Holograms have landed on the NYFW catwalk
... The fashion industry has been adding AR features to its shoppable content, but it hasn’t explored it at scale for immersive experiences during fashion week. Scale is decidedly what today’s Maisie Wilen’s show will bring, with an immersive, other-worldly showcase bringing technology and fashion together on the runway. The show will feature 28 seven-foot-tall augmented reality hologram models in outfits from the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2022 collection. ...
The collection will be shown during NYFW in an exhibition space. Attendees will be surrounded by the holograms, which will feature high fidelity effects as well as 3D elements with depth through shadows and reflections, delivering a 3-dimensional experience. The holograms, along with a GIF lookbook for the collection, will be fully shippable. The AR models can be transported onto a user’s phone, where a buy-now button will then be exhibited next to the virtual item. ...
While this is not the only digital fashion experience this spring, as the Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week is starting on March 24, it is decidedly the most immersive. ...
See the full story here: https://www.glossy.co/fashion/exclusive-holograms-have-landed-on-the-nyfw-catwalk/
Meta Wouldn’t Tell Us How It Enforces Its Rules In VR, So We Ran A Test To Find Out
PhilNote: no matter what a company does, a reporter can point out how that action fails from the opposite perspective. We need more reporting that discusses balancing tradeoffs, not focusing on the tradeoff itself.
Facebook’s parent company declined to answer our questions about how it moderates content in VR, so we created a test Horizon World filled with content banned from Facebook and Instagram. Content moderators said the world was fine — until we told Meta’s PR team about it. ...
So, to better understand how it is approaching VR moderation, BuzzFeed News sent Meta a list of 19 detailed questions about how it protects people from child abuse, harassment, misinformation, and other harms in virtual reality. The company declined to answer any of them. Instead, Meta spokesperson Johanna Peace provided BuzzFeed News a short statement: ...
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, explained the reason why in a November 2021 blog post: “We can’t record everything that happens in VR indefinitely — it would be a violation of people’s privacy.” He then explained that Oculus devices do record (and then record over) users’ most recent experiences in VR, but that those recordings are only sent to Meta if a user files an abuse report. ...
See the full story here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/meta-facebook-horizon-vr-content-rules-test
Caitlin Long’s Wyoming Crypto Bank Takes a Step Toward Fed Membership
Wyoming-based crypto bank Avanti is one step closer to potentially acquiring a master account with the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Avanti Bank now has a routing number issued by the American Bankers Association (ABA), a key milestone in the process to receive a Fed account. Routing numbers are used to identify banks for checks and other transactional purposes and are issued only to federal or state-chartered financial institutions that are also eligible to have a Fed account, according to the ABA’s website. ...
Any bank that has such an account is eligible to deposit funds at the Fed and tap the global payments system. ...
A routing number in and of itself is not confirmation that a bank has a master account, however, she told CoinDesk. ...
The Fed can still reject an application after a routing number is issued, Hill cautioned. ...
See the full story here: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/10/caitlin-longs-crypto-bank-takes-a-step-toward-fed-membership/?fbclid=IwAR27C20tcEYzHZvof2qIEM69fTg3MCBGrNgjvemdMBH5hNDU9jQMKiGyCaI
The Metaverse Offers Opportunities for Immersive Storytelling
... The Texas Immersive Institute is focused on immersive storytelling for students, scientists, technologists, artists, and others. The institute focuses on creating experiences that are interactive and personalized, and that it blends physical and digital, Reilly said. It can be done with augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, she said. ...
In this episode of the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Reilly talks about virtual beings, virtual worlds, applications for mixed reality projects, non-fungible tokens, and more. Her students at UT Austin, which she calls “explorers” are creating applications for the metaverse. ...
And Reilly teamed up with Moriba Jah, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at UT Austin, to create Shifted Space, a project that seeks to bring awareness to the need to clean up space. Jah traveled to Hawaii last year to shoot the pilot episode for the series that is currently being shopped to streaming services for an 8-part virtual reality series. The focus is to create a movement that will lead to government officials passing legislation to clean up space. ...
See the full story and podcast here: https://siliconhillsnews.com/2022/02/10/the-metaverse-offers-opportunities-for-immersive-storytelling/
KoBold Metals Raises $192.5 Million to Use AI to Find Battery Minerals
... KoBold says it uses AI to guide where to procure land, what data to collect, and where to drill. It has collected publicly available data from company disclosures and government sources, as well as historical information from companies it partners with. Its algorithms then crunch that data in search of patterns. ...
