The iOptik lenses work thanks to a set of special polarizing filters, which separate high intensity light from ambient light, and a secondary internal magnifying lens, which focuses the light into a single, narrow beam. The light rays are transferred independently to the retina, allowing users to focus on far away and close visuals, in full field of view. These contacts allow you to easily view images on a tiny close-up display (such as on a pair of sunglasses) while at the same time viewing your surroundings without any focus difficulties. The contacts do away with the need for the bulky optics usually found in today’s head-mounted displays, and when a compatible display is not present, the contacts would provide normal vision.

Innovega is working with DARPA to create prototypes of these types of lenses and beta test them for the military. A consumer model should also be available within the next couple of years, priced similarly to regular contact lenses.

While we’re still a long way off from displays built into contact lenses themselves, this is a major step forward in improving the usability of portable displays.

[via DVice]

Since human beings are so naturally curious, some scientists have implanted several monkeys with implants that have allowed them to “move and feel virtual objects” much like humans can do with just their (well, our) imaginations. These researchers from the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering say they have achieved the “first-ever demonstration of a two-way interaction between a primate brain and a virtual body” using brain-machine-brain interfaces.

Like Jake Sully in Cameron’s Avatar, these primates were able to control simian avatars in a virtual world filled with virtual objects. What was impressive was that they were able to identify what an object was, simply by feeling it out virtually in the virtual world. Now that’s virtual identification.

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Neurobiology professor Miguel Nicolelis, who serves as the leader for the study, describes some practical uses for this technology in the future: “We hope that in the next few years this technology could help to restore a more autonomous life to many patients who are currently locked in without being able to move or experience any tactile sensation of the surrounding world.”

…or we could use it to send monkeys into space to convince some aliens to give up their Unobtanium.

[via io9 via Dvice and Geeks Are Sexy]

It’s based upon the phenomenon called phantom sensation, which occurs when two points on your skin are stimulated at the same time. Putting one in the palm and back of a hand, the researchers thought they could use this to make you believe that something was passing through your hand. They use a Wii-mote to sense the location of your hand. In their simulation, the device is activated when the user tries to grasp black falling balls.

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The strength of the vibrations can be adjusted, meaning that it could be used to simulate getting stabbed in a fighting game. Hopefully, it won’t hurt and there will be no blood. They think they could even simulate getting shot. This could be very useful in making virtual reality and gaming more immersive.

[via Diginfo.TV]

The Wrap 1200 3D glasses look and weigh about the same as regular sunglasses, but let users hang a virtual 75″ 3D display right in front of their eyes. While it does 3D, it can also play your old school 2D videos without a problem too. They can be hooked up to video game consoles, video players, computers, etc.

The Wrap 1200 glasses are available now for $499.99 at the Vuzix online store.

[via Ubergizmo]

It’s simply listed as follows: “THIS IS A NICE DEPCO VIRTUAL REALITY VFX 3D INTERACTIVE IMAGING LOOKS IN GOOD SHAPE.” Actually guys, what you’ve got here is a rare VFX3D virtual reality headset from way back in the dark ages of 2000. This helmet straps onto your head and covers your eyeballs with dual-stereoscopic 3D images. It also featured early head-tracking tech that worked with a handful of 3D PC games like Descent 3 and Unreal Tournament. But before you get too excited about this thing, the tiny LCD displays only had a paltry resolution of 263×480, only 263×240 in 3D mode. It also only worked with old versions of DirectX (version 7 to be exact).

I actually think the guys selling this thing don’t realize that the cable box underneath it has nothing to do with this thing. The system originally sold for $1800, but if you’re willing to take a gamble with $750 (USD) of your hard-earned money, you can grab this rarity over on eBay now, and you can find the drivers and SDK here.

As you may have guessed, the monster was made specifically for the Surface, Microsoft’s super multitouch tabletop computer. Right now the monster can’t do much besides suck bubbles up its butt (and poop them out if its eye is poked), but it does a good job of illustrating the level of interactivity that’s possible with the Surface.

