Wearable Computing & Fashion - Page 22

Last summer at Google's annual tech conference, Google I/O, the company opened up the "explorer" edition of its Project Glass headset for pre-order to IO developer and early adopter attendees. At the time you had to fork over $1500 for the early access to the headset.

Google is re-opening the pre-order program for its headsets, with one caveat. You must be a "Creative Individual" and enter the #ifihadglass competition, being held by Google now. If your entry is chosen, Google will allow you to pre-order a pair of Google Glasses.

The competition is open to US residents only who are of the age of 18 or older. Applicants must impress Google in 50 words or less which explain what you would do if you had Glass. Entries must start the essay with the hashtag #ifihadglass, can include up to five photos, and a 15 second video. The pre-order will still cost you $1500 if you are chosen. You can find the competition at the source link below.

With Google saying that their "Explorer Edition" of their augmented reality headset would arrive early in 2013, it looks like they're finally here as they're sliding through the FCC.

Now that they're hitting the FCC, we can see some specs - 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the latest Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy technology. The charging method appears to be a USB charger, but another listing tells a story of a "barrel" connector.

Something else that has been spotted is that Glass looks to feature a "vibrating element" that would provide the wearer audio "via contact with the user's head". We don't know exactly what this is, but it does sound like bone conduction technology, which would suit Glass quite well.

Google's Project Glass is the next thing in tech, at least according to most analysts and tech enthusiasts. Google is hosting two Glass Developer Conferences, one in SF and one in NYC. For the rest of us who didn't put down $1,500 for an early pair of glasses, we're stuck scrounging around the web for coverage of the events.

Unfortunately for us, there won't be any as all the attendees of the events had to sign NDAs preventing them from talking about the event. ReadWrite managed to get a look at the NDA that was required to be signed and has paraphrased and reordered them in order to prevent Google from identifying who gave them the peek.

Only one part of the NDA actually gives us hope of actually starting to see more of Glass, and possibly not controlled by Google:

For those super early (and lucky) developers who were able to get their hands on early access to a Google Glass unit - for a cool $1500 - are now invited to two hackathon events which are dedicated to the wearable augmented reality unit.

The events will take place on January 28 and 29, which will be held at Google's San Francisco office, but on February 1 and 2 the Glass Foundry in New York will house the second, and last hackathon. Registration opens on January 18 and I'm sure those seats will be snapped up quite quickly. Developers will learn about the Google Glass Mirror API, but Google engineers will also be there to help out and answer questions.

The full letter is below:

Head trauma in sports has always been a major concern in impact sports. In 2012 we saw the NFL take a lot of heat over its current and former players experiencing multiple concussions. Reebok and mc10 have developed a wearable head impact detector that makes it easy for medical staff to see where the impact took place.

Called CheckLight, the device resembles a skull cap and is worn on the head under protective hear such as helmets. The sensor itself is actually an array of flexible force sensors that are connected to a micro controller that illuminates three indicator LEDs. One LED is a battery indicator, one flashes yellow if the impact was mild, and the third flashes red for severe blows.

Verizon, Intel and Ridell all have similar systems in the R&D phase, but CheckLight is the first to hit the market. What sets it apart from the rest is that coaches, training staff and even other players can get somewhat of an indication whether or not a player has suffered a serious hit and needs to be taken out of the game.

As the Android and iOS flame wars continue on an hourly basis, there's one thing we could all agree with: our fingers are freezing when using our phones in the winter. Temperatures below zero and using touchscreen phones don't mix as having your delicate fingers out for too long can result in some seriously cold digits.

Touchscreen-compatible gloves have been available for for years now, but what if you want to use your phone while outside of the classiest of classy parties and cotton gloves would look silly? Then you may be interested in Mujjo's Leather Touchscreen Gloves.

Yes - these are leather gloves that are compatible with touchscreen devices. Mujjo has infused its nanotechnology into their leather gloves while still keeping the integrity of the gloves in tact. Unlike other gloves that give users the ability to use their smartphone with just their first and middle fingertips, Mujjo gives its glove uses the ability to use all of their fingertips and even the palms of their hands.

Next time you're walking around a store checking out what the mannequin is wearing, it may just be checking you out back. A new mannequin is being sold by Almax SpA called the EyeSee. This new mannequin differs from the traditional mannequin in that it has a camera in its eye that feeds back data to facial recognition software.

It's similar to the technology used at airports by police, however, these fashion companies aren't looking to catch criminals. Instead, they want to gather as much data as possible so that they have a fighting chance of keeping up with online retailers. Online retailers currently have access to loads more personal information than traditional stores do.

It's really a bit creepy, actually. The facial recognition software logs the age, gender, and race of people who walk by. It probably logs other information, such as people who stay in front of the mannequin for long periods of time. According to the manufacturer, companies have already made changes because of the data.

