igargoyle

FluxBits: Wearable game interfaces

In the traditional type of gaming experience a designer designs the type of experience that player will have. FluxBits are wearable game interfaces that transform objects around into controls for the game you are playing. Meta controllers such as FluxBits allow for an Open Design approach to gaming, where traditional gaming doesn't.

For instance, you could use a clip board as a steering wheel for a driving game or an umbrella as a joy stick. It's completely up to the user. FluxBits are worn on the person and accompany the individual through out the day, enabling game play to take place where ever the user wants. The individual FluxBit pieces form an ad-hoc network, communicating with a central mobile device, which would be used as the display during game play.

FluxBits translates the movement of the object into directions for the video game and sends this to the display device. Here the player is using a bus strap to play Pac-Man with her Nintendo DS.

Once someone has used an object, they can mark the object with a sticker to indicate to other players how it might be turned into a game interface. Example: A player puts a FluxBit sticker on a bus strap, indicating where a FluxBit can be attached for playing. Also, each sticker that is attached to an object has associated with it a scorecard, listing who has played here and their hi-score. This scorecard is accessed with a mobile phone, using a tracking ID or RFID tag on the sticker itself. When players find a sticker, they can see who has played there and what are the hi-scores to beat. By playing a game at this location, the player’s own records are updated on the scorecard. Dedicated players can request a map of the city with tagged gaming locations and spend a day seeking out these locations to play.

There are more possibilities here in terms of the form of these FluxBits. But the developer is satisfied right now with rather abstract images of the fashion accessory handcuff.

Right now prototypes exist as hardware clamps:

Here is a video of the FluxBits being used in it's prototype phase:

[ Link ]

Otto-Bock C-Leg and Össur Rheo Knee: Obsolete technology?

“The world’s first powered prosthesis for above-knee amputees, the POWER KNEE offers unprecedented levels of functionality and performance. It replaces true muscle activity to bend and straighten the knee as required.
When walking on level ground, the user is gently propelled forward, allowing greater distances to be covered without becoming as tired as before. On stairs and inclines the knee actively lifts the user up the next step, producing a secure and natural ascent, foot over foot. By gathering sensory information one step ahead of the prosthesis, the POWER KNEE is unique in its ability to anticipate and pro-actively provide the function appropriate to daily activities.”

Speaking as an amputee, I firmly believe this is the kick in the rear the prosthetics industry has needed. This sort of technology undoubtedly will pave the way for a whole new generation of input/output devices for virtually anything you could imagine.

The down side? While the C-Leg and Rheo knee boast microprocessor controlled swing phase adjustment, the fact is the vast majority of amputees are totally unable to afford such technology. Health insurance companies refuse to pay for these products, regardless of the fact that the current substandard prosthetics impart a great deal of stress and physical wear to the amputee’s body.

When an amputee who visits the same prosthetist as I couldn’t get his insurance company to pay for the Power Knee, he paid for the Power Knee out of pocket, a rough estimate by my prosthetist totaled well over $96,000. Seeing as out-of-pocket simply isn't a possibility for myself and so many others, I’d love to know who the 6 Million Dollar Man’s health insurance provider was!

[ Link ]

Wearable Video Camera

This is a picture of me wearing a wearable video camera I've been reviewing. When I get back from Burning Man, I'm going to have a great article going over these kinds of cameras. Funny how many people either don't realise that I'm wearing a video camera, or don't say anything.

For those of you who don't know, cameras have to be tagged at Burning Man. This is to make sure people know the rules regarding cameras, which includes not using said material for profit - that is, don't exploit what you shoot.

The hatter writes:

It'll be obvious to everyone at BM that you're wearing a camera - you'll have you vid licence tag thingie hanging from it, else you'll cop a stack of hassle from people who do notice it and notice the lack of tag.

To address your concern, I already had made the decision to wear a tag, around my neck. I like this statment, because I am the camera. The camera is me. I don't mind people knowing I'm recording, and am happy to explain the artistic reason why I choose to record such a personal perspective. I may wear a press badge too to make it even more clear to those around me. My comment was because I've worn it a couple of times already at events without recording, and burners didn't make the connection what it was most of the time.

Also, I know a lot of people who do not get their cameras tagged, for whatever reason, and seem to have no problem- not that I endorse that, getting tagged is pretty damn easy, and good overall.

My LEDs Arrived!

My LEDs for Burning Man just arrived! Mike from Holly Solar totally hooked me up for Burning Man, which is why I have the ad on the left hand side of the site. I love LEDs, and he helped me with the basics to light up my geometric dome for Burning Man. If all goes well, I'll upload pictures from Black Rock City to show you what it looks like. Yeah, this is a shameless plug, but it's also a shameless plug for one of the longtime igargoyle readers, and I like being able to support those who come back to the site again and again, even when we haven't posted anything for a week ;-)

I can't wait to plug these things in! He even provided me with a big solar panel so I can recharge my batteries!

