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You’ll soon be able to dance like BTS in ‘Fortnite’
'Fortnite' is hosting the world premiere of a new, choreographed music video of the BTS bop 'Dynamite.'
Ubtech’s latest educational, dancing robot is bigger and more lifelike
There are plenty of educational coding robots, but few have moves like UBTECH's dancing robot MeeBot. UBTECH launched the JIMU build-your-own-bot kit for MeeBot in 2016. Today, the company unveiled MeeBot 2.0.
Fortnite’s legal battles probably won’t result in big payouts
As Fortnite continues its astronomical rise, the legal troubles keep piling on for its developer, Epic Games. With more than 200 million players on Fortnite: Battle Royale (which reportedly earned over $1 billion in 2018), the title isn't just a cultural phenomenon -- it's also a serious cash cow. And, as the great Notorious B.I.G. once said, "mo' money, mo' problems." For Epic, those problems have been caused by Fortnite's Emotes, a collection of real-world-inspired dance moves that players can use with their avatar in the game.
AI-altered video makes it look like you can dance
Can't pop-lock or Lindy Hop to save your life? Don't worry -- AI could soon make it look like you're a dance superstar. UC Berkeley researchers have developed a deep learning system that translates dance moves from a source video to less-than-experienced subjects. One algorithm creates a virtual skeleton to map poses, while two more algorithms square off against each other to both create the full picture and create a more realistic face for subjects as their virtual bodies twirl around. You do need the test subject to move around for a short while to get reference material, but the result is realistic enough to give an amateur the deftness of a ballet dancer.
Dance moves turn into music with BeatMoovz
There are plenty of gadgets out there for making music on your mobile device, but they're relatively sedentary affairs. BeatMoovz turns things arounds with a music tool that gets you up and dancing: instead of moving with the music, you dance and create a soundtrack using your steps, spins and sashays.
Science confirms what we already know: It's all in the hips
To find out what people think of lady dancing, you don't need to head to the club. Instead, researchers in the UK outfitted female dancers with motion capture rigs, much like the ones that bring digital movie characters like Gollum or Jar Jar Binks to life. According to science, then, women who swing their hips while moving their legs and thighs independently are rated high on attractiveness.
This is E3 2015 in motion
A picture paints a thousand words. A video does even more again. A gif... well, somewhere in the middle. So let's join the cosplayers, tour some of the elaborate booths and dodge around the people-in-suits-that-didn't-want-to-be there. E3 2015 is all about The Business, but it also has to be fun.
Watch these adorable robots dance better than you
We're used to seeing robots like MIT's Cheetah that are absolutely terrifying, so starting day two of Expand New York with an android dance party was a welcome change of pace. It came, of course, by way of the folks at Aldebaran Robotics who brought a trio of their fifth-generation Nao bi-peds to bust a groove. The outfit's James Dietrich said that while there are over 10,000 of the friendly little 'bots in use in some 70 countries, there are a more than a few things holding us back from having Rosie from The Jetsons in our homes. Namely, the price needs to come down: Developers can get one for $6,000 and a consumer model is a whopping $8,000.
The next Dance Central launches September 2nd on Xbox One
So the Kinectless Xbox One has arrived, and you're now left wondering if the motion sensor from your launch-era system will ever be useful for more than starting games and taking orders from Aaron Paul. Thankfully, it should for at least a little while -- Harmonix has announced that Dance Central Spotlight will be available to download from the Xbox Store on September 2nd. The $10 rhythm title will include 10 core songs from big-name artists (the full list is below), with five extra tracks purchasable from the get-go. If you're a veteran from Dance Central's Xbox 360 days, any tunes you bought in the past will carry over to the Xbox One. We can't promise that your Kinect will get much more attention in the long run, but it's nice to have a reason to keep the once-standard peripheral attached for just a bit longer.
