Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D - Page 152

With the Nintendo Wii U launching yesterday, the eighth generation of video game consoles has officially begun. Rumors over the past year have speculated both Microsoft and Sony will unveil their next-generation consoles at E3 2013. But some new rumors for the next Xbox surfaced over the weekend that offer an interesting look into Microsoft's gaming future if they turn out to be true.

It's been two years since Microsoft introduced the Kinect, which is why the company is planning to introduce a new and improved Kinect 2.0 when the next Xbox is unveiled. Kinect 2.0 will improve on the original Kinect's technology as it'll be more accurate, able to track four players at one time, better voice recognition and stereo imaging.

A Blu-ray drive will also be available in the next Xbox, which is certainly a reason to be excited about seeing as one of the biggest mistakes Microsoft made with the Xbox 360 is sticking to a DVD-format for its discs.

Alright, so Oculus Rift just got a whole lot more exciting today, with the announcement that Hawken would support the VR headset when it's released on December 12. During an interview with Forbes, publisher Meteor Entertainment's Mark Long talked of why Oculus Rift and Hawken are a match made in heaven:

Lag with the VR headset was also discussed, where Long addressed concerns saying that the Unreal Engine has ways of getting around it:

FMS 2012 - Marvell has revealed their new DragonFly NVRAM solution for servers at the Flash Memory Summit.

As we can see this card comes in a small package and sports a PCIe Gen2x8 connection to the host.

Getting down under the cover we can see some of the components that allow the DragonFly to reach its impressive specifications of 200K+ IOPS, 3.2GBps and .22us latency. The DragonFly connects to SSDs via a typical SFF connector, and acts as a front end for the attached storage. The data is cached to the DRAM chip that is located towards the top right of the card. The battery near the bottom is used to write the data cached into ram to the NAND, on the rear of the card, in the event of power failure.

Another Apple-related RumorTT post, but this time it's not about their next-gen iPhone, sales, iPad, or their TV. This post is about the Cupertino-based company's vision of a set-top box, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Apple look to want to feature a cloud-based DVR functionality, and an iPad-like interface. The features are said to be summed up into four basic details:

An iPad-like interface doesn't sound too strange, it's something I would actually totally expect. I personally think they should have an option when you buy the set-top box (or TV), if you're an owner of an iPhone, iPad or iPod (or any iOS-based device) then you should be able to download an application that would act as a remote, iRemote? Alternatively, or additionally, there should be an iOS-based touchscreen controller you should be able to purchase.

Cloud DVR? This sounds like iTunes on steroids, but would be great for customers who want a super-easy way of catching up on TV, or movies. Social features, well, considering iOS sports Twitter and Facebook deeply in iOS and OSX in the near future, with the former deeply integrated now, this should be another day-one feature of the STB. Apple still have a lot of work on the business side of things before something like this could take off.

I don't get excited for technology that often anymore, but it looks like I'm going to have to put that aside for now because Oculus' latest project Rift, currently on Kickstarer, will supposedly deliver "truly immersive virtual reality". Oculus Rift, according to the guys and girls behind it "is a new virtual reality (VR) headset designed specifically for video games that will change the way you think about gaming forever."

Rift sports a wide field of view, high resolution display and ultra-low latency head tracking. The team is raising money on Kickstarter where they can build development kits for the unit, meaning that they can get the Rift into developer's hands, quicker. The team note that VR has been stagnant for quite a while, and in order to provide believable immersion, you'd be looking at $20,000 or more. Oculus want to change that up with Rift, which is designed to "maximise immersion, comfort and pure, uninhibited fun", all while sitting at a price that is affordable to everyone.

Oculus have raised just over $1.2 million from 5,113 backers, and have 26 days to go. I'll be making a pledge in the next few days, this project is looking to be great for the gaming community.

Google's Project Glass augmented reality wonder device may be on everyone's wish lists for Christmas 2013, but that is a fair while away. Olympus have just announced their own prototype of a glasses-mounted heads-up display, the MEG 4.0.

