Concept Oman

How to solve Record not found error when using friendly_id in ruby on rails

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 08:15:00 +0000

If you are learning Ruby on rails and trying to add friendly_id in your application, you might face this error.

ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound in EventsController#show

to solve this error all you have to do is , go to your event/user controller find the line

Event.find(params[:id]) // Event or User whatever it is in your case

and replace it with

Event.friendly.find(params[:id])

This will solve the problem.

Man Drives An OutRun Cabinet On Roads With Augmented Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 07:20:00 +0000

With everyone getting obsessed with the incoming Oculus Rift, it's easy to forget that not so long ago companies like Nintendo and Sony were getting obsessed with augmented reality.
Garnet Hertz, a research scientist at Informatics has gone one better than the cards typically used for the Vita and 3DS, delivering his project in the form of an amazing customized OutRun cabinet.
It's been designed to accurately read roads and transfer the date to the game and Hertz's screen. The end results are pretty astonishing.

Mobile app "walkthrough", yes or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 11:19:00 +0000

Lately, it seems that many mobile apps, upon first launch, are stepping users through multi-screen “walkthroughs” where all the features of the app are demonstrated, painstakingly, one-by-one. Worse still, are those overlays of help screens that appear at start up, with the scrawled handwriting, circles and arrows best left on whiteboards – not in user education material.
That’s not to say that apps don’t need to explain their functions to users. But some are taking things too far. Long, step-by-step tutorials are not what users want to see when launching apps. And to be clear, I’m talking about apps here, not games. Mobile games are a different beast, with a slightly different set of rules.
The question, simply put: if a mobile app includes a “walkthrough,” has it already failed? That’s the premise of an article trending on Hacker News, written by Visual and User Interface Designer Max Rudberg. And like many posts with catchy, linkbaiting titles (“If you see a UI walkthrough, they blew it”) people are reacting viscerally to the headline without fully digesting the meat of the article’s content. For what it’s worth, I think Rudberg has a point, even if he’s over-generalized the situation.

Currently the top comment on the Hacker News post, as per usual, is contrary. “This is utter nonsense,” the commenter rebuts. But I don’t think that it is. Sure, you can always pull out examples of apps that actually do require extensive walkthroughs, or you can hedge and say, well, people learn things differently – some people appreciate and need walkthroughs! Or you can talk about how your mom or dad wouldn’t know how to do anything on a mobile phone without a tutorial. Or how there are different types of apps and different types of walkthroughs. And sure, that’s all true. It’s like everything else in life: the issue is not black or white. There’s nuance here.
But can we talk about walkthroughs possibly heading into overuse territory?
Let’s.
The problem, in a nutshell, is that in too many cases with new apps, the existence of the walkthrough speaks to core issues with the design. It can come across as lazy. Anything more than a couple of basic pointers sends a message to users that this app is complex, it’s complicated, and now I need to hold your hand while you learn to use it.
That feels wrong on some level. This is mobile. It’s meant to be simple. Accessible.
Apps are not enterprise software with hundreds of functions. They’re not bloated Office suites with overstuffed ribbons filled with a dizzying array of choices. They’re not even desktop software, requiring complicated installations and configuration procedures that once had users phoning I.T. support for help. They are apps, and the user generally already knows what they’re for before they installed it.
Maybe the user found it featured in a list, but they didn’t install it blindly. They saw the list, read the title and/or description, looked at screenshots and thought to themselves, “hmm, a camera that lets you add filters to your photos! I’m going to install that!”
And if they didn’t come across the app serendipitously, then they actually performed a specific keyword-based search and the app appeared in the search results where they selected it from among dozens of others. Or maybe they installed in after reading about it on the web, or hearing a friend talk about it.
The point is, the user to some extent already knows what the app is for. They’ve got the basics down already. Where do developers think they’re losing them, exactly? It’s not intuitive which button to tap first? Where specific content is found? How to perform a specific task? Does the app have a cold start problem (it’s social, but you have to add friends first)? For many of these challenges, the solution doesn’t have to be a long walkthrough or messy overlay. It can just be a better design. A better layout. A better sign-up flow.

Look, we grew up on a web were we had to click “Next” and “I agree” and where we had to learn to click an “X” to close all those pop-up ads. Walkthroughs often leave users with similar feelings – they’re the cruft that has to be scraped away before you actually get to use the app.
If the developer thinks a walkthough is still in order, then maybe it can be a screen or two and a few words. That’s still a walkthrough, yes, but a far more tolerable one. Or it can be just some intuitive hints that appear during the app’s use.
At the end of the day, walkthroughs, while sometimes unavoidable, are not the best part about using an app. Using the app is the best part about using the app, and getting there as quickly as possible should be developers’ goal.

Originally Posted by, TC, Sarah Perez
Screenshots via Archer Group; mobile tuts

Should You Build a Mobile App or Mobile Website

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:59:00 +0000

by MDGadvertising.

