Lifeboat Foundation

A cheaper way for VR wear for consumers; are consumers potentially being ripped off?

The Oculus Rift finally went on sale, but that $600 price tag is a bit too steep for some to justify. Fortunately, VR doesn’t have to be expensive. Take this virtual reality cycling rig that someone created for $40.

It’s the work of Paul Yan, who’s the animation director at Toys for Bob — the studio that developed Skylanders and kicked off the toys-to-life revolution. He previously figured out how to build an “Arduino thing” that could talk to a smartphone via Bluetooth LE and he wanted to put his contraption to good use.

Continue reading “VR cycling setup created for just $40” »

I can now see it; Nov. I go into my local Verizon store; and Pepper the robot greets me and takes my name and helps me get in line for the next service tech or takes me to show me the latest devices.

Pepper, the lovable humanoid robot, is preparing to take a step into entrepreneurship and staff its own smartphone shop in Japan.

Creator company SoftBank said it planned to open the pop-up mobile store employing only Pepper robots by the end of March, according to Engadget.

Continue reading “Phone shop will be run entirely by Pepper robots” »

Cannot wait for the new AR contacts.

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — This new IDTechEx report is focused on how the market for smart glasses and contact lenses is going to evolve in the next decade, based on the exciting research and developments efforts of recent years along with the high visibility some projects and collaborations have enjoyed. The amount of visibility this space is experiencing is exciting developers of a range of allied technologies into fast-tracking/focusing their efforts, as well as creating devices and components designed specifically to serve this emerging industry.

Some of the newest devices that have ignited significant interest in smart eyewear are going above and beyond the conventional definition of a smart object; they are in effect, portable, wearable computers with a host of functionalities, specially designed apps etc. that add new ways for the wearer to interact with the world along with smartphone capabilities, health tracking options and many other features. The features of some of the more advanced devices have been based on and have sparked worldwide innovation efforts aiming to create an ecosystem of components that will enable what is bound to be a revolution in form factor for wearables.

Continue reading “AR & VR Smartglasses and Functional Contact Lenses 2016-2026” »

Apple-linked Intelligent Energy poised for first major commercial deployment of technology in India.

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Go Hubo

The so-called ‘fourth industrial revolution’ will bring ever faster cycles of innovation, posing huge challenges to companies, workers, governments and societies alike Implantable mobile phones. 3D-printed organs for transplant. Clothes and reading-glasses connected to the Internet.

Such things may be science fiction today but they will be scientific fact by 2025 as the world enters an era of advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and gene editing, according to executives surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Continue reading “Here come the robots, welcome to the next industrial revolution” »

Virginia Tech’s Professor Doug Bowman comes to Apple to make VR. This should be very interesting since he won the research grant to work on the “Hololens” — could be interesting.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Apple has hired one of the leading experts on virtual and augmented reality — Virginia Tech computer science professor Doug Bowman. He was recently listed among grant winners for HoloLens research projects and is skilled in creating 3D user interfaces, reports Endgadget. He has also co-authored a book called 3D User Interfaces Theory and Practice.

He’s been working on technologies such as wearable displays and full surround display prototypes at Virginia Tech.

Continue reading “Apple hires virtual and augmented reality tech expert: Report” »

Isn’t medical technology a beautiful thing — your own personal doctor and on your terms.

The new trend on healthcare technology is found to let you see your robot doctor in just a few taps in your mobile phones.

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Leaders at Davos are bracing for huge technology shocks.

Implantable mobile phones. 3D-printed organs for transplant. Clothes and reading-glasses connected to the Internet.

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Amazing stuff!

Image-analyzing software has been a possibility for a while now. It’s how Google’s reverse image search works. It’s how you are able to deposit a check via ATM or even smartphone. Image creation is a newer development. Google’s Deep Dream, released last year, recreates images that are fed to it by compositing other images, shapes, and colors into a twisted version of the original. The obvious next step here is software that can create an image from a description, which WordsEye has gotten to first.

WordsEye is a new software that converts language to 3-D images. In its current beta state, WordsEye’s images are constructed from pre-existing, manipulatable 3-D models, textures, and light sources. The results are surreal, cartoon-y and a little unsettling. But don’t let this detract from such an advancement in artificial intelligence.

Continue reading “WordsEye Will Show What You Describe” »