NewFormsofInteraction
Like-A-Hug Vest Inflates When You Get a Facebook Like
There's nothing like a bear hug from a loved one at the end of a long day. But if you live far away from your family, you now have a man-made alternative. Scientists at MIT have created a vest that inflates when your Facebook friends "Like" your posts, mimicking the sensation of a hug. Dubbed "Like-A-Hug," the puffy vest inflates so its wearer can "feel the warmth, encouragement, support or love that we feel when we receive hugs," according to designer Melissa Chow 's website. To return the hug, the wearer wraps his or her arms around the shoulders to deflate the vest, symbolizing the act of sending the hug back. This isn't the first time fashion designers have incorporated the virtual world of Facebook into their work.Eye-controlled 'i beam' tablet lets you strap-hang safely | Crave - CNET
The i beam uses gaze tracking sensors from Tobii. (Credit: Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET) Japan has some pretty high-tech trains, but bumpy rides are still common.
When we tell you that Google Street View now takes you into the sea, you might initially think the service must be suffering from similar glitches to Apple’s new Maps app, which appears to have been getting more things wrong than right since its launch last week. But Google Maps’ new underwater feature is just as it should be. Indeed, armchair travelers, non-swimmers and marine enthusiasts will be delighted to learn that the Web giant has today unveiled some beautiful coral reef panoramas, allowing users to explore spectacular ocean scenery off the coast of Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Apple’s Maps developers, currently working on taking cities out of the water and placing them back on land, must surely be looking on with envy just now.
Google Maps now lets armchair scuba divers explore the Great Barrier Reef and more
Have you ever come home from a stressful day at work and felt like smashing a watermelon to pieces? Only, you didn't feel like getting up from the couch to do so? Well, stress no more — now all you have to do is think. LVL1 , a hackerspace in Louisville, Ky., designed a get-up that gives folks the ability to blow up a watermelon — using only their minds. Here's how it works: The user (or fruit-destroyer) wears an EEG headset to interpret his or her brain waves. Then those signals are transferred into wireless impulses and sent to a CO2 cannon mounted at the bottom of the fruit.
Watch the Human Mind Explode a Watermelon [VIDEO]
Opinion: Tablets are changing the tech you use, whether you own one or not
If the computing industry was a stagnant pond in late 2009, the introduction of tablets a few months later was less akin to a pebble flicked from the shore and more like a boulder hurled from 10 feet up. The ripples have been widespread and lasting. And the rocks haven’t stopped dropping from the sky.Developers Are Flocking To Leap Motion To Revolutionize The Way We Interact With Our Macs
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-182153" title="Leap Motion" src="http://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Leap-Motion1.jpg" alt="Developers Are Flocking To Leap Motion To Revolutionize The Way We Interact With Our Macs" width="640" height="344" /> Leap Motion ‘s worldwide call for developers “to imagine and create the future” has resulted in a virtual stampede of interested parties applying for the Leap SDK, which will allow them to make apps using Leap Motion’s revolutionary 3D motion tracking technology. Leap Motion is a San Francisco company developing the world’s most powerful and sensitive 3D motion-control and motion-sensing technology. Leap Motion’s first product, the Leap — featured with an exclusive hands-on video demonstration on Cult of Mac last month — will be available in early 2013. The Leap is the first product to let users navigate and interact with computer applications using natural hand and finger movements.
The Kinect gesture-control system is a great addition for Xbox 360 games that involve dancing, leaping and other sweeping body movements. But when it comes to controlling the Metro interface and video playback on the entertainment console, the wide, loping arm movements required by the Kinect become a literal pain. Ben Heck , however, wasn’t daunted by this challenge. The super-modder known for hacking an Xbox 360 into a hand-held gaming console recognized that controlling the Metro UI with a Kinect was a chore, so he decided to create his own gesture-based interface, modeling a system from one of his favorite movies, Minority Report . The result is the “power glove” that Heck demoed on Monday’s episode of The Ben Heck Show . His system reduces the Kinect’s sweeping arm movements to small hand swipes and gestures.
Xbox 'Power Glove' Offers Precise, Kinect-Like Gesture Control | Gadget Lab
Leap Motion
Week's Thomas Claburn notes that the Leap device produces an infrared light that reflects off objects in the four-cubic foot visible to its sensors, much like Microsoft's Kinect.