Keeping Memory of Horrible Earthquake through Augmented Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 08:28:00 +0000

On the 17th of January 1995 the Great Hanshin Earthquake devastated Kobe and took around 6,000 lives. Nevertheless, Japan always arise again, so everything was completely reconstructed and restored. To preserve the memory of what the city looked like in the aftermath of the disaster and to show how it was restored and what has been changed the government has developed a location-based smartphone app.

Guests of the city can access the map archive and images by downloading the free mobile app junaio for either iOS or Android, and then go to certain places around the city. There are around 98 spots in the Shin-Nagata Minami and Shin-Nagata Kita districts where the photos were taken back in time. When users arrive to the location where image data is available, they just point their phones in the direction of where the photo was taken and they can see what it looked like after the earthquake and compare to what it looks like now.

The app will be especially interested for people who are interested to learn more about the earthquake and learn lessons of disaster recovery.

URL: http://japandailypress.com/new-smartphone-app-shows-1995-kobe-quake-damage-in-augmented-reality-0440500/

Structure 3D sensor for mobiles and Augmented reality games

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 12:11:00 +0000

Structure sensor 3D scanner

Now a days our smartphone is the first computer we switch on, it last one to switch off everyday.
There are lots of nifty things you can use the smartphone for, and soon you’ll be able to use it as a 3D object scanner. Structure's 3D sensor camera for mobiles gives the device capabilities similar to those of Microsoft’s Kinect gaming controller like Scan objects and rooms in 3D, play augmented reality games, and develop mobile apps with 3D vision.

Occipital, the San Francisco company behind the device, says it will start shipping its product in February 2014.Occipital has developed apps that allow people to scan objects in 3-D by walking around them, and to scan entire rooms. One shows how the sensor can enable augmented reality, where virtual imagery is overlaid onto the real world when seen through a viewfinder. In that app, a person plays fetch with a virtual cat by throwing a virtual ball that bounces realistically off real-world objects

If you’re a developer, Structure gives you the ability to build mobile applications that interact with the three dimensional geometry of the real world for the very first time. You can even launch your app on the App Store!

According to Richard Darell on bitrebels, "The Structure Sensor can be used on anything and you don’t have to stand still or place an object into a 3D scanner machine. This device is added on to your iPad, and you can literally walk around and scan entire objects or environments down to the smallest detail. Not only does it scan, meaning creating a wireframe mesh out of the things it sees, but it textures it naturally so it looks like a photorealistic copy of the real thing at the same time. It is a mind-boggling thing to see and to think that it is all possible with a little device added onto your iPad is just an unearthly feeling."

via bitrebels

Augmented reality games, Augmented reality, Structure 3D sensor camera for mobile

The awesome world of Augmented reality and Artificial Intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 09:37:00 +0000

It is about time when Augmented reality comes out of its old concept of playing a video over a newspaper or a dancing dwarf in a user's hand. Infinity AR is working to build cross-platform tools, including on Google Glass, Optinvent’s Ora glasses, and Meta’s SpaceGlasses, to create augmented reality that fully integrates with the user’s life.

Recently Infinty AR, an Augmented reality company announced a partnership project with Beyond verbal from Israel, company that decodes and measures human emotions in voice. This is the concept where Augmented reality, with the help of Artificial intelligence makes our lifestyle rich.

Founded in 2012, the Tel Aviv-based Beyond Verbal raised $3.8 million in venture capital prior to its launch in May. It licensed its technology to New York City-based Infinity AR, which is building a combined artificial intelligence-augmented reality hub that senses a user’s needs.

check out this Infinity Augmented reality concept video,

Did someone say Google glasses?? Definitely need to consider again after watching this video.
Gone are the days when, the moment you hear someone say Augmented reality the picture of someone holding a marker and dancing dwarf appears or video that plays over a newspaper comes in to mind. But things have changed a lot lately in Augmented reality and Gesture recognition with the emergence of Augmented reality smart glasses other wearable like wristbands etc.

Combining AR with AI and also with the help of smart glasses like Google, space and Icis glasses .
I am pretty sure AR is going in right direction.

Awesome world of Augmented reality, Augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence

Icis Smart glasses : an alternative for Google glass

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 12:53:00 +0000

New player in the smart-glasses world has arrived in the form of Icis. This new Google Glass alternative is said to be much more immersive than Glass — and much less geeky. I wrote about other smart glasses like Vuzix, Google glass and space glass in my previous post.

Image by (http://www.laforgeoptical.com)

The product is a set of smart glasses — “smartspecks” — that can give you heads-up directions, take pictures, record videos, display on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram updates from your friends, and more. Just like Google Glass, connectivity to the cloud is via your phone. Unlike Google Glass, however, all the intelligence resides in an app on that phone and It doesn't have Augmented reality feature or an object tracking feature.

Icis is prescription eyewear that you can use to display notifications from your social networks and turn-by-turn directions in your field of vision. The eyewear will come in a variety of styles and colors and are meant for people who wish to have real time data relayed to them in a way that is not as distracting as having to monitor your smartphone. Icis also features a camera, microphone, and speaker for you to use in whatever way you like.

