Tag Archives: Concept Nyx

Computers, Contributed, Gaming, Lifestyle

Concept Nyx and Explorations for the Future of Connection

March 8, 2023 Glen Robson Leave a comment

How will we connect with colleagues in five to ten years’ time? Will we all be interacting with holograms? Fully immersed in virtual worlds? Or will the reality be much closer to how most of us work from our laptops today?

Virtual worlds and immersive experiences could offer exciting new ways to connect with others – and our content. And with people more dispersed and working patterns more personalised than before, how we collaborate and get things done has never been more important.

It’s my team’s role to dig into future trends and technologies, experiment with solutions and reimagine experiences. Though immersive environments will play a role in the future of work, face-to-face meetings, instant messages, collaboration tools, and video calls aren’t going anywhere. That’s why we’re focusing on the user experience and honing in on everyday micro-moments that could be disruptive as we potentially bounce between physical, digital and virtual worlds in the future.

We’re asking questions like: How will people interact at the intersections of these worlds? What tools will people need to move between these locations seamlessly? What if people don’t want to wear a headset and dive into a virtual world for 8 hours a day – would they be excluded from future projects or collaboration opportunities?

Intelligent, familiar tools for future interactions

Using Concept Nyx’s ability to deliver compute all around, powered at the edge, we have been exploring how familiar devices and peripherals could be paired with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to work together as an ecosystem to deliver easily accessible and immersive experiences beyond gaming.

Our labs are packed with curated immersive demonstrations and concepts to help us test and explore how Dell could help people move between various spaces and tasks intuitively in the future. From fully immersive Virtual Reality (VR) builds to Mixed Reality (XR) experiences featuring displays and other tools that remove the need for a VR headset, these environments have helped us evolve concepts like the Concept Nyx Companion. As a lightweight tablet-style device that could be viewed and accessed in VR and XR environments, the concept could be a consistent tool throughout all these spaces and could ensure a user’s content is in one place as they move between spaces and tasks. No more taking photos of whiteboards or copying notes to be uploaded to a different space – users could just screenshot their project space and/or easily copy content for sharing across screens.

Together with the Concept Nyx Stylus, you could input notes by voice or via pen, and drag + drop them into digital and virtual collaboration spaces, and even use the voice activation for AI image creation – perfect for non-aspiring artists! All these tools could also seamlessly be used alongside the Concept Nyx Spatial Input in a future desktop environment with a keyboard and mouse, and possibly 3D displays too. We’ve been looking at creative ways to connect these traditional tools for a clutter-free space, and we’ve also been thinking about intuitive gestures for interacting with content – for example, using the tip of the Stylus for writing and the top of the Stylus for interacting with onscreen content or using the Spatial Input as a dial for a 360 view or for zooming in on details.

We’ve even been thinking through how people might show up in future digital and virtual spaces. We’ve all been on video calls where we need to step away for a moment to answer the door or tend to a pet or child off-camera. Instead of leaving a blank screen, empty seat, or static 2015 headshot, imagine with a wave of your hand, you could stay present as an intelligent avatar while you step away or stay off camera completely. To explore this, we’ve been experimenting with gestures and movement tracking and building on our imaging technology and video conferencing expertise to create the Concept Nyx Spatial camera, which when paired with AI software, could learn a user’s expressions and mannerisms to deliver a more authentic representation of them for future interactions.

Advancing the Concept Nyx Ecosystem

From infrastructure to devices, Dell is at the centre of present and future workplaces and is focused on developing the tools that will be needed to navigate these spaces. Right now, this means bringing tools to market like a new generation of UltraSharp conferencing monitors and intelligent webcams with motion-activated controls and presence detection, and building on technologies like storage, 5G, multi-cloud and edge that provide the advanced connectivity and infrastructure to allow organisations to shape how they work. In the future, productivity tools will be connected and intelligent enough to seamlessly move from experience to experience and task to task, helping to break down barriers and redefine how colleagues connect with one another.

My team continues to explore the future of compelling, immersive experiences in both work and play. Concepts play a huge role in allowing our designers, engineers, and strategists to test and tweak devices and solutions to inform future experience roadmaps. We’re excited to keep you updated on our journey!

