ChaoticMoonStudios
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ICYMI: 7-D heart MRI, astronaut cups and tech tats
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-906391").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA just shipped the astronauts on the International Space Station a cup that will let them almost drink like earthlings. GE announced scanning tech that would reveal the intricacies of the heart far quicker than conventional MRIs. And temporary tats that can monitor health and beam the information right to a doctor are here, coming to sick little people or elderly folks someday. If you've ever been woken up a couple times a night in a hospital, so a nurse could loudly check your vitals, you know what a win these could be.
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.
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.