Image by (http://www.laforgeoptical.com)

Icis is a bluetooth accessory controlled by a smartphone app. The app will be available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. When you download the app and pair Icis to your phone, all you have to do is select the apps on the phone that you would like to get realtime updates from and which navigation app you would like to receive turn-by-turn notifications from.

LaForge’s product, unlike Google Glass , works as a convention pair of prescription glasses, and has a fully immersive user experience — it doesn’t require you to look up and to the right to see a tiny LCD screen, for instance. But it’s the ordinary, average, everyday look of a pair of glasses that’s one of the key difference.

To interface with apps in Icis, use the touchpad and shortcut buttons, on the arms of the glasses to do a variety of things from taking pictures, recording messages, or changing display modes.

Image by (http://www.laforgeoptical.com)

How does it work?
this "smartspecks" use a custom frame that has the electronic components, such as the battery, display and bluetooth antenna embedded within it. The custom lens that they use, can be cut to nearly any shape and allows users to see the information on the display in front of the user. Basically app is used to relay the information and data between glass and smartphone.

Original Post by John Koetsier,venturebeat

How I learned to mind my own business

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 09:42:00 +0000

I was walking the mental hospital the other day,
and all the patients were shouting , '13....13...13'.
The fence was too high to see over
but I saw little gap on the plank,
so I looked over to see what is going on...
some idiot poked me in the eye, then everyone started shouting, '14...14...14'.

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Bionym launched SDK for identity-auntenticating wristband Nymi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 08:08:00 +0000

Toronto-based startup Bionym has launched an SDK for its forthcoming identity-authenticating wristband, Nymi. It said today that more than 6,000 developers have registered their interest in building software that hooks into the heartwave-sensing bangle. It costs $79 and so far around 7000 wristbands have been presold.

The Nymi wristband authenticates the wearer’s identity by matching the overall shape of their heartwave (captured via an electrocardiogram sensor). It sustains authentication, so long as the wristband remains in position, reducing the need for repeated authentications during the day.

What kind of apps can be developed for Nymi?

The obvious ones that are simply unlocking various things, from doors to their personal devices or for the money transaction. But there are people that are thinking outside the box in terms of different environments and different appliances — that, how could they(things or the machine) behave differently if they knew who you are??

there are applications that let the coffee machine knows your settings and it will produce your coffee the way you want it.

Another of its use could be in restaurant or a bar and the Nymi passing info on your dietary restrictions or favorite drink or specific order.

There are lot of people interested in making Arduino or other kinds of hardware modules that can interact with Nymi. you can monotize it , customize it according to your preferences. So imagine an Arduino module that wants to be one of those people that overshares and tweets whenever you’re in the room saying you came home and you’re here…(check-in addicts or foursquare users would benefit)

check out this video for more details.

Bionym Nymi, Gesture recognition

Hand gestures for your Windows Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 08:58:00 +0000

Sources familiar with Nokia’s plans have revealed that Goldfinger will ship with some technology that Nokia has been developing for years now. Described internally as "3D Touch," it essentially makes use of hardware sensors to detect interactions that are off-the-glass. Nokia started experimenting publicly with similar features in an update to its Glance screen software, which let Lumia owners wave at their handsets to see the time. Lumia 1520 will be the first Windows Phone 8.1 device will take this a step further.

Users will be able to interact with Goldfinger by making hand gestures above and to the side of the device. Gestures currently under consideration include scrolling and flipping to let Windows Phone 8.1 users navigate around a phone without touching the screen. Samsung has similar features on its Galaxy S4 handset, known as Air Gestures, to change music tracks, accept phone calls, and scroll through webpages.

Microsoft is currently readying its Windows Phone 8.1 update, and we understand the company is tentatively planning to detail parts of these new features at Mobile World Congress 2014. Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to include a notification center, improvements to multitasking, and a personal digital assistant codenamed Cortana.
This post is inspired from The Verge's articles Source

Hand gestures for windows phone, hand gesture recognition, touchless gesture recognition

Google launches Glass Dev Kit preview and Augmented reality app

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:08:00 +0000

Yesterday Google launched the Glass Development Kit (GDK) "Sneak Preview," which will finally allow developers to make real, native apps for Google Glass. While there have previously been extremely limited Glass apps that used the Mirror API, developers now have full access to the hardware.

By releasing the GDK, Google has turned Glass from a neat toy into a platform, one that is ripe for development and open to the public. The bottleneck that is currently holding Glass back is its limited physical distribution, with a likely less than five figure number of headsets distributed.

Still, Google’s pitch to Android developers is simple: Take your Android Application, reuse most of the code, get them on to Glass, and then optimize their interface. In short, by tying Glass to Android, the company is all but ensuring that it will be flush with applications by the time that an average consumer gets near one.

Google Glass runs a heavily skinned version of Android 4.0.4, so Glass development is very similar to Android development. The GDK is downloaded through the Android SDK Manager, and Glass is just another target device in the Eclipse plugin. Developers have access to the Glass voice recognition within their app as an intent. Apps can be totally offline and can do all their processing on Glass. They can also support background events and have full access to the camera and other hardware.

