Control

The U.S. Army is planning the largest ever demonstration of its Manned Unmanned Systems Integration Concept (MUSIC). The technology, which we first covered back in 2006, allows pilots to control the payload of a nearby Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) from the cockpit of an Apache Attack helicopter. The demonstration to be held at Dougway Proving Ground, Utah, is aimed at analyzing the progress of evolving manned-unmanned teaming technologies and will showcase level-4 UAS interoperability, which includes the ability to control the payload and view feeds from UAS systems in real-time from the cockpit.  Read More

The basis of most 3D systems is to "trick" our eyes into believing that an image shown on a flat screen has three dimensions, but what if you could throw away the screen entirely! It sounds simply too far-fetched and impossible to choreograph, but that's exactly what researchers MIT's SENSEable City Lab and Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory (ARES Lab) have created with Flyfire - a cloud of LED-carrying micro-helicopters controlled in synchrony to show unique animated light displays in three-dimensional space.  Read More

Throw away your keyboard – well lessen your dependence on it anyway - the PEREGRINE USB glove can be customized for over 30 user-programmable actions allowing you to react more quickly in intense gaming situations. The glove allows the wearer to carry out those time sensitive gaming commands with a twitch of a finger by utilizing the touch sensitive pads embedded in the fingers and palm of the glove.  Read More

The gestural interface used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report was based on work by MIT Media Lab’s Hiroshi Ishii, who has already commercialized similar large-scale gestural interface systems. However, such systems comprise many expensive cameras or require the user to wear tracking devices on their fingers. To develop a similar yet cost effective gestural interface system that is within reach of many more people other researchers at MIT have instead been working to develop screens with embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user’s fingers that could quickly make touch screens seem outdated.  Read More

Opera's powerful content sharing technology, Unite, has now been fully integrated into its desktop browser with the release of Opera 10.10. Opera lovers can also enjoy visual tabs to view thumbnails of pages in open tabs, a page-loading turbo boost, web navigation with mouse gestures and a customizable speed dial interface.  Read More

Native Instruments has just announced a recession-busting update to its impressive arsenal of digital musical instruments and effects - Komplete 6. The bundle not only comes with improved versions of amp and effects simulator Guitar Rig, the powerful sound manipulator Absynth and over 44Gb of sampling joy in the form of Kontakt, but it's also being offered at a significantly reduced price too.  Read More

The Sonos Controller has just undergone a makeover. Like the CR100 before it, the new controller will allow you to effortlessly manage music throughout your home but instead of controlling the action using a scroll wheel and buttons, the new Sonos CR200 now has a 3.5in capacitive touchscreen, full-color VGA 640 x 480 LCD display with LED backlighting.  Read More

Logitech has made a couple of additions to its G-series line of high-end gaming peripherals - the Gaming Mouse G500, which updates Logitech’s G5 Laser Mouse, and the Gaming Headset G330, which is lightweight and features an adjustable, behind-the-head design.  Read More

Trucks of the future could be equipped with an on-board digital co-driver to help the human behind the wheel, or even take over if the driver loses control. The HAVEit project (short for Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport) has 28 million euros (USD$40 million) at its disposal and is aiming to develop an intelligent driver assist system that responds to both traffic conditions and drivers' needs.  Read More