June 28, 2005
Mmm, Anarticamobile
It also comes with an unmanned pathfinder which travels on a GPS controlled route ahead of the main unit. The pathfinder is secured by a 30m umbilical cord and uses ground-penetrating radar to assess risk."
Oh I have no excuse to actually own one of these, but I want one so. Reminds me of the newest Batmobile.
[ Link via we-make-money-not-art. ]
July 09, 2004
Locative Games
Looking to have some fun? We-make-money-not-art just republished a list of locative games that was posted to the locative mailing list. The list was compiled by Mjriam Struppeck from interactionfield in Bauwelt, (a german architecture Magazine). There's even some games I wasn't aware of, and I'm supposed to be writing an article for o'reilly on the subject!
[Link via we-make-money-not-art]
Verizon Wireless has even gotten into the game. The complete list is below after the jump.
Pac-Manhattan, by Dennis Crowley, Frank Lantz (instructor) and others
http://pacmanhattan.com
Location: Manhattan, New York, USA - 2004
Navigate the Streets, by Level 28 Brands
http://www.navigatethestreets.com
Location: Several Cities in Canada - 2004
I Like Frank in Adelaide, by Blast Theory
http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/frank/play.php
Location: Adelaide, Australia - 2004
Pirates!, by PLAY research studio, Interactive Institute
http://play.tii.se/projects/pirates/index.html
Location: HUC conference in Bristol, UK - August 2000
CitiTag, by HP Labs, the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)
http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/cititag
Location: Bristol, UK - 2004
Undercover, by YDreams
http://www.playundercover.com/index.jsp
Location: Hong Kong / Portugal - since 2003
Uncle Roy All Around You, by Blast Theory
http://www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk
Location: London, UK - 2003
Can You See Me Now?, by Blast Theory
http://www.canyouseemenow.co.uk
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands, March - 2003
Mogi, Newt Games
http://www.mogimogi.com
Location: Tokyo, Japan - since 2003
http://a.parsons.edu/~awhung/thesis
Location: Times Square, NYC, USA - 2003
Urban Challenge, by Verizon Wireless
http://www.urbanchallenge.com
Location: Several Cities in USA - since 2002
NodeRunner, by Yury Gitman, Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena
http://www.uncommonprojects.com/noderunner
Location: NYC, USA - since 2002
The Go Game, by Wink Back, Inc.
http://www.thegogame.com/brownie/index.asp
Location: San Francisco, USA - since 2001
MobileHunt, by HIPnTASTY
http://www.mobilehunt.com/about.asp
Location: USA and Canada - since 2001
Cutlass - Treasure Hunt, by DCA Productions, Steve Bull (CEO)
http://ctlss.com/treasure_hunt/html/main.html
Location: Times Square, NYC, USA - since 2001
GunSlingers, Mikoishi Studios
http://guns.mikoishi.com
Location: Singapore - 2003
TreasureMachine, Unwiredfactory
http://www.unwiredfactory.com
BattleMachine / Zonemaster, by Unwiredfactory
http://www.de.battlemachine.com
http://www.zonemaster.myorange.dk
BotFighters, by It's Alive
http://www.botfighters.com
Location: Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Russia - since 2000
Geocaching/GPS Stash Hunt, by Groundspeak
http://www.geocaching.com
Outdoor Mixed-reality Games
NetAttack
http://www.fit.fraunhofer.de/projects/netattack
Human Pacman
http://mixedreality.nus.edu.sg/research-HP-infor.htm
July 08, 2004
Raver Wearable Displays
Welcome slashdoters!
Our server is doing fine and we encourage you to check out the rest of our site. Infogargoyle is published daily.
Hufo from /. points out the following videos of this in action:
Windows Media Video 1 | Windows Media Video 2
France Telecom has done some fun R&D to display pixelated images from your cellphone on your shirt or sleeve. These raver garments can even be used as a standalone device that can animate based on sounds and gestures. The technology uses a flexible circuit board with LEDs and other electronic bits like sensors layered in a fabric layered sandwich, which they claim is fairly comfortable.