Google showed off a few of the first native Glass apps, and one of the coolest among them was Wordlens, a real-time, augmented-reality translation app. Wordlens works much like it does on the iPhone—foreign-language text targeted by the camera is translated on top of the video feed in real time. This is neat on a smartphone, but on a device like Glass it becomes much more powerful. Just by looking at text and saying "OK, Glass, translate this," the text on the Glass video feed is translated and placed above the original text. Wordlens' app uses the accelerometers to keep the virtual text aligned, all while working completely offline

Some of the other applications are,

Allthecooks: A cooking app to help you read recipes without using your hands.
Spellista: A word jumble game.
GolfSight: A tool to calculate distances and the like as you wear silly pants and wave sticks at small round objects.
Strava: A run tracking app.

I haven't used these glasses myself yet, so I was worried about the terrible frame rate displayed by Glass but I heard the screen mirroring functionality is extremely slow, but on real hardware, Glass runs the stock apps pretty smoothly. It remains to be seen how much power native apps can actually get out of the system, as Glass only has a 1GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 and 1GB of RAM. Native apps pushing the hardware to the limit or running in the background will make the runtime even worse. And battery life is a problem, too. Even with the extremely conservative stock apps, Glass can only last a few hours.

touchless gesture technology using ultrasonic sound

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 12:56:00 +0000

Few days back I was talking with a good friend of mine about the touchless gesture technology and how does it work. I explained him as much as I could, we spoke a great deal about factors involved, Image processing, Hardware, software etc. so I thought I should share it with you guys as well.

In my previous posts I wrote about hardwares like Kinect, Leap motion and motion detecting sensors but mainly the gesture recognition based on image processing. In this post I am going to write about the Touch less gesture interaction with computer, tabs or smart phones using Ultrasonic sound.

Ultrasonic touchless gesture technology will make touchless interaction with your computer a feasible and strong solution. The advantages ultrasonic gesture technology has distinguishes it from other touchless technologies on the market. These qualities open up endless possibilities to equip the devices with the latest and most intuitive interaction innovation. Ultrasonic sensors create a wide field of interaction space that surrounds device and can be configured to detect a wide range of gestures and gesture combinations.

How it works

Ultrasound signals sent through the air from speakers integrated in smart phones and tablets bounce against your hand and are recorded by microphones also integrated in these devices. In this way, Elliptic Labs’ technology recognizes your hand gestures and uses them to move objects on a screen, very similar to how bats use echolocation to navigate.

Advantages with ultrasonic gesture technology:

Power saving:

its because it uses ultrasonic sound sensor, it uses lest power for computing as compared to other optical and 3D sensors like Kinect and leap.

Wide field of view

Sensors can see both forward and to the sides, enabling an interaction zone extending over the screen and to the sides. Ultrasonic sensors enable gesturing both from a distance and very close to the screen at the same time. This for me is best point about it. generally with Kinect and leap motion sensors, we have to be either in front of the sensor(kinect) or above the sensor(leap). when the sensors are placed away from screen it becomes problematic. ultrasonic sound sensors give better degree of freedom if not best. Of course as of now am not entirely so sure about its exact field of view ( FOV) or Region of interest (ROI).

Distributed sensing

Enables motion capture from multiple angles, avoiding occlusion of objects or parts of an object. Facilitates robust positioning by giving sufficient sensor baselines. Sensors used are MEMS microphones, which can also be used for speech enhancement & recognition.

Leading edge detection & range gating

Ability to separate the first returning echoes from other, later arriving echos. Filter can effectively be created which thresholds reflections in the z-direction, useful both for separating finger motion from wrist or hand motion, or from movements or reflections from the body of use

Accurate time-of-flight measurements

Enables accurate tracking of leading edges of hands & fingers, as well as accurate location of devices having ultrasonic capabilities in space.

It is not my intention to decide or judge or to say that this in any way better than Kinect or leap motion or vice versa, Hey, don't kill the messenger !! I am just happy to learn there are different ways we can do gesture recognition. for more information about this technology and this product, you can visit source

Thank You for taking your time to read through it and I hope you have learnt something. If you have any questions or suggestion related to this article, you can send it to me. Add your Comment below to start or join a conversation. If you enjoyed this article and want more, kindly subscribe to feeds.

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Roboroach: the first commercial cyborg

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 07:40:00 +0000

There is a big row going on over a US company's new smartphone app "Roboroach backpack".

The US company Backyard Brains has developed an "Electronic Backpack" called Roboroach that fits on to cockroach allowing its movements to be controlled by a smartphone app. The Backyard Brains company says that the device is intended to get children to be interested in neuroscience.

For the "electronic backpack" to work the cockroaches have to be placed in icy water to subdue them

before sandpaper is used to remove the waxy coating on the shell of the insect's head. An electrode connector and electrodes are then glued on to the insect's body and a needle is used to poke a hole in their thorax in order to insert a wire.Their antennae are then cut and electrodes are inserted. A circuit is attached to their backs, and signals are received through a mobile phone app allowing users to control the cockroaches' movements to the left and to the right.