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Some of you may have seen this other video below, but I’m still posting it here because it shows the monster at its more complete and “conscious” form.

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Imagine what the Surface can do to make chess more exciting. What was that chess game on the PC again, the one where the pieces actually attacked and killed each other? Now think of that on the Surface. That’s a chess a fool like me could understand.

[via Channel 10]

Even the set-up is a bit DS-like. Users write on a whiteboard, using ordinary markers; a webcam then takes an image of the written word or phrase. The real magic is done by the software, which “analyzes the image and interprets the handwritten words into different output modalities.” In other words, what you write is what you get.

Unfortunately, the demo video doesn’t go into detail about the capabilities and the limitations of the software, like the number or kinds of languages it can interpret, the types of words (adjectives, proper nouns, adverbs, verbs) it can interpret, the number of words it can recognize, or if the virtual objects can be made to interact like in Scribblenauts.

Nevertheless, this is an awesome project, and preschool and elementary teachers will no doubt fall on their knees and cry buckets of joyous tears if and when WYWIWYG comes out, because it’s a clever way of capturing the attention of kids and motivating them to learn. After all, you can’t make green poop appear if you don’t know how to spell “green” and “poop”. You can watch the demo video at the Interactive Multimedia Lab’s website; be sure to check out their other projects as well.

EON Reality’s ICube system uses an array of high-definition video projectors to bounce real-time CGI images into a cubic room covered with white screen surfaces. Each visitor dons a special pair of lightweight 3D glasses which can be outfitted with IR markers to detect head movements. Users of the system can wind their way through anything from a stunning outdoor vista to the inside of a virtual airplane cabin, to gory innards of a virtual human anatomy lesson.

The ICube’s software even supports gesture-based control, allowing users to manipulate virtual objects in the 3D environment. There’s also an integrated 3D sound system which can by synchronized with the imagery on the cubic screens. Here’s a really cool video of the ICube in action courtesy of the guys over at IDEO Labs, who recently got to take a test-drive of the ICube.

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EON offers the Icube in 3-wall, 4-wall, and 6-wall configurations, designed for everything from driving and flying simulations to scientific visualization projects. With prices well into the 6-figures, you probably won’t be installing one of these in your basement any time soon.

[EON Icube via fubiz]

ARToolKit v4.4 will be the first fully-featrured AR framework to support native operation on the iPhone, letting you create applications which sample real world imagery through the iPhone camera and embellish them with 3D digital objects. The software is also integrated with the iPhone’s accelerometer, so it can automatically detect movements from the phone, and impose those movements on the 3D images instantaneously.

The software also includes the ability to track multiple points simultaneously, and even place new objects in the virtual world using the iPhone’s multi-touch interface. Check out the video below to see an early build in action:

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At this point, the toolkit is in Alpha, so it’s only able to output at about 10 frames per second. I’m sure, however, that there will be plenty of optimization to get things running at faster speeds before it’s released. For more information on ARToolKit for the iPhone, head on over to ARToolWorks.

The Mscape concept allows you to use the portable gaming device as a “lens” to the world around you, superimposing interactive elements into the scene in real time. For instance, you might be looking down a city street, then hold the device up to see a virtual dragon attacking you on the screen, you’d then duck out of the way and the game would respond to your physical actions. It’s a lot easier to understand if you watch this video clip provided by HP.

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The Mscape would use a combination of motion sensing, GPS and other technologies to understand its context in the real world. Certainly this isn’t the first “augmented reality” system I’ve seen, but it’s the first portable gaming device to embrace the concept. The general idea is kind of cool — if not a little impractical — the first time someone gets run over by a bus while they’re playing with one of these in the street, the lawyers will kill it.

HP hasn’t revealed if and when the technology will be brought to market.

[Sci-Fi Tech via Destructoid]