The Verge is liveblogging the Nokia 920 keynote, and so far it looks as though it’s going quite well. My only complaint is that this is the sort of thing that Microsoft and its hardware partners needed to do back during the Windows Phone 7 launch in 2010.
Apparently, the new screen is sensitive enough to let you operate it while wearing mittens. If there’s one feature that would come in handy in places like Finland and even here in Canada, it’s that.
Also notable: at one point, one of the presenters says “It just works.”
The Hand Eye Societydescribes itself as a “not-for-profit coalition of people and projects in support of Toronto’s videogame communities”. Their goals are:
To help people make games
To connect game makers with each other and with an audience, offline
To foster diversity in game creation and public perception of games
If you have any experience teaching people (informally or not) about games we’d love you to come and share your perspective.
If you have an interest in games and education but no experience, but may be able to volunteer some time to these work on these initiatives, you’re also welcome. (Ten hours of volunteer time makes you a full Hand Eye Society member and eligible to vote in the next AGM.)
I have more than my fair share of teaching videogame programming to adults and kids, and I’ve been meaning to do a few more good deeds, so I plan to be there. If you’d like to attend as well, please RSVP to Jim Munroe at jim@handeyesociety.com.
When Heather Payne wanted to learn how to make websites and web applications, she didn’t know where to turn. She didn’t know any developers to help her get started or even point the way, and the “boy’s club” image of the programming world can be quite off-putting to women. Fortunately, she found a PyLadies Python programming workshop while visiting Los Angeles in 2011, and the experience inspired her to create a similar environment back home in Toronto. With a single tweet, her idea grew into what we now know as Ladies Learning Code.
Ladies Learning Code now has a permanent atelier at the Annex branch of the Centre for Social Innovation large enough to hold workshops for dozens of eager learners who want to get a better idea of how the technology they use every day works, how to program it, and how to be creative with it. This sort of thing costs money, so they’re holding a fundraiser in the space next Wednesday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m..
Given the libertarian bent of a significant number of geek-types, there may be a Ron Paul AMA sometime in the near future. As for Tea Party favourites, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not their favourite candidates will make an appearance — after all, this may be their attitude to computers:
Global Nerdy — which actually refers to me — is on a short vacation with a lovely young lady from now until Tuesday, September 4th, when we — which means I — will be running full bore with tech articles aplenty. See you then!
In case you don’t believe that a gadget in the right hands can turn an ordinary night out into an extraordinary one, allow me to present some proof starring Yours Truly in The Best Accordion Picture Ever:
Naturally, with either TshirtOS or an accordion, your mileage will vary.
The T-shirt’s Tech Specs
Here are TshirtOS’ tech specs, straight from the folks at CuteCircuit:
LED Screen resolution
The LED Screen has a resolution of 1024 pixels, spaced 1cm apart, in a 32 by 32 pixel grid embedded into the fabric of the t-shirt. Each pixel is RGB (Red Green Blue) to make a full colour display. The LEDs used are ultra thin (like a sheet of paper), the brightest full colour discreet LEDs in the world at this thinness and only 2 by 2 mm wide. The screen is controlled by 32 ultra thin microprocessors, managing the screen control software “Q” by CuteCircuit.
Camera
The camera is an Omnivision Camera Cube. The Camera Cube combines the full functionality of a single chip image sensor, embedded processor and wafer- level optics in one compact, small-profile package. Boasting the industry’s smallest footprint and z-height (2.5 x 2.9 x 2.5 mm), it is ideal for today’s ultra-slim applications, such as wearable technology. Unlike traditional camera module designs that combine image sensors and lenses in a barrel, OmniVision devices are assembled using wafer level alignment tools. The lens can be placed directly onto chip scale packaged (CSP) image sensors, which eliminates the need for flex cables and interposers. Elimination of image contamination issues such as fixed pattern noise, smearing, and blooming produces a clean, fully stable colour image, which in the case of the tshirtOS is scaled down to 32 by 32 pixels to be displayed.
Accelerometer
This is a small, thin, low power, 3-axis accelerometer with high resolution up to ±16 g. It detects a person’s jumping motion (the momentary absence of gravity or free fall detection) and activates animations on the tshirtOS. This accelerometer is the latest generation triple-axis, hi resolution digital, micro mechanical inertial sensor.
Headphone Jack
This is a generic 3-poles stereo jack. We have 2 on tshirtOS – one for the headphone and the second for a headset/ microphone option. The headphone jacks fit all types of headphones.
Circuit board and processors
The Brain circuit is an ultra slim PCB that snaps into the tshirtOS hub to provide it with BlueTooth capability. The Bluetooth is CE and FCC certified, with an integrated micro-antenna, and it supports both the HFP, SPP, and A2DP profiles for hands-free and serial port use. The Brain is chargeable via USB simply by plugging it into a computer USB port, and the tiny Li-Po battery recharges in about 1 hour. The accelerometer and the micro- controller reside in the Brain. The micro controller controls the LED screen. We have 2 versions of the Brain where at the heart of the system is either an 8-bit processor from ATMEL or a 32-bit ARM Cortex processor, the latest ultra- powerful and energy efficient ARM processor, also from ATMEL.
iPhone and iOS support
The application will only be supported on iPhone4S and iOS5+ in its initial release.
Register Your Interest
I’d love to get my hands on one of these and both hack on it and take it out on the town, and I suspect you might too. If TshirtOS sounds appealing, go ahead and register at tshirtos.com!
