The Ariel TL1 simulator features the world's first 180° wrap-around screen for gaming / sumulation

Fusing three curved screens together to achieve a serious 5760×1200 resolution, the TL1 simulator from car maker Ariel (of the Atom race car on a budget fame) and Motion Simulation does a lot um, simulating. It is also adaptable for flight simulation and includes motion transducers for the seat to react to the environment. It includes all of the steering, pedals, levers, and such for your driving or flying needs. The cost for the TL1 is a measly £11,500 ($18,650). Since most of us can't afford a simulator of that price tag, feel free to go ahead and trade in your current real-world vehicle or get a financing option.

Check out the video and some more screens:

Microsoft Research "flexes" wearable EMG muscle input through patent

They say that the US government is always at least 20-30 years ahead of the rest of civilization in technology. That must put Microsoft Research somewhere right in between. What could be done with such a device?.... How about some interaction with the previous wearable HMD glasses patent? There is actually quite a bit that can be done with such sensors. How about a video from Microsoft Research and their partners back in 2010?

Video games on the brain

2 Cornell University electrical engineering students (Chuck Moyes and Mengxiang Jiang) have cooked up a way to play OG video game Pong without interacting physically at all.

Google ready to share its vision of the future with your eyes

Google unveiled what it calls "Project Glass" last week, giving the public a glimpse of what life might be like with a heads up display, or HUD, delivering digital updates right to your eyeball(s) in real time. This is like the visual equivalent of having a Bluetooth hands-free mic. I'm all for having fun with augmented reality and I think that there are some potentially vastly useful work applications for such a device, but I have a tough time swallowing the pill where this thing is going to take off as a daily aide to our empty, non-cyborg lives. The device is rumored  to be called  Google Eye and is also rumored to go on sale before year's end.

Video after the break

Microsoft's projected laser image HMD patent, smart guy makes his own Kinect VR before they do

2 stories here. The first is a patent found by the website Patent Bolt, describing either a set of glasses or helmet to be worn by a user, and a reflected laser-based stereo image to be displayed appearing in front of the user to focal infinity. What is different about this than most VR HMDs (head mounted displays), is that you can still retain vision of the real world behind the image, where most current displays cut you off completely from reality. This is not only safer but also opens up a path for augmented reality and not just virtual reality. This patent was filed in 3Q 2010 and it is somewhat similar to Apple's patent from 2008, but Apple's patent seems to not be reflective, resulting in the same closed off drawback as other designs.

More patent images after the jump. The other story is a diverging one where one crafty fellow who took matters into his own hands by creating his own Kinect VR experience by combining a PC, a Sony HMZ-T1 HMD, a Kinect, a TrackIR5 (for head tracking), and the game Skyrim.