Experimenting with visual perception

Wearable technology isn't just about health & fitness, which is all the rage right now. German artist lorenz potthast offers an experimental approach to vision that challenges our visual perception. His Decelerator Helmet creates an evocative experience that filters the environment and shows the user a slow motion perception of the world. "The technical reproducible senses are consigned to an apparatus which allows the user to perceive the world in slow motion. The stream of time as an apparently invariant constant is broken and subjected under the users control.

Processed by a small computer, the helmet uses a video-signal of a camera to slow down the stream seen via a head-mounted display and simultaneously shown at a monitor on the outside. The idea to decouple the personal perception from the natural timing enables the user to get aware about his own relationship to time. Working as a 'reflection-bubble, the helmet bridges relations between sensory perception, while disrupting the environment.

The technique of the decelerator extends the awareness of time and transforms the concept of present in a constructed, artificial state. On a different level, it dramatically visualizes how slowing down under all circumstances causes a loss of actuality and as idea is inconsistent with our surroundings." Continue reading on designboom.

Images from designboom.

Is it time for a Google Smartwatch?

Google is exploring the idea of making a smart watch according to a Business Insider source mentioned on Gigaom. They suggest that "Google is researching how to market such a device and BI notes certain relevant patents Google has that would support such a product. Even with the report, which I’d consider a rumor at this point, now’s the time for a Google smart watch for a number of reasons I can think of. The biggest one? Google already has a smart watch on the market." Continue reading on Gigaom. Smartwatches like this would be great as a companion device to your smartphone where the watch displays glance-able data and timely information that is important to see if you are unable to take your phone out. The watch would not be ideal for consuming a lot of content or interacting with apps that have a lot of functionality. Leave the more advance interaction and content consumption to your phone.

I'd like to see Google and Apple duke it out with a smartwatch offering. Which do you think would be the better experience? Read more about the apple rumor at Is iWatch in Apple's future?

Check out Google's smartwatch patents here. Image and more info at Gizmodo.

GPS shoes inspired by Wizard of Oz

Dominic Wilcox teamed up with interactive arts and technology expert Becky Stewart and Northamptonshire shoe maker Stamp Shoes to create these GPS shoes inspired by the Wizard of Oz. In order to create the fully functioning prototype, Wilcox worked with interactive arts and technology expert Becky Stewart and local Northampton shoe maker Stamp Shoes. The project was commissioned by Global Footprint, a Northamptonshire-based visual arts and living heritage program and is currently on display at Dominic Wilcox's solo exhibition at KK Outlet, 42 Hoxton Square, London, until the 26th September. One of the things that's working with this project (in addition to the clever conceptual twist) is the seamless blend between technology and craftsmanship. Wilcox uses traditional shoemaking techniques and materials that give the footwear a sense of nostalgia with a contemporary twist. It's a good example of making the technology discreet by integrating it directly into the aesthetics and styling. This fashionability also reduces the dork-factor found in a lot of wearable concepts out there these days. Keep moving us forward Wilcox!

Here's more on Wilcox' approach:

For more information, go to Dominic Wilcox or Gizmag.

An interview with Steve Mann

New York Time's Bits recently conducted an interview with Steve Mann, one of the great pioneers in wearable tech, who talked about "mediated reality" and where he thinks wearable tech is heading. "Steve Mann is considered by many to be the world’s first cyborg. He has been using wearable computers that assist his vision since the 1970s. Now he wears a display screen over his right eye and is connected to a computer and the Internet. In this edited interview, he discusses 'mediated reality'; the coming wearable-computing wars among Apple, Google and RIM; and the brain-computer interface. Are you the first cyborg? Yes. If you look through the history of wearables, I was named the father of wearable computing, or the world’s first cyborg. But the definition of wearable computing can be kind of fuzzy itself. Thousands of years ago, in China, people would wear an abacus around their neck — that, in one sense, was a wearable computer.