Olympus have reportedly been working on wearable displays for a few years now, but considering the fan fare Google received and how they're moving the technology closer to consumers, the timing seems perfect for Olympus to unveil their product. Olympus' MEG 4.0 floats a 320x240 screen above the user's regular eye-line and hooks up through Bluetooth to a nearby smart device. MEG 4.0 weighs around 30g and has a decent 8-hour battery life in intermittent display mode that will automatically turn on the display every 3 minutes for just 15 seconds only.

MEG 4.0 features a built-in accelerometer that detects the position of the user's head and reacts accordingly. One major thing Olympus' MEG 4.0 doesn't include is a camera, which is something that Google's Project Glass sports, and will most likely be one of the strong points of Google's product versus Olmypus' offering. At the moment, Olympus haven't hinted at pricing, or availability, and there's no video demonstration of their technology, either.

Advancements in 3D are made every day. No longer do users have to suffer through those red and cyan glasses to watch 3D movies. Some implementations nowadays, like the Nintendo 3DS, don't require any fancy headgear at all. It seems as though the future of 3D isn't that far off and the Star Trek holodeck technology may no longer remain a fantasy.

Sharp Labs Europe are leading the development of a new communication technology that will help to make 3D images indistinguishable from reality by using holographic technology. Some brush off 3D as just a gimmick, but others see it as just the first step. "The ultimate goal is to make a holographic display and what I mean by that is a display that shows images that are indistinguishable from reality," Mather says.

The first step, however, is to make it as commonplace as driving. "I think a sensible target is for 3D displays to become a natural part of modern life," Mather explains to Humans Invent. "Home cinema systems showing 3D movies, computer games played in an immersive environment and holiday photos presented with depth."

Computex 2012 - I'm sure you're aware of our relationship with NVIDIA, and yesterday we walked through their stand in Nangang at Computex. I noticed that my badge was getting looked at by virtually everyone, so I don't know if the staff were told to look out for certain media, but it felt like it. I thought I'd ask for a t-shirt, lanyard, etc - as I'm still a fan of the company, but all I got was a lanyard. We decided to visit again today, and got the same looks, but had more time there as it wasn't so wall-to-wall crazy busy. First up we have the GEFORCE GTX 680 and some awards it won.

Next up we hit the ASUS ROG PCs, where there was a StarCraft II session happening with some pro-gamers, check out the shots below.

A nice panoramic so you can get a feel of the scale of the event itself.

That small little project being worked on by Google is gathering more publicity. In a recent interview with California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Sergey allowed Newsom to put the glasses on to see a picture that Sergey had taken with the glasses. When asked, Sergey wouldn't say how the picture was taken, but we do now know that there is a touchpad on the side behind the display.

In the picture above, you can see Mr. Brin operating the touchpad with his finger while looking for the picture he had taken previously. After being found, Newsom got to wear the glasses and commented on them: "You can easily forget you have them on, and sense the capacity of use in the future."

Newsom expressed that he was impressed with the quality of the image taken, especially since the stage isn't ideal for demoing a display. He even commented that the "image was remarkably clear." Brin also let everyone know that those are a rough prototype: "I have some hopes to maybe get it out sometime next year, but that's still a little bit of a hope."

Google is sure throwing quite a bit of money and support at the Project Glass augmented reality glasses. They are trying to cram so much technology into a tiny, and hopefully fashionable, package that they should become every geek's dream gadget. We still don't know much about the project other than it's being publicly tested by Google executives.

We've seen some pictures released that have been taken using the glasses and, to be honest, they aren't that great. Most modern smartphones could easily outpace the resolution and quality, but the glasses do have one advantage: Point-of-view. Pictures can be taken hands-free and are from the perspective of the wearer.

Google has now released a 15-second video that was taken while the user was jumping on a trampoline. This really is where these glasses start to shine. It would have been near impossible to take a video like this without these glasses. The quality of the video isn't stunning by any means, but for users who video blog their lives, these glasses are an invaluable piece of technology.