LG’s prototype virtual reality headset splits in two on purpose

In February, it was revealed that LG was preparing to unveil its own virtual reality headset, a competitor to the likes of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Now, a patent application has seemingly revealed that the device will have a thoroughly unusual design.

The headset utilizes a grommet system that allows it to split into two discrete parts, according to documents uncovered by the Dutch website LetsGoDigital. A spring-loaded mechanism will attach the two pieces securely enough such that they won’t fall apart as the user is moving around.

Image Credit: World Intellectual Property Organization

Another innovation detailed in the patent application is the presence of integrated earbuds. This feature is broadly similar to the way that the recent hardware revision of the PlayStation VR headset handles audio, according to Road to VR.

At this point, there is no confirmation that these patent drawings actually relate to the hardware that LG was touting earlier this year. It’s all a question of whether the company has more than one headset in the works, and whether this design is set to be implemented in the immediate future, or further down the line.

When LG discussed its headset, details were scarce, but we did learn that it is set to utilize the SteamVR platform. This could turn out to be crucial if it’s intended to go head-to-head with hardware like the Rift and the Vive, which are already well-established among VR aficionados.

SteamVR support will allow LG’s headset to support a wide range of software straight out of the box. That’s going to be very important if the hardware is to have any chance of tempting people away from other brands.

The unusual design that LG is pursuing could set it apart from other hardware on the market. Of course, there are two main factors that will decide whether a new headset is to be a success; the software that it’s compatible with, and its pricing.

The market for VR headsets is still relatively new, so LG could potentially carve out its own niche with a compelling new product — still, it has an uphill battle ahead if it’s to compete with Oculus and HTC.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best VR headset you can buy
• Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive: Prices are lower, but our favorite remains the same
• Oculus Rift vs. Oculus Go — is it still better to be tethered to a PC?
• Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset review
• Logitech Bridge lets you use your keyboard inside a VR experience

This 3D-printed textile could enable your clothing to cool you down

The outside temperature can have a strange effect on some folks at this time of year — causing them to make a beeline for the thermostat to crank it up to uncomfortably warm levels on the spurious basis that, because it’s cold outside, it should therefore be swelteringly hot indoors to make up for it. A sympathetic team of researchers from the University of Maryland may have invented a solution, however. They have developed a 3D-printed thermally conductive textile composed of fibers made up of aligned boron nitride nanosheets, combined with polyvinyl alcohol, embedded in a polymer matrix. What that adds up to is a temperature-regulating material that’s capable of cooling a person down as they wear it.

The brand-new material is incredibly efficient at sucking heat away from the body. Compared to cotton fabric, it is twice as efficient at cooling down the person who is wearing it, and 1.5 times more efficient than pure polyvinyl alcohol, which is adept at the same task. In essence, it’s your own personal air conditioning unit — but one that requires no bulky components such as batteries or power packs.

The University of Maryland is not the only place to be working on a similar project. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researchers have developed smart biohybrid materials for future workout clothes, which use a microbial lining to self-ventilate whenever a wearer sweats. Smart fabrics aren’t only limited to temperature control, either. At the City College of New York, investigators have developed a fabric that’s capable of not only rapidly detecting nerve gas, but also of neutralizing it.

While most of these fabrics — including the University of Maryland’s cooling fabric — remain research projects at present, they’re all part of a materials science revolution that will massively increase the functionality of our wardrobes in the years to come. And, in the case of this particular cooling material, provide a new way to solve bitter office feuds over the temperature the thermostat should be set to.

A paper describing the work, titled “Three-Dimensional Printed Thermal Regulation Textiles” was recently published in the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Self-disinfecting door pad could help break the spread of germs in hospitals
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Self-healing gear bags and 3D-printed jewelry
• The ‘e-skin’ connected shirt promises to turn your body into a controller
• Lifesaving smart fabric can detect and neutralize deadly nerve gas
• UCLA’s new solid-state fridge tech could make air conditioning obsolete

Arduino-powered Time Machine Glove can stop moving objects in their tracks

We’re all for cool Arduino-powered DIY projects, and there are very few Arduino-powered DIY projects cooler than YouTuber MadGyver’s DIY Time Machine Glove. With a name like that, how you could not love it?

