Photogrammetry is a 3D reconstruction technique using photographs of the target from multiple angles. Taking pictures around a static object with a single camera can yield high-quality models, but if the subject moves between images, 3D reconstruction might fail. One way to mitigate this is to use multiple cameras.
This project aimed to develop a tool for fast and precise wound documentation for clinical forensic medicine.
This paper describes a simple, low-cost modular system, where smartphones of different manufacturers are used as networked cameras. Exposure is initiated at the same time in all the phones with a simple circuit emulating a headset button press.
A proof-of-concept device was built, where four phones (Huawei nova 8i (2 pcs), Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Oukitel K4000 Pro) were attached to a curved, 3D-printed, handheld frame.
The average delay of image capture was 636 ms between the quickest and the slowest phones. When compared to the single-camera approach, the use of different cameras did not reduce the quality of the 3D model. The phone cam array was less susceptible to movement artefacts caused by breathing. Wound assessment was possible based on the 3D models created with this device.
In this paper, a simple, but modular 3D-printed frame is described. The phones are attached to a handheld, curved frame, which ensures that all the cameras would focus on the same point. The pieces are joined by heat-set inserts and metric screws. The 3D-printed phone mounts are attached with cable ties.
A simple modular system of Android phones to capture images concurrently for photogrammetry reconstruction.
The phones do not need to be the same model or make.
The phones are attached to a 3D-printed handheld frame.
The system allows the 3D reconstruction of living, moving subjects.
[…]
The core of the system is a simple controller module, which connects to the phone with a 3.5 mm jack plug and emulates the press of volume + of a headset, to release the camera shutter. The design is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) accessory specification [23]
With 587 votes in favour, nine against and 20 abstentions, MEPs endorsed a deal reached with the Council to overhaul EU rules on batteries and waste batteries. The new law takes into account technological developments and future challenges in the sector and will cover the entire battery life cycle, from design to end-of-life.
Key measures foreseen by the regulation:
A compulsory carbon footprint declaration and label for electric vehicles (EV) batteries, light means of transport (LMT) batteries (e.g. for electric scooters and bikes), and rechargeable industrial batteries with a capacity above 2kWh;
Designing portable batteries in appliances in such a way that consumers can themselves easily remove and replace them;
A digital battery passport for LMT batteries, industrial batteries with a capacity above 2 kWh, and EV batteries;
A due diligence policy for all economic operators, except for SMEs;
Stricter waste collection targets: for portable batteries – 45% by 2023, 63% by 2027 and 73% by 2030; for LMT batteries – 51% by 2028 and 61% by 2031;
Minimum levels of materials recovered from waste batteries: lithium – 50% by 2027 and 80% by 2031; cobalt, copper, lead and nickel – 90% by 2027 and 95% by 2031;
Minimum levels of recycled content from manufacturing and consumer waste for use in new batteries: eight years after the entry into force of the regulation – 16% for cobalt, 85% for lead, 6% for lithium and 6% for nickel; 13 years after the entry into force: 26% for cobalt, 85% for lead, 12% for lithium and 15% for nickel.
Software engineer Jeff Lau, posting under the username UselessPickles, showed off the restored car phone in a video uploaded to YouTube. The Mitsubishi came from the factory with an optional “DiamondTel” handset and hands-free system, which was rendered inoperable by the discontinuation of analog “AMPS” cell service in the U.S. in 2008. (The 3G shutdown bricked a ton of newer cars’ connectivity features, too.)
After three years of work, Lau restored the device’s functionality using a custom Bluetooth adapter. Lau engineered the adapter to piggyback between the stock phone transceiver and hands-free control unit located under the trunk carpet. That let Lau tap into modern cell networks with his 1993 car phone—but he didn’t stop there.
Paired with a smartphone, the stock handset displays the name of the paired device and the signal strength of the smartphone’s network. It gets better: The car’s hands-free microphone feeds the smartphone voice commands (to Apple’s Siri in this case). It’s pretty much all the functionality of a 2023 hands-free system but without the distraction of a touchscreen.
Obviously, that isn’t about to become a widespread resto-mod trend soon. The lengthy dev time, low take rate of car phones in their day, and uniqueness of individual cars’ systems mean we’re probably not about to see off-the-shelf car phone restoration kits soon. But the fact that bringing car phones back is possible will hopefully inspire someone else out there to resuscitate theirs—maybe even one of those retro Chrysler VisorPhones will ride one day again. Or ring, I should say.
A Cornell University researcher has developed sonar glasses that “hear” you without speaking. The eyeglass attachment uses tiny microphones and speakers to read the words you mouth as you silently command it to pause or skip a music track, enter a passcode without touching your phone or work on CAD models without a keyboard.
Cornell Ph.D. student Ruidong Zhang developed the system, which builds off a similar project the team created using a wireless earbud — and models before that which relied on cameras. The glasses form factor removes the need to face a camera or put something in your ear. “Most technology in silent-speech recognition is limited to a select set of predetermined commands and requires the user to face or wear a camera, which is neither practical nor feasible,” said Cheng Zhang, Cornell assistant professor of information science. “We’re moving sonar onto the body.”
The researchers say the system only requires a few minutes of training data (for example, reading a series of numbers) to learn a user’s speech patterns. Then, once it’s ready to work, it sends and receives sound waves across your face, sensing mouth movements while using a deep learning algorithm to analyze echo profiles in real time “with about 95 percent accuracy.”
