WearableComputing
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Atheer Labs wants to make its augmented reality glasses a reality on Indiegogo
Atheer Labs isn't the only company chasing Tony Stark, but it is the very latest to offer a set of smart glasses to developers -- enabling them to build out 3D touchless gesture controlled apps. Like its competitor, Meta, Atheer wants to do away with restrictive conventional computing and replace it with augmented reality. The idea is to, eventually, combine your real and digital worlds seamlessly through the power of smart glasses and wearable computers. Unlike Meta, however, Atheer's using Android underpinnings, and will let users run regular Android applications on their faces while they wait for the 3D apps to arrive. As have many others, Atheer's chosen Indiegogo as the means to connect with code monkeys and get them building applications for its platform. And, with the launch of the funding campaign comes the revelation of both a dev kit and the company's first set of consumer specs, dubbed Atheer One. Folks willing to spend $850 for a developer kit now will get their hardware in March 2014. Early adopters wanting the One headset need only pay $350, but won't receive it until the end of next year. What you see above (dev kit on the right, Atheer One on the left) is close to what will make its way into backers' hands, but the hardware's not yet final.
Google will soon let Glass users upgrade their hardware and invite their friends to buy one (updated)
Well, that was quick. Shortly after a Financial Times report to the effect, Google has confirmed that it is indeed preparing an invite system that will let current Glass owners invite up to three friends to join its Explorer program and buy a device of their own. The company isn't saying exactly when they'll be able to do so just yet, but is promising a rollout "over the next few weeks." What's more, Google's also announced a one-time hardware exchange for existing Glass users, which will let them swap out their eyewear for an upgraded version. There's no word on any potential improvements to battery life or other specs just yet, but Google says the new version will work with "future lines of shades and prescription frames," and also come equipped with a mono earbud. Glass users can expect to receive an email sometime next month with further details on the exchange process. Update: It looks like Mountain View is beginning to open up the invitation floodgates as one of our editors in the Explorer program just received an email to invite friends. Head past the break for the missive.
Google reportedly ramping up Glass production, prepping invite system for broader rollout
There's still no firm word on a broader consumer launch, but it looks like Google is now gearing up for what could be the biggest expansion of its Glass Explorer program to date. According to the Financial Times, the company is planning a "substantial" increase in production ahead of the holidays, which could put the wearable computer in the hands (and on the heads) of "tens of thousands" of more users over the coming months. At least some of them will reportedly be able to buy the device through an invite system, which the FT's sources likened to Gmail back in its beta days. Those sources apparently had few other details to share, though, including any indication of a change to that $1,500 price tag.
Google is taking Glass on a road trip across the US, try it on in a city near you
It's still not ready to sell Glass to non-"Explorers," but Google is now at least willing to give more folks an opportunity to try it. The company announced today that's its kicking off a road trip across the US, which will see it make stops in a number of cities where you'll be able to meet some of the team behind Glass and try on the device yourself. That begins in Durham, North Carolina on October 5th, although the company isn't confirming any additional cities just yet (for the time being, it's only saying to keep an eye on its Google+ page). If you're able to make it to Durham, though, you can RSVP for the event at the source link below.
Ultra-thin e-skin could lead to advances in medicine, cool wearable computing (video)
Remember the names Martin Kaltenbrunner and Takao Someya -- that way, you'll have someone to blame when kids start pointing and laughing at gadgets we consider high-tech today. Leading a team of University of Tokyo researchers, they have recently developed a flexible, skin-like material that can detect pressure while also being virtually indestructible. Think of the possibilities: with a thickness of one nanometer, this could be used to create a second skin that can monitor your vital signs or medical implants that you can barely feel, if at all. Also, temperature sensors could be added to make life-like skin for prosthetics... or even robots! Like other similar studies, however, the researchers have a long journey ahead before we see this super-thin material in medicine. Since it could lead to bendy gadgets and wearable electronics first, don't be surprised if your children call iPhones "so 2013" in the not-too-distant future.
The origin of 'OK, Glass,' as told by Google's Amanda Rosenberg
"OK, Glass." It's a phrase that's become synonymous with Google's trailblazing wearable tech, and with good reason. As the headset's hotword, it must be uttered by the user (with varying levels of self-consciousness) to activate Glass' menu. Amanda Rosenberg, the Product Marketing Manager for Project Glass, took to her Google+ page today to share both the phrase's history and a few scrapped ideas. During dinner with Mat Balez, the Glass Project Manager, Rosenberg learned that the product required a simple, culturally resonant term that would let Glass know that it was go-time. Accompanied by what we can only assume was a choir of angels singing, Rosenberg realized that "OK, Glass" would be both functional and subtle enough to not embarrass users in public. It's an interesting anecdote, which you can read in full at the source link, but we have to admit . . . we're kind of sad "Go go, Glass" was never given a chance.
