Augmented Reality Windshield

GM and Carnegie Mellon have collaborated over the past 10 years and are finally making a breakthrough with the Augemented Reality Windshield. The windshield is a whole new kind of heads up display. My grandpa has a heads up display in his Grand Prix that I absolutely love. While driving, you can see your speed and any other vital information that is normally displayed in the dash. This new windshield would do things such as highlight landmarks, obstacles and road signs. The goal is to improve safety and navigation. I could see this working very well with built-in GPS. My only concern for this technology would be whether or not it would be distracting. The first time I drove my grandpa's car, I was definitely distracted by the small display. I cannot even imagine the whole windshield being a display and things lighting up. I feel that this technology would take all kinds of sensors in the car and would be very expensive. However, it could warn you when you were breaking traffic laws and of oncoming dangers. It should be interesting to see how this technology takes off. http://www.sunchips.com/healthier_planet.shtml

Skinput

This past week I gave a presentation on Skinput. This new technology allows your body to be turned into a touchscreen interface. Skinput uses an armband to project a display screen and it tracks the vibrations in your arm. It was developed by Microsoft and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The Skinput uses a series of sensors to track where a user taps on his or her arm. They are hoping for the next generation of Skinput to be a wristwatch, however neither the armband nor the wristwatch are currently consumer products. This technology is just now being developed. I find this technology to be very interesting because it may give us the opportunity to sync all of our electronic devices into a touchscreen on our arm. One researcher even played Guitar Hero using the armband and playing on his arm. The only potential problem I could see with Skinput is with the combining of all of a person's electronic devices into one armband, it would be very easy to steal a person's identity by stealing their armband or wristwatch. Besides this concern, I could see this being very useful and prominent in the future. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/19/microsoft.skinput/index.html