There is lot of criticism going on about this, Everybody’s favorite protest group, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is at it again—this time in defense of cockroaches. Specifically, PETA wants to stop the sale of the Backyard Brains’ RoboRoach, a science education kit that enables kids to implant electrodes into a cockroach’s brain and then control the beetle with a smartphone app.

Some say "electronic backpack" is cruel and subjects the insects to unnecessary stress. some say , Modifying a living creature to make a toy is wrong. they even say, This enables and encourages kids to harm animals.

I personally feel its not time to criticize, its time to celebrate and appreciate the innovation. I mean come on these are the roaches people easily kill in their apartments and its not like these animals are in any harms way as Backyard Brains contends that the experiments have no lasting effect on the bugs and that dipping them in ice water anesthetizes them from pain. Personally, I think RoboRoach is a really interesting way to get people interested in science, which we need to do more of at all costs.

I don't care if you think I'm insane and cruel to think and support this idea but imagine how cool it is to play soccer with remote controlled cockroach team or I can even create cockroach army. I guess time of playing with video games is over, I can train my cockroach in soccer that he will defeat the likes of Messi and Ronaldo :P

Blog Directory Roboroach, Gesture recognition, iphone app, cyborg cockroach

The future of film making using Kinect and RGBD

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 09:28:00 +0000

What happens when great technologies and creative minds combine together? we get some amazing and cool products!

As I said in my previous post, there are so many things we could do with gesture recognition using kinect or Leap motion sensors. We have experienced its uses in so many fields already like, gaming, education, health, kids etc. Just imagine if we could use Kinect and its depth sensors as camera in film making. Last year researchers of RGBD Toolkit came up with a software that will let you do just that.

RGB+D Toolkit Overview from James George on Vimeo.

The RGBDToolkit is an experiment in a possible future of film making, where photographic data captured in 3-dimensions will allow for deciding camera angles after the fact, combining the languages of photography and data visualization. This hybrid computer graphics and video would allow for a storytelling medium at once imaginary and photo real. The RGBDToolkit is a software work flow for augmenting high definition video with 3D scans from a depth sensor, such as an Xbox Kinect, to create a hybrid video and computer graphics. First a recording application allows you to calibrate a high definition video camera to the depth sensor, allowing their data streams to be merged. Secondly a visualization application allows for viewing the combined footage and applying different 3D rendering styles, camera moves, and exporting sequences.

This software is a science fiction, a seed of a potential future functional just to the point of allowing a community, you, to share in imagining the possibilities.

“RGBD + Toolkit is a workflow for making volumetric video with a Kinect and a digital SLR”. Basically if you have a DSLR camera and an Xbox Kinect, it’s possible to get a crazy 3D metric mapping effect on video. The technology brings abstraction into digital video and has tons of potential as an artistic. It’s all open-source and the creators of the software are aiding in the education regarding setting yourself up and actually making films with the toolkit. They claim that there is less emphasis on the permanence of the software but rather the methodology behind it. Therefore the team at RGBD + Toolkit will continue to adapt and aid people in DSLR + Depth filmmaking.

There is so much potential in this type of filmmaking and the guys behind RGBD + Toolkit are only at the tip of the iceberg. The tune may not be the greatest, but this video by Jon Lindsay for his song entitled “Oceans more” uses the effect in a pretty cool video if you’ve never seen what the technology looks like in practice.

If you like this article please share the comments and subscribe to this blog. yo can also check my other posts on gesture recognition and augmented reality

Gesture recognition with touch and feel part 2: Rendering 3D Tactile Features on Touch Surface

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 08:43:00 +0000

In my last post I discussed about Disney Research project called Aireal, which adds physical sensation to virtual interactions like the Microsoft Kinect. It uses puffs of directed air to give you the sensation you're actually touching something you see on the screen. Now they've moved on to touchscreens in what seems like a no-brainer follow-up: Adding texture to touch.

Disney Research has developed an algorithm for the "tactile rendering of 3D features" on a 2D touchscreen. In other words, the algorithm modifies the friction between your finger and the 2D screen based on the slope of the virtual surface. If there's a dome on the screen, for example, increased fiction would, to some extent, make it feel like your finger was climbing or passing over a bump.

The algorithm modifies the voltage of the display to alter its friction, so different textures will produce a different feeling for your hand. Disney says it can reproduce ridges, edges, bumps, protrusions, and other physical sensations. And this isn't some funky touchscreen way to "fake" the sensation of touch. No, you're not actually feeling a virtual object, but this is how its sense of touch works to begin with.

"The algorithm is based on a discovery that when a person slides a finger over a real physical bump, the person perceives the bump largely because lateral friction forces stretch and compress skin on the sliding finger," says Disney's press release. The best part is, the algorithm is dynamic, which means it can produce varying touch sensations on the fly. No pre-programmed libraries of textures to apply to millions of objects.

