While mobile technology has made leaps and bounds this decade for anyone who is unable to speak, it’s just the beginning. It turns out some new technology is being developed which will enable people to talk on the phone without having to talk, simply by mouthing the words they want to speak.
At Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, researchers are working on a way that would take the motions of your mouth and convert them into synthesized speech. It’s made possible through something called electromyography, which is the process of recording electrical activity that’s produced by our muscles. This method enables the researchers to detect facial movements that are made during conversation. These movements are essentially transmitted to a laptop, which can then convert these facial movements into actual text. From there, text can easily be vocalized by a synthesizer.
Not only can it be used for anyone who is unable to speak, it can also be used for anyone trying to talk in a noisy environment or even keep quiet in a library and yet keep up a full conversation.
The lip-reading setup currently requires no less than 9 electrodes be attached to the person’s face, but with additional research and likely several years of development, this technology may one day be integrated into modern cell phones or similar mobile devices. Not too shabby, especially when we compare it to the phones Google is developing that can instantly translate languages over the phone.
via CNet Crave
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Written by Brad Molen on March 9th, 2010 with no comments.
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I long ago gave up wearing a wrist watch for several reasons. I was always getting my watch wet washing my hands and a watch gives you crazy tan marks on your arm in the 465-degree Texas summer heat. I saw this cool design concept on Yanko Design website that I would wear though.
The watch looks very hard to read at first glance, so you could impress your friends by being able to read the thing at all. Once you look closely at the design the watch is deceivingly easy to read. The yellow lines make the number for the first hours digit, the blue is for the second hour digit, red is for the first minute digit, and the green is for the last minute digit. You can see in the image above exactly how the numbers are displayed.
It’s cool and easy to read once you get the hang of it with the hours on the outside and the minutes going to the inside. The Maze of Time watch is a concept now, but I bet something like it turns up eventually since it’s pretty cool.
Written by shane m. on March 8th, 2010 with no comments.
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Here are two Nokia concept phones that are at least interesting: Nokia Stealth and Nokia 82 Dragonfly.
The Nokia Stealth should be a mid-end phone. It has a design inspired by stealth aircraft and it reminds me a bit of the Vertu Boucheron 150 (that’s not a compliment).
The designer of Nokia Stealth says the phone has an “ergonomically sculpted keypad, easy to navigate by touch sensations.” Moreover, a “rubberized matte texture surface absorbs light”, while a “pearlescent matte coloring” provides a dark red hue effect.
The Nokia 82 Dragonfly should be an entry-level phone, but it looks better than the Stealth:
So what do you think, should Nokia make some phones like the ones seen above? They’d be different from what the company has launched until now, but I’m not sure how many users would like them.
Via Concept-phones
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Written by Ilinca Nita on March 8th, 2010 with no comments.
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When I was a kid, my grandmother had this matchstick plaque hanging in her kitchen. I looked at the thing for a while once trying to figure out what exactly it said. As it turns out the thing said “Jesus” you just had to look really hard to see the word in with the pattern the matchsticks made. This new clock from Art Lebedev Studios reminds me of that plaque.
The thing is a bit of an oxymoron in that it is an analog digital clock with hands that shows numbers like a digital clock from the 1970s. The little hands are a marvel as they move to make each number, watching the seconds tick by with the hands moving in unison is very cool.
I will say that the numbers a hard to read for my eyes. Segmentus appears to be a concept device right now and it is shown in black with white arms and clear with black arms. I could certainly see hanging this thing on my wall; it would fit perfectly in the futuristic but old-fashioned world on Caprica.
Written by shane m. on March 5th, 2010 with no comments.
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Pianos are unwieldy instruments. Tables are unwieldy too, but we have no choice but to make room for at least one table in our homes – unless you’re like me, and you usually eat either in front of the computer or TV. Georg Bohle combines the two in one simple yet elegant design…
I love how simple it looks. Bohle could have added a bit more flair to it – a sleek black piano finish perhaps? – but I think it’s better this way.
The table itself is made from oak wood. And no, I don’t know what those rectangular holes are either.
It’s unfortunate and ironic however, that something that seems to have been designed for a small space could be so darned expensive: Born Rich says that the estimated cost of the piano table is $6,000 (USD).
[via swissmiss]
Written by lambert v. on March 5th, 2010 with no comments.
