News and Updates

By GOVTECH SINGAPORE – 15 March 2017

https://www.tech.gov.sg/TechNews/Innovation/2017/03/Touching-technology-in-the-flash

 

Dr Anders Ynnerman moves his hands over the images on the touchscreen, slicing, dicing and rotating, revealing layer upon layer of skin, muscle and bone.

The audience watches in awe.

They’re looking at a full-body scan of a traffic accident victim, and they can see every injury in larger-than-life detail, including the cause of death: a broken neck, caused by a blow to the head.

Dr Ynnerman, a scientific data visualisation expert and the director of the Norrköping Visualisation Centre in Sweden, was speaking at a session on virtual and augmented reality (AR/VR) at EmTech Asia.

The conference, organised by the MIT Technology Review to explore global emerging technologies, was held in Singapore from 14-15 February 2017.

These full-body scans or ‘virtual autopsies’, he said, are treasure troves of medical data; he takes great care to present them with the utmost respect for the persons who died under tragic circumstances.

Touched by Data

The datasets are generated through computerised tomography (CT) scans, which produce around 25,000 slices of data that together form a full virtual replica of the human patient.

Dr Ynnerman uses mathematics and computer graphics to combine these slices into a huge block of data that can be visualised in three dimensions, and manipulated using touch interfaces.

The technology is clearly a huge boon for medical schools and hospitals.

But he quickly realised its potential for communicating science to the general public. His team has gone on to scan all manner of museum artefacts, including Egyptian mummies, fossils and a wide range of animal specimens.

They have placed touchtable devices in museums around the world — including the Science Centre Singapore —  for visitors to interact and play with the data.

“We’ve gone from very basic mathematical principles all the way out into the museum gallery. I see children exploring scientific data. When they interact with it they’re getting interested in the content, but they’re also getting interested in the technology.”

Dr YnnermanìI added: ” That’s the best reward you can get as a professor. Seeing kids playing with your stuff is much more important than getting citations and papers!”

Kissed by innovation

Also speaking at the session was Dr Adrian David Cheok, director of the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia and Chair Professor of Pervasive Computing at the City University of London.

(Dr Cheok was formerly a professor at the National University of Singapore, where he founded the Mixed Reality Lab; it has since moved to London.)

Because non-verbal interactions make up a large part of how humans communicate, talking to someone over the internet still pales in comparison to meeting him or her in person, said Dr Cheok.

Thus, his goal is to develop tools that let us perceive the world through the internet using all of our five senses including touch, taste and smell.

“In the future, we’ll move from the age of information, where we are today, into the age of experience,” he said.

“You can share any experience through the internetóyou can feel, taste and smell what it’s like to be anywhere in the world.”

His group has developed a range of devices aimed at letting you do just that.

For those who crave touch, there is the Huggy Pajama, a wearable device that lets parents and children exchange virtual hugs.

More recently, the group introduced the Kissenger, which does exactly what you think it does — the silicon lip-like device connects to your smartphone and lets you kiss someone over the internet.

Smells like Tech spirit

Besides touch, the senses of taste and smell are also powerfully evocative.

“Taste and smell are directly intermingled with the limbic system of the brain, which is responsible for emotion and memory,” said Dr Cheok.

“For example, smell can trigger a memory of your grandmother, or trigger an emotion — it can make you feel happy or sad if the same smell has done that in the past.”

Engineering taste and smell, however, is no trivial task.

Dr Cheok’s team has developed smartphone devices that let users send their friends smells over the internet; these involve the use of an atomiser and scent cartridges. But such devices have drawbacks — only one smell can be sent per cartridge, and cartridges have to be replaced once they run out of scent.

Thus, instead of resorting to chemicals, Dr Cheok is working on ways to directly stimulate the tastebuds or olfactory (smell) receptors.

By placing an electrode on your tongue, for example, he can deliver electrical signals that make you taste something sour; yet another device generates a sweet taste by stimulating the appropriate receptors on the tongue with heat.

Similarly, the team has also tried to electrically stimulate the olfactory receptors inside the nasal cavity to recreate smells.

Wearing this device, however, is still a little uncomfortable.

Although such devices may not be available on the mass market just yet, Dr Cheok believes that it is only a matter of time before they find their way into our homes.

“People really want to experience all of the five senses — they want to be able to have dinner with their grandmother even if she’s on the other side of the world.”

By CUBADEBATE – 12 marzo 2017

Computer expert Adrian David Cheok has created the Kissenger prototype, an invention that will allow long-distance kissing, according to the BBC .

According to Cheok, who heads the Imagineering Institute in Nusajaya Johor , Malaysia, while the initial idea was a device to connect families, “the greatest interest comes from couples” living separately.

“The initial prototype was born in 2003 and after several tests, in 2015, they reached the current design, consisting of a phone casing that connects to the audio jack of the iPhone, iPod or iPad,” he explained.