Some of the immediate applications are pretty cool to think about--touchscreen games could go to town with this added element of feedback, and textured topographic maps of anyplace in the world would be great learning tools for kids. The Disney video above shows their algorithm being used in plenty of other situations, too--helping the blind, touching a cactus (why would you ever want to do that?), and they say it could be integrated into future touchscreen displays. Cost and simplicity are big question marks there, but it would be pretty wild if every touchscreen provided textured feedback five years down the road.

Please comment and share your views if you like this article. You can subscribe this blog and use contact form to contact me.

goBlogz kincet gesture, hand gesture, Gesture recognition with touch and feel, Gesture recognition

Gesture recognition with touch and feel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Everyday we hear about some amazing new technology; Augmented reality, Image processing, multi touch sensors or Gesture recognition. Gesture recognition is very well known and very interesting field in Image processing. Emergence of these technologies in our daily life has opened so many great possibilities. Gesture detection is growing so fast that, I can't imagine how far we have progressed; or where will we be in next few years.

Normally for most of us whenever it comes to Gesture recognition, Xbox kinect is the first name that pops up and you don't even need to be a Xbox game addict.

If Xbox Kinect sensors redefined the gesture detection concept, Leap motion took it to another level.

Leap motion's gesture recognition is so accurate that it could read the slightest of finger movements.

But one thing I couldn't resist to the think that where do we go from here. I mean this technology is already so advanced already what should be the next target. Then I came to know about the Disney research in gestured recognition. Lets say what we have right now is gestures, but what if we could add touch, feel and sensation to it? Thats what researchers are trying to achieve in AIREAL.

AIREAL is a new low cost, highly scalable haptic technology that delivers expressive tactile sensations in mid air. AIREAL enables users to feel virtual objects, experience dynamically varying textures and receive feedback on full body gestures, all without requiring the user to wear a physical device. AIREAL is designed to use a vortex, a ring of air that can travel large distances while keeping its shape and speed. When the vortex hits a user’s skin, the low pressure system inside a vortex collapses and imparts a force the user can feel. The AIREAL technology is almost entirely 3D printed using a 3D printed enclosure, flexible nozzle and a pan and tilt gimbal structure capable of a 75-degree targeting field. Five actuators are mounted around the enclosure which displaces air from the enclosed volume, through the flexible nozzle and into the physical environment. The actuated flexible nozzle allows a vortex to be precisely delivered to any location in 3D space.

What do you think of this article? please leave the comments about your views. you can contact me through contact form and you can also subscribe to this blog.

kinect gesture, Gesture recognition, hand gesture, leap motion, technology news, gadgets

9 Deadly words used by women that every man should know

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 07:10:00 +0000

9 deadly words used by women, deadly words used by women

How I wish "Good Morning" to my wife ....

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 10:41:00 +0000

How to wish good morning to you wife
You’re not the breath I breathe, just the sweet scent that I enjoy. You’re not the sights I see, just the most beautiful of them. You’re not the water I drink, just the flavor that makes it taste so good. You’re not the ground I walk on, just the partner I sometimes lean on. You’re not the blood in my veins, just what makes it burn so sweetly. You’re not my life, just the one I want to spend it with. You’re not my world, just the best thing in it. I love you!!

Super Clever Sunglass Illusion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Things I learned from reading manga

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 08:59:00 +0000

I, like many people, have read manga from my teen years well into my adult life In fact I still do whenever I get time. Many people scoff at manga and comic books as just a pointless and childish hobby. There is nothing that can be learned from them and they serve no purpose other than avoiding reality. Some believe manga to make people antisocial, violent, or somehow emotionally stunted. Those people will just never understand, even if they read manga. It can teach people a lot of things and there are a lot of well-adjusted people who read manga as a hobby.

I am not going to argue or say why we should read manga. There are many serious things that one can learn from reading manga, but there are also lots of fun little tidbits that you can learn, though mostly they are just cliches. So let's add in a bit of funny.

You CAN have too many women that want you.
The hero will always lose the first fight with his nemesis, but will train/power up later and beat the crap out of him.
The more average you seem, the more destined you are to save the planet.
Tokyo is destined to get destroyed by something (Godzilla, Angels, Fireballs, Gundams, Robots, Reptar, ect.) every time it gets rebuilt.
All teenage kids in Japan lack diligent or present parents.
The coolest character that is not the main character is going to die.
No matter how many guns people are using, the sword is still the bee's knees.
If it is snowing, something romantic or sad is going to happen. Prepare for feels!
Smart people will be wearing glasses, their chances of being evil also rise significantly.
When mortally wounded, you will always have time for a long speech. Always.

Do you read any manga or comics? what is your favorite manga? what is your favorite character?
Please feel free to leave a comment.

Augmented Reality Smart Glasses

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 07:01:00 +0000

Google stunned the technology industry when it revealed its plans to sell Google Glass, eyeglass frames that put a small computer display in a person’s field of vision. But some less well-known companies have been selling wearable displays for years, with the military as a dedicated customer.