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We can always count on the guys over at TokyoFlash to come up with new and different ways to tell the time. With their modern approach to product design, they’re now asking shoppers to weigh in on prospective designs before they go ahead and create the real watches. In trolling through the aisles of ToykoFlash’s new product design blog, I came across this one design that really caught my eye.
The Hexagon Art watch features a unique hexagonal display, and would tell time using a series of colorful LED lenses which dot the face of the watch. The watch offers a cool black stainless steel band which mirrors the dotted appearance of the watch face – a really nice design touch for sure.
Time would be shown on the face in the following manner: hours would illuminate in blue, five minute increments in purple, and single minutes would be pink. Without looking at the cheat-sheet below, see if you can figure out what time the watches above are telling you.
While there’s no word on whether or not the Hexagon Art watch will or won’t make the cut to be manufactured, I think it’s definitely one of the best designs out of the bunch (so far). If you want to vote for the Hexagon Art – or any of the other new concept designs, check out the full collection over at the TokyoFlash Design Studio blog.
Written by technabob on March 4th, 2010 with no comments.
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Apple (which has recently sued HTC for alleged patent infringements) will launch a new iPhone this year, possibly in June or July.
At the moment, no one knows exactly what the 4th generation iPhone looks like or what new features it will bring. Of course, we’ve seen some iPhone 4G concepts, and there are lots of rumors regarding the new smartphone’s specs (AMOLED touchscreen display, 5MP camera, more memory and so on).
Here’s another iPhone 4G concept that comes from Italy.
The creator of this new iPhone 4G concept sees it as having multiple color versions, a front-facing video calling camera, 32GB or 64GB of internal memory, and MicroSD card slot.
The black and white versions look pretty nice, and they might actually be close to the real new iPhone, which could be a bit taller than the iPhone 3GS.
Via Mobile Crunch
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Written by Ilinca Nita on March 3rd, 2010 with no comments.
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Rockstar’s hit formula for video games is CMU professor Jesse Schell’s vision of the future: a quantified life, where every activity is a game, with rewards and challenges. Wake up in the morning and as soon as you brush your teeth, and you earn points, courtesy of the toothpaste company! Commute on the way to work and you get points from the government for being environment friendly! Drink a can of Dr. Pepper for 10 points each. drink a can of Dr. Pepper for 5 days straight and you get 500 bonus points!
No doubt, our generation marks the breakout era of video games, transitioning from the nerd’s basement to your uncle’s Facebook account. But will we really like a Grand Theft Auto-esque life? Here’s Schell’s vision of life as a series of mini games, as he stated in DICE 2010:
You see, the problem with Schell’s ideas is that they come after the fact, after the success of Facebook et al. Schell himself acknowledges that today’s big hits came from nowhere, things that even veterans wouldn’t have bet a cent on. So why is he so certain that this extrapolated future will come true? I have no doubt that Schell is a genius, and that what he said may very well come true. But I’m also sure that I, an avid gamer, would hate the life that he is talking about.
Despite it’s many similarities, life isn’t really a video game, not even a series of games. Unless you kill yourself, you cannot always take a break from life. In life the consequences are, well, real. The future that Schell talks about will drive many people insane with its incessant nagging and challenging, but you can’t just shut it off because it’s everywhere and it’s your actual world. The points from ads and companies will give people false values of their worth, in the same way that Xbox 360 Achievements add that shallow validation to gamers, when in fact a lot of the achievements and trophies are given for moronic tasks, trampling on the fact that gamers can and should be able to judge if they’ve accomplished something difficult without needing a virtual trophy.
At the end of his presentation, Schell exclaims, “…I do know this stuff is coming. It’s gotta come. What’s to stop it from coming?” I have one word for Mr. Schell: customers. Businesses and companies have pitched a lot of ideas time and again that exuded nothing but pure awesome when they thought of it, only to be shot down by the paying public. What Schell’s future will do is drive people away from gaming. Video games are not just about rewards and challenges: they’re about stories and epic moments, orchestrated and accidental. And yes, despite the many addicted gamers, pro gamers, hardcore gamers out there, for me and many other people games do offer a way to relax and take time off from life.
I will be utterly disgusted if Life turns out to be The Game of the Future. Points for brushing my teeth? Screw that. Unless I get a Gold Chocobo that can walk anywhere, then I’m all for Toothbrush Points.
[via G4TV]
Written by lambert v. on March 3rd, 2010 with no comments.
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