NanoGeekTechTV: Kinect Modded to Work on PS3

YouTube user shantzg001 has successfully modded his Kinect camera to work with the PlayStation 3, creating a sense of unity between console manufactures Sony and Microsoft.

Kinect Modded for Sony PS3 Video

Read more »

Nintendo "Project Cafe" to Introduces “Screen Stream” Technology HD Controllers

The cat's out of the bag,  Nintendo is hard at work on a Wii successor that will actually use modern specs and technology; well kinda.  The internet is ablaze with wild speculation and rumors of Nintendo's PS3/360 HD killer "Project Cafe"(Nintendo and HD in the same breath).

Besides having modern specs that will compete even surpass the current HD champs Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox360 the most intriguing thing about "Project Cafe" will no doubt be the controller.

Nintendo builds consoles around innovative control schemes that just happens to change the way we play and interact with Video Games.    

It would seem that the Wii 2/Project Cafe will make use of integrated “Screen Stream” technology which will send players the game directly to their controller, displaying the action on built-in HD touch-screens. Each player will have a separate image connected to their part in the game, while the TV will be able to display each camera angle or turned off altogether.

Capable of splitting the images to four controllers and their 1080p HD displays, the hardware uses a special custom triple-core processor with an IBM PowerPC chip-set, similar to the one found in the Xbox 360. This will allow it the ability to be faster than Sony’s PS3 NVIDIA 7800GTX.

It seems Nintendo may be onto something again with a clever and innovate way to interact with games.  Does Screen Stream Technology sound fucking cool or will it be the half-ass attempt to attract all the core-gamers Nintendo have lost over the past decade that fizzles in a few years.

Read more »

Valve's Dream's To Tap Into Your Subconscious

Besides having a development studio, being an engine vendor, and the owner of the PC’s most popular and important digital games portal – add one more to the list: "Game biometrics group". Valve's Mike Ambinder has touted some extraordinary potential for biometric feedback.

“People are not stable, their emotions can be manipulated,” said Mike Ambinder at the start of his hour-long GDC speech.

“Current control schemes provide one-dimensional gameplay – they map only player intent. What you don’t get with that is a reading of feeling or long-term goals. Those feelings are not communicable though current controls, and at Valve we want to attack that issue,” he said.

Mike Ambinder is Valve's 'experimental psychologist'. His goal is to detect how players are feeling in the middle of intense gun fight or the moment of being mind fucked on a puzzle. Mr. Ambinder goal is to decide which technologies is best suited to bring biometrics to the masses and make gaming a more mind altering experience.

In a Left 4 Dead experiment, the firm measured electrical resistance of the player’s skin to get an outline of their interest in the game. That data fed into Valve’s AI ‘director’, which in turn upped the challenge during lulls of activity. This was true adaptive real-time difficulty manipulation, and a survey conducted by Valve shows that the guinea pigs were having more fun when the biometric tricks were in play.

A dream goal for the company, Ambinder said, is to ascertain if there exists ‘optimal arousal patterns’ – essentially if it’s possible to find a pattern to the most enjoyable experience.

In theory this seems like a brilliant idea, especially if implemented into multiplayer games. Think Nintendo's Wii Vitality Sensor but it actually helps enhance the game-play and experience. Even though the technology is in it's infancy, Valve may be on to something truly special and game changing.

Source:[Develop-online]

Read more »

Kinect hacks, performance art: pin boards, puppets, RoboThespian and a X-Ray Magic Mirror

Microsoft's Kinect has seen some very clever and innovative things done from researchers around the world with minimum budgets. Hopefully the game development community is keeping notes.

Kinect Hacks Video Below.


Kinect Hack: Humanoid Robot with Motion Sensing Technology, @Cebit 2011, Hannover - Germany



We Be Monsters :: A Collaborative Kinect Puppet



Kinect Hack: Pin Boards


Kinect Hack: X-Ray Magic Mirror

Read more »

Kinect as 3D scanner: Copy Yourself

A new project uses the Microsoft Kinect as a crude 3D scanner. Joris said, "Fabricate Yourself is a tool by Karl Willis of Interactive Fabrication. Released at the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference, the tool lets people strike a pose in front of a Microsoft Kinect. If they like the pose they can 3D print the result. The tool is not yet finished and improvements in resolution have to be made."

Read more »

Great Deal Alert: Industrial-grade 3D animation suite for $10-$40

The guys at Project:Messiah are doing something interesting. Messiah's a piece of 3D animation and rendering software, so named as it was first assembled for use on the movie Dogma. It's seriously heavy-duty kit - a rigger's dream with lightning-fast bones, fabric sim that's top-notch, beautiful rendering and all that jazz. It's normally $500-$1,200 for the full version, which puts it in the 'Sizeable studio or Rich Guy' bracket. They're trying an experiment, though - they're offering the entry version for $10, and the whole tamale for $40. If enough people buy it at this price, everyone gets what they paid for. If they don't hit their quota, then everyone gets a refund.

Source:[ProjectMessiah.com] Via: [imaginetix.co.uk]

Read more »

US forces developing 'miniature weapons' for killer robots

Every one loves a robot, from the lovable robot from the Jetsons to the evil and ruthless Terminator. The US Army will be developing miniature weapons for killer robots to use in urban combat, so from the looks of things, the future holds tremendous promise for robots that kill and destroy.

Weaponry and aerospace giant Boeing was elated to announce that it had bagged an initial $0.5m deal to look into ideas, which will lead on into another $6.5m of work if the scheme moves forward.

The US armed forces already has a legion of aerial robots that is currently deployed around the world. These Drones are great for Modern Warfare, except for urban combat. Urban combat get's tricky when your target is surrounding by collateral damage.

"The concept behind this technology is designed to generate very low collateral damage," says Boeing exec Carl Avila. "[It] allows warfighters to engage a variety of targets, including those in a suburban terrain environment."

The "miniature weapons" deal from the US Air Force Research Lab, under which Boeing's "Phantom Works" advanced-tech shop will produce something a bit more suitable to counter-insurgency work.

Read more »

Telcast T56 PMP promises full 1080p output

Looking for a PMP that outputs full 1080p video? It looks like China's Telcast could be about to swoop in and beat some of the bigger players to the punch, however, at least if its new T56 PMP actually delivers as promised. While it's 5-inch screen doesn't make it as portable as some may like, it does indeed supposedly boast full 1080p output from its HDMI port, or a standard 800 x 600 resolution on the screen itself.

Read more »

Real-Time Make-Up Simulator : Video

Coming to a local mall near you sometime in the near future--for those lucky ladies, strange guys and everyone in between. This Cool piece of tech was shown off at the CEDEC 2009 which gives anyone(mostly females) the ability to virtually try on makeup that best suite their skin tone, bone structure and etc.

The camera scans the face and applies makeup that is chosen by the customer or the best suited colors for that persons face. The camera will then give a side by side comparison of the before and after on a display for the customer to see. The customer can tweak and make changes and see how they are reflected in real time.

Those lovely ladies in Japan have all the fun when can we expect to see this at your local Macy's---your guess would be as good as mind. Check out the video after the jump.




Via:[DigInfo.com]

Read more »