Crave

(Credit: Vitusphere)

If you really want to immerse yourself in the gaming experience, what better way to do it than in a 10-foot-tall, 400-pound steel sphere?

The "Vitusphere" is a futuristic apparatus that's right out of a sci-fi movie, kind of a cross between Rollerball and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Those who dare to enter the giant steel ball, according to Newlaunches, "can run, jump, roll, or crawl over virtually unlimited distances without encountering real-world obstacles."

Under development for more than a decade, the Russian-made Vitusphere works with a headmounted display and handheld controller for the ultimate 3D experience--and that means 360 degrees, rotating on rollers in any direction, while remaining stationary. So far the only customers have been commercial clients, ranging from entertainment companies to the military. But if you've got $30,000 to spare, you can be the proud owner of one of these human-size hamster wheels too. As for us, we'd rather stick with the "Hyperbike."

(Credit: TMgames)

Gadget thrill-seekers have a choice: They can either subject themselves to electrode torture as our colleague Michael Kanellos gleefully does at every opportunity, or they can try something like the virtual-reality "FPS Vest" instead.

There's good news if you should choose the latter because TMgames, which was only taking pre-orders last fall, is now selling the vest as part of a package that includes Call of Duty and 3rd Space Incursion bundled with it, according to Gadget Review. The force-feedback game vest, which was initially developed by a physician for medical research, has eight zones that supposedly simulate the sensations of gunshots, explosions, and "fear-inducing finger taps."

But don't expect too much. It probably doesn't approach the shock and awe of the Nerf Wii Blaster.

(Thanks for the tip, Christen)

Correction 7:45 a.m. PST: I got the sensor bar and the Wiimote's duties mixed up. Names notwithstanding, the sensor bar has the infrared LEDs, and the Wiimote actually has the cameras that detect the signals.

I support the hardware-hacking philosophy on principle, but most of the movement's labors have left me uninspired. That all changed when I started seeing the uses that Carnegie Mellon researcher Johnny Chung Lee has found for the Nintendo Wii's infrared remote control.

In a collection of videos, notable for their lucid explanations, the Ph.D. graduate student from CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute shows exactly how versatile the "Wiimote" system can be. Among the uses he convincingly demonstrates: a virtual-reality head tracker; a virtual whiteboard on a wall, tabletop, and laptop screen; and a Minority Report-style arm-waving and finger-pointing multitouch user interface.

The Nintendo game device includes a bar-shaped device, ordinarily placed atop a TV screen, with two LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. It emits infrared light that the Wiimote can detect within a 45-degree field of view. Lee uses a computer to process data from those components and dramatically expand their utility.

By attaching the sensor bar to his head and the Wiimote to a TV, he was able to construct a system that knows where his head is located. That information is then fed into an algorithm that changes the perspective of an image on a monitor. The result is a very convincing 3D feel that looks like it would be a great fit for video games.

The whiteboard application relies on use of a pen with an infrared LED in its tip. After a quick calibration--the subject of Lee's thesis--a computer can track where Lee is "drawing" on a wall, tabletop, and laptop screen.

Perhaps the most mainstream potential comes with Lee's Wiimote-based multitouch user interface.

Lee attaches small reflectors to his fingertips, which the sensor bar can track. The result is a user interface that can respond to gestures such as pinching and swiping. And by tracking four points, it enables the "multitouch" abilities that are all the rage with Apple's iPhone and MacBook Air as well as the Microsoft Surface "Milan" project.

Lee's open-source work has traveled beyond his own domain. Cynergy Labs' Maestro project shows the Wiimote-based multitouch system in action. And his work has spawned a discussion site called Wiimote Project.

Lee also is notable for another practical design, a poor man's steadycam.

Every few years, some new technology or application comes along that everyone's sure will miraculously conquer every obstacle in its path and, in some ludicrously short time period, make existing technology obsolete. And then, long after all the media hype fades away and investors' checkbooks disappear, well, nothing happens.

So what? Who cares? Why bother talking about our industry's bombs, the next big things that weren't? Well, for one thing, it's interesting to note how hungry we all are for news about new technology. It gets us excited. We complain about media hype, but love the hype.

It's also fascinating how existing technology has this way of hanging on by its fingernails way past the point of its predicted obsolescence. More importantly, we learn more from mistakes than we do from successes. That's part of the scientific method: hypothesis, test, learn, repeat until you get it right.

Lastly, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those are all good enough reasons for me. So here are my top 10 technology flops. But first, some ground rules. I stuck to the last 50 years or so. And I avoided specific company products. We've heard enough about the IBM PCjr, Apple Newton, Microsoft Bob, and OS2 to last 10 lifetimes. ... Read more

(Credit: VirTra Systems)

If your fair-weather friends are getting bored with your in-home theater, bowling alley, and bevy of indentured pedicurists, you may want to step up to a VirTra Systems' mobile live-fire training simulation trailer.

The trailer is based on the Houston company's IVR (immersive virtual training) simulation technology and offers a three-lane marksmanship simulator and "full-featured judgmental-use-of-force scenario" with both laser-based and live-fire training, including full auto in anything up to .50 caliber. Depending on your preferred quarry, it's available in either a police or military version.

"We remain committed to offering the training community innovative, high-tech, immersive small-arms training simulation products at extremely competitive prices," retired Major Gen. Perry V. Dalby, VirTra Systems' chief executive officer, said in a press release. The company sells "situational awareness" training equipment and virtual-reality systems to military and other clientele, such as General Motors and Red Baron Pizza.

The live-fire trailer is reasonably priced at between $250,000 and $500,000, depending on accessories.

Eyeing the virtual printer.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

CHIBA, Japan--Canon wants to take you into a virtual world so you can learn how to change toner cartridges better.

