Lytro, Google Glass and the elephant in the room
... Warren Craddock worked at Lytro from August 2011 to June 2013, before the XR phase. On Twitter, he recounts a key problem with Lytro’s light-field technology: the cameras could physically photograph only tiny objects, such as a single piece of sushi. But people prefer to photograph other people.
So as it refocused on XR, Lytro began building bigger, heavier cameras to capture larger scenes and objects as light field. In the process, the cameras became so large and heavy that they had to be moved to the location by crane. A fundamental issue, according to Craddock, that the team was aware of but ignored for years.
“Everyone knew, deep-down, that middle-school geometry doomed the design, but everyone also fervently believed that it could somehow be overcome by sheer will, or hard work, or a stroke of genius,” Craddock writes.
Craddock sees this behavior as a recurring problem in cultures that arise around products, methods, or inventions: Discussions about fatal flaws would be excluded. Instead, sophisticated ways to paper over them evolved, becoming more sophisticated over time. ...
Craddock experienced this phenomenon two more times in his career. After leaving Lytro, he hired on at Google in June 2013 to work on Google Glass, specifically on the design of the camera. ...
Craddock hit it a third time, with the AI-controlled automatic camera Google Clips. Here, the problem, according to Craddock, was that Clips took pictures from odd angles, but people preferred photos of other people at eye level. ...
See the full story here: https://mixed-news.com/en/lytro-google-glass-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/https://mixed-news.com/en/lytro-google-glass-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/
Police in the Metaverse? Interpol Urges Law Enforcement to Embrace VR Tech
As the metaverse develops, Interpol is worried lawbreakers, scammers, and terrorists will also migrate to VR worlds to perpetrate crimes including targeting minors, data theft, financial fraud, phishing, and sexual assault and harassment, among others.
“By identifying these risks from the outset, we can work with stakeholders to shape the necessary governance frameworks and cut off future criminal markets before they are fully formed,” says Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director of technology and innovation.
“But in order for police to understand the metaverse, we need to experience it,” Oberoi added.
See the full story here: https://www.pcmag.com/news/police-in-the-metaverse-interpol-urges-law-enforcement-to-embrace-vr-tech
Virtual Reality for Cows?
... Israeli dairy farmer Izzet Kocak purchased two virtual reality headsets for cattle from a Russian manufacturer after seeing them demonstrated by the Russian entity. He was looking for ways to increase milk production to offset high feed prices.
The headsets transport indoor-housed cows virtually to a setting of calming green pastures, which is believed to give them an emotional boost. Kocak also plays classical music in the barn while cows are wearing the headsets.
Kocak ran a mini-trial on his farm to measure the impact the headsets had on milk production. After 10 days of wearing the devices, the two test cows’ milk production increased by about 22%, from 48.5 pounds per day to 59.5 pounds per day. He said milk quality also improved. ...
See the full story here: https://www.dairyherd.com/news/dairy-production/virtual-reality-cows
AI translates Hokkien, an unwritten language, for the first time
... This is a daunting task, because while languages like Mandarin, English, and Spanish are both written and spoken, Hokkien — which is widely spoken within the Chinese diaspora — is primarily oral. In fact, Chen and his team of researchers are among the first to use artificial intelligence (AI) to construct a translation system for languages like Hokkien that lack a formal or widely known writing system. While the initial stage of the project translates between English and Hokkien, researchers plan to allow the translation of more unwritten languages. It’s part of Meta’s ongoing effort to develop a Universal Speech Translator that will allow the translation of many languages in real time and could eventually help millions of people around the world like Chen’s father become more effective communicators. ...
See the full story here: https://tech.fb.com/artificial-intelligence/2022/10/ai-translation-unwritten-language/
DALL-E 2’s Unique Solution to Double Meanings
... Prior work from 2021, the authors note, had already observed that CLIP’s embeddings don’t explicitly bind a concept’s attributes to the object itself. ‘Accordingly,’ they write. ‘they observe that that reconstructions from the decoder often mix up attributes and objects.’ ...
See the full story here: https://www.unite.ai/dall-e-2s-unique-solution-to-double-meanings/
I Tried the $1,500 Quest Pro and Saw the Best of the Metaverse
... There’s a valuable lesson amid all the hype surrounding virtual (augmented, mixed, whatever-you-want-to-call-dorky-looking) goggles: We shouldn’t spend our dollars on a company’s hopes and promises for what a technology could become. We should buy these headsets for what they currently do. And based on what I saw, for the foreseeable future, the Meta Quest Pro will primarily be a gaming device. (I predict the same outcome for the Apple headset expected for an unveiling next year.) ...
At Meta’s Burlingame office, I strapped on the Quest Pro to see what was new. Meta highlighted three features: the headset’s higher-definition picture, which is receiving quadruple the number of pixels of its predecessor, the $400 Quest 2; the array of cameras embedded into the headset, which can now create a real-time rendering of your facial expressions and eye movements; and new motion controllers with improved pressure sensitivity so you can squeeze a virtual object gently or grab it aggressively. ...
I found the improved graphics and controllers impressive (and my animated avatar a bit creepy), but after I removed the headset and returned to reality-reality, I could only imagine wanting to use these new features to play games. ...
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/technology/personaltech/quest-pro-review-metaverse.html
