Inspired by the original Fidget Cube, Masta Box is a Bluetooth 4.0 controller gadget which serves a range of purposes, such as a Micro SD card reader, an Air Mouse, a Joystick and a Laser Pointer.
Fidget toys have been helping people satisfy their need to fidget since last year. However, a company called Masta Box now wants to add more functionality to the toy and make it more practical, rather than just fidgeting fun.
They’ve designed the “world’s first ever” fidget controller gadget. Essentially, they re-engineered a fidget toy and turned a pretty useless (yet extremely fun) cube into a universal controller device which can complete a range of commands.
Better yet, it still looks like a fun toy but is, in fact, a somewhat crazy input device. If can be paired with Bluetooth 4.0 compatible devices. So you can use it as an air mouse, a game controller, a MIDI controlleror as a laser pointer. With the proper USB cable, the device also can be used as a Micro SD card reader. Use it for browsing the internet, giving a presentation, making music or playing videos.
The trackball resolution is 1,000 dpi, and the internal rechargeable battery can standby up to 4-week.
The fidget controller gadget is now on Kickstarter and has almost hit its goal of €20,941. Currently, the campaign has raised €19,123 thanks to 371 backers. However, there are still 24 days to go.
Masta Box explains on their campaign page: “At Masta Box, we are all certified Class-A fidgeters. Fidgeters get attached to their little fidget toys and bring them everywhere they go. That’s why we make Masta Box. It saves us from packing another device by combining a seemingly simple fidget cube with the functions of a universal Bluetooth controller.”
Pre-Order a Masta Box Fidget Controller on Kickstarter
In order to develop a sleek design which also serves a varied range of purposes, the team took to 3D modeling and printing to develop prototypes. However, there is little information available on their processes.
The final fidget controller is compatible with both PC and Mac via Bluetooth 4.0. You can pre-order yours from Kickstarter for $37 Canadian dollars (around $29USD). After the campaign ends, you’ll be able to choose your fidget controller’s color. Your controller should arrive by post in November this year.
Currently, the team states possible setbacks as: “We believe there will be bigger challenges ahead when we move to the mass production, but our team will make all our effort to assure the quality and production line run smoothly.”
Although the fidget controller is unlikely to be as commonly used as the fidget toy, it is a seemingly cool input device which could help with presentation nerves. Check out the Kickstarter campaign to find out more.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York City featured over 30 VR and AR experiences. Although the technology isn’t quite mainstream enough for home enjoyment yet, the creativity on show certainly assures us of the future for the medium.
Last month, at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, there was a huge array of virtual and augmented reality experiences. While a few of these experiences remain exclusive to the festival circuit, others will soon make it to your home headset.
Although the technology hasn’t yet completely changed how we make and view films, it has certainly progressed in the last few years. In fact, we’re slowly seeing cinema change as virtual reality movies in cinemas in South Korea become popular.
But, the place you’re most likely to be able to enjoy the cutting edge of VR and AR experiences is still at a film festival. Over 30 such experiences made it to the Tribeca film festival, gaining a lot of attention.
However, one of the current problems of creating experiences with this technology is how to feature the installations. At the festival, there were two different ways: a virtual arcade featuring the Storyscapes program for installations and a VR theater including a cinematic 360-degree screen.
At the Virtual Arcade, which was presented by AT&T, there were 21 virtual and augmented exhibits and five Storyscapes. Meanwhile there were eleven Cinema360 Features for 2018.
VR & AR Experiences at the Tribeca Film Festival
Experiences are as drastically different as the films at the festival. For example, one such experience included AR-based Terminal 3, in which the viewer becomes an airport security office who’s questioning a Muslim traveler.
This experience: “explores contemporary Muslim identities in the U.S. through the lens of an airport interrogation… These interrogations become strikingly personal encounters that only end when the participant decides if the hologram should be let into the country or not—but there is a twist.”
Meanwhile, other experiences included Lambchild Superstar: Making Music in the Menagerie of the Holy Cow. This is the result of a collaboration between eminently creative alt-rock band OK Go and Within, the studio of VR artist Chris Milk.
In Lambchild Superstar, two players compose a song using cartoon animals. This is one such experience which will be available for the public to enjoy soon. Perhaps this is just as well as Adi Robertson for The Verge described it as: “an intricate project that feels almost overwhelming in a festival setting, where you’ve got a few minutes to explore a complicated system.”
At the immersive festival, visitors could do everything from swimming and finding peace with sharks in Into the Now to being horrified by kids at Camp Coyote in Campfire Creepers: Midnight March.
To find out more about each of the experiences, you can visit a dedicated webpage on the Tribeca Film Festival site. Although it’s too late to go to this year’s festival, keep an eye out for tickets for 2019 as there are sure to be more AR and VR experiences on display.
Engineers from MIT have built a virtual reality system for drones which they hope will reduce the frequency that the pilotless aircraft crash during training. The VR training system is called “Flight Goggles”.
