THE TECH-LICIOUS

Oculus Rift, three Kinects effectively bring an entire human body into a virtual world

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="TRON" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TRON-640x353.png" /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ever wanted to put yourself inside of a video game? It’s now possible to dynamically represent your entire body inside of a virtual world, and this monumental task can be accomplished with off-the-shelf hardware. With three first-gen Kinects and an Oculus Rift dev kit, a developer by the name of Oliver Kreylos has hacked together a true VR prototype that actually makes you feel like you’re in a computer-generated world.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By placing three <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/kinect" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">Kinect</a> sensors in an equilateral triangle around his room, Kreylos is able to generate a live 3D model of his body from the raw video data. By sidestepping the Kinect’s processor-intensive skeletal reconstruction, this visual representation is extremely low-latency. When you put on your <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/oculus-rift" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">Oculus Rift</a> and hold your hand to your face, Kreylos claims that your brain immediately registers the limb as your own.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Ghgbycqb92c?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the video embedded above, you can see this system for yourself. The 3D projection of Kreylos in the virtual world is blurry and covered in visual artifacts, but that apparently doesn’t break the illusion. While he hasn’t done exhaustive research regarding the neurological aspects of this system, Kreylos theorizes that the low-latency motion capture achieved with the Kinect cameras helps the brain effectively jump over the <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/uncanny-valley" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">uncanny valley</a>. Regardless of the visual fidelity of the virtual world, it seems that lag is what really makes or breaks the illusion.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Keep in mind, all of this is being done with relatively modest gear. In a post on his blog, the developer explains that this entire demo is <a href="http://doc-ok.org/?p=965" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">running on a Linux box</a> with a 3.5GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Geforce GTX 770 GPU. He’s also using the low-res Kinect cameras from the last generation, so imagine how much better this could look with the newest model. With three HD cameras and a few months of polish, this could potentially mean big things for affordable VR training, improved teleconferencing, and immersive games.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s easy to shrug off this three-camera rig as an impractical solution, but this is a really solid first step towards solving the problem of full-body VR. The Oculus Rift and <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/tag/project-morpheus" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">Project Morpheus</a> are impressive prototypes, but they’re far from complete packages. If we want full-fledged <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/181454-virtually-perfect-the-promise-of-virtual-reality" style="color: #b1700a; text-decoration: none;">virtual reality in our future</a>, we’re going to need to account for a lot more than just neck movement in our simulations. We need to think bigger than just head-mounted displays.</span></div>
</div>

Oculus Rift, three Kinects effectively bring an entire human body into a virtual world

Ever wanted to put yourself inside of a video game? It’s now possible to dynamically represent your entire body inside of a virtual worl...

ATM’s Could Soon Spray Thieves With Hot Liquid Chemicals

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
It seems like I’ve seen a lot of news items lately regarding ATM’s getting robbed all over the world. While they may seem like a pretty tempting target for criminals since they don’t fight back or give them any “real” trouble, ATM’s might not be so simple to break into in the future. It turns out that ETH Zurich out of Switzerland has been coming up with some pretty unique methods to stop ATM’s from getting broken into. In short, they want the machines to fight back.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
And just where did they look for their inspiration? From nature of course. More specifically, they looked at bombardier beetles, which are able to cause a small gas explosion when it thinks a predator is closing in. They thought, “Why can’t we do that same thing when an ATM feels threatened?” And so, that’s what they’re trying to do. They’ve created a certain kind of film layer that when it gets broken releases hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide. And, when those two chemicals mix together, they would be sprayed at a temperature of around 80 degrees onto the face of the unsuspecting criminal.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
<img alt="ATM's Could Soon Spray Thieves With Hot Liquid Chemicals" class="lazy alignnone size-full wp-image-15225 data-lazy-ready" data-lazy-src="http://technews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/atm.jpg" data-lazy-type="image" height="398" src="http://technews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/atm.jpg" style="background-color: #ecf0f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; display: inline; float: none; max-width: 708px; padding: 10px;" width="708" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
Along with getting a bit of a burn to the face, any of the money that was stolen would also be dyed by the chemicals. The chemicals would also be able to be tracked thanks to nanoparticles found on the dyed money.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
Who knows if and when we will ever see this technology implemented all over the world, but if it ever does happen, I can imagine the number of ATM thefts dropping drastically.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #5f6d80; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.310400009155273px;">
I don’t know how you feel about this type of defense measure, but I think it’s a pretty genius idea. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!</div>
</div>

ATM’s Could Soon Spray Thieves With Hot Liquid Chemicals

It seems like I’ve seen a lot of news items lately regarding ATM’s getting robbed all over the world. While they may seem like a pretty te...

