They finally made it. A VR gaming system where you can actually walk, not get sick and can afford. The Omni. A LOOOONG time ago when I was at UC Berkeley studying computing in Architecture, my focus was on virtual environments. During my research I was downhearted to find a flaw in what we all thought was the soon approaching golden age of VR. VOR ( Vestibulo-ocular Reflex: explained at the bottom of the post) is… Read More
Hacking AEC is hard, that is why we need to do it Would it surprise you to hear that the architects, engineers, and construction companies that build the world’s most amazing buildings can be luddites when it comes to using new tech? Whether it’s using tech to solve problems, manage systems, create new possibilities, the AEC industry is famously conservative and tech averse. We’re in the middle… Read More
Smart watches have just started. Here is a sexy smart watch I would want. This design concept has been out there for awhile but thought I would point out that we are still just in the beginnings of smart and stylish wearable tech. This looks like a mix of a smart watch and fuel band using the Apple iOS. Now I think curable display are owned by Samsung, but… Read More
Switched from iphone to Galaxy. Now my iphone looks small. And I’m not the only one Funny thing, I have been using the iphone since day 1. I have been jailbreaking for almost as long. However, once the iphone 5 and my first view of iOS7 surfaced, I started to question if I wanted to keep playing this cat and mouse game of jailbreaking, reinstalling everything, losing some functionally because the… Read More
KAGURA – Your dance creates music and graphics Intel recently announced the winners of their Perceptual Computing Challenge. The Grand Prize went to Shunsuke Nakamura of Shikumi Design in Japan. This application creates music and graphics by detecting user’s motion. Users don’t play the musical instruments, they just move their body parts, and play music and produce graphics. It generates new ways of performing… Read More
Game controls built into a slim phone case. Why are we not funding this?? Actually, I expect a kickstarter any minute now. But THIS is a great solution. Just like a normal clam case but with controls. Natch! Now, as its shown here, it would not work because there is no way to support the flap, but if there was a solid hinge with a restriction, it could work. … Read More
Google watch is coming. And I think it will be a winner The Wall Street Journal reported that Google Watch is just a few months away as they reach out to Chinese manufactures. They also supported the rumor it will run Android integrated with Google Now. Makes sense of course. They have been working on Google Now for a while, have it working with Google Glass, so… Read More
Hacking a building the AEC way Have you seen the game trailers for Watch Dogs? In the game, the player is a cyber-vigilante that explores a connected ‘smart’ city and accesses its 2D and 3D information like a high tech Batman. As an example of this, the game even has a website called We Are Data that shows real geo-located information… Read More
Leaving iPhone for Android. The last straw, my Pebble watch I have been using the iphone 4 for a long time now. It works well. I had it jailbroken and customized to do what I want. Never did update to the iPhone 4S and also skipped out on the five because I was too invested in the old docking station. So much so, I had… Read More
Make a good product, have a great advert, but poor business decisions can kill you I have the Pebble watch and love it especially now that I have finally made the jump from iPhone to Android, but that is another story. The Pebble watch has not lived up to the hyped expectations, but it has performed the basics. And its the basics that makes the Pebble great. And then comes… Read More
AEC Hackathon – Where Techies and Builders Change the World I feel it right to be upfront and say we are about to go on a journey. The matter at hand is something that has become very close to me and it directly affects anyone that lives and works in a house or building. In a few weeks there is going to be a first… Read More
Lets compare the Samsung Gear to the Pebble Smart Watch. Let the smart watch war begin. Now to be fair, the Pebble is not from a major player and thus does not have the money to fight a full fight, however, the Pebble is able to surprisingly hold its own from a use point of view. So lets compare the Gear and the Pebble. BTW,… Read More
First in the great smartwatch war, Samsung Galaxy Gear. But would you want one? The news has already been out there, Samsung will release their watch Sept 4th beating Apple to the punch. Apple may not be too worried about this since rumors hold that there will not be an Apple compatible version of the app anytime soon. One can even question if Apple would allow this in the… Read More
Now that Google Glass is Jailbroken, what does it mean? its good.. right? The jailbreaking of Google Glass (glassbreak?) is good, and bad. For those who remember back in the iphone1 days, there was all this panic that it would open the door to massive abuse, the phone could be bricked and even the whole network can be taken down … Still waiting for that to happen. Instead,… Read More
Metaio creates AR Engine, the first augmented reality chipset Metaio, a German based augmented reality software company, has stepped into the world of hardware with the announcement today the world’s first augmented reality hardware chipset. Called “AR Engine”, this development comes with an agreement from ST-Ericsson that will lead the integration of the chipset in ST-Ericsson’s new mobile platforms. With this new level of computing… Read More
Top Best Tech Wishes for 2013 2012 has been quite a year in tech, but things are still missing, and I have plenty of tech wishes for 2013. I’m going to make my wishes doable instead of AGAIN wishing for a flying car for the everyday joe. So here is my list for for 2013 in no particular order. Improve existing… Read More
Review of Ivee, the talking voice actuation alarm clock .. The talking alarm clock. Suddenly Mr. Ed pop into my head. Anyway, Ivee, is a talking (or better voice actuate) alarm clock radio. Although its not perfect, its pretty darn impressive. On the plus side, it works using voice as you would expect. You can speak ‘hello ivee’ and then provide a number of… Read More
Updated specs for the Oculus gaming VR Headset Back in Aug the Oculus made a splash on KickStarter as one of the most well funded VR headsets ever. Now that they are in production, they have upped the specs a bit. I think its going to make a huge difference. Lets have a look at what they say from the Oculus website. The panel we… Read More
Introducing the new Metaio Creator with Cloud Capabilities This just popped up in my email. More public service announcement more then anything. 🙂 Check it out. If you are building AR apps, you will want to know bout this. Create Augmented Reality experiences in minutes The Metaio Creator is the only augmented reality content management tool available. If you use augmented reality content… Read More
A City in a Browser with CityEngine Esri, a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications, announced the availability of CityEngine Web Viewer in their ArcGIS Online product this week. For the bonus, the viewer leverages WebGL. Yes, this means anyone with a WebGL-enabled browser (Chrome, Safari, Opera, FireFox) can navigate and explore uploaded… Read More