Training autonomous drones to fly quickly currently means relying on enclosed grounds with a range of physical objects. These objects can cause a lot of damage to the vehicles, increasing a project’s cost. As a result, engineers are resigned to the fact that regular repairs and replacements are necessary.
The idea is that the new system will enable researchers to test drones in empty rooms while the vehicles are actually “seeing” a rich, virtual world. The VR training system is called “Flight Goggles” for drones.
A testbed for a range of challenging new conditions and environments, the system allows for artificially intelligent drones to learn without the potentially damaging physical obstacles. The researchers hope that this system will greatly reduce the number of crashes while training to fly drones fast.
“We think this is a game-changer in the development of drone technology, for drones that go fast. If anything, the system can make autonomous vehicles more responsive, faster, and more efficient,” explains Sertac Karaman, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.
Beaming Photorealistic Scenes to a Flying Drone
The scientists use an image rendering program to draw up photorealistic scenes. They then beam the scenes to the drone as it flies around an empty space. Impressively, preparing the virtual pictures is three times as quick as the human eye can see and process images.
Enabling this is a camera, inertial measurement unit and custom-built circuit boards that integrate a powerful embedded supercomputer. This hardware fits into a 3D printed carbon-fiber-reinforced and nylon drone frame.
“The system is highly malleable. For instance, researchers can pipe in their own scenes or layouts in which to train drones, including detailed, drone-mapped replicas of actual buildings — something the team is considering doing with MIT’s Stata Center. The training system may also be used to test out new sensors, or specifications for existing sensors, to see how they might handle on a fast-flying drone,” adds Karaman.
So far, the researchers tested the system by creating a virtual lounge room with a virtual window for the drone to fly through. The drone successfully flew through the window at 5 miles per hour 361 times during 10 test flights. It only crashed three times.
Finally, the researchers brought a real window into the test facility and turned on the drone’s camera, enabling it to “see” its actual surroundings. Over eight flights, the drone flew through the real window 119 times, crashing or needing help just six times.
In the future, the team intends to train drones to fly safely alongside humans. Karaman adds: “There are a lot of mind-bending experiments you can do in this whole virtual reality thing. Over time, we will showcase all the things you can do.”
Developed at Microsoft’s expansive campus in Redmond, Washington, the Xbox Adaptive Controller is a first of its kind for the company: a hardware peripheral created with an inclusive design approach.
In the world of console video gaming, exclusivity is a desirable thing. Exclusive games and studio partnerships give enough differentiation to draw some fans to one platform over the others.
With that said, these highly designed machines have the unintended consequence of a rather ugly form of exclusivity. In video gaming, through mere strokes of the keyboard or flicks of thumb-sticks, you compel pixels to victory. Simple.
Unless, that is, you have limited mobility. Then the ergonomically designed controllers, optimized for able-bodied hands, introduce a world of complications. For gamers with disabilities, it can necessitate expensive workarounds that exist outside of the video game platform’s ecosystem of hardware.
Following a journey of sorts that began way back in 2014 with a chance discovery on Twitter, and leading to the establishment of the Inclusive Tech Lab, Microsoft has revealed an adaptable controller for gamers that require an alternative to the traditional handheld game controller.
Dubbed the Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC), this sleek slate of white plastic, big buttons and ports for peripherals is Microsoft’s solution for those of the near 2-billion video game players of the world with disabilities.
“As an industry, when you start to hit that kind of impact act in terms of the broad base of people that interact with your art form, I do think we have a social responsibility.” said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division.
The XAC is designed to accept most, if not all accessibility peripherals that use a 3.5mm jack, plus some USB devices.
Designed with Everyone, for Everyone
The notion of an accessibility minded controller first caught the attention of an engineer at Microsoft after discovering a photograph on Twitter of the work of Warfighter Engaged. This was 2014, and the nonprofit was already ahead of the curve with its program producing custom video game devices for wounded military veterans.
In the following few years, the idea existed at Microsoft as a project of few employees for the company’s Ability Summit hackathons. Yearly iterations of the concept garnered support within the company, until the pieces aligned with an effort of Microsoft’s to improve inclusivity and diversity in gaming.
In the summer of 2017, the Inclusive Tech Lab was born, and it is here that the Xbox Adaptive Controller took shape. A hub in which Microsoft employees could better understand the difficulties faced by gamers with disabilities, this fed into an inclusive design philosophy that saw the XAC developed in direct collaboration with those the company hoped to address with the device.
Rather than going overboard with an array of buttons, levers, switches and other mechanisms to broadly cater to everyone, but really no one specifically, the end result is a device that lets go of the control of the experience that Microsoft might typically exert. Which is exactly the point.
Instead of cramming as many of the aforementioned doodads to paint with the broadest brush, the XAC instead serves as a hub of sorts. In addition to two main “confirm” and “back” buttons, a bank of 3.5mm jacks features on its rear surface. Each port corresponds to one of the Xbox games console’s 19 standard controller buttons.
The 3.5mm jack is a common input across the plethora of existing input peripherals for limited-mobility gamers, meaning that the XAC’s solution invites a custom solution for the individual.
