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Sci-Fi Fridays: Could these giant butterfly drones make “Mothra” a reality?

Sci-Fi Fridays: Could these giant butterfly drones make “Mothra” a reality?

Happy Sci-Fi Friday where we highlight some incredible tech that feels as though it is coming straight out of a science fiction flick. This week we caught a story about giant butterfly drones being created by robotics firm, Festo. Most drones look like futuristic helicopters so it’s interesting to see a company play with the form factor to create something that we would normally see in nature. The eMotion Butterflies are ultra-light flying devices which mimic the insect’s coordinated flying patterns. The butterflies leverage an intelligent mechanical system and are made out of ultra-light materials and the smallest possible power units to give them a more true-to-nature flying behaviour. As butterflies usually fly in a group, Festo used cameras and infrared technology to create a guidance and monitoring system that allowed each butterfly to fly with precision within a collective without collision. From far away the butterflies look quite elegant and beautiful, but up close the butterfly drones are gargantuous compared to their biological counterparts. Seeing them in flight reminded us of the 1962 film Mothra which saw a monstrous Moth attack the world, causing hurricanes and smashing into bridges and buildings and terrifying civilians like only a movie-monster can. Of course the current Festo butterflies look far less menacing than Mothra and don’t have the same destructive powers. But we are sure that baby Mothra started off cute at some point as well. Image Source: Turner Classic Films Augmented World Expo (AWE) is the world’s largest conference for professionals focused on making the world more interactive – featuring technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Wearable Computing, Smart Glasses, Gesture and Sensors devices, and The Internet of Things. Now in our sixth year, AWE 2015 is our biggest event yet with over 3,000 tech professionals, 200 demos, 100+ AWE-inspiring talks and over 150 participating companies. Tickets are on sale now....

2015 Auggie Awards gets new Sci-Fi category to bring “Sight” to life

2015 Auggie Awards gets new Sci-Fi category to bring “Sight” to life

The Auggies are back! Every year, the best of the best in the Augmented World compete for a one-of-a-kind Auggie Trophy to celebrate excellence in augmented reality.  This year’s awards have ten categories including best smart glasses, best app and best marketing campaign. New to the awards program this year is a challenge created in partnership with IEEE to find the Best Sci-Fi to Reality application. The Best Sci-Fi to Reality IEEE Challenge will accept nominations that implement design concepts depicted in a Sci-Fi Film. This year’s challenge film is “Sight” (winner of 2013 Auggie Awards). Sight is a short futuristic film by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo. The film presents a time beyond smart glasses when users upgrade their sight with AR-capabilities provided by a tech giant called Sight Systems. In the film, we see a day in the life of the main character, as he gamifies making dinner by turning the chopping of a cucumber into a competition and turns the walls of his home into a large screen with feeds and virtual art. The film goes on to show our hero on a date where he uses a dating app called Wingman to help him gauge how interested his date is and coach him on what he should say and order to get her “adoration” level to a more appropriate stage. The goal of the Sci-Fi to Reality award is to implement one or more of the following scenes from the film and bring it to life. Each scene has a certain number of points based on difficulty. Opening Titles – 1 point Flying Game – 3 points Refrigerator food status – 3 points Cucumber slicing game – 3 points Cook an egg game – 5 points Walls of information – 1 point Virtual fitting room – 3 points Star constellation recognition – 3 points Menu ordering – 3 points Vocal/face emotion detection – 10 points Animated Van Gogh painting – 5 points Sadly, there will be no points for the Wingman app. As this is the IEEE challenge at AWE 2015 – extra points will be awarded to openness and interoperability. A judging panel will award points to each nominee based on how similar the implementation is to the Sight film and how well it really works in reality. Bonus points from IEEE goes to an implementation that promotes openness and interoperability. Check the full Sight film belowt to get inspired! We can’t wait to see you bring this to life. Nominations are now open so when you are ready, head on over here to submit your Sci-Fi to Reality project. Sight from Robot Genius on Vimeo.   Augmented World Expo (AWE) is the world’s largest conference for professionals focused on making the world more interactive – featuring technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Wearable Computing, Smart Glasses, Gesture and Sensors devices, and The Internet of Things. Now in our sixth year, AWE 2015 is our biggest event yet with over 3,000 tech professionals, 200 demos, 100+ AWE-inspiring talks and over 150 participating companies. Tickets are on sale now....