3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

FIXD, a gadget so you can fire your car mechanic
HDCP 2.2 and the 4K era: get ready to renew your screens again
Nintendo Revamps The 3DS – New 3DS, 3DS LL Arriving To Japan In October
ORA-X Smart Eyeglasses Give Google Glass a Run for Its Money

FIXD, a gadget so you can fire your car mechanic

Posted: 01 Sep 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Car dashboards are so packed with signals & lights that we would be hard-pressed if we had to explain what each one of those mean. That’s what FIXD will do for us.

FIXD is a little gadget for your car meant to replace your friend who actually sorta knows about car stuff (because who needs friends anyways?). It’s a small device that once it’s plugged in your vehicle’s OBDII port, will let you know exactly how your car is doing, and what (if anything) is wrong with it. Sat goodbye to the stress of taking it to the mechanic without knowing what is gonna happen, for FIXD will give you control again.

FIXD works with a companion app for smartphones which painlessly connects via Bluetooth. The app will display the issues on the screen, and estimate how much it would cost to fix them. while also tracking when the next service is required. Users who enjoy the idea of such a device can head over to Kickstarter where users are currently crowd-funding it, expecting to see a release for later this year. The minimum pledge is $50 USD.

Via Technabob

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HDCP 2.2 and the 4K era: get ready to renew your screens again

Posted: 01 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Whenever new screen technology comes out, companies expect us to run and update right away. In the case of 4k video, though, it might be a better idea to wait a bit.

HDCP 2.2 is the name of the latest standard of content protection for the 4K generation, and while 4K itself will make everything look incredible (the jump is as big as from DVD to Blu-ray) it also means bad news from some of the gadgets you already own. HDCP 2.2 is not backwards compatible with previous generations, and there’s even several 4K devices that don’t support it. Basically, if you got a 4k TV in the last year, there’s a chance you might still be behind the times.

HDCP 2.2 is the standard of protection meant to ensure the lack of (or at least reduce) piracy when it comes to the latest movies, shows, and digital content. It creates a secure connection in between the source and a display ensuring content can be copied. So far, the code remains unbroken and successful, but as everything else when it comes to these things, it’s only a matter of time. It doesn’t matter if you use HDMI, HDMI 2.9, DVI, USB or others, the new HDCP 2.2 is supposed to be there to ensure that, say, your copy of Captain America 2 doesn’t get copied.

The latest production batch of 4K TVs by Samsung, LG, Panasonic, and Sony amongst others are being created with the HDCP 2.2 compliance in mind, so if you’re not getting a first brand, be sure to check out the specs to ensure this compatibility. If this compatibility doesn’t exist, new 4K content will just not work on your TV and users will be greeted with a black screen instead of whatever they’ve chosen to watch.

This affects more than TVs, extending to soundbars or receivers that will also need to be HDCP 2.2 compliant. You don’t need to rush and dump your current set-up, though. This revolves exclusively around the 4K world, and if you’re planning to stick with 1080 for the meanwhile, there’s no reason to worry about it right now. Your current blu-rays, dvds, video game consoles and gear will still work, but the next generation might be something different. Keep it in mind, and do your research before spending your hard-earned money!

Via CNET

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Nintendo Revamps The 3DS – New 3DS, 3DS LL Arriving To Japan In October

Posted: 01 Sep 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Coming to Japan in October are two new models of Nintendo’s 3D-backed handhelds.

Friday morning, Nintendo revealed a hardware make over for their 3DS family of handhelds during a Japan-only Nintendo Direct. Branded the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS LL (XL for us westerners), the two new revisions are highlighted by improved 3D viewing angles, more buttons, and NFC support for their upcoming line of Amiibo figures.

The New 3DS/3DS LL also ditches regular SD cards for Micro SD ones – with an insert slot now underneath the base cover – and a relocated 3DS cartridge slot, moving from the top of the 3DS to the bottom. This significant hardware change allows for the placement of two new buttons right next to the Left & Right triggers, named ZL & ZR.

