Concept phone can see through walls -- in theory

Remember that scene in 'The Dark Knight' where (spoiler alert!) Batman uses the city's cell-phones to look through walls and find the bad guys? Totally awesome, right!? A group of scientists at KDDI apparently thought so too, creating a prototype they say could do something similar. Using geomagnetic sensors, accelerometers, and GPS, the device is able to determine its position and render its surroundings on the screen in OpenGL, including areas that are currently out of sight. We're guessing you must have already scanned those areas with the phone and that it can't actually see through walls, but we'd be happy to be proven wrong -- whenever they actually have something to show us. Like the group's funky concept phones we brought to you earlier, this one doesn't actually work. Yet.

[GON @ Oct 1st 2008 3:37PM]

Yeah? Well according to Microsoft, we'll soon be living a life without walls. So.. Yeah.. Take that.

[PCIV @ Oct 1st 2008 4:04PM]

But without walls... Can there be Windows(tm)?

[bandigolo @ Oct 1st 2008 4:24PM]

oh, snap!

[Arthur @ Oct 1st 2008 4:35PM]

They'll make themselves go out of business.

[bandigolo @ Oct 1st 2008 3:40PM]

impeccable grammar on the '50's ad.

[ZaxCG2 @ Oct 1st 2008 3:49PM]

Grammar didn't exist back then fool.

[Hellaphunt @ Oct 1st 2008 3:51PM]

What's wrong with it? "An" is modifying "Optical" so it should be correct. Just sounds funky.

[lawyer bird @ Oct 1st 2008 4:05PM]

with soft consonants like H sometimes "an" is used instead of "a".

and people in the 50s were stupid

[Shane @ Oct 1st 2008 4:28PM]

"an" is only used when the H is silent, not just when it is soft. The H in Hilarious isn't silent, so "a" was the correct article to use. It doesn't matter what word the article is modifying, it only matters what word the article is in front of.

The rule is you use "a" when the next word starts with a consonant sound and "an" when the next word starts with a vowel sound. So "a" goes in front of hilarious, one, union, cat, etc. and "an" goes in front of onion, honorable, honesty, elephant, etc.

[Grant @ Oct 1st 2008 7:13PM]

Actually, that usage was correct. Just like you would say "an historic occasion." Weird that the first guy to get it right was low-ranked.

[wootman @ Oct 1st 2008 7:24PM]

so its an xray hero?

[puhsitch @ Oct 1st 2008 7:59PM]

I think that using "an" before an "h-" word is appropriate only if the accent is not on the first syllable. Like you would say "a hIstory" but "an histOric."

[Hellaphunt @ Oct 2nd 2008 12:43PM]

Thanks, Grant. These guys obviously Googled it and failed to see any further than this preceding factor.

[Jeremy K. @ Oct 1st 2008 3:42PM]

giggity giggity giggity

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 1st 2008 3:43PM]

If anything ever needed a head-mounted display, it's this...

[Shinigami @ Oct 1st 2008 3:43PM]

You want to see girl's skeletons?
Phreak...

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 1st 2008 3:49PM]

Invasion of the older indefinite forms preceding non-silent aitches from the black lagoon. WTF!

[BluesK1d @ Oct 1st 2008 4:00PM]

Yeah, this will be available for Android later this month =P

[rdza @ Oct 2nd 2008 1:09AM]

You jest, but actually, it may be coming to an android phone next month:
http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/04/enkin-is-the-li.html
http://www.enkin.net/

Android app that marries gps to accelerometer to camera to google maps to google earth for a taggable 1st person, bird's eye, or top down 3d virtual overlay of any navigable position, including your own.
From their blog, "We have been contacted by Google separately and they, too, are excited about our project."
What do you bet google bought them and this is the tech underneath "compass mode" ?

[iEye @ Oct 1st 2008 4:04PM]

I'm no Orthopedic specialist, but I gather that one can tell much about the size and weight of a woman's fun bags by the skeletal posture...
and as we know this bit of information is 90% of a man's decision to go out with a female....

just my 2.. um cents...

[Phoenix @ Oct 1st 2008 4:13PM]

ZOMFG WALLHAX!!11!!!!1!!!!!!one!!!!!onehundredandeleven!!!!16!!!!!!!!*


*12-year-old gamer impersonation

[BluesK1d @ Oct 1st 2008 4:15PM]

Well played, sir.

[BigD145 @ Oct 1st 2008 4:13PM]

Well damn. I thought this would help me make the right choices when inducting new members into the mile high club.

[TJ @ Oct 1st 2008 4:24PM]

The name...the avatar...are you trying to suggest something?

[Levi @ Oct 1st 2008 4:42PM]

Lol hahah XD

I wouldn't have caught that if you didn't comment.

+2 up votes

[bandigolo @ Oct 1st 2008 4:32PM]

it's the damnedest thing about mid-century imagery. X-ray vision was always depicted as some magical thing that let you see through any barrier, but it always stopped at the jigglies, never quite making it to the bones. Maybe it was those old-school braziers...

[ANDREW @ Oct 1st 2008 4:50PM]

Why not give the man another way to keep an eye on us?

[Wormbolt @ Oct 1st 2008 6:02PM]

When will scientists stop trying to see me naked?

[shploits @ Oct 1st 2008 7:52PM]

An grammatical error

[Colin Potter @ Oct 1st 2008 9:06PM]

Who was the (spoiler alert!) for? I did the math and approximately everyone anywhere ever has seen the Dark Knight

[POLY STYRENE @ Oct 2nd 2008 1:37AM]

"The x-rays were penetrating
Through the latex breeze
Synthetic fibre see-thru leaves
Fell from the rayon trees"

[Techwriters @ Oct 2nd 2008 3:27AM]

Looks cool.....
Is this hazardous to our health.....????

www.futuretechwriters.com
[e-mail]

[Erick @ Oct 2nd 2008 3:47AM]

Maybe what they meant is an Augmented Reality prototype. This one can already see underground utility assets for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkwd4MUxZzs

Or, also other AR work done on a phone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLbze3HscqU&feature=user