"CUE" A PORTABLE DOCTOR

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div id="hero_box" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; height: 390px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; width: 530px;">
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/cue-home-medical-diagnostics/32091/pictures" id="hero_link" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #1e8dd7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Cue examines a droplet of saliva or blood to calculate a digital measurement of your healt..." height="298" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/cuelabathome.jpg" style="border: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Cue examines a droplet of saliva or blood to calculate a digital measurement of your healt..." width="530" /></a><div class="pic_caption" style="background-color: #444444; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #eeeeee; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 30px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 5px; padding: 0px;">
Cue examines a droplet of saliva or blood to calculate a digital measurement of your health</div>
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/cue-home-medical-diagnostics/32091/pictures" id="gallery_link" style="background-color: transparent; color: #f36031; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Image Gallery</a> (8 images)</div>
<div class="clear_both" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="article_body" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div id="top_unit" style="margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Not so long ago, self health monitoring was largely limited to weighing ourselves to see how a diet was going and sticking a thermometer under our tongue to see if we were getting sick. For everything else we went to the family doctor. That was in the past. Technology has put health and fitness monitoring firmly in consumers’ hands. Starting with pedometers in the 1980s and progressing to the myriad <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/tag/fitness/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wearable fitness trackers</a> flooding the market today. The grip has just tightened again with Cue – a device that allows users to run medical diagnostics from the comfort of their own home.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Cue in carrying case" border="0" height="213" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-6.jpg" width="320" /></a>Testing for five key health indicators; inflammation, vitamin D, fertility, influenza, and testosterone, Cue is claimed to be the most advanced consumer health product available to date. While these seem to be an interesting bundle of self-tests to release a product with, developers identified them as the most common tests run by general practitioners (GPs) in the US and say more tests will be rolled out in the future.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Tests are undertaken at home by taking a small sample and loading it into a testing cartridge, which is in-turn loaded into the Cue sensor unit. Sample types vary depending on the test being undertaken, with influenza requiring a nasal swab, testosterone a saliva sample and blood for the rest. These samples are placed on a wand that is loaded into a cartridge engineered with the chemistry and microfluidic design needed to prepare the sample for Cue to test. The wand remains locked in the single use cartridge for disposal. with the Cue’s composite microfluidic system and biosensors converting the biological sample into digital information.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
This information is transmitted to a companion app for iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth 4.0, with the app then offering ideas on how to improve health. These come in the form of diet plans and suggested activities like going to the gym, running and walking. Suggested activities can be tailored to the user's interests and can be combined with activity data from existing <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/tag/wearable-electronics/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;">wearable devices</a>.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cue tests for five key health indicators; inflammation, vitamin D, fertility, influenza, a..." border="0" height="212" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-5.jpg" width="320" /></a>"We created Cue as a tool for people who are interested in connecting with their health in a much more direct, intuitive, and powerful way than ever before," says Ayub Khattak, Cue founder and CEO. "People can now keep daily track of measurements that used to be available only on a yearly or bi-yearly basis. We brought together the best minds and spent over four years creating the most advanced consumer health product we have ever seen."</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Two interesting functions are the fertility indicator and the flu map for influenza alerts. The fertility indicator gives women looking to conceive a "try now" alert based on the measurement of Luteinizing Hormone, which is produced by the pituitary gland and regulates fertility. Meanwhile, the flu map tracks the spread of influenza in your local area but seems to be reliant on the widespread take-up of Cue to be effective. That aside, it is an interesting concept of cloud health monitoring.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
"We worked to make sure that Cue delivered meaningful Information in a way that can be understood without a medical degree," says Clint Sever, Cue founder and Chief Product Officer. "The result of this approach is a product that opens up an entirely new world of possibilities for understanding and improving our health."</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The flu map tracks the spread of influenza in your local area " border="0" height="320" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/cuelabathome-1.jpg" width="239" /></a>While the creators of Cue are adamant they are not trying to replace the need for doctors, the DIY testing unit certainly empowers the user and frees us from the queues of the infected and sickly often encountered at the average GP. And while visiting a doctor regularly can be time consuming and rather expensive, the convenience of Cue does come with a price tag of US$20 for five cartridges. If used on a daily or even weekly basis would quickly add up. The influenza tests are slightly more expensive at three for $30, but wouldn’t be needed as regularly.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
The Cue unit is available for preorder at $149, with shipping set for the (Northern Hemisphere) Spring of 2015. The full commercial release will follow shortly after at an expected retail price of around $300.</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
The Cue promotional video can be viewed below.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/32YwVuiAgEg?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>

"CUE" A PORTABLE DOCTOR

Cue examines a droplet of saliva or blood to calculate a digital measurement of your health Image Gallery (8 images) Not so lo...

