3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

Quest 8-bit Mats Turn Your Floor Into A Classic RPG
6 Mobile Apps for the Modern City Dwellers
New Wearable Tech Ensures You Keep Hydrated
Earin Earphones Ditch the Cord, Go Completely Wireless
Japanese Comedian Robot Is Funnier Than Some Humans
Brew your own coffee on your car, and never be late again!

Quest 8-bit Mats Turn Your Floor Into A Classic RPG

Posted: 18 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

From the screen to your floors, now you can decorate a piece of your home like the map of a classic role-playing game.

To think that a vast fantasy world, where brave knights, powerful wizards, and all kinds of mythical creatures inhabit the land, could easily be brought to life thanks to a few blocky pixels and a limited color palette. But that's all we needed back in the “good old days” of the original Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest – something now you can bring to your humble abode.

From Japanese culture import shop, Jbox, comes these adorable role-playing-game floor mats where you can instantly turn the ground you walk on into a 8-bit fantasy land. Every "Quest 8-bit Mats" sets are basically building blocks that easily snap together and range from green grassfields, boulders, treasure boxes, castle blocks, and more.

You only get four blocks in a set, precisely 30x30x4cm in size and with two base tiles and two special tiles, but for $6.85 (USD) each it shouldn't be too costly to make a proper-sized RPG map for your living room, a gaming nook, or a children’s playroom. Each tile is made from a soft, cushy foam that also makes for a nice sound dampener.

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6 Mobile Apps for the Modern City Dwellers

Posted: 18 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Are you looking for things to do in your city or do you want to know the best way to get around? There are all sorts of apps to help you. Take a look at these six apps for the modern city dweller.

Image via Flickr by WarmSleepy

Find Local Events with the Event Finder App

If you want to meet new people in your city with similar interests to your own, the Event Finder app is a must. It lists social events and large gatherings by time and location. There is everything from local festivals and flea markets to free concerts and political rallies. You won’t be friendless for long if you get out to the local events and meet new people. The Event Finder app is also a great way to find things to do when you’re bored.

Get Around on Public Transit with the HopStop App

Some cities are impossible to navigate in a car because the parking is so scarce. However, you can get around easily by train or bus with the HopStop app. All you have to do is put in your starting location and ending location and you’ll be given directions on where to board and how long it will take you to travel. This app is a lifesaver because you don’t have to look at route maps and try to figure out everything yourself. The app works great in big cities like New York City and Washington D.C. It will also tell you an approximate taxi fare.

Rent a Car for a Day or Two with the CarRentals.com App

Living in a big city is great because you can often get away with not owning a car, especially if your city has a good transit system. However, if there is somewhere you want to go that you can’t reach by bus, the Carrentals app is there for you. It is one of the easiest ways to book a rental car, even on short notice. The app is free and you can compare rentals from several companies to get the best price. Then, you can view and cancel reservations through the app.

Find Important Businesses Near You with the AroundMe App

If you’re looking for the closest bank, gas station, post office, grocery store, or anything else in your city, the AroundMe app can help you. For instance, it will tell you where to find the closest emergency room if you get hurt or the closest hotel if you’re not going to make it home. The app is great if you’re in an unfamiliar area, but it can also help you recognize things around you that you didn’t know were there. It works by looking at your location with your phone’s GPS.

Find Great Deals on Local Attractions with the Groupon App

The Groupon app is a fun way to discover new shops, restaurants, and attractions at a discount. It helps you get the most out of your city. For instance, you might be able to get a Groupon deal for your favorite sports team that is paired with a nearby restaurant. It helps you save money doing the things you would already do. Plus, sometimes you’ll find Groupon deals for things you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t know how, such as skydiving or riding in a hot air balloon.

Explore Your City from Your Phone with the UpNext 3D Cities App

There’s tons of stuff to do in the city, but sometimes you just want to sit at home and relax. However, now you can do both, thanks to the UpNext 3D Cities app. It is an incredible app that lets you tour buildings and venues in your city just by tapping your screen. It also provides you information about each place to help you plan future trips. It’s not available in every city, but check to see if it is available in yours.

These are just a few city dweller apps you can use to your advantage. Go out and start discovering new things in your city. How did people in the city ever live without apps?

New Wearable Tech Ensures You Keep Hydrated

Posted: 18 Jun 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Forgetting to drink water regularly might seem a bit laughable for most people, but it’s a problem that a new wearable sensor sets out to mitigate.

Google I/O is fast approaching, and although we have a good idea of some of the new things we will see announced, we still don’t know much about Google’s wearables plan or Android Wear, other than the fact that it exists.

Although Google will likely unload a lot of details about the incoming smartwatches at Google I/O, the technology still has a long way to go. ITt is also a rapidly growing technology, though, with many seemingly essential improvements coming out almost every week.

This week, the new feature comes from Sandia National Laboratories. One of the biggest areas being exploited by newly developed wearable sensors is medical technology. Many wearables started out as fitness trackers, but quickly expanded into deeper medical uses. Sandia’s new sensor falls right into that category. The bottom of the sensor is covered with micro-needles that stick into your skin (ouch!) to measure your interstitial fluid levels, in order to report hydration levels.

This sensor might not be the best for the casual wearer, considering the more invasive nature, but it would be phenomenal for hospitals, endurance athletes, astronauts, and anyone else that needs to intensively monitor hydration levels. While the average person may suffer from irritability or a headache from dehydration, embedding a device lined with micro-needles into ones skin may be a little overkill when access to water isn’t always quite so desperate in any areas of the world where wearable tech is also available.