Several 3D printed prototypes of the XAC’s outer shell (Image: Sam Machkovech, via Ars Technica)
Prototyping a Better Pad
Though it’s not specified where the XAC’s design physically took shape, it would be a sensible bet to say the prototyping stages were handled at Microsoft’s Building 87. An advanced additive manufacturing center, Building 87 is where the company’s Xbox One X games console took shape over 75 design iterations, all 3D printed for evaluation.
Imagery has surfaced to suggest the same for the XAC, with 3D printed shells of the controller showing a subtle evolution with button layouts clarifying into the simple arrangement we see on the final design.
Where such custom solutions were previously the sole domain of hardware hackers, non-profits, charities and healthcare institutions, Microsoft’s XAC seeks to complement what already exists.
The company claims the project came about not through any desire to gain an edge over its competitors, nor to create a profitable new segment of hardware for its business. It is a commitment to the company’s mission to make gaming more accessible.
The XAC will be priced at $99 — on par with Microsoft’s existing specialized controllers, and considerably less that the individual inputs that will plug into the XAC. It is slated to launch “later this year”.
Due to the increasing number of terrorist-related attacks, researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have developed a new training method using virtual and augmented reality to better prepare police, first responders, and air workers called AUGGMED.
Historically, training for counter-terrorism assignments has been neither standardized nor readily available. Instead, training includes real-world scenarios and classroom exercises.
However, researchers from Sheffield Hallam University, UK have developed a virtual reality-based training method which they hope can prepare police and aid workers for stressful situations.
Their project is called AUGGMED (Automated Serious Game Scenario Generator for Mixed Reality Training). It’s an online multi-user training platform.
The platform makes use of both virtual reality and augmented reality. This means that police, first responders and aid workers can undergo training within virtual reconstructions of the real world.
Augmented reality is also used and allows trainees to see and interact with virtual civilians and terrorists within the real world. The idea is that both technologies will help improve decision making as well as give trainees experience of staying focused during such intense situations.
AUGGMED Training for Police, First Responders, Paramedics
To develop the platform, the researchers looked into the use of “serious games“. They worked with law enforcement agencies and United Nations organizations to do this.
From this research, they could successfully apply these simulations to training. Their work has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
AUGGMED is already in use, for example, by British police officers for critical incident response training and security officers with the Piraeus Port Authority in Greece for potential terrorist-related threats.
Interestingly, the platform also enables training with multiple agencies at the same time. This means, collaborative training between the police force, security personnel and paramedics is possible.
Finally, it may be the case that VR training methods become available to police forces worldwide due to the fact that they’re a cost-effective and a rapid training solution.
Jonathan Saunders, Research Fellow (Lead Games Developer) at Sheffield Hallam University certainly thinks so. He explains:
“In the future, the use of modern technologies to improve and augment existing practices will become commonplace… Serious games and virtual reality will one day be ubiquitous within training packages. But before then, the benefits of these technologies need to be explored and discussed further, because they hold remarkable potential.”
Virtual Reality is making it to cinemas in South Korea with film tech labs and visual effects houses rapidly creating popular content. Cinema-goers are fully immersed with both VR and 4DX which brings feel, touch and smell to the experience.
From the beginning of the 1900s until now, people have been enjoying cinema in a fairly similar way. Of course, image quality, sound systems and the number of films have improved, but it’s the story which really pulls people into the world on screen.
However, this is set to change with the development of virtual reality (VR). So far, the technology is a popular medium for creating games and even enhancing theme park rides. Meanwhile, its prevalence in cinema is only just beginning.
Now, film festivals are launching competition sections purely for VR films. Interestingly, one country taking to this trend is South Korea. In fact, cinemas in the country are bringing in VR headsets so you are completely surrounded by the movie.
As the world accepts VR as a viable film technology, film tech labs and visual effects houses are rapidly producing content and the budgets for such movies will only get bigger.
One such VR film is Stay With Me which was directed by Bryan Ku. It focuses on a relationship between a girl who dreams of being an actress and a boy who wants to be a musician but is too afraid to go on stage. Ku said at a press event for the film:
“When you think about VR, most of the time it would be either adventure, action or horror films… I believe the greatest quality of VR lies in its capacity to let the audiences relate to the film emotionally, and romance drama is the genre that corresponds the most to this quality.”
4DX Cinema before VR
Get Completely Lost in a VR Story
Of course, with the rapid development of content comes the need to find ways to screening the pictures. By adding VR headsets to cinemas, South Korea is able to show many of the notable VR film projects is developed in 2017.
Stay With Me also opened in “4DX” format at cinema chain, CJ-CGV. 4DX is a technology which adds elements of feel, smell, and touch. However, Yoo Young-gun of CGV adds:
“4DX effects for VR should be different from those for other movies… Visual elements are not enough to accomplish what VR is up to, which is to expand to a form of storytelling with its immersive characteristics maximized. With 4DX technology, the audiences can touch, smell and feel the films, meaning that virtual reality in its literal sense can be achieved.”