Australian telco demonstrates world's fastest LTE-A networking speeds of 450 Mbps

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div id="hero_box" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; height: 389px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; width: 530px;">
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/telstra-worlds-fastest-lte-a-450mbps-trial/32078/pictures" id="hero_link" style="background-image: none; color: #1e8dd7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="Australian telco Telstra says it has demonstrated “live network speeds of 450 Mbps” with L..." height="297" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/telstra-employee-enjoying-4g-lte-speeds-by-the-beach.jpg" style="border: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Australian telco Telstra says it has demonstrated “live network speeds of 450 Mbps” with L..." width="530" /></span></a><div class="pic_caption" style="background-color: #444444; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #eeeeee; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 30px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 5px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Australian telco Telstra says it has demonstrated “live network speeds of 450 Mbps” with LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology (Image:<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=99991559" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Shutterstock</a>)</span></div>
</div>
<div class="clear_both" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="article_body" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div id="top_unit" style="margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">LTE or "Long Term Evolution" is the standard that most of the world takes for granted as 4G, but its reign at the top of the wireless tables is set to be eclipsed by its successor – LTE-A, with the A standing for "Advanced."</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4G networks often deliver speeds several megabits faster than many ADSL2+ networks, some of which struggle to pump out even 6 Mbps speeds, even though they’re rated at a theoretical maximum of around 20 Mbps – something you’ll only see if you’re quite close to your local telephone exchange.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Meanwhile, an iPhone 5s I’m using on Telstra’s existing 4G network just pumped out speeds of 13.18 Mbps (after boosting straight past 20 Mbps before slowing back down), with an upload speed of 14.06 Mbps, after quick testing with the Ookla Speedtest.net app.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But faster speeds, as always, are on the way.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although Telstra announced that it had already trialed another LTE standard known as LTE-B (B for Broadcast) back in October 2013, which the company says allowed it to demonstrate “that it’s possible to use one stream of data, to deliver the same content to multiple users [with LTE-B capable devices] – keeping the rest of the network free for other customers”, the big news today centers around the company's latest LTE-A trial.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Using a combination of spectrum at 1800 Mhz and 2600 MHz, Telstra says it has demonstrated live network speeds of 450 Mbps with LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology. While this falls well short of "hundreds of times faster" than 4G speeds that Samsung is aiming for with "5G" technology, Telstra's lab test speeds are reportedly three times faster than the 150 Mbps speeds other 4G networks in Australia claim as their theoretical maximums, or a whopping 8,000 times faster than the old fashioned 56 Kbps modems we all used around 15 years ago.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Telstra worked with Ericsson to aggregate two new 4G Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) channels of 20 MHz bandwidth, each on the 2600 MHz spectrum band, with existing 20 MHz 4G on the 1800 MHz band. A prototype engineering device was used to create "three simultaneous side-by-side paths for the data to travel through to the operational core network."</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Unfortunately, for Australian readers anyway, Telstra says that "deployment to customers remains a few years away" and that the "typical speeds achievable at a commercial level will be lower in practice."</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Telstra notes that the tests show it can "carry a huge amount of future traffic demand shared across many users" – something telcos in other countries are sure to be eying with interest, presumably with the intent to replicate and even better the 450 Mbps speeds achieved.</span></div>
</div>
</div>

Australian telco demonstrates world's fastest LTE-A networking speeds of 450 Mbps

Australian telco Telstra says it has demonstrated “live network speeds of 450 Mbps” with LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology (Im...

A Smart Watch Controlled by Twists, Tilts, and Clicks

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A movable smart-watch screen makes it easier to read a map or play a game</span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/twistable.watchx299.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/twistable.watchx299.gif" /></span></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first time I tried out a smart watch with a touch screen, I quickly went from feeling excited to feeling clumsy. Tapping or swiping the small display on my wrist often failed to yield the response I expected. It might have been the quality of the screen, but it may have also been simply that the screen was too small and my fingers too big.</span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Touch screens have largely obliterated clickable keyboards and scrolling buttons or wheels on smartphones in favor of tapping, swiping, pinching, and flicking. Yet when it comes to smaller gadgets like smart watches, they’re not always the best way to access information, and other methods like voice recognition still aren’t that reliable either.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Smartwatchface" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0">project</a> at Carnegie Mellon University suggests a better way to control these new gadgets: allowing users to physically tilt, click, and twist the watch’s bezel, the area around the screen. This could make it much easier to do things like set up appointments, play music, or navigate a map on the tiny display.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s not that these watches aren’t fast enough or even have enough battery life—it’s that we can’t get the input and output good enough,” says <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.chrisharrison.net/" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0">Chris Harrison</a>, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, who worked on the project with several colleagues.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The group built a prototype device and presented a <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://chrisharrison.net/projects/smartwatchface/SmartWatchFace.pdf" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0">paper</a> detailing it at the recent <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://chi2014.acm.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</a> in Toronto.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Harrison says the researchers tried to adhere to certain rules when making the prototype: it shouldn’t feel cramped to use, and users shouldn’t have to lift their fingers from the screen while using it. A 1.5-inch display sits in front of an ARM processor, and two Hall-effect displacement sensors measure movements of the screen along two different axes. This allows for clicks, tilts, pans, and twists. The watch is connected to a laptop running software that processes the user’s interactions and runs an app that is shown on the watch face.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A video posted by the group (see below) shows a wearer interacting with a number of demo apps on the watch: clicking and twisting to set an alarm; tilting to pan across a map and twisting to zoom in; twisting and clicking to control the video game Doom, which researchers modified to run on the device.</span></div>
</div>

