Gizmodo Australia » spheres

World’s Most Perfect Pair Of Balls

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:40:00 +0000

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.)

They were made using silicon by metrologists from the by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research organisation. [Makezine]

Moixa Defies Natural Interface, Creates Crazy Interface ‘Sphere’

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:20:00 +0000

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.

It’s not totally clear whether Moixa’s device—whose patent was just revealed—is a standalone system or a display-equipped gyroscopic mouse for computers. What is clear is that can be either spherical or it can collapse into an elliptical shape, and its construction will rely on flexible screens, presumably coated OLED sheets. The concept is basically a humanist riff on “He’s got the whole world in His hand,” with Google Earth coming up as an actual globe, or a carousel of browser screens or game scenarios that you can ease through, a flick at a time.

In Moixa’s description, there will be multitouch interaction and gyroscopic control, something like an iPhone Wiimote love child. It can be folded flat for storage and charged by “opening a leaf-like petal”—remember these are the people who make USB-chargable AA batteries. For it to take off, a lot of crazy things have to happen, but damn if we won’t be watching. Look out for its debut in 2010—or after an awful lot of OLED advancements are seen. You know, whichever comes first.

The apple can be recharged by opening a leaf like petal, can also display an interactive world map (such as Google Earth), navigate the web or interact with applications. [Moixa via Pocket Lint and Engadget]

Hands On With the Microsoft Surface Sphere Prototype

Adrian Covert — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:41:00 +0000

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.

Admittedly, this is a very early, and very rough demo, but the use of IR technology means that navigating the Sphere isn’t quite as smooth or intuitive as a multi-touch display. Similar to the HP Touchsmart, I noticed that contact with the sphere had to be deliberate to get an accurate response. And one notable hurdle the Surface Sphere will have to overcome is light sensitivity. Flash photography affected the input mechanism, tricking the computer into thinking a giant hand was touching it.

Similar to the original Surface, photos and video tiles can be shuffled around the Sphere. The coolest demo was by far the Pong-style game, where blockades could be placed on the globe spontaneously using your hand or a Post-it note. There was also a neat demo where you could flick the sphere like a globe to make it simulate rotation, then drag your fingers across to create a paint trail. This has the potential to be pretty awesome.

The big question is why a sphere when so many of us are looking for a more practical application for a surface table, not a less practical one? Walking around to use a UI could be complicated and annoying for the average PC user. Researchers said the sphere was the most challenging surface possible, and if they could get Surface-style multi-touch working on that, they could get it working on anything. Maybe they could use it to model Trident data on a touch globe. They also said that academics could make good use of it, and I agree that I can see this being useful for classroom collaboration. The obvious uses are in public and retail spaces, for advertising and marketing. And a fun implementation is that it could be used for multiplayer gaming, because you can’t see the whole sphere at once.

Microsoft Multi-touch Sphere Plays 360-Degree Video, Trippiest Pong Game Ever

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:35:21 +0000

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 Surface Sphere Will Be Multi-touchable Next Week

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:13:23 +0000

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]

Roundest Spheres in the World Produced

Mark Wilson — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:45:00 +0000

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.

Luckily one man could create the perfect sphere. And he could do it by hand.

Achim Leistner was an optical engineer from the Australian Centre for Precision Optics, pulled out of retirement to create two perfect spheres.

Another team started by creating a pure batch of silicon-28, spun in ex-Soviet centrifuges that were once used for uranium. Then in Germany, a team grew a pure crystal from the silicon, which was sliced into blocks and sent to Leistner.

Leistner and his crew used two spinning rotors to grind the spheres by hand–a process that took several months to complete. Their resulting spheres were accurate in smoothness to 0.3 nanometers and curvature to 60 to 70 nanometers. New Scientist explains that if these spheres were increased to Earth proportions, you’d see smoothness deviations of only 12 to 15 mm and roundness variation of 3 to 5 meters.

For the full remarkable story, be sure to hit the link. [NewScientist]