The system does this while offloading data processing (wirelessly) to your smartphone, allowing the accessory to remain small and unobtrusive. The current version offers around 10 hours of battery life for acoustic sensing. Additionally, no data leaves your phone, eliminating privacy concerns. “We’re very excited about this system because it really pushes the field forward on performance and privacy,” said Cheng Zhang. “It’s small, low-power and privacy-sensitive, which are all important features for deploying new, wearable technologies in the real world.”
The successor to the Recon Instruments Mod Live is here – the Rekkie AR ski goggles. They use a screen which reflects onto the plastic transparent goggle plate, so you can buy different types of lenses. The system shows maps, compass, speed, etc and is controlled by a large box on the strap which connects to the helmet, so in that respect not quite as elegant as the bluetooth remote of the Recon Mod system. The price is not bad at all at $349,-
The European Commission has adopted a new set of right to repair rules that, among other things, will add electronic devices like smartphones and tablets to a list of goods that must be built with repairability in mind.
The new rules [PDF] will need to be need to be negotiated between the European Parliament and member states before they can be turned into law. If they are, a lot more than just repairability requirements will change.
One provision will require companies selling consumer goods in the EU to offer repairs (as opposed to just replacing a damaged device) free of charge within a legal guarantee period unless it would be cheaper to replace a damaged item.
Note: so any company can get out of it quite easily.
Beyond that, the directive also adds a set of rights for device repairability outside of legal guarantee periods that the EC said will help make repair a better option than simply tossing a damaged product away.
Under the new post-guarantee period rule, companies that produce goods the EU defines as subject to repairability requirements (eg, appliances, commercial computer hardware, and soon cellphones and tablets) are obliged to repair such items for five to 10 years after purchase if a customer demands so, and the repair is possible.
[…]
The post-guarantee period repair rule also establishes the creation of an online “repair matchmaking platform” for EU consumers, and calls for the creation of a European repair standard that will “help consumers identify repairers who commit to a higher quality.”
[…]
New rules don’t do enough, say right to repair advocates
The Right to Repair coalition said in a statement that, while it welcomes the step forward taken by the EU’s new repairability rules, “the opportunity to make the right to repair universal is missed.”
While the EC’s rules focus on cutting down on waste by making products more easily repairable, they don’t do anything to address repair affordability or anti-repair practices, R2R said. Spare parts and repair charges, the group argues, could still be exorbitantly priced and inaccessible to the average consumer.
[…]
Ganapini said that truly universal right to repair laws would include assurances that independent providers were available to conduct repairs, and that components, manuals and diagnostic tools would be affordably priced. She also said that, even with the addition of smartphones and tablets to repairability requirements, the products it applies to is still too narrow.
We have a soft spot for devices that subvert purpose and expectation, and that definitely sums up [Guy Dupont]’s Clock That Is Wrong. It knows the correct time, but whether or not it displays the correct time is another story. That’s because nestled just above the 7-segment display is a person sensor module, and when it detects that a person is looking towards it, the clock will display an incorrect time, therefore self-defeating both the purpose and primary use case of a clock in one stroke.
One interesting bit is that [Guy] uses an ESP32-based board to drive everything, but had some reservations about making a clock without an RTC. However, he found that simply syncing time over the network every 10 minutes or so using the board’s built-in WiFi was perfectly serviceable, at least for a device like this.
This reminds us a little of other clocks with subtly subversive elements, like the Vetinari Clock which keeps overall accurate time despite irregularly drifting in and out of sync. Intrigued by such ideas? You’re not alone, because there are even DIY hobby options for non-standard clock movements.
[…] Here, guided by nucleation thermodynamics, we design a transparent, sunlight-activated, photothermal coating to inhibit fogging. The metamaterial coating contains a nanoscopically thin percolating gold layer and is most absorptive in the near-infrared range, where half of the sunlight energy resides, thus maintaining visible transparency. The photoinduced heating effect enables sustained and superior fog prevention (4-fold improvement) and removal (3-fold improvement) compared with uncoated samples, and overall impressive performance, indoors and outdoors, even under cloudy conditions. The extreme thinness (~10 nm) of the coating—which can be produced by standard, readily scalable fabrication processes—enables integration beneath other coatings […]
he Boston Globe reports that U.S. Senator Ed. Markey just sent a letter to more than 20 car manufacturers asking them to continue including AM radios in future car models — including electric vehicles: Some EV manufacturers have raised concerns even as far back as 2016 about how the battery power of an EV can interfere with AM radio signals. However, Markey addressed these concerns saying, “car manufacturers appear to have developed innovative solutions to this problem.”
“The last time I listened to AM radio was in the late 1970s,” writes long-time Slashdot reader non-e-moose. “And then it was mostly because there were either no FM stations in reception range, or I was riding my bicycle and only had a transistor radio.”
But the Senator sees it differently: AM radio has long been an important source of information for consumers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 90 percent of Americans ages 12 and older — totaling hundreds of millions of people — listened to AM or FM radio each week, higher than the percentage that watch television (56 percent) or own a computer (77 percent)…. Moreover, 33 percent of new car buyers say that AM radio is a very important feature in a vehicle — higher than dedicated Wi-Fi (31 percent), SiriusXM satellite radio (27 percent), and personal assistants such as Google Assistant (12 percent) and Amazon Alexa (9 percent). In other words, broadcast AM and FM radio remain an essential vehicle feature for consumers.
