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Iphone App Lets You See What People Are Tweeting Inside Building

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by Aaron Saenz on January 18th, 2010
augmented reality building with tweets

Qosmo used augmented reality to share information about the N Building using an iPhone App. You can read the tweets of people inside.

If you’re not satisfied with projecting videos onto a building, or turning it into a giant pinball machine, maybe you’d like to be able to read its mind. Japanese company Qosmo, along with Terada Design have transformed the N Builing in Tokyo into an augmented reality display. Using a limited release iPhone application, people walking through Tachikawa Station can view the pixelated designs on the building’s windows and obtain up to date shop information, or even read the tweets of the people inside. Those designs, called QR codes, are a common augmented reality technique that allow the viewing device to know which information to retrieve for the object being viewed. According to the blog of Qosmo CEO Nao Tokui, however, you can get the same information using the building’s natural features instead of the QR codes. The N building experiment may be the first step towards changing the face of Tokyo. Instead of endless billboards and signage, we could have highly specified images on demand that inform as well as delight the eye. Check out the video of the N Building after the break.

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Cool Robots from iREX 2009 (Pics and Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on December 4th, 2009
Ping pong playing robots with killer abs...must be time for iREX again.

Ping pong playing robots with killer abs...must be time for iREX again.

Japan gets all the cool stuff. Last week the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) finished in Tokyo with hundreds of exhibitors and more than 100,000 visitors. iREX 2009 focused on enhancing market awareness for current and emerging robot technologies. As such, companies put their best robots on display and hyped their abilities and possible applications. If there’s a robot that’s going to make a big splash in the industry in the next few years, chances are it was at the exhibition. Check out some of the cool pics and videos after the break.

Humanoid robots received the lion’s share of attention. Industrial grade human-replacements such as the Motoman series, and Nextage were represented. Nextage actually helped open the exhibition, and Motoman put on a light saber dance show (see the videos below). Kondo, king of small humanoid robotics kits, had several advanced models on display. Kokoro had one of its creepy/lovely Actroids set up to answer questions and interact with visitors. The latest incarnation of TOSY’s ping pong playing robot, Topio, was taking on challengers and trying to intimidate them with its robotic abs (see photo below). In raising market awareness at iREX, the most common tactic seemed to be making robots more human. That strategy even extended into models whose shape is no where near the humanoid form. There were even industrial lifters and movers with happy faces on them.

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Haptic Ring Lets You Feel Objects in Augmented Reality (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on November 13th, 2009
A vibrating ring allows you to interact with an virtual teddy bear.

A vibrating ring allows you to feel like you are touching a virtual teddy bear.

The first thing that we often give children to hold is a stuffed animal so it makes sense that the first virtual object that you touch will be a teddy bear. At the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo, developers demonstrated a ring that uses vibrations to let you feel what you see on a screen. This augmented reality touchy-feely experience is the brainchild of Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Electro-communications. The cute and cuddly teddy bear the ring lets you interact with is known as a Virtual Creature (VC) and is as much of the focus of the research as the ring itself. Check out the videos after the break.

When we talk about haptics, the transfer of sensation from the digital world to the real world, we often discuss the next generation of human-computer interfaces. Future hardware and software could become more intuitive when you can actually feel what you are working with. However, haptics are also a key point of entry into full sensory virtual reality. Augmented reality, with its blend of digital and real-world images, is a sort of VR-lite and it’s a good testing ground for a haptics device. While not nearly complex enough to give you the sensation of being immersed in a virtual environment, the haptics ring is a good first step into that realm.

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Holograms You Can Feel

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by Aaron Saenz on August 14th, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, we are one step closer to having a fully functional holodeck. Thanks to the Shinoda Lab at theUniversity of Tokyo, you can now touch holograms. Concentrated blasts of ultrasound are used in conjunction with traditional holography to give you the impression of feeling the objects you see. It’s an amazing concept and will allow an entirely new way to interact in virtual reality. Marvel at the video from Shinoda Labs after the break (sorry, no sound).

Shinoda Lab uses ultrasound so you can feel holograms.

Shinoda Lab uses ultrasound so you can feel holograms.

Called the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, the specially calibrated ultrasound emitter gives you the impression of physical pressure at the location of a holographic object. Because you aren’t actually touching the hologram, there’s no decrease in the quality of the image. Unlike a traditional speaker, the ultrasound can be focused at a particular location, so you only feel pressure at a certain point. This precision allows AUTD to let you feel individual drops of virtual rain, a bouncing ball, or even a tiny animal running across your palm.

I think it is hilarious and awesome that a key component of  the Shinoda Lab setup is a remote control from the Nintendo Wii. Two wiimotes serve as IR sensors that track the movement of your hand in the hologram space. In order to see your hand, you have to have a tiny marker place on your finger that is very reflective to IR light. As far as hand-tracking goes, it’s a remarkably simple setup. There are some obvious limitations you can see from the video. The size of the hand isn’t well preserved in the virtual space (probably because only one part of the hand is tracked in IR). Still, I’m sure Nintendo is overjoyed with the inventiveness of the Shinoda Lab. Especially since Shinoda just exhibited AUTD at the SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans.

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Cyberdyne Lets Hal Cyborgs Take a Stroll Through Tokyo

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by Aaron Saenz on August 11th, 2009

The Cyborg revolution marches inexhaustibly forward. Last Monday, the Cyberdyne company had three of its employees strut the streets of Tokyo in their cybernetically enhanced legs. The legs were part of HAL, or hybrid assisted limbs, the cyborg muscle enhancement suit we gushed over a few months back. These things are powerful and efficient. Watch them walk the walk in the NECN video after the break.

HAL suits make a Tokyo street debut

HAL suits make a Tokyo street debut

When you look at the employees walking in the video, notice how the operators seem to be neither leading nor following the exoskeleton. As we’ve said before, HAL is revolutionary because of its ability to read motor neuron impulses through the skin in order to move the exoskeleton with the operators thoughts. That’s right, the suit can determine what muscles you’ll move before the muscles know themselves. HAL is really merging man and machine to provide smooth and continuous movement with little worries for injury.

Cyberdyne is been up to a lot more in the past than taking a stroll down the lane. Personal trainer Takeshi Matsumoto used a HAL suit to carry Seiji Uchida up a Swiss mountain. Uchida, who is a quadriplegic, had long wanted to climb the mountain, and with some help from Matsumoto and HAL, he was able to get within 500 yards of the summit. Matsumoto’s no wimp, but carrying someone up a mountain is something few of us would ever be able to accomplish without HAL’s ability to amplify muscle strength by 2 to 10 times. The next step would be modifying HAL to read Uchida’s motor impulses and allow him to operate the exoskeleton independently.

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