Health & Fitness
Epson Invites Hackers and Developers to Hack the Moverio
It's about the future, and Epson was inviting us to help to visualize it.
WackyCapNTrish are planning a trip from San Francisco to Long Beach. We call it the Finding and Making Things Game (The F.A.M.T.G.) We hope to be taking our adventure in a Fusion Energi because it can go up to 620 miles on a single tank and we don't want to have to stop for gas. We're going to be busy finding folks who make things... We'll call them Makers... and making things of our own to show. You can help us to do this by voting for us daily!
I was at the Epson Moverio HackAThon because I'd mentioned the Long Beach Android meetup group to HackAThon organizer Michael Leyva when I attended the SigGraph convention in Anaheim last month. He invited the Android meetup group to participate.
It was my first HackAThon. I had however, seen the Moverio before when I attended an Electronic Wearables meet up at the LA Crashspace, a Hackerspace in Culver City.
Just days before the HackAThon event, we received information that Metaio, the Augmented Reality specialists, would be there. To those of you familiar with Augmented Reality, you'll know that this information bumped the event excitement up a few... a lot of... notches. To those of you who aren't, check out yesterday's post, and keep checking this site. We'll talk about Augmented Reality a whole lot more.
Epson Invited Us - Invites You - to #hackmoverio
The Moverio is admittedly bulky, forward heavy, has no camera, no touch sensors, no head positioning sensors. It's not Google Glass, that's for sure. But it doesn't aspire to be Google Glass.
The Moverio was devised to provide a way for Japanese commuters to continue watching their movie or video while on long train rides. You could kick back, relax, and enjoy the show. If the ticket taker came along to take the ticket, you would see him or her. If some bad guy was approaching to nab your satchel, you could see him. Still in reality.
It's got its own major feature. The ability to provide a video or still image in 3D right in front of your eyes, and still have see-through capability. You can continue to see what you were seeing before, and have this new see-through image superimposed on your view.
The Invitation to Hack
The Moverio product was introduced a year and a half ago, and something funny happened. Hackers wanted to add capabilities to it. I can imagine the conversation with Epson...
"You know, it would be really cool if you could find a way to add a camera. What about adding touch capability? Gyro sensors? What else can you think to add? How would you use such a device?"
That was the question we were presented with this weekend. AFTER the doors were opened to Augmented Reality by a great talk and some concept videos from Metaio's Trak Lord.
The Moverio Hack
Well, there's now a way to get video to the Moverio from an on-board camera. It is... again... admittedly a Frankenstein of a setup. For now the camera is connected to the Moverio (ours was with zip ties). It can take the video but is sent to a Windows based computer which most easily permits you to override the native PC camera and redirect it to an HDMI output from the computer. That is connected to a box which will downconvert the video to composite video and send it to a special test board which is plugged in to the back of the Moverio device, and fed to the glasses screen.
I made a video walkthrough of the hack, which you can find here.
What can I say? It's a hack and we were at a HackAThon. I was excited to get the Frankenstein working.
Now Add Augmented Reality
When you add the possibilities opened up by Augmented Reality, it's something to get excited about.
The Moverio is the wearable tech eyewear that is probably the best positioned to use the most content and capabilities of Metaio (the Augmented Reality company) and apply it to an augmented reality situation.
I say this because with the Moverio you can have your augmentation in full video view and even in 3D (on the transparent screen) AND keep your reality too!
It's no Google Glass, but it's not aspiring to be.
I'm so excited! Please Vote!
About the Author
Trish Tsoiasue is a Patch Blogger from Long Beach, CA. She is planning a trip to the Bay Area, so that she can find people who make things and places that they make things to feature on a Patch blog near her or near you, on her Squigglemom YouTube channel and on her reality show that she is getting ready to launch with Caprice Rothe (Hands of E.T.) on new channel WackyCapNTrish. Subscribe now to see our first show when it's ready!
She is figuring out how to increase her internet reach so that she can get folks to like their Facebook page: WackyCapNTrish. Please like us and tell us if you want us to visit you on our trip!