Stay With Me claims to be the world’s first film production which was shot in 360-degree VR and screened in 4DX. To do this, CGV’s 4DX effect team had to join the project at the development stage.
However, everything must have to plan as the cinema chain is now aiming to globally introduce 4DX VR. It intends on bringing VR tech to its 500 4DX theatres worldwide.
“We are planning a VR add-on package, which allows exhibitors to show VR films, and are offering it to the 500 4DX theaters across the globe,” says Yoo.
Support funds for such films have so far come from The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Korea Creative Content Agency and National IT Industry Promotion Industry. Only time will tell whether this is money well spent and whether VR films are just a fad or if they will really take off.
At Google’s I/O Developers conference this week, the company’s Vice President, Aparna Chennapragada, demonstrated how AR could be used to improve navigation when using Google Maps. The result is a cute AR fox and huge arrows to point you in the right direction.
How often do you find yourself relying on Google Maps yet still managing to get lost? Maybe the blue dot arrow was pointing in the wrong direction or maybe you need a virtual character to help show you the way.
This is Google’s latest idea for Maps. They’re working on improving the walking navigation section by adding augmented reality (AR). As usual, it works by using the camera on your smartphone to show you which direction to go. To do this, arrows pop up to direct you.
“You instantly know where you are… No fussing with the phone. The street names, the directions, right there in front of you,” explained Google Vice President Aparna Chennapragada during Google’s I/O developers conference this week.
Better yet is the idea of a guide – in Google’s demo, they showed a bouncy fox. However, it’s unclear whether this character will make it to the final update as it is still a work in progress. But, the audience was certainly in awe and Chennapragada’s demo received cheers and claps.
It’s clear that having a visual smartphone overlay would make navigating a new city a lot easier and perhaps more enjoyable as the character would show you nearby bars and restaurants to visit.
Chennapragada displays the AR functionality in the video below – the speech starts from 01:25:00.
Moving from GPS to VPS
Chennapragada explains that currently, GPS isn’t good enough for the arrows and AR fox to work accurately. So, Google has been working on VPS – or “visual positioning system”. This can estimate precisely your position and orientation.
On screen, as well as showing the AR fox, the guiding arrows, and the camera display, there will also be a small semi-circle showing just a section of the map, ensuring you have a vague idea of what street you’re on.
Of course, this technology wouldn’t work so well for driving. But, if you’re someone who regularly uses Google Maps while walking around and don’t mind looking like a tourist taking hundreds of photos, it could work well.
Unfortunately for those with a poor sense of direction, Google has given no estimate for when this technology will be available. This is likely due to the need to seriously fine-tune VPS so it doesn’t go wrong as often as the GPS blue dot.
For now, it’s an interesting, real-world use case for AR which doesn’t appear to be just a gimmick.
A new VR painting application has just released for PlayStation 4. Titled CoolPaintrVR, the app allows you to paint and sculpt in VR and export your creations to 3D modeling software and platforms.
Besides the throng of stellar games and weirdness-generating virtual social spaces, the rise of home virtual reality (VR) technology has also allowed creativity to flourish in virtual painting and sculpting apps.
Since its launch in 2016, Sony’s PlayStation VR system has understandably been dominated by games. But a new release may buck this trend. It’s called CoolPaintrVR, and PSVR wielding players can use it to create things like the Viking longship embedded below.
With a controller in each hand translating to a digital palette and brush in the virtual world, the results can be spectacular, and even make the transition to the real world with 3D printing.
Interestingly, for a program running on a machine created to play games, CoolPaintrVR boasts the welcome ability to export creations as the Collada file type. Compatible with a number of 3D modeling applications and platforms, including online model repository Sketchfab, this means there’s the possibility to 3D print what you create in PSVR.
We envisage this workflow to be pretty simple: import suitable models as collada files to your preferred modeling software, fix the mesh and export to a 3D printable format.
3D Printing from the PlayStation 4
The CoolPaintrVR UI is said to be simple enough for complete beginners to get up and running. Advanced features including pinning reference images inside the VR space and symmetry tools give CoolPaintrVR more for the serious creative looking to invest the time creating detailed scenes.
Since the app is for painting, the brush styles and application of them are not particularly conductive to 3D printing. Curving sheets of 2D texture inside a 3D space do not for a watertight model make. However, this does not mean it’s impossible.
If you’re going to try your hand at 3D printing a design from CoolPaintrVR, a primary consideration should be watertight-ness. Something that looks like a complete 3D model on screen may in fact have edges that simply end in thin air, not connected to other edges to create a seamless model.
Eliminating these surface-breaking edges closes the model and makes it one step closer to 3D printability. It’s probably best to completely avoid the artistic brushes and opt for stamping out the app’s pre-rendered solid objects for this.
After this design-led step, we’d say running the model through a mesh repair tool is necessary. All kinds of hidden print-breaking errors are possible, so best to let some software take care of it for you. We have a handy list you can consult (though you’ll need to find a way to convert the file into an STL first).
