The web is abuzz lately with rumors that Google is not only developing augmented reality glasses, but that they’ll actually be for sale later this year! Features are expected to include a camera and small display (obviously), though also a cellular data connection and multiple sensors (including GPS), for under $1k (closer to $500-600 is more likely). Information will supposedly be displayed in an augmented reality sort of view, overlaid into the wearer’s field of view, rather than be shown on a separate display off to the side. So at this point, it’s all just a bunch of rumors but one things for certain, AR is advanced at a fast pace and once the display technologies have reached a consumer level, expect a flood of apps to surface.
ESL Lightbulbs
Vu1 has developed a new, energy-efficient lightbulb that’s a bit different….not like the LED and CFL bulbs you see on the shelves today. They’re using a technology known as Electron Stimulated Luminescence, or ESL for short. ESL bulbs emit electrons which hit a phosphor coating inside the bulb, which then emits light. Pretty simple in theory, and the result uses around 60% less energy than an incandescent bulb (and contains no mercury, unlike CFLs), at a reasonable price (approaching $10 once production ramps up). Compared to LED bulbs, it uses more energy and doesn’t last as long, but LED bulbs have had challenges getting good color reproduction, and the ESL bulbs might have an edge there. You can read more about it over at Vu1’s homepage, or check your local Lowes if you want to buy one to try out.
Object Removal in Photographs?
So here’s the problem…you want to take a picture of a person in a public space, but all the strangers walking by keep cluttering up the image! The solution? Use a soon-to-be-released app from Scalado to just ‘exclude’ those random people from the picture. I’m not completely certain how the technology works, but believe it’s essentially taking multiple images of the same picture, so once it identifies an area that has changed (a person walking through the image), it has the data already for what should be behind that person. This video is a nice demonstration of how this technology could be used:
It’s easy to see how this can be useful for taking pictures, but think about taking this one step further. What if this technology were embedded in a realtime AR display? Imagine wearing AR glasses, and having a wearable computer essentially ‘filter out’ all the people from your field of view. Or, once you can do that, replacing them with abstracts. Maybe just floating blue misty shapes like ghosts, so you know there are people there but aren’t distracted by the details? At that point, the possibilities are endless and really just a matter of creative software implementation. Awesome.
Matterhorn Glass
As a scotch drinker and mountain lover, I love this artistic glass concept from Tale Design in South Korea. Embedded in a relatively normal-shaped glass is a mountain-like protrusion, inspired by the Matterhorn. Tale Design has done some other creative glasses as well, such as this moon glass where the surface of the liquid changes as the level drops, and represents phases of the moon.
Water Shortages in the Forecast
Water supplies in our country are not only facing pressure from an increasing population, but climate change is likely to make the problem worse. So bad in fact, that by 2050 more than one in three counties in the US could face either a high or extreme risk of water shortage. Most likely, this will affect southern and southwestern states, and the southern Great Plains states. Read more over at sciencedaily.