Powerglove
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ZTE's crowdsourced gadget competition is down to five
Since August, ZTE has been running an American Idol-style contest where, instead of singers, people are asked to judge the firm's future product development. Users were asked to suggest plausible ideas that the company could create and sell within the next rough year, that folks could then vote on. ZTE took three of those offerings, added a further two from a concept phase, and will now put all five to a very public final vote. Between now and October 19th, you'll be able to select which of the potential candidates you'd like to see built — and hopefully will buy once it hits shelves.
ZTE wants your help bringing crowdsourced ideas to life
When ZTE launched its Project CSX challenge to crowdsource ideas for a mobile device, it was hard not to wonder which of those grandiose visions would make the cut. Well, now we know: ZTE has unveiled the three ideas that made it to phase two of the competition, where people will submit product concepts that translate those ideas to reality. Each of the winners is rather unusual, but just realistic enough that ZTE could put it into production.
NASA's 'power' glove will help workers get a better grip
The same remote manipulation controller that allows NASA scientists to remotely control Robonaut 2 aboard the International Space Station is coming back to Earth thanks to a recent agreement between General Motors (who helped NASA develop the glove) and Bioservo Technologies AB (a Swedish medical technology company). But rather than use it to remotely pilot a robot in low Earth orbit, the new glove will help augment its wearer's grip strength.
Nintendo's Power Glove transformed into drone controller
Nintendo's Power Glove may have been forward-thinking and innovative during its time, but unfortunately it didn't always function as well as we hoped it would. Luckily one creative computer engineering grad has given it a new lease on life as a wireless drone controller.
The NES' Power Glove now doubles as a stop-motion video controller
Mattel's legendary-but-finicky Power Glove has been used for seemingly everything but playing Nintendo Entertainment System games as of late, and that trend isn't about to slow down in the wearable tech era. Witness animator Dillon Markey: he's using a heavily modified version of the glove to produce stop-motion TV shows like Robot Chicken. The newly Bluetooth-equipped controller lets him navigate his production software without having to carry a tethered remote or walk over to a PC, which is a big time-saver when it already takes minutes to perfect just a single frame of video. The augmented gauntlet also has retractable tweezers to manipulate tiny stop-motion figures, and there's even an Easter egg (we won't spoil it) that Markey can use to say how well his work is going. This isn't the best use of the Power Glove we've seen in showbiz (that honor will always go to Lucas in The Wizard, of course) but it's proof that there's still some life left in Nintendo's original motion control system.
Filmmakers turn to Kickstarter to finish their Power Glove documentary
Controlling a computer with gestures is almost passé these days, but how quickly we forget that Nintendo and Mattel released a kooky gadget that basically let people do just that back in 1989. Now, a new Kickstarter project aims to revisit that most maligned of wearables: the Power Glove. Yeah, we know, it's so bad... but that didn't stop a trio of filmmakers from tracing the thing's trajectory from Christmas must-have to disappointing punchline to cultural touchstone to repurposed creative tool. The documentary -- lovingly titled The Power of Glove -- has already been in the works for over a year, and there's plenty to show for it in the team's trailer (check it out after the jump). All they need to bring the project home now is another $15,000 to complete the final round of interviews and assemble the finished product, a process they hope to power through before the end of next year.
This PowerGlove stays in the kitchen, not with your NES (video)
We've seen the PowerGlove pop up in a few different places before, but until now the focus hasn't strayed far from gaming. To wit, the Power Mitt wants to make your trips to the kitchen awesome in the way that only a heat-resistant-rubber oven mitt shaped like Mattel's wearable peripheral ever could. Unless the one-size-fits-most baking accessory hits its Indiegogo campaign's 450-backer target, however, that won't happen. One right-handed glove will set you back $39 (larger and leftie flavors are stretch goals), and there's a $20 discount if you order two. Let's say you want to get crazy, though: cough up a whopping $10,000 and you'll get a one-of-a-kind gold-plated version of the Power Mitt. Sure, you'll lose heat resistance, but the flip-side is gaining a boatload of geek cred -- isn't that what matters most?
