Since I read a lot in a lot of varied publications I come across a lot of interesting - to me, at least - squibs in the tech news that I think are interesting or intriguing enough to share.
For instance, did you know that Robert Morris, a commuter school based in downtown Chicago with fewer than 2,500 undergrads, is the first college in the U.S. to make video gaming a varsity sport? Top players can receive scholarships worth up to $19,000 per year.
Their team, the Eagles, has the same mascot as the other varsity sports. They practice up to five hours per day in a classroom converted into a gaming center, which they sold the naming rights to (iBuypower E-Sports Arena) for more than five figures.
Being developed in the MIT Space Lab - though created by engineers at Microsoft - is a transparent screen called SpaceTop. It works like a regular monitor, but put your hands behind it and suddenly your are able to manipulate 3-D models as though they were physical objects. To exit cyberspace and return to Windows just pull your hands back to the keyboard.
The same researchers at the Tangible Media Group lab are also conducting experiments (title: InForm) that could make it possible for us to actually handle, shape, and manipulate physical objects even when they are far away.
Less mind-shattering, but still interesting, is an app called Monument Valley, by ustwo. It is both an interactive work of art and a mobile game, wherein the player guides a faceless princess through elegantly crafted surrealistic structures.
Two other apps, more useful types, include Soundown and Breathe2Relax. Soundown, with an idea originating with records, uses natural sounds, like a crackling campfire and coffee shop background noises, to free the mind for relaxation. Breathe2Relax focuses on deep breathing for quick calming in stressful eventualities, complete with helpful learning notes. Both available on IOS and Android.
Several products also have struck my fancy. KissCam, by taliaYstudio, is a camera you activate by kissing it. The Vivitar Full HD Action camera - $100 at Amazon.com - mounts to a bike or an ATV to film a rider's "extreme excursions".
The 3-D Printing Pen ($99 at hammacher.com) is a hot-glue-like handheld printer that extrudes warm plastic, turning doodles into sculptures when it hardens.
Just as imaginative is the "origami robot" Crab-walker created by Harvard and MIT researchers. It's made of paper, bits of wiring and 3-D sheets of polystyrene from the children;'s art toy Shrinky Dinks, with batteries situated in the middle. Embedded wires heat and shrink the material in specific places, allowing the robot to bend, fold and unfurl, self-assembling into a robot walker.
Envision a ream of these prepared sheets, for instance, being sent into space and unfolding into a satellite. They could also revolutionize manufacturing, allowing people to design and print their own robot to do whatever they want.
(Information taken from Discovery, Parade and Fast Company Magazines.)t Know About
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