Archive for February 2013

Mars: War Logs game trailers

February 28, 2013 cyberpunk Cyberpunk, Gaming No comments

Mars: War Logs

Mars: War Logs is a third-person cyberpunk RPG set on Mars. Survivors of a great catastrophe huddle in slums and are ruled by Technomancer dictators who control the planet’s water supply. The player controls Roy, the game’s protagonist, who is labeled a renegade, and can develop Roy’s combat style by choosing from dozens of skills and perks: pure combat, stealth and trickery or Technomancer powers. The combat system is real-time, players can create and modify equipment, and dialogue choices and player actions will influence the destiny of the people Roy meets.

The game is developed by Spiders Games and published by Focus Home Interactive. It will feature the clash of technology, supernatural powers, and mystical beings. It is scheduled to launch in spring 2013 on Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network, and PC. Here’s the first trailer for the game:

Recently, Focus and Spiders released a combat trailer for the game, providing a glimpse of the game’s skill tree and some of the powers that can be enabled.

 

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You can soon log your everyday life through the Memoto wearable camera

February 23, 2013 cyberpunk Gadgets, Info Security and Privacy One comment

Late last year, the Sweden-based tech startup Memoto AB launched their camera in Kickstarter. It was a huge hit and has earned ten times the goal.

The Memoto camera is a lifelogging device — a tiny, wearable camera that automatically takes a 5MP geotagged image every 30 seconds. The photo’s orientation is also recorded so that the app can show the image upright no matter how you are wearing the camera. The Memoto camera is only 36mm x 36mm x 9mm big and does not have any buttons. Just clip it on your clothes and go! Lay it flat or put it in a dark place to turn it off.

Memoto lifelogging cameras

When I first heard about the Memoto camera, two things came to mind: privacy concerns and the possible deluge of inane pictures of narcissistic people online. But it will really be sweet to have such an automatic and unobtrusive camera during travel or special events. Reliving the whole thing without having to dampen the original moment’s enjoyment by having to snap pictures and take videos is certainly appealing.

Of course, for many people, the appeal lies in the details — the little things that we don’t take much notice of or bother to take pictures of. With this camera, no more blurry recollections of things, places, and people we’ve encountered.

The built-in battery of the Memoto camera lasts for two days before having to be recharged. When the camera is connected to the computer through a micro-USB port, the battery is recharged while the photos (up to 4000 photos) are automatically uploaded to Memoto’s servers.

The Memoto app organizes the images into groups of “moments” on a timeline. The app uses the images’ metadata such as time, place, and light; this enables the user to search for specific pictures. The photos are in private mode by default but can be shared to several social media services if the owner wants to. The app works for both iPhone and Android.

The company offers its customers infinite photo storage at a flat monthly fee. The images transferred to Memoto’s cloud servers are stored encrypted.

The Kickstarter project has ended but interested buyers can pre-order the camera at the Memoto Web site. The company offers free shipping worldwide for preorders (estimated delivery: April 2013), with 1 year storage included. The cameras are available in three colors: Memoto Orange, Graphite Gray, and Arctic White.

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The upcoming cyberpunk game Remember Me looks amazing

February 22, 2013 cyberpunk Cyberpunk, Gaming No comments

I’m not much of a gamer but I really appreciate the stunning visuals of Capcom’s new game Remember Me.

Remember Me (previously titled Adrift) is an action-adventure cyberpunk video game, scheduled for release in May 2013 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. It is developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom.

Remember Me cyberpunk game box art

The game is set in Neo-Paris in 2084. In this dystopian future, memories can be digitized and traded. Privacy and intimacy have been swept away to give way to the comfort of smart technology. The memory economy gives immense power to the ruling elite in this surveillance state.

The players control Nilin, an amnesiac “memory hunter” who can steal or alter other people’s memories. To neutralize her knowledge and capabilities, the authorities have arrested Nilin and erased her memory. After escaping prison, Nilin sets out on a mission to recover her identity while being hunted by those in power.

Remember Me game scene

Remember Me combines exploration, platforming, and melee combat. The game introduces the concept of ‘memory remixing’: hacking into a person’s memories and manipulating them. Players can do this by replaying a memory and changing details to modify the subject’s recollection of the event.