Of course, the Time Machine Glove doesn’t really cause a temporal rift in the space-time continuum, although it certainly does a neat job of simulating it. As can be seen from the above video, it can pull off feats such as “freezing” a fan mid-spin or stopping drops of water as they fall — all with the wave of a glove. This illusion is carried out by way of a strobe light that’s attached to the glove’s palm. On the back of the glove is an Arduino, which lets the user control the frequency of the strobe.

By timing the strobes correctly (for example, every time the fan blades are in one position) it’s possible to make it appear as though time has ground to a halt entirely. By steadily decreasing the strobe’s frequency, meanwhile, time can appear to slow down. This perceptual phenomenon is known as the “stroboscopic” effect, and occurs when a continuance motion represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples comes into conflict with the sampling rate of a viewing device.

For this reason, it is most commonly associated with the “wagon-wheel” illusion seen in old movies, in which the spoked wheels on a horse-drawn cart can appear to be turning backwards. In the case of the Time Machine Glove, however, the effect works regardless of whether you’re filming it or viewing it in person.

The resulting creation may be relatively pointless in terms of applications, but it’s certainly all kinds of awesome in terms of pulling off a trick that’s going to impress your buddies — and make you temporarily feel like you’re a superhero, to boot!

That’s where the really cool part of the project comes into play, since MadGyver has made the instructions for the DIY Time Machine Glove available online so that others can, well, do it themselves. Detailed instructions can be found on Instructables and Github, and the good news is that, as homebrew projects go, this one’s not actually too difficult to build.

Who’d have thought that time travel could be so straightforward?

Editors’ Recommendations

• Want your child to learn STEM skills? Check out these robot kits for kids
• How deep is your crate?’ DJ Cut Chemist digs down on ‘Die Cut’
• Amazing (and slightly creepy) robotic mask changes in response to your emotions
• Weekly Rewind: Humanoid robots, the best ski gloves, our take on the iPhone X
• Now, you can play with a cool retro Power Glove VR controller

The Nikon D5 heads to space for (unmodified) work aboard the ISS

The Nikon D5’s extreme ISO range helps the camera see in the dark — and that low-light capability will soon be shooting photos that are, quite literally, out of this world. On Sunday, November 12, 10 Nikon D5 cameras launched as part of the OA-8 S.S. Gene Cernan Cygnus resupply mission for the International Space Station.

NASA has used Nikon since Apollo 15 in 1971 and earlier this year ordered 52 Nikon D5s for both Earth and ISS use. Nikon says the D5s are unmodified and will be used with lenses already at the ISS, previously used with the D4 cameras on board.

After launching on Sunday, the Cygnus is expected to reach the ISS around 4:50 a.m. on November 14. Launched by aerospace company Orbital ATK, the spacecraft will deliver equipment and supplies before conducting experiments while docked at the ISS for about three weeks. The Nikon gear is part of about 7,500 pounds of supplies.

While the Cygnus is docked, the ISS will use the extra space to experiment with TangoLab, a reconfigurable research facility. The experiment, Obital AKT says, will explore the potential ability to expand the ISS capabilities temporarily.

Once the spacecraft has finished with the mission, the Cygnus will be destroyed when reentering the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, a safe, destructive reentry, the company says.

The Nikon D4 has been working on the ISS since 2013, with an initial delivery of 38 cameras and 64 lenses. Last year, NASA delivered another 10 of the full frame bodies to the Space Station.

The successor to the D4 arrived to consumers in March of 2016 with a new processor for 12-frames-per-second burst shooting. The camera’s list of highlights also includes a 152-point autofocus system, an ISO range expandable past three million, and 4K video.

After equipping Apollo 15 with the Nikon Photomic FTN, Nikon has supplied NASA with a number of different cameras, including the F3 and F5 before the digital D2XS. Since the D3S, the NASA-bound cameras have been the same models available to consumers, without modifications the ISS, Nikon says. On the ISS, the cameras are used for shooting images both inside the station and outside.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Good to the last drop? NASA could use astronaut pee to make tools, food
• From CERN to the ISS, here are 9 big tech projects that changed the world
• SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down in Pacific with a crew of mouse astronauts
• Elon Musk unveils prototype for SpaceX astronaut suit with Crew Dragon capsule
• Lava tubes on Mars could provide shelter for streets and towns, study says

Pixel 2 and 2 XL exhibit flickering when using the camera under LED lights

The issue is only affecting some users, but it’s unclear at the time if software will be able to fix it.

