ImmersiveTech

Tupac Hologram

haztan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:46:41 +0000

If you’d have told me as a child that during my lifetime we would have better holograms than in Star Wars, I’d never have believed you!

Tupac came back from the dead at Coachella 2012.

Concept Vending Machine With See-through Display

Nathan Makino — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:48:25 +0000

Okaya Electronics rolls out new concept vending machine in Japan. Full HD transparent screen with facial recognition to display ads according to demographic. I can see promotions syncing with cell phones via nfc/rfid in the near term and facial recognition applied for custom notifications to your email/social network shortly thereafter.

Video courtesy of DigiInfo

The Most Immersive Video Game to Date.

CaseyG — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:55:40 +0000

Video courtesy of The Gadget Show.

What do you get when you mix Battlefield 3 with an omni-directional treadmill, full dome projection screen, motion tracking, wireless gun controller, 12 paintball markers, and surround sound? YOU GET THE MOST IMMERSIVE VIDEO GAME TO DATE!!!!

Some of the top technology experts in Europe got a hold of a pre-release copy of Battlefield 3 to make this beast of a system. The simulator drops you in the actual battle zone where every bullet fired by the enemy might actually make contact. This adds a hell of a lot more anxiety before you decide to rush that bunker!

If you are in the UK, make sure to catch them on The Gadget Show, Channel 5 at 8pm on October 24th. I truly hope that this is a feat of engineering and not one of good marketing, I look forward to seeing it in action live.

LASER Academy: A Full-Fledge Airsoft War!

CaseyG — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:23:27 +0000

Using AR technology, the guys at Corridor Digital have developed a totally new way to experience the heat of battle. Complete with bullet animations, sound effects, and a heads-up-display, LASER Academy fully immerses the players into a lifelike shootout.

It also looks like they are planning to have a large scale game in November, check out for updates. You know I’ll be there.

A Memoriam of Steve Jobs and Our (Im)Take

Tim Wut — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:00:34 +0000

Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock (and assuming your rock doesn’t have WiFi access) just knows. The news of Steve Job’s passing has exploded across the internet with tribute videos, old video viewings, and news blasts in the form of tweets, posts, and updates at an all time high. With one of the most poignant and impactful memorials ever created for… ANYONE on Apple’s homepage, the news hit the tech and consumer world with an impact that exceeded that of The King of Pop’s recent passing. But not to embark on an Apples to oranges argument, the influence of Apple Computers has had, in the tech consumer world, been undeniably profound with Steve Jobs at the forefront.

As also posted on Techzulu (with an Immersive Technologies take on the bottom of this article):

Steve Jobs, CEO, Chariman, and Co-Founder of Apple led nothing short of an extraordinary life with significant ups and downs. From sleeping on floors and collecting recyclables during his adolescent years, to being fired from the very company he founded, the peak moments of his professional career had seen him build not only THE largest computer company in the world, but also one of the most largest film studios (Pixar) as well. Upon news of his resignation as Apple’s CEO in 2011, it was also announced that Jobs was a victim of pancreatic cancer with public disclosure of his declining health. But even through that, he continued to serve as Chairman for Apple’s board of directors until the very end.

So whether you loved or hated Jobs, use a Mac or a PC, love the svelte aesthetics of your Macbook Pro, or prefer the full control of your Android based device, there is no denying Steve Jobs and Apple’s influence on the consumer tech-space. So for your reading enjoyment, we’ve compiled a list of neat Steve Jobs related factoids, some of which you may already know, some you may not. Paying respect to a truly inspirational figure.

