Intel Tech Tour 2014
Intel India organised the 2014 edition of the Intel Tech Tour in Mumbai on October 13, 2014. Intel had a lot of products on display ranging from tiny 7″ tablets and 4″ phones to 15″ 2-in-1s and mini PCs. They had set up two 4k TVs for demonstration. Thaine Creitz, Intel’s director for technical sales and architecture enabling explained Intel’s push to popularise the 2-in-1 devices in India thanks to the technological advances enabled by Intel’s new Core M series processors.
There were a lot of demos of the improved experiences 2-in-1s could enable over using just a tablet or a conventional laptop. Trine 2 was shown as a game that could intuitively change from keyboard based controls to touch controls by Lyle Warnke, Intel’s Technical Marketing Manager for Technical Sales and Architecture Enabling, on his Surface Pro 3. Also demonstrated was Grid Autosport running on an Intel Iris powered Gigabyte Brix mini pc which had a significant amount of eye candy.
The most interesting part of the event was the Oculus Rift demonstration where Thaine trolled the volunteer by asking him to interact with the objects he was seeing onscreen. Our editor also got to try out the Rift though being unable to wield the controller led to some irritating moments. When the Rift gets more popular for gaming one can be sure people won’t be pulling a 360 no scope on it with any ease. Also people prone to motion sickness should take care using it as it creates a pretty powerful illusion.
The other highlight of the event was Intel’s new Real Sense camera technology that senses depth through use of both a normal colour camera and an infrared camera. This camera can track facial expressions and follow head movements . It can sense your mood from your expresions. An interesting demo we saw involved the camera tracking our head movements and line of sight to replicate them in a game environment. This wasn’t the same as the Oculus Rift in terms of full head movement tracking though and the technology isn’t quite perfect yet. The other interesting game application is the facial mood tracking that could be used to improve user experience in a game in case they get stuck or frustrated. Thaine also played a video which showed the camera being used to scan real objects to generate 3D models that could be printed with a 3D printer that Intel had also brought to the show. The camera should improve security using facial recognition and allow for gesture controls as well. And one may put spying concerns to rest as the camera has a green light that turns on when it is in operation.
That’s all for our coverage of the Intel Tech Tour 2014 that was marred with some technical glitches including a PC needing a bios reset that our editor was happy to help with. The takeaway from this event is that Gaming experiences are sure to get more interesting in the near future.