Ben Heck makes Super Glove mod for Kinect, takes strain out of gestures (video)
Sick of trying to control your 360 using Kinect, semaphore and advanced flailing? Modgod Ben Heck, deciding he wanted to be more Minority Report and less lunatic, has been working on Power Glove 2.0 to improve the console's navigation experience. The prototype glove is tricked out with Arduino, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and some fingertip buttons. With the addition of IR and a little coding magic, the 360's interface can be controlled via subtle gestures, with increased functionality / style points also apparent. Check out the latest episode of The Ben Heck Show after the break for a detailed walkthrough of the project and a demo of the glove in action.
Painting with fire, thanks to a cybernetic glove (video)
Fire: the most primal element. "It's a living thing," Robert De Niro once said, "It breathes, it eats, and it hates. The only way to beat it is to think like it." Unless you're an artist – then you rig up a series of tubes, pump in some kerosene, and connect it to a Power Glove-like control device. Next thing you know, you're "fire painting," making that hateful beast dance and strut for your amusement. "Its burning can be handled by subtle movements of the sensory data glove for tactile formulation of the fiery image," the artist explains, "Thus, the image can be manipulated, yet it constantly escapes control." To know what it's like to summon flame with a flick of your wrist – while sporting a creepy smiley-face welding mask, no less – see the video above.
Power Glove granted infinitely more power, bluetooth, and accelerometer in honor of 20th birthday
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Nintendo PowerGlove, and yes, birthday cakes are in order. To celebrate, game designer Matt Mechtley has augmented it with Bluetooth and accelerometer chips for a more modern take on the hand peripheral -- think of it as a more assimilated version of the Wiimote-embedded glove we covered in 2006. If you're interested in following in his footsteps, instructions are available at Instructables and in the video form after the break -- jump to 10:50 if you want to see it in action both with a test program and a brief glimpse at virtual boxing. Read - Product pageRead - Instructables How-to
39 sealed Power Gloves, a great gift for nearly 5 octopi
All right, here's the situation: You're staging an NES-themed musical (off-Broadway) and the big finale requires a shiny, new Power Glove for all 40 members of the chorus line. You already have access to one unopened Glove that your grandmother gave you as a present in 1995 (way after it was a hot-ticket item), but you need the other 39 before the end of the month or the opening night of your show will be ruined!This is the only situation that we could think of to justify anyone bidding on the lot of 39 sealed, Japanese Power Gloves that recently showed up as a bulk lot on eBay. Apparently we're not imaginative enough, though, because the Australia-based auction already has four bids with a high offer of AU$90.88 (not including the hundreds of dollars in shipping costs). Maybe we're just not "bad" enough to realize the economic and cultural potential of owning what is most likely the world's largest collection of sealed Power Gloves in one place. So we leave it as an open question to our commenters: What would you do with 39 Power Gloves?[Via GameSniped]
Your MMO, your brain and your computer
Brain Computer Interfaces - these last 15 years or so, they've carried the slick acronym of BCI. Over at Keio University in Tokyo, the Biomedical Engineering Lab they're working on non-invasive BCI systems which may 'eventually' become mass-market input devices. The question is - does the gaming and MMO world actually want them? Lord knows, gamers didn't back in the 1980s when a variety of these devices were on the market.
Great moments in game ad cheese
We like to complain about misleading CG sequences being passed off as gameplay, but a quick pass over these Top 10 Cheesiest Classic Game Commericals confirms that we really don't have a leg to stand on in the being tricked department. Take for instance, this Pole Position ad that implies the game replicates the thrill of having God pick up your family car and transform it into four race cars which you then drive until all of you explode. It almost makes us nostalgic for an era when we could still feel that way ... or at least be fooled into believing that we would.Also, you won't want to miss the Bezerk ad, which features a theme song so awful that, were cavemen to hear it, they would invent fire just so they could throw their sun-dried zebra skin drums into it and stop music from ever existing. But with only 10 ads here, are there any of your favorites left off the list?
Sony patents PowerGlove, but didn't The Wizard patent that?