Even so, some people are already all aboard the wearable train, despite deficiencies, so such an invasive sensor may not seem so unreasonable to many that place a high value upon the self quantification provided by modern wearables. The only data that can be gathered from most wearables available today is limited to various motion tracking functions, manually input user data, and–more recently–heart rate, so the type of data provided by hydration monitoring could definitely be appealing to some of the more fanatical users of personal data trackers.

I’m not aware of any sane person that likes being stuck by needles, so any sensors, such as Google’s glucose sensing contact lenses that eliminates the need for needles will definitely gain popularity. Obviously, like any technology, Sandia Labs’ sensor will likely become more efficient and less invasive over the years, so this may be an option in the typical smatwatch (or contact lenses) sans-needles before you know it.

Earin Earphones Ditch the Cord, Go Completely Wireless

Posted: 17 Jun 2014 01:59 PM PDT

Mobile music lovers hate wires, and that’s a fact! If they loved them, they would stay at home, hanging at the edge of their seats, with a pair of gigantic wired headphones connected to their reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Malmö, Sweden-based Earin is a company that means to revolutionize how wireless headphones look and work, by miniaturizing them. The tube-shaped carrying case that the Earin buds come in could be easily mistaken for a keychain, and these in-ear headphones for sound blockers. Instead, they represent a creative solution for

As Earin's Olle Linden pointed out, “Wires (are) always the first point of irritation with headphones. They are in the way, create sound when touching your clothes or cheek, and get pulled out of my ears whenever I am on the move.”

Linden also admits that what inspired him to create these in-ear headphones was the “Definitely Maybe” flick that featured Ryan Reynolds walking down the street with a pair of wireless earphones, while listening what he claimed to be “the soundtrack of a perfect day.” Since plenty of Star Trek technology is available nowadays, why not allow a Ryan Reynolds movie be the inspiration for new products? Linden started working on this concept in 2008, and today we get to see his dream become a reality.

The main question about these wireless earphones is how good is their sound quality. If it’s not that great, then maybe it’s worth having some cables that are in the way, if with that also comes better sound quality. Other than that, they definitely look great, and are pretty inconspicuous. Best of all, you can fall asleep while wearing them, provided that the music you’re listening to is appropriate for REM.

Some people also noticed that one thing the Earin wireless earphones are is easy to lose. They do pack cutting-edge technology, but they’re quite easy to misplace, even when placed in that bullet case.

Earin is currently featured on Kickstarter, where its creators have already raised almost double the £179,000 they were asking for mass producing these tiny wireless earphones. You still have 36 more days to secure a pair of Earin wireless earphones for the equivalent of $134. As wireless headphones go, these are on the expensive side of things, but the hi-tech that was put into them might well be worth it.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the LIVV headphones for high-impact training and the Split stand-alone PMP.

Japanese Comedian Robot Is Funnier Than Some Humans

Posted: 17 Jun 2014 01:25 PM PDT

Some of us are good at making bad jokes, while others are bad at telling good jokes. With that in mind, a Japanese robotics company proceeded to building a comedian robot that should be great at telling the best jokes around.

Not all people appreciate humor the same way. What some find terribly risible, others may consider it tasteless. Humor is a matter of culture, and is not treated the same in all countries. Kobian, the product of researchers at Waseda University, is meant to cause belly ache in the inhabitants of the country of the rising sun, and that through a lot of jokes.

If you’ve ever watched any Japanese TV shows, you already know that this nation has a very weird taste of humor. Kobian is not that different, in that his jokes will mostly be considered funny by the Japanese folk. In other words, he’s big in Japan, but not so much elsewhere.

Kobian had some sketches written for him, and you see a bit of his performance in the following video. Volunteers were invited to witness Kobian’s stand-up comedy display, and their reactions were recorded using EMG sensors, video cameras and accelerometers. The cameras were used for detecting smiles and laughter, to determine if Kobian is amusing enough.

The developers of Kobian are already thinking about writing new routines for him, which will be tested on larger audiences. It should be noted that Kobian’s effect on Japanese and western audiences might differ drastically, given the cultural differences.

I’ve been in many situations when I couldn’t stop laughing because of something, while others didn’t even smile. Black humor, British comedy shows, you name it! This is among the things that differentiate me the most from the surrounding people, and I’m glad to have found someone with the same taste of humor as mine. While it’s clear that people can have a completely different appetite for various types of humor, it’s nice to know that there’s someone out there that laughs at exactly the same jokes as you do.

I wonder what other types of robots will be developed in the near future, as it’s pretty clear that we’ll be jobless pretty soon. Good thing that these metallic bipedal things don’t have a mind of their own… yet!

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Pepper, the incredibly communicative Japanese robot, and the Clearpath Robotics TwitBot.

Brew your own coffee on your car, and never be late again!

Posted: 17 Jun 2014 11:58 AM PDT

We’ve had it wrong all this time. While most travel mugs intend to keep the coffee warm as you drive, along comes this one that brews a hot one for you.

The coffee brewing process is what takes up most of the time before leaving home, and god knows mornings get pretty stressful as they are without the pressure of being late factoring in. That’s where the Hey Joe Coffee Mug comes in, by allowing coffee drinkers to enjoy and brew coffee in the same cup, all the while they’re on the car already! And, no, forget all about French presses, this is the real deal.

The coffee making process is simple enough: slip in a single-serve coffee pod (or, you could even use ground beans) into the tray at the mug, and hit the power button. Once it’s done, you can just drink by opening it and drinking, like you would with any regular travel mug. Just add sugar and cream at your own discretion, and you might as well forget you have a living room entirely and straight up live inside your car.

Source: Cool Things

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