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Apple patent features sound-driven commands
A new patent by Apple reveals that the company has been working on gesture-based commands determined with audio transducers on the corners of a given surface -- in other words, as your fingers press and tap on a surface (like a keyboard or a computer casing or even the bezel around an iPad), the audio receivers would determine where and how you touched it, driving a user interface. The patent outlines a few different ways this could be done, from listening in to the housing itself or just keeping an electronic ear out for the sounds of touching the surface. It seems like this would all be done via interaction with the surface itself, though we've seen interaction done with ultrasound, where a set of receivers actually determine movement and placement in the air. Apple has also included the apparatus as an add-on to a laptop screen, so they're playing around with it in a few different ways. It's hard to see how you'd do multi-touch with a setup like this, but of course this is just research rather than application. Of course, as we always say on these patents, this is just research at this point, and it's unlikely we'll see this out as an actual product any time soon. In my estimation, it seems like this is something Apple was considering before it went with the capacitive surface on the iPad -- now that Apple has bet big on those components, it's unlikely that touch interfaces would be switched in the middle of a product's life. [via Engadget]
Guitar Hero: Metallica supports Lips mic, Rock Band 2 patch 'this summer'
Microsoft has issued a plea to new and future purchasers of Guitar Hero: Metallica for Xbox 360 to also please, please, PLEASE buy its Lips karaoke game -- for the microphones. Didn't you know? The metal music game features built-in support for those uh-huh-they-do-sparkle mics. Neversoft, the current Guitar Hero developer, initially confirmed this compatibility -- which isn't coming to World Tour -- on its Twitter feed last month, but the posting has since been removed. Nevertheless, Guitar Hero: Metallica is the first music game to support the much praised, wireless Lips peripheral, which has been unsuccessfully bundled with a mediocre singing game.Additionally, Microsoft has tentatively dated that long-ago-promised Rock Band 2 patch for "this summer" and suggested that additional titles supporting its mic will be available later this year. When, surely, we'll be able to purchase a standalone Lips mic. Pretty please?
Creative's Live! Cam Voice sports a mic for video chat
Video instant messaging seems to be taking off in a big way, at least if all those new video features being added by the major IM services are any indication, so Creative has just released a microphone-sporting webcam to let you get in on all the fun. Besides a 1.3 megapixel webcam (which claims to take 5 megapixel stills, but we suspect some interpolation is going on there), the Live! Cam Voice also features a directional microphone which supposedly enhances your chat experience in crowded areas, and even does double-duty as a remotely-viewable motion-activated security cam. When you're doing the chat thing, you can select a smart-face tracking option that uses digital zooms, pans, and tilts to keep you in the picture, but also seems to throttle down the resolution to only 640 x 480. Available immediately under the model number VF1070, this model is being given a suggested MSRP of $99 by Creative, but we already saw it on Amazon for just $84.
Varibel glasses sport eight conversation-enhancing mics
Any gadget that enhances two of your senses at once is worth at least a mention in these pages, so we hereby present you with the not-completely-unattractive-looking Varibel hearing aid eyeglasses. The manufacturers would take issue with calling it a hearing aid, however, as regular in-ear models pick up conversations as well as ambient noise, while the four mics on each arm of Varibel's glasses supposedly separate the two types of sound, enhancing the former while dampening the latter. Developed by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, these devices will initially be limited to a Dutch release, but because of Varibel's partnership with Phillips and Frame Holland, they may end up seeing a wider release. Integrate these with a pair of those bifocal-eliminating LCD glasses, and you've got something that actually makes us look forward to old age (well, kinda). [Warning: foreign language link, may be confusing to some.][Via Roland Piquepaille]
