Intel confirms rumours from the likes of Bloomberg with the announcement it is, in fact, working on smart glasses able to provide users with simple notifications by literally beaming images in their eyeballs with a laser.
Developed by the Intel New Devices Group (NDG) and first revealed by The Verge, the glasses are dubbed Vaunt and look like regular glasses. They lack cameras, speakers, microphones, display or any computing hardware as such. In terms of technology, the frames carry an electronics suite inside the right stem powering a low-powered laser (a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, to be specific).
The laser able to beam a red image on a holographic reflector on the right lens, which in turn is reflect right on the retina. The actual image is small (around 400 x 150 resolution) and consists of simple text, such as a notification pushed from a smartphone. The Verge says the image appears on the lower right side of the visual field, and disappears whenever one is not looking in that direction. According to Intel such an effect is intentional, since it did not want notifications to appear directly in the line of sight.
Asus announces an update of the ZenBook 13 Ultrabook-- the UX331, featuring 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution touchscreen and discrete Nvidia graphics inside a chassis just 14mm thick and weighing 1.12kg.
The LR-S 2.1 soundbars produce left- and right-channel audio, as well as bass from a centre-mounted built-in subwoofer. The soundbars are customisable to fit nearly any flat-panel display, and while originally designed for commercial applications they have been adopted for residential applications demanding audio without need for surround sound.
The CA-1 features ethernet, wifi, ZigBee and serial connectivity, and leverages on the Control4 database of thousands of 3rd party devices. An optional Z-Wave module adds compatibility with Z-Wave-enabled devices such as door, window, water, flood and temperature sensors, as well as electrical outlets and dimmer outlet modules. Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows installation anywhere with a single network cable.
The demo room features a Dolby Atmos 9.2.6 setup running on precision-calibrated dARTS speakers and a DT Screens Frontier Fixed Frame projector screen with an AT Ref image surface. Audio comes through a 16-channel StormAudio ISP 3D.16 ELITE preamp/processor, while a Barco Orion projector provides the required images.
