Light Start – VR hands, Parrot Disco, space posters, and a trip to Nuka-World

The Dexmo exoskeleton glove hopes to let you feel virtual worlds (with your hands)

A concerted push toward virtual reality means that we should really be looking at new interfaces. And until we figure out a way to wire our brains directly into a virtual world and completely simulate tactile response using… nothing, something like the Dexmo exoskeleton glove is probably what we should be looking at. The Dexmo is fairly unique in that it promises force feedback for most of your hand and from all sides. It’s also supposed to be wireless (with a powered-on time of a few hours), meaning you won’t have extra cabling to install and still trip over. As cool (and as useful) as it looks, though, it’s still going to be a while before Dexmo is on the market — if at all. The company behind it, Dexta Robotics, still has the gear in development and they’re looking for backers and software developers to carry it the rest of the way to retail.

Source: Dexta Robotics

Parrot’s Disco fixed-wing drone will be launching in September

When you think of a personal drone, you’re probably picturing a quad-copter. Something that hovers, and rotates, and can crash-land without putting someone’s eye out. But if you want the other sort, of the type that acts almost military in the way that it arrows across the sky, then you might want to check out Parrot’s Disco fixed-wing drone. Which is launching in September this year. It’ll cost you around R18,500 (in American currency) for the Disco but for that you’ll get the drone, the helmet needed to pilot the thing and the exhilaration of watching your expensive tech crash at 80km/h about 43 minutes into its 45 minute flight time. You might also, if you know what you’re doing, get some amazing video before all of that happens. Since Parrot have made the Disco a bit smarter than your average missile, you might even get it back after its maiden voyage.

Source: via Engadget

Dreaming of space? NASA has some retro wall-art for you 

Perhaps you dream of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Perhaps you just dream of spending time on a planet that isn’t your own. NASA is here to help, at least in a purely mental capacity. And don’t say they never gave you anything. The space agency has come up with a set of delightfully-retro posters for places like Mars, Jupiter, Kepler-16b and other locations which can be downloaded, free of charge, and printed (you’re going to have to pay for that). Once that’s done, you can hang them on your wall and daydream about what it would be like to slip the bonds of Earth and rocket off to another place — where you could die at any moment thanks to a loss of pressure. But still, think of the adventure.

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

If you’re heading to Fallout 4’s Nuka-World (or any other theme park), you need to see this

Fallout 4‘s newest expansion adds Nuka-World, a theme park that (due to international copyright law) looks nothing like a certain rodent-populated wonderland in the States. We’ve already seen some of the gameplay but Fallout‘s always-excellent instructional videos have kicked up a survival guide for the park. First, sound a little like someone who totally doesn’t have oversized ears. Second, don’t be a Nuka-Cola bottle. Third… well, just watch the video. Be warned, though. There’s a lot of violence towards a fairly innocent anthropomorphic glass bottle, so no laughing out loud at the office. Okay? Fallout 4‘s Nuka-World expansion drops on all available platforms on 30 August. See you on the roller-coaster.

Source: Bethesda