It's just this easy to steal from the Apple Store (video)

byRichard Lawler|@Rjcc| 12 hours ago

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Late last week, ex-NBA player Rex Chapman was picked up by Scottsdale, Arizona police on felony charges of theft and trafficking in stolen property. According to the police, that's because Chapman made off from the local Apple Store with over $14,000 worth of gear over several visits occurring in the last few months. As you can see in the raw security video footage of some nine visits released by the police today, he would browse around, pick up an item (headphones, although from the video we can't tell if they're Beats), pretend to check it out with Apple's EasyPay app and put it in a white Apple sales bag. Finally, all he had to do was walk out before selling the goods at a pawnshop.

We've contacted Apple to find out if there are what specific policies are in place to stop this kind of thing from happening, but have not yet heard back. Apple employees reported the thefts back in August and recognized Chapman as a former player for the Phoenix Suns, and he was arrested Friday afternoon. He was released on $14,000 bond Saturday, and is due back in court Friday, but has been quiet on Twitter since the arrest.

Source: YouTube, AZCentral, AZFamily

Tags: apple, applestore, easypay, RexChapman, theft, video  Hide Comments 0Comments

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With Cyberith's Virtualizer, you can run around wearing an Oculus Rift (video)

byMat Smith|@thatmatsmith|14 hours ago

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There was no shortage of VR headsets at the Tokyo Game Show this year -- but that didn't stop the lines forming endlessly over the weekend. Hidden, at least slightly, in Hall 8 was Cyberith, demonstrating their now successfully crowdfunded VR gaming mat, the Virtualizer. It pairs a second-generation Oculus Rift headset with three different sensor arrays, which, with the assistance of a low-friction mat and some "rental socks" from the Cyberith team, we got to test it out. How does it work and (most importantly) when can the rest of you play it? Well, for the latter, a commercial product is planned for launch in 2015 and for the former, we'll let the founders do some of the explaining in a quick video after the break. We'll fill you in on the rest. Gallery | 6 PhotosCyberith Virtualizer hands-on at TGS 2014 + See all 6

Running while strapped into the Virtualizer takes some skill -- we weren't entirely satisfied with our zombie-like gait. That said, we didn't realize this until we saw the video above: the team is getting the immersion part very right. To ensure you're able to rotate around and slide-jog in any direction, the wiring for the Oculus Rift headset is attached to an arm, meaning no wire-based mishaps, and making it feel kind of wireless -- even though it's still very much tethered.

Let's break down the sensors at work inside the Virtualizer itself: there's six holes in the flat base plate, with optical sensors tracking your feet. As they trace over these holes, the computer does the math to work out which way you're attempting to virtually go. These sensors also work in tandem with those found in the ring that goes around your torso, monitoring the positioning and adjusting your in-game movement to match. The clever thing about Cyberith's gaming setup, however, is the third sensor group, inside the trio of pillars keeping that torso ring up. Inside, sensors also monitor the height of the player -- and because it's sensor based, crouching becomes less of a toggle-based function, but something that could (depending on games that choose to use it) be an analogue range of motion.

Playing a demo inside the system was, well, fun. The horror-based demo we (literally) walked through, however, didn't entail any sort of in-game controls: movement was all done through your legs and we liked the fact that you could also walk backwards, once you got the knack of walking-jogging on the spot. Depending on the movement speed of your feet, this directly translates to the game, although turning gently while moving appears to be something that needs a little training. This particular game wasn't compatible with virtual movement, so we couldn't crouch while strapped into the manbaby-bouncer, but Cyberith informs that it's working to add full support to all movements inside virtual gaming worlds -- and other VR-powered projects. Although you're strapped into the thing, it doesn't drag or weigh you down that much, as the pillars around the ring keep it supported for you. Kickstarter shipments are scheduled to arrive in March 2015 and to see some early demos of what they're already working on, we'd advise taking a look at the team's crowdfunding pitch below. 180-degree mid-game jumps are the future of gaming. We hope.

More Coverage: Kickstarter

Tags: crowdfunding, cyberith, oculusrift, tgs, tgs2014, TokyoGameShow, video, virtualizer, virtualreality, vr  Hide Comments 0Comments

Oculus VR Rift

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Home Depot reportedly got warnings about its data security in 2008

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International Space Station beams a video back to Earth using lasers (video)

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Roombots: Lego-like robotic blocks that transform into furniture (video)

Imagine if you can just snap your fingers or issue a verbal command for a table, a chair or any other furniture to assemble right in front of you. That's what a team of researchers from the Swiss Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) hopes to achieve by developing Lego-like robotic blocks called Roombots that can stick to each other and form different structures. Each Roombot is made up of two blocks with wireless connection and a battery that powers motors, which the robot uses to rotate into place. These blocks also have retractable claws so anything you conjure up can climb walls and ceilings or stay attached to floors. The researchers believe that Roombots could be very useful to the elderly and people with disabilities, as they could eventually tell the machines to move closer to them or move out of the way.

For now, though, the team still needs to figure out how users can control the robots -- while voice or gesture command would be ideal, the team's looking at using software made for tablets at the moment. They still also need to smooth out the robots' movements, tweak their algorithm and make sure they work together better first before your can fill your homes with reconfigurable furniture.

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Via: NanoWerk

Source: ScienceDirect

More Coverage: GizMag

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