A Smart Watch Controlled by Twists, Tilts, and Clicks

A movable smart-watch screen makes it easier to read a map or play a game The first time I tried out a smart watch with a touch screen, I...

worlds lightest electric bike motor

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="narrow_content" id="content" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 10px 30px; width: 530px;">
<div id="hero_box" style="clear: both; height: 367px; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; width: 530px;">
<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/velological-worlds-lightest-e-bike-drive/31976/pictures" id="hero_link" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #1e8dd7; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The Velogical Velospeeder rear rim motor system" height="297" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/velospeeder.jpg" style="border: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="The Velogical Velospeeder rear rim motor system" width="530" /></span></a><div class="pic_caption" style="background-color: #444444; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #eeeeee; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; min-height: 30px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin: 5px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Velogical Velospeeder rear rim motor system</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/velological-worlds-lightest-e-bike-drive/31976/pictures" id="gallery_link" style="background-color: transparent; color: #f36031; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Image Gallery</a> (6 images)</span></div>
<div class="clear_both" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="article_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div id="top_unit" style="margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/velospeeder-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The small motor system is barely noticeable on the greater bike" border="0" height="212" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/velospeeder-1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friction drives like the <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/rubbee-electric-bicycle-kit/28406/" style="color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rubbee</a> provide a lighter, simpler option for transforming a regular bicycle into an e-bike. Velogical's all-new Velospeeder makes the friction drive even lighter. The compact e-drive solution weighs under 4 lb and allows for seamless switching between e-assist and manual riding. The company claims it's the lightest and smallest bicycle e-drive (soon-to-be) available.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/velospeeder-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/velospeeder-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The Velospeeder e-drive puts out up to 600 watts and weighs " border="0" height="320" src="http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/velospeeder-2.jpg" width="240" /></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cologne-based Velogical builds rim dynamos for powering bike lights, and at first glance, that's what the Velospeeder looks like. However, it's actually a sized-down e-drive that offers up to 600 watts of power and 29.5 lb.ft (40 Nm) of torque. At 3.5 lb (1.6 kg) for the entire package, it comes in much lighter than other e-drive kits. The current iteration uses a 92-Wh lithium-polymer battery that provides up to around 12.4 miles (20 km) of e-assist. Velogical says that the battery is light enough to carry a spare and easy to swap.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The dual Velospeeder motors mount to the seat stays of a traditional bicycle frame, where they transfer power to the rear rim by way of their polyurethane rings. A toothless drive system on a smooth metal rim sounds ripe for slippage, but Velogical says that the dual swing-axle design of the drive keeps the motors in optimal contact with the rim at all times. In this way, the Velospeeder is able to efficiently apply pressure and power the wheel at start and slow speeds, but also decrease pressure during faster speeds, preventing unwanted braking and wear effects.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="The Velospeeder features twin motors" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/velospeeder-3.jpg" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One advantage of a lightweight e-drive is that it doesn't add a brick-ton of weight to the bike, freeing up easier manual pedaling. The most recent Velospeeder design makes it easy to switch between manual and electric-assist riding. When the rider powers the motors on, they automatically adjust to contact the rim at the same time. When the rider shuts the motors off, they adjust off the rim, freeing up natural wheel spin.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Velospeeder is in the prototype stages and was revealed at the Spezialradmesse last month. Velogical has put 4,000 km (2,485 miles) on its Velospeeder-equipped test bike, in a variety of weather conditions, and reports that the there is no noticeable wear on the rim. The company plans to continue testing and optimizing the system before moving to start distribution next year. It will be selling the drive to bicycle manufacturers for installation on new models and bike shops for retrofitting, but it does not plan to sell directly to consumers as it does with its dynamo.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Velogical doesn't have a polished video yet, but the short clip below shows how the Velospeeder applies torque to the rim and shuts off to allow natural spin. Velogical told us that one of its next steps will be working on the noise level.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="clear: both; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

worlds lightest electric bike motor

The Velogical Velospeeder rear rim motor system Image Gallery (6 images) Friction drives like the Rubbee provide a lighter...