Computers, Gaming, News

[CES 2023] Dell’s Concept Nyx Gains the “One Controller to Rule Them All”

January 5, 2023 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

Dell took the stage last year with their eye-catching Concept Nyx. The concept device took a jab at gaming on the edge. With Concept Nyx, Dell was looking at creating a new gaming and living room experience with edge connectivity. Edge connectivity or connectivity at the edge of the network is something we’ll be hearing more and more about with 5G becoming more mainstream.

Dell Concept Nyx 028 — Source: Dell Technologies

With Concept Nyx, Dell Technologies is looking to enable remote gaming with WiFi and 5G connectivity. They’re looking to accomplish this with a device or box that provides remote access to gaming libraries like Steam and more. This device can be placed in spaces like the living room and can support more than one instance. So, you’ll be able to play HALO while your sister plays Valorant at the same time on the same screen. It can even support multiple instances of the same game allowing you to play together.

The One Controller To Rule Them All

This year, Dell Technologies is taking Concept Nyx a little further. They’ve introduced the Concept Nyx Game Controller – the “One Controller to Rule Them All”. So, what makes this controller so different? The first thing that sets it apart is an integrated fingerprint sensor which will allow a myriad of personalization. The integrated fingerprint sensor could unlock personal settings or launch the last game that you played with a single touch.

Dell is also experimenting with haptics in the controller. The controller is looking to incorporate variable resistance into their thumb sticks. The variable resistance can be set to either player preference or adapt to game specific settings. Imagine playing God of War and feeling the tug when you pull down barriers or slam enemies into the ground. The X-triggers could also incorporate the same.

In addition, the Concept Nyx Controller comes with shift buttons for additional options on front buttons and innovative scroll wheels which could be used to quickly scroll through your game weapons. There’s also an intelligent touchpad for instant access to customisable controls. It also comes with a fully customisable intelligent on-screen controls and overlays which will make sure you don’t get them buttons mixed up.

Taking Concept Nyx to the Next Level

While the big advancement this year is the Concept Nyx Controller, Dell isn’t just pushing hardware. Devs working on Concept Nyx have expanded what was shown last year with a better, more simplified dashboard. In addition to this, Concept Nyx is also being expanded to multitask more efficiently like connecting to multiple headsets; each with a unique audio stream. This also includes better splitscreen experiences. AI is also looking to make its mark on Concept Nyx with Dell experimenting with AI for things like dynamic listening to allow players to know when they’re being called.

Dell Concept Nyx 011 — Source: Dell Technologies

While there’s no commercially available product just yet, Concept Nyx is quickly being moulded by gaming. That said, you may see some of Nyx’s features make its way to products in Dell’s portfolio.

Gaming, News

Alienware Looks to Redefine Gaming Experiences with Concept Nyx

January 5, 2022 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

Alienware is staying true to its heritage and name. The brand is looking to expand the realm of gaming with their new Concept Nyx. The brand is looking to leverage the momentum that we’re seeing in edge computing to enhance gaming experiences.

Alienware Concept Nyx 02 — Alienware Concept UFO controller // Source: Alienware

With the rise of cloud gaming services like NVIDIA GeForce NOW, XBOX Cloud Gaming and Google Stadia, it comes as no surprise that Alienware is looking further into the future with Concept Nyx. It’s looking to empower gamers to game seamlessly on any device. The brand is looking to create an uninterrupted, low latency experience that allows gamers to move from device to device.

Alienware’s Concept Nyx seem to be a standalone device that is designed to do the processing and computing needed to stream and play games over the internet. This means that when you stream your games over the internet, Concept Nyx would take on the workload that services like Stadia and GeForce NOW use servers for. This reduces the bandwidth needed to stream the game significantly as it would be done over your local WiFi connection. This would also mean that you’d have single-digit response times and latency when playing the game; doing away with things like predictive algorithms which can detract from gameplay. It could also remove lag during gameplay altogether.

Concept Nyx isn’t just stopping at that. Alienware’s Experience Innovation Group (EIG) is also working on creating a central game library. This library will aggregate your games regardless of where you got them from. The central library would be able to draw and access games you purchase on Steam, EPIC, GoG, Uplay etc. They are trying to make accessing and playing your games as seamless as streaming your favourite shows and music. The seamless experience also includes being able to take off exactly where you left off when moving from device to device.

While Alienware’s Concept Nyx is intriguing and definitely a potential game-changer, it’s still in conception. Alienware has had many a concept device like its Nintendo Switch like Concept UFO that we haven’t seen available commercially. However, the experiences it unlocks definitely keep us on our toes to see what Alienware is going to bring next.

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