And while we're on the subject of buttons, Nintendo has also included a miniature control-stick above the handheld's customary four buttons (which interestingly enough now carry a Super Famicom, rainbow-colored scheme), dubbed the "C-Stick."

If I were to describe this nub-looking input, I would probably liken it to the little red pointing-stick featured on Lenovo's ThinkPad line of business laptops. Here though, the inclusion of the C-Stick is to provide users camera movement in games such as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate without needing to carry around the infamous "Franken-stick", a.k.a. the Circle Pad Pro.

Moving on to other important handheld factors, e.g., battery life, the New 3DS now clocks in at 3.5 to 6 hours on a single charge, while the New 3DS XL holds up to at least 3.5 to 7 hours. Internally, Nintendo has also bumped up the hardware CPU, supposedly making the downloading of eShop content and Miiverse operation to run faster.

There are also reports from Nintendo that software created specifically for the New 3DS/3DS LL is being made, such as a newly announced port of the Nintendo Wii role-playing game, Xenoblade Chronicles, which will not be compatible with older hardware.

Lastly, Nintendo notes that the screen size to both revisions are slightly bigger than their previous counterparts, but keeps with the same resolution. There are also some subtle length and width changes (pics below) when compared the current, on-shelf models, but they certainly don't stand out to the untrained eye.

Right now, Nintendo plans on launching the New Nintendo 3DS (priced at 16,000 yen, around $154 USD) & New Nintendo 3DS LL (18,800 yen, around $181 USD) on October 11 in Japan, with no immediate plans for a North American or European release no later than 2015.

Each handheld will be available in two colors at launch, white or black for the 3DS and metallic blue or metallic black for the LL, and for the 3DS model only, purchasable interchangeable covers that come uniquely designed individually.

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ORA-X Smart Eyeglasses Give Google Glass a Run for Its Money

Posted: 31 Aug 2014 01:30 PM PDT

Google Glass is indisputably the most popular piece of wearable tech around, but its steep price and scarce availability make it quite unattractive. Those are exactly the aspects France-based eye-display technology company Optinvent counted on when developing the $300 ORA-X smart glasses.

The bad news is that ORA-X will only be available next summer, and for the time being, the French company only plans to offer the ORA-1 smart glasses to developers in January 2015. There are a lot of ifs and whens in the equation, as even the developer version is conditioned by the success of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. I guess that’s one of the many things that distinguishes Mountain View from Google-wannabes: certainty.

Unlike Google Glass, which provides useful information in the form of a minimalistic overlay, wearing ORA-X is said to be similar to wearing a tablet in front of your eyes at all times. I don’t know about you, but I would find that terribly distracting.

Flip-Vu, one of the proprietary features of the ORA-X smart glasses, adds an augmented reality layer over the wearer’s field of view. In glance mode, the alternative to Flip-Vu, the virtual layer is facing downwards, and doesn’t inconvenience the wearer that much. The glasses can also act as a standalone Android 4.2.2. (soon to have KitKat) device, so Optinvent is not that independent from Google.

While the 5MP camera and the GPS sensor are nice touches, the battery life is terrible, but this seems to be a common problem with wearables. Intensive use will drain the battery in 2 hours, while using it in a normal regime will get 7 hours out of it. If your work somehow depends on these smart glasses, make sure you’re near a power outlet.

In terms of connectivity, the usual suspects are present, namely Bluetooth 4.0 LE and Wi-Fi.

It’s quite hard to tell whether the project will get funded or not on Kickstarter, as the campaign has just taken off, and at press time there were 57 more days to go with $17,116 of the $100K needed for mass-producing this wearable. As mentioned above, the ORA-X will be available for $300 in June 2015, should the campaign be successful, while the ORA-1 developers’ edition will cost $599 for early birds and $649/699 for regular backers.

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