Telepathy One to go up against Google Glass in the wearable computer market

While it still remains to be seen exactly how many people will be willing to get about town with a wearable computer strapped to their heads, the market looks set to be a competitive one. Google got the ball rolling with the announcement of Google Glass, then reports surfaced that Chinese search company Baidu and Microsoft were getting in on the act with their own devices. Now Japanese designer and self-described augmented reality entrepreneur Takahito Iguchi is throwing his hat into the ring with Telepathy One.

Unveiled in prototype form at South By Southwest (SXSW) – where Google Glass also made an appearance – and recently presented to the press in New York, the Telepathy One is a slim, lightweight number that wraps around the user’s head like a futuristic techno halo. The device is designed to connect to the wearer’s smartphone via Bluetooth to enable photos and video to be streamed from the phone to the unit's projection display, or from the device’s camera to the phone.

Although no technical specifications of the camera or projection display have been announced, Iguchi promises a distraction-free experience, thanks to the quality and size of the projected virtual display.

The first prototypes presented in New York were built by Yukai Engineering, which also builds the Necomimi, and featured Manga Camera, a photo editor that converts user’s photos into Japanese manga style cartoons that can then be posted to Tumblr.

Those in Silicon Valley in the next few days have a chance to check out the device during an event that will take place in Mount View, California. On May 6th, Telepathy will be hosting an ideathon at Hacker Dojo, a hackers’ platform for ideas exchange and for participants to opine on the future of Telepathy One and wearable devices in general. Attendees can also participate in a brainstorming session with the management team on potential applications that will allow users to integrate Telepathy One into their daily lives.

There's no word on a release date or pricing, but Iguchi says he is aiming for a significantly lower price than the US$1,500 that is being bandied about as a potential price for Google Glass, which is set to launch later in the year.

Comments

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun tracks targets and avoids friendly fire

Anyone who plays video games will know that few things protect an area like a well-placed sentry gun. In the real world, though, even a person's bedroom or office could use a little protection sometimes, which is why one designer has built the Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun. Using a custom program and some servos, the sentry can automatically locate targets and unleash a stream of foam darts at over seven times the usual speed, while keeping its owner out of the crosshairs. Britt Liv Ulrike Michelsen, a chemical and biological engineering student from Germany, designed and constructed the sentry using mostly basic electronics and some plywood. This isn't the first time she's modified a Nerf gun, but building this robotic turret is arguably her most ambitious project to date. Luckily, the Nerf Vulcan already operates using an electric motor, so controlling the actual firing mechanism through a computer was just a matter of connecting it directly to an Arduino Uno and a laptop. ...

Waste seaweed finds use as insulation

If you live near the Mediterranean Sea, you might be familiar with little balls of seaweed that regularly wash up on the beach. These come from the Posidonia oceanica plant (better known as Neptune grass), and are generally thought of as a nuisance. Now, however, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology is involved in a project that’s converting the little balls into high-quality building insulation. Besides being plentiful, renewable and not wanted for anything else, the dead seaweed is reportedly mold-resistant, almost completely non-flammable, won’t rot, and doesn’t require the addition of any other compounds – good news for people who are chemically-sensitive. It can also absorb water vapor and release it again, without compromising its own insulation value. Converting the “Neptune balls” into a more easily-applicable form of insulation proved to be challenging, however. In its rolled-up form, the seaweed harbors a lot of sand, and its fibers tend to catc...

Students crash rockets to develop new asteroid sample collection technique

In what at first glance seems like a terrible sense of direction, in March students from the University of Washington fired rockets from kites and balloons at an altitude of 3,000 ft (914 m) straight into the ground at Black Rock, Nevada: a dry lake bed in the desert 100 mi (160 km) north of Reno. This may seem like the ultimate in larking about, but it's actually a serious effort to develop new ways of collecting samples from asteroids. The test was part of the “Sample Return Systems for Extreme Environments” project. The idea is to find cheaper, more efficient ways of collecting samples from asteroids and hazardous areas on Earth, such as volcanoes and nuclear disaster zones, by using penetrators instead of soft landers or ground crews to hammer out sample cores. According to the team, this would result in lower cost than soft landing techniques by reducing the velocity and vehicle mass needed to gather the sample, minimizing damage on impact, as well as being mechanically s...

ANBARASUASOKAN

Search This Blog