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Yuneec's 3D-sensing drone is available for pre-order
Have you been curious to see how a drone fares when it has Intel's depth-aware RealSense tech onboard? You now have a chance to find out first-hand. Yuneec has started taking pre-orders for the Typhoon H, its first drone with RealSense built-in. Plunk down $1,899 ($100 more than mentioned in January) and you'll get a hexacopter that uses Intel's camera system to map its environment and avoid obstacles while it records your adventures. You'll also get 4K video, 12-megapixel still shots and a 7-inch Android-based controller. It's a lot to pay, and you'll have to endure a 4-week wait if you're in the first wave, but look at it this way: the money you spend now might save you from a nasty tree collision in the future.
Google's 3D-sensing phones are taking a trip to the International Space Station
It's arguably cool enough that Google is working on smartphones that can scan your surroundings, but now those devices are slated to take a spin in space too. How's that for living in the future? NASA first started sticking smartphones to machines back in 2011 when it used Samsung's Nexus S as the brains for a trio of robotic SPHERES satellite that use bursts of carbon dioxide to putter around the International Space Station. Those aging handsets will soon get the boot, as two of Google's Project Tango smartphones will hitch a ride on Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft when it resupplies the ISS in May. Why? The space agency is interested in seeing if the phone's spatial sensing abilities can help those floating robots navigate their surroundings better than they can right now. If it's lucky, NASA's zeal to upgrade the SPHERES' brains could ultimately lead to the development of a roaming robot that works as well outside the station (or around an asteroid) as it does inside a tin can hurtling around the earth.
Apple confirms PrimeSense buyout, paves way for motion-controlled future (updated)
At last, the will-it-or-won't-it drama surrounding Apple's rumored acquisition of PrimeSense is over. The iPhone maker has confirmed the deal with AllThingsD, issuing its now familiar statement that it buys smaller companies "from time to time." The company isn't discussing its plans or the terms of the deal, but ATD's sources claim that PrimeSense sold for about $360 million, or more than the $345 million that Calcalist reported a week ago. Whatever the value, it's clear that motion control will play a role in Apple's future -- the crew in Cupertino now has access to 3D sensor technology that works in everything from living room devices to smartphones. Update: PrimeSense has confirmed the acquisition to us, stating "We can confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this stage."
PMD and Infineon to enable tiny integrated 3D depth cameras (hands-on)
After checking out SoftKinetic's embedded 3D depth camera earlier this week, our attention was brought to a similar offering coming from Germany's PMD Technologies and Infineon. In fact, we were lucky enough to be the first publication to check out their CamBoard Pico S, a smaller version of their CamBoard Pico 3D depth camera that was announced in March. Both reference designs are already available in low quantities for manufacturers and middleware developers to tinker with over USB 2.0, so the two companies had some samples up and running at their demo room just outside Computex. %Gallery-190502%
SoftKinetic and TabletKiosk collaborate on 3D interface for tablets
Perhaps in light of Intel's goal of integrating 3D cameras into its devices by the end of 2014, SoftKinetic has partnered with TabletKiosk to bring what it calls the first-ever 3D interface to enterprise tablets. That chunky slab you see above is based on the Sahara Slate PC i500, but with the SoftKinetic DepthSense 3D camera set inside its lower bezel. As seen in our earlier hands-on with 3D-integrated laptops, the little cam can recognize faces and gestures from as close as 15 centimeters away thanks to a Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensor, so there's no need for lots of room. Of course, this is just a prototype, and we'll likely only see this in business implementations in the near future. That's a good thing, though, as it looks like it belongs more in a shopping mall than on your kitchen counter. For more on the device, have a peek at the press release after the break.
PrimeSense demonstrates Capri 3D sensor on Nexus 10 (hands-on)
Take the 3D sensor inside the Microsoft Kinect, shrink it down to a tenth of its original size and add a bunch of mobile capabilities, and you have yourself PrimeSense's latest conquest, better known as Capri. The company, which is the brains behind the Kinect, has been openly working on bringing a tiny-yet-advanced 3D experience to tablets, televisions and smartphones for quite some time now. And it's proud enough of its progress so far that it's willing to give some real-life demonstrations to developers attending Google I/O. You may not see Capri embedded on the PCB of your portable gadget anytime soon -- at least, not until PrimeSense winds up wooing the pants off a lucky OEM or two -- so in the meantime, the company has connected the sensor board to the Nexus 10 via micro-USB. Unlike the Kinect, however, PrimeSense doesn't think gestures will play a significant role in how we use Capri to interact with our gadgets. Rather, it seems to be more focused on 3D-based use case scenarios, many of which haven't even been thought up yet. As you'll see in the video below, we were shown an AR game that takes the environment around you -- walls, furniture and other elements -- and uses them as restrictions, just as much as they would be in real life. In another app, Capri snapped a three-dimension shot of an object on the table in front of us, captured its measurements and let us export that image to another device or even a 3D printer. In many respects, PrimeSense appears to be taking the same strategy Google does with Glass: get developers excited about the tech in the hopes they'll come up with clever uses for it. And while the company isn't ready to put Capri in their hands yet, the SDK is up for grabs, and I/O is no doubt an ideal place to build excitement for it. If you're looking for more info, we have a gallery, video and press release below, and you'll find the SDK at the More Coverage link. %Gallery-188372%
Evoluce announces 46-inch display with built-in 3D sensors
We've already seen Evoluce toy around with Kinect hacks and multitouch displays, and it's now inevitably managed to combine the two. The company has just announced its new I-Voluce display, which fuses a standard 46-inch LCD with some integrated "3D depth sensing technology" that's apparently not simply a repurposed Kinect -- exact details on it are light, but it will apparently work from a distance of up to 13 feet, and it relies on Windows 7 for an OS. That's obviously not designed for home use, but Evoluce does see plenty of potential for the displays in public spaces like museums, as well as in office and education environments. For those that prefer a more hands-on approach, Evoluce also has an updated version of its Surface-style multitouch table, the Evoluce Two, which also packs 3D depth sensing technology and can accommodate up to six users simultaneously. Of course, neither exactly come cheap -- look for prices to start at €3,995, or about $5,600.
Kinect turned into a quadrocopter radar (video)
Every night we go to bed thinking that we've finally seen the best Kinect hack done and every morning we wake up to see something even crazier concocted with Microsoft's motion controller. Today, it's been mounted atop a quadrocopter -- yes, man's future worst enemy -- and utilized essentially as a 3D radar, facilitating the bot's autonomous maneuvering around a predetermined track. The random introduction of obstacles is also handled in stride, leaving us equal parts impressed, apprehensive, and eager for more. See the video after the break. [Thanks, Glen]
Cambridge Consultants Suma sensor is designed to add '3D' input to traditional control schemes
They're short on details, but the folks at Cambridge Consultants might just be onto something with this new "Suma sensor system" of theirs. Basically it translates the deformation of its soft material into 3D data that can be used in a video game to "unleash the full capabilities of both the human hand and the user's imagination." Sounds a tad far fetched, but the exciting part is that this "Suma skin" control material can replace the traditional casing of a regular gaming controller for less than a buck in parts, meaning that with (relatively) little effort we could see tactile squeezing, gripping and other sorts of finger-friendly input worked into console gaming without having to bid farewell to the form factors we know and love. Cambridge Consultants doesn't mention robotics, but we could also see this sort of material being quite the cost-effective, sensor-laden skin replacement. Just as long as nobody tries to get us to control Ezio with that little stress-ball pictured above.
