Lifeboat Foundation

BEIJING, Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Light Chaser Animation released Sent, its second work in virtual reality and its first VR story short.

Lately, some key figures in the movie industry have questioned the viability of narrative storytelling in the VR medium. Sent is Light Chaser’s first attempt in answering the question.

The 5-minute, 40-second short tells the story of an emoji “Goodbye.” The narrative begins inside the phone of a boy who is having a quarrel with his girlfriend. Behind the chat screen, all kinds of emoji characters are gathered and vie to be chosen and applied to the conversation. When the boy selects “Goodbye,” the emoji embarks upon a magical journey that would turn things in surprising ways for all.

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I do commend Sacramento for trying to put controls in place to reduce human trafficking; will it work?

What if banning smartphone encryption could stem the rising tide of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery from which perpetrators force victims to engage in commercial labor services or sex acts against their will?

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When engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the name of science. Specifically, it is for a flexible sensor system that can measure metabolites and electrolytes in sweat, calibrate the data based upon skin temperature and sync the results in real time to a smartphone.

While health monitors have exploded onto the consumer electronics scene over the past decade, researchers say this device, reported in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Nature (“Fully integrated wearable sensor arrays for multiplexed in situ perspiration analysis”), is the first fully integrated electronic system that can provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring of multiple biochemicals in sweat.

Continue reading “What new wearable sensors can reveal from perspiration” »

A cheaper way for VR wear for consumers; are consumers potentially being ripped off?

The Oculus Rift finally went on sale, but that $600 price tag is a bit too steep for some to justify. Fortunately, VR doesn’t have to be expensive. Take this virtual reality cycling rig that someone created for $40.

It’s the work of Paul Yan, who’s the animation director at Toys for Bob — the studio that developed Skylanders and kicked off the toys-to-life revolution. He previously figured out how to build an “Arduino thing” that could talk to a smartphone via Bluetooth LE and he wanted to put his contraption to good use.

Continue reading “VR cycling setup created for just $40” »

I can now see it; Nov. I go into my local Verizon store; and Pepper the robot greets me and takes my name and helps me get in line for the next service tech or takes me to show me the latest devices.

Pepper, the lovable humanoid robot, is preparing to take a step into entrepreneurship and staff its own smartphone shop in Japan.

Creator company SoftBank said it planned to open the pop-up mobile store employing only Pepper robots by the end of March, according to Engadget.

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Cannot wait for the new AR contacts.

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — This new IDTechEx report is focused on how the market for smart glasses and contact lenses is going to evolve in the next decade, based on the exciting research and developments efforts of recent years along with the high visibility some projects and collaborations have enjoyed. The amount of visibility this space is experiencing is exciting developers of a range of allied technologies into fast-tracking/focusing their efforts, as well as creating devices and components designed specifically to serve this emerging industry.

Some of the newest devices that have ignited significant interest in smart eyewear are going above and beyond the conventional definition of a smart object; they are in effect, portable, wearable computers with a host of functionalities, specially designed apps etc. that add new ways for the wearer to interact with the world along with smartphone capabilities, health tracking options and many other features. The features of some of the more advanced devices have been based on and have sparked worldwide innovation efforts aiming to create an ecosystem of components that will enable what is bound to be a revolution in form factor for wearables.

Continue reading “AR & VR Smartglasses and Functional Contact Lenses 2016-2026” »

Apple-linked Intelligent Energy poised for first major commercial deployment of technology in India.

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Go Hubo

The so-called ‘fourth industrial revolution’ will bring ever faster cycles of innovation, posing huge challenges to companies, workers, governments and societies alike Implantable mobile phones. 3D-printed organs for transplant. Clothes and reading-glasses connected to the Internet.

Such things may be science fiction today but they will be scientific fact by 2025 as the world enters an era of advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and gene editing, according to executives surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Continue reading “Here come the robots, welcome to the next industrial revolution” »

Virginia Tech’s Professor Doug Bowman comes to Apple to make VR. This should be very interesting since he won the research grant to work on the “Hololens” — could be interesting.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Apple has hired one of the leading experts on virtual and augmented reality — Virginia Tech computer science professor Doug Bowman. He was recently listed among grant winners for HoloLens research projects and is skilled in creating 3D user interfaces, reports Endgadget. He has also co-authored a book called 3D User Interfaces Theory and Practice.

He’s been working on technologies such as wearable displays and full surround display prototypes at Virginia Tech.

Continue reading “Apple hires virtual and augmented reality tech expert: Report” »