The latest to get on board the cardboard virtual reality train is…. Coca Cola
Packaging as a cardboard virtual reality headset? Sure, why not. Alcatel are already turning their smartphone boxes into VR headsets, after all. Coke has a few cool ideas as well – three, to be specific, using the cardboard packaging from several of their products – which we sadly don’t see much of this side. They tend to stick to plastic wrapping in South Africa. Still, we’d pick up a twelve-pack wrapped in cardboard if it meant a temporary VR headset. We say ‘temporary’ because of how thin the board is. Now… who wants to put money on Castle Light taking this idea and running with it in the beer space? Any takers? Anyone?
Source: Coca Cola (YouTube)
If you’re a Star Wars fan you’re going to want these Droidspeak translator helmets for your very own
This has to be the nerdiest walkie-talkie project we’ve ever seen. And it’s awesome. Made by a couple of guys (or just a guy) known as Minimum Effective Dose, these helmets transmit Star Wars droid sounds to people listening. However, those who are also wearing a helmet can understand you. There’s no translation happening though, these hacked-together helmets both render talking as the droid noise and transmit speech to other helmets in range via a throat-mic. The project itself was fairly challenging but most of the tough work has been done. Now the plans and processes are available at the link below. Why are you still reading this? Shouldn’t you be ordering components?
Source: Hackster.io
So you want a better idea of how the Hololens will work, do you?
The video above is from Actiongram, an app that has been developed for Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality headset. The app, which sees users placing holograms into a real-world space and then recording video with them present, also has a few things to share with us. Like the Start Menu you can expect from the Hololens interface, what it looks like to launch and navigate an app and gesture-based selection. There’s also a Bluetooth-connected ‘clicker’ on the way (which isn’t in the video) which could serve as a more accurate alternative to gestures. Like using a mouse instead of a touchscreen. We’re okay with that. Microsoft is said to be officially unveiling Actiongram on 29 February. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for that one.
Source: via Ars Technica
Watch researchers get pushy with Google’s updated Atlas bipedal robot
Yeah, this isn’t terrifying at all. Watching Google and Boston Dynamics’ updated Atlas bipedal robot going for a walk in the snow, unassisted, makes us feel all warm and fluffy about the future of humanity. Until someone mounts a gun on this thing. Seriously though, its potential as a disaster recovery robot is looking brighter than ever, especially when you see that it can now stack boxes. We even feel a little bad with it when one of the researchers starts messing with Atlas, pushing it around and then playing Keep-Away with one of its boxes – which is just to demonstrate how far the robot has come. No-one wants to kick a robot just for the hell of it but they will knock it over so you can see that it is now able to right itself without assistance. Sweet dreams…
Source: Boston Dynamics