Tech Table Tuesday, March 11, 2014
March 11, 2014
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Happy Tuesday!
Justin: Happy Tuesday! You know, I feel like my voice is echoing today in the studio.
Diana: Do you?
Justin: I do. It’s exciting.
Diana: Why is that?
Justin: There’s a little remodel. We got a little remodel. It looks so great in here.
Diana: It looks so good!
Justin: It’s too classy for me, frankly.
Diana: Are you bowing out of the show? It’s just mine now.
Justin: Yeah, well, let’s not go too far.
Diana: Oh, okay.
Justin: But it is looking beautiful in here, in our studios.
Diana: It is.
Justin: You’ll have to stop by sometime. It is Tuesday, which means it’s a tech topic. You remember Google Glass?
Diana: Yeah, we talked about that.
Justin: Yeah, it’s a new gadget that we’re about to tell you about, gives Google a run for its money.
Diana: Wow.
Justin: I know, which I don’t know that many people that actually used Google Glass, so we’ll see what this.
Diana: Well, I know a few people on the inside, I suppose, of the technology industry, but.
Justin: Interesting. So, this is a company that is going to give Google a run for their money named Lumus?
Diana: Lumus.
Justin: Lumus, interesting.
Diana: Yeah, so they have created and unveiled some new, amazing technology. And the first incarnation, they’ve had a couple different levels of it.
Justin: Sure.
Diana: But the first incarnation they showed off was basically an augmented reality display embedded into a standard lens that fit into a standard pair of glasses. Okay? So, think of like, you know when you clip sunglasses on your glasses?
Justin: Sure.
Diana: Kind of like that.
Justin: Okay.
Diana: Okay, and this model displayed a binocular image at near-HD quality right in front of your face.
Justin: Right.
Diana: Like, think Princess Leia in Star Wars.
Justin: Yeah, so this, yeah, this is allowing you to watch movies, play games, and even interact with mobile devices on a screen floating in midair.
Diana: Floating in midair, yeah. So, you see it. No one else sees it because they’re not wearing the Lumus, but you are.
Justin: Right, yeah, it’s interesting.
Diana: So, if that wasn’t cool enough, now they have the next incarnation, and what they’ve done now is it adds a full Android computer and camera. The system can handle gestures, where you swipe away notifications and even display map data on the ground in front of you.
Justin: Oh, wow! So, it’s like those commercials for that, like, financial planning service: leap into retirement.
Diana: Yeah!
Justin: Now, it will literally, like, lead you to the ice cream shop?
Diana: Yes, yeah, I mean, I’ve not seen exactly what the map’s going to do but I’m sure that’s similar, Justin.
Justin: Yeah, exactly.
Diana: Good point. You can also, like, if you imagine a small screen or screens floating in front of your eyes that you can completely control with your gestures. That’s what they’ve got going now.
Justin: Huh. That’s interesting. So, of course, where do we get this? Can we get this?
Diana: Not yet.
Justin: Of course.
Diana: Not yet, not yet.
Justin: I mean, can we really get Google Glass, even?
Diana: Not that I’m aware of.
Justin: I mean, there are people I know who tried it out. I don’t know if it was a beta test.
Diana: Like trade shows, I think.
Justin: Yeah.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Google Glass was basically the same sort of thing.
Diana: I know that they have some dealings with the military.
Justin: Oh, of course.
Diana: I mean, you know, they’re providing some technology for different branches.
Justin: Yeah, well, that makes sense. Well, I mean, you were talking about augmented reality. I don’t know how much augmented reality I can handle. I can barely take reality, let alone augmented reality. But if this thing can lead me to a Dairy Queen, I think I might need it.
Diana: There you go. That’ll be Justin’s usage of it.
Justin: That’s exactly right. It’s probably like 20,000 dollars.
Diana: Right. Well, you know who’s really excited about it? Game makers.
Justin: Well, of course!
Diana: I mean, what this can do for game making.
Justin: It makes interactive gaming…
Diana: Interactive, hands-free, like truly hands-free.
Justin: So, if you want to look up Lumus, it’s L-U-M-U-S. Look them up and find out some more about this new product. It sounds really interesting.
Diana: Yeah, I’m pretty excited about it.
Justin: Excellent. Well, there’s your tech topic for Tuesday. Until next time…
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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