Category: Gadgets

Turn any flat surface into an Android tablet with a small projector.

The Lazertouch mini projector is the first of its kind in the world and has the ability to transform any flat surface into a finger-activated touchscreen. Recently launched on international crowdfunding website, Indiegogo, the company behind the mini projector claims that the projector can support anywhere from 20 to150 inch screen sizes and that users can operate the screen by using a stylus or their finger.

The technology can recognize several finger gestures, making it easy to use.

The laser touch technology emits an invisible laser beam, parallel to the projection screen. When the user’s finger touches the laser beam the sensor detects it, enabling the flat surface to function just like an Android tablet touchscreen.

With the Lazertouch mini projector users can click, slide, zoom, adjust volume by sliding up and down on the upper right side outside of the screen, among other convenient functions.

The projector is portable and is equipped with an interior 13,600mAh battery. It actually runs Android, providing a touchscreen-optimized operating system as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, downloadable apps, speakers, 32GB of storage and ports for HDMI, USB, Micro SD, and headphones.

The technology was designed and developed by Shanghai Easi. It has been in the works for five years and obtained seven patents, according to the company.

Lazertouch mini projector is great for office presentations and even for watching 3D movies at home.

The mini projector features a desktop projection mode, which functions like a tablet PC. It also has a wall projection mode, which provides users with an interactive white board. Its 3D holographic projections makes it ideal for business meetings and even advertising.

In addition to being an excellent tool for office presentations, Lazertouch allows users to watch 4K, 3D and even 200-inch HD movies at home. It can also project musical instruments and supports immersive VR gaming.

Should it hit the market, the suggested retail price for the Lazertouch mini projector – which comes with an IR e-pen stylus, pointer and remote control – will be $650. However, those who are interested in preordering the device via the Indiegogo campaign can do so for $475.

IBM and Marchesa partnered to weave cognitive into a special dress worn at the Met Gala.

While wearable technology fashion isn’t anything new, one of the latest tech couture designs to have caught the attention of media was the light lavender dress, which featured over 100 gauzy white roses embedded with color-changing LED lights, worn by model Karolina Kurkova at last week’s 2016 Met Gala. The first-of-its-kind cognitive dress was born from a partnership between Marchesa and IBM. To create the garment, the design house used IBM’s technology and its Watson cognitive system, making it the ideal ensemble for the theme of this year’s gala which was “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.”

From smartwatches to designer dresses, wearable tech continues to spark human creativity.

From concept and research and development, to design and finished product, cognitive inspiration was woven into every step of the creative process. According to IBM’s Think blog, the collaboration showcased the creative potential of building with Watson and the technology’s ability to “enhance human imagination.”

The cognitive design of the dress depends on the combination of cognitive tools from IMB Research, Watson APIs, solution from Inno360 (Watson developer partner), and the creative vision from Marchesa’s design team.

The Wearable technology fashion changed colors based on five key human emotions.

The emotions that were selected by Marchesa, which they wanted the dress to convey, were joy, excitement, passion, curiosity, and encouragement. The belief is that color and images can indicate moods and send messages. IBM Research then fed this data into the cognitive color design tool; designed to understand the psychological effects of colors, image aesthetics and the interrelationships between emotions. This process also involved providing Watson with hundreds of images associated with the design house’s dresses so Watson could understand and learn Marchesa’s color palette.

Inno360 was then consulted to source the fabric for the garment, which needed to be made from woven textiles that would respond well to the LED technology that would be required to create the final effect. The team searched over 40,000 sources for fabric information to help it narrow down its options.

When the wearable technology fashion was finally debuted on the Met Gala red carpet, the roses on Kurkova’s dress changed colors based on the emotional responses that Twitter users had regarding the dress. Using Watson Tone Analyzer, the dress extracted context around the tone of the twitter messages. The result was the colors of the dress changed as public conversation around the Met Gala occurred online in real-time.