There have been more than a few bugs with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL since their release last month, and while display controversy surrounding the XL model received the most attention, we’ve seen other issues here and there that have proven to be equally annoying. Most recently, users are reporting that the camera on the Pixel 2/2XL exhibits a flickering motion when taking a photo or video under LED lights.

So, what exactly is going on here?

All LED lights have a natural flicker that ranges from 50 to 60Hz, and it’s something that’s not perceivable to the human eye. However, certain cameras are capable of picking up this flickering and display it over what you’re trying to capture. As fate would have it, the sensor on the Pixel 2 is one such camera.

It’s a bit difficult to describe exactly what’s going on with words, so to make things a bit more clear, take a look at this video that was recently uploaded to YouTube by apa1.

This phenomenon was also discovered by Chazzdjr in the Pixel User Community, with images captured on a plane turning out as follows:

A couple of representatives from Google have stated that they’re aware of the issue and will make sure that the right people see what’s going on. I personally can’t replicate the flickering on my Pixel 2, and according to other users, this is something that’s only affecting certain handsets. It’s unclear if a software update will be able to fix this, so we’ll have to wait and see what the Mothership says.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL review: The new standard
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

Google Store
Project Fi
Verizon
Best Buy

Deal: Pixel C tablet down to £299 in the United Kingdom

New savings on an old gadget.

Android tablets (and really, tablets in general) have gotten a lot less popular over the past couple of years. The last tablet that Google ever released was the Pixel C that came out back in 2015, and while it offered a great design and gorgeous display, the high price and soemtimes wonky performance made it hard to justify its $599 asking price (not to mention the extra $150 for its keyboard).

Google never really did come off of that $599 listing, but for our readers over in the United Kingdom, you’ve finally got a deal that just might make the Pixel C still worth it in late 2017.

Right now on the Google Store in the U.K., you can buy the Pixel C for £299 (normally £479) and the keyboard accessory for £73 (rather than £119). Along with this, buyers in France, Germany, Ireland, and other countries throughout Europe can pick up the Pixel C for slightly more at £349. There’s no sale in the United States, but that’s because the Pixel C is out of stock there.

Google’s likely running this discount to clear out whatever remaining units of the tablet it still has, and considering its age, we can’t imagine that there will be a lot to go around. As such, if this sounds like a deal you’ve been waiting for, we advise acting on it as soon as you can.

See at Google Store

Senators want FEC to improve transparency for online political ads

It’s not just companies like Google asking the Federal Election Commission to improve disclosure for online political ads. A group of 15 Democrat senators (led by Sens. Claire McCaskill, Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner) has filed an official comment calling on the FEC to take “immediate action” increasing the transparency for internet political ads. Russia took advantage of exemptions in political ad law to influence the 2016 presidential election without revealing its involvement, the senators argued, and that could be “the norm” if the Commission doesn’t step in. Internet ads should be scrutinized just as closely as their TV and radio counterparts, according to the senators.

The filing comes just a day before the end of a comment period on a proposal that the FEC should update its election ad rules. It also follows less than a month after a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would ask online companies to follow the same political ad rules as conventional media.

There’s no guarantee that the comments will influence the FEC’s position. However, it illustrates the sense of urgency among those worried Russia will try to skew future elections. The 2018 midterms are less than a year away — if there’s going to be any kind of impact, lawmakers can’t afford to wait.

Source: Senator Mark Warner

Bose uses Indiegogo to test wireless earbuds for sleep

It may seem odd for a proven audio company like Bose to take to crowd-funding, but an Indiegogo campaign for the company’s upcoming noise-masking wireless earbuds (or ‘sleepbuds’) makes a lot of sense as a beta test its fans can pay to get into. The sound-isolating buds act like a white-noise machine, only plugged into your ears.

“Tiny and ultra-comfortable,” wrote the company in the description for its promotional video, “our new Bose noise-masking sleepbuds replace the unwanted noises that keep you up with soothing sounds that lull you to sleep. But before we launch them later in 2018, we’re looking for our Indiegogo audience to help us test our prototype and provide feedback.”