Valve's 'Sea of Cubes,' and the challenges of working with augmented reality
Valve Software's experiments with virtual reality, most recently exposed as a "VR Mode" of its popular free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2, are actually just an offshoot of the company's longer-term goal: augmented reality. The dozens of AR markers plastered to the three walls of Valve programmer Joe Ludwig's shared office are testament to that (seen above). "We're mostly looking at a software level. We've talked to a bunch of different display vendors on the augmented reality side, and none of them are quite ready to go yet," Ludwig says when we prod him for more on Valve's AR efforts. One thing's for sure: we didn't spot any Google Glasses on-site, nor products from other companies producing wearable computers, not to mention in-house glasses. "We've done some gameplay prototypes," he says. "We've done some test pattern type stuff. But that's basically it. There's an application that we call 'Sea of Cubes' that fills the room you're in with cubes just to basically test a bunch of different tracking methods and displays." Thus far, though, Valve isn't much deeper than that. A variety of different cameras mounted on tripods can be seen throughout Ludwig's office. A $30,000 3D camera, which looks an awful lot like a giant Microsoft Kinect, sits in one corner. Ludwig tells us it can pinpoint specific objects with incredible accuracy, though he wouldn't share much more. It's not clear what all of this means for Valve's AR work, but it's clearly still a work-in-progress. Indeed, when the company first started talking wearable computing, Valve's Michael Abrash called it "more research than development." So, what fruit has come of that research since last April?%Gallery-183116%
Editorial: iWatch app speculation is filler, not killer
Innovation is problem-solving. Radical innovation is seeing normalcy as problematic, and solving it. That level of invention, which solves a generally unrecognized problem to create a new product category, or user experience, can be difficult to recognize in the conceptual stage. A far-reaching idea can seem trivial if it solves routineness. Sometimes it takes the product itself, the manifested experience, to demonstrate how to rise above the customary. Email solved postal mail, which died another incremental death last week by announcing a proposal to end Saturday letter deliveries. Cell phones solved the disconnect between phones and the walking-around life. Mobile apps solved the gap between computers and cell phones. Perhaps HTML5 will solve apps. So forgive me if I'm being small-minded, but Bruce Tognazzini's speculative manifesto about an Apple iWatch fails to make a convincing futurist case for the imagined device -- despite whipping up a whirlwind of attention. What is the future of wearable computing?
Our augmented selves: The promise of wearable computing
By Donald Melanson and Michael Gorman It's been an interesting year for Google's most famous side project. After emerging from the company's suitably mysterious X Lab in April, Glass appeared across the roundtable from Charlie Rose, gave conference attendees a skydiver's eye view at Google I/O, strutted down the catwalk at New York Fashion Week and shared the stage with California Governor Jerry Brown as he signed a bill into law allowing self-driving cars on the state's roads. Yet, there's still more that we don't know about Google Glass than we know about it, despite its status as the highest-profile attempt at making wearable computing the next big thing. Public demonstrations of the tech have so far only hinted at its full potential. The promise of Glass echoes that of wearable computing in general, a promise that's remained largely unfulfilled despite decades of research driven by everyone from the military to DIYers.
Microsoft patent application details head-mounted display used to augment live events
It's no secret that Microsoft has been experimenting plenty with wearable computing and augmented reality -- just take a look at some of Microsoft Research's projects -- but a patent application published today has offered a peek at one possible AR application the company has yet to demonstrate. While not describing the device itself, the patent application details how a head-mounted display could be used to augment live events in realtime with relevant information (like stats during a baseball game, as pictured above). To do so, the system would recognize both where you are and what objects are in your field of view, and then display the supplemental information that'd be continually updated based on what's happening or where you're looking. If that all sounds a little familiar, it's because leaked details purporting to lay out Microsoft's future Xbox plans also described some AR glasses, dubbed "Fortaleza Glasses," which were similarly said to provide "realtime information on people, places and objects." At the time of that leak, those were said to be coming sometime in 2014.
