reality

Gadgettes 91: The things are not what they seem (thank God) episode

The title of this episode is itself a thread of virtual reality...because the REAL theme of the show revolves around RDB's. What is an RDB, you might ask? Tune in to find out. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 91

Frog Design Digital Escape, the virtual reality mask with smells http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/frog_design_dre.php

Fake TV: the continuing appearance of useless products http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/ fake_tv_the_continuing_appearance_of_useless_products_9892.asp

Laptop backpacks for motherly computer owners http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9941374-1.html

Dynamizer humanoid robot mows your lawn, does your bidding http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/dynamizer_human.php… Read more

SFZero: A new interface for San Francisco

Remember the movie The Game, with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn as unlikely brothers, shot before the backdrop of vertiginous San Francisco?

Well, here's a new interface for the city by the Bay: SFZero is "a new representation for the data that's already there. Your mind is full of inaccurate representations that are affecting the way you use the San Francisco data flow, steering you away from interaction and collaboration and toward unproductive reflexive data loops.

SFZero designers are working double shifts to engineer this next-generation interface that will bring you together with your cohabitants to experience … Read more

New alternate-reality game? Or package I should worry about?

Update 1:14 p.m. PDT: This has been edited to reflect some new information about what's in the package and its source.

Usually when I get a UPS package it's some boring book or prospectus. But the Express Envelope that landed on my desk Wednesday certainly got my attention.

Inside were the following things: a sticker with the words "Scientific Anarchy Now" and "Holomove;" a photocopy of a memorandum purportedly from Los Alamos National Lab dated January 30, 1985, regarding the termination of a scientist named Eugene Gough; and lastly, and most disconcertingly, … Read more

Want to see that ad in 3D?

Here comes a new way for advertisers to capture attention: software that turns 2D images into 3D simulations when consumers play with them in front of a Webcam.

Total Immersion's D'Fusion system is composed of a kiosk, Web cameras, and software capable of recognizing, tracking, and rendering images.

It works like this. Customers view themselves on a screen through a Webcam and hold up a 2D picture. Suddenly the 2D picture pops up and consumers see themselves holding a 3D simulation of the product in the brochure on the kiosk's video feed. Sometimes it doesn't work: … Read more

Clothing line features images from experimental games

A couple of years ago, I wrote a story about a company called Edoc Laundry and its line of clothing that featured a built-in alternate-reality game.

On Friday, I read about a new line of T-shirts available at Target that feature images from experimental games and which come with free CDs on which are the games themselves.

Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow wrote about the new shirts Friday, and it reminded me of the Edoc Laundry experiment, which, while innovative, never quite took off.

Apparently, the new T-shirt line comes comes from a company called EGPApparel, and each individual shirt … Read more

Ultimate 3D gaming in a 400-pound steel sphere

If you really want to immerse yourself in the gaming experience, what better way to do it than in a 10-foot-tall, 400-pound steel sphere?

The "Vitusphere" is a futuristic apparatus that's right out of a sci-fi movie, kind of a cross between Rollerball and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Those who dare to enter the giant steel ball, according to Newlaunches, "can run, jump, roll, or crawl over virtually unlimited distances without encountering real-world obstacles."

Under development for more than a decade, the Russian-made Vitusphere works with a headmounted display and handheld controller for the ultimate … Read more

McDonald's is lead sponsor of Olympics-themed ARG, 'The Lost Ring'

For anyone who follows alternate-reality games (ARGs), it should come as no surprise that the latest entry in the genre, The Lost Ring, is the brainchild of, among others, Jane McGonigal.

Until now, it was only suspected--though with extremely high levels of confidence--that the game, which is centered on helping a fictional amnesiac woman named Ariadne discover her identity, was a promotional vehicle for this summer's Beijing Olympics.

But McGonigal, who is keynoting at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin on Tuesday, confirmed to me that the game was in fact designed in collaboration with the International … Read more

New ways to input (finally) arriving

We put stuff into computers (and, for that matter, get stuff out) in pretty much the same way we have for a good couple of decades.

Of course, we still use keyboards of a fairly standard design as our primary mechanism to feed words into a computer and mice are well-ensconced as the navigational tool of choice. Over in the gaming world, it's the familiar two-handed game controller that predominates. In fact, I sense that one sees fewer joysticks, steering wheels, various oddball keyboards, and trackballs than one saw in the past. This probably reflects that "productivity" … Read more

Olympics-themed alternate-reality game goes live

As I predicted Sunday night, the Web site for a new alternate-reality game that seems to be tied to the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing went live Monday.

The game, known as Find the Lost Ring, is built around a story line in which a young woman named Ariadne says she woke up on February 12 in a South African corn maze with amnesia and knows nothing about who she is or where she comes from.

The game's conceit will be to have players help Ariadne find her identity through a complex series of online and, most likely, real-world … Read more