VR Interfaces: The Webcam/EyeToy
In a paradigm where overcoming physical constraints is key, a webcam may seem a very odd VR interface device. However, what lays true for one section of individuals, dows not always lay true for another. The PS2?s EyeToy has done much in the cause of using physical body form as an input device.

The Wanda was the first of the wands/3D pointers, which are essentially mice working in three dimensions, with six degrees of movement. Still around today, Wanda is often the input device of choice for CAVE style VR interfaces.

The Media Vehicle, is a serious take on VR interfacing, however it is not a serious commercial device. The unit is, for lack of a better phrase, an ?art tool?. It exists to showcase what is currently possible in 2009, not as a device which expects a practical market.

With the current surge in uses of the iphone as a distributed computing device, and several industries, most notably medical healthcare taking it up in increasing numbers, there has not been a better time to learn to code this small, sleek device.

Gene-Z Device Applies Microfluidic Diagnosis at Low Cost
The GeneZ device is an extremely low-cost field diagnosis unit for telehealth in the developing world. Designed to identify cancer and a host of other diseases, and to run indefinately, outside the power grid.

An Engineers' AR Display
A new concept on eye tracking, does two things. Firstly, it integrates both concepts into one device, by registering eye movement through the simple expedient of tracking pupil movement via machine vision, and mounting the tracking camera on the rear frame of the device.

A Camera that Detects Vital Signs
Originally designed with Olympic events in mind, the INCA camera is a tiny recording device that is also perhaps the first SimStim device in existence. It is capable of interfacing with any body area network to record metadata of temperature, heart rate, breathing, potentially even mood of the subject on screen, and transferring that data directly onto the video file itself, as additional data.

Java Virtual Environment Device Interfaces
Java Virtual Environment Device Interfaces or JVEDI are specialised driver interfaces, written in Java, to allow VRML based VR worlds to access more advanced interface devices. The JVEDI project was last active in 2000, at the height of VRML usage, however the drivers still exist today, courtesy of the Visualisation and Virtual Reality Group.

Mice and keyboards, two great tastes...
A good article that puts to words in simple language that which we all know: Virtual environments for the masses are only creeping along because of the interface problem. For most users, a mouse and a keyboard is all they have for input, and true interaction requires just so much more.

(02/05/2010)
he same inexpensive, but high-quality optical sensors employed in the common computer mouse can enable small mobile phones and digital music players to be used as their own pointing and gestural input devices, say researchers at Carnegie Me...

(29/04/2008)
Some U.S. soldiers in Iraq are already equipped with wearable computer systems. But the lack of efficient input devices restricts their use to safer environments, such as the interior of a Humvee or a base station, where the soldier can set...

(02/10/2008)
Panasonic recently gave a sneak peak to people in okyo of the company's upcoming Toughbook medical tablet that seems to feature Intel's new Atom processor, which typically requires no ventilation, hence allows high performance devices to ...

(23/05/2012)
Leap Motion is unveiling its Leap 3D motion control system, Technology Review Hello World reports.

Leap Motion appears to outrank Kinect in terms of its capability. The technology, reports CNET, can detect motion with up to a...

(08/01/2017)
At CES 2017 (Consumer Electronics Show), Intel announced a fully functional Windows 10 PC, in an ultra-slim tablet 95mm by 55mm by 5mm. Possessing no pluggable data ports itself, the PC only works when inserted in a standardised reader dock...