The following is a quote stemming from Sony's latest patent submission: "The central body and at least one protrusion are configured to capture a user's hand movements." Hand movements... protrusions... that picture! It's pretty much the PowerGlove from that 80's movie, The Wizard. That damn glove helped him to kick ass at Mario Bros. 3, so perhaps the same design will assist in conquering some PS3 games.Also included in this patent are a number of claims. These range from measuring the movement and bends of your individual fingers all the way to the inclusion of force-feedback. If this thing actually came to exist, it would be pretty sweet. Not that it would be practical or anything, but it would be cool to try out. We could all turn out to be Wizards, you know.
Wii Power Gloves? Nope.
What's more useless: plastic shove-on attachments or boxing gloves with Wiimote pockets? We suppose those attachments are, but these 'un-official' Wii boxing gloves rank among the lamest of 3rd-party peripherals.Maybe if you have a tendency to fling your Wiimote the gloves are $22 well spent; then again, Wii Sports' boxing requires players to hold the Wiimote vertically. You won't be punching with these gloves on; you'll be knocking on doors. Awkward.A better Wii "Power Glove": Wii Remote Power Glove Hack[Via VideoGamesBlogger]
Wii Remote Power Glove Hack
When Nintendo first revealed that its new system would use a motion-sensitive controller, comparisons were inevitably drawn to the company's first experiment with VR, the NES Power Glove. Well, all those comparisons just became a whole lot more apt now that a Japanese hacker has mounted a Wii remote on a power glove.The prototype hybrid controller uses specially mounted triggers on the thumb and middle finger to simulate the A and B buttons, and even includes an opening for the nunchuck attachment in the back. The video below shows how the setup allows for some cool Minority-Report-style interaction in pointer-based games, but we can't help but worry about the inevitable arm fatigue caused by holding the glove straight out in front of you. Ouch!Previously: Illinois students revive the Power Glove[Via Engadget, Thanks Mike]
Power Glove mod merges with Wiimote
For all of those people out there who didn't manage to grab a Wii at launch -- and probably won't be able to until next year -- there comes a moderate form of compensation in seeing what crazy Wii-themed mods people who did have come up with. The latest to pop up is one that retro-loving Nintendo fans will surely appreciate: a fully functional Wiimote Power Glove, complete with working finger buttons. The burst of nostalgia at seeing the Wii-glove in action is definitely enough to last us until the next Wii shipment, although we can't quite shake the nagging concern that this guy must have spent a whole lot of time not playing his Wii in order to create it.[Via Slashgear]
Illinois students revive the Power Glove
Tilt-sensitive controllers? Magic-wand-style pointers? That's just kids stuff. Everyone knows that the Power Glove is the only video game controller so good that it's so bad. Now, two University of Illinois grad students are bringing the concept into the next generation with a prototype glove controller of their own.The glove, developed as part of a technology entrepreneurship class by Jason Skowronski and Shivani Jain, accurately models the bending of finger joints and the hand's position and orientation in space, according to a (Champaign, Ill.) News-Gazette story. While video games are the most obvious and lucrative application for such a device, the glove is also being considered for use as a virtual mobile keyboard or a sign language interpreter.The pair is reportedly trying to get the technology into the sub-$100 range as they patent their ideas and pitch them to game companies. We hope someone bites -- just imagine being able to flip someone the bird and see it accurately recreated in your game of Barbie's Horse Adventure 2: the Revenge. How's that for interactive?
Sony vs Nintendo in the motion sensitive arena
There's been an enormous amount of brouhaha about whether or not Sony added the motion sensitive feature to their controller after Nintendo announced the Wii, or if they had been planning it all along. Now Sony fanboys are claiming, via the YouTube video after the jump, that they had motion sensitive controllers back on the original PlayStation, so Nintendo must have copied the idea from Sony. Nobody seems to notice that it wasn't Sony who made the motion sensitive controller back then. Since it was pre-2000, then it's ancient history, in Net-time.
Oh snap! It's the Power Glove!
Someone must be paying attention. A placeholder has turned up on Gamestop for a Wii "controller glove." Alas, there's no image, but this is worth keeping an eye on. BD&A, the company attached to this exciting new prospect, has a few other product placeholders for the Wii at Gamestop as well.[Via Go Nintendo]