Moreover, broadcast AM radio, in particular, is a critical mechanism for government authorities to communicate with the public during natural disasters, extreme weather events, and other emergencies. AM radio operates at lower frequencies and has longer wavelengths than FM radio, so AM radio waves more easily pass through solid objects. As a result, AM radio signals can travel long distances, making them well-suited for broadcasting emergency alerts….
Despite innovations such as the smartphone and social media, AM/FM broadcast radio remains the most dependable, cost-free, and accessible communication mechanism for public officials to communicate with the public during times of emergency. As a result, any phase-out of broadcast AM radio could pose a significant communication problem during emergencies…. Given AM radio’s importance for emergency communications and continued consumer demand, I urge your company to maintain the feature in its new vehicles…
*Quest 1, 2, pro standalone only atm, PCVR coming soon*
Touchly lets you watch any VR180 video in 6dof and interact with the environment. Standard playback in most VR formats is also supported.And it’s out now for free in the App Lab! https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/5564815066942737/
Note: Videos need to be processed with our converter beforehand to be seen in volumetric mode.
It requires both left and right videos to generate the depth map. I’m not sure if that requires a ML model or can be done with regular video filtering algorithms.
The video is preprocessed with the depthmap added as a “third view” in a SBS video. So speed isn’t an issue.
[…] The standard version of the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M 60 Years Of James Bond watch features a design that aBlogtoWatch describes as, “a blend between the original Omega Seamaster Diver 300M that appeared in GoldenEye and the latest edition from No Time To Die.” In other words, it’s a not an exact recreation of the piece that Brosnan wore in GoldenEye, but incorporates elements from several watches featured in various Bond films. On the front, the only hint that this watch is in any way Bond themed is the number 60 appearing at top of the dial, where there is normally a triangle.
It’s only when you flip the watch over that its Bond theming is far more apparent. The caseback features a sapphire glass window revealing an animation recreating the iconic opening of Bond films where the silhouetted character walks on screen as seen through the barrel of a gun. But there’s no LCD or OLED screens here. The Seamaster Diver 300M is a purely mechanical timepiece, so to create the animation, Omega leveraged the moiré effect where interference patterns from spiral patterns on spinning discs reveal the sequence of a simple four-frame animation of Bond walking in. And because the animation mechanism is tied to the watch’s moving second-hand, it perpetually plays in a loop as long as the watch has power and is keeping time.
OMEGA Seamaster Diver 300M 60 Years Of James Bond – Stainless Steel
It’s a fun design element not only because of how subtly it’s executed, but also how it leverages what makes traditional timepieces appealing to many collectors: the complicated mechanics inside that make them work. Unfortunately, with a $7,600 price tag, the Seamaster Diver 300M 60 Years Of James Bond is not really affordable for most Bond fans.
Despite VR having been hyped up for the last couple of years, not very much has happened in the past two years. The hardware has not really refreshed, but this year at least one new exciting entry has come in and another is promised. Search results of reviews usually have the same group of suspects but usually leave out two important companies that are definitely worth a view. Surprisingly, setting up your VR headset is not a question of plug and play. It’s a bit finicky and takes some time. Games need to be optimised and you will run into strange new terms and things you need to run (Windows Mixed Reality, SteamVR, Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR, OpenXR) and settings you need to optimise per game. This article offers a primer on that. Despite this, the experience in games is quite amazing!
First you need to make a decision on how you want to use your VR goggles. They come in the types Tethered (which has a cable connected to the PC) or untethered, which uses wireless communication of some sort to send the image signal.
The biggest advantage of tethered is that the cable data throughput is much much higher, allowing for much more detail and higher framerates (which are important for some games, especially simulators. If you are going to use your VR headset in Flight Simulator 2022, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Star Wars Squadrions, driving sims, etc you really will need a tethered headset). The disadvantage is that walking around can be a bit more tricky as there is a cable to mind. Considering the length of cables (6m +) this doesn’t have to be a problem, especially if you are sitting down. There are also pulley arrangements available to have the cable come off the ceiling if you don’t mind how that looks.
The biggest advantage of untethered is that you can wander around easily without tripping on a cable.
Speaking of wandering around, one of the first things you do when you install the headset is set up a border with your headset delineating where you can and can’t walk so you won’t bump into things like your walls, chairs, desk, etc.
Most manufacturers also have a “pro” version which is better. As this article is for gaming, I will leave these out.
Options and Specifications
Then come a plethora of options to look at. For the specifications, higher is usually better (unless you are talking about latency and weight). You do pay for the privilege though:
Resolution – be careful, sometimes it’s a per eye resolution, sometimes it’s a total resolution for both eyes. Sometimes there is just one display and sometimes there are two displays (one for each eye). Two is better.
Field of View (FOV) – this can be both vertical and horizontal and is expressed as an angle.
