Gesture-control bracelet

myo_1Gesture based control such as that provided by the LEAP are pretty cool, but this bracelet takes things a step further.  This bracelet uses accelerometers to measure the motion of your arm, as well as devices to measure electrical impulses of your muscles, communicating this via bluetooth to provide gesture-based control of, well, anything.  It can even recognize motion of individual fingers.

Check out the video below for some examples of how this technology could be used…it’s pretty inspiring.  You can preorder this technology from MYO for $149, shipping in late 2013.

(via CNET)

Latest Google Glass news

The Google Glasses project continues to move ahead, and while I expect the coolest uses will take a while to materialize (augmented reality, mainly, due to software challenges), Google just released a video (below) that helps show how people will use these at first.  It’s exactly what I want for skiing (how it can integrate with goggles will be a challenge though) – but it’s the ability to take photos or videos on the fly, without digging out a smartphone, that’ll be really cool.  I can’t wait!  (link for full article)

Vuzix Smart Glasses

VuzixM100-product-showcaseThis is going to be a fun year for geeks who have no fashion sense.  Joining the Google Glasses this year will be the M100 Smart Glasses (maybe they’ll think of a cooler name?) from Vuzix.  It’s essentially a head-mounted computer, with a 720p HD camera, bluetooth connectivity to your smart phone, and a WQVGA display (that’s a mere 240 lines of resolution, less than the original iPhone’s 320 lines if held horizontal) in your field of view.  That display, while small, is comparable to a four inch smartphone viewed about 14″ away.  Battery life is just so-so…8 hours when used as a handsfree headset for your phone, or two hours if the display is active (and only about half an hour if you’re also using the camera).

So, why would you want one?  Well, like the Google Glasses, it’ll really come down to the software applications yet to be written for these devices.  It’s a small step towards truly Augmented Reality, but a cool one, and I can’t wait to see what software developers create for these.  Give it a couple years, and as software matures and battery life improves, I think you’ll see a lot of people wearing things like this.

(via Slashgear)

AR possibilities – ‘Sight’

Check out this cool video of a fictional augmented reality / contact lens application.  I find videos like these fascinating, for the potential AR applications they expose.  This video in particular hits on all the typical uses…entertainment, reality enhancement, self improvement, etc.  Also hits a bit on the darker side of this, blurring the line between being fully human, and just doing what machines tell you to do.  Worth watching (especially the end…).

Leap Motion Sensor

A company named Leap is working on a really impressive motion tracking hardware/software package for PCs.  If you’ve seen the motion tracking on the Xbox or similar game systems you might have a basic idea of the potential, but Leap has made some huge improvements to the resolution of what can be tracked.  It’s tracking fingertips to sub-centimeter accuracy levels, opening up new possibilities for human-machine interaction.  The cost?  A mere $70, which also means that you can expect this to become ubiquitous in future PCs.

In addition to the website linked to above, here’s a cool demo by the company’s CTO:

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