The headgear you see in the photo, along with the cube with the squiggles, is part of a "Mixed Reality Technology" prototype coined by Canon, which showed it off over the weekend during a special future-tech exhibit at Ceatec, the large Japanese trade show here.

It's called mixed reality because virtual and real-world images are mixed into one frame. When you put the goggles on and stare at the cube, you don't see squiggles. Instead, you see a virtual 3D image of a copier. You also see your own hands move around the virtual world. You can lift the lid of a printer or copier, flip switches, etc. It was actually kind of cool.

Bang the drum slowly.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

Virtual reality was one of the more prominent themes in the future-tech exhibition. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology also showed off a virtual device it concocted with the Phantom haptic tech from Sensable Technologies of Woburn, Mass., that combines virtual visual, sound and touch stimuli. Basically, you put on the virtual-reality glasses and see a drum and set of bells. Strike it with a mallet and you hear the appropriate virtual sounds over the headset. The top of the drum also "feels" rubbery, while the side is hard. Sensable did the visual and feel parts, while NICT did the sound part.

That second picture, with the guy sitting in front of what looks like a projector, is the Sensable-NICT project. You can see the virtual image above his head.

Waseda University, meanwhile, showed off something called Interactive View, which lets you manipulate and move virtual objects.

Five years ago, the U.S. Army launched America's Army, a free first-person-shooter (FPS) computer game based on the Army itself. It received solid reviews, and has been through multiple permutations, including retail versions for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A new Xbox 360 America's Army game, True Soldiers, ships later this fall.

The Army is now bringing its video game series out of the PC and console and to virtual reality with the Virtual Army Experience. America's Army: VAE is a traveling exhibit presented by the U.S. Army that lets people get a dose of VR combat through the America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) video game. At Digital Life, I got a chance to try the Virtual Army Experience for myself.

The virtual reality game consists of a handful of mock-up military vehicles and a set of several large projection screens. After a short mission briefing (go into enemy territory, get a captured terrorist with valuable information, and leave), the game's participants and I got into the vehicles and manned mock-up M-240 machine gun mounts. I sat in the roof turret of a Humvee, with a gun mounted on a huge, circular rail that let it slide and swivel back and forth. When everyone got settled in, the mission began.

Like a giant light-gun arcade game, the experience consisted mostly on training my fake gun on terrorists and enemy vehicles and blowing them up to the best of my ability. The fake M-240 produced satisfying kickback, rattling and shaking in my hand thanks to pressurized air. The Humvee itself also shook as it absorbed virtual rockets and IEDs. I had fun, sliding and spinning back and forth, training my gun on enemy targets and trying to gun them down before they could fire on us. We drove through the simulated landscape, picking off terrorists and protecting fellow soldiers' rides until we reached the end of the game. The screens flashed large "Mission Accomplished" logos and we all shuffled out into another trailer for "debriefing".

America's Army: True Soldiers (Xbox 360)

The "debriefing" consisted of a short recruitment video and the highest-scoring participant receiving an action figure of Sgt. Tommy Rieman, one of four real soldiers in the America's Army Real Heroes program and upon which a line of action figures are being based. Everyone also received a lanyard and a copy of America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch), the PC game version of the virtual reality game. Finally, Sgt. Rieman himself, one of the consultants for the game, showed up to talk to the players.

I had fun during the intense but short experience. It felt surprisingly real, with the gun and Humvee shaking and rocking wildly as I shot at terrorists on a huge screen. Unfortunately, it didn't really present the same level of risk most video games offer. As far as I could tell, nobody in the simulation died or got hurt. Sure, bullets flew and bombs exploded, but nobody lost a life and had to respawn, or any other of the typical game conventions you'd expect from an FPS or a light-gun game. It was like I was playing through an Army mission in god mode.

America's Army: Virtual Army Experience will be touring through California, Texas, and Florida until November. America's Army: True Soldiers will be hitting the Xbox 360 later this season with a retail price of about $60. America's Army: Real Heroes action figures based on Sgt. Tommy Rieman, Maj. Jason Amerine, SFC Gerald Wolford, and SSG Matthew Zedwik are currently available for about $10. If you can't find them at a toy store near you, you can order them online from the figures' manufacturer, Jazwares. (Thanks to Slanderpanic for this find.)

A customer tests out the new shoe system at a Paris Adidas store.

(Credit: Heinrich-Hertz-Institut)

Love the idea of walking out of the store with hip new shoes, but don't like the idea of trying on a dozen pairs to see which ones look best? Researchers from the image-processing department at Berlin's Heinrich-Hertz-Institut have come up with a system that lets shoppers "try on" footwear without having to lace, tie, buckle or Velcro.

A camera captures the customer's feet in standard fitting boots, then imposes 3D computer-generated video images of various styles onto those same tootsies. Standing before the "virtual mirror," consumers select their looks via touch-screen and can track their pose-striking motions in real time. Besides checking for fit, clients can personalize the shoes by changing color and design.

Adidas runs the system in its uber-modern store that opened in October 2006 at the Champs Elysees in Paris. The Heinrich-Hertz-Institut will show off the technology more widely at this year's CeBit consumer electronics fair, which runs from March 15-21 in Hannover, Germany.

(Credit: Heinrich-Hertz-Institut )

Visitors to last year's CeBit, meanwhile, caught sight of an "intelligent dressing room" by international retailer Metro Group that lets consumers try on outfits without taking their clothes off. Basically, it scans your measurements and lets you see, on a projection screen, how a piece will look on you. You also get a list of suggested items that go along with the outfit you choose.

Now we're just waiting for that intelligent home-shopping system that lets the mall- and dressing-room-averse "try on" clothes and shoes sans crowds or pushy clerks, then hit the purchase button and just wait for the new look to arrive.