Valve's first hardware beta starting by next year, wearable computing still far off
Valve Software's hardware division is still in its infancy. Despite having existed for over a year, recruitment is still its primary concern -- "prototyping is almost secondary," longtime inventor/hacker/now Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth told us in an interview this week. As the team ramps up, production becomes more and more prolific, of course; Ellsworth lights up when she talks about the work her team is doing now. She gets verbose when asked about corporate culture at Valve, about how she's never worked at a company where risk and failure are so acceptable -- even encouraged. She's visibly excited about the prototypes she's creating at Valve's new prototyping facility, but manages to contain herself enough to not let slip exactly what her and her team are working on. When asked what the team's immediate goals are, she obliquely states, "To make Steam games more fun to play in your living room." That's the team's one-year goal, at least. The challenge is making games that require a mouse and keyboard palatable to people who are used to a controller, or to people who just don't want to migrate PC controls to the comfort of their living room. Working in tandem with Steam's newly beta'd "Big Picture Mode," Ellsworth's team is creating a hardware solution to the control barriers found in many Steam games. She wouldn't give any hints as to what that solution is exactly, but she left no options off the table -- from Phantom Lapboard-esque solutions to hybrid controllers. Regardless, it sounds like gamers will have a chance to give feedback on those designs, as Valve's hardware team is planning a beta for its various products. Ellsworth is hoping to have one for the team's first product in the coming year -- we'll of course know much more about the product by then, she says. Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team's prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands -- she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible -- and iterating on design before launch. As for how the beta will be handled, she posits it'll be tied to Steam in some way, but no logistics are anywhere near nailed down.
Google Glass makes catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week
Google Glass' early luxury brand pricing appears to have put it in good stead, with the elite at New York's Fashion Week getting an early close-up look at Google's wearable camera future. Diane von Furstenberg, who's no stranger to a tech tie-in, has added the lightweight frames to her latest show, using them to make a documentary about fashion's creative process. The project is set to appear on von Furstenberg's Google+ page later this week, but if you're not a world-renowned fashion designer (or model), we'd be paying more attention to that two-year wait.
Georgia Tech develops self-charging battery that marches to the owner's beat
One of the last times we saw the concept of a self-recharging battery, it was part of a high-minded Nokia patent whose ideas still haven't seen the light of day. Researchers at Georgia Tech are more inclined to put theory into practice. Starting from a regular lithium-ion coin battery, the team has replaced the usual divider between electrodes with a polyvinylidene difluoride film whose piezoelectric nature produces a charging action inside that gap through just a little pressure, with no outside voltage required to make the magic happen. The developers have even thumbed their noses at skeptics by very literally walking the walk -- slipping the test battery under a shoe sole gives it a proper dose of energy with every footstep. At this stage, the challenge mostly involves ramping up the maximum power through upgrades such as more squeezable piezoelectrics. Georgia Tech hasn't progressed so far as to have production plans in mind; it's nonetheless close enough that we could see future forms of wearable computing that rarely need an electrical pick-me-up.
Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass
Details on Google's Project Glass haven't been the easiest thing to come by since the wearable computing effort was announced earlier this year, but Google execs have been getting a bit more talkative and eager to give demonstrations as of late. You can now add product lead Steve Lee to that list, who's given a fairly wide-ranging interview to Fast Company on the project's origins and its future. Not surprisingly, he confirmed that the early prototypes were a fair bit bulkier -- starting a laptop in a backpack -- and that even the current prototypes are still "very early," although they do handle more than just photos (he gives Maps as one example). Lee does see photo-taking as a "key aspect" to the device, though. He also cast some doubt on initial reports that the devices would be available this year for between $250 and $600, saying that would be "pretty aggressive timing," but he also noted that he "wouldn't be on this project if it was like a five-year endeavor." As for the future, he says that contact lenses with the technology is a natural evolution but a definite "long-term thing," and that a nearer term goal is to "serve everyone and make this is a universal device," adding that they've "prototyped lots of different form factors to accommodate all those folks." All of that comes just from the first part of a two-part interview, though -- the rest is promised later this week.