Meet WOTA and ZachM

We have two new writers here on igargoyle, at least for the time being while I'm away on vacation. They're both readers of the site, and have a passion for the same kinds of things I've been writing about with Xander, but maybe a little bit of a different take on it all.

WOTA, which stands for Warriors of the Apocalypse, has first hand experience with prosthetics, and is going to be sharing some of that process and what's on the horizon in terms of that kind of technology. It seems that hip replacements are commonplace these days, and prosthetics are a large sector of the health industry, and what happens in this arena is core to the transhumanist effort. After all, the next step to repairing our bodies after they're broken, is to build them stronger. I'm also hopeful that WOTA will help address these areas for those who are looking to regain their mobility, health, or improve their way of life to the standards that many of us already enjoy.

Zach on the other hand, is a bit more traditional, and much younger than anyone else here. Nevertheless, he seems to have talent, and I'm eager to see what kinds of things he digs up for igargoyle! He lives in South Florida and has been obsessed with technology since he was 10 years old. He's big on DIY projects, and breaking things apart to see how they work.

I hope that both WOTA and ZachM's writing will be well received. Please continue to email igargoyle@gmail.com if you have any link suggestions, or to give us feedback on what you think of the site and various authors.

Thanks!
nym

Crypto doesn't kill people, Bruce Schneier kills people.

"If Bruce Schneier wants your plaintext, he'll just squeeze it out of the ciphertext using his barehands"

"Bruce Schneier can straighten out an elliptic curve with nothing but his teeth"

"Bruce Schneier decrypted the Bible. The plaintext read, "Bruce Schneier"."

"Bruce Schneier always inhabits the soundness of error margin of your zero-knowledge crypto protocol"

[ Link via roadtrip, who is currently in the Black Rock Desert ]

ig needs a babysitter!

You may have noticed the posts have gotten really sparse in the last week. This is because my boss left for Germany and I'm about to leave for the Black Rock Desert.

So, not wanting to deprive igargoyle of juicy reading material and links, I'm putting out a call for a babysitter! Must be decent at writing and be passionate about wearable computing. I expect to be gone for two to three weeks, so this is really important to me, I don't want to leave everyone without their cyber-punk-techno-mad-robo-wear-hard-ubiq-comp fix for that long. Plus it makes me so happy when I see others writing about this subject that I'm so passionate about!

As a token of my gratitude, I will give whoever provides the best, most frequent content with an ipod jacket or a podbelt. I was given the jacket a while ago, but don't personally use an ipod very often, and my friend isa gordon makes the podbelts, and I'm sure I can get one from her if I throw her a few dollars.

Please write me as soon as possible! The email to reach me at is igargoyle@gmail.com.

Levi's iPod Jeans

Finally a picture of Levi's iPod Jeans, the ones that we talked about at the very beginning of the year. Damn, they do look pretty good too.

[ Link via engadget ]

Sony GPS Tracker for Photography

Sony's been hit by the geo bug, "ORGANIZE PHOTOS BY ‘WHERE’ NOT ’WHEN’ WITH GLOBAL POSITIOING SYSTEM FOR SONY DIGITAL CAMERAS". I hope they start including GPS systems into the cameras themselves. At a starting price of $150 though, this is a bit costly, and it's not going to tell you if it has a fix like regular GPS units do. What it does have going for it is tinyness, and a carabineer to make it easy to carry around, either on a belt loop or a backpack. You should be able to get the GPS-CS1 GPS next month from Sony's website, sonystyle.com, or at their Sony Style retail stores (www.sonystyle.com/retail), as well as other nationwide dealers.

[ Link ]

Archos WiFi, GPS, DTV, 3.5G enabled PMP?

I've been lusting after Archos hardware recently for my soon-to-be wearable, and I found this article on Archos' roadmap. It looks great, in fact, like an ultimate media gadget. We're talking about a 4.3-inch screen, WiFi, GPS, DTV, and 3.5G cellular modems all packed into one device. Imagine streaming YouTube to your iPod, but make the screen bigger, and add the ability to check your email and get directions. The picture above has a myrad of antennas, and is called the AV 700 TV. Lust does not fully describe what I'm feeling right now.

[ Link via engadget ]

Cybernetic iArm Video

Check out this nice looking video of a theoretical robotic arm, "The world's fastest most powerful body upgrade." Placing bets on how long until we see real prosthetics like this. I don't see why we don't have them that look cosmetically like this already, beats skin-toned plastic.

[ See the Video ]

Land Walker Japanese Robot Video

We previously reported on this robot "suit" called the Land Walker here.

[ Link via YouTube ]