'Dance Central' returns to Xbox as a download-only game
Kinect may no longer be a mandatory part of the Xbox One experience, but there could still be an incentive to pick one up: Harmonix has just used Microsoft's E3 keynote to unveil Dance Central Spotlight, a revival of its long-serving rhythm game series. Apart from delivering the visual upgrades you'd expect with a new generation of hardware, the title promises more dance routines, a voice-triggered "practice that" mode and an expanded fitness mode that will give you a proper workout. While more details of the game mechanics have yet to come, Spotlight will be a download-only release when it arrives on the Xbox One in September.
Bounden is an iPhone dancing game that gets better when you hold hands
You met on Tinder, you romanced on Snapchat, and now your smartphone can also help you to get physical. (No, not in that way, pervert.) An iPhone game called Bounden has just arrived at the App Store and it's designed (in partnership with a ballet company, no less) to instruct you on how to make beautiful shapes with another person. As demonstrated in the video below, you both hold onto the phone and then try to move some gyro-responsive dots around the screen. Get it right, and you end up with some nice twirls, a high score and a partner for life. All for $4.
Bounden delayed on Android, but you can help it arrive faster
Game Oven planned on simultaneously releasing the dance-supplementing Bounden (demonstrated here by our own Jess Conditt) on May 16 for iOS and Android, but there's been a stumble in the development's routine. The sheer number of Android devices on the market has made Bounden's Android version difficult to finish - after all, how do you release a gyroscope-based game across dozens of devices when they can't all agree on which way is north? With additional testing of the Android pool, Game Oven has found that some devices use gyroscopes that don't work on all axes, while others are faking gyroscopic data with accelerometers. Of course, there's also the devices that don't have a gyroscope in the first place. Game Oven has settled on whitelisting Android devices individually, stalling Bounden's Android release until the developer feels it has cleared a sufficient amount of devices. You can help make that happen a bit sooner, though - Game Oven has asked for Android users that are willing to test Bounden on their devices to send an email to eline at gameovenstudios dot com. If you decide to help, be sure to specify your device's brand and model in your email. [Image: Game Oven]
Science learns which male dance moves the ladies like
We're not here to tell you folks how to get down in the club, but if you're a guy wanting to get noticed (in a good way) by the opposite sex the next time you're at the discotheque, listen up. Researchers at Northumbria University conducted a study to find out exactly what kind of gyrations draw in the ladies, and the keys to greatness on the dance floor may surprise you: an actively moving neck, head and torso and a fast moving right knee. Weird, right?
Just Dance Kids 2014 grooving to retail this October
Just Dance Kids 2014 will launch on October 22, Ubisoft announced today. As the fourth game in the Just Dance Kids series, this year's version will include 30 songs ranging from One Direction's "One Thing" to the Fraggle Rock TV show's opening theme song. Ubisoft provided a partial list of songs included in the game, which can be found after the break if you are morbidly curious. The game includes an Xbox 360-exclusive "Just Create" mode, in which players use Kinect to assemble music videos using their own choreographed moves. Just Dance Kids 2014 also features a Wii U-only Dance Director mode, which allows one player to select dance moves for other players to perform. The game will launch on Wii U, Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Just Dance 2014 will have you moving and shaking this October
Ubisoft has announced Just Dance 2014, previously revealed through the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game will include six-player dances, DJ functions (where you can wave a hand around to move through songs), and a special "Party Master" mode coming to the Wii U. The tunes will be provided by pop artists as usual, including Pitbull and others. Just Dance 2014 will be available on all next-gen consoles this October. Ubisoft tells us the game will be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on October 1, October 4 in the UK, and then October 8 in the US.