Camera system – some VR sets (the Quest 2 and the Pico 4) have a camera mounted on the helmet so you can “see” through the headset when turned on (Passthrough). The Pico 4 is colour and very good, the Quest 2 is black and white. Some VR sets offer eye tracking inside your headset. Some systems use these camera’s to see the controllers as a tracking system. (see video from 13 minutes)
Tracking system – an external tracking system (base station) is best (but takes up space) and your controllers won’t lose tracking so often. Camera’s on the headset can be confused if it is too dark or light or if you swing your controllers out of the field of view.
Controllers – some people prefer some controllers to others, eg the HP Reverb G2 has a bad reputation for it’s controllers and the Pico 4 design is praised. Sometimes you can use other system’s controllers, eg you can use the HTC Vive controllers on the HP Reverb G2 and the Valve Index. Check to see if the controllers are in the box you buy (if you want them. If you’re upgrading headset you may not want them).
Data throughput – is the data throughput sufficient for your needs?
Refresh rate
Peak Pixel Density (PPD) – Readability on the screen. Some screens are sharper than others
Glare on the screen
Amount of light bleed – light can get into the headset, which is a distraction. How well does the foam sit around your face.
Comfort of the headband – also a function of foam, how easy the straps are to adjust
Weight and balance – a heavier headset can be more comfortable than a lighter one if the headband is more comfortable and better balanced. I haven’t put weight in the table as this is a very subjective experience.
Interpupillary Distance (IPD) or eye seperation configuration – is it easy to adjust this to your eyes?
Software in the ecosystem – Meta has spent some time gaining exclusive software for the Quest 2 to entice you to buy their hardware, so if you buy something else you won’t be able to play their games. the PS5VR system only works on a Playstation 5.
If you wear glasses, check the size of the glasses spacer – sometimes you can find aftermarket spacers.
Sound quality / Microphone
Ease of setup!
I have a comparison table at the end.
The Headsets
I have divided this into 2 parts – the standard list you will have seen everywhere, the extended list contains headsets not so frequently indexed by Google.
The standard list:
Meta Quest 2 for EUR 449,-
Until the coming of the Pico 4 this was the ‘best value’ option. However, you are being tracked in everything you do by Facebook – it requires a Facebook account login, so for me personally, this makes it a no go. It’s a few years old by now and a bit outdated. Enough said.
The affordable option to for the low end of the market. Tethered. $449 headset only, full kit $749.
HTC Vive Pro 2
The better VR Set. This is the high spec standard unit (but not the highest spec on paper!). Tethered. The controllers are often used by owners of the Valve Index and the HP Reverb G2. $799 without kit, $1399 with base station and 2 controllers. You can buy trackers for your arms and legs seperately. Using a wifi kit can be turned into an untethered unit.
Valve Index
The upper midrange unit. Tethered with base station. $1079,- for the full kit, $539,- only the headset.
The extended list
Pico 4
The newest addition to this list – and everyone is raving about it. The new (2022) technology is a step up for everyone. Untethered (unfortunately, as I’m a simmer!). $429,- with 128 GB, $499,- with 256 GB. You only need the extra memory if you want to load games from the eco system on the device. If you PC game apparently this is not necessary. Also see the video above if you want to know more about this device.
Note: It’s a Chinese product created by ByteDance – the owner of TikTok. Whilst there is no proof that I have found yet that this is a data grabbing monster (but please correct me if I am wrong) there is plenty of fingerpointing at ByteDance and TikTok is!
HP Reverb G2v2
Tethered. A very good upper mid range with the sharpest screen and best audio. A very popular choice for simming. $650,- for the complete set. Make sure you get a v2 version – you can recognise this by the cable having a box on it with a button to turn it on and off and the headset itself having 2 magnetically removable pieces (glasses spacers) in front of the screen – they also look different
Left is the G2V2, right is the G2V1
There is a problem with the cable guide which in some cases makes it snap in half. You can contact HP for a RMA for this. There are rumors that HP is getting out of the VR business.
Varjo Aero
The absolute top end, tethered. EUR 1999,-.
Pimax 5K Super
Great specs, but apparently setup is fiddly. EUR 641,- and EUR 289,- for the controllers. Optional hand and eye tracking modules and I am unsure if you need to buy the headphones seperately.
Pimax 8K X
Great specs, but apparently setup is fiddly. $1179,- and EUR 289,- for the controllers. Optional hand and eye tracking modules and I am unsure if you need to buy the headphones seperately.
Pimax 12K
To be released. Hopefully.
Specifications Table
HTC Cosmos Elite
HTC Vive Pro2
Valve Index
Pico 4
HP Reverb G2V2
Varjo Aero
Pimax 5K Super
Pimax 8K X
Resolution
1440 x 1700 pixels per eye (2880 x 1700 pixels combined)
2448 × 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 pixels combined)
dual 1440×1600 RGB LCDs
2160×2160 per-eye
2160 x 2160 pixels per eye (4320 x 2160 pixels combined). RGB sub-pixels
Dual Mini LED LCD; 2880 x 2720 px per eye
2560 X 1440 pixels per eye (5120 X 1440 pixels combined)
3840 X 2160 pixels per eye (7680 X 2160 pixels combined)
Field of View
Up to 110 degrees
Up to 120 degrees (horizontal)
Optimized eye relief adjustment allows a typical user experience 20º more than the HTC Vive
105 degrees
114 degrees
Horizontal: 115° Diagonal: 134° at 12 mm eye relief
Diagonal 200 degrees
Diagonal 200 degrees
Refresh Rate
90 Hz
90/120 Hz (only 90Hz supported via VIVE Wireless Adapter)
80/90/120/144Hz (144Hz experimental)
72Hz / 90 Hz
90Hz
90Hz
90/120/144/160/180Hz* *Higher refresh rates are only available at lower FOV settings.
