Geek Brief TV #339

Brief 339 is all about research, baby! I LOVE shiny, happy tech coming
to market today, but much more that that, I love getting a look at the
raw science and engineering that will make it's way into ordinary
products of tomorrow. That's been our goal since the beginning and
those few episodes where we've been able to bring future tech to the
Brief have been my favorite.

In Las Vegas, I met Thad Starner [1]. He's doing stuff as amazing
as Dean Kamen [2], but he's not quite as well known...YET. He was
walking around all day looking kind of like Mad-Eye Moody with his
futuristic wearable display. It's an expensive prototype that includes
an oQo computer [3] running Ubuntu, a battery pack, a wearable VGA
display that clips to his glasses and a one-handed input device called
a Twiddler.

A Twiddler [4] is a combination keyboard and mouse that weighs 4
ounces and fits in the palm of one hand. They've been on the market
for 14 years, so I hope Twiddler enthusiasts will leave comments to
share their experiences.

I also talked to Maribeth Gandy [5] about her Augmented Reality
research using Second Life. In just the last three months, she and her
team have built an application that overlays second life on top of
reality. I explain it here, but both she and Thad explain their
research better on the videos I shot live on Qik. Click over if you
want to learn more.

Thanks to everyone supporting the Big Trip [6] by buying pixels at
PaidByPixels.com [7] and thanks to everyone who supports the Brief by
buying Nokia N810s [8] using promo code "geekbrieftv". Nokia Internet
Tablets will be major players in the world of augmented reality, so
it's a good idea to get your hands on one now.

Links:
------
[1] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~thad
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen
[3] http://www.oqo.com/index.html
[4] http://www.handykey.com/site/twiddler2.html
[5] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ael/people/maribeth.html
[6] http://www.bigtrip.tv
[7] http://www.paidbypixels.com
[8] http://www.geekbrief.tv/sponsorship-information

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