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” – President Barack Obama

R.I.P Steve Jobs 1955-2011

As of July 2001, Apple had over $4.2 billion in cash. Today? More than $76 billion in cash; 2 billion MORE than the US Treasury.
Steve Jobs studied calligraphy at Reed College and dropped out early in his educational career. He directly attributed influence a calligraphy class for the typeface and spacing of his Apple products.
The reaction to Steve Jobs’ death was recorded in record breaking numbers. 10,000 tweets per second following news of his death on Wednesday night.
The trending search item: “pancreatic cancer” reached Google’s rankings at #2 in a span of one night.
As of June 2011, there have been 25 million iPads sold cumulatively since its introduction in April 2010.
To date, 14 billion apps have been downloaded via the App Store. In April 2010, just about 1.5 years ago, the number was at 4 billion. Right around when the iPad was launched.
Despite lackluster buzz, the most recent iPhone 4S got 200,000 pre-orders in just 12 hours.
Jobs purchased animated studio ‘Pixar’ at $5M from Lucasfilms in 1986. In 2006, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.6B and became Disney’s biggest shareholder.
Apple made the first mass-market color digital camera in 1994. The camera had no digital display, boasted one megapixel, took a total of eight photos, and cost $749.
Apple is the 2nd largest company in the world, right behind Exxon-Mobil.

And the ImTech take (please note this is my personal opinion and perception):

Steve Jobs’ Apple products have directly and indirectly influenced a huge spur in development and awareness of immersive technologies. The iPhone entered into the peak of a mobile industry monster that ran on button interfaces, and maybe sometimes, styluses. In just a few short years, they made touch-based interfaces the standard. Along with the iPod touch, multi-touch tracking pads and mouse, and the iPad; these devices fueled a continual growth in interest for touch-based computing further moving consumers away from the conventional (and aging) buttons and mouse.

The iPad and Macbook Air and the convenience of personal computing: Prior to the introduction and upgrades of these products, you were forced to choose between portable and lackluster, or powerful and inconvenient. The introduction of unobtrusive product offerings for personal computing that actually could handle a reasonable workload has been key, especially considering that the tablet and netbook market was small and slow to adopt. In addition, the iPad has played a huge role in the tablet industry BOOM.

Also, keep in mind the huge spur in momentum for the Augmented Reality industry from the iphone/iPad boom. Prior to the iPhone, even the constant action of holding phones in the air (to seek & view visual digital information overlayed on the physical world) didn’t exist. The app store model and popularity of the iPhone also led to strong competitive development by Google’s Android OS and their (more open-source friendly) brand of products contributing to the augmented reality industry.

We can also discuss the iPhone as a technological extension of one’s self (human-android relationship) (there’s an app for that). The iPhone entered into a niche market of smart phone users at a high buy-in price Now, the prominence of smart phones (with touch-interfaces no doubt) is ubiquitous. We use our phones to guide us (GPS) and our decisions (Yelp); to schedule, document, then broadcast our lives, and to connect to others. Smart phones have become our first full-time extension of our physical forms within the digital space. (When’s the last time you put down your phone?)

And let’s not forget the influence on the development of the Android OS industry – whole industries and markets created to compete against Apple iOS. Some might enjoy the open source availability and rootability of Android’s devices, and maybe they curse Apple’s proprietary nature and marked up prices of their products. But no matter what side you’re on and what you prefer, we can at least mildly agree that the quality of Android’s operating system has been strongly influenced by the iPhone’s success… competition breeds continual innovation. From both sides.

And finally, we speak on the widespread adoption of 3D media. While Apple didn’t invent 3D technology, the wide monetary success of 3D animated films by Pixar (and a consistent growth of quality 3D productions by other studios) has given the 3D industry such a strong demand that 3D media appears to be rapidly on its way to being the standard.

I understand Apple doesn’t necessarily invent these breaking technologies, nor are they ever the first do adopt/implement. Instead, they do seem to be the ones to set the standard. So whether you admired Jobs’ vision, or thought he was pompus and abrasive, own Mac products, or prefer performance per dollar over aesthetics; I’d like to point out just the same to everyone how influential it appears Apple has been on the Immersive Technologies space as a whole.

Steve Jobs passes away at age 56

CaseyG — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:56:55 +0000

I would just like to pay tribute to Steve Jobs. He truly revolutionized how we live and think. We have assembled some of our favorite videos below to honor one of the most prolific innovators of our time:

Courtesy of Michael Lawrence Films

Courtesy of TextLab

Your ideas will continue to inspire for generations to come. Thank you for your immense contributions to society.

Biotech Breakthrough: Monkeys can feel virtual objects using a brain implant

haztan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:42:45 +0000

By Robert T. Gonzales via io9

It could be the first step towards truly immersive virtual reality, where you can feel the computer-generated world around you. An international team of neuroengineers has developed a brain-machine interface that’s bi-directional. That means the monkeys can use this brain implant not only to control a virtual hand, but also to get feedback that tricks their brains into “feeling” the texture of virtual objects.

