[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 029 ]
[] EMERGING TECH ON TEST
[ ANDROID, IOS ]
Merge HoloCube
VR Goggles US$ 59 .99
mergevr.com[ IOS, ANDROID EXPECTED
IN 2017 ]
Lifeprint
US$ 130 | shop.lifeprintphotos.comHoloCube, from the US startup Merge VR,
is a physical block covered on all sides by a
series of patterns that act in much the same
way as a QR code. These patterns allow your
smartphone to deduce the precise orientation
and movement block, making it possible to
recreate a rotatable digital surface overlay.
Working in conjunction with smartphone
VR goggles and an app that facilitates
camera passthrough viewing software,
the HoloCube package allows you to use
your hands to easily interact with a three
dimensional digital container.
Polaroid has a portable instant-photo printer
that allows you to make physical copies of
your smartphone’s digital snaps on the fly,
but Lifeprint want to take this concept a step
further and print polaroid videos. The non-
magical explanation goes as follows: you
chose a frame from a movie on your phone
and print it using the Lifeprint app and the
Lifeprint photo printer. When you look at the
printed photo through your smartphone’s
live-camera passthrough feed in the Lifeprint
app, you’ll see the original video playing in
what seems like a printed picture.
AUGMENTED-REALITY BOTS NEWS[ WEB API ]
Perspective
Free
jigsaw.google.com[ SMS ]
Captain
$SMS costs
captain.yahoo.comIf you’ve ever followed the comments
sections of a controversial gaming article,
you would have come across some rather
revolting language and offensive statements
lurking amongst the genuine responses.
But with particularly controversial topics,
there can be far too many comments to
effectively moderate them all. In what could
possibly be the best use of AI software yet,
Google has developed an autonomous
moderator application called Perspective that
intends to weed out the most obvious ‘trolls’
and their offensive comments all by itself.[ HAVING A BALL ]
DISNEY MAPS
CATCHABLE BALLS IN VR
HTC announced at the beginning of the
year that it’s Vive headset was now
compatible with tools that would allow
you to use and interact with everyday
objects. In one of the first
groundbreaking expressions of this type
of technology, Disney has used an
Oculus Rift headset and a high-speed
camera, the OptiTrack Flex 13, to render
a digital doppelganger of a tennis ball
in real time, allowing someone wearing
the headset to easily catch and throw it
in both realms.[ SOCIAL CAR ]
TELL THEM WHAT YOU
REALLY THINK
If you’re anything like us, the way other
people drive is likely to be a daily source
of anger, but the only real way you can
interact with particularly irritating or
unsafe drivers is generally by
overreacting or being offensive. One
Netherlands university researcher has
decided that the 1,500 serious injuries
in the US per year, resulting from
aggressive driving, is a good enough
reason to try to make driving a more
social experience. Social Car is a
prototype web-connected camera and
heads-up display that pegs cars to a
digital avatar and allows you to message,
like and dislike someone else’s driving.[ UNDERWATER VR ]
SWIMMING IN TECH
If you’ve ever imagined what it would be
like to combine the dark, silent and wet
environment of an isolation tank with the
experience of a virtual reality headset
then, somehow, you aren’t the only one.
Director of Creative Development at
Discovery Digital Networks, Stephen
Greenwood, and cofounder of Avegnat
(the company behind VR headset Glyph),
Allan Evans, are working on a
smartphone VR headset that was
inspired by the isolation tank and is
intended to be worn in the water.This Yahoo-developed text message bot
makes it notably easier for you to keep track
of the events, shopping lists and to-do items
that you need to. Setting up Captain is a
matter of texting the US number 773-786
and filling out all your details via SMS.
On top of getting Captain to send you SMS
reminders of events at particular times and
keep a running tab of your shopping list,
you can also send friendly reminders to
anyone you add to your family’s account.