One of the Google’s competitor is Vuzix based in Rochester, New York. The company’s product Vuzix smart glass M100, contains a microphone, an earpiece, a camera, and motion and GPS sensors,

and it’s powerful enough to run a version of the Android mobile operating system. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections allow it to be linked to a smartphone. A small display positioned in the wearer’s peripheral vision provides a viewing area equivalent to having a four-inch smartphone about a foot away. The device is essentially a mini-computer with a dual-core 1GHz TI-OMAP 4403 processor, which is the same chip you’ll find in Google Glass and older Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.

Vuzix already sells wearable AR glasses with a camera and display in each lens, to researchers and the Department of Defense. But when it comes to Augmented reality glasses my favorite is Space-glass's Meta AR glasses, Just have look at this teaser video.

For a few minutes, you would probably immerse in the belief that you have actually traveled forward in time or watching a stereotypical Sci-Fi movie like Iron man.The basic concept of SpaceGlasses is, it brings HUD (Head-up display), Augmented Reality which is more advanced. SpaceGlasses is equipped with a tiny projector which renders a 3D, Live vision.

Remember how Tony Stark maneuvers Holograms and HUD display in his Iron Man suit. SpaceGlasses enables you to experience something similar. The promo video demonstrates how you can actually model a 3D object out of thin air and print it using 3D Printer. That’s just not it, several other real-world application are depicted in the video. You can play virtual Nerf Gun, Virtual Minecraft simulation and basically transform your boring real life scenario.

One thing for sure Meta’s technology could open up limitless possibilities to contribute to our existing computing technology.

Google Glasses is also powered by Augmented Reality technology. Heads-up display is featured on the transparent glass. It seamlessly sync with your Smartphone and provides you intuitive information on the go. You can view the map, Explore through GPS as you walk or drive. You can connect to the internet, access Social networks, access any Google service. It is equipped with a tiny camera that renders Augmented reality into possibility. You can even translate a sign board engraved in a foreign language. You can record videos and capture photos with these glasses

Vuzix glasses vs Space glasses vs Google glasses

Vuzix smart glass M100 gives you smart phone's display and its cheaper but no Augmented reality . SpaceGlasses Meta AR glass is powered by obviously a better technology filled with innovation. 3D Headsup display, Motion detection. Google glasses combine the smart features of Vuzix smart glass and AR features of Space glasses.

Voice - a Guest blog by Sunil Sudevan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:45:00 +0000

How do I sound? How much importance do we give to a person's voice?

its strange sometimes unknowingly we like or dislike or even sometime gauge a person by his or her voice. May be we respond better to a high pitched voice or low-pitched voice.

I read online that, horses in fact display different physiological and behavioral responses to different tones and voice. So do we humans respond, there have been so many incidents where a key to a good bargain is the tone of voice we use.We some times even fall in love with a person by just talking and getting attached to his or her voice unknowingly.

I don't want to go deep in finding the science behind it, but love the fact when someone tells you, "like your voice".

So do try talking to a horse or may be tell some one if you like their voice.

Please share your thoughts in comments section.
you can also visit Sunil's Personal Blog here

Augmented Reality : Fujitsu touch interface on real world objects

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Do you remember Microsoft pixel sense (formerly known as Microsoft surface). big table like structure with an interactive surface computing platform that allows one or more people to use touch and real world objects, and share digital content at the same time. The PixelSense platform consists of software and hardware products that combine vision based multitouch PC hardware, 360-degree multiuser application design, and windows software to create a Natural user interface (NUI).

Few years back, I had chance to work on some application using Microsoft surface. It was indeed awesome experience to create some thing like multitouch, multiuser interface.Recently Fujitsu lab. developed similar but cheaper and versatile device.

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real word.

Paper and many other objects could be manipulated by touching them, as with touch screen. This system doesn't use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam and a projector and Image processing.

Using this technology, information can be imported from a document as data, by selecting the necessary parts with your finger.

This technology measures the shape of real-world objects, and automatically adjusts the coordinate systems for the camera, projector, and real world. In this way, it can coordinate the display with touching, not only for flat surfaces like tables and paper, but also for the curved surfaces of objects such as books.

To detect touch accurately, the system needs to detect fingertip height accurately. In particular, with the low-resolution camera used here (320 x 180), if fingertip detection is off by a single pixel, the height changes by 1 cm. So, the system requires technology for recognizing fingertips with high precision.

I can only imagine how and where these kind of technologies will be useful in our life.

For example, this system could be used to show detailed information at a travel agent's counter, or when you need to fill in forms at City Hall.

If you think of some ideas where this kind of devices be useful please comment it. I will compile the list of your ideas and we will make a separate post about it what do u think?

How to Track the Original Location of an Email via its IP Address

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Recently I learned a cool trick to locate the IP address of an email from here , I thought I should share it with everyone.

