evolving interfaces
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In an unplanned series of sorts, we’re showcasing a couple of posts about the 2013 NMC/EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Horizon Report for Higher Education . We’ve already talked about the key trends in the report and some challenges we face in implementing education technology , so we’re ready to take a look at the six technologies highlighted in the report as being game-changers for education. We’ve already looked at MOOCs, tablet computing, gamification, and learning analytics. Joining 3-D printing on the ‘third horizon’, (or entering mainstream use in four to five years) is wearable technologies. Much like 3-D printing, wearable technologies are much less mainstream than tablets in the classroom, so they’ve gotten a bit less face time with our lovely audience (Shout out to you guys! Thanks for being awesome!)
7 Pieces Of Wearable Tech Being Developed Right Now
Tobii's REX (Developer Edition pictured) brings eye-tracking capabilities to Windows 8 PCs Image Gallery (3 images) Over the past decade, Sweden’s Tobii has been working on adding eye-tracking technology to a mix of user inputs that includes keyboards, mice and touchpads and screens. After demonstrating its GAZE UI for Windows 8 at last year’s CES, the company is set to showcase its first eye-tracking consumer peripheral device which brings the GAZE functionality to any Windows 8 PC at CES 2013. By tracking their eye movements, the Tobii REX allows Windows 8 users to scroll, zoom, navigate and select using their peepers in conjunction with a mouse or touchpad. Attaching to the bottom of a desktop display and connecting to a PC via USB, the REX is similar to Tobii’s PCEye , a device released in 2011 that is designed to assist users with impaired motor skills perform onscreen actions by looking at, blinking at, or fixing their gaze on an onscreen object.
Tobii REX peripheral adds eye-tracking functionality to Windows 8 PCs
What if you could dramatically speed up your computing by moving your cursor exclusively with your eyes? A company called Tobii is transforming the way we interact with our screens. By using your eyes instead of your mouse, you can select what you’re looking at almost instantaneously. Not only does this speed up a tremendous number of computing tasks, but it has the potential to reduce repetitive stress injuries. But Does It Really Work? Seeing is believing.
Could Eye-Tracking Replace Your Mouse? | Upgrade Your Life
Tobii releases eye-controlled mouse system
Tobii has announced the released of a stand-alone eye control device for Windows PCs called PCEye, which is mounted to a display and translates eye movement into mouse commands Image Gallery (3 images) Sweden's eye tracking and control innovator Tobii has announced the release of a stand-alone eye control device called PCEye.
3 Principles For The Future Of Gaming, From A Google Game Designer
Last month, Google unveiled its first mobile game, an ambitious, experimental thing called Ingress . The experience hinges on the narrative that an exotic energy has been discovered on Earth, and two factions, the Enlightened and the Resistance, are respectively scrambling to cultivate it and/or suppress it. It’s kind of boilerplate sci-fi, but the novelty lies in the way the game is played: After players choose their allegiance, they’re tasked with going out into the real world and visiting various destinations to claim territory for their squad. It’s something like what you’d get if you threw geocaching, World of Warcraft, and J.J.Eye-tracking technology has been slowly emerging as a viable technology the last couple of years, and it comes in real handy when you want to know which parts of a Facebook profile people actually look at . One of the leaders in the space, Tobii, is set to bring the tech to consumers in 2013 with a peripheral that works with any Windows 8 PC. Tobii will show off its eye tracker, called the REX, next week at CES. The REX is a strip that attaches beneath your monitor (desktops and laptops are welcome), and it plugs into a USB port.
World's First Eye-Tracking PC Accessory to Launch in 2013
When we look back at this year's CES, we may remember it as the year of the sensor. Wearable and embeddable sensor technology will be everywhere, and right there at the heart of at least some of it will be PrimeSense. The Israeli-based company created the 3D environmental mapping tech behind Microsoft's Kinect motion sensor for the Xbox 360 and, at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, PrimeSense will unveil what it calls the "World's Smallest" 3D sensor: the Capri. As thin as a pencil and no larger than a stick of gum, Capri could herald a new era in 3D-sensing-capable products and services. As PrimeSense sees it, the Capri is small enough to go virtually anywhere: from house-cleaning robots to laptops, and from computer screens to tiny smartphones. Company execs describe it as "giving sight" to all of these devices.