To celebrate its first VR Google Doodle, the internet giant dreams big with a charming animation charting illusionist and film director Georges Méliès, creator of early cinema classic Le Voyage dans la Lune.
Spicing up the search giant’s homepage since 1998, the Google Doodle has become something of a pop culture mainstay. Be it an educational animation or addictive mini-game, it has been a welcome bonus to our everyday searchings.
Today, Thursday May 3rd, Google has taken a departure from past Google Doodles with its very first VR adventure. And it’s a doozy.
The result of a collaboration between the Google Doodle, Google Arts & Culture and Google Spotlight Stories teams, plus The Cinematheque Francaise, today’s Doodle is a visual feast exploring the work of French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, who is perhaps best known for Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).
The Doodle, in the form of an interactive 360 degree Youtube video for those of us viewing in a browser, is available as a dedicated app for iOS and Anroid, and best enjoying through a VR headset such as Google’s Daydream or other 3rd party devices. Check it out in full below, and don’t forget to full screen it and click about to get the full effect.
Part of a larger effort on behalf of Google’s cultural teams, an in-depth (and utterly fascinating) online-exhibition charting Méliès life and work can be found on the Google Arts & Culture website. Also, if you’re looking for the ultimate time killer, here’s the Doodles Archive — something we never knew existed until now. You’re welcome.
As well as being able to use Snapchat for turning yourself into a dog and stalking your crush, you can now play their new AR experience, Snappables, with your friends.
If you’re sat across from someone making weirder than normal faces at their phone, you can guarantee they’re trying out Snapchat’s latest interactive AR lenses.
The AR games and experiences are played in the Snapchat camera. Everything from facial expressions to touch and motion will control your character and help you beat your friends.
Snappables are the company’s first shared AR experience meaning you can interact with a friend on their phone. Although it’s possible to enjoy some of the games solo, Snappables have been designed to play and send to people to challenge them to beat your score or to go head-to-head with multiplayers.
On Wednesday April 25th, Snapchat launched the lens-based games. But, they also released this video helping you to realize just how ridiculous you’ll look to anyone not in the know:
Reshuffling Snapchat to Make Space for AR
Don’t worry, everything you love about Snapchat will remain. In fact, the company add in a blog post: “Snappables live right where Lenses do.” Regular lenses will be to the right of the camera button while Snappables are to the left.
“Fight aliens, start a rock band, play basketball, and more — together with your friends, no matter where you are,” Snapchat further adds in the post.
Other games include, fighting aliens and blowing kisses. But, every week new games will be released to keep you hooked. To start playing with friends, get the app update for both iOS and Android.
Although the games certainly look fun, could they also be a distraction from the fact that Snapchat could be trialling six second ads which you can’t skip (only in publisher made shows) next month?
Those itching to get to grips with neural networks are in luck: Google offshoot AIY Projects has recently revamped its Voice and Vision Kits. These project-in-a-pack kits give you all you need to build an intelligent speaker or camera.
In 2017 Google offshoot AIY Projects launched its first products, the AIY Voice and the AIY Vision.
Primarily aimed at STEM education and the maker community, these DIY kits brought the concepts of neural networks, visual recognition and voice recognition into a form factor accessible to just about anyone.
Available in two versions — AIY Voice Kit and AIY Image Kit — last year’s packs contained all one needed to get to grips with the bare-bones of their respective offshoot of artificial intelligence — minus the computer boards, SD card storage and a host of other small accessories required to get up and running.
And while the kits provided enough incentive to capture the imaginations of educators and hobbyists alike, Google clearly felt it could be better.
So, for 2018 the everything giant (can we really refer to them simply as a search giant anymore?) has updated the Voice Kit and Vision Kit with new hardware, spruced up the build instructions and released an accompanying Android app to help make the setup effortless.
Jump below the break for what exactly one gets in a Voice or Image Kit.
Google Makes AI for Makers
The two kits obviously, given their naming cater to two particular branches of neural networks.
AIY Vision Kit contains the parts to create an intelligent camera that, depending on the model (the term given to the particular skill, or set of things to learn to recognize) loaded into it, will recognize objects, people, animals, food and plants in front of it. The open nature of the kits mean that with the right know-how, you can mix, match or ever create your own models for the neural network to use.
In terms of hardware, the new AIY Vision Kit now comes with a Raspberry Pi Zero WH (a RaspPi with pre-soldered GPIO header), in addition to a RaspPi Camera V2, lens, a Vision Bonnet, a Piezo buzzer, LED, nuts, cables cardboard enclosure and Micro SD card.
Meanwhile, the AIY Voice Kit comes with you need to build a the physical body for a Google Voice assistant from scratch. Essentially a voice-controlled speaker, it should be able to recognize your requests and serve up pertinent information.
The new Voice Kit’s parts list is basic in comparison to the Vision Kit, but still makes a leap over its older version with the inclusion of the Raspberry Pi Zero WH, SD card and other gubbins previously left out. There is also a Voice Bonnet, speaker, button, nut, spacer, cabling and the cardboard box housing (a signature feature of Google’s DIY-offerings).
