It’s Just So Nreal at AWE 2019

It’s Just So Nreal at AWE 2019

As soon as the Expo floor was opened at the Convention Center on Day One at this year’s 2019 AWE conference in Santa Clara, much of the crowd gathered in the congested nreal booth at the main entrance of the hall.  With great anticipation, hoards were checking out the various AR demos on display, as well as queuing up in long lines getting ready to ask questions regarding the release of the upcoming SDK developer kit.

Six nreal glasses were on display surrounding the booth and demonstrated non-stop and around the clock with impressive mixed reality and even trailers of movies, such as the latest installment of “Mission Impossible”.  There were longer demos that required longer wait times, but it was truly worth it, as the demos showcased an impressive demo reel of 3D AR experiences.  

nreal, not to be confused with the elite graphics game engine, “Unreal”, though like “Unreal”, this company seems to put its priority on delivering high quality and immersive visuals in the Mixed Reality landscape that are quite “eye popping”, as well.

Indeed, nreal is one of the newest and exciting consumer product companies to emerge recently.  They were this year’s recipient at CES 2019 for “Best Startup” company by Engadget, and have been actively developing ready-to-wear mixed reality devices since 2017.  In addition to attending the CES show in Las Vegas early this year, they also made an appearance at the GDC (Games Developer’s Conference) in San Francisco in March.

At the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara last Thursday, they announced that they will be shipping the nreal Light Consumer Kit ($1199), which sports a 1080p resolution, 52-degree field of view smart glasses and a 3DoF controller and computing unit.  In addition they will also be shipping the smart glasses without the controller and computing unit for $499, which can also be used in conjunction with any smartphone using the Snapdragon 855.

To achieve its relatively low price, the nreal Light Consumer Kit requires consumers to use Android devices that are powered by the Snapdragon 855 chip by Qualcomm, who nreal is also partnering with.  Phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, Sony Xperia 1, LG G8, and the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT all contain the 855 processor and are fully compatible with the nreal Light.

Weighing at a light three ounces, these comfortable MR glasses sport an industry-leading wide-screen vivid display with a stunning 1080p HD resolution, bypassing the visual quality of the Microsoft’s Hololens and MagicLeap. Combined with its SLAM-based environment-understanding AI algorithms, nreal offers a truly immersive MR experience for their flagship product.

“We’re excited to finally make nreal Light available to consumers, which at just $499 has dramatically lowered the barrier to adoption and introduces a new category for mixed reality devices that are finally within the reach of an average consumer,” said Chi Xu, CEO and founder of nreal, in a statement.

The cost makes this truly affordable for this type of technology. 

Based in Beijing, this company  just seemed to just come out of nowhere and has a good chance to become a major player in the wearable A/R smart glasses market industry in the coming years.  Looking forward to seeing how they advance the industry.

Minelab Go Find 66 Metal Detector

Minelab Go Find 66 Metal Detector

Finding hidden treasures could be a profitable hobby. However, you need a metal detector to help with the search. There are certain features a metal detector needs in order for it to be considered best in class.

When you unwrap the consumer grade Minelab Go Find 66 you wouldn’t believe how light it is! Easy to carry, use, and it’s so compact and light you can take it in your carry on. Minelab Go Find 66 is equipped with accessories including earbuds, digging tool, smartphone holder and a carry bag.

A unit that has both large coils (so it doesn’t miss anything on a sweep) and small coils (to help pinpoint an exact location) is ideal. Having a metal detector that can not only differentiate between materials but can block the signal of junk metals will make your hunt far more enjoyable. A volume control, a headphone jack, and a sensitivity control, are all desirable options that pairs with your phone.

When it comes to informational displays and other features, big differences exist among the metal detectors on today’s market. When considering a purchase, look for these special features. Granted, some of them may not appeal to you, but it’s nice to know what you’re buying into.

Headphones/headphone jack

Metal detecting is a somewhat noisy hobby. If you’d rather keep your business to yourself, the Minelab Go Find 66 has this and includes headphones with purchase.

LCD screen

The Minelab Go Find 66 is designed with a Treasure View LEDs, which light up

and change colour to help you identify what you’ve found before you dig. Green lights indicate non-iron objects like coins or jewelry, while red lights indicate iron objects such as nails or keys which makes searching more efficient.

Ground Balancing

This feature gives you the ability to “tune out” interference from natural metals in the soil (like iron).

Waterproofing

The Minelab Go Find 66 is designed with large 10 inch waterproof coils making searching on the beach or submerged in water easy and stress free. This allows you to search

If you’re going treasure hunting, you need a machine that’s comfortable for you to use over the long haul. All these features of the Minelab Go Find 66 along with the price point of $250.00 makes for a great investment.

E3 2019 just ahead

E3 2019 just ahead

Just few more days until the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the world’s premiere trade show for computer and video games, that is being held at the LA Convention Center. E3 will be taking place from Tuesday, June 11 till Thursday, June 13. Before the doors open for the show let get a glimpse at the state of the industry.

Based on the past 3 years of support from the hardware platforms and the software development tools – the E3 community has now returned to immersive and engaging story for their games. The capabilities of the new video cards and computers, including mobile devices, has brought a freedom to developers to be creative again rather than focusing on “will the game play on the platform”.

Games industry is the fastest growing sector of the modern entertainment industry and is part of modern culture. Today game enthusiasts expect a richer, fuller and more involving game experience. Under such demanding clientele, more dynamic and multidirectional developments of games have been created, and the pallets of emotions both in the game and experienced by the player, have been greatly increased. Production studios strive for authenticity and put meticulous attention to detail, bringing players into a new level of realism, which may include 3D technology that changes flat images to three-dimensional images and cinematic quality photo-realistic events. Today’s game has a story line, utilizes state of the art visual graphics and utilizes new, advanced form of interaction with the player. In addition there is also increased proliferation of artists in the games industry, who get to express themselves creatively and individually. The impact of the games on mass culture is unquestionable and its value is growing at a dynamic pace.  

