The builder of this 2 foot tall (OK, 60 centimeters, but who’s counting?) robot incarnation of Hatsune Miku goes by the name of Rozen Zebet, and he released this video Saturday to show just how good his replicant is. While I personally like the holographic versions they use for the live stage performances, this one is quite tasty, and definitely shows some of the improvements robotics have come up with in recent years. Thanks to the Anime News Network for the heads up on this one.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in or from the USA, wherever you are. One of the things to be thankful for is the Avengers Initiative Lite game, available for free for a limited time over at the App Store. Rampaging as the hulk is probably around the limits of my game skills, so I am expecting this to be fun. Obviously Marvel and Disney are hoping you get addicted to the free version and go ahead and buy the full version.
While this is a nice little astronomy video, it isn’t really about the stars at all. When you go to the 100,000 Stars web site the really interesting thing is the demonstration of WebGL. Currently WebGL is implemented by default in the latest release of Chrome, and it is available in Safari, Firefox, and Opera, but you have to turn it on to use it (get activation instructions). I am sure no one is going to be shocked or surprised that WebGL also requires a fairly robust and recent graphics card, and even with that you may need to grab the latest drivers for it. While this should work on most tablets, smart phone implementation is still problematic.
Someone did a Tokyo/London Comparison probably as an exercise in scale, but the image they ended up with was certainly not something I was expecting. Is this what you thought the two would look like when plopped down on the same terrain?
This one is for the iOS series of devices, including iPhones and iPads; the Free Graphing Calculator for iOS. This has a lot of built in functions, solvers for a variety of equation types, constants including those necessary to do orbital mechanics calculations, reference material including some very detailed but understandable explanations of how the various logic gates work, and a whole lot more. If you do anything with math beyond count your change at the checkout counter, this app will help you do it a lot faster and easier. Thanks to the folks at The Daily App for the heads up on this one. If you have a iOS or Android smart device you will want to visit the Daily App once a week or so to check out all the interesting goodies they find.
I am still trying to decide if this is a major tech advance or just creepy. Using some Augmented Reality goggles and software, a Japanese engineer has come up with a way to date his favorite virtual idol, Hatsune Miku. A bit creepy, was my first reaction. But what if you then used a Kinect or other low cost motion capture solution to drive your anime character of choice in real time with an actual person wearing the avatar? That could end up being a new level of RPG and Cosplay interaction amongst consenting adult geeks. Perhaps it is time to break out your own copy of the ARToolKit and start programming your glasses.