Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Electro-Cosmetics Let You Input With Your Face
Conductive makeup - or "Electro-Cosmetics" - allows Katia Vega to control a variety of electromechanical devices, using only her face as an input device.
(Electro-Cosmetics video)
Demonstrated on 10 October at the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference at the University of St Andrews, UK, the aim of her "beauty technology" is to provide an alternative way to make quick micro-interactions – like those possible with wearable computers like Google Glass.Smartphone users have to fiddle with their phones for half a minute to take a picture, whereas Glass only requires a quick tap on the side to accomplish the same task.. With Vega's "Blinklifier" it could be done with a wink. "We use voluntary movements to amplify intentions – using our body as a new input device," she says.Vega, a computer scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has developed metallised false eyelashes and conducting eyeshadow that complete a very low voltage circuit when she winks. Both are said to be chemically safe for use on the skin.
Fans of Neal Stephenson's 1995 novel The Diamond Age may recall the Jodie grid that used an implanted (or tattooed) grid of nanosites to help a machine match up a person's face with a dynamic graphic image.
Miranda was looking at a black wall speckled with twenty or thirty thousand individual pinpricks of white light. Taken together, they formed a sort of three-dimensional constellation of Miranda, moving as she moved. Each point of light marked one of the 'sites that had been poked into her skin by the tat machine during those sixteen hours. Not shown were the filaments that tied them all together into a network - a new bodily system overlaid and interlaced with the nervous, lymph and vascular systems..."It's a Jodie," she said...
"Looks like we got ourselves an artiste here," Fred Epidermis said. "lemme try you in one of our most challenging roles."
Suddenly a blond, blue-eyed woman was standing in the mediatron, perfectly aping Miranda's posture, wearing big hair, a white sweater with a big letter F in the middle, and a preposterously short skirt...
...for the first time ever, she was watching another person move exactly as she moved, as the stage mapped Miranda's grid onto this imaginary body. Miranda pressed her lips together as if she'd just put on lipstick, and Spirit did the same. She winked and Spirit winked...
Via NewScientist; also, be sure to check out the 32 other amazing inventions from The Diamond Age. Thanks also to Vik of Diamond Age Solutions for suggesting this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/12/2013)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Input Devices ")
Electro-Cosmetics Let You Input With Your Face
Hi, I'm Katia. I'm a superhero.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
Secret Kill Switch Found In Yutong Buses
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests
'Try to find out how he ticks...'
PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers
'My fingers are not that sensitive...'
Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'
The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story
'Betty's slapdash style.'
Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.
Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.'
Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
