Virtual reality study sheds light on what happens when your brain can’t tell which way is up or down
Visual reorientation illusion (VRI) is a phenomenon in which one’s perception of body positioning (e.g. standing vs. lying down) or motion (e.g., moving vs. static) disagrees with reality. It can be induced by tricking the brain with false sensory data: rotating a room 360º about a horizontal axis, for example, or tilting a room 90º with familiar objects (e.g. a lamp) whose orientation disagrees with gravity.
Beyond the purely scientific interest in understanding how differing and contrary signals are interpreted by the brain, being able to reliably produce (or combat) sensory illusions has practical applications in transportation and the future of immersive gaming and virtual experiences. In the present study, published in PLoS ONE, scientists from York University in Canada took a closer look at how the brain weighs contradictory sensory signals.
The series of three studies, involving a total of 72 participants, used supine (lying on one’s back) and supine-like (head tilted back), prone (lying face-down) and prone-like (head tilted forward), and standing positions to manipulate sensations of gravity, while a VR helmet provided corollary or contradictory visual stimuli, in the form of either a hallway (strong up-down signals) or starfield (ambiguous up-down signals).
See the full story here: https://www.psypost.org/2021/05/virtual-reality-study-sheds-light-on-what-happens-when-your-brain-cant-tell-which-way-is-up-or-down-60874
Your Disney World selfies just got so much cooler
Disney Parks and Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) announced a new partnership that will allow people to take selfies with virtual Disney characters and decorations.
- The new partnership allows guests to use the My Disney Experience app to take photos that include augmented reality technology.
- Disney Parks said in a blog post: “Mickey and Minnie will be right beside you in Snapchat with their playful expressions and gestures. They can even give you a hug!”
See the full story here: https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2021/5/24/22447323/disney-world-selfies-snap
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California is finally confronting its history of slavery. Here’s how.
The newest monument to Black history in Los Angeles is small enough to fit in your pocket. Rather than a physical structure, the monument is projected onto the landscape through the viewer’s phone using augmented reality (A.R.) technology. Created by artist Ada Pinkston, the work celebrates the life of Biddy Mason, a formerly enslaved woman who helped build modern Los Angeles through her philanthropy and entrepreneurship.
The Biddy Mason A.R. installation is one of several new initiatives to transform California’s commemorative landscape. Often called the “city of the future,” Los Angeles is now investing heavily in its past. Those efforts — cooperative ventures between a responsive local government and community leaders — offer a blueprint for other cities and states to follow as they, too, confront their troubled histories.
Beginning with the Gold Rush, hundreds of White Southerners raced westward. Many traveled with enslaved people who were forced on the journey. Although California outlawed human bondage in 1850, state courts upheld Southerners’ slaveholding. According to historian Stacey Smith, 1,500 African Americans — as well as an untold number of Native Americans — labored in bondage in California before the Civil War.
Los Angeles has created a blueprint for positive change. A responsive local government, united with expertise and support from multiple community-based activists, has begun to reimagine the memorial landscape. Whereas other efforts have been stymied by heavy-handed policies and legal challenges, the initiatives in Southern California remain locally-focused and achievable.
See the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/24/california-is-finally-confronting-its-history-slavery-heres-how/
This new cryptocurrency has people buzzing — its market value is at $35 billion in just 3 days
[PhilNote: Why didn't they release their security audits that have been completed 3 days ago when they launched?!?!?!? Let's assume they aren't 'editing' them. This does not yet pass the hype test.]
Internet Computer, a cryptocurrency that just launched on Monday now has a market value of about $35.8 billion, according to CoinMarketCap, trading at around $289.
On Monday, the market value skyrocketed to over $90 billion (at a price of around $731), but within minutes the price fell, hitting as low as $18 billion (priced at about $146).
The cryptocurrency’s founders, the Dfinity Foundation, intend for Internet Computer to become, in effect, a decentralized version of the internet.
The Internet Computer blockchain uses smart contracts — just as the Ethereum blockchain does — which can power a number of applications and platforms.
"...Gates include, but are not limited to, the DFINITY Foundation releasing all related source code that is not yet in the public domain, the release of vast quantities of technical and design information pertaining to ICP (Internet Computer Protocol) including full descriptions of the Chain Key cryptography and protocol math that makes the Internet Computer network possible; security audits and stress tests being successfully passed...
See the full story here: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/12/new-cryptocurrency-internet-computer-hit-billions-in-value-after-debut.html?fbclid=IwAR3b2Yi6oJFAde8bdGoFL3NmVnVemzWFJz32o6GIMhnoGhrVuOPuTgHm-FQ
Snap’s new Spectacles let you see the world in augmented reality
Snap’s new Spectacles glasses are its most ambitious yet. But there’s a big catch: you can’t buy them.
The new Spectacles have dual waveguide displays capable of superimposing AR effects made with Snapchat’s software tools. The frame features four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a built-in touchpad. Front-facing cameras help the glasses detect objects and surfaces you’re looking at so that graphics more naturally interact with the world around you.
Unlike past models, Snap isn’t selling them. Instead, it’s giving them directly to an undisclosed number of AR effects creators through an application program online. (Another indication they aren’t ready for everyday use: the battery only lasts 30 minutes.)
Like the bright yellow vending machines Snap used to sell the first version of Spectacles several years ago, the approach could end up being a clever way to build buzz for the glasses ahead of their wide release. Spiegel has said that AR glasses will take roughly a decade to reach mainstream adoption.
The new fourth generation of Spectacles come from a secretive hardware division of the company called Snap Lab, which is also working on a camera drone. They weigh 134 grams, more than double the weight of the previous version but far less than Microsoft’s Hololens AR headset. They’re designed to be worn indoors or outdoors with up to 2,000 nits of display brightness, a tradeoff the company clearly made to favor display richness at the expense of battery life.
A new feature, called Connected Lenses, allows multiple people to see and interact with the same scene in AR. Snap is also launching an AR “innovation lab” called Ghost and is committing $3.5 million to support creators making effects, with another $1 million in funding with Verizon to fund AR experiences used over 5G.
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/20/22445481/snap-spectacles-ar-augmented-reality-announced
Self-portraits by robot artist go on display at the Design Museum
Self-portraits by a robot artist have gone on display at the Design Museum.
The life-size “ultra-realistic” android, named Ai-Da following its creation in 2019, is the first of its kind in the world, according to the London museum.
The robot creates large-scale self-portraits and “uses AI algorithms to produce works that comment on the current and future uses of artificial intelligence”, it added.
See the full story here: https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/self-portraits-by-robot-artist-go-on-display-at-the-design-museum-40441963.html