The researchers at France Telecom hope people will use these textiles to do things like display their mood, but I'd be happy if my pixilated avatar would just bop to the beat of the baseline when I'm out on the town. I really hope to see better resolution displays; this technology is still very young. With better resolution, designer memes and logos might become the hot intellectual property being shared by the young hipsters. Animated clothing is something I've been seeing a lot at Burning Man by artists with electroluminescent wire, so I have hope that this technology will encourage fashion to be more creative. For example, I would love a shirt that could display a very large "NO SPAM" message to display disgust in solicitors and peddlers in appropiate situations. I'd love to hear how others would use this creatively, so once again, I've opened up the comments
June 03, 2004
Climbing SpyBot
Well, I suppose this goes under the vertical voyeur category, but I can see fun uses for the technology beyond spying on your neighbors. I personally would love a robot that could scale the walls than jump on my friends when they least expect it. On the other hand for 14,000, I'd rather build myself my dream wearable computer with that lovely POV jonescam. I'd be interested to play with this thing though, as it sounds like fun RC toy.
Unlike other robots, the SpyBot Climber does not use suction cups to adhere and climb; instead, it uses patented technology to pull itself to surfaces. With a versatile six-wheeled posi-traction drive train, the robot can travel and maneuver on horizontal, vertical, and even inverted surfaces with ease. The nature of the vortex effect also makes it forgiving of changing surface types. The drive train was designed to be powerful enough to handle an extra 1 lb. (0.45 kg) or more of payload (depending on mission profile), so you can transport additional devices, such as video cameras and transmitters.
June 02, 2004
Wearable Sensors for Martial Arts Blows
Wearable computing just got physical. Somewhat like the military's "smartfibers" that are able to tell when a soldier is shot, researchers at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Stanford University, and Impact Measurement are building wearable computers to measure blows to the body.
"The researchers are testing the system in tae kwon do matches. Information from the sensors combined with the judges' calls makes for more accurate scoring, according to the researchers. The method could also be used for sensing impact in other contact sports and also for videogames."
Also reminds me of that wonderful suit that Robin Williams wore in TOYS that would make funny sounds for different parts of his body.
May 09, 2004
GPS attachment for the Game Boy Advance
Whoha. GeoGames suddenly are going to get very big.
Besides being able to tell you where you are, there are also plans for multi-player games that take advantage of the GPS, though it doesn�t sound like any are actually in the works yet.
These guys seem to be interested in GIS solutions in general including geoimagery and navigation.
March 28, 2004
GPS Pas Sion
Moblog of GPS devices from CEBIT over at http://cebit.textamerica.com/, which is quite interesting. No words about GeoImages though...
[via gizmodo.com]
November 06, 2003
Wearable Toys for X-Mas
I saw an ad for this on Cartoon Network, and completely missed the name, but was recently able to figure it out by browsing the ToysRUs website.
This is much like a walkie-talkie, except that it uses a mini keyboard and head mounted display to display the message, which can be up to 23 characters. They claim a range of 200 feet, which would work okay for paintball, or other sneaky activities. I'm guessing these would be pretty easy to hack, although you might just want to mount a short LCD on the inside of some glasses.
In any case, it's a neat toy, one that I would have enjoyed as a child. I loved pretending I was some spy trying to avoid detection around the house.
In addition, this company is producing a funny looking POV camera that uses traditional film, and apparently needs to be taken apart in order to remove a 'strange circle thing centered on the middle of the photo with the words "Spy Cam" (kind of like a gun sight.)'. I think if they tried to do this again with a cheap digital cam, it could actually be decent. Again, for reasonable use, you could probably just stick a wireless mini cam in a pair of sunglasses, and get a much better effect.
All in all, I was surprised by these products, but only likely to get the first toy because it only costs about $35 for two. Should be fun stuff to mutilate for next year's Burning Man.