project

How to take your own passport photos

Drugstores will charge you as much as $10-15 for a measly photo, adding insult to injury when you're tied up in a long and expensive passport application process.

If you're willing to pay the price for convenience, so be it, but if you like to "DIY," you'll be happy to hear that taking your own passport photos is actually pretty simple.

You'll need:

A digital camera (or smartphone) Computer A photo printer (or local photo printing center)

Easy enough, right? Now follow the steps to take your passport photos, DIY-style.

Step 1: Set up … Read more

Google patents Project Glass wearable display

Google has received three patents for a "wearable display device" which appear to be the foundation for its Project Glass augmented reality glasses.

Company engineers submitted patent applications for a wearable display device last fall and they were assigned today.

There aren't detailed description attached to the patents, but the patent references the types of inventions you would expect, such as display designs for showing data and playing music.

Google's secretive research lab, Google X, announced Project Glass last month and showed off early prototypes of the device, some of which are now being tested by … Read more

No Terminator-style overlays in first batch of Google Glasses

You know what sucks about visiting Google? Seeing the Google Glasses but not being able to try them yourself. Thanks a lot, Vic.

But we are, slowly, learning more about this project. In particular, the prototypes that are appearing in the field, on TV, and in tantalizing interviews with online journalists are not capable of displaying the full-on, in-your-face type of augmented reality that 15 million people have seen in Google's demo video (and all the spoofs).

While Google+ chief Vic Gundotra didn't say much about the Glasses during an interview this morning, a later discussion with another spokesperson confirmed that the popular prototype model, as seen on Gundotra as well as Google X Lab founder Sebastian Thrun in a Charlie Rose interview, shows information above the wearer's usual line of sight, "about where the edge of an umbrella might be." … Read more

Ultrabooks no longer ultra-pricey

In today's show, Google takes us for a spin, ultrabooks are no longer ultra-pricey, and the iPad isn't just for humans anymore:

Hewlett-Packard announced several new thin and light laptops under the Envy brand. Some are officially called ultrabooks, equiped with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors, while less-expensive ones are called sleekbooks. But regardless of the different labels, it means high-quality thin and light laptops are moving into the $600 to $700 price range. (There's even a rumor that the MacBook Air -- the computer that kickstarted the ultrabook craze -- will drop its price to $… Read more

Google's Project Glass: Action photos from your eyewear

Google's Project Glass glasses might not be the most stylish pair of lenses you've ever worn, but a new image released by the search company shows how far they might go in changing the state of photography.

Google fellow and vice president Sebastian Thrun yesterday posted an image he took while wearing his Project Glass eyewear. In it, he's spinning his son, Jasper, around with both hands while the glasses he's wearing snap the photo.

Soon after it was posted, the image went viral on the Google+ social network, and it was reposted by company co-founder Sergey Brin, … Read more

Set the dinner table for Skype

The tablecloth was fresh, the juice was chilled. Francina Richardson and her family were ready for company. But instead of waiting for the doorbell to ring, this Sonoma, Calif., grandmother was listening for the distinctive trill of a Skype phone call. And her guests were joining her as part of a pioneering new initiative called the Virtual Dinner Guest Project.

Right on time, a group of youth in Cairo took a "seat" at the breakfast table. Introductions were made on both sides of the computer screen, and then, a natural conversation began. The young Egyptians, most of them … Read more

First app for Google's Project Glass: Sharing photos

Sebastian Thrun of Google says that the company's Project Glass glasses are best doing what a smartphone does but in a hands-free way.

The company executive, who works on Project Glass at Google X Labs, wore a prototype of the now-famous glasses during an interview with Charlie Rose which went online today.

He showed how they are operated when he took a photo of Rose by pressing a button, then nodded his head to apparently share the photo with his friends on Google Plus. Two weeks ago, Google founder Sergey Brin was seen at a charity event sporting the … Read more

Low Latency No. 20: What are you looking at?

We here at Low Latency can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, so it should be no shock that we were a bit fearful for our immediate safety when Google's Project Glass video hit a few weeks ago.

The plan for Project Glass is to create a real-life head-up display for your face, allowing people to interact with the real world through the pervasive Google ecosystem. But it also got us thinking -- if we're so preoccupied with our texting, mapping, and other augmented reality antics, who's gonna make sure we're watching where we're going?

If you have an idea for another Project Glass test trial disaster, make sure to let us know in the comments section below.… Read more

Five LED projects to light up your home

LEDs, or "light-emitting diodes," have come a long way since they were introduced as red, green, and blue computer indicator lights.

These days, LEDs are available in endless shapes and sizes, a wide variety of colors and neutrals, and offer many benefits over traditional incandescent lights.

For starters, LEDs can potentially cut energy usage by 25% in the U.S. How? Here's the science, made simple: incandescent bulbs convert most electricity to heat, whereas LED lights convert most of the energy into light. That's why LEDs don't give off heat the way traditional … Read more