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Party Bot decides who's on the guest list, what music to play
While most people in the tech business only roll into Austin once a year for SXSW, a handful of companies choose to call the city home. Fjord (formerly known as Chaotic Moon) is one of them. So, when the festival sets up around them, it uses the week as an opportunity to show of some of its proof-of-concept (and usually fun) ideas.
Inside the mind-reading dream factory that is Chaotic Moon
For two weeks every March, Austin, TX, transforms into the media playground known as SXSW. Everyone from brands like McDonalds and Budweiser, to indie app developers descend on the city to share ideas big and small, serious and irreverent. Tucked away above a restaurant just off of 5th street, however, is a place where there dreaming never stops. That place is the HQ of Chaotic Moon -- a digital idea factory that seems to exist for one simple reason: "What can we try next?" Naturally, when SXSW sets up around the team, it's the perfect chance to show off their latest ideas, and we got to see what they've been cooking up (and, for once, it's not BBQ).
Headband detects obstacles and guides the blind haptically
Until scientists perfect bionic vision, shouldn't there be a better way for the blind to get around than a simple cane? That's the idea behind Sentiri, a proximity-sensing headband that helps steer users around by motor-driven haptic feedback. It detects objects in the environment using infrared depth sensors, then varies the level of vibrations to the user's head to help them avoid obstacles. If it's connected to a smartphone with an app like Google Maps, the tool can also safely guide you from point 'A' to point 'B.' The company behind it, Chaotic Moon, also created a "haptic language" that transmits extra information to users by changing the frequency, intensity and number of vibrations.
Orchard wants to cover Austin in inflatable, huggable trees
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344018{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344018, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344018{width:629px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344018").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Chaotic Moon needed something to soften its image. The "creative technology studio," known for stunts like a bitcoin-mining exercise machine and a drone that sprayed paint and flames, was starting to seem a little rough around the edges. So, it started work on Orchard, a giant inflatable and interactive tree built in collaboration with the design firm Gensler. Basically, it's a 30-foot balloon, loaded with sensors, LEDs and speakers. When you poke, push, hug or tackle the tree, it responds in different ways. It subtly changes the music, emits tones, displays ripples of color or even just locks into a single shade until you release your grip. The two companies are hoping to work with other partners and sponsors to build an entire orchard (hence the name) of these inflatable trees that will interact with not just the people touching them, but also each other and maybe even social media. For a full explanation from one of the designers, John Houser, check out the video above.
Blood, sweat and bitcoin: Mining cryptocurrency with exercise
Even a company like Chaotic Moon, that has made headlines here for its odd, genre defying creations has to bow to the lure of trends every so often. Fitcoin (not to be confused with the several other apps of the same name) hops on the wearble and bitcoin bandwagon. It starts with any activity tracker that meets two requirements: an open API and an integrated heart rate monitor. For demonstration purposes the company chose a Mio. Then there's an app that measures the activity tracked and converts it into an appropriate amount of bitcoin -- in essence paying you to work out. Or, as the tag line puts it: Get ripped. Die mining.
Mischievous drone sprays paint, silly string and flames
We're still not really sure what a "creative technology studio" is, but it sure seems like a damn fun place to work. Apparently your job at one, like Chaotic Moon, is to just think of "awesome" ideas with little practical purpose and make them a reality. Why? Because you can. Last year the firm used a drone to tase a poor intern, and married an Oculus Rift to a Leap motion so we could punch sharks. This year it decided to try something a little less dangerous (and far less likely to end in a lawsuit). Tyrone Drone is a pretty standard drone with some simple modifications. Instead of holding a camera, he's holds and fires a spray can.
Playing 'Death from Above' with Oculus Rift
Last time we played a virtual reality game built by the folks from Chaotic Moon, we were giving a bunch of digital sharks the business with our Engadget fists of fury. Friday night at Engadget Live in Austin, we played a new game, called Death from Above, that pitted editor against editor. The game itself is fairly simple: drive a Jeep over hill and dale to the safety of a bunker while a second player attempts to bomb said Jeep into oblivion. The driver straps on an original Oculus Rift dev kit headset, some headphones and uses a Logitech racing wheel and pedal combo to pilot the Jeep, while player two rains death using an iPad and a companion app. It's a unique take on VR gameplay, and one that allows for a more social gaming experience. Also, it's a lot of fun.
This is what Facebook could look like on Oculus Rift (video)
This week, much of the world met Oculus Rift for the very first time. And now that millions of consumers are at least somewhat familiar with the VR gadget, it's not unreasonable to assume the device will eventually become mainstream, serving to create a much more immersive internet experience. That's at least one theory, demonstrated today by Chaotic Moon, the Austin-based firm behind the stun copter and SharkPunch. That latter concept employs the same gear Chaotic's using for today's demo: the Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1, with Leap Motion mounted front and center.