Will we all be cyborgs soon? It’s kind of obvious that everyone is moving along that trajectory. What I envisioned back in the 1970s was this thing you would wear as “glass” over your right eye, and you could see the world though that glass. The glass then reconfigures the things you see.

Unlike smartphones, where we have to look at our devices, will wearables look at us? There’s research showing that glass looks at people, but now wearable computers are people looking at. You just end there, at “at.” That’s what makes it so deliciously wonderful."

Continue reading on Bits. Image is of Steve Mann via Bits.

Insoles monitor the way you walk

If you're thinking about movement monitoring, here's an interesting pedo-biometrics application. Research shows that each person has a unique way of walking that can be measured by pressure and your gait, so your footprint is just as much a personal signature as your fingerprint. A research team at Carnegie Mellon are fast at work to capitalize on this information and is developing special shoe inserts that can determine the identity of a person just by how they walk. These security-monitoring inserts can then determine whether or not a person has the security clearance to be in a certain area like a power plant, military base or a high-tech research facility. Continue reading on Ecouttere.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers at the new $1.5 million per year Pedo-Biometrics Lab are teaming up with Autonomous ID, an Ottawa, Canada, company currently relocating operations to the U.S. to test insole sensory system prototypes for a variety of identification uses, from security to detecting the onset of such diseases as diabetes and Parkinson's. The CMU Pedo-Biometrics Lab, headed by Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Marios Savvides, will provide the roadmap for scientific analysis and algorithm research and development for the new pedo-biometrics discipline, which uses a specially designed insole to monitor foot movement. Continue reading at Carnegie Mellon Engineering.

Image from Gent.

Athletes using wearable tech to win gold

PSFK published a good article that takes a look at how olympic athletes are using wearable technology to win Gold in London. "Brought to you with the help of Intel, PSFK looks at how even though Olympians are the world’s most physically gifted athletes, some may have an advantage by training with innovative gadgets and programs.

The 2012 London Olympics are poised to be the most tech-forward Summer Olympic games. During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, 108 world records were set–until those games, only an average of 22 records had been broken at Olympic games. Why the massive increase in Beijing? Advances in technology. In the four years since Beijing, the world has seen even greater innovations in this sector– in 2008, Facebook and Twitter were still in their infancy, the iPhone was in its first generation, and being able to make a payment through NFC technology was just a dream.

How will the current advances in technology give Olympic hopefuls an edge in the competition? From specially designed, golf-ball inspired track suits that promise to shave 0.023 seconds off a sprinter’s 100m time to cycling bikes with the least possible drag that increase the possibility of reducing mile splits by 1.6 seconds, athletes are better equipped than ever to win gold.

Some athletes are further embracing technology, using sensors and chips to help them analyze their performance, guaranteeing their movements are as efficient as possible- and therefore hopefully increase their chance for winning Olympic gold.

British gymnast Mimi Cesar has perfected her rhythmic floor routine using MotivePro, a vibrating suit that uses a modular system of sensors on her body to track and record her movements. The sensors give her real-time feedback as to where her body is in space, and vibrate when her arms, legs, head, chest, or feet go outside a desired range of motion. Because the feedback is instantaneous, Mimi can correct and refine her position while doing her routine. The suit can also give her audio cues as to when she’s out of alignment, and after she’s finished her routine, she can play back her performance to see visual cues to help make it perfect.

....

Lolo Jones, an American hurdler, is also using motion-detecting sensors to optimize her form in her quest to win gold in the 100m hurdle event. Unlike Mimi, who has several minutes to complete her event, Lolo’s event will be over in roughly 12 seconds- every fraction of a second could mean the difference between placing at the Olympics or falling short. To improve her performance and to drop her average time, Lolo tracks every second of her performance using a 40 Vicon T40S motion-capture cameras that record 2,000 frames per second. The cameras capture the 39 reflective motion detection sensors Lolo wears on her body, allowing her and her team to analyze her every movement down to millimeters."

Continue reading on PSFK