As is often the case with Google products and ventures, it is a hearty stab at introducing new branches of technology in the consumer space. And while the stinging memory of Google Glass and its persistent personal assistant never caught on as some had prophesied, many are lauding machine learning and artificial intelligence as an assured fixture in our technological near future.
At $49 and $89 respectively, the Voice and Vision kits seem like a fun and, most importantly, accessible way to get acquainted with the concepts and hardware of such self-contained AI systems.
Firefox Reality is a new web browser in development from Mozilla for virtual and augmented reality headsets. However, release dates are yet to be disclosed.
There is much discourse about whether virtual reality can and will live up to its hype. However, Mozilla, the creator of many open-source tools, clearly believes the technology is worth developing for.
Soon it will launch a new web browser called Firefox Reality. What’s new is that it’s “designed from the ground up for stand-alone virtual and augmented reality headsets,” the company explains in an announcement post.
Eventually, the plan is to engineer and develop Firefox Reality for the next generation of standalone VR and AR headsets. However, for now, source code can be run in Developer Mode on Daydream and Gear VR devices.
Currently, there is no official release date. Instead, you’ll have to get an idea of how it will work from the video below. This offers an early insight of the web engine and test user interface:
New Information to Come in the Following Weeks
For now, all we know is that the team took their existing Firefox web technology and enhanced it with Servo, their experimental web engine.
They explain that Firefox offers decades of web compatibility. Meanwhile, the Servo team offers the “ability to experiment with entirely new designs and technologies for interacting with the immersive web.”
However, the company explains that this is simply the first step in a long-term plan. Over time, the idea is to deliver a new experience on an “exciting” platform. So watch this space.
Over the next few weeks, Mozilla promises to release regular updates on how work is going. But, you’ll also learn more details of design and see paper sketches of a headset prototype. Furthermore, the team promise sneak peaks of new capabilities for artists, designers, and developers of immersive experiences.
Visit the blog or the company’s Twitter account to find out more and stay up to date with the latest releases. If you’re a developer with insights to offer, Mozilla encourages you to reach out.
Evelyn Hriberšek’s EURYDIKE interactive art piece puts you in the dark; figuratively and, at times, literally. We caught up with the artist after experiencing the extended run of EURYDIKE.
Evelyn Hriberšek is no stranger to the workings of augmented reality. An early pioneer of the technology, her efforts brought her to chair on the 2014 International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality.
In 2012 she debuted an interactive art space titled O.R.pheus, which encouraged its ‘players’ (we’ll refer to the experiences as players since a great degree of role-play and interaction is required) to explore a 1000-square-meter hospital in an underground bunker in Munich in search of camera readable codes. Finding them would unlock content tied to the narrative of O.R.pheus.
O.R.pheus relied on smartphones held in-hand to experience. For Hriberšek’s 2017 follow up, EURYDIKE, you go all in. With a VR headset, headphones and more, it all sums up to a wonderfully immersive experience.
O.R.pheus & EURYDIKE, mixed reality art by Evelyn Hriberšek. Image copyright Evelyn Hriberšek 2017.
You ‘play’ EURYDIKE alone. Pulled in to the preparation room one-by-one for your solitary 30-minute allotment of time, the immersion (and confusion) is immediate. Stumbling in the dark, you examine a scene and, like O.R.pheus before it, search for AR prompts that unravel snippets of content created especially for the experience.
It’s a curious thing, sabotaging your own vision in favor of a real-time video feed. For EURYDIKE, which strongly evokes a specific retro-futuristic aesthetic, this plays off wonderfully.
We won’t spoil the mystique of EURYDIKE by explaining further. But it‘s impressive enough, so it has been nominated for “Deutscher Computerspielpreis” in the category “Best Presentation”.
We did reach out to Hriberšek for her experiences and thoughts on working with augmented reality.
Without spoiling anything, please explain what EURYDIKE is?
Hriberšek: It’s difficult to nail down exactly what EURYDIKE is. It is a new hybrid art form if anything. But if I have to make it more concrete, then it is a new individual, immersive borderline experience within an interactive virtual-analog room installation.
What inspired the piece?
Hriberšek: EURYDIKE is dedicated to the backstory of Orpheus and Eurydike, this time putting the focus on the female part as well as the relationship of the couple. Did the artist sacrifice his wife for his own self-realization? Is there a retrogression of the female role to the Eurydice theme in a new but still reactionary, male-dominated high tech society — accelerated by mass media and new tech?
Really it creates a bridge between the classical Orpheus myth and our present times and provides important impetuses for the future regarding content and society as well as art and technology.
O.R.pheus mixed reality art by Evelyn Hriberšek. Image copyright Evelyn Hriberšek & Julian Rupp
Does augmented reality pose particular challenges over traditional filmmaking?
Hriberšek: The question can apply to both VR and AR. Its all about the content. If the content doesn’t fit the medium or tool, don’t do it. If you don’t have the right people or the budget, don’t do it.