New adventure, horror, search, RPG, and on-line games are being shown from both indie and established developers.  While only a couple major titles have big releases planned, the number of new stories and game concepts is the largest in the past several years.

These titles are also NOT just focusing on VR, they are treating that as just another platform to support and making the games for multi-platform experiences (VR and standard) in many cases. Accessories for controlling the game, walking around and being fully physically immersed in the game, new sensors, games from major publishers and companies as well new experiences from independent developers.

More info: https://www.e3expo.com/

A Wide Array of Innovative Products at SF PEPCOM Show

A Wide Array of Innovative Products at SF PEPCOM Show

Pepcom’s “Digital Experience just had their show late last month at San Francisco’s Metreon City View, where a wide array of technology companies exhibited their latest innovative consumer products to the members of the press.  The demo showcase was a much more intimate affair compared to previous shows.  The usual categories ranging from computers, connected home, and personal health were there, as were some unusual products like mine detectors, hacking games and digital license plates. 

As a journalist who eagerly looks forward to this event every year, but at the same time is beset with miserable seasonal allergies, it can be quite challenging to have enough energy for me to even get to the venue.  Around this time, I have a sniffling, runny nose along with a cough that I can’t ever seem to get rid of.  Unfortunately, this year was my worse bout with allergies ever and wasn’t even sure if I was suffering from just allergies, a cold, or a combination of the two.  To top it off, I had a sinus infection, as well.

Luckily I stumbled upon the Tivic Health booth where they were demonstrating their bioelectronic device called the “ClearUp Sinus Pain Relief”.  Since I was still suffering from allergies and a sinus infection, I couldn’t think of a better candidate than myself to try it out.  Using non-evasive microcurrent waveforms, the procedure just took five minutes of gliding the product around the nose, top of my cheek and above the eyes, the product vibrates certain treatment points on my face.

After the treatment nearly a month later, it seems my allergies were minor and nearly non-existent. I’ve never breathed freely in the month of May and June in over a decade.  It’s been a big relief for me, since I usually am coughing in the middle of the night for several weeks at a time and not getting any sleep.  Perhaps it was a combination of the antibiotics and the treatment, but I can swear this gizmo seemed to work pretty well for me, even by trying it once.  I really may just want to buy one of these for my well being, as it just got its launch on Indiegogo this month.

In terms of latest and greatest in innovation in the Entertainment arena, one of the best products for movies, music and gaming comes from a company mainly known for gaming; HyperX.  They developed an amazing gaming 3D 7.1 surround headset, powered by Audeze 100mm Planar Magnetic Drivers, that can rival audiophile headsets.  Not only do you get the best in gaming effects, but the best in movie sound effects, as well as a pure live sound in music that tracks your head, using Waves Technology, in a 360 degree environment.  This is an item that brings out the best in sound effects for anything you listen to.  I couldn’t take the headset off as I was impressed with the technology of this gadget.  This headset will be released in Q3.

Kingston Technology added a new product in their microSD line with another innovative product that will tailor to the needs of security cameras, including home surveillance and dash cams.  The Kingston MicroSD High Endurance series (32GB, 64GB, 128GB) will stand through the most extreme conditions as it can continuously record 20,000 hours of 1080p video on a 128GB card on security cameras and dash cams.  That’s about 2 years and 3 months of non-stop recording.  No need to worry about the housing of the card, as it will protect no matter how cold or hot the temperature becomes or no matter how blistery or wet it becomes.

We all heard of Miracle-Gro plant food that we feed our plants with.  Now they have come out with an innovative hydroponic growing system called the Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System., which was also designed to be stackable, if more plants are needed.  This would be useful for people who have a need for herbs all year around, such as basil and mint or vegetables, such as lettuce and kale.  Now no need to worry about whether or not the herbs are in season ever again.  No watering systems are needed; just electricity and some space indoors.  Via Bluetooth, you can control watering, feeding and the lights from your smartphone’s app.  Notifications may warn you when you are low in water or if the water pump is stalled.  Seems like anyone can now be a Tom Thumb if they have a smart-phone, but don’t forget to give it some Miracle-Gro nutrient food.

There is a new resurgence in searching for precious metals these days.  Like the 49’ers  in California back in the 1800’s searching for gold, today’s technology has improved with the combination of a smartphone app as it can detect what metals are underneath the surface ground.  Miners and adventurers alike are now buying metal detectors in droves, making Minelab the global leader in metal detection technology in Gold mining.

Offering two different metal detectors, the “Go Find” series, which makes an affordable and fun activity for the entire family, just like how mushroom hunting can be, and the “Equinox” series, for the die hard user with a multitude of options who knows exactly what type of metal they are searching for.  Designed more for the archaeologist or mine squad experts.

The Reviver Company has come out with an industry first: a digital licence plate.  They have been working very closely with state regulatory agencies in collaboration with the DMV.  They have been fully approved by California and Arizona with Texas and Florida not far behind as they have already passed legislation with more states to follow.

Of course, the real question is do we really need a connected licence plate?  It may sound funny, but it is simply an advancement of the “smart-car-connected car” going full fledge into the smart cities infrastructure world that we will be all apart of .

It will help benefit consumers, businesses and state agencies —from automated vehicle renewals, to parking and tolling, to safety and security.  Since the plates are essentially built-in hardware that is capable of updating via software, it will make it much more fun for the registered vehicle user to be able to customize their plates and adding their personal messaging, such as “I’d rather be running…for president”.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind having one saying, “I’d rather be at Pepcom”.