Mirama wants do away with the the camera button on your smartphone. In fact, don't even get the smartphone out to begin with. Its prototype headset lets you frame and take a picture using your hands and its built-in camera. No buttons, no vocal cues, not even a wink. Other gestures, registered by the camera sensor, add the ability to confirm or cancel (thumbs up and down, respectively) while you can even attempt a hand-written message ... if you have the right level of motor control. (Our own gestured penmanship during a quick demo proved we didn't.) The cameras on the left and right, meanwhile, offer a constant stream of what you'd be looking at if you weren't wearing the headset. Gestures (well, your hands) then appear in bright cyan on top of the video feed. Mirama gesture interface prototype (hands-on)
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Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Mirama hopes to replace your smartphone with a headset, your camera button with a finger gesture
Friday, January 17, 2014
Bluetooth Headset Vigo Knows When You Are Tired Before You Do
When I was a student, sometimes I’d stab myself in the leg with the tip of my mechanical pencil to keep from dozing off during lectures. That usually didn’t work. Now sleepy students–and other people who need to stay alert for long periods of time–can benefit from Vigo, a Bluetooth headset that measures blinks and body movements to warn users if they are getting too drowsy.
Vigo can be potentially life-saving for drivers and people in other situations where losing alertness can be dangerous, especially since your brain can get fatigued before your body starts to feel tired. The device is currently on Kickstarter and has already reached more than $38,000 of its $50,000 goal, and with 15 days left to go, it has a decent chance of getting funded. The device’s early bird price is a very reasonable $59.
TechCrunch first wrote about Vigo in November while it participating in HAXLR8R, a hardware accelerator program based in Shenzhen, China. Vigo uses an infrared sensor, accelerometer, and its own algorithm to track patterns in your blinks and body movements to gauge your alertness in real-time, and sends you a warning if your energy levels start to drop.
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Sunday, January 12, 2014
Intel dives into wearables with new smartwatch and headset devices
As the world has shifted to devices for people on the go, the company is trying to make sure it keeps apace with the market. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich on Monday introduced a bevy of wearable related technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
One of the new wearables he showed off is a headset nicknamed Jarvis that can integrate with a personal assistant app on a phone without even touching it. Krzanich said it will work with an assistant that Intel is developing but will also work with an existing assistant. (Siri, anyone?). The other is a set of earbuds with biometric capabilities and gets power from a phone's headphone jack.
Oh, and he also mentioned a smart onesie for babies. It transmits the baby's breathing and other information to a connected coffee cup, which reflects the condition on a little digital display. The product line is made possible by the Intel Edison, a newly announced computing system inside an SD card that has WiFi and bluetooth connectivity, with an Intel processor and multicontroller core.
The company also introduced a smartwatch that has smart "geo-fencing" which, Krzanich says, has the capability to monitor the person who's wearing it from afar. One use case: in case of an emergency and a person steps out of the geo-fence, the watch can send out an alert. "You can imagine all kinds of applications," said Krzanich. Still, some consumers may have privacy concerns.
Related postsIntel kills off McAfee Security brandWearables are white-hot at CES 2014. So they're doomed, right?Hardware firm swaps in 8-core Intel CPU on Mac Pro; speed jumps And to try to keep the "wear" in wearable, the company has partnered with brands like Barney's New York and the Council of the Fashion Designers of America to collaborate on bringing future wearables to market.The chipmaker is a Silicon Valley stalwart but hasn't always been on the cutting edge of innovation. Krzanich tried to change some of that perception during his keynote. The company has been working on what it calls "perceptual computing," which aims to help a computer sense what's going on around it by using methods like facial recognition, gestures and voice recognition.
The company has also shown a serious interest in Android, indicating that it wants to turn it into an operating system used more for just mobile screens, but devices like PCs, much like Windows is used. On Monday, Krzanich announced a dual Windows and Android processor. Users will be able to switch between the two operating systems with the switch of a button.
Earlier in the day, the company unveiled its first manifestation of perceptual computing: a 3D camera, part of a product line called Real Sense. The slim camera -- about the size of an index finger -- can do things like replace a subject's background during conference calling like a green screen would, or read gesturing to navigate through screens. At the keynote, Krzanich talked up a scanner that would be able to do a 3D scan of a physical object into a tablet.
Closing the keynote, Krzanich also announced that every Intel device is now "conflict free," no longer sourcing materials from war-torn regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo to build chips for its processors.
Tags: Brian Krzanich, Intel, CES 2014, wearablesView the Original article