The creator said that the application will only be available for devices that have the iOS operating system and although the device is in its prototype phase, it is expected that by the end of the year will hit the market.

Kissenger comes from the combination of ‘Kiss’ (kiss) and ‘ssenger’ (short for messenger).

For affective communication to take place, the two participants must have the device and download the application.

The phone is inserted into the holder which contains a silicone area with high precision force sensors capable of measuring the force exerted by the lips during the kiss.

Then, through the application, the device sends this data in real time to the recipient’s device.

(With information from Prensa Latina)

By UnoTv – 09/03/2017

http://www.unotv.com/noticias/portal/negocios/detalle/gadget-permitira-besar-tus-seres-queridos-pese-distancia-023298/

Kissenger es el nombre del gadget que permitirá besar a seres queridos aunque se encuentren en partes distintas del mundo. El nombre es la combinación de la palaba “kiss” (beso) y “-ssenger” (abreviatura de Messenger, que quiere decir mensajero).

Las dos personas que deseen “intercambiar” besos, deben contar con el dispositivo y descargar la aplicación. El teléfono debe ser introducido en el gadget, el cual tiene silicona con sensores de fuerza de alta precisión, los cuales miden la fuerza que utilizamos en los labios durante un beso.

Esos sensores mandan los “datos” a la app del celular, el cual los transmite gracias a Internet, en tiempo real al otro celular.

Adrian David Cheok, creador del Kissenger, le dijo a la BBC que el dispositivo está en su fase de prototipo pero se espera que a finales de 2017 salga al mercado. La aplicación solo estará disponible para dispositivos con el sistema operativo iOS

Según reporta la publicación, el precio estaría cerca de los 100 dólares.

 

 

By BBC Mundo – 8 marzo 2017

http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-39207456?post_id=627927107_10154351016672108

 

“Besos por celular”, dice el tema musical de Spaghetti del Rock de la banda argentina Divididos.

Y todo parece indicar que los desarrollos tecnológicos quieren llevar al envío de un beso por el teléfono a un terreno más avanzado: el de sentirlo.

El Kissenger es un gadget que resolvería este problema que atraviesan las parejas que mantienen relaciones a larga distancia, a familiares que viven en diferentes países y, por qué no, conectar a fans con sus ídolos en cualquier parte del mundo.

• ¿Por qué los humanos expresan afecto con besos?

“Cuando era niño tenía a mis abuelos a una cuadra de mi casa, pero no todos corren con la misma suerte y eso me motivó a pensar en un dispositivo para conectar a las familias”, describió Adrian David Cheok, profesor de computación y creador del Kissenger.

De todos modos, Cheok le contó a BBC Mundo desde Malasia que “el mayor interés proviene de las parejas” que viven separadas.

El nombre Kissenger surge de la combinación de “Kiss” (beso, en inglés) y “ssenger” (abreviatura de messenger: mensajero).

Derechos de autor de la imagenIMAGINEERING INSTITUTE

¿Cómo funciona?

Para que la comunicación afectiva se concrete, los dos participantes deben tener el Kissenger y descargar la aplicación.

El teléfono se introduce al artilugio que contiene un área de silicona con sensores de fuerza de alta precisión.

Estos sensores tienen la capacidad de medir la fuerza que ejercen los labios durante el beso.

• La razón por la que cerramos los ojos cuando nos besamos

Entonces, el dispositivo envía estos datos a la app del teléfono que a su vez los transmite por Internet en tiempo real al aparato del destinatario del beso.

El Kissinger también cuenta con sensores miniatura que reproducen los datos sobre la fuerza que ejercen los labios de quien envía el beso.

Y de esta manera, el Kissinger crea una sensación de beso realista.

Derechos de autor de la imagenIMAGINEERING INSTITUTE

Apariencias

El Kissenger no siempre tuvo este tamaño y forma.

“El dispositivo inicial nació en 2003. Era un cabeza con labios y la verdad tenía un aspecto espeluznante“, le dijo Cheok a BBC Mundo.

Después de varias pruebas, en 2015 llegaron al diseño actual del Kissenger: una una carcasa de teléfono que se conecta a la toma de audio del iPhone, iPod o iPad, y cuya app solo estará disponible para los dispositivos que cuenten con el sistema operativo iOS.

• ¿Por qué se besan los humanos si la mayoría de los animales no lo hacen?

Según Cheok, que dirige el Imagineering Institute en Nusajaya Johor, Malasia, el dispositivo está en su fase de prototipo pero espera que a fin de año salga al mercado.

¿Su precio? cerca de US$100, “o tal vez menos”, señaló su creador quien aseguró que recibe al menos 30 pedidos diarios de todo el mundo para conseguir el dispositivo.

Habrá que esperar entonces para experimentarlo. Pero, ¿te animarías a besar así?

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