Google patent application could give Project Glass one true ring controller to rule them all
Let's face it: right now, the head nods and other rudimentary controls of Google's Project Glass are mostly useful for looking good, sharing photos and not much else. A US patent application submitted last September and just now published, however, raises the possibility of more sophisticated control coming from your hands. A ring, a bracelet or a even a fake fingernail with an infrared-reflective layer would serve as a gesture control marker for a receiver on heads-up display glasses. Having this extra control would give the glasses-mounted computing room to grow by learning gestures, and it could even depend on multiple ornaments for more sophisticated commands -- at least, if you don't mind looking like a very nerdy Liberace. We can imagine the headaches a hand-based method might cause for very enthusiastic talkers, among other possible hiccups, so don't be surprised if Project Glass goes without any kind of ring input. That said, we suspect that Sauron would approve.
Silicon Micro Display rolls out $799 ST1080 wearable display
It may still be some time before you can take Google's ambitious wearable computing project for a spin, but there's certainly no shortage of head-mounted displays out there for those looking to blaze a trail of their own. You can now add Silicon Micro Display's new ST1080 glasses to that list, a full 1080p display that will handle both 2D and 3D content (in a variety of formats), and also allow you to see through the glasses for augmented reality applications (albeit with just 10 percent transparency). As with most such glasses, however, you won't get head-tracking capabilities, and you'll have a couple of tethers to contend with (HDMI for video and USB for power, including via an optional battery pack). Those not put off by those constraints or the whole visor look can place their order now for $799. [Thanks, Majik]
Microsoft granted patent for wearable EMG device
Those muscle spasms? They're now good for something. Okay, so Microsoft's just-granted patent for a wearable EMG device doesn't really thrive off of involuntary twitching and such, but it does use your movements to control your smartphone, notebook and other gadgets. The "Wearable Electromyography-Based Controller," which we first glimpsed back in 2010, uses sensors to interpret the electrical signals generated by a user's muscles, and then communicates with the wearer's computer via a wireless (or wired) connection. Redmond envisions the wearable device in various incarnations: as an armband equipped with sensors, a shirt, eyeglasses and even nodes attached directly to the user's body. In the armband example, motion control could be used to interact with a PMP while the user is jogging. No matter the setup, a calibration process allows the system to locate specific sensors and collect information based on specific gestures or movements, which means playing Guitar Hero with only an air guitar may someday be a reality after all.
Oakley cooking up its own smart glasses, hoping to trump Project Glass with improved style
Oakley's Thump glasses haven't exactly succeeded in fending off the competition when it comes to portable music playback, but that isn't stopping it from working feverishly to develop the next round of vaguely intelligent eyewear. CEO Colin Baden told Bloomberg that the company has been toying with ways to project information onto sunglasses since 1997, hoping to start by augmenting the world of sports before ultimately blending into more consumery pursuits with shades that could run solo or pair up with a smartphone. Functionality is only part of the puzzle, says Baden, as aesthetics play an important role. "People get very particular when they put stuff on their face." This, perhaps, explains the lack of sales of the aforementioned Thumps.
NYT: Google to sell Android-based heads-up display glasses this year
It's not the first time that rumors have surfaced of Google working on some heads-up display glasses (9 to 5 Google first raised the possibility late last year), but The New York Times is now reporting that the company is not only working on them, but that it's set to release them by the end of this year. Citing "several Google employees familiar with the project," the paper's Nick Bilton reports that the glasses will be based on Android, pack 3G or 4G connectivity, plus GPS and a range of sensors, and cost "around the price of current smartphones," or somewhere between $250 and $600. They're also said to include a low-resolution camera that can monitor your surroundings in real time and overlay relevant information, although Google is said to be paying attention to potential privacy concerns, and "wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera."What's more, the Times says that none other than Sergey Brin is a "key leader" on the project, with another being Google engineer Steve Lee, the creator of Latitude. Notably, Bilton also says that Google sees the project as an "experiment that anyone will be able to join," and that the company is not currently thinking about potential business models for the glasses, which could suggest that they may be more of a small-scale hobby than part of a major push into consumer hardware.
Conductive nanocoating could lead to flexible, wearable devices, Lady Gaga sticks with meat suit
Flexible is the new rigid in the gadget world, from OLED panels and e-paper displays to, of course, the adorable PaperPhone. Now researchers at North Carolina State University are hoping to take flexible to the next level by applying a conductive nanocoating – thousands of times thinner than a human hair – to ordinary textiles. Their technique, called atomic layer deposition, grows an inorganic coating atop cloths like woven cotton. The treated fabric conducts electricity, opening the door to thin, wearable devices with the flexibility of everyday clothing. The technology's still in its nano-infancy, but who knows: maybe a few years from now you'll be sporting a genuinely playable Angry Birds shirt.
