the only one who views the video transmitted through your RC vehicle.Adjust the camera angle on the wireless spy car and send it on secret missions using the hand-held remote control. Observe the journey and the destination through the small screen attached to your headset. Darkness poses no obstacle for the Spy Video Car as its infrared night-vision system lets you see clearly in the dark without emitting any visible traces of light. From the safety of your spy headquarters, watch what’s going on wherever your video vehicle travels, indoors and out, up to 75 feet away.
I wonder if I can put in my order now...
[ Link via Matthew Spencer Hensley. Thanks Matthew! ]
March 24, 2006
March 23, 2006
Wrist Worn PC
Displays for wearable computers seems to be a big issue since many don't want to have something obstructing their eyesight. This wrist worn personal computer attempts to tackle this problem by affixing the display directly to the wrist. Is this going to be fashionable? Probably not, but it is functional. It has a touch screen which can be used with a stylus and can run for six hours. I still get the feeling that this is just like strapping an iPaq to your wrist somehow.
[ Link via reader John Champlin ]
Diana Eng's Inflatable Dress
Diana Eng is probably one of the most interesting people in fashion these days because she's pushing math and technology into fashion, creating wearable computers that appeal to many more people than most wearable hackers could imagine. Diana has done much more geeky things, using biometrics and cameras, but this piece really jumped out at me because it looks gorgeous, and isn't that complicated a premise for would be fashion nerds to experiment with.
...fitted with a hacked hand vacuum and a series of valves, that inflates and deflates according to the desired silhouette. Eng designed the garment with classmate Emily Albinski while a student of apparel design at the Rhode Island School of Design."Prior to inflation, it's supposed to be a kind of straight-fitting dress," Eng explained during a phone interview from New York, where she currently works as a freelance designer and is busy preparing for "Seamless: Computational Couture," a Feb. 1 fashion show at the Boston Museum of Science, where she will one of the featured designers. "It inflates and becomes bell-shaped."
[ Link via del.icio.us ]
March 15, 2006
Xybernaut Aids Street Lighting
Xybernaut's wearable computers are getting used in the United Kingdom to aid workers in maintaining street lights. Seems pretty logically really... workers aren't sitting behind a desk, yet need access to databases and mapping technology, no brainer, get them wearable computers.
Amey's engineers are using the [Xybernaut's wearable tablet-style PC's] to verify and update street lighting numbering, asset attributes and location, with an in-vehicle printer allowing column number stickers to be produced onsite.The mobile PC also runs MapNow®, the MAYRISE mapping system. This allows Amey's engineers to update unit locations aided by on-screen street maps that are displayed together with lighting unit locations. Following field survey work, the mobile PC synchronises with a central MAYRISE system, instantly updating records from the field survey.
Everyone has Sidekicks, and cellphones these days... how far off are cyborgs becomming a common occurance?
[ Link via google news ]
March 13, 2006
Cute Humanoid Aims to Destroy All Humans
When robots come to destroy all humans, I think they'll look something like this. "Oh, how cute!" *zap zap zap* "iEeeeeee!"
[ Link via boingboing ]
March 08, 2006
Mental Keyboard
March 01, 2006
$20 Tiny Camera
This camera, much like one I previously blogged about here, is only $20 USD and does 640x480 resolution. It's the same camera that s used Samsung E700 cellular phone, which is why it's so dirt cheap. But there's one catch, there's no documentation on this sukka.
..we will be offering a $200 in-store gift certificate to the first customer who can adequately document and report their successful single-image capture using this module. We would be thrilled to post your mug and forever immortalize you on the SFE site (well, for a day or two anyway). We will be working to reverse engineer the unit and encourage all customers to work together through the SFE support forum.
So if you buy one, and do a writeup on it, you can help bankroll your next project. Excelent!
[ Link via Ordaos ]
DIY Infrared
After hyping the Spy Gear Infrared Night Vision Goggles, and then finding out that they were out of stock and not in production, I was a bit disapointed, but my friend Davy sent me a link to something that is more DIY, and twice as geeky!
Why shell out $200 for a set of Soviet-era nightvision goggles when you can make one yourself from a $30 video camera? That's what Everett Bradford did, taking a CVS single-use video camera and combining it with a set of 20-cent infrared LEDs. Okay, it took a little more work than that, including some circuit-board mods and the addition of a salvaged camcorder lens. In the end, though, Everett estimated that his night-vision setup, which can record infrared footage that can be downloaded to a PC, cost about $35, compared to about $80 for the cheapest off-the-shelf night-vision scope. Who said you can't find anything worth buying in the corner drugstore?
Wait.. there are eighty dollar night vision scopes out there? Hmmm maybe I'll just go that route....
Kudos
I've been lagging about getting back on track with igargoyle recenty, but I got this great email recently that really reminded me why I do this:
I by randomly found your site by typing some uber geek search criteria into google. I really like what you do and wanted to say “thumbs up” to a fellow burner. I just got through browsing EVERY page on your site and I loved every last drop. See you on the Playa.
Sometimes it feels like I'm not really connected with the community since this is a blog, not a forum, but getting kudos like that really makes me feel like there's a lot of people out there who do appreciate this as a resource. My original goal was to have this site be more of an interactive, collaborative place, but I've realised that in a lot of ways I have to keep posting to keep it going. I'm getting more and more feedback as I do it though, and one of my favorite things is when I get a link from one of you about a cool project or product on the market.
Thanks everyone for your feedback and input! I wouldn't be doing this without you.
Cheers,
nym
Wearable Prototype For Sale
Vitorio Miliano, who was behind the "Record Your Entire Day" work, is selling his prototype wearable. Normally this kind of thing would go directly to the wear-hard mailing list, but it appears to be down again, so this time igargoyle readers get first crack at it. This looks like a decent deal in my opinion, but here's the details for you to chew over:
Two (2) Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux-based PDAs One (1) Decade Engineering XBOB serial NTSC character generator One (1) Ingineo Eyetop HMD Two (2) Essential Reality P5 gloves Various and sundry serial cables, power adapters, screen protectors, an extra battery, manuals, discs, the Sharp Zaurus CF camera, etc.One of the Zauruses has been completely disassembled and reassembled and is missing a screw here or there, but otherwise works just fine. The other is nearly new with full box and manuals, and recently flashed back to the latest official Sharp firmware. The Eyetop does not include those awful "glasses" it was attached to; it's just the eyepiece now. One of the P5 gloves is completely disassembled down to the flex sensors and USB adapter, the other is still in the box.
Original costs were around a thousand dollars (US). It'd be nice if someone wanted to spend 4-500 on this, but best offer takes the lot (preferable) or I'll piecemeal it out. It'd be shipping from Austin, TX, USA.
And here's the link to his original wear-hard post about his wearable, which explains where he was going with his project.
I hope this can make someone happy... I would have asked for a cut of the profits, but it sounds like he's just trying to do another wearable hacker a favor.
[ Email vito_wearhard at perilith.com to make an offer ]