Watch a man get stunned by the Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone (stun copter!)
You're gonna want to steer clear of this CUPID. The Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone, or "stun copter," can deliver 80,000 volts of pure projectile terror directly into the skin of an ill-intentioned hoodlum. This is serious business for Chaotic Moon, the folks behind SharkPunch and the Pizza Hut touch table. The Austin-based design studio created the flying machine as a tech demo, but CUPID could be quickly brought to production whenever a personal security or law enforcement client sees fit. This prototype unit is based on a Tarot Hexacopter, originally designed to carry a digital SLR for video and aerial photo shoots. With a Phazzer Dragon on board, however, a few modifications made this an entirely different beast.
Punching virtual sharks for points with the Oculus Rift and Leap Motion
"This could be a science lesson on the innards of sharks." Chance Ivey, game design lead for Chaotic Moon's whimsical Oculus Rift demo SharkPunch, was only half-joking when he made that comment to me as I exploded a megalodon with my fist in virtual space. That's because the minigame, which incorporates a visor-mounted Leap Motion controller to let users punch sharks in 3D, actually has firm roots in an educational simulator the Austin, Texas-based company's been developing for prospective clients. Yes, that connection may be hard to swallow at first -- after all, how does a frenzied, and fun, game of shark carnage assist players with learning? The simple answer is that it doesn't, but by no means does that lessen SharkPunch's educational origins in the slightest.
Chaotic Moon's Board of Awesomeness gains mind controls, becomes Board of Imagination
Remember the Board of Awesomeness we took for a spin back at CES? Well, the folks from Chaotic Moon went back to the lab to make it even better with a new control system, swapping out the Kinect sensor bar for an Emotiv EPOC headset and re-christened it the Board of Imagination. So, instead of using your hand to control the throttle, you simply visualize and focus on where you want to go, and the headset tells the board how fast to go to get there. The brains of the thing are still housed in a Samsung slate running Windows 8, and it can still shred asphalt at speeds up to 32mph, but now it's a truly mind-blowing experience. Don't believe us? Check out the Board of Imagination in action after the break.
Engadget rides the Board of Awesomeness, results are... awesome (video)
We showed it to you a few days ago, and now we finally got to ride Chaotic Moon's Board of Awesomeness. For those who missed it the first time around, it's an electric skateboard rigged up with a 36 volt battery and an 800 watt motor capable of hurtling you down the road at up to 32mph. It's controlled by a Kinect sensor bar and one of Samsung's Windows 8 developers tablets strapped to the deck. Interestingly enough, Chaotic Moon built the thing with little hackery -- the only hardware mod was made to connect the Kinect's power cord to the battery. You control the throttle by pushing your hand closer or further away from the Kinect, which is made possible using the sensor bar's Beta 2 SDK. A pressure switch is on the deck to kill the motor should you fall off, which is nice since the thing has no brakes -- it stops via the motor's natural drag. Kinect controls were also initially used for steering, but folks found it to be counter-intuitive, so now it turns like any other skateboard.As you can see from the video above, our skateboarding skills aren't quite on par with Tony Hawk, but that 800 watt motor puts out a ton of torque, so starting it up took some getting used to. The control system is easy and intuitive to use and is like pushing an invisible gas pedal with your hand, though since we were riding it in a parking lot here at CES, we got nowhere near its 32mph top speed. However, we eventually got the hang of riding it at lower speeds, and would love to spend a few days learning how to properly ride it and really see what it can do. The best part? This is only version one of the Board of Awesomeness, and the company plans to create a faster one in the future -- we'll be practicing our riding skills in the meantime to get ready. We hope you enjoyed watching us get awesome, but if you want to see someone who can shred asphalt on the Board of Awesomeness, hit the video after the break.
Chaotic Moon shows Xbox Kinect / Windows 8-powered electric skateboard (video)
What if you combined a prototype Windows 8 tablet, an electric skateboard and Microsoft's Kinect? Funnily enough, the folks at Chaotic Moon Studios wondered the same, and they didn't stop there. Here at CES 2012, the outfit showcased a downright amazing wheeled machine, capable of reaching speeds as high as 32mph. It's being labeled the Board of Awesomeness, but frankly, that's an understatement. The company's calling this the world's first Xbox Kinect-controlled skateboard, utilizing video recognition, speech recognition, gesture recognition, localization data, accelerometer data, and other factors to determine what the user wants to do. Enough chatter -- head on past the break to see this thing in action.
