Fujitsu Develops Touchscreens On Real World Objects

Japanese technology company Fujitsu is in the process of developing a new technology which could turn real world objects, such as paper, into touchscreens. The technology uses a projector and webcam in combination with image processing technology. The webcam tracks whenever the user’s finger comes in contact with the object being used as the touchscreen. This allows the user to define the borders of the touchscreen they want to use. The system only tracks movements of a single finger, as to not confuse the interactions with basic hand movements. The user may then highlight pictures or information from the object they are using and the technology will instantly copy it and put it to the side as a virtual file. Fujitsu gave an example presentation, in which they were able to copy information from the uneven surface of a book and turn real-life Post-It notes into virtual ones. The full possibilities of the technology, as well as what surfaces it will and won’t work with, are currently unsure.

http://mashable.com/2013/04/16/fujitsu-paper-touchscreen/
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Orth Leaves Microsoft After Backlash

Adam Orth, a creative director working for Microsoft, has recently “willingly” left the company. Though the reasons for his departure has yet to be officially confirmed, it is highly suspected that it was due in part to recent controversy involving his twitter account. Within the last couple of months, Microsoft has announced that the upcoming successor of the Xbox 360 (which many refer to as the Xbox 720) may contain a feature which requires that the system have an always-online internet connection. This means that even when the system is off, online features will continually occur in real time. Many people are upset about this, as the feature could be detrimental to those in areas of weak internet connections. Orth upset many fans when, via his Twitter account, he unsympathetically told the fans to “deal with it” and later disregarded areas with weaker connections, saying “Why on Earth would I live there?” Microsoft has since denounced his comments and made efforts to distance itself from him.

http://mashable.com/2013/04/11/orth-leaves-microsoft/

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Alice Cooper Creating a Shock Rock Comic

“Godfather of Shock Rock” Alice Cooper has become the next major celebrity to begin using Kickstarter. His project is called Uncle Alice Presents, and draws inspiration from popular shows such as Tales from the Crypt, The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The project is initially being developed as an anthology of comic books and a graphic novel, but Cooper desires to see it eventually become a television series. In the stories, Cooper will portray Uncle Alice, a recurring character which serves as “gatekeeper of the netherworld.” It will present short shock rock and horror based stories which Cooper suggests will take on a grindhouse style. The initial goal is just a twelve-issue series, though Cooper sees it expanding much farther. Those who pledge $10 or more may submit ideas to be put in future comics. As of now, the project has reached almost $50,000 out of its $200,000 goal.

http://mashable.com/2013/04/09/alice-cooper-kickstarter/
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Disney Shuts Down LucasArts Game Production

Disney made headlines in the last year after buying out George Lucas’ companies LucasArts and LucasFilms for a total of over $4 billion. LucasFilms is most famous for creating the extremely popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. LucasArts was founded in 1982, and created many popular games including The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. However, LucasArts has recently been most popular for producing titles based off of the popular films. These titles include the Lego Star Wars series and the Lego Indiana Jones series as well as many directly-based Star Wars games such as The Force Unleashed, The Old Republic, Battlefront, and Knights of the Old Republic. However,  Disney has just announced that LucasArts will no longer we producing games, instead shifting the Star Wars licenses to outside companies and cancelling all of LucasArts’ current production, such as the highly anticipated Star Wars 1313.

http://mashable.com/2013/04/03/disney-closes-lucasarts/
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Square Enix Faces Huge Losses

Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square Enix, a company most notable for creating the extensive Final Fantasy video game series, has recently left the company. Square Enix, despite being one of the most well-know and successful game companies in the past, is now facing a possibly loss of 138 million dollars.  Almost all high profile video games cost about $60 upon initial release. Within the last year, Square Enix has released three new well-received titles: Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution, and Tomb Raider, with a combined sales total of approximately nine million copies sold. That all adds up to about $540 million dollars, which seems unusually high for a company threatened with such great losses. Square Enix has announced that despite selling such a great amount, the titles didn’t reach their expectations. The production values of games such as these are now so high due to things such as constantly increasing graphic and marketing costs may be part of the cause for the recent successes of independent, low-budget games.

http://mashable.com/2013/03/27/video-game-costs-crash/
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