TVs you can control with your voice, refrigerators that connect to the internet and litany of other emerging technology is slowly turning your home into the Jetson’s. Complex Media’s two-day festival last weekend, ComplexCon, featured various tech installations too big and powerful for the average home.
Fast food restaurant chain Jack in the Box invited people to walk around a gigantic box which projected images of brunch foods surrounding, attendees were able to stand in front of a green screen and have their image digitally imposed on the same little boat from the cover rapper Lil Yachty’s debut mixtape Lil Boat, and much more.
Digital Trends went through all the eye-tracking, sound altering, and reality shifting tech exhibits at ComplexCon and picked the four best ones you probably will not be able to experience in your home.
The game is free for anyone at home with a PlayStation VR, but the installation at ComplexCon strapped people into a replica spaceship console that vibrated during when you are thrusting through space or being pelleted with missiles. The headset’s eye tracking technology made your eyes and head the main way to control your view, making it easier to use the PS4 controller to lock in and fire at incoming baddies.
The Babaru exhibit Centered in a large tent, a massive grey ball would burst with colorful animations from lauded Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami whenever attendees would press their body against it. Pressing on different sections of the ball produced different animations. Visual art studio Future Wife teamed up with Murakami for the animations and with Skrillex for the EDM soundtrack that had attendees grooving their bodies against the ball.
The Maud is a room size version of the classic Moog synthesizer allowed attendees to unlock their inner music producer by twisting and adjusting large keyboard keys and nobs to produce ambient sounds. A cycle of pre-recorded music would play and attendees could wave their hand to control the rhythmic pulse or simply tap a glowing carving in the Maud to supplement the music playing. Before you realize it, you’ll be stretching out every limb to make your own personal symphony.
Mountain Dew and VFiles The Camo Collective exhibit used a Microsoft Kinect to digitally impose the camo designs from the pair’s recent clothing line on attendees. Those same people were instructed to move their arms to tap floating bubbles. Their hand motions were then turned into a stop-motion animated music video with them floating through abstract visuals.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.