World's Smallest 3D Sensor Ready to Go Anywhere
A Light Bulb with a Computer and Projector Inside from the MIT Media Lab Augments Reality
Desk toy: A computer with a camera and projector fits into a light bulb socket, and can make any surface interactive. Powerful computers are becoming small and cheap enough to cram into all sorts of everyday objects. Natan Linder , a student at MIT’s Media Lab, thinks that fitting one inside a light bulb socket, together with a camera and projector, could provide a revolutionary new kind of interface—by turning any table or desk into a simple touch screen. The LuminAR device, created by Linder and colleagues at the Media Lab, can project interactive images onto a surface, sensing when a person’s finger or hand points to an element within those images.
Watch this: Kinect-powered motion capture mimics your facial movements in real time
Faceshift is a new motion capture utility that does an impressive job of replicating facial movements with barely any noticeable delay. The technology relies on Microsoft's ever-capable Kinect camera to pull in the 3D data it needs to mirror your expressions, though Faceshift's creators have done an admirable job refining the device's face recognition capabilities. Seeing even the most slight movements replicated by an on-screen avatar brings to mind the top-notch motion capture we've seen in the video game industry in recent years, led most notably by LA Noire. And gaming is an area where Faceshift could present new opportunities to developers. An SDK targeted at animators and game creators has been released, though it wouldn't surprise us to see this technology used in other unexpected ways.
Tech startup Neurovigil announced last April that Stephen Hawking was testing the potential of its iBrain device to allow the astrophysicist to communicate through brainwaves alone. Next week Professor Hawking and iBrain inventor, Dr Philip Low from Stanford University, present their findings at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference in Cambridge, England. In anticipation, Gizmag spoke to Dr Low about the potential applications of the iBrain.
iBrain to allow Stephen Hawking to communicate through brainwaves alone
Inexpensive device could allow the disabled to control computers with their eyes
Bioengineers at Imperial College, London have developed a new computer controller for paraplegics that is not only more accurate and easier to use than current methods, but also uses inexpensive, off-the-shelf components. The GT3D device uses a pair of eyeglass frames with two fast video game console cameras costing less than UKP20 (US$30) each, which scan the wearer’s eyes from outside the field of vision and provide "3D" control at much lower costs and without invasive surgery. As computers become smaller, cheaper and more powerful, they gain greater potential for liberating paraplegics and other heavily impaired people. The computer’s potential to enhance the parapelgic’s quality of life is tremendous, but it depends on finding a practical means of control.A new system allows paralyzed people to communicate by mentally selecting letters in the English alphabet. People trained to use the system think certain thoughts for each letter, which causes blood to flow to the brain in characteristic patterns. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner then captures and interprets what's happening in users' brains. Right now, the system is still in its proof of concept stage, but it's a promising addition to research on letting people with so-called "locked-in syndrome" out again, Scientific American reported . One reason the system isn't ready for widespread use yet is that it's a little cumbersome to use.
Mental Scanner Lets Paralyzed People Spell Their Thoughts
published in 2002 Advanced microscope technology allows you to cells and molecules in 3-D by pressing your eye to a lens or looking at the view on a computer screen. CAVE technology allows you to create a room-size projection and walk around inside of a cell. Virginia Tech’s University Visualization and Animation Group helps researchers use the CAVE — which stands for Computer Augmented Virtual Environment. VT-CAVE is a multidisciplinary computer graphic visualization research and educational facility that is part of the new ACITC. Due to recent advances in computer graphic software and hardware, it is possible to routinely visualize complex structures in three dimensions on desktop computers.
CAVE a high-tech research, education tool
Performing even a simple movement is a rather complicated process. First, the brain has to signal its intent to perform an action, which then gets translated into the specific motions that are required to achieve that intention.
Paralyzed woman controls robotic arm, sips coffee
World of Warcraft may be slowly losing players, but it's gaining new ways to play the game -- specifically, thanks to G.Tec Medical Engineering in Austria , you will soon be able to play WoW with your mind :