This levitating DIY project won’t give aspiring Jedi much of a challenge (it doesn’t really move), but it’s perfect for the Star Wars fan’s ever-growing display case. Plus, DIY! More »
This is one of the two most perfect spheres ever. Exactly one kilogram—Imperial units be damned and forbidden forever—smooth to the nearest 0.0000000003 meter (1.18110236 × 10-8 inches,) and round to within 0.00000005 meters (1.96850394 × 10-6 inches.) More »
Whoever thought the future wouldn’t be filled with humming radio-connected spheres is just plain dumb, but Moixa’s mesmerising Sphere i/o interface device seems to buck the current trend of natural interaction.
Microsoft’s Surface Sphere operates a lot like the original Surface, utilising a projector surrounded by a ring of IR cameras, which is then covered by a semi-opaque globe. The IR cameras detect when the beams are being blocked, and transmits it as contact. Using it, I found there are still a few early glitches, but this is an amazing piece of technology and far along for a prototype. galleryPost('surfacespherems', 3, '');
The Seattle PI has the first look at Microsoft’s multi-touch Surface Sphere–simply Sphere–that we’ve known would debut this week. It’s more advanced than Surface, since it has to use algorithms to round images, and uses an infrared system to detect hands and objects touching it. It plays omnidirectional video and what has to be the craziest rendition of Pong ever. The video shows a lot of amazing potential, but incredulously, it’s just an ooh-and-ah project right now, with no commercial plans–it’s just supposed to relay their vision of everything as a potential Surface. We’re convinced, now make it happen. [Seattle PI]
Microsoft is going to debut its spherical multi-touch Surface next week at its annual Research Faculty Summit. We’re pretty curious about what you can do with a big ball of multi-touch (and wondering about the little things–is it a perfect sphere? How are you supposed to hold it? Is it like a globe?). They pulled references to it off the exhibit list (to keep it a surprise, probably), but it’s still very much on the floor display map, as you can see. We’re stoked. [Mary-Jo Foley]
Even with man’s advancements in developing increasingly intricate microprocessors and ever taller skyscrapers, there’s one thing we cannot do. We cannot make a completely perfect sphere. Sure, we can get close. But a new problem has provoked a more perfect execution. The kilogram needs to be standardised across many countries as the 120-year-old physical platinum standard is changing in mass. And deviations in measurement have screwed up the value of a kilogram across the globe.