60/75/90Hz (native mode) 110Hz (upscaling mode)
Tracking system
6DoF Inside-out Tracking
SteamVR™ Base Station Tracking 2.0
SteamVR 2.0 sensors, compatible with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 base stations
6 DoF positioning system
HP Reverb G2 inside/out 6 DOF motion tracking, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer
SteamVR™ 2.0/1.0 Eye tracking 200 Hz with sub-degree accuracy; 1-dot calibration for foveated rendering
G-sensor, gyroscope, SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Tracking System
G-sensor, gyroscope, SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Tracking System
Headphone
Stereo Headphone
Hi-Res certified headset (via USB-C analog signal) Hi-Res certified headphones (removable) High impedance headphones support (via USB-C analog signal)
Built-in: 37.5mm off-ear Balanced Mode Radiators (BMR), Frequency Response: 40Hz – 24KHz, Impedance: 6 Ohm, SPL: 98.96 dBSPL at 1cm.
USB 3.0 (or later), DP 1.2, Proprietary Connection to Faceplates
Bluetooth, USB-C port for peripherals, DP 1.2 (DP 1.4 required for full resolution)
5m tether, 1m breakaway trident connector. USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, 12V power, Aux Headphone Out 3.5mm
DisplayPort™ 1.3, USB 3.0 type C, power adapter
Headset adapter and USB-C cable (5-metre) in-box PC connections: DisplayPort and USB-A 3.0
1 x DisplayPort 1.4 1 x USB 3.0 Type A 1 x USB 2.0 Type A
1 x DisplayPort 1.4 1 x USB 3.0 Type A 1 x USB 2.0 Type A
IPD
Adjustable Eye Comfort Setting (IPD)
Adjustable IPD range of 57-70mm
58mm – 70mm range physical adjustment
62 – 72mm best adjustment system
64mm +/- 4mm by hardware slide
Automatic IPD adjustment with motor Supported IPD range: 57–73 mm
60mm – 70mm range physical adjustment ± 2mm with software adjustment
60mm – 70mm range physical adjustment ± 2mm with software adjustment
Camera
Stereo 960 x 960 pixel, global shutter, RGB (Bayer)
2 front-facing cameras and 2 side-facing cameras,
PPD
20.6
35
Software Setup
When you set up a VR headset, you will need to download and install Windows Mixed Reality from the Windows App Store. After setup You most likely will need to install SteamVR. SteamVR allows you to play games, even if they were not bought in the Steam Store (eg in the Epic store). You will also need to install Windows Mixed Reality for Steam. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/using-steamvr-with-windows-mixed-reality.
Do you need to install OpenXR? Use OpenXR From your computer, open the SteamVR app Head to Settings Select Show in Advanced Settings Head to the Developer tab Set Current OpenXR runtime as “OpenXR runtime”
Sign up for betas
This is advised by Microsoft in their guide https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/using-steamvr-with-windows-mixed-reality
In Steam, use the drop-down under the Library menu to filter to Tools. In the list, right-click SteamVR and select Properties. Select the Betas tab. Opt in to “beta – public beta” and select Close to confirm. The beta access code field should be left blank.
In Steam, use the drop-down under the Library menu to filter to Software. In the list, right-click Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR and select Properties. Select the Betas tab. Opt in to “beta – public beta” and select Close to confirm. The beta access code field should be left blank.
Optimising your Graphics settings
Motion Reprojection
With it entirely off there is a bit of stuttering, but detail clarity is very sharp. With it on motion is fluid
Disable overlays
Epic: C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\Overlay and rename or move the two files: EOSOverlayRenderer-Win64-Shipping.exe EOSOverlayRenderer-Win32-Shipping.exe
Steam: settings>In Game>Enable Steam Overlay while in-game UNCHECK
XBOX: Disable the Xbox Game Bar overlay (yes on windows) Enter windows settings from the start menu, Select Gaming -> Xbox Game Bar -> Toggle the overlay to the off position
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/crash-to-desktop-without-error-message/130085 – limit fps in nvidia control panel
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/crash-to-desktop-without-error-message/130085/3244 – The HP Reberb G2 goes to sleep after a while despite the change in the registry, and to have prevent the sleep in the device manager. I switch it to VR and it starts again. We are now at 4 hours of flight. And 0 CTD In Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus (USBs) controller go through each device and in the “Power Management Options” tab uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device”. SteamVR settigns Startup/Shudown
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPReverb/comments/xo5v2z/holographicshell_processwindows_11_performance/ – Run cmd/terminal and paste ‘logman query HolographicShell -ets’ to see if it’s running. If it is, end it using ‘logman stop HolographicShell -ets’ and check
Can’t see steamVR settings – click on icon in taskbar, right click on settings window, select ‘move’ use the keyboard arrows to move it to main display
If you have a large monitor you can run into the problem that your monitor will move all the icons to the top left when it turns off. To stop this you either need to get an EDID pass through adapter, but a hdmi edid pass through adapter has to work for the given resolution as well as the refresh rate – and for > 60Hz at 4k (HDMI 2.0 specs) must be HDMI 2.1 compatible. There is not much in the >4K@60Hz space and what is there, is expensive.
