This site lets you explore the streets of New York via photos captured in the 1940’s
Its one of those sites where you can get lost for hours exploring how different the world was back then.
The makers have also started making a version for 1980’s
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Article to Podcast Chrome extension
This Chrome extension converts all of those blog posts you didn’t get around to reading into podcasts for you to listen to at a later stage.
Something so simple but very useful.
Really feel the sound
Woojer uses haptic feedback to make you feel sound in a totally new way.
I was lucky enough to try some hardware similar to this at CES 2020 and the sound intensifies massively, the biggest difference in the base you feel it hitting your body which intensifies the music even more.
This could be used in so many ways, for example add Oculus + Woojer to create gaming immersive experiences with visual and sound to enhance and take you to the next level of gaming.
Brand experiences could also be intensified and imaging watching a film with this on.
@Woojer, If you want a real demo send my way.
The Strap is currently on offer for $129 and the vest is $349
Mini portable projector
This smart new projector comes full of punch, you can lay it flat to project on your wall to watch the latest movies or stand it upright to interactive and use like a touchscreen.
If all of this is true then its an impressive piece of kit, also if anybody has a real demo please send our way, especially the interaction part.
Links to tech spec etc.
Hologram video calls? Yes Please
Tech that has been produced by a company called PortL allows you to beam yourself as a full size hologram to another person with the same tech to have conversations in a more personal way
Making those Google Meets a bit more fun.
A Neat Chrome extension for Google Meet that lets you turn your meeting into a game without the other people knowing.
Get it here
Amazon Halo Fitness Band Spy or Future Innovation
Amazon have announced its new innovation in fitness with the Halo band. The band has no screen so you can avoid distractions, it measures all the normal stuff like fitness, steps, sleep and diet.
But it has a few new additional features that will either excite you or freak you out. Firstly it listens to you, and based on your tone can let you know if you are being too negative in certain situations or over positive etc.. of course they have offered the ability to turn this feature off as well.
The other feature that stood out was the body scan feature, you scan yourself in the mirror and the app lets you know how to shred those extra few pounds, and claims to be better than any smart scales.
I’m personally excited that tech is finally moving forward, Amazon is truly showing its the power house when it comes to voice and leading the way.
When you purchase the strap you get 6 months free subscription, after that you have to layout the monthly fee.
Would I purchase one? not sure, i think we have so many subscription models at the moment its hard to manage your monthly finances when you have subs for streaming services, mobiles, music, games and now fitness straps.
Also we have the massive privacy issues that the voice function is likely to open up.
Though saying all that I would love to try one to see if it lives up to its hype.
There is a really long and extensive article on Halo over at the Verge
Need help learning a new language?
Vagus nerve stimulation has been used for more than 20 years to treat conditions like epilepsy, but it usually involves surgery to implant electrodes so they are directly in contact with the nerve in the neck
Now some smart folk at the university of California and San Francisco have developed an ear bud that connects directly to your brain and helps people learn unfamiliar sounds new languages.
The device has been tested on 36 English speaking volunteers, the device is so advanced you are not aware its actually working. out of the 36 test it seems to have worked on 2/3 of the test group.
Read more on the
for the full article
Meet Spot the Robot Dog
You can have your very own robot dog for a sweet $75k, a steep price for the everyday person or someone who might just want a dog walker.
“A nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors. Built to be a rugged and customizable platform, Spot has an industry track record in remote operation and autonomous sensing. “A quote directly from the dogs mouth and more information here on the Boson Dynamics site
Lancôme’s VR Pop-up Store
Lancôme has opened a pop-up VR store to reinvent the Future of Beauty retail Post Covid according to Forbes
We have seen a few of these VR stores pop-up (no pun intended) recently, if kind of makes me chuckle inside a little as we were presenting these type of ideas way back in 2005 and no one was interested, maybe it was to early for this type of engagement via online. What this does is gives me hope that the online experience can be as entertaining and engaging as it once was when Flash was alive.
Reference Link
The Touchless Touchscreen
Two Ex Samsung engineers have created a device called Glamos that can turn any screen into an interactive, its basically a tiny LiDAR device (a detention system that works on the principle of radar and light from a lazer) , this tech is used by autonomous vehicles to detect obstacles.
This new device is said to be compatible with phones, laptops, tablets, computers and smart TV’s.
Once connected to a device, ordinary screens are able to identify and respond to gestures made in the air, without the user having to physically touch the screen.
Much like LEAP when it was demo’d in SXSW in 2012, but this has advanced and moved on since then, connecting to multitude of devices for a start.
With Covid hitting the world we are having to rethink how we interact with object and products that where common to touch in the past, touchless products will become an even bigger market in the future.
Reference links
Apple is working on Self Drying Phones
Yes, you read correctly, over at CultofMacthey reported on finding Apple had a newly-published patent application which not only just makes the phone waterproof it actually repels water using electrode technology to actively expel water that has become trapped in the device, rather than just fighting to keep it out.
The device would detect liquid, Electrodes would then be used to move the drops of liquid toward an exit point, where it could be safely expelled from the iPhone.
The Patent is below via CultofMac
SnapChat working with top music companies.
Snap chat lands deals with top music companies to add songs to this videos, which is stepping on the toes of TikTik somewhat.
Full article on Bloomberg
RPG episodes on Alexa
Alexa has added another great feature, story telling via Role Playing Gaming.
Alexa has launched with the first season of full Starfinder RPG episodes, set within the universe of the famous tabletop RPG.
The pilot and first episode are both free, but after that you’ll either need to pay $2 per episode, or $10 for the lot.