The campaign is still in its prototype stage, which means it only has a working demo of the “sleepbuds.” The devices have a rechargeable micro-battery for two nights of sleep per charge, noise-isolating eartips and sound-masking technology that includes soothing sounds preloaded on the built-in flash memory. They come with an Earpod-like charging case that will keep the buds charged when not in use. As the sleepbuds are designed to sleep in, you can set a personal alarm for the morning, letting you wake up without your partner hearing the alarm sounds.

The $249 earbuds were available at a significant discount for early backers; all four of these options have been sold out. The project has reached more than 850 percent of its initial $50,000 funding goal with 24 days left in the campaign. This will be the audio maker’s second set of totally wireless buds; Bose announced its SoundSport Free wireless earbuds made expressly for exercising just last month. According to the Indiegogo page, Bose acquired San Diego-based startup Hush, which was instrumental in making some of the technology included in the new earbuds.

Via: CNET

Source: Indiegogo

Tesla hit with another lawsuit claiming a racist work environment

Tesla is the subject of another lawsuit regarding racism in the workplace, Bloomberg reports. Over 100 black employees have filed a suit against the company saying that Tesla’s production floor is a “hotbed for racist behavior.” In the complaint, which was filed today, they said, “Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era race discrimination.”

This isn’t the first time Tesla’s work environment has come under fire for harboring racial harassment. One employee brought a suit against the company in March as did three more just last month. Suits have also been brought against the company for workplace sexism as well as LGBT discrimination.

One of the employees included in this most recent lawsuit said that other employees and supervisors used the “N word” often and after he filed a complaint with human resources, he was fired for “not having a positive attitude.” The complaint filed today also notes an email sent by Elon Musk to Tesla factory employees. Bloomberg reports that in it, the CEO says, “Part of not being a huge jerk is considering how someone might feel who is part of [a] historically less represented group. Sometimes these things happen unintentionally, in which case you should apologize. In fairness, if someone is a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept that apology.”

The employees included in the lawsuit are petitioning to sue as a group and are seeking both general and punitive monetary damages as well as an implementation of company policies aimed at preventing harassment.

Source: Bloomberg

EA makes ‘Star Wars: Battlefront II’ heroes easier to earn amid backlash

Video game studios sometimes tinker with their games until release day, but Electronic Arts is making another last-minute change to soothe legions of irate fans. After the high price to unlock heroes in the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront II caused fans to revolt, EA relented. The publisher told fans in a blog post that, effective immediately, a handful of iconic characters including Luke and Darth Vader would be far easier to earn.

EA cut down the cost of ‘top heroes’ by 75 percent. Luke and Vader are 15,000 credits (the in-game currency), while Palpatine, Chewbacca and Leia are 10,000, while the game’s solo campaign protagonist Iden Versio will cost 5,000.

Fans had criticized how well-known heroes available by default in the first Star Wars: Battlefront needed to be unlocked in the sequel, and how difficult it was to earn enough credits to do so. In Battlefront II, in-game currency is earned by time spent in multiplayer matches; Over the weekend, fans calculated that it would take 40 hours to get 60,000 credits — the price to unlock a top hero. Which means, even with the discount, that it’ll take fans 10 hours of in-game time to unlock Luke or Vader.

Yesterday, a Redditor shared their outrage that franchise favorite Darth Vader was locked. A reply by an EA Community Team employee who said the cost was intended to “provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes” was heavily ridiculed and became one of the most downvoted posts in Reddit history. Unfortunately, overzealous fans have taken it way too far and harassed the game’s developers — even sending death threats, which, and I can’t believe I have to write this, is never okay.

It’s the second time EA has tweaked the game’s reward mechanics following backlash. After the open beta last month, players and critics were outraged that anyone could get a noticeable advantage in multiplayer by buying randomized loot crates. Subsequently, EA publicly responded to the feedback and reserved the most powerful of upgrades for merit-only unlocking.

In its blog post, EA noted that this instant discount is “a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly.” It will go live today ahead of the game’s launch on November 17th, but players who pre-ordered Battlefront II for early access should see the discount when they boot the game up tomorrow. While heroes Finn and Captain Phasma will join the game next month before The Last Jedi hits theaters in Battlefront II’s first DLC, it’s unclear how credits-expensive — and ergo attainable — they’ll be.

Via: Windows Central

Source: Electronic Arts