sixthsense project: integrating information with the real world

‘SixthSense‘ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user’s hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

CRISTAL

Google’s Africa Strategy: Search And Trade Via SMS

Not only does Google want to organize all the world’s information, it also wants to make all that information available to everyone in the world. For the majority of the world’s population, that means making it available on a cell phone, and not a fancy iPhone or Android with a Web browser either. I’m talking about $10 cell phones with not much more than voice and SMS capabilities. If Google can reach people, especially in developing nations, with SMS, it can reach everyone with a cell phone.

In Africa, it is launching a suite of SMS services today, including SMS search, Q&A-style tips, and an SMS-based marketplace. The first country to get these services is Uganda.

The search service works like Google SMS in North America. You text a search term, and it responds via SMS with the result. Searches can be narrowed by using specific keywords such as “local time,” “weather,” “news,” “maps,” “translation,” or “currency conversion.” For more complicated searches, the related SMS tips service offers answers in an automated Q&A format.

But the most interesting application is Google Trader, which allows people to post items for sale and jobs via SMS. Other people can search for them by texting the service with the word “BUY” preceding the search term. Google Trader connects the buyer and seller together (each listing contains the seller’s cell phone number).

(from techcrunch)

Microsoft House of the Future

New Amazon Kindle DX

Amzon just announced the new Kindly DX with a 9.7″ screen.

You can already pre-order one at $489 and will be delivered in summer, when they release it.

This screen looks like a nice improvement over the 6″ that they launched recently. It will be capable of displaying not just books, but magazines and newspapers.

Wolfram Alpha

Will Wolfram Alpha kill google?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Spot satellite messenger

This is a very cool gadget. Basically a gps, with the particularity that has a couple of buttons, one to check in, so it sends communicates your position, and the second one for help. Same thing but you are asking for help.
The beauty is that works everywhere, not dependent of GSM or mobile networks. It can send emails with your coordinates when you click on the button.

http://findmespot.com/en/

iPhone app for tracking swine flu

There is an iPhone app, IntuApps, which has Swine Flu Tracker, waiting for approval from Apple before it’s released into the App Store. In it, you can see the current Threat Level for the disease, a map showing confirmed and suspected cases, a symptoms area to inform people, and an alert page for breaking news on Swine Flu.

Everyone is joking about Swine Flu because of the whole pig angle, but it is at least somewhat of a serious threat. And while this iPhone app may be the latest thing to capitalize on it, it’s also pretty useful as a way to know what areas to avoid on the go. It’s good to know that IntuApps will be giving the app away for free when it is available in the App Store.

Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

Facebook on your desktop

Facebook has released a desktop application built with Adobe AIR. That means that it is platform independent (Mac, PC, Linux).

You will have to have Adobe AIR in your computer and then install the Facebook application.

3G portable router

This is the first 3G portable router.

LevelOne 3G MobilSpot Portable Wireless HotSpot (WBR-3800) by CP Technologies.
Putt your 3G sim card into the router’s CardBus or USB interfaces and you’ve got an instant portable network for sharing to any 802.11b/g WiFi or Ethernet device. A 10/100Mbps WAN jack lets it double as your home router with auto-switching 3G backup for those of you with particularly troublesome DSL/Cable providers. The device measures 129 x 124 x 32mm (which isn’t that small) but costs a reasonable $149.

A Mobile App That Saves Lives, Literally

Written by Jolie O’Dell (www.readwriteweb.com)

Blocked port when webcasting with Stickam or Ustream

This is an open question. I am trying to broadcast with Stickam and Ustream from a location that apparently has the port 1935 closed. This plus probably a private ip.
I tried and skype video goes through, but skype is clever and can go over http if necessary.

Stickam and ustream use a flash application where you select the camera and uploads the stream to their servers. 

Anyone has a workaround for streaming in such conditions?

Socks proxy? Torify? Please let me know how you would do it. 

I could use a middle server where I could install whatever necessary (linux).

Genius G-Shot HD520 HD cam with 720p for less than $150

Are you looking for a low end camera that records pretty good video resolution? Here you have the winner: Genius HD520. It shots 5MB stills and 720p video.

It is a high definition video camera, can output on high-resolution flat-panel TVs using the HDMI cable ; it supports high efficient MPEG4/H.264 image compression format and reduces the file size so you can easily upload clips and photos to share with friends. Other features of the G-Shot HD520 camcorder: shoot photos up to 11MP, listen to music, read E-books, voice record, and it can be a portable media player to view clips or even still images.

Brightkite

I would like to talk a bit about a very promising web application and also great iPhone application that has been out there for a while but has not been very successful in terms of people using it. 

It is true that we are surrounded by Social Apps. For iPhone, web, such a facebook, twitter, amongst many others, so I guess it is not easy to get a place under all this giants.

Brightkite is a service that for the US uses SMS (not in Switzerland…) that lets you “check in” at various locations out in the real world and then see who else is there, has been there, and who is nearby. You can check in via text, web,or iPhone, but text is easiest if you’re using a traditional cell phone.

So you might think that similar tools are out there. Twitter in the iphone using apps such as Twinkle or Twitterfon already take your location, but this are add-ons for twitter.

In brightkite you can select your level of privacy so for instance your trusted friends can know exactly where you are, your friends the city where you are and the rest nothing. You decide when to “check in” your location. You can post updates in a Twitter-like fashion and upload photos to your Brightkite-enabled stream, available at a URL in the format of brightkite.com/people/username. The newly launched “Wall” feature makes Brightkite ideal for conferences and live events as it allows anyone to display the live stream of notes, photos, and checkins at any one place in a large, full screen view that can be shown on any monitor, projector, or TV. You can even link it with your facebook account.

Give it a try.