Just say “Alexa play the Starfinder game”
Robot Can Guess How You’re Feeling by the Way You Walk
Yes you read correctly, Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed an algorithm called ProxEmo
This new discovery will enable robots to interact with humans based on their gathered data while the person is walking towards them, If angry the robot will take a wider route around the person, if sad they could approach them and ask if they would like assistance.
More information on this new innovation can be found on wired
Tonge Touch or [in]brace
As part of her Masters Thesis Dorothee Clasen has created an oral wearable that connects the movement from your tongue to machine code. When you place the device in your mouth you are able to move a small magnetic element back and forth with your tongue, this in turn connects to a wifi module behind your ear and transfers the data to connected devices such as IoT / Smart home or Gaming consoles.
With the increase in Haptic interfaces it was only a matter of time before someone looked into developing something for your mouth.
I one side I can see the beauty in this creation from an innovation point of view, but i am still not sure what or why you would use this in the real world.
Stop Alexa listing to you private conversations
AlexaGate is a smart addon which stops Alexa from listening to all of your private conversations, its a cool looking addon that sits nicely on top of your echo devices
to activate clap three times, or tap the alexagate three times, and it toggles on and off so that you can talk to your echo as you would normally. Turn on with three claps, and you’re once more assured of privacy. The device works by using pulsed ultrasound to jam the echo’s microphone.
TikTok to pay creators for their videos
TikTok will launch a $200 Million Dollar fund to pay creators for their videos.
The scheme is to help people whom wish to make a living from creating social content, Previously creators could monetise their live streams, this new program will pay people directly for creation. We would assume this is a program for top influencers as Tiktok has not confirmed how many or how much each contributor could earn
This news also relates to the other post regarding Facebook Reels which is also paying influencers to solely create content for their platform.
Seems we will have a battle for the best video content app coming very soon.
TikTok Competitor Reels plan to take over.
With TikTok being pulled in India because of border issues. Instagram which is owned by Facebook is going hard after TikTok to take away share.
They reportedly offering money to lure influencers from TikTok to Reels on Instagram, which has a lot of the functionality of TikTok
Information from WSJ says Facebook has offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to creators with the most followers, paying more money to those who agree to post their videos exclusively on Reels, people familiar with the deals said.
Via Forbes
The New York Times R&D
Screen recording by Azad Balanian
The New York Times has a R&D site, thats the first piece of big news, the second is this web based experience called photogrammetry where scrolling lets you enter into an immersive the story inside the visual
Imagine being able to do this with all flat images, giving you the ability to explore and immerse into different world through a visual portal.
CES 2021 Canceled and will be a completely Digital Event
Noooooo, I completely understand why with all the health risks, just upsetting because this was my favourite conference of the year. I’m really not sure how popular it will be being purely digital, yes the talks and panels can easterly be virtual, but people also got to see the new innovations, people like to touch and play with technology.
#ces2021 #innovation #technology #products #productinnovation #productdesign
Via Bloomberg
OpenXR – Hand and Eye tracking for Oculus
OpenXR Launched last summer enabling VR development across platforms, several large companies, including Oculus, SteamVR, HTC, and Microsoft, have worked to support OpenXR. Last week, Microsoft added OpenXR support to Windows Mixed Reality devices. Which is a huge deal because developers don’t have to code in different languages to have their titles working across many platforms.
Now we have an additional feature with the addition of Eye and Hand tracking modules which enable game developers to integrate these new features into up and coming games. Hand tracking is still super new, so there are not a lot of games or headsets which currently have these two features enabled. Oculus Quest and Microsoft HoloLens 2. do and I am sure more will in the future.
These two added features might seem quite small but they wil enable significant performance increases and additional types of UI interaction on supported headsets.
The group behind the OpenXR platform is the Khronos Group
Here are some apps that use hand tracking.
Source: Nick Sutrich / Android Central
Important takeaways from Android Central where the article information was sources
- Oculus is now accepting OpenXR-developed titles on the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest stores.
- Eye tracking and hand tracking are now an official part of the OpenXR standard, enabling cross-platform development with these features.
- Minecraft’s RenderDragon engine now uses OpenXR for the development of Minecraft VR.
Give your Zoom Super Powers
We are spending hours upon hours on Zoom or Teams and using other apps along side them when working.
This company called Marco.io have developed a wrapper over Zoom enabling over tools to be integrated into the meetings
The example below is based on inclusion and diversity and maps the conversation so all parties have a say. Other examples include smart notepad that categorises Action Items, Questions, and Takeaways as they’re being taken, another usecase is workflow integrating with google docs.
Social influencer shopping app
Google has created a web based social media platform that is geared purely around influencers sharing products reviews and affiliate links, giving them the ability to sell the products directly from the platform.
Currently the platform only has focus on Makeup, skincare, hair and nails, but I am sure if its successful it will roll out to other markets. Also to note the platform is mobile only.
An interest quote that I came across from TheNextWeb
While affiliate linking is already deeply embedded in the review industry, the focus is usually placed on good content — there might be a product promoted in those videos, but the content itself is the product. Shoploop seems to reverse that dynamic, putting the emphasis back on discovering and purchasing products, and leaving the entertainment part of it in the background.
I find this a bit strange, not the quote, the subject matter, I feel Entertainment is the key to better content and better content leads to engagement and … you see where i am going here right.. Purchase intent.
but, if you want to join this platform and be followed as a “telemarketer” I quote TheNextWeb there.. then pop over to here and sign up because its not free for everyone to jump on and be the next famous influencer.
ShopLoop.app from Google
Handheld Printing
Printing is moving fast with 3D printing becoming the norm.
This new solution from EveBot makes printing even more portable with a product that fits into the palm of your hand.
More information here