It’s coming WHEN?
Many have tried to create true virtual reality before, but no one has quite gotten it ‘right’ yet. It’s always far too clunky or expensive to validate as a purchase. We saw the Occulus Rift a while back, and while it seems promising, that only takes care of the visual aspect.
The mighty Google this week filed a patent for securing a mobile device using facial recognition technology. The idea is for the user to set up a ‘facial landmark‘, for example sticking their tongue out or wrinkling their nose, after which they can unlock their device by repeating the ‘faceword’.
Researchers at the University of Washington have come up with a rather clever way of controlling your home appliances using standard WiFi signals and gestures. The technology, called WiSee, works by detecting minute changes in wireless signals when there’s movement in a room, and by using a custom router they have managed to identify specific gestures reliably enough to trigger pre-defined actions.
Anyone who has doubts about the ability of the humble web browser to become a games platform of distinction need look no further than this new Epic Citadel demo featuring the Unreal Engine to see where things are heading.
You may have thought that throwing all this technology at the humble mobile phone was getting ridiculous, but you’ve really not seen anything yet. Not only are these people expecting us to use them as wallets, citizen arrest cameras and to monitor earthquakes, but now they’re actually expecting that we’ll throw our car keys away and phone our way into the driving seat.
If you think the age of the smartphone is exciting now, get ready for an explosion of cool to come, as manufacturers and software developers start to take advantage of the up and coming new wireless technologies such as Bluetooth SMART and Bluetooth aptX to really show off what your phone can do. Instead of just being a dumb communication and gaming device, your handset will become the hub of an ecosystem of tools and software that may well change…
Apparently Google researchers are not the only people looking seriously at robotic self-driving cars. Well we knew the Japanese and Chinese were doing work, but we’re surprised to learn that the good folk at Oxford University are also having fun with the concept, although they’re taking a different approach altogether.
Like many other media outlets we too were struck by recent front page reports of tiny camera drones which were under trial for combat zones and surveillance duties. The 16 gram PD-100 Black Hornet for example, made by Norwegian company Prox Dynamics, is state of the art, can operate for 25 minutes up to 1000 feet away and in winds of up to 15 knots. This is not science fiction, but today’s reality, and as the BBC reported last week,…
Google engineer Dany Qumsiyeh has spent his 20% free project time at Google to produce an ingenious automatic non-destructive book scanner, using low cost components and a vacuum cleaner. Yes, a household model. The thing about book scanners is they’re either fiendishly expensive to buy because of all the technology needed to keep the pages safe, or they’re cheap and kind of cumbersome, requiring manual page flipping and button pressing to do the job. Enter Dany’s design, which is cheap…
Researchers at Fujitsu Labs have announced a new technology which which lets you transfer files from a computer to a mobile phone just by filming the screen with the phone camcorder. This means that one day we should be able to share photos, movies and documents between phones and computers just by pointing the phone at a screen, no clumsy apps to install or buttons to push.
If you are an avid gamer, then you are likely searching for ways to make your experience more and more immersive. We’ve seen virtual reality helms and the like in the past, but nothing has really been over-the-top outstanding. While a wall-sized projector is about the closest we can get at the moment, it doesn’t mean there aren’t some amazing things on the horizon.
A research group in Japan has been working on a new technology which will produce rechargeable batteries using sugar rather than conventional metals. The scientists are trying to replace the rare and expensive components of current rechargeable batteries, such as lithium, with more abundant and therefore cheaper materials.
A huge part of this planet exists without access to reliable electricity, which doesn’t just mean no access to computers and other tools, but a lack of even the most basic of necessities such as cheap lighting. Most of these places still rely on kerosene lamps, which are smelly, polluting and expensive to run. There are some superb initiatives happening around the world at the moment to solve the problem, and we think this new project could be a real…
Not so long ago education was considered to be a luxury, available to a wealthy few. Only in relatively recent times have governments made a determined effort to provide state run education for everyone. But the current economic climate has changed a lot of things, among which is a massive rise in the cost of providing and obtaining proper tuition in your field of choice. But it looks as though there could be a silver lining in all of this…
A new technology developed by British technology company Plessey aims to reduce the number of car accidents that happen as a result of driver fatigue through the use of a smart car seat. Driving while drowsy is ranked as one of the top 20 reasons why crashes occur, and, as in the notorious case of Englishman Gary Hart who was jailed in 2001 for causing the deaths of 10 people in a train derailment after falling asleep at the wheel,…
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