Sony has demonstrated the face-recognition and tracking capabilities of the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, using the portable console’s front-facing camera to track head movement and have on-screen avatars respond accordingly. In the demo, filmed by Siliconera and which you can see after the cut, Sony showed a two-way video chat being held between a pair of animated avatars, the head, mouth, eye and other movements being mapped to those of the gamer.

Although head-tracking has been done before, the system Sony demonstrated was able to track minor details like eye-blinking and eyebrow twitches, for a more lifelike animation. Sony wasn’t saying a video calling app would necessarily be the final use of the technology, 4gamer reports, but that the software was merely a demonstration of the power of the Vita’s abilities and its potential in augmented reality (AR) gaming.

Rather than using specific glyphs that can be identified and tracked by an AR system, Sony’s Yoshikatsu Kanemaru suggested that objects and even people could be distinguished by the Vita and have computer-generated graphics overlaid. It’s a technology that appears to have borrowed from Sony’s previous SmartAR research, which can intelligently spot unique elements -such as posters, magazines or more complex forms, like body outlines – in the camera’s frame and then track them accordingly.

Mozilla Labs has introduced its concept of a desktop replacement called Webian Shell. The Webian Shell basically consists of a browser which will replace the traditional desktop, and where the web applications are given more importance than the native applications. Right now, the prototype of the Webian Shell is nothing more than a full screen browser with a dock which holds the tabs and the clock.

The Webian Shell is developed using another Mozilla Labs project – Mozilla Chromeless. Mozilla Chromeless is a project which is looking to replace the traditional user interface of the browser with a more flexible platform based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The Webian Shell is just a shell that will run on top on an existing operating system – Windows, Linux or Mac OS X.
Webian Shell vs Chrome OS

It might not be wrong to say that Webian Shell could have been inspired by Google’s Chrome OS. However, the two are quite different right now.

Yes, there are similarities between the two in that both gives more priorities to the web by having a web browser for a desktop. But while Chrome OS is a complete operating system, Webian Shell is not. The Webian Shell runs on top of an existing operating system. Webian Shell cannot even control the hardware right now – it cannot control the system volume, network connections, show the battery indicator etc. Although hardware control is planned for a future release of Webian Shell, there is no plan of it becoming a full-blown operating system right now.

On tablets Windows 8 will support PlayBook like bezel gestures (the gestures actually take place on the first pixel next to the bezel, apparently not in the bezel itself). Gestures for the OS take place on the left/right edges of the screen, while app gestures happen on the top/bottom bezel.

Swipe in from the right to reveal the start button, and swipe in from the left to multitask. You just swipe between active apps like you would on a PlayBook.

The interface doesn’t require a touchscreen, Microsoft showed how you can multitask or switch between screens using a keyboard on a standard PC as well. This will be a common interface across all Windows 8 devices, tablet or standard PC.

Tapping the start button switches between the standard Windows desktop and the new tile interface. You can even display multiple applications on the screen at the same time using Windows 8′s snap feature.

With a widescreen display (apparently snap isn’t supported yet on 4:3s) you can display two apps side by side in the new tablet style UI:

You can even have a standard Windows 8 desktop on one side and a new Windows 8 app on the other. Microsoft also mentioned that Windows 8 will have the same system requirements or lower vs Windows 7.

The smartphone is actually the only smart aspect of this hardware pair — the slate part acts as a display, a set of speakers, an extended battery, and an I/O extender, but it doesn’t work by itself. ASUS also tells us there’ll be other functionality enabled by the tablet panel, but that’s being kept under wraps for now. Compatibility between the display dock and subsequent phone generations is being contemplated but couldn’t be confirmed, and as to the UI, ASUS says it’ll be almost the same as its second-gen Android tablets. You heard that right, second generation ASUS Android tablets — to succeed the Transformer and Slider — will be coming around the same time as the Padfone.

NVIDIA demoed the new goodness on a Honeycomb slate with 1280 x 800 resolution and the frame rates remained smooth throughout. In order to emphasize the generational leap that we can expect with Kal-El, the company switched off two of the four cores momentarily, which plunged performance down to less than 10fps. That means the simulations we’re watching require a full quartet of processing cores on top of the 12-core GPU NVIDIA has in Kal-El. Mind-boggling stuff. Glow Ball will be available as a game on Android tablets once this crazy new chip makes its way into retail devices — which are still expected in the latter half of this year, August if everything goes perfectly to plan. One final note if you’re still feeling jaded: NVIDIA promises the production chip will be 25 to 30 percent faster than the one on display today. Full video demo follows after the break.

NVIDIA 3D Vision Video Now Available Worldwide on YouTube

Users Can Easily Share and Enjoy High-Quality, Stereoscopic 3D Videos on YouTube With Their NVIDIA 3D Vision PCs

SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 05/26/2011 — NVIDIA today announced that YouTube is for the first time giving users the ability to view thousands of 3D videos in rich, high-quality stereoscopic 3D on their NVIDIA® 3D Visionâ„¢ PCs and notebooks when using the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox Web browser.

“We’re excited to introduce HTML5 and WebM support to the thousands of 3D videos available on YouTube,” said Jonathan Huang, 3D Product Manager at YouTube. “By embracing these open standards, NVIDIA 3D Vision users now have a great way of experiencing YouTube’s library of 3D content.”

“Firefox with 3D Vision creates a stunning and smooth 3D video experience using HTML5 video based on open standards,” said Jay Sullivan, VP of Products at Mozilla. “3D Vision from NVIDIA is a great example of the rich, innovative experiences that are being built on top of the speed and graphics power that Firefox delivers to the Web.”

“Sales of our ASUS G series notebooks with 3D Vision have been strong,” said Ben Thacker, vice president of Systems Business Group-Distribution, ASUS North America. “Now that users can view YouTube videos in high-quality 3D, we expect interest in the ASUS 3D Vision models to grow significantly.”

With a number of new, consumer 3D video cameras launched this year, YouTube’s support of NVIDIA 3D Vision technology extends its existing commitment to 3D, enabling even more consumers and 3D enthusiasts to share their 3D videos online. With attractively priced models now available from JVC, Sony and other leading vendors, users now have another easy way to capture and post high-quality 3D videos on YouTube, 3DVisionLive.com, or even their own websites by embedding the YouTube 3D video player.

To further showcase the new YouTube stereoscopic 3D video streaming capabilities and some of the latest professional and user-generated 3D YouTube videos, NVIDIA is now hosting the top YouTube stereoscopic 3D videos on its 3D web community site at www.3DVisionLive.com/YT3D.

“YouTube 3D on an NVIDIA 3D Vision PC is an amazing experience,” said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at NVIDIA. “Now 3D Vision PC users can enjoy over 525 games, YouTube videos and photos in theater-quality, full-resolution 3D.”

To view YouTube stereoscopic 3D videos an NVIDIA 3D Vision-equipped PC or notebook and the latest NVIDIA GeForce® drivers (version 275 or above) are required, as well as Firefox (version 4 or above), which includes support for HTML5 video streaming. Users will also need to select the HTML5 viewing option when viewing a YouTube 3D video: http://www.youtube.com/select_3d_mode.

In addition, with NVIDIA 3DTV Playâ„¢ software, users can connect their PCs to their 3D HDTVs to enjoy 3D YouTube videos on the “big screen” in the comfort of their living rooms.