Already demonstrated successfully in primates, the interface could soon allow humans to use prosthetic limbs (or even robotic exoskeletons) to actually feel objects in the real world.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s explore how all this works. When you’re wearing a pair of big bulky gloves, the sensory information usually provided to your brain by your fingers is deadened by the barrier between your hand and your keys. The result is a one-way interface; your brain can tell your fingers what to do with the keys, but communication from your fingers back to your brain is effectively cut off. As a result, you have to rely on another sense — usually vision — to tell if you’re currently pinching one key, three keys, or no keys at all.

To really make the most of your fingertips, there needs to be a two-way interface between your brain and your hands. When your brain can receive tactile information from your hands about, say, the texture of the key you’re handling, it can make near-instantaneous adjustments that give you better dexterity, or help you choose the right key.

Brain-machine interfaces have come a long way in recent years, but, with few exceptions, these systems have depended pretty much exclusively on one-way interfaces.

To demonstrate the power of a two-way interface, a team of neuroengineers at Duke University designed a brain-machine-brain interface (BMBI) to test on monkeys.

“This is the first demonstration of a brain-machine-brain interface that establishes a direct, bidirectional link between a brain and a virtual body,” said Miguel Nicolelis, who led the study. “In this BMBI, the virtual body is controlled directly by the animal’s brain activity, while its virtual hand generates tactile feedback information that is signaled via direct electrical microstimulation of another region of the animal’s cortex.”

Here’s how it all works: the BMBI takes movement commands from 50—200 neurons in the monkey’s motor cortex and uses them to control the operation of a virtual, “avatar” hand, not unlike a classical one-way interface. But the new interface also implements a feedback mechanism, wherein information about a virtual object’s texture is delivered directly to the brain via something known as intracortical microstimulation, or “ICMS” for short. When a monkey receives feedback in the form of ICMS, thousands of neurons in its brain (neurons that actually correspond to tactile feedback in the hands) receive electrical stimulation via carefully placed electrodes.

This two-way interface allows for the monkeys to engage in what the researchers call “active tactile exploration” of a virtual set of objects. Using only their brains, monkeys were able to direct their avatar hand over the surfaces of several virtual objects and differentiate between their textures.

To prove that the monkeys could pick out specific objects based on tactile feedback, the researchers would reward monkeys for selecting objects with a specific texture. When they held their virtual hand over the correct object, they were given a reward. The study looked at the performance of this task by two monkeys. It took one monkey just four attempts to learn how to select the correct object during each trial; the second, only nine.

“The remarkable success with non-human primates is what makes us believe that humans could accomplish the same task much more easily in the near future,” explains Nicolelis. He continues:

Someday in the near future, quadriplegic patients will take advantage of this technology not only to move their arms and hands and to walk again, but also to sense the texture of objects placed in their hands, or experience the nuances of the terrain on which they stroll with the help of a wearable robotic exoskeleton.

The future seriously can’t get here soon enough.

This research was largely funded by the National Institutes of Health, and is published in the latest issue of Nature

Top image via 3DDock/Shutterstock; Gloves & Keys Via; Virtual Monkey via Nature
Video by the Nicolelis Lab, Duke Center for Neuroengineering

Microsoft’s Latest Kinect Hack: KinectFusion

CaseyG — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:30:57 +0000

Video courtesy of Microsoft Research
We love Kinect hacks here at Immersive Tech but we never thought we would see one from Microsoft themselves! I am not even sure if it considered a hack as much as a new proprietary use. Anyway, Microsoft has developed KinectFusion, a fast and easy way to turn anything and everything into a 3D model. It works by simply letting the Kinect gather its depth map while you move it around the room or object and it will put together the 3D model in real time! Although the video starts out slow (thanks for the lack of music Microsoft), it picks up when they start showing the models in action. I will let the video speak for itself, it is pretty amazing!

Once KinectFusion has the model, it can then recognize movement or orientation changes of that object. This means on the very simplest level that events like can now be very easily programmed. The possibilities are only bounded by our imagination.