KoBold aims to change the mind-set of an industry that has long relied heavily on sampling soil and sediment and drilling holes in the ground to determine whether areas contain valuable minerals. While the company still leans on those techniques, it hopes to limit the chances of failure by drawing on machine learning and other scientific computing techniques. ...
Some other miners including Anglo American PLC and technology-focused companies are also looking at how artificial intelligence might allow minerals to be found more easily, but those efforts haven’t yet led to many big discoveries of critical commodities. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/kobold-metals-raises-192-5-million-to-use-ai-to-find-battery-minerals-11644472801
Twitch Rockonomics study analyses mxmtoon, RAC and other artists
... The study begins by setting out how Page believes Twitch is distinct from other digital services, including YouTube, TikTok and on-demand music streaming services. ...
“It’s live, everything else is on-demand. It’s long [form], everything else is short. It’s first-party and user-created content, not user-generated content. UCC not UGC,” he said, noting also that Twitch’s licensing providers are largely individual creators and collecting societies, rather than other rightsholders. ...
First, ‘creator revenue per hours watched’ by their audience, which he suggests is around $0.15 per hour, although for established channels with well-engaged fans that can be more like $0.25 and even go as high as $0.75. ...
The second metric is ‘creator revenue per hours broadcast’ on their channel: an actual hourly rate in terms of the work put in, which Page calculated to average around $100 per hour. ...
The six case studies fall into two groups: three artists who broke through on Twitch first, before other streaming platforms (Shigihara, Aeseaes and Sereda) and three artists who brought their fanbase from the traditional music industry world to Twitch (Heafy, from metal band Trivium, mxmtoon and RAC). ...
There’s another metric too: ‘attentive hours per month’, of which Aeseaes are generating up to 30,000. ...
He added that Sereda’s streams include her songwriting and practice sessions. “She’s monetising what she has to do anyway for her music career, and her audience figures are pretty staggering. She’s got an active audience bigger than the population of Edinburgh on a monthly basis!” ...
See the full story here: https://musically.com/2021/04/29/twitch-rockonomics-will-page-mxmtoon-rac/
AI ‘ageism’ could seriously impact elderly health: WHO
... AI algorithms can solidify existing disparities in health care and "systematically discriminate on a much larger scale than biased individuals," the policy brief warned.
In addition, the brief pointed out that datasets used to train AI algorithms often exclude or significantly underrepresent older people.
Since the health predictions and diagnoses produced are based on data from younger people, they could miss the mark for older populations, it said.
The brief meanwhile stressed that there were true benefits to be gained from AI systems in the care of older people, including for remote monitoring of people susceptible to falls or other health emergencies. ...
See the full story here: http://philiplelyveld.com/wordpress/wp-admin/post-new.php
and from related coverage
The following eight considerations could ensure that AI technologies for health address ageism and that older people are fully involved in the processes, systems, technologies and services that affect them.
- Participatory design of AI technologies by and with older people
- Age-diverse data science teams
- Age-inclusive data collection
- Investments in digital infrastructure and digital literacy for older people and their health-care providers and caregivers
- Rights of older people to consent and contest
- Governance frameworks and regulations to empower and work with older people
- Increased research to understand new uses of AI and how to avoid bias
- Robust ethics processes in the development and application of AI
Spio is the heart and founder of CEEK, “an award-winning developer of premium social virtual and augmented reality experiences.”
The platform was created to place power back into the hands of creators. CEEK allows creators to launch new revenue streams from their work catalog. In addition, artists can cultivate unique experiences for their fans through virtual live concerts, sporting events, and never-before-seen experiences.
Users will be able to interact and connect with artists through 360 videos, True 3D, or 2D streaming. The immersive experience is heightened as users can participate alongside friends and interact in intimate settings with their favorite artists. CEEK successfully connects gameplay and social network, accomplishing its mission to ensure the Metaverse is accessible to all. ...
EEK Creates Balanced Creative Economy
According to a study, wealth is concentrated among the top one percent within the creative economy. CEEK recognizes systems currently value specific individuals and targetted demographics. The platform allows creators to participate in a balanced and fair economy. ...