It’s been nearly a decade since the Pebble smartwatch started shipping to backers of its wildly successful initial Kickstarter campaign, but there’s still life in the ol’ dog yet. The wearables are now compatible with Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, as well as 64-bit-only Android devices that will arrive later.
As noted by Ars Technica, Katharine Berry, who works on Wear OS and is a prominent member of the Rebble group that’s keeping the Pebble ecosystem alive, wrote that the latest Pebble update comes four years after the previous one. The last update allowed for many of the Pebble app’s functions to run on independent servers. Fitbit, which Google has since bought, shut down Pebble’s servers in 2018, two years after buying some of the smartwatch maker’s assets.
Along with Pixel 7 compatibility, the latest update also improves Caller ID reliability on recent versions of Android. While the app isn’t available on the Google Play Store, the APK is signed with official Pebble keys and retains Google Fit integration, Berry noted.
It’s amazing how amazed the writer of this article is that there are still updates for 10 year old hardware. Shouldn’t it be the norm that hardware is supported for as long as it works – and that should be in the 30/40 year range instead of the 2/3 year range?
The study, published today in Science, was led by Finland’s Aalto University and resulted in a powerful, ultra-tiny spectrometer that fits on a microchip and is operated using artificial intelligence.
The research involved a comparatively new class of super-thin materials known as two-dimensional semiconductors, and the upshot is a proof of concept for a spectrometer that could be readily incorporated into a variety of technologies—including quality inspection platforms, security sensors, biomedical analyzers and space telescopes.
[…]
Traditional spectrometers require bulky optical and mechanical components, whereas the new device could fit on the end of a human hair, Minot said. The new research suggests those components can be replaced with novel semiconductor materials and AI, allowing spectrometers to be dramatically scaled down in size from the current smallest ones, which are about the size of a grape.
[…]
The device is 100% electrically controllable regarding the colors of light it absorbs, which gives it massive potential for scalability and widespread usability
[…]
In medicine, for example, spectrometers are already being tested for their ability to identify subtle changes in human tissue such as the difference between tumors and healthy tissue.
For environmental monitoring, Minot added, spectrometers can detect exactly what kind of pollution is in the air, water or ground, and how much of it is there.
[…]
“If you’re into astronomy, you might be interested in measuring the spectrum of light that you collect with your telescope and having that information identify a star or planet,” he said. “If geology is your hobby, you could identify gemstones by measuring the spectrum of light they absorb.”
Scientists with the University of Chicago have discovered a way to create a material that can be made like a plastic, but conducts electricity more like a metal.
The research, published Oct. 26 in Nature, shows how to make a kind of material in which the molecular fragments are jumbled and disordered, but can still conduct electricity extremely well.
[…]
fundamentally, both of these organic and traditional metallic conductors share a common characteristic. They are made up of straight, closely packed rows of atoms or molecules. This means that electrons can easily flow through the material, much like cars on a highway. In fact, scientists thought a material had to have these straight, orderly rows in order to conduct electricity efficiently.
Then Xie began experimenting with some materials discovered years ago, but largely ignored. He strung nickel atoms like pearls into a string of of molecular beads made of carbon and sulfur, and began testing.
To the scientists’ astonishment, the material easily and strongly conducted electricity. What’s more, it was very stable. “We heated it, chilled it, exposed it to air and humidity, and even dripped acid and base on it, and nothing happened,” said Xie. That is enormously helpful for a device that has to function in the real world.
But to the scientists, the most striking thing was that the molecular structure of the material was disordered. “From a fundamental picture, that should not be able to be a metal,” said Anderson. “There isn’t a solid theory to explain this.”
Xie, Anderson, and their lab worked with other scientists around the university to try to understand how the material can conduct electricity. After tests, simulations, and theoretical work, they think that the material forms layers, like sheets in a lasagna. Even if the sheets rotate sideways, no longer forming a neat lasagna stack, electrons can still move horizontally or vertically—as long as the pieces touch.
The end result is unprecedented for a conductive material. “It’s almost like conductive Play-Doh—you can smush it into place and it conducts electricity,” Anderson said.
The scientists are excited because the discovery suggests a fundamentally new design principle for electronics technology. Conductors are so important that virtually any new development opens up new lines for technology, they explained.
One of the material’s attractive characteristics is new options for processing. For example, metals usually have to be melted in order to be made into the right shape for a chip or device, which limits what you can make with them, since other components of the device have to be able to withstand the heat needed to process these materials.
The new material has no such restriction because it can be made at room temperatures. It can also be used where the need for a device or pieces of the device to withstand heat, acid or alkalinity, or humidity has previously limited engineers’ options to develop new technology.
Lenovo has staged its annual Tech World gabfest and teased devices with rollable OLED screens that shrink or expand as applications demand.
The company emitted the video below to show off its rollables. We’ve embedded and set the vid to start at the moment the rollable phone is demoed. The rollable laptop demo starts at the 53 second mark.
Lenovo has offered no explanation of how the rollables work, and the video above does not show the rear of the prototype rollable smartphone and laptop.