Accordingly, The Leap device then interprets that data to direct the movement of objects on the screen of the connected computer by Jun 2
The mouse, having played its role in the transformation of the personal computer, is now almost outdated. If you think about it, when the mouse was first invented in the 1960s, computers were unrecognizable from the sleek, sophisticated devices we use today. So has the mouse had its day? Technical innovations are incoming in the next year or so that promise to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds like never before, whether that's controlling your computer with gestures, opening programs with your eyes or extending the menu options for touchscreens with wearable devices. Take a look through our gallery of interesting innovations in the computing world.
5 Exciting Innovations That Will Change Computing in 2012
Skipping tracks and pausing your music is something that you probably do twenty to thirty times a day. If you’re at work and someone starts chatting with you, you’ll start seeking out the pause button until the conversation is done. What if you didn’t have to click a button at all? A new app by a company called Flutter lets you simply hold your hand up to your webcam to start and stop your music and it’s pretty freaking awesome. The free app for Mac is a lightweight download and once you open it up it leaves your webcam on.
Stop and Start Your Music With Hand Gestures
Brainwave-controlled skateboard is totally mental | Crave - CNET
Whurley from Chaotic Moon Labs takes a ride on the Board of Imagination. (Credit: Chaotic Moon Labs) Remember the Board of Awesomeness , the Kinect-controlled motorized skateboard from CES? Well, it just got more awesome.
Singing gloves give new meaning to jazz hands | Crave - CNET
(Credit: Video screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET) Hand gestures can add a lot to a conversation. They can convey excitement and help you describe a scene or object. And, of course, the simple act of lifting a certain finger can quickly let someone know you're not too happy with them. In all, gestures are an effective form of communication, and now, researchers in Vancouver have found a way to take them to the next level. A team of engineers from the University of British Columbia has developed a pair of gloves that read hand gestures and convert them to speech and song, potentially giving those with speech and/or hearing disabilities another way to communicate.Likely hoping to capture the same frenzied, nostalgic excitement that was created by the release of the Nike Mags , Mattel has just announced that the company will be creating a 1:1 replica of the hover board used by Michael J. Fox’s character in both Back to the Future II and Back to the Future III . As mentioned on the Matty Collector blog, Mattel will be taking preorders for the hover board between March 1 to March 20, 2012. The board will make “whooshing” sounds similar to the films and Mattel mentioned that the board will “glide over most surfaces,” but not actually hover. Mattel is targeting a November or December 2012 release window; somewhat late for anyone that was planning an amazing Marty McFly Halloween costume this year. Pricing has yet to be announced by the toy company, but is likely going to be high.
Mattel plans to make ‘Back to the Future’ hover boards
Apple introduces us to the Wild World of Coded Magnets
Apple's Patent Background Electronic devices are common in both home and work environments. Such devices often transmit data back and forth in order to operate or share information.Lenovo IdeaCentre A720: a Microsoft Surface for the rest of us (hands-on video)
Okay, so it's not a 46-inch table that supports 20 points of input , but Lenovo's IdeaCentre A720 does morph into a pretty sweet flat panel horizontal surface for only $1,299. Not only does it have a unique hinge that allows it to adjust the screen at almost any angle — it can be folded back to a 90 degree angle and then be pulled forward to a 5 degree angle — it's also only 25.4mm thick. Lenovo's claiming that's the "industry's thinnest" 27-inch all-in-one, but I have to say that Samsung's Series 7 seems to have a thinner profile, although that only has a 23-inch display. The A720 won't be available for a while — though it will be sometime in the first half of the year — but we do know that it will have Intel Core processors, Nvidia graphics, and up to a terabyte of storage. I got a quick look at the A720 here at CES 2012, and found the sliding mechanism to be extremely sturdy. In fact, it may be too sturdy; it required a bit of force to pull the display forward.The usual question: Over the past 30+ years as a consultant in the field generally known as human factors engineering (aka usability engineering), I have been asked by hundreds of clients why users don’t find their company’s software engaging. The answer to this persistent question is complex but never truly elusive. This question yields to experience and professional usability analysis. The unusual question: Surprisingly, it is a rare client indeed who asks the opposing question: why is an interface so engaging that users cannot stop interacting with it? This is a difficult question because it requires cognitive reverse engineering to determine what interaction attributes a successful interface embodies that result in a psychologically engaging user experience.
Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience
Kinect