There’s a lot of crap out there right now because people feel they have to use this new tech, but in reality, there are few specialists out there who understand how to work with the medium. Few who understand how to use the tech to create something more than a throwaway gag or gimmick.
I think the use of technology has to make sense. There has to be a need for it, for the form to follow the function, otherwise it you’re better off sticking with other traditional mediums.
How did you arrive at AR as a medium?
Hriberšek: During my studies, I get bored by using just one of a lot of ways to create art, I always believed in the combination of the different potentials. So I started to work interdisciplinary, combining the real/ analog and virtual/digital worlds from early on. This put me in contact with the technologies 10 years ago. I was always interested in the idea of bringing together multiple arts — visual arts, music, theater, film, and games — to explore their possibilities and push them to their limits — to find new ways of storytelling.
O.R.pheus mixed reality art by Evelyn Hriberšek. Image copyright Evelyn Hriberšek & Julian Rupp
I started with augmented reality in 2007 when I created the concept for the multiple awarded project O.R.pheus. A mix of art, opera and real-life game, it premiered in Munich in 2012. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to bring the real and virtual worlds together, but at the time the means to do so did not exist.
We ended up creating an AR app ourselves — 5 years before Pokemon Go even! O.R.pheus was already a forward-looking example of how technology and art can be combined in a mutually stimulating way.
And how do you view the use of augmented reality in your work?
Hriberšek: New media and tech are serious long-term engagements. As architects of the future, I feel we have a responsibility with what we create.
Again, it’s that form should follow function. The content of both O.R.pheus and EURYDIKE led me to the use of their chosen technologies and form of experience. Both are complexes about crossing borders, transformations and transcendence. AR and VR can be both — a transboundary medium and transcendental tool. That’s what I’m interested in.
A lot of it is about bringing the best of both worlds — the real and the virtual — together in a playful new way that creates the level of immersion that is needed for such complex themes. That they can be experienced physically and mentally to leave the pink scratches in the hearts and minds of their (normally otherwise incompatible) visitors.
You can now experience EURYDIKE in Stuttgart’s Theater Rampe, starting 18.4. to 1.5.2018. Tickets here.
More information and background can be found on eurydike.org.
EURYDIKE mixed reality art by Evelyn Hriberšek. Image copyright Evelyn Hriberšek
US electronics retailer Monoprice has chopped up to $200 off the price of some of its 3D printers — including the Maker Ultimate, the company’s rebadging of the heavy hitting Wanhao D6.
Not content to sit back and ship stuff at full price, Monoprice has once again cut the prices of its 3D printer offerings. We suspect it’s a measure to clear stock ahead of the incoming wave of new machines announced at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January.
Whatever the reason, we’re not ones to complain at cut price printers. Especially so when said cut prices include $200 off the rather good Maker Ultimate. If you’ve ever fancied a 3D printer that looks like a Zortrax, feels like an Ultimaker, has the build of a battle tank and is pennies to the dollar cheaper than them all, the Ultimate is probably your thing.
Here’s the skinny on what Monoprice is offering.
Monoprice is putting a limit on these deals, with the limit one code per order (not combinable with other codes and discounts). Each code good for three uses per customer.
Other deals:
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
Inject a little color into your 3D printing with this tasty deal on Inland’s vibrant Translucent Magenta PETG.
We’re big fans of PETG and its useful mechanical properties, and even bigger fans of bombastic color. So why not add a little fun to your functional prints (we’re not sorry) with this low price Inland spool we found on Amazon.com.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
British filament maker rigid.ink is clearing its back-stock, slashing 25% off the price of some Flexible PLA.
Designed to eliminate the frustrations of printing flexible filament by adding the ease of PLA, rigid.ink’s Flexible PLA sounds like a dream.
Stiffer on the spool with a shade less elasticity than other flexibles, it boasts low friction and can be printed pretty successfully in Bowden setups. The material properties are said to be rubber-like, at the expense of the elongation you might find in TPU and similar filaments.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
Lego is set to open its first VR roller coaster ride in March. Called the Great Lego Race, visitors to the attraction at Legoland Florida will have the option of wearing a headset, immersing themselves in the blocky world of Lego.
For fans of Lego who’ve yet to visit Legoland’s Florida resort, the company’s latest ride may just be the enticement they’ve been waiting for. The iconic brand is now launching its first VR roller coaster ride.
Merlin Entertainments Group announced last September that three of its LegoLand resorts will soon have VR roller coasters. Next month, Florida’s VR ride will be opening. The exact date for the grand opening of the new attraction is March 23, 2018.
Although the roller coaster is designed with children in mind, it’s certainly worth visiting for adults who love Lego and have a penchant for tech.
Visitors have the option of wearing the VR headset during the roller coaster, plunging them into a world of crazy races, animated characters and Lego scenery.
The company explains in their YouTube video: “It’s the first virtual reality (VR) roller coaster experience designed for kids and represents the first time the LEGO brand and minifigure characters have been integrated with VR technology in a theme park attraction.”
