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MIT’s sensor-packed glove helps AI identify objects by touch
Researchers have spent years trying to teach robots how to grip different objects without crushing or dropping them. They could be one step closer, thanks to this low-cost, sensor-packed glove. In a paper published in Nature, a team of MIT scientists share how they used the glove to help AI recognize objects through touch alone. That information could help robots better manipulate objects, and it may aid in prosthetics design.
Nikon teases a substantial lens mount and grip for its new camera
Nikon is not exactly known for breathless marketing, but it's going all out for its upcoming mirrorless full-frame camera. The company has unveiled yet another video teaser called "Mount" that gives us a good look at the shape of the camera, especially the grip and lens mount.The latter has four interlocking tabs, rather than three like its DSLR models, and is pretty large for the size of the body. The grip also looks more stout than the one on Sony's A7 III.
A vertical case makes arcade games easier on Nintendo Switch
A big part of the Nintendo Switch's appeal is its portability, but select games -- typically older titles that originally debuted in arcade machines -- are formatted vertically. Playing them horizontally leads to giant black bars on the sides, which isn't enjoyable for anyone. But a new gadget (more like a case, really) is up on Kickstarter that situates the console upright with rails on the sides for Joy-Con controllers to slide into, allowing players to enjoy their favorite vertical games on the go.
Robots that pick up and sort objects may improve warehouse efficiency
Sorting and organizing may not always be the most difficult tasks, but they can certainly get tedious. And while they may seem like prime examples of something we might like robots to do for us, picking up, recognizing and sorting objects is actually a pretty difficult thing to teach a machine. But researchers at MIT and Princeton have developed a robot that can do just that and in the future, it could be used for things like warehouse sorting or cleaning up a disaster area.
GoPro's $100 accessory puts Karma's gimbal (almost) anywhere
When GoPro launched Karma at the end of the last year, company CEO Nick Woodman was keen to point out that it's "So much more than a drone." That statement was mostly referring to the bundled handheld grip, which uses the stabilizer from the quadcopter, bringing smooth video to ground-based activities as well. Now, there's a new member of the Karma family, with the self-explanatory name of "Karma Grip Extension Cable." The accessory (pictured on the left, above) brings the gimbal's video-smoothing skills to even more points of view. Albeit at a price.
GoPro sells the Karma's stabilizer grip by itself for $300
No, you still can't buy GoPro's Karma drone in the wake of the recall, but you can get a taste of the technology that came in the box. GoPro has started selling the Karma Grip, the stabilization wand that takes the jitters out of your Hero5 Black or (with a $30 harness) Hero4 Black/Silver camera footage. Spend $300/£250 and you can capture a bike ride or snowboarding adventure without making your friends motion sick. There's a mounting ring to attach it to wearable accessories, too, so you don't have to give up one of your hands while you use it.
HTC won't ship the Grip after all, but its fitness ambition lives on
Hey, remember that time HTC built a fitness tracker (with a little help from Under Armor) and showed it off in Barcelona? The one that was originally slated for a Spring launch? Well, we're knee-deep in Summer already, and the company just confirmed to us that it no longer plans to ship the Grip we've already seen. As a spokesperson put it, the company "decided to align Grip with the entire product portfolio for health and fitness launching later this year" after "extensive wear testing and user feedback." In other words, the exact Grip we saw in Spain won't hit the market, but something better will.
AT&T is bringing LG's Watch Urbane and HTC's Grip to the US
Looks like you won't have to wait too long if you want to try LG's ritzy Watch Urbane or HTC's sporty, $199 Grip tracker in the US. AT&T has revealed it will be the first American carrier -- and first American retailer, really -- to carry these devices. It's not disclosing the ship dates or the Watch Urbane's pricing just yet, though it's reasonable to presume that the Watch Urbane won't be cheap: The G Watch R already sells for $299, and the Urbane's higher quality materials are bound to carry a further premium. Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.
HTC's Grip fitness tracker is a promising, puzzling first step
We're not entirely sure why HTC decided it needed to make a fitness tracker, but it did, and it has. The end result is the HTC Grip, a device that looks more than a little like one of Nike's FuelBands, but does so, so much more. HTC gave us a peek at an early, incomplete version of the product in Barcelona, but here's the rub: I couldn't connect it to my phone in hopes of testing some of its more smartwatch-y features like notifications and canned responses. Still, venture on for a first peek at what HTC and its pals at Under Armour have cobbled together.
HTC takes aim at Fitbit and Jawbone with the Grip exercise tracker
Remember that weird day at CES when HTC announced that it was partnering up with Under Armour, the fitness gear brand that would later buy popular health apps MyFitnessPal and Endomondo? Well, now we know what they've been working on together: Meet the HTC Grip, a black-and-green fitness tracker you wear on your wrist.
