Virtual reality headsets are super cool, but they need new types of input methods to go with them to make their experiences truly immersive. Control VR has brought its motion capture technology out of stealth with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for a sensor-laden glove that tracks your hand movements down to the finger.
Backers who contribute $350 or more can get an early version of the Control VR hardware, along with SDK access and tutorials.
In a statement, Medal of Honor and Battlefield Producer Greg Goodrich called Control VR “the most significant development in virtual reality since Oculus.”
The glove will also have applications beyond gaming. Researchers have been using Control VR to understand the effects of aging and Parkinson’s disease on movement, and the system has plenty of uses for sign language. The robotics field also stands to benefit from inertial motion tracking. Control VR says it has even programmed its gloves to control a quadricopter drone.
Control VR has been licensing its technology to companies, including Raytheon , NASA , and UbiSoft , for some time now, but this is the first consumer release of its wearable.
“What we have is leaps and bounds more advanced and more accurate than anything the public has seen before,” Control VR CEO Alex Sarnoff said in an interview.
While wearing a device on your hands isn’t as convenient as current camera-based solutions, it has the potential to be more dependable. Control VR also plans to add haptic feedback to its gloves so that you’ll eventually be able to feel objects while in a virtual environment.
➤ Control VR [Kickstarter]
The Narrative Clip wearable camera gets a desktop app
The Narrative Clip , the tiny wearable camera that captures a snapshot of your life every 30 seconds , used to lack a way to browse your photos on a desktop computer.
No longer – the iOS and Android apps have been joined by a Web app for desktop browsers. This makes exploring your ‘moments’ that little bit more convenient.
Meanwhile, the mobile apps now have a ‘Jump to Date’ feature that makes managing a large collection of moments that little bit easier. For some reason that feature isn’t yet available in the Web app, but it’s good to see Narrative continue to develop its offering.
➤ Narrative / Narrative Web App
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Sony’s SmartWatch 3 runs Android Wear and tracks your jogging routes without a smartphone
Sony today unveiled the SmartWatch 3, its first device running Android Wear. The GPS-enabled wearable comes with a square 1.6-inch display, 4GB of internal storage and a 420mAh battery.
The company’s previous efforts ran on its own platform and, for all intents and purposes, never took off. The software was lacklustre and the poor app selection made them difficult to recommend. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, to see the company jump to Android Wear, a platform managed by Google and already available on a range of smartwatches, thereby ensuring developer support.
Sony’s SmartWatch 3 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM A7 processor and 512MB of RAM; the hardware is modular, which means it can be removed from the watch strap entirely. Sony hopes that by developing a portfolio of different bands, the smartwatch will appeal to any consumer’s particular style or tastes. Like many of its premium smartphones, the device is also waterproof.
The GPS support and internal storage means the smartwatch will also function without a paired Android smartphone. Sony envisions this mode for sports enthusiasts in particular; if you’re heading out for a run, you can record your routes and listen to music through the company’s new Walkman app, while leaving your valuable and perhaps large smartphone safely at home.
Sony’s SmartWatch 3 will arrive this autumn for around €229. When the release date and exact pricing is nailed down, we’ll be sure to let you know.
(Note: The images in this article show a prototype version of the SmartWatch 3, which had a loose button on the side. This will be fixed for the final version.)
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