Personal Tech
Prototypes
GestureTek is working on a new controller you can shake at your TV screen. It can also put your mug inside virtual worlds.
In December, I told you about GestureTek's Airpoint System, a camera-based tracking system designed for trade show and boardroom presentations.
Now, GestureTek hopes its prototype game stick (it does not yet have a working title), will find its way into living rooms and other electronic play spaces.
Once the hype dies down around a certain "mind-reading" gaming headset (baloney!), folks will again turn to more practical devices such as the stick - part of the growing class of wireless controllers pioneered by Nintendo with its Wii Remote.
The GestureTek stick (the prototype looks like a foam light saber) is camera-based. It uses camera analysis software to determine its exact position and to translate your fine and gross motions precisely into virtual worlds.
The stick, in some cases, might provide a more realistic gaming experience than the Wii Remote. The Wii, for example, appears to give the same weight to a shoulder-dislocating swing as it does to a flick of the wrist.
But with GestureTek, the difference between a ground rule double and an inside-the-park homer might depend on how hard you swing. The coolest part is that you can also plant yourself inside your 3D simulations, according to GestureTek.
I'm no Beau Brummell. But I'd much rather see my raggedy self, with my History Major Records hoodie, in Second Life rather than a cheesy Linden Labs avatar.
GestureTek says its vision technology can be incorporated into dolls and stuffed animals. So it might not be long before kids are shaking their Webkinz at the screen, too.
Computing
Asus dazzles with pint-size Nova PC
Asus is one of those PC manufacturers trying to break out of the grey box, which still appears to have Dell and Gateway trapped.
The company's Nova looks similar to the Apple Mac Mini, which I just bought for my wife, Lisa, to replace her old not-so-Quicksilver.
Like the Mini, the Nova is bigger than my hardback copy of "KGB: The Inside Story." It measures about 9 by 7 by 2 inches.
The Nova is also priced to rival the Mini, with a model starting at about $750.
Available in white or black, the Nova has touch sensors and a full complement of multimedia and USB connectors. It's also Bluetooth- and WiFi-ready and has built-in speakers.
The Nova is an Intel Core 2 Duo-based machine with several fans and pipes to pull heat away from its tightly arranged electronics. (Asus ensures us the Nova is whisper-quiet, however.)
artificial intelligence
When robots do a better job than we do
Your next museum tour guide might do a better job of remembering you and your name, and have a perkier attitude, than any carbon-based life form possibly can.
The Museum of Science this week is rolling out a 6-foot digital robot guide, Tinker, which uses a biometric identification system (a hand reader) and AI to recognize you and your conversations.
Tinker, created by Northeastern University computer science professor Timothy Bickmore, cannot follow you into the museum's space exhibits, however. While Tinker's got brains, she has no physical body. Instead, her 3D image is projected onto a 3- by 4-foot screen connected to two networked computers.
While Tinker is a meet-and-greet stationary projection, other robots with similar smarts are providing some college walking tours, and escorting nursing home patients to their doctors' appointments.
Some people fear that such robots will replace people in some jobs altogether. No doubt.
But robots are going to be better than humans at some jobs. I'd take a tireless robot (save the recharging time) over a snoozing security guard in my building, or at a nuclear power station, anytime.
And Tinker could get a job tomorrow, I'm sure, as a Wal-Mart or Home Depot greeter.
Innovative last week
An umbrella way to shield your gadgets
Any umbrella is fine when all that you have to cover is your beehive hairdo. But you've got computer hardware to protect. In Boston, where snow and rain come at you from every angle, a new dome-shaped parapluie can keep those droplets out of your ear buds and away from your iPhone's sensitive components.
The Nubrella (nubrella.com) looks like something out of the world of "Blade Runner." It's so downright cool looking and sturdy (with a short handle on the front) that my wife and I are predicting an end to commuters being pulled down the sidewalk by inside-out umbrellas.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
