This week we had a whole lot of CES news! MergeVR revealed a neat cube concept they are using with AR mobile apps, we had a range of new robots including one designed by a Pixar animator and one news story contained the words “Alexa order me a dollhouse” which led to some automatic purchases around San Diego.
MergeVR’s HOLO CUBE, the dollhouse that must have spiked in popularity and Kuri!
Sydney Robotics Course for High School Students!
There are still some spots left! I’m helping the team at Nexgen Codecamp run their robotics course on the 17th January in Ultimo. Got kids who want to learn Arduino? Sign em up!
Virtual Reality
VRTK — a quicker and easier way to build virtual reality
If you are looking to build VR apps for Oculus and Vive, check this out!
Intel demos world’s first ‘walk-around’ VR video experience
Yep. It isn’t quite walk around, more “move your head” but it’s incredible. You can move your head and see BEHIND objects like real life! Way beyond 360 video. It’s not coming to homes anytime soon, every frame of video is 3GB.
First look at Windows Holographic VR headsets from Dell, HP, Acer & 3Glasses
What each of the Microsoft VR headsets will look like!
1,000 Vive trackers to be given away to developers ahead of launch
Keep an eye out for applications! I’ll post a link in the newsletter the week I see them go up.
Hands-On at CES with Intel’s Project Alloy standalone VR headset
Sounds like it has potential with mixed reality, but object drift caused this reviewer to bump into the table which appeared as a crate slightly further away.
VIVE Unveils New Accessories and Subscription Service at CES
They unveiled some new accessories (including a headphone strap!) and a Viveport subscription service!
Let me tell you what it’s like to wear VR shoes
This is a good article by The Verge from CES 2017 — “When I strapped on Cerevo’s Taclim VR shoes, I felt like an old man.”
Designing for Hands in VR
A pretty detailed look at hand interaction in VR from Oculus.
I tried to work all day in a VR headset and it was horrible
This was a pretty funny look at one journalist’s attempt to work many hours straight in a VR headset. Some great quotes in there.
Video hands-on with the Pico Neo CV VR headset at CES 2017
It has its own spatial audio speakers so you can be totally untethered.
Samsung Gear VR install base has passed 5 million headsets
Samsung Gear VR has more than 5 million headsets in use worldwide! That’s a LOT of headsets!
IBM Speech Sandbox
A super neat voice recognition VR experience for the Vive
Mobile room-scale VR ‘fully doable’ with Vive tracker says dev
Play a shooter with your friend in VR using your smartphone and a gun controller. This is such a good idea.
4 Gear VR apps with concepts we should learn from
Here are four Gear VR apps with cool concepts that might spark some ideas for concepts in your own creations.
Augmented and Mixed Reality
Meta’s augmented reality glasses look ridiculous, but they’re ridiculously comfortable
As someone who is eagerly looking forward to receiving and regularly wearing his Meta 2 headset this year, I’m glad to hear they’re comfortable at least!
ODG announce their Snapdragon 835-powered R-8 & R-9 glasses
ODG’s new R-8 & R-9 AR glasses were shown at CES 2017. The Verge weren’t fans of them at all. Microsoft released a comparison between the R-9 and Hololens too.
HOLO CUBE lets you hold and play with AR in the palm of your hand
Interesting concept from MergeVR at CES, a cube that you build AR experiences for and view from a Google Cardboard style device.
Introducing HoloLamp: A portable, projector-based, glasses-free augmented reality
Another hologram-type product! This projects 3D objects you can interact with onto tables, rather than requiring glasses.
Magic Leap CEO: “We have made something that is small, mobile, powerful, and we think pretty cool”
No word yet on when they’ll reveal stuff but he says 2017 will be a big year. From other news on Magic Leap, they appear to have pivoted to release something different to the lightfield tech promised earlier.
Trying Vuzix Blade 3000, the smartglasses for work and play
“The Blade 3000 are probably the nicest looking, most comfortable pair of proper smartglasses I’ve tried”. It doesn’t look too bad!
Wearables
Wearables are not dead
Wearables aren’t dead or dying. Here’s why.
Fitbit is building an app store and wants to launch it in 2017
The addition of Pebble team members makes a lot of sense now.
Motiv Ring is as discreet as a fitness tracker wearable gets
Prefer a small ring rather than a watch or wristband?
Google Calendar integrates with Google Fit and Apple Health to help you stick to your fitness goals
This is a neat idea.
Samsung’s smartwatch lineup now works with your iPhone
The Gear S3, Gear S2 and Gear Fit 2 now work with iPhone!
The top smartwatches of CES 2017
Android Wear 2.0 will be out this year and Misfit will have their own OS.
Garmin’s new Fenix 5 was designed with women in mind
They’ve got a smaller watchface which might suit women a tad more than the bulky ones.
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics
Amazon Echo can now answer follow-up questions similar to Google Home
Great news! It’s still not quite as advanced as Google Home but it’ll do!
Home robot Kuri is like an Amazon Echo designed by Pixar
Home robot Kuri is a seriously cool (and cute) home assistant! I want one!
DeepMind’s updated AlphaGo has been secretly savaging pro players online
Under the accounts “Master” and “Magister”, DeepMind had Go secretly playing random players online.
7 artificial intelligence startups to watch in 2017
Some very exciting startups here!
Slack invests in 11 bot startups to seed its platform
Getting into chatbots could be a good idea this year, companies like Slack, IBM, Amazon and Twilio are currently investing in them!
We need to be inventing more robots that serve humans delicious frozen yogurt
Yes. I agree. Well. Sorta. I’d prefer ice cream.
Will robots take over the world?
Meri Amber had a fun look at the topic in her latest song vlog this week!
Here’s what it’s like to drive with Toyota’s Yui AI in-car assistant
“The driver’s seat started giving me a really good lower back massage”.
TV anchor says live on-air ‘Alexa, order me a dollhouse’ – guess what happens next
Oh dear.
Two months after the Google Home’s release, it still can’t perform many basic tasks
Google Assistant’s functionality varies abilities depending on the app/device being used.
Internet of Things
Alexa: Amazon’s operating system
A nice look at how Alexa is actually Amazon’s OS for the emerging tech age!
The best smart home gadgets of CES 2017
There was A LOT announced at CES 2017, it could fill several newsletters! If you want to see a full list, The Verge has just the thing right here.
Arduino unveiled LoRa modules for the Internet of Things
Want LoRa connectivity? Arduino now has official modules to help out!
This smart hairbrush tells you if your locks are in good shape
Finally… a smart hairbrush?
Stringify at CES 2017
Came across Stringify as they were part of CES 2017! They are “a thoughtful automation service for the Internet of Things (IoT)”, similar to IFTTT but… they also connect to IFTTT?
Chip Pro is a $16 computer empowering makers to build IoT gadgets
Here’s a platform for IoT devices that can be used in mass production.
Automated cat feeder with Alexa and Amazon Dash
How to make an automated cat feeder using a Raspberry Pi, Alexa and Amazon Dash.
IoT smart desk drawer with Amazon DRS
Never run out of office supplies again thanks to technology!
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