Here’s a quick guide on how to track an email to its original location by figuring out the email’s IP address and looking it up. I have found this to be quite useful on many occasions for verification purposes since I receive lots of suspicious emails daily due to my blog. Tracking the IP address of an email sender does require looking at some technical details, so be ready to dig your heels in!
There are basically two steps involved in the process of tracking an email: find the IP address in the email header section and then look up the location of the IP address. It’s worth noting that you usually won’t be able to get the exact location of the actual person who sent the email. For example, if someone in Germany sends you an email using Gmail, the last IP address in the header section will probably be the public IP address assigned to that user from the ISP, which will give you the location of the user ranging from within a mile all the way to the city or region level.
The reason for the wide range is that the IP address that an ISP assigns to a particular user is normally dynamic. This means that the IP address they had when the email was sent may now be assigned to a different user in the region. This is the main reason why you might get a wide geographic area when looking up the location of the IP address.
However, depending on what device people are using to send emails when using Gmail or another online email service, the last IP address might just be the IP address of Google or Yahoo or Hotmail servers, so keep that in mind too.
Another scenario where you might not get any useful info is if the email was sent from a server on a hosting company data center. For example, whenever I get an email from Boxee, the originating IP address is from SoftLayer, which is a big server hosting company. That’s because the email was probably created and sent from the server itself.

Find the IP Address for an Email in GMail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook

Let’s go ahead and take a look at how you would find the IP address in the email header for Google, Yahoo and Outlook since those are the most popular email clients. If you’re using a different email client, just Google how to view email header info. Then come back and read the rest of this post.

Google Gmail

1. Log into your Gmail account and open the email in question.
2. Click on the down arrow that’s to the right of the Reply arrow. Choose Show Original from the list.

Now here is the technical part that I was telling you about earlier! You need to look for the lines of text that start with “Received: from“. It might be easier to simply press Cntrl + F and perform a search for that phase. You’ll notice that there are several Received From’s in the message header. This is because the message header contains the IP addresses of all of servers involved in routing that email to you.

To find the first computer that originally sent the email, you’ll have to find the Received From that’s farthest DOWN. As you can see from the above image, the first one is from a computer with a private IP address of 192.168.1.13 and with the public IP address 99.108.173.229. Then it was routed to my ISP’s server at lightspeed.rcsntx.sbcglobal.net, which is basically AT&T U-verse and so on and so forth till it got to your email server. Don’t worry, I don’t happen to know off the top of my head that sbcglobal is AT&T U-verse! The tool that I mention below to lookup an IP address gives you the organization name.
The computer 192.168.1.13 is my personal home computer and the IP address assigned to my computer on my internal LAN network. There are several ranges of IP addresses that are considered private IP addresses. You can read about them on Wikipedia. All you need to do is recognize it’s a private IP address and that you can’t lookup the location of a private IP address. You can, however, use the internal IP address if you were to contact the organization, they might be able to help you determine the exact user or person the email came from. I’ll explain this in more detail below.
Now I’ll go through Yahoo and Outlook before talking about tracking the location of the IP address.

Yahoo Mail

1. Log into your Yahoo account and open the email.
2. Now in the menu bar, click on Actions and then click on View Full Header.

Again, you’ll see the same information as before, just in a different pop up window:

As you can see above, the last IP address for an email I sent from my Gmail account to my Yahoo account was 209.85.212.43. When you lookup the IP address, it’s just a Google server in California. So depending on how the user sends the email (email client, desktop or mobile, WiFi or cellular), you may get a useful location or you may not.

Microsoft Outlook

1. Open the email in Outlook by double-clicking on it
2. Go to View at the top menu (the menu options for the email, not the main Outlook window) and choose Options.

You’ll get a dialog box where you can set the message options and at the bottom you’ll see the Internet Headers box. For some silly reason, the box is very small and you have to scroll a lot, so it’s best to simply copy and paste the text into Notepad to view it more easily.

Tracking the location of an IP address

Now that we have our originating IP address of 99.108.173.229, let’s find out where that is! You can do this by perform a location lookup on the IP address. My favorite is whatismyipaddress.com.

As you can see from above, the site gives you general IP info like the ISP and organization, which in my case was AT&T. It then gives you more specific location information, which is Allen, TX. That is accurate since the email was from my wife from our house in Allen, TX. It even gives you a nice map with a pretty approximate location:

As you can see, the circle is quite large, but the little red marker is fairly close to where I live. This is a pretty lucky instance where I got some useful info. In another email, for example, I got the following IP address: 199.242.234.126. When I looked it up, the area was quite large and the red marker couldn’t help me determine any other useful info.

However, when looking at the Organization, I saw UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Perfect! That’s exactly where my friend works and she had sent an email during the day while at work.
Unfortunately if you want to get more detailed information beyond that, such as the computer inside the medical center that sent the email, you’ll have to contact that organization. You may have to furnish court orders, etc, but at least you have a starting point. Again, as I mentioned above in the beginning, this is where you could provide the organization with the actual internal IP address of the computer that sent the email, if it’s in the header.
In the example above, finding the contact info for the medical center would be pretty easy. However, that is not always the case. In the latter situation, you can get more contact information by doing WHOIS database search. My favorite one is from WHOis.net. This will give you information on the organization that hosts that IP address and their registration information. You can always contact them to try and find more information on that particular IP address.
Have fun trying to track down those emails! Questions, comments, or suggestions? Post a comment!

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