I imagine these new lights are going to be popular with teens across the world, with Philips announcing a new iOS-controlled LED lighting system that can display almost any color, personalizing the lighting experience with a wide array of dimmer and scheduling options.

Philips believe at the new "hue" light bulbs would reinvent "the way we think about and experience light in our homes". Philips elaborates:

Always chasing the latest fashion trends? A fan of 3D printing? Why not combine the two? Well, now you can. A company is offering 3D-printed shoes and they will only set you back $900. The collection is named "strvct" and "uses innovative materials to create fantasy-inspired designs." Take a look:

The shoes aren't just for decoration; they can actually be worn thanks to the durable nylon they are printed from. They also feature a synthetic rubber sole for traction and a "patent leather inner sole." They say that the "triangulated spin on the classic wedge pump...brings to mind Cinderella's glass slipper in its transparency" but I'm not convinced.

Theoretically, these shoes could be made at home on a 3D printer, all you need are the designs. But, more importantly, it puts existing technology to cool new uses. The shoes are made to order so they could take a bit of time to be delivered, not to mention $900 seems a bit high to pay for a pair of shoes. Nevertheless, they are cool.

When posting news, I have to select a category, but what would this fall under? The closest would be Fashion meets Tech, but it was a hard choice! This news is not a joke, or a troll. Melbourne-based artists Gavin Bell, Jarrah de Kuijer and Simon McGlinn have teamed up with Air Aroma for a new unique fragrance.

The new product is said to smell like a brand new Apple product, specifically a MacBook Pro, just as its been opened for the first time. Yes. I'm being serious.

20,000+ students in Brazil will be required to wear these so called "intelligent uniforms," which contain locator chips, to make sure students are attending their classes. If there was ever a 1984, this is it. Many foreign countries, outside of the United States that is, have many ways of keeping students in school.

In Thailand, for example, most schools have a strict uniform policy. If a student is caught in an entertainment-type location in a school uniform, the police can be called to take the student back to school. Brazil has gone a step further: students are now required to wear a uniform that have a small locator chip to alert parents when they aren't where they should be.

"We noticed that many parents would bring their children to school but would not see if they actually entered the building because they always left in a hurry to get to work on time," said Coriolano Moraes, the city's education director. "They would always be surprised when told of the number times their children skipped class."

I remember winning spelling tests, or just doing a good job on some homework in school and getting scratch 'n' sniff stickers. It made me feel like I'd been awesome, and can prove it by sniffing my stickers. Well, now you can sniff... your jeans.

Naked and Famous Denim have created a pair of scratch 'n' sniff jeans, where the effect of the smell is created using a coating of micro capsules that hold a bit of 'perfume' which is baked into the surface of the jeans. Scratch the jeans and the scent is released.

The raspberry scent still comes through, even after the jeans have been washed. Imagine a "new jeans smell", where you could possibly not wash your jeans for months at a time. I'm sure there's plenty out there that would love this feature. Myself, I prefer my jeans washed. Raspberry smell could come in handy, though.

It is the season to be jolly... to be jolly, you really need $1 million in your bank account. But what good is $1 million spare when you don't own a Human Slinky costume! Well, you're in luck!

There is one for sale on eBay! The Veniamin Human Slinky costume, which is on sale right now for $1 million. But that's not the surprise. You don't just get the suit, you get the rights to perform the Human Slinky act exclusively worldwide for five years.

After the five years, you'll be allowed to rock the suit to private parties, etc. The suit and act was originally developed by Romanian artist Veniamen. Get that credit card out! Also, invite me to your event when you buy it.

I was a first-adopter of NVIDIA's Stereoscopic 3D technology, 3D Vision and loved it. However, I quickly realised that 120Hz gaming was far better than the (at the time) hit-and-miss 3D technology. NVIDIA have today announced next-gen 3D Vision 2, which sports a new set of active-shutter 3D glasses and 3D LightBoost, a display technology meant to enable brighter visuals by letting more light seep in through the goggles.

The new 3D Vision 2 glasses have 20% larger lenses than their predecessor, and also feature a thinner, more flexible composite frame that's meant to block more light from the sides and top. This time around, wearing headphones should be more comfortable (one thing I did not like with the original 3D Vision goggles and my Logitech G35 headset). Battery life is meant to be "very similar" and prices haven't changed. $149 for the 3D Vision Wireless Kit with a receiver, or $99 for the glasses on their own without the receiver.

3D LightBoost is only supported by some new displays and laptops, but what does this mean? It means that the LCD panel features a faster backlight that allows the 3D glasses to be kept on longer. The way this works is because the 3D Vision goggles work by rapidly opening and closing shutters so the user's left and right eyes always see different frames. 3D LightBoost goes one up by brightening up not just the images on-screen, but also the user's surroundings.