CEEK Founder And Space Engineer Mary Spio Is On A Mission To Empower Creators Through Virtual Reality
Samantha DoriscaFeb 9, 2022
Years ago, a space exploration documentary was watched by a young and curious mind. The experience proved to be life-changing and would instill purpose into Mary Spio, who would eventually become a space engineer. Her heart longed to one day walk on the moon and with the help of an Oculus headset, her dream came true.
Now, Spio has become a huge contributor to the shift in innovation and technologies within the movie industry and beyond. She wants to imprint hope and purpose into the next generation of changemakers by making virtual reality accessible globally.
“I always go back to this documentary that had me thinking about what if and then led to me creating industry-changing technologies today that have already impacted the lives of so many and multiple generations thereafter. I just want to make these technologies more accessible,” Spio said exclusively to AfroTech.
What CEEK Offers
Spio is the heart and founder of CEEK, “an award-winning developer of premium social virtual and augmented reality experiences.”
The platform was created to place power back into the hands of creators. CEEK allows creators to launch new revenue streams from their work catalog. In addition, artists can cultivate unique experiences for their fans through virtual live concerts, sporting events, and never-before-seen experiences.
Users will be able to interact and connect with artists through 360 videos, True 3D, or 2D streaming. The immersive experience is heightened as users can participate alongside friends and interact in intimate settings with their favorite artists. CEEK successfully connects gameplay and social network, accomplishing its mission to ensure the Metaverse is accessible to all.
“There have been so many iterations of technology, whether it’s Web 1.0 or Web 2.0, which have skipped so many people. Now our focus is accessibility and alignment. We want to make the metaverse accessible to everyone no matter where they’re located on the globe. If people can access it, if they can play with it, if they can be exposed to it, who knows what they’re going to create in the future, just like myself,” Spio said.
Creators Can Take Control Of Their Revenue
Unlike other platforms, which embrace an advertising model as a main source of revenue, CEEK works to guarantee creators can profit directly off their content through paid experiences. This is timely as many creators are fighting a battle on two fronts — proper financial compensation and the ongoing pandemic. For example, artists previously had the opportunity of touring to earn an additional stream of revenue. However, the ability to tour was stripped away for many due to global shutdowns amidst the pandemic.
“Many artists, now that they are not touring, are realizing ‘Look, this model is broken and we need something that’s going to allow us to monetize directly through our fans,’” she said. “That’s what CEEK provides, a vehicle for them to directly connect and monetize their content with various channels that fans are paying to consume.”
CEEK Creates Balanced Creative Economy
According to a study, wealth is concentrated among the top one percent within the creative economy. CEEK recognizes systems currently value specific individuals and targetted demographics. The platform allows creators to participate in a balanced and fair economy.
“We find that the biggest need is for people who are global. YouTube may not have advertising in certain countries or oftentimes platforms may tell urban artists their work is not brand-safe so they are not monetizing it,” Spio said.
She continued: “You have these broken systems that favor certain people and certain demographics over others. There is no way to justify any of this. That is what we are here to fix. We want to ensure that the artist is monetizing directly through their user base. Why not have 10 million views that I get paid for every single one of those views because my users are actually paying for a ticket to watch that content?”
Creators Benefit More Through CEEK Smart VR Token
Alongside compensation in standard USD, content creators have the option to be compensated with the CEEK Smart VR Token.
According to a recent report, CEEK’s in-app currency is the leading crypto coin for virtual and augmented reality. ...
See the full story here: https://afrotech.com/ceek-founder-and-space-engineer-mary-spio-is-on-a-mission-to-empower-creators-through-virtual-reality?item=1
Who Wins the Unobtainium Prize: Singularity, AGI, Quantum Computing or Fusion Energy?
... It’s worse for singularity and technological singularity. This theory started in 20th-century works of fiction, and subsequent books advanced theories explaining why the fantasy may be true, as in Ray Kurzweil’s 2005 book “The Singularity Is Near.” Singularity is the point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. This, in turn, creates unforeseeable changes to human civilization. An explosion of artificial intelligence capabilities enters a runaway reaction of self-improvement cycles, creating a superintelligence that far surpasses all human intelligence. ...
See the full opinion piece here: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/who-wins-the-unobtainium-prize%3A-singularity-agi-quantum-computing-or-fusion-energy
