Using Rock Band / Hero Games as Instrument Trainer

With the flood of dumbed-down instrument games like Guitar Hero that do wonders for your button pushing but don’t do much for your guitar skills, there has been a flood of innovators trying to rig controllers that will make real instruments work in the game.

In the above video, we see a simpler solution. Instead of focusing on the instrument, focus on the sound. By using the Rock Band mic, she is able to control the game via flute.

Obviously, this would be better if the game were designed for such, but I don’t see much chance of that coming from the big developers. What we need is a good open source program to do for the mic what StepMania did for the dance pad. If anyone out there knows of a good equivalent, let me know and I will update this post accordingly.

(via Neatorama)

Persistence of vision app for the iphone

Light Writer is an iphone app that displays flashing lights in order to create a persistence of vision effect. It allows you to write messages or images in the air with a wave of the hand. It sounds like a great way to quietly send a message to anyone in sight. I imagine it would only be effective in pretty dark conditions ,but I’m betting we haven’t seen the end of this app. It could be big. Available here via itunes.

(via crunchgear)

Vanishing Point Navigation

This  laptop rides a Roomba around and looks for straight lines. By triangulating their convergence, the little droid is able to navigate endless hallways, blasting zombies with its on-board shotgun…well, maybe in the next model.

This may not be a likely standalone navigation system, but combined with those systems used by things like the robotic rats, and maybe some GPS, we could have these things zipping around our hallways doing errands and causing accidents in the very near future. (via botjunie)

HUD for Billiards

These are some top notch geeks. They built a setup to compute and project the trajectories of pool shots directly onto their table. It doesn’t work terribly well, but I think it is mostly a problem of low end hardware and strange setup. Why didn’t they put the webcam by the projector, pointed at the mirror?  By having it in the corner they make things immensely more difficult to compute. For more info and the code, go here.

I think once Surface goes mainstream, innovations like this will come in a flood.

Data Visualization

Hans Rosling is a credit to geeks everywhere. He has a great product, and gives one hell of a speech. Our world currently suffers from being bigger than we can easily visualize, and a simple graph just doesn’t cut it for complex data. Google has bought the trendalyzer software and is in the process of integrating it into the reports on their Analytics service. You can use the motion chart software here.

Update: In order to use this software in Google Analytics, look for the Visualize button above many of the graphs.

Robbery

Not all innovations are used for the good of the people. As an armored truck driver walked into a bank with a bag of cash, he noticed a worker with a dust mask and a pump sprayer. Unfortuantely for the guard, the sprayer was full of pepper spray. After this cleverly disguised individual grabbed the cash, he ran to a nearby river where he had an inner tube stashed as a getaway vehicle. To discourage pursuit, he had put out a craigslist ad requesting workers and listing the required clothing for the job: An exact match for his own. His decoys had been told to meet in the area of the bank, and didn’t realize they had been duped until after the robbery.

Full story via King5

Update: It looks like our thief was a bit sloppy. Three weeks prior, he had left a can of mace, a wig, a two way radio, and a safety vest behind a dumpster near the bank. Someone noticed him picking up the items and wrote down his license number. The tip, combined with DNA evidence made solving this one almost too easy. What a Wile E. Coyote moment. Adding this to Imperfection.

Via Wired DANGER ROOM

Virtual 3D Sketch Pad

This video shows a new interface for sketching on a touch screen called ILoveSketch. The software looks somewhat limited, but the interface is very well thought out and lends itself to quick intuitive sketching of three dimensional objects. I give it extra credit for being an innovative design for making innovative designs.