Tomorrow is Today

Japanese Augmented Reality Robot Lets Users Physically Interact With Avatars

U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi is a “virtual assistant” that is actually a green-clad humanoid robot. Users look at her using virtual reality goggles and instead of seeing a mildly creepy, ninja-like blog they see an actual face and body. You can reach out, touch the body, and even shake hands with your robotic pal.

Made by a Japanese company called Different Dimension Inc., the robot uses a program called MMDAgent to interact with users. An initial prototype looked like a ‘tween in footie pajamas and a full-face hood. The newest version consists of half of a body and a much smaller profile. The pre-order price will be about $5,000.

via Gizmag (via This Augmented-Reality Robot Is The Closest Thing You Can Get To A Real-Life Hologram | TechCrunch)

Curved LCD paves way for augmented reality contact lenses

The Centre of Microsystems Technology announced that it has developed a curved LCD that is able to be embedded into a contact lens, bringing us even closer to full-time, glasses-less augmented reality.

If you’re wondering why a curved LCD was chosen rather than embeddable LEDs, it’s because the LCD option allows the use of the entire display, whereas an LED array can only use a small area of the surface. Jelle De Smet, the main researcher on the project, explains that even flexible liquid crystal displays are normally not designed to withstand the shaping process however, by using new kinds of conductive polymers they were able to create a spherical shape.

Along with the larger display area, the team can change the pattern, number, and size of the pixels in the LCD. For example, if the team creates lenses using one large pixel per lens, they could change the pixels’ shade, effectively creating lens-based sunglasses. If they instead decide to stuff as many pixels into the LCD as possible, then the lens could act as a detailed display.

(via Curved LCD paves way for augmented reality contact lenses | ExtremeTech)

Microsoft Patent Describes Real Time Augmented Reality for Live Events

While not describing the device itself, the patent application details how a head-mounted display could be used to augment live events in realtime with relevant information (like stats during a baseball game, as pictured above). To do so, the system would recognize both where you are and what objects are in your field of view, and then display the supplemental information that’d be continually updated based on what’s happening or where you’re looking.

(via Microsoft patent application details head-mounted display used to augment live events)

Researchers Use Augmented Reality to Control Appetite by Making Food Look Bigger

A group at the University of Tokyo is developing an augmented reality system that will alter a diner’s perception of the size of food on their plate, and in turn influence how much they eat.

That’s because our food cravings seem to be determined, at least in part, by how our meal looks,Takuji Narumi, one of system’s builders, explained to Diginfo: “We found that when food looks bigger, you feel full right away, but when it looks small, you don’t feel full even if you eat a lot.”

In their demo video, a person wearing the AR headset sits in front of a blue screen holding what looks like an Oreo. He sits still and stares at it, and the Oreo appears to grow in his hand (a laptop to his side lets the audience follow along).

A dozen subjects tested the system, Narumi says. When their food appeared 1.5 times its natural size, the testers at 10 percent less. On the other hand, when researchers “shrank” the food to two-thirds its natural size, their subjects ate 15 percent more.

(via AR Eyewear Fools Your Belly (and Brain) Into Feeling Full | MIT Technology Review)

UPDATE: Google’s Cat-Video Identifying Neural Net Now Working to Improve Voice Commands, Image Search, Google Glass and Self-Driving Cars

Google is now using these neural networks to recognize speech more accurately, a technology increasingly important to Google’s smartphone operating system, Android, as well as the search app it makes available for Apple devices.

“We got between 20 and 25 percent improvement in terms of words that are wrong,” says Vincent Vanhoucke, a leader of Google’s speech-recognition efforts. “That means that many more people will have a perfect experience without errors.”

The neural net is so far only working on U.S. English, and Vanhoucke says similar improvements should be possible when it is introduced for other dialects and languages.

Other Google products will likely improve over time with help from the new learning software. The company’s image search tools, for example, could become better able to understand what’s in a photo without relying on surrounding text. And Google’s self-driving cars and mobile computer built into a pair of glasses could benefit from software better able to make sense of more real-world data.

(via Google Puts Its Virtual Brain Technology to Work - Technology Review)

See Also: “Google and Stanford have created the [digital equivalent of the] visual cortex of an infant human”

MIT Researchers Develop “Eye Ring,” a Wearable Augmented Reality Peripheral To help the Blind Read, Identify Objects

The finger-worn device allows you to point at an object, take a photo, and hear feedback about what it is you just focused on.

…Initially conceived as a potential aid for the visually impaired, the EyeRing could also work as a navigation or translation aid, or help children learn to read, say the researchers involved. The group is interested in eventually turning it into a commercial product.

As smartphones become increasingly common, the use of augmented reality—the blending of digital content with the real world—has also risen, mainly in the form of apps that harness the phone’s camera and sensors and use its screen as a window to a more data-rich world.

The EyeRing takes this a step further by offering aural feedback via a wearable device. And while it’s still just a research project, some experts believe wearable electronics will eventually become common—an idea Google recently put in the spotlight by confirming it’s working on glasses that can show the wearer maps, messages, and more.

(via Augmented Reality, Wrapped Around Your Finger - Technology Review)

Japanese Researchers Bring Augmented Reality to the Kitchen

Computer scientist Yu Suzuki and colleagues at Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan kitted out a kitchen with ceiling-mounted cameras and projectors that overlay cooking instructions on the ingredients. This lets you concentrate on slicing and dicing without having to look up at a book or a screen.

“Cooks can easily and visually understand how to prepare an ingredient for a recipe even if they have no cooking experience,” says Suzuki.

Suppose you want to fillet a fish. Lay it down on a chopping board and the cameras will detect its outline and orientation so the projectors can overlay a virtual knife on the fish with a line indicating where to cut. Speech bubbles even appear to sprout from the fish’s mouth, guiding you through each step.

If that is not enough, the kitchen also comes equipped with a small robot assistant named Phyno that sits on the countertop. When its cameras detect the chef has stopped touching the ingredients, Phyno asks whether that particular step in the recipe is complete. Users can answer “yes” to move on to the next step or “no” to have the robot repeat the instructions.

(via Augmented reality kitchens keep novice chefs on track - tech - 16 August 2012 - New Scientist)

Profile of Innovega’s Developing Contact Lens and Glasses AR System

With these contact lenses, the user can view the world naturally: Their eyes can move normally and there aren’t any cumbersome goggles to hinder movement or perception.

For external hardware, users are also given a pair of glasses which are used to project the extra data.

But the contact lenses are crucial here. Without them, data beamed onto the glasses is fuzzy and messy. The contact lens collates and refines the augmented info.

The lenses enable a complete field of view while staying light. This innovation separates them from their competitors, many of whose products require goggles to refine the projected images…

(via Augmented Reality Contact Lenses - Business Insider)