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Pebble Technology has recently entered into the Kickstarter hall of fame with their E-Paper watch gaining over $10,000,000 US in funding after only 26 hours of being put on the site. So, what makes the E-Paper watch so popular? It functions as a connection interface between your smartphone and as a wrist-mounted watch with app capabilities, a relatively simple embedded system.

Pebble Smartwatch (via Pebble)

The watch can be infinitely customized with different watch-faces (which is always on) and is compatible with both iPhone and Android (2.3 and higher) smartphones with a wide range of apps that let you check e-mail/text messages, caller ID and Facebook/Twitter accounts among others. The E-Paper watch connects to your smartphone through a Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR/4.0 connection and houses an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller which has over 8X more Flash memory and 12X more RAM than their previous inPulse Smartwatch. The ‘face’ is actually a high-resolution (144 X 168) black and white e-paper display and has a vibrating motor with a 3-axis accelerometer that’s capable of gestural detection. Charging the watch is the same as you would a smartphone by using a USB cable either for your PC/wall-outlet or mobile charging platform and has a life-span of 7 days before it needs to be re-charged. For those of you who love the water, E-paper is expected to be fully water-proofed to either 3 or 5 ATM (up to 165ft) if you can stand the pressure but make no mistake the watch IS NOT water-proof. Pebble Technology has sold out their first batch of 85,000 units, so the rest of us will just have to wait for E-Paper’s second coming.

Cabe

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Kinect for Windows v1.0 (via Microsoft)

The Microsoft Kinect is a widely popular object tracking camera system first released for the XBOX 360. It allows users to interface with games and menus without operating a controller. After its release, the "hacker" community quickly adapted the tech for use with computers. Simple tracking programs and art based developments soon followed. Due to the popularity, Microsoft started the Kinect Accelerator program, offering large cash prizes for further development with the Kinect.

Flash forward to today, Microsoft has released the Kinect for Windows version 1.0. Included in the release is a SDK and runtime environments. Most notable in the release is a "near-mode" for the new Kinect hardware, allowing tracking to be clear at 40 cm (approx 15 inches). Having one on a desk is completely feasible now. (With the XBOX setup, users have to be several meters away for accurate tracking.)

Improved tracking, controlling up to four Kinect sensors, improved speech recognition, and a driver update system is included in the release of v1 hardware and software. The SDK is meant for companies looking to develop software or other products for the Kinect, but it is available for anyone to download at the moment. Applications written in C++, C#, or Visual Basic in MS Visual Studios 2010 is supported right out of the box.

The Kinect for Windows hardware is planned to cost $250, and it is available now. An educational price of $150 will happen later this year. I sense a mad rush to be the first to market various control interfaces using Kinect. Hop in the dev-train now, or read more about the release at the Kinect for Windows page.

Cabe

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How will we look using Kinect for Windows? Find out in this week's Engineering On Friday.

More Kinect based projects:

Holodesk, the virtual 3D desktop

Control your robot with Kinect

Robotic shopping cart, follows its user around

Control the web and Windows 7 with Kinect

Kinect and Surface, virtual physics engine

Advanced robot tech for the masses

Upgraded humanoid service robot, buy it now

Autonomous robot plays catch

Surgeons of the future might use robotic nurses

Through software, two designers show how a contact microphone can detect particular sounds and trigger certain events. Bruno Zamborlin and Norbert Schnell designed the system around two ideas: convert vibration in direct sound, and certain sets of sounds triggering pre-determined audio tracks.

The project, dubbed Mogees, is developed in the Max/MSP environment with MuBu, a "multi-track container for sound description and motion capture data." Mogees has acted like an experiment demonstrating the team's goal of real-time interactive audio processing with MuBu. Both designers are key developers behind the MuBu project, as well. Be sure to take a look at their site.

I can already sense the legions of musical artists yearing to use Mogees in future projects. For those who think this will make for a new type of touchscreen, keep in mind that this technique can only sense sound and not position directly. Although, a different interpretation of the sound data could be used in a similar way to "surface acoustic wave" (SAW) touchscreens. Like in SAW tech, if the acoustic wave amplitude traveling along the surface of a material could be measured, position could be determined... But now I am getting ahead of Mogees purpose.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

As motorcycle is to automobile, so is the Martin Jetpack to airplanes. The concept by, student, Glen Martin was conceived in 1981. Getting validation from the University of Canterbury's Mechanical Engineering Department, a successful prototype that exceeded the "Bell Rocket Belt" flight time of 20 seconds was built in 2005. This set the platform for public demonstrations in 2008, which ignited the media world.

The jetpack is based on a twin propeller design to gain flight, very similar to "light helicoptors." Plenty of safety features a built in, roll cage, auto stabilization, parachute, and avoidance systems. Now after 2,500 successful test flights, 100 combined engine hours, the Martin Jetpack is ready for public consumption. 43 minutes of Individual flight, at a time, can be gained for $100,000 USD. No pilots license is needed, however a Martin Aircraft training program is required. Waivers soon to follow as well.

The jet pack is being pushed for military and civil defense use. A unmanned, UAV, version is also in the works.

A remarkable 30 years of development soon to give a lot of people what they always dreamed of, a personal jet pack.

Eavesdropper