tcdisrupt2013
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GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman on building a Google Glass-style wearable: don't count on it
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple years, odds are you've seen one of Nicholas Woodman's little cube cameras strapped to someone's chest or stuck to a car. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, the GoPro CEO was asked if he'd be interested in moving beyond the cube and mount form factor and into something more svelte, Glass-like, even. While he found value in Google Glass' ability to shoot first-person video, Woodman isn't so keen on such a device due to its limited use case (it can really only be worn on your face). "The Google Glass form factor doesn't provide the versatility that has been so key to GoPro's success," he said, before going on to extol the virtues of having a camera that can be mounted on your chest, your car or pretty much anywhere. Essentially, he sees the fact that GoPro can provide any point of view for video as a key selling point for his cameras. Instead, Woodman sees Glass (or other such wearables) as an excellent way for folks to interact with GoPro cameras. He pointed out the camera line's functionality with current smartphones -- using a handset as a remote control, or previewing and sharing footage, noting that wearables could provide similar features, only in hands-free fashion. So, we won't see any new GoPro models meant solely for wearing, but you can bet we'll be seeing a GoPro Glass app at some point.
Monsieur robotic bartender automates mixed drinks with a tap of a finger
While many of us enjoy the pleasure of mixed alcoholic beverages, not everyone wants to take the time to make them ourselves. Perhaps that's why the Raspberry Pi-powered Bartendro cocktail mixing bot proved so popular that it easily reached its $135,000 Kickstarter goal. Yet, the Bartendro's decidedly homespun look might not fly so well in more respectable establishments. Enter the Monsieur, which is a much more elegant solution for lazy lushes everywhere. Monsieur is a "robotic bartender" housed inside a stylish black box, developed by Georgia Tech mates Barry Givens and Eric Williams after Givens got tired of waiting for a mixed drink at a bar. The duo spent months working to make sure it poured just the right measurements per drink (that must've been fun to test) and making other refinements that resulted in the machine you see above. The Monsieur comes in either eight or 12 bottle configurations, and you can find out which alcohol or mixer to put in which slot by following the instructions on the machine. It has a built-in recipe library, customizable drink profiles and it even creates a grocery list for you. Right now the machine uses an Android tablet to drive it, but they hope to have a more integrated solution when it comes to market. There's also a corresponding mobile app that offers recipe ideas. The Monsieur is currently being marketed as part of bottle service at high-end bars and at sporting events. All the staff would need to do is roll the box into a room and let customers order what they want; the computer will keep track of the orders and bill them when they're done. Givens and Williams don't rule out the possibility of a consumer version, but that's not in the cards just yet. Until then, check out the source link for more info or hit up the via to see their presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Dryft: a software keyboard that follows fingertips to improve touch typing on tablets
You've seen them on planes, in coffee shops, maybe even at the office: tablets tethered to Bluetooth keyboards. Those users pecking away at hardware keys because using their slate's software grid is nothing more than an exercise in futility. Dryft is a soft keyboard built by Swype co-founder Randy Mardsen that aims to change that. You see, most of us are touch-typers and rest our hands on the 'home row' of keys to tell our fingers where to reach all the other letters. But, the smooth surface of tablet displays prevents our phalanges from finding the proper orientation. Dryft eliminates that problem by automagically positioning the keys beneath your fingertips wherever they may be, and by allowing users to rest their hands on the screen. Dryft can do this because it doesn't rely solely on the touch sensors embedded in the screen, it also uses accelerometer data to determine if your fingertips are taking a break or are pecking away with purpose. Because of its reliance upon high fidelity signals from the accelerometer to work well, Dryft needs low-level access to that sensor's data -- and that means we won't be seeing a Dryft download in any app store. Instead, Mardsen is taking the same route as he did with Swype, and is planning to license Dryft for use on Windows Phone, Android and iOS. Plus, developers will be able to integrate Dryft in individual apps thanks to a forthcoming SDK. Want to see Dryft in action? A video awaits after the break.
Mhoto analyzes any image, gives it an appropriate, customized soundtrack
When we see a picture of the Notorious B.I.G., the hook from Hypnotize starts streaming in our heads. Imagine if you will, an app that analyzes your picture and creates a soundtrack suited to you. Mhoto does just that, and it can synthesize an appropriate tune for any digital photograph. Mhoto's magic comes courtesy of some patent pending technology that analyzes a picture's saturation, brightness and contrast levels and uses that information to create music tailored to fit the feel of the photo -- and the company's working on a way to integrate facial recognition into the mix to make mood based music, too. Users also can choose what musical genre they want the generated tunes to come from (Hip Hop, Rock, Pop, etc.). The best part is, the heavy lifting is done in Amazon's cloud, so Mhoto can work on any device with a data connection, even a featurephone.
Cota by Ossia hopes to charge your phone wirelessly, no contact required
We've all heard of wireless charging before, but most solutions still require your phone to come in touch with a base station. Well, Cota is a technology that aims to power your mobile device completely wirelessly -- without any physical contact at all. Hatem Zeine, a physicist and CEO of Ossia Inc, demonstrated the technology on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt when he successfully charged his iPhone when plugged with a Cota prototype, seen above, while holding it several feet away from a charging station. It all seems like voodoo, but the secret lies in sending a magnetic charge over the same 2.4GHz spectrum that WiFi and Bluetooth already use. If you're concerned about safety, Zeine assures us that only one watt of power is transmitted -- that's a third of what cell phones already transmit. Line of sight isn't required, and Zeine claims that one station can power multiple devices at once. Just like a WiFi hotspot, you can set it so that it only works with certain devices or simply open it up so that power is available to all Cota-enabled handsets within range, which is around 30 feet.