Judging by the stills and videos released for this game, the cyberpunk aesthetics is impressive.

Check out the official trailer for Remember Me:

For a better preview, here’s a seven minute long gameplay featuring Nilin’s ability to remix memories.

 

Image credit: Dontnod Entertainment
Video credits: remembermegame, GamestyleDE / Youtube

 

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Breathing Bike and canned fresh air for a Blade Runner-like smog

February 20, 2013 cyberpunk Transportation No comments

Last month, China’s capital Beijing was blanketed by a really thick smog which made the city look like a scene from Blade Runner (or Silent Hill, if you want to be freaky). See here and here.

Although most days are clear, Beijing really has a high level of pollution. In response to the air problem, the eccentric but extremely wealthy Chinese entrepreneur Chen Guangbiao pulled a publicity stunt to bring awareness to Beijing’s smog problem (as if the actual smog was not convincing or obvious enough) — he manufactured canned fresh air and sold them.

canned fresh air
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the cans of clean air come in different atmospheric flavors, such as pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan’an.

In the meantime, a man with a mechanical engineering background rigged his bicycle to give it air cleaning properties.

anti-smog bicycle by Matt Hope

And just like the name Hiro Protagonist tells us who is Snow Crash’s hero and protagonist, guess what this bike hacker’s name is? Matt Hope. A ray of light shining through heavily polluted skies.

The “Breathing Bike” is not perfect though. It produces high-voltage electricity that is hazardous if there is a downpour. If you get caught in the rain, you’re probably toasted, literally. Nevertheless, it is an interesting prototype that can be improved upon.

Video credits: ElvinProskaz, Xiao Li Tan / Youtube

 

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Short Film: Ninety Seconds, a review

February 18, 2013 cyberpunk Info Security and Privacy, Short Films No comments

poster of the short film Ninety Seconds

The short film Ninety Seconds is a sci-fi thriller directed by Gerard Lough. It is set in the near future. The exact year is not given, but can be intuited to be 2017 or later. The film opens with a quote from George Orwell’s 1984: “The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.”

In this universe, there are private detectives, called “techs”, who have access to surveillance equipment similar to those used by intelligence agencies. People with enough money can hire these techs to invade other people’s privacy. The title Ninety Seconds refers to the average length of useful or incriminating evidence the lead character gets from hours of surveillance footage.

Mark (Andrew Norry) and his assistant Ralfi (Claire J. Blennerhassett) are techs hired by Mr. Philips (Michael Parle) to spy on the beautiful burlesque dancer Elly (Emma Eliza Regan). This get complicated when Mark develops a personal interest on Elly and begins to feel that other people are following him.

Here’s the complete short film (27 minutes long):

Read more

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The bionic man named Rex and the man he is modeled after

February 11, 2013 cyberpunk Biomedical Engineering, Bionics, Cyborg / Transhumanism, Robotics No comments

A recent Channel 4 documentary titled How to Build a Bionic Man demonstrated the most advanced synthetic organs, limbs, and blood, through the construction of a 6.5-foot tall bionic man named Rex (short for ‘robotic exoskeleton’).

The program featured the social psychologist Bertolt Meyer and Rex — the first complete bionic man created by Shadow Robot Company’s Richard Walker and Matthew Godden using almost $1 million-worth of cutting edge body parts borrowed from leading laboratories and manufacturers. Rex has camera-equipped glasses, a cochlear implant, a battery-powered artificial heart, pancreas, kidney, spleen, trachea, legs, lungs, and synthetic blood made up of nanoparticles.

Rex the bionic man has fully-functional artificial organs

Bertolt Meyer was born without a left hand and now wears an i-Limb Ultra prosthetic hand. He was also the model for Rex’s face. In an interview with Telegraph, Meyer stated that he freaked out when he first saw Rex and felt awkward seeing his face on the mechanical man.

While assembled by roboticists, Rex is, strictly speaking, not a robot. He’s not a cyborg either. His parts are all man-made but fully-functional — each of them can or soon can replace a human being’s natural body part or internal organ.

Rex is currently on display at London’s Science Museum as part of the free exhibit How Much of You Can Be Rebuilt? until March 11, 2013.

Image and video credit: Channel4News / Youtube

 

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