Social media is abuzz lately over the prospect of cheating in tournament strategy games. Is it happening? How is that possible with officials watching? Could there be a hidden receiver somewhere? What can be done to rectify this? These are probing questions!
We’ll get to the bottom of this by making a simple one-way hidden communicator using Adafruit parts and the Adafruit IO service. Not for actual cheating of course, that would be asinine…in brief, a stain on the sport…but to record for posterity whether this sort of backdoor intrusion is even plausible or just an internet myth.
Nokia T10 tablet has been officially launched by the company via a press release. It is the second tablet by Nokia’s new home, HMD Global, on the market. The device is being touted as a sturdy and portable Android slate with multiple years of software upgrades. The Nokia T10 has arrived as a mid-range Android tablet for global markets.
Specifications, Features
The Nokia T10 tablet comes with an 8-inch HD display. The slate boots Android 12 out-of-the-box. It will be getting two years of major Android OS updates and at least three years of monthly security updates for Android. The slate is powered by the Unisoc T606 processor, which is accompanied by up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. There also are dual stereo speakers with OZO playback to provide an immersive media experience.
[…]
The device has an 8MP primary shooter and a 2MP selfie camera, which supports face unlock functionality. In the connectivity department, the Nokia T10 comes with 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS with GLONASS, and a built-in FM radio receiver.
Lastly, the slate is fuelled by a beefy 5,250 mAh battery, which supports 10W charging technology. Nokia T10
Price, Availability The Nokia T10 Android tablet’s base variant will be available from $159
[…] At the moment, robots are sometimes coated in silicone rubber to give them a fleshy appearance, but the rubber lacks the texture of human skin, he says.
To make more realistic-looking skin, Takeuchi and his colleagues bathed a plastic robot finger in a soup of collagen and human skin cells called fibroblasts for three days. The collagen and fibroblasts adhered to the finger and formed a layer similar to the dermis, which is the second-from-top layer of human skin.
Next, they gently poured other human skin cells called keratinocytes onto the finger to recreate the upper layer of human skin, called the epidermis.
The resulting 1.5-millimetre-thick skin was able to stretch and contract as the finger bent backwards and forwards. As it did this, it wrinkled like normal skin, says Takeuchi. “It is much more realistic than silicone.”
The robot skin could also be healed when it was cut by grafting a collagen sheet onto the wound.
However, the skin began to dry out after a while since it didn’t have blood vessels to replenish it with moisture.
In the future, it may be possible to incorporate artificial blood vessels into the skin to keep it hydrated, as well as sweat glands and hair follicles to make it more realistic, says Takeuchi.
It should also be possible to make different skin colours by adding melanocytes, he says.
The researchers now plan to try coating a whole robot in the living skin. “But since this research field has the potential to build a new relationship between humans and robots, we need to carefully consider the risks and benefits of making it too realistic,” says Takeuchi.
Over the last day or two, there have been a growing number of reports by people who own certain Canon Pixma printers that the devices either won’t turn on at all or, once turned on, get stuck in a reboot loop, cycling on and off as long as they’re plugged in. Verge reader Jamie pointed us to posts on Reddit about the problem and Canon’s own support forum, citing problems with models including the MX490, MX492, MB2010, and MG7520.
Some believe their problem is due to a software update Canon pushed to the printers, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. In response to an inquiry from The Verge, corporate communications senior director and general manager Christine Sedlacek said, “We are currently investigating this issue and hope to bring resolution shortly as customer satisfaction is our highest priority.”
Until there is an official update or fix, some people in the forums have found that disconnecting the printers from the internet is enough to keep them from rebooting, with control still possible via USB.
To get the printers to work while maintaining your connection to the internet and their connection to local network devices, one reply from a customer on Canon’s support forum suggests a method that many people report has worked for them. If you’re experienced with network setups, DNS servers, and IP addresses, it could be worth trying, but for most people, I’d recommend waiting for an official solution.
To follow their steps, then, after taking your internet offline, turn on the printer, go into its network settings, and, under web service setup, select DNS server setup and choose manual setup. In that section, input an internal network address (192.168.X.X, with numbers replacing X that aren’t in use by any other devices on your local network), press “OK,” and then press “no” for a secondary DNS server. This keeps the printer connected to your router without accessing the wider internet, and, for some reason, has been enough to stop the devices from rebooting.
Water scarcity is a major problem for much of the world’s population, but with the right equipment drinking water can be wrung out of thin air. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have now demonstrated a low-cost gel film that can pull many liters of water per day out of even very dry air.
The gel is made up of two main ingredients that are cheap and common – cellulose, which comes from the cell walls of plants, and konjac gum, a widely used food additive. Those two components work together to make a gel film that can absorb water from the air and then release it on demand, without requiring much energy.
First, the porous structure of the gum attracts water to condense out of the air around it. The cellulose, meanwhile, is designed to respond to a gentle heat by turning hydrophobic, releasing the captured water.
Making the gel is also fairly simple, the team says. The basic ingredients are mixed together then poured into a mold, where it sets in two minutes. After that it’s freeze-dried, then peeled out of the mold and ready to get to work. It can be made into basically any shape needed, and scaled up fairly easily and at low-cost.