Celebrating the dances of Guild Wars 2
What's the most important thing about next week's launch of Guild Wars 2? Is it deciding which race/gender/profession combo you'll make for your main? Is it deciding which server you'll play on? Or is it figuring out which dance emote looks best on your character? Thanks to our own livestreamer extraordinaire, Richie Procopio, we have a look at each race's and gender's dance emotes in the game, which were just introduced with yesterday's stress test patch. Skip past the cut below to see the fun little video for yourself -- all in glorious HD! Even a Bookah like you knows that Guild Wars 2 is on the way, but it takes an Asura's intellect, a Human's charm, a Sylvari's wisdom, a Charr's passion, and a Norn's love of strong mead to dive into beta and make sense of a game this complex. Fortunately, we have all five on the Massively staff. Enjoy our previews, guides, and our weekly GW2 column, Flameseeker Chronicles!
Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection just wants to dance
This trailer for Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection shows just how fun it is to let loose and dance. It's also a warning that busting moves instead of skulls won't help you survive the zombie apocalypse.
Breakfast Topic: Which race is the dancing queen?
In a shift from usual form, let's talk dancing! Now, I can't dance for toffee in reality. Really, I'm dreadful. I do my best to avoid it. But in WoW, I'm forever dancing. I don't know why -- it just seems to be my standard response to situations where I have to wait around somewhere or for something and I've run out of Potions of Illusion. If I have potions of illusion, I'll use one, then get to dancing. Dancing was also one of the few things that has led me to consider rolling my first-ever male character. I found out while rolling alts for a guildie to turn into Christmas turkeys that male trolls dance like Zanzil of Zul'Gurub fame. I never minded people going AFK at Zanzil -- I could watch his hilarious dancing for hours -- and when I found out the male trolls dance like that, my mind was made up. I just haven't got 'round to it yet. So tell me, which race are the dancing queens or dancing kings?
TOSY and Justin Bieber announce mRobo: we go hands-on, dance-off (video)
Beethoven's Fifth. Michelangelo's Pietà. Plato's Republic. Cornerstones of human civilization, to be sure, but they all pale in comparison to what we saw today at CES: TOSY's new mRobo robot, inspired by none other than the Cultural Colossus of our time, Justin Bieber. The Vietnamese manufacturer and pubescent Prince have just taken the wraps off their latest collaboration: a petite, portable speaker-robot that dances -- nay, transcends -- just like his only slightly larger progenitor counterpart. When in speaker mode, the mRobo weighs in at just 3.3 pounds, stands a little under eight inches tall, and boasts 2GB of internal memory. Its integrated speaker pumps out the jams at bass levels of 40Hz, but the real magic happens once the music starts playing, automatically prompting the system to transform into an 18-inch tall robot and start dancing. Unfortunately, the bot is still in prototype mode, but it's expected to retail for about $200 when it launches during the fall of 2012.Today, though, we were lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the mRobo, courtesy of a mic'd-up Messiah with sweepy bangs and a leather jacket. Upon taking the stage to roars of applause and Jelly Bean sunshowers, Bieber went on to do a brief demo of the bot, displaying its ability to sync its dance moves to whatever tunes blare out of its abdomen speaker -- in this case, Billie Jean. The mRobo looked admittedly clumsy at times, and was especially awkward when onstage with the teen phenom, but, as TOSY repeatedly reminded us, it's still in prototype phase. (Bieber, for his part, did a good job of looking completely awestruck throughout much of the experience.) Before descending from his bubblegum pulpit, Bieber reminded his acolytes to "follow your dreams." Ours, at least, have just been realized. Follow yours past the break, straight to our hands-on video.Mat Smith contracted Bieber Fever from this report.
Spherical hexapod robot walks like a crab, dances like the Bogle (video)
Kåre Halvorsen (aka Zenta) is something of a genius in the robotic arts, as testified by the latest development in his long-running MorpHex project. By adding curved polycarbonate panels to its six feet and upper half, he's given his creation the ability to curl up into a ball when it gets tired of scuttling. Alas, he hasn't managed to make it roll around yet, or indeed fly, but the video after the break is still pretty amazing -- and almost as hypnotic as that robotic worm we caught doing the limbo.
