OmniTouch: How to Turn Any Surface Into a Multi-Touch Screen [Video]

OmniTouch is a wearable depth-sensing and projection system that enables interactive multitouch applications on everyday surfaces. Beyond the shoulder-worn system, there is no instrumentation of the user or environment. Foremost, the system allows the wearer to use their hands, arms and legs as graphical, interactive surfaces. Users can also transiently appropriate surfaces from the environment to expand the interactive area (e.g., books, walls, tables). On such surfaces – without any calibration – OmniTouch provides capabilities similar to that of a mouse or touchscreen: X and Y location in 2D interfaces and whether fingers are “clicked” or hovering, enabling a wide variety of interactions. Thus, it is now conceivable that anything one can do on today’s mobile devices, they could do in the palm of their hand.

[Omnitouch]

Aaaawwwww… I Can Finally Go Home and Relax! [Comic]

Ouch… truth hurts, doesn’t it?

[Source: Dueling Analogs]

Now that’s what I call an ARM smartphone

A British man has built the ultimate smartphone dock: his left arm.

Trevor Prideaux was born with only one arm and had previously had the inconvenience that using a cellphone (other than on speaker) meant he didn’t have a hand free during a call. But advances in technology brought new problems: now that he uses touchscreen smartphones, he’s struggled to find a way round either having to lean the device on his prosthetic arm or find a flat surface whenever he wants to use the phone’s non-calling functions.

*Video removed by request.

Whereas most of us just upgrade a phone every few years, Prideaux also has new prosthetics made at regular intervals. When looking at an iPhone he realised that building it into a false arm could solve his problems. However, an appeal to Apple for a dummy phone casing to try out his idea proved unsuccessful.

Instead Prideaux later decided to upgrade to a Nokia C7 and found the company was willing to help out. He then went to the Exeter Mobility Centre, which manufactures his limbs, where staff made a fiber cast of the phone and then built the “dock” directly into the limb. The phone sits safely in place but can easily be removed if needed.

Prideaux is now able to easily use the touchscreen and can also simply lift his prosthetic arm to his head to make voice calls. He hopes the idea can be developed to help other people with prosthetics, particularly those who lose limbs later in life and have already become used to operating phones with both hands.

The current version of the dock is purely for holding the phone in place. However, with recent advances in the conversion of kinetic energy, it’s not completely inconceivable that one day — probably in many years’ time — such a dock could also provide at least some of the power for the phone.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Prideaux has made the headlines. He’s also the organizer of the Turnip Prize, an “art competition” that spoofs the Tate Gallery’s controversial Turner Prize for modern art. The Turnip Prize is based largely around puns, with poor quality and a lack of effort also contributory factors.

Sonic Screwdrivers: Banned in Action Movies Since 1963 [Video]

There’s a reason you don’t see sonic screwdrivers in action movies.

Thanks Patrick!

Joyland Blizzard Rip-Off Theme Park Exists!

Universe of Starcraft? Terrain of Warcraft? Is Blizzard opening an amusement park?!

Wait, don’t get too excited. As you might have heard early this year when some concept art was floating around the Internet, the amusement park in question is “Joyland” in Wujin District in China, and it actually has no affiliation with Blizzard. And by “no affiliation” we mean “unauthorized” – because after seeing some actual images of the place, “rip-off” is definitely not too strong a word. Universe of Starcraft and Terrain of Warcraft are the two major areas of the park, and feature not just a similar aesthetic or allusions to Blizzard’s games, but the actual character designs. The Escapist has posted a gallery of photographs taken at the park (which really does exist and is operational!) and you kind of have to see it to believe it.

The following video is about planned “digital tourism” in general for Wujin District, but skip to 3:02 to see the pitch for Joyland from earlier this year. WoW players might recognize the background music.

For those of you who might be excited at the idea of going to a Warcraft-themed park, authorized or not, you might want to hold off on those plans. According to The Escapist, the park is already in pretty dismal shape – more flash than substance, it seems. If it’s just opened and there’s already rust and cracked paint, I for one wouldn’t really want to get on a coaster. And then there’s the looming threat of Blizzard lawsuits. Though it will be much trickier than if the culprits were in the United States, this is a pretty clear case of both copyright and trademark infringement.

Of course, the real moral of this story? Blizzard should get on making a real, good amusement park, stat. They might even consider the route of Wizarding World and just make over some existing piece of park real estate somewhere… The Lost Continent section of Islands of Adventure was kind of lackluster the last time I was there, and then World of Warcraft would be right next to Harry Potter. How convenient!

Featured Short: The Birds of Anger [Video]

Warning: Video contains a little blood and footage of birds attacking people.

The Bacons are visited by their next door neighbor, Anne, who has brought them a lovely basket of eggs, but unfortunately, the birds want their eggs back.

[G4TV]