Microsoft Research packs stylus with sensors for grip-based tools
Believe it or not, there has been limited research into the way we hold a pen for different writing tasks. A team at Microsoft Research has taken aim at those fine motor skills with a prototype stylus and tablet combo. The duo packs in inertial sensors to track the position of each while in use. A multi-touch grip sensor wraps the outside of the stylus that not only monitors how its held, but can also initiate tasks with a mere finger tap. Sure, button controls have long been built into styli, however this effort investigates the grip as a means of swapping between tasks. During the test, holding the pen-like peripheral a certain way accesses a specific tool set or keeps a resting palm from prohibiting movement with the other hand. On the tablet, the sensors can tell when the slate is being passed off to another user -- swapping to that person's fine-tuned presets automatically. Of course, all of this is still in the research phase, but enhanced touch recognition for stylus-driven devices like the Surface Pro 3 would certainly be a welcome boost.
iPhone case defies gravity, sort of
We've seen extra-grippy iPhone cases before, but Italy's Extraverso has taken that idea a step further -- or perhaps too far, depending on how you look at it. The "case," which isn't as much a case as it is a skin for the rear of the device, is designed to stick to any flat surface, and that includes vertical ones. At first I thought the idea was pretty pointless, but after considering the potential applications, it could actually be a pretty slick accessory. The skin would prevent you from knocking the device off of a table or countertop thanks to its grippy nature, and then there's the possibility of slapping your iPhone to a wall or window... for whatever reason you might want to do so. Great for selfies? Sure. But just how much do you trust your phone's life to the suction created by the soft, gel-like rear cover? I can just imagine iPhones meeting their untimely ends thanks to a less-than-adequate grip, which would surely lead to a whole bunch of tears. Thankfully, the skin -- which runs approximately US$34 from Extraverso's online shop -- also includes a protective bumper. That sounds a little bit less risky, but test at your own risk.
NTT DoCoMo Grip UI detects how you hold your device, makes big phones friendly for tiny hands (video)
Maintaining your balance on a packed train while trying to handle the big-screened smartphones of today is often a tough challenge. At least NTT DoCoMo thinks so, offering up a new interface to avoid such issues -- and throw in some extra gesture shortcuts. Gesture UI is a combination hardware-software prototype that the Japanese carrier is showing at this year's CEATEC showcase in Japan. Consisting of a trio of grip sensors located along the two edges and across the back of the prototype phone, these can each detect up to five levels of pressure from your hand, as well as detecting how you're holding the device. This data is then channeled into the user interface, which allows the user to customize what the device does under certain conditions. We saw demonstrations of grip "shortcuts" to send you back to the homescreen, while holding certain portions of the sides would launched pre-assigned apps -- pinching at the top of this device launched the internet browser. Once inside the browser, the Grip UI also allows the user to transfer across to other programs without returning to the aforementioned homescreen, using a combination of gripping and swiping across the display. We get a handle on the prototype UI inside DoCoMo's imaginary train right after the break.
NASA, GM working on a 'Robo-Glove' to assist astronauts and autoworkers alike
We've seen power assist technology designed to help people walk, bike or just tote luggage around, and now we've for the Human Grasp Assist aka Robo-Glove. Under development from GM and NASA, the project takes inspiration from technology designed to give Robonaut 2 a hand capable of using tools designed for humans to embed actuators in the top of the glove that provide additional grip for the hands of meatbags. Once its pressure sensors detect the wearer is picking up a tool the synthetic tendons retract, holding them there until the sensor gives the signal to release. Current prototypes still weigh about two pounds and run off of a belt-mounted lithium-ion battery, although we still find the idea preferable to humanoid replacement like the impervious-to-baseball-bats DLR Hand System. By reducing the amount of force factory workers need to hold a tool from 15 to 20 pounds to just 5 to 10 pounds its expected to cut down the risk of repetitive motion injuries -- we'll wait for the fourth generation model to see what they can do for bloggers or Lee Evans. Until then, check after the break for a press release and quick demonstration video.