Experience Action from Every Angle
While wearing the VR headsets, riders of the Great Lego Race will be able to experience action in 360 degrees. Looking right at home among the universe of films Lego has churned out in recent years, the VR experience features pirates, wizards, pharaohs, scooters fueled with espresso, mummy servants and more. All constructed from Lego, naturally.
MackMedia is behind the VR app and offers previews of its technology in it’s freely downloadable Coastiality app. The VR headsets fit both children and adults, and can be adjusted for comfort. However, it’s also possible to experience the ride without the headset.
“The Great LEGO Race was inspired by the way kids play with LEGO toys at home… It’s a unique LEGO adventure that lets kids enter an epic imaginary world made entirely from LEGO bricks, featuring a host of different themes and fun LEGO characters, all mixed up together,” Candy Holland, senior creative director for Merlin Magic Making, which designs and develops attractions for Merlin Entertainments sites explains.
The Great Lego Race opens March 23rd, 2018, at Legoland Florida.
MatterHackers is running a limited-time deal on MakerGear’s two top-tier 3D printers, the M3-SE and M3-ID, both $200 off at $2,350 and $3,099 respectively.
But, despite the M2’s popularity, there are newer and arguably greater machines. An incremental upgrade over the M2, the M3-SE (single extrusion) adds WiFi connectivity, an inbuilt Raspberry Pi running a MakerGear-ified version of OctoPrint and sophisticated bed leveling process to the already winning formula found in the M2.
Further than this, there is also the M3-ID, which boasts the surprisingly rare party trick of an independent dual extrusion system on top of all of the above.
MatterHackers is running a special on the two, knocking $200 off the M3-SE and M3-ID list prices. If you’re interested, better act fast. The promo ends February 26th, 2018.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
Sugru is colorful, moldable and sticks most things to other things. Exactly what you need in a rubbery amorphous thingamajig. And, for now, it costs a little less than usual.
We’re all for expounding the benefits and uses of 3D printing around the home, but sometimes you need an even quicker fix that doesn’t require the pinpoint precision of a machine. That’s where Sugru steps in.
Coming in little ketchup-like packets (though we don’t recommend dousing your fries in it), simply form it with your hands and leave it to air cure into its final form — a sturdy rubber that’ll adhere to most things.
One of the brand’s starter packs, the Hacks for Your Home Kit, includes a guide booklet covering uses for Sugru around the home and a tin to keep the four included pouches of Sugru safe.
At the time of publication, Amazon.com lists the Hacks for your Home Kit at 14% off – just $12.95.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
US re-seller Wow3DPrinter is running a special on the Qidi Tech 1 dual extrusion 3D printer — up to 13% off using a special discount code.
Bearing striking similarity to the FlashForge Creator Pro, Qidi Technology’s Tech 1 3D printer boasts a dual extrusion print head and a fully enclosed design that should make it a pretty capable with tricky temperature sensitive filaments like ABS.
Slicing software options are somewhat limited out of the box, but with some G-Code wizardry (read: inserting custom start and end G-Code), its possible to get the Qidi 1 playing nicely with the likes of Cura.
US 3D printing re-seller Wow3Dprinter is offering the Qidi 1 up at 13% off it’s usual retail of $699. Yours, for $610 using the discount code “QIDI20” at checkout (even without the code, they’re selling it for $630).
Note this deal is only available in the US. Sorry rest-of-the-worlders — we’re scouring the web for deals for you too!
Other Deals:
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
Sad news this week with the closure of 3D printer manufacturer New Matter. Ahead of shuttering some time this summer, the company is clearing house with a fire sale of all its products, including filament.
It never a nice thing to see a company that puts real, tangible 3D printing products in peoples hands close down. And the shuttering of New Matter is no exception.
But, from New Matter’s misfortune comes the opportunity for bargain-hunting makers to snap up the company’s leftover stock of filament. Until stocks run out, New Matter’s Bold and Pearl color filaments are discounted down from USD $19.99 and $29.99 to just $7.49.
In addition, print surface plates for the company’s Mod-T 3D printer are cut-price at $4.99, down from $14.99. If you’re an owner of the machine, now would be the time to stock up and help prolong the life of your printer.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
Dutch filament spinner ColorFabb is celebrating its 5th birthday with a special promo — buy any 5 spools of filament and only pay for 4.
Five years in business is a long time in the 3D printing world. So to celebrate such a momentous occasion, Dutch filament producer ColorFabb is putting a deal on all spools of filament found on its online store.
For the whole month of February, any orders of 5 ColorFabb spools (be it mixed individual rolls, or a bulk buy of one specific material) will be automatically discounted at checkout to the price of 4 spools.
So, if you find yourself printing in bulk or burning through your filament faster than a hot end on the fritz, it could be a good opportunity to stock up.
All3DP is an editorially independent publication. Occasionally we need to pay our bills, so we affiliate some product links through which we may receive a small commission. For the full spiel, check out our Terms of Use.
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