By PRETHIBA ESVARY SUBRAMANIAN
Recently, a group of 50 students from Taylor’s University (TU) stayed back on campus till 3am to watch the Google I/O 2015 via live streaming from San Francisco, US. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, Google I/O is an annual conference held by Google, where its latest products and services are revealed. Upon viewing the live conference and having a chat with two members from the TU Agents of Tech Club, the ink Slingers felt that Taylorians would benefit from gaining some insights into some of Google’s brilliant concepts and developments.
The club’s Public Relations Director Ting Shi Jin revealed that the main highlight of the conference for him were the virtual reality (VR) products. According to How Stuff Works, VR is the use of technology to enable users to immerse themselves in a “simulated, three-dimensional world”.
One of the VR products Ting highlighted was the VR camera rig. He explained, “There’s a 360 degree GoPro camera in it. So, users can capture images from a 360 degree view.” He said there is an algorithm which then calculates the depth of each image captured, and these images would then be stitched together to produce a stereoscopic (three-dimensional) video.
Agents of Tech Club Vice President Norman Low Wei Kit who is also the past Google Student Ambassador Malaysia highlighted the Google Expeditions app, which also utilises the concept of VR. According to The Verge, it is a “virtual reality education tool that lets students take VR field trips while teachers control their experience with a tablet.” Tech Crunch says the purpose of the app is to give “...students the ability to travel to places they otherwise might not have had the opportunity to reach.”
Low also highlighted Google’s Project Brillo, which according to The Verge, “is an operating system.....that will let smart devices talk to each other.” The Guardian explained that “Google Brillo is designed to run on and connect multiple low-power devices, connecting anything from a washing machine to a rubbish bin and linking in with existing Google technologies.” As an example, Low said users can turn off the lamp on their study table by merely tapping at their phones.
In addition to that, Low introduced two highly-anticipated, on-going projects by Google called Project Jacquard and Project Soli.He said Project Jacquard is based on the idea of weaving fabrics which have conductors in them, to produce clothing that could act like a switch. Founder of Project Jacquard Ivan Poupyrev said in an introductory video, “It involves replacing some of the threads in textile (fabric) with conductive (electrical conductivity) threads.” So, users simply have to make ‘touch gestures’ on their clothing to produce a response on their devices. Low explained, “Fashion and technology could never really cross before this. But now, that barrier has been broken.”
In regards to Project Soli, Low conveyed that it is a technology which allows the user to interact with a device, by merely showing hand gestures in front of the device, without actually touching the device. According to Huffington Post, the technology “uses radar to detect hand movements and finger 'micromotions' to control everything from the volume controls on a stereo to a device's on-off switch.” Founder of Project Soli Ivan Poupyrev said in an introductory video, this “technology seeks to…push things far past a simple swipe and seeks to apply the finesse of our actions to the virtual realm.”
The club’s Public Relations Director Ting Shi Jin revealed that the main highlight of the conference for him were the virtual reality (VR) products. According to How Stuff Works, VR is the use of technology to enable users to immerse themselves in a “simulated, three-dimensional world”.
One of the VR products Ting highlighted was the VR camera rig. He explained, “There’s a 360 degree GoPro camera in it. So, users can capture images from a 360 degree view.” He said there is an algorithm which then calculates the depth of each image captured, and these images would then be stitched together to produce a stereoscopic (three-dimensional) video.
Agents of Tech Club Vice President Norman Low Wei Kit who is also the past Google Student Ambassador Malaysia highlighted the Google Expeditions app, which also utilises the concept of VR. According to The Verge, it is a “virtual reality education tool that lets students take VR field trips while teachers control their experience with a tablet.” Tech Crunch says the purpose of the app is to give “...students the ability to travel to places they otherwise might not have had the opportunity to reach.”
Low also highlighted Google’s Project Brillo, which according to The Verge, “is an operating system.....that will let smart devices talk to each other.” The Guardian explained that “Google Brillo is designed to run on and connect multiple low-power devices, connecting anything from a washing machine to a rubbish bin and linking in with existing Google technologies.” As an example, Low said users can turn off the lamp on their study table by merely tapping at their phones.
In addition to that, Low introduced two highly-anticipated, on-going projects by Google called Project Jacquard and Project Soli.He said Project Jacquard is based on the idea of weaving fabrics which have conductors in them, to produce clothing that could act like a switch. Founder of Project Jacquard Ivan Poupyrev said in an introductory video, “It involves replacing some of the threads in textile (fabric) with conductive (electrical conductivity) threads.” So, users simply have to make ‘touch gestures’ on their clothing to produce a response on their devices. Low explained, “Fashion and technology could never really cross before this. But now, that barrier has been broken.”
In regards to Project Soli, Low conveyed that it is a technology which allows the user to interact with a device, by merely showing hand gestures in front of the device, without actually touching the device. According to Huffington Post, the technology “uses radar to detect hand movements and finger 'micromotions' to control everything from the volume controls on a stereo to a device's on-off switch.” Founder of Project Soli Ivan Poupyrev said in an introductory video, this “technology seeks to…push things far past a simple swipe and seeks to apply the finesse of our actions to the virtual realm.”