Let's create Telepathy!!

Signals sent through internet connect brain of 1 person to another

1st human brain-to-brain interface conducted

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/08/28/brain-interface-human.html

The key to growth? Race with the machines

At the age of big data which keeps growing exponentially, the rise of machines is surely on the horizon. And we are not going to race against the machine but with the machines cooperating together. Below is another talk suggesting this idea - The rise of human-computer cooperation

So the future is not the AI(artificial intelligence) in machines but IA(intelligence augmentation) in humans.. We are all going to be mutants soon ; D

PayPal launches quest for intergalactic currency

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-paypal-quest-intergalactic-currency.html

Quite an interesting read.. looks like we'll get to space sooner than we imagined, at least we are prepping early for it..

But chew on this one from the article above - A Space Hotel is proposed to be circling the planet in about three years, raising the prospect of porters to tip and room service to pay for.

Dell's Next Big Thing - A $100 Android computer the size of a USB stick

Dell is working on a project currently called “Ophelia” that is “a complete, self-contained PC” that also happens to be as big as a USB thumb drive. But the killer feature of Ophelia is that it uses “virtual instances of… operating systems running in the cloud” to give users access to “Windows, Mac OS, Google’s Chrome OS, Dell’s custom cloud solutions, Citrix cloud software, and even Google’s Chrome OS.” Let’s take a step back and think about what this really means. If you plug Ophelia into a flat-panel television, it will connect to the nearest Wi-Fi network and give you access to any type of operating system or app that is running virtually somewhere in the cloud.

It's still a long wait for the average consumer get their hands on this one as it has just been made available to to the testers. 
And there are talks that they want to actually get the price down to $50, now that's sleek!! This surely can give ChromeCast a run for the money if it can hit the market soon enough. 
Hopefully this will turn it around of Dell, being an ex-employee I surely wish them good luck!!

#Review: LeapMotion - Review from a Backer

                                       

So I finally got mine on July 24, 2013. I had pre-ordered it on Sept 2012, yep that's a loooong wait!!

The build quality of the product is really excellent and has the stylish elegance like in Apple products. It's very light and very easy to carry, can easily fit into your jeans pocket without any discomfort. However after watching the above video if you thought this is a wireless device and doesn't need any cables then you are surely not the first one. And it's deceiving that in the intro video they don't show any cables. Well, it does require a USB cable which is provided in the box, in fact they provide 2 cables of varying length depending on how far you want to air control your system, though the longer one is only about 2.5 meters.

Without further ado, let me talk about - what was the experience of using LeapMotion?

-Setup & Installation:
The setup and installation was pretty straight forward, you gotta download the installer from leapmotion.com/setup, connect the device via the USB cable and later just follow the instructions.

- Calibration:
This part is pretty cool, they have very intuitive software that'll guide you through the calibration in couple of easy steps to follow.


- AirSpace
AirSpace Home is where all the apps are stored for you to open or delete them. Even though it looks like pretty simple console, this is a heavy application and even on my i7 quad core laptop it takes a while to start it.

The home screen will by default have the following apps installed -
   1. Airspace Store - This is where you go to download apps. There are currently only 70+ apps in total in the store, out of that only 13 of them are free apps and to add to the misery some of those are only for Mac and not Windows and vice-versa.
   2. Orientation - You can go here if you want to re-calibrate or just love seeing your digital hands..
   3. ShimSham - This falls under the Games category but I haven't yet figured it out.
   4. Cut the Rope - This is where you'll end up spending the first 30-60 minutes on you leap motion.. it may take a little time for you to get the finger movement right to cut the ropes. I think the challenge adds to the fun of playing this game. Unfortunately by the time you get the hang of it, the game is over (they have just provided 2 stages)

Recommended Free Apps that I have tried so far -
Touchless For Windows - Basically you can air control the mouse pointer and perform the regular operations on your system. it's still in Beta so there is a lot of work needed to make it better however for fun if you are bored with using the mouse this can be a good exercise for your hands.
Rosham Bo! - This was real fun, for all who have played Stone, Paper, Scissor as kids will go back down the memory lane.. my 6 year nephew finished the whole game in 15 minutes, well that shouldn't surprise me anyway as he belts my ass in Asphalt and ShadowGun:Deadzone on iPad already..
Corel Painter Freestyle - Tough to get a hang off but right now the only painting app for free, I am still trying keep my hands steady for this one.
Cyber Science 3d Motion - It's just a human skull to explore and dissect but still a lot of fun especially because you easily get the controls and it's very easy to master the moves.

But the most fun I had using leap motion was with Google Earth (you need to upgrade to 7.1). Again it took a while to learn the controls as the earth will spin out of your hands all the time but once you get used to it it's super fun to fly around the cities that have 3d buildings and all.

Tips:
1. Use a support for elbow as keeping the hands in air for long can really cause shoulder pain. 
2. Change the interaction height under settings. Default was 20 cms, I changed it to 10cms.

It's just been a day that I have been using my leapmotion, will add more posts on apps and interesting stuff that I have been doing with it in coming days.