Padlette, for those times you need a giant rubber band on your iPad
The Padlette solves one problem: How do you strap your iPad to your hand quickly using a big rubber band? Insofar as that one problem is concerned, the Padlette (patent pending) does a great job. You stretch the loops around the corners of your iPad and you're able to slip your hand in between, securely holding the iPad with one hand. How secure is it? I stood over a bed and shook my hand around but wasn't too worried the iPad would fly off. In fact, you might be surprised how secure this thing is -- the rubber sticks well to the iPad but won't rip the hair out of your hand (I have moderately Hobbitish hand hair, YMMV). I suppose you could attach the iPad to a golf club or pole or use the Padlette to hold your magic wand between wizard duels, but that isn't its primary purpose. Anyway, the Padlette isn't new, but they were at CES hoping to score some larger notice and distribution. There's also a few versions of this, but frankly I couldn't figure out why -- they appear to be grippable in different ways? There's the deefour, the deethree and the new yinyang, all using the same idea but with a different hole cut in the middle of the rubber band. I don't think this would sell well in a Target, as it seems primarily suited to trade shows or teaching or somewhere you might need to hold the iPad safely in one hand. Which isn't that often, frankly. The Padlette comes in a variety of colors and costs $19.99 on Amazon. Oh, and it supports any full-size tablets for you cross-platform fans out there.
Nyko Power Grip review
There have been more than a few third-party responses to the Nintendo 3DS' notably short battery life, from grips to clips, to full-on battery replacements. Despite their best efforts, these products still fall short of making the fledgling handheld international flight-ready, leaving globetrotting gamers with idle thumbs. Can't we do better? Nyko thinks so, and promises to triple the battery life of a standard 3DS with its latest accessory, the Nyko Power Grip. Other products have boasted double, but three times the play time? Now we're interested. We gave the Grip a run for its money -- read on if you want to know if it is worth yours. %Gallery-139504%
Shogun Bros. updates Chameleon X-1 mouse / gamepad, tosses it up for pre-order
Perfection is an undeniably lofty goal, but that's exactly what Shogun Bros. is striving for, with a freshly announced update to its Chameleon X-1 gaming mouse. Available in three different colors, the company's "Perfect Version" of its gamepad / mouse boasts an enhanced rubberized coating for better grip, a new layout for remote control operation and, perhaps best of all, extended battery life. Other than that, it's essentially the same device we saw way back in December, with a 5-stage adjustable 1600dpi optical sensor, a full slate of 16 buttons and force feedback support. Shogun Bros. won't be releasing this perfected peripheral until October 1st, but you can pre-order one now at Amazon, for $60. Hit up the source link to make the purchase, or slice past the break for a very succinct press release.
ViviTouch haptic tech offers range of feedback, aims to reinvent the mobile gaming wheel
When a company touts a product as being as revolutionary as the leap from black & white TV to color, it's either incredibly delusional or it has a damn good product on its hands. And judging by the buzz surrounding Artificial Muscle's ViviTouch tactile feedback technology and our own hands-on at CES, we're inclined to believe its braggart rights. Taking the "one-buzz-fits-all" approach and chucking it in the bin of 'ye olde tech of yesteryear,' the electroactive polymer tech creates a "spectrum of feeling" in the 50 - 300Hz range that registers with a user's hand in five milliseconds. We know what you're thinking -- haptic minutiae is fine and all, but what about my battery life? Well, if the company's CEO is to be believed, the vibrating touch interface drains 70 percent less juice than rival implementations -- so it's still hoggy, but not quite as hungry. If you're looking to get a feel of your own for these sensational claims, you'll have to wait for the Mophie Pulse to make its way to fourth generation iPod touch's later this year. Buzzwordy presser after the break.
Watch-controlled robo-tot grasps small objects, the meaning of life (video)
It may seem like there's an abundance of robot news lately, but we're just trying to please our mechanical overlords deliver the latest in gadget and technology news. What we've got here is an Arduino-based robo-gripper that serves only to move around and use its 3D printed claws to grab tiny objects that we'd otherwise be too lazy to pick up ourselves. The robot, infused with a Texas Instruments CC1110 dev kit, is controlled using an accelerometer-based Chronos watch and can move in all directions by simply tilting the timepiece. If you want to take a gander at this little guy in action, check out the video past the break -- it's always warming to see humans having the upper hand against the machine.
Sony, Fujifilm patents are half-camera, half-origami
Point and shoot cameras are tricky to hold still, but the powers that be thought up a crazy fix -- build bending, sliding, transforming grips right into the body of the camera. Sony's patented the idea you see immediately above, which turns the sliding lens cover into a handle using tiny hinges (or perhaps electrorheological fluid, we're not sure). Amazingly enough, the basic concept actually isn't new: Sony itself references a Fujifilm patent whose cover-turned-grip protects the rear LCD instead. Neither look terribly comfortable, but which would you rather choose: a pocketable camera that snaps stable single-handed shots, or one that monopolizes your fingertips? Take a gander at one of Fujifilm's proposed designs after the break.
