HackingTheUniverse

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Haptic technology is a way of providing tactile sensory input or feedback to enhance an experience. It is often integrated with virtual environments or augmented reality technologies. A simple form is the way game controllers vibrate to create a sensation connected with an event in the game. Haptics are being integrated into many areas besides [...]

Over the years, our computing interfaces have become more and more interactive. From simple command lines, to graphical interfaces, to “active” graphical interfaces; they have continually become more interactive, more dynamic, more alive. Our living spaces will soon be following the same trend, becoming both more interactive and reconfigurable. World Builder – [youtube.com] This amazing [...]

Figuring out how to track objects in a video stream is a solution for many problems. There are a variety of applications waiting for more sophisticated software in this area. Most objects change in many ways as they move through the timespace of frames in video. They can move, they can rotate and the qualities [...]

We have become accustomed to the term, “virtual reality” and can understand (mostly through science-fiction) how it may have a profound future influence on our lives. Perhaps the term, “projected reality” is more apt. Or we can create several different categories. Projected realities come in two primary forms: Remote projected reality – an actual reality [...]

When pico projectors are integrated with Kinect-like interfaces, we’ll have a fully embedded “Minority Report” interface, where every surface is a monitor and we interact with our surrounding environment with our entire body, instead of just our fingers. When the playroom is the computer – [physorg.com] The prototype of the Playtime Computing system consists mainly [...]

Augmented-Reality Floor Tiling – [technologyreview.com] Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada have developed floor tiles that can simulate the look, sound and feel of snow, grass or pebbles underfoot. Such a tool could perhaps be used for augmented reality applications, tele-presence, training, rehabilitation or even as virtual foot controllers. The modular “haptic” floor tiling [...]

By using a mathematical algorithm that “unfolds” the cortex and maps brainwave signals, a fairly simple sensor headset can translate the signals into computer commands that can control physical objects. Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves – [ted.com] So the device that you see is a 14-channel, high-fidelity EEG acquisition system. It doesn’t [...]

The luminous room concept involves using the entire environment surrounding the user as an interface for interaction, both input and display. John Underkoffler points to the future of UI – [youtube.com] Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak — the real-life version of the film’s eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface. Is this [...]

The Visual Information SOuRce (VISOR) device evolved from several sources including eye-glasses, contact lenses and various types of heads-up displays. Augmented reality technology added information to all of these interfaces as well as other devices. Advances in 3-D techniques enhanced heads-up displays to create full stereoscopic presentations. As nanotechnology became routinely embedded in most common [...]

The Personal Robotics Group at MIT is working on prototype of a telepresence robot that adds non-verbal social gestures to it’s communication ability. It can simulate hand gestures and head movement (such as nodding for “yes” or turning the head back and forth for “no”) that enhance the sense of interpersonal connection. MeBot – [mit.edu] [...]