The gel film can be cut and molded into whatever shape is needed
University of Texas at Austin
In tests, the gel film was able to wring an astonishing amount of water out of the air. At a relative humidity of 30 percent, it could produce 13 L (3.4 gal) of water per day per kilogram of gel, and even when the humidity dropped to just 15 percent – which is low, even for desert air – it could still produce more than 6 L (1.6 gal) a day per kilogram.
Without adding any hardware that actually makes contact with the wearer’s face, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group have modified an off-the-shelf virtual reality headset so that it recreates the sensation of touch in and around a user’s mouth, finally fulfilling virtual reality’s inevitable one true purpose.
Aside from handheld controllers that occasionally vibrate, most consumer-ready virtual reality devices ignore senses like taste, smell, and touch, and instead focus on visuals and sounds. It’s enough to make virtual reality experiences far more compelling than they were decades ago, but not enough to truly fool the brain into thinking that what your eyes are seeing is possibly a real-life experience.
Researchers working to evolve and improve virtual reality hardware have come up with some truly unique hardware and accessories over the years to make virtual reality feel as real as it looks, but none truly reflect where virtual reality is inevitably going like the research being done at Carnegie Mellon University in regards to mouth haptics. You might not be able to reach out and feel realistic fur on a virtual dog just yet, but experiencing the sensation of drinking from a virtual drinking fountain could be just around the corner—in addition to other experiences that don’t require too much imagination.
The researchers upgraded what appears to be a Meta Quest 2 headset with an array of ultrasonic transducers that are all focused on the user’s mouth, and it works without the need for additional accessories, or other hardware set up around the wearer. We’ve seen ultrasonic transducers used to levitate and move around tiny particles by blasting them with powerful sound waves before, but in this application, they create the feeling of touch on the user’s lips, teeth, and even their tongue while their mouth is open.
A giant virtual spider rains down a flood of poison on the user which they can feel splashing across their lips.
The transducers can do more than just simulate a gentle touch. By pulsing them in specific patterns, they can recreate the feeling of an object sliding or swiping across the lips, or persistent vibrations, such as the continuous splashing of water when leaning down to sip from a virtual drinking fountain.
The researchers have come up with other custom virtual reality experiences that demonstrate how their mouth haptics hardware can introduce more realism, including a hike through a spooky forest where spider webs can be felt across the face, a race where the user can feel the wind in their face, and even virtual eating experiences where food and drinks can be felt inside the mouth. But if and when someone runs with this idea and commercializes the mouth haptics hardware, we’re undoubtedly going to see the world’s first virtual reality kissing booth realized, among other experiences the researchers are probably wisely tip-toeing around.
[…] MIT have developed a paper-thin speaker that can be applied to almost any surface like wallpaper, turning objects like walls into giant noise-cancelling speakers.
[…]
Researchers at MIT’s Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory have created a new kind of thin-film speaker that’s as thin and flexible as a sheet of paper, but is also able to generate clear, high-quality sound, even when bonded to a rigid surface like a wall. This is not the first time researchers have created ultra-thin lightweight speakers, but previous attempts have resulted in a film that needs to be freestanding and unencumbered to produce sound. When mounted to a rigid surface, past thin speakers’ ability to vibrate and move air is greatly reduced, which limits where and how they can be used. But MIT’s researchers have now come up with a new manufacturing process that solves that problem.
Instead of designing a thin-film speaker that requires the entire panel to vibrate, the researchers started with a sheet of lightweight PET plastic that they perforated with tiny holes using a laser. A layer of thin piezoelectric material called PVDF was then laminated to the underside of the sheet, and then the researchers subjected both layers to a vacuum and 80 degrees Celsius heat, which caused the piezoelectric layer to bulge and push through the laser-cut holes in the top layer. This created a series of tiny domes that are able to pulse and vibrate when an electric current is applied, regardless of whether or not the panel is bonded to a rigid surface. The researchers also added a few extra layers of the durable PET plastic to create a spacer to ensure that the domes can vibrate freely, and to protect them from abrasion damage.
The domes are just “one-sixth the thickness of a human hair” in height and move a mere half micron up and down when they vibrate. Thousands are needed to produce audible sounds, but the researchers also discovered that changing the size of the laser-cut holes, which also alters the size of the domes produced, allows the sound produced by the thin-film panel to be tuned to be louder. Because the domes have such minute movement, just 100 milliwatts of electricity were needed to power a single square meter of the material, compared to more than a full watt of electricity needed to power a standard speaker to create a comparable level of sound pressure.
Addressable LED strings have made it easier than ever to build fun glowable projects with all kinds of exciting animations. However, if you’re not going with a simple grid layout, it can be a little difficult to map your strings out in code. Fear not, for [Jason Coon] has provided a tool to help out with just that!
[Jason]’s web app, accessible here. is used for mapping out irregular layouts when working with addressable LED strings like the WS2812B and others that work with libraries like FastLED and Pixelblaze. If you’re making some kind of LED globe, crazy LED tree, or other non-gridular shape, this tool can help.
The first step is to create a layout of your LEDs in a Google Sheets table, which can then be pasted into the web app. Then, the app handles generating the necessary code to address the LEDs in an order corresponding to the physical layout.
[Jason] does a great job of explaining how the tool works, and demonstrates it working with a bowtie-like serpentine layout with rainbow animations. The tool can even provide visual previews of the layout so you can verify what you’ve typed in makes sense.