Facial Substitution in Real Time

CaseyG — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:37:16 +0000

Kyle McDonald and Arturo Castro have come up with a piece of software that will change your ugly mug into someone else’s via your webcam and a picture of the person. The results are both amazing and creepy.

But why is it immersive? This takes us one step closer to having lifelike avatar control. Imagine hanging out in a virtual world full of avatars and having a conversation with someone across the globe complete with realistic facial expressions; beats the hell out of a phone call! The software is built with open source code so here is your invitation to experiment!

Here is a video of their take on a scramble suit inspired by the novel A Scanner Darkly

Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind

haztan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:22:59 +0000

By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | September 22, 2011

The approximate reconstruction (right) of a movie clip (left) is achieved through brain imaging and computer simulation

BERKELEY — Imagine tapping into the mind of a coma patient, or watching one’s own dream on YouTube. With a cutting-edge blend of brain imaging and computer simulation, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are bringing these futuristic scenarios within reach.

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers.

As yet, the technology can only reconstruct movie clips people have already viewed. However, the breakthrough paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such as dreams and memories, according to researchers.

“This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery,” said Professor Jack Gallant, a UC Berkeley neuroscientist and coauthor of the study published online today (Sept. 22) in the journal Current Biology. “We are opening a window into the movies in our minds.”

Eventually, practical applications of the technology could include a better understanding of what goes on in the minds of people who cannot communicate verbally, such as stroke victims, coma patients and people with neurodegenerative diseases.

It may also lay the groundwork for brain-machine interface so that people with cerebral palsy or paralysis, for example, can guide computers with their minds.

However, researchers point out that the technology is decades from allowing users to read others’ thoughts and intentions, as portrayed in such sci-fi classics as “Brainstorm,” in which scientists recorded a person’s sensations so that others could experience them.

Mind-reading through brain imaging technology is a common sci-fi theme

Previously, Gallant and fellow researchers recorded brain activity in the visual cortex while a subject viewed black-and-white photographs. They then built a computational model that enabled them to predict with overwhelming accuracy which picture the subject was looking at.

In their latest experiment, researchers say they have solved a much more difficult problem by actually decoding brain signals generated by moving pictures.

“Our natural visual experience is like watching a movie,” said Shinji Nishimoto, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher in Gallant’s lab. “In order for this technology to have wide applicability, we must understand how the brain processes these dynamic visual experiences.”

Nishimoto and two other research team members served as subjects for the experiment, because the procedure requires volunteers to remain still inside the MRI scanner for hours at a time.

They watched two separate sets of Hollywood movie trailers, while fMRI was used to measure blood flow through the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual information. On the computer, the brain was divided into small, three-dimensional cubes known as volumetric pixels, or “voxels.”

“We built a model for each voxel that describes how shape and motion information in the movie is mapped into brain activity,” Nishimoto said.

The brain activity recorded while subjects viewed the first set of clips was fed into a computer program that learned, second by second, to associate visual patterns in the movie with the corresponding brain activity.

Brain activity evoked by the second set of clips was used to test the movie reconstruction algorithm. This was done by feeding 18 million seconds of random YouTube videos into the computer program so that it could predict the brain activity that each film clip would most likely evoke in each subject.

Finally, the 100 clips that the computer program decided were most similar to the clip that the subject had probably seen were merged to produce a blurry yet continuous reconstruction of the original movie.

Reconstructing movies using brain scans has been challenging because the blood flow signals measured using fMRI change much more slowly than the neural signals that encode dynamic information in movies, researchers said. For this reason, most previous attempts to decode brain activity have focused on static images.

“We addressed this problem by developing a two-stage model that separately describes the underlying neural population and blood flow signals,” Nishimoto said.

Ultimately, Nishimoto said, scientists need to understand how the brain processes dynamic visual events that we experience in everyday life.

“We need to know how the brain works in naturalistic conditions,” he said. “For that, we need to first understand how the brain works while we are watching movies.”

Other coauthors of the study are Thomas Naselaris with UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute; An T. Vu with UC Berkeley’s Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering; and Yuval Benjamini and Professor Bin Yu with the UC Berkeley Department of Statistics.

RELATED INFORMATION

Gallant Lab website, with more details about the study