Software being developed by American and Australian scientists will hopefully allow patients simply to cough into their phone, and it will tell them whether they have cold, flu, pneumonia or other respiratory diseases. [more]
![Augmented Reality to Clothes-Shop from Your Computer:
We mentioned Zugara’s neat augmented reality clothes shopping experiment before—noting how cool it could make online shopping by letting you try out virtual clothes. Well, it’s an experiment no more: Online fashion store Tobi has launched it for real.
It has been redubbed Fashionista (much better than the original Webcam Social Shopper) and it works pretty much how you’d think it would: When you’ve chosen an item of clothing you like the look of, you print out a special AR barcode-like tag and hold it up in front of you while you stand before your Webcam. Zugara’s software then displays an image of the clothing you’re interested in superimposed on your body. By maneuvering the AR tag around you can position the apparel exactly how you want it to match your body—so you get to see a rough image of what you’d look like wearing the actual garment.
It doesn’t stop there: You can take a snapshot of what you look like, and the system includes motion-capture so you can make gestures and selections by waving your arms, much as you do when using Sony’s Eye toy on the PlayStation. You can also give the clothes a thumbs up or thumbs down so it can recommend more for you—something a bit like a physical version of Amazon’s “you might also like” service (or a live personal shopper). And, of course, you can buy the items you select. Not content with using one hot-topic technology, Zugara has also given Fashionista a dash of social media interactivity—you can post the snapshots you take onto Facebook, presumably to garner the opinion of your friends. Or you can add them to your profile on the site where your shopper friends can comment.
The upshot is that you get an online equivalent of taking your pals to the mall to check out some new threads, all from the comfort of your own PC and with a little added zing of social media. Sure, you’ll miss out on the face-to-face chatter with your friends, the tasty frapuccinos, and the ability to twirl in a new dress…but it’s the future, right?
[via rachelmercer: Tobi.com]](http://9.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt8185BpJ21qzopxxo1_100.jpg)
Augmented Reality to Clothes-Shop from Your Computer:
We mentioned Zugara’s neat augmented reality clothes shopping experiment before—noting how cool it could make online shopping by letting you try out virtual clothes. Well, it’s an experiment no more: Online fashion store Tobi has launched it for real.
It has been redubbed Fashionista (much better than the original Webcam Social Shopper) and it works pretty much how you’d think it would: When you’ve chosen an item of clothing you like the look of, you print out a special AR barcode-like tag and hold it up in front of you while you stand before your Webcam. Zugara’s software then displays an image of the clothing you’re interested in superimposed on your body. By maneuvering the AR tag around you can position the apparel exactly how you want it to match your body—so you get to see a rough image of what you’d look like wearing the actual garment.
It doesn’t stop there: You can take a snapshot of what you look like, and the system includes motion-capture so you can make gestures and selections by waving your arms, much as you do when using Sony’s Eye toy on the PlayStation. You can also give the clothes a thumbs up or thumbs down so it can recommend more for you—something a bit like a physical version of Amazon’s “you might also like” service (or a live personal shopper). And, of course, you can buy the items you select. Not content with using one hot-topic technology, Zugara has also given Fashionista a dash of social media interactivity—you can post the snapshots you take onto Facebook, presumably to garner the opinion of your friends. Or you can add them to your profile on the site where your shopper friends can comment.
The upshot is that you get an online equivalent of taking your pals to the mall to check out some new threads, all from the comfort of your own PC and with a little added zing of social media. Sure, you’ll miss out on the face-to-face chatter with your friends, the tasty frapuccinos, and the ability to twirl in a new dress…but it’s the future, right?
Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics
A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.
via ideasareawesome : New Scientist
Cry Translator iphone app can tell why a baby is crying - after listening to it for just five seconds.
ust hold your phone near the baby and find out whether it is hungry, tired, bored, stressed or angry at a 96% accuracy level.
via jayparkinsonmd : newslite
North Carolina State University engineers have created a new fingernail-size chip that can hold 1 trillion bytes (a terabyte) of data — 50 times the capacity of today’s best silicon-based chip technologies.
The engineers’ discovery also advances knowledge in the emerging field of “spintronics,” which is dedicated to harnessing energy produced by the spinning of electrons. Most energy used today is harnessed through the movement of current and is limited by the amount of heat that it produces, but the energy created by the spinning of electrons produces no heat. The NC State engineers were able to manipulate the nanomaterial so the electrons’ spin within the material could be controlled, which could prove valuable to harnessing the electrons’ energy. The finding could be important for engineers working to produce more efficient semiconductors.
Seeya later plastic
I booked a cab to SFO airport this morning using the Taxi Magic iPhone app (as rec’d by my web savvy friends @DaveMorin & @Brit) - the entire thing took less than three minutes, and I paid right there, on my phone. This, people - especially the payment method - is the future. I doubt anyone will carry cards in a few years. Why bother? It’s on your smart device! God I love technology. (Now if this plane would just take off …)
You can blow up clouds to change weather patterns!
Moscow will blast clouds from the sky this winter to save money on snow removal, a city official said Wednesday, but the plan threatens to anger the surrounding region, which would have to cope with the extra powder. Airborne snowfall prevention will save the city about 300 million rubles ($10.2 million) this winter, said Andrei Tsybin, head of City Hall’s department for public works and utilities. Moscow is ready to spend about 180 million rubles to disperse clouds “in the event of very big and serious snowfall,” he said at a news conference.
Scent Opera
While the the human tongue can distinguish only among five distinct qualities of taste, the nose can distinguish among hundreds of substances, even in minute quantities. Therefore, the nose is crazy. Because of it’s craziness, a dude named Stewart Matthew created the Green Aria, the world’s first scent opera. For a half-hour, music is performed and scents are released to the attendees via a tube device at their seat. These scents are distributed and layered as the music is played, thus forming a smell composition. Too bad this was only at the NY Guggenheim for two days, but the people of Bilbao have about two dozen performances to pick from. Definitely a sensory experience that beats the Pink Floyd lazer show.
The Dyson Air Multiplier — the world’s first bladeless fan.
Air is sucked in through the base, accelerated out into the loop amplifier, then over an airfoil-shaped ramp curved in the direction of the end user. In addition, surrounding air is also collected into the airflow, resulting in an amplified stream of air.
German-built robots are to be sent into Earth’s orbit to repair ‘dead satellites’ or push them into outer space
Researchers at the University of Washington’s Graphics and Imaging Laboratory* have devised algorithms that can construct 3D-models of entire cities using Flickr photos.
The video above shows the recreation of the Old City in Dubrovnik.
*same team behind Microsoft’s Photosynth
![Cry Translator iphone app can tell why a baby is crying - after listening to it for just five seconds.ust hold your phone near the baby and find out whether it is hungry, tired, bored, stressed or angry at a 96% accuracy level.
[itunes link]
via jayparkinsonmd : newslite](http://11.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kss5ap2d6e1qa69mqo1_500.jpg)
