The Four Converging Technologies Giving Rise to the Spatial Web
See the full story here: https://singularityhub.com/2019/09/20/the-technologies-giving-rise-to-the-spatial-web/
The DreamGlass Air Promises Private AR Screens
...the DreamGlass Air looks like it’s turning some science fiction into reality. It boasts a 100-inch 2.5K screen, 90-degree field of vision, multi-screen capabilities, a 5-hour battery and more. That’s all very impressive. Especially when you consider the price. The DreamGlass Air is set to be available for $489!
See the full story here: https://geektyrant.com/news/the-dreamglass-air-promises-private-ar-screens
Peex let me remix augmented reality sounds at Elton John’s concert
Peex is a United Kingdom tech startup that has invented a concert audio remixing system that lets fans control and customize the audio at live concerts, allowing them to hear the music with close to studio-quality remixed sounds.
Peex Live promises to deliver perfect sounds, no matter where your seats are in a big stadium. John’s final tour before retirement was a great chance to test the Peex technology on the road in America.
I tried out Peex Live at last week’s concert at the Chase Center in San Francisco, which featured Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. And it really worked. I felt like I could hear more of the legendary singer’s voice and his piano skills, instead of being overwhelmed by the drums, bass guitar, keyboards, and guitar. To me, it was an amazing experience that made me feel like John still had a solid singing voice, as I remembered from his records decades ago.
During John’s goodbye tour, Peex is renting out audio wearables and headsets to concert-goers as part of its plan to take the technology wide. The rental fee for Peex is $15 per show, and that is generating some revenue for the company.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/21/peex-let-me-remix-augmented-reality-sounds-at-elton-johns-concert/
Artist James Merry: ‘It’s beautiful seeing tears coming out of the bottom of a VR headset’
Artist James Merry, 37, has been working with Björk since 2009; they were introduced by a mutual friend while Merry was studying ancient Greek at Oxford University. He moved to New York to work with her, and played a vital part in her 2011 album, Biophilia, on which each song was accompanied by an interactive app uniting concepts of music, science and nature. Merry has remained Björk’s right-hand man through her 2015 breakup album Vulnicura and this year’s Utopia, as well as making her elaborate masks and headpieces. Their latest project is a full virtual reality version of Vulnicura in which seven VR videos by different directors follow Björk’s path through heartbreak and recovery in the Icelandic landscape, from a verdant valley into a dark lava tube and out the other side. Merry lives and works in Iceland.
There’s a moment in the Family video where the Björk avatar seems to walk through the viewer – it’s quite unsettling.
Yes! When we were trying different builds of Notget with Nick Thornton Jones and Warren Du Preez, there were also moments when you were inside the avatar, and because I’m a semi-gamer, I was like: “Oooh! Oh no! It’s glitching, you can see inside it…” and Bjork was like: “Oh my God! This is amazing!” That’s one of my favourite moments, when that avatar in Family stands up and walks towards you, and you float through it and watch it walking away; it’s the most emotional part of the whole album I think.
See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/sep/21/bjork-james-merry-virtual-reality-vulnicura-album
Gig Economy Companies Responding to New California Law
On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), a law that will classify some independent contractors as employees and takes effect January 1. Companies such as Lyft and Uber Technologies, whose employees are among those that might be reclassified, redoubled both their resistance to the law and plans to negotiate again with relevant labor unions. At the same time, these companies are making noise about initiating a ballot-measure campaign to rewrite the standards for independent contractors.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Newsom has offered to negotiate a compromise between the companies and unions. Earlier, Uber, Lyft and DoorDash said they would put in $90 million to “back a ballot-measure campaign.” Uber, which maintains that its drivers are not employees under the law’s guidelines, is “seeking to expand the coalition to include other gig-economy companies.”
See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/gig-economy-companies-responding-to-new-california-law/#more-144224
Netflix Considers Introducing Bonuses For Successful Movies
Netflix, which traditionally has paid talent with upfront deals, is reportedly considering bonuses for filmmakers, actors and producers when their movies prove to be successful. Insiders indicate that the number of awards a movie wins or its viewership numbers could measure the level of success. The new incentive model would be designed to win film projects for the streaming service that would otherwise be picked up by other studios. While Scott Stuber, head of Netflix’s original film division, has been discussing possibilities with producers, details regarding the types of bonuses or who might receive them have not been revealed.
See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/netflix-considers-introducing-bonuses-for-successful-movies/
Using the Spatial Web to make warehouses truly smart with Augmented Reality
On the outside, tracking objects from point A to point B, which is really spatial tracking of objects—they’re very interested in blockchain. And there are massive initiatives, and there’s organizations like BiTA (Blockchain in Transportation Alliance) that have FedEX, UPS, DHL, BP, and hundreds of companies all trying to figure out “how do we come up with standards for traceability?” Because often these companies are working together, and they’re handing things off to each other.
So, standards around that are important. Inside of those buildings and giant warehouses are millions of square feet or ports—they have operational activities. “Where do I find this box?” Literally, a warehouse picker walking around a million square feet trying to locate a box by looking at a number—this nine-digit code—on a little screen and then trying to find that in the space.
We’re able to create AR applications that route them specifically to those things. When they move box A to location B, a spatial transaction occurs. A spatial contract then is completed. You can easily see how the insides of things, and the outsides of things, and the traceability between those—both blockchain and an augmented reality in that case—are a perfect combination.
We’ve done it on iPhone where you’re looking through the phone instead of at the phone, and you’re following the arrow right to the box. Then you follow the next one.
We received a grant from Magic Leap as part of their creator program. They saw what we were doing and said, “Hey, can you guys do a version of this that works in the headsets?”
See the full story here: https://www.wraltechwire.com/2019/09/19/using-the-spatial-web-to-make-warehouses-truly-smart-with-augmented-reality/
Apple Stores Introduce New Augmented Reality Coding Robot For Kids
Introducing Botzees, the latest and greatest from Pai Technology, innovators that excel in pairing children's growth through all stages with technology, science, and art to strengthen imagination, problem-solving, critical thinking, and healthy lifestyles.
Botzees is a new robotics kit for kids ages 4 and up that combines creativity, construction, and coding, all in one. Kids can build, program and code six different pre-designed robots or choose to create their own with the specially designed blocks that come with the kit.
Once built, Botzees can be taught to move, drum, dance, make sounds and light up using the freeBotzees app. The kit's 130 gender neutral, uniquely shaped, easy-to-grip blocks with rounded edges will inspire kids' imagination with tactile, tangible hands-on learning. Additionally, the 30 interactive Augmented Reality puzzles will teach even more coding concepts with visual cues.
Winner of the prestigious Seal of Approval from The National Parenting Center, Botzees is available now for $99.99 in Apple Stores and Amazon. To learn more visit https://amzn.to/2kkIjzm
See the full story here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-stores-introduce-augmented-reality-115000852.html
Virtual Reality Improves Outcomes in Robotic-assisted Partial Nephrectomy
Medical technology concept. Mixed media. Female doctor wearing virtual reality glasses. Checking brain testing result with simulator interface, Innovative technology in science and medicine.
The researchers, whose work appeared in JAMA Network Open, conducted a multi-institutional, single-blind, randomized clinical trial that included 92 patients (mean age, 60.9 years; 63% were male) who underwent RAPN under one of 11 surgeons at six large teaching hospitals. Data were collected from October 2017 through December 2018. The main outcome was operative time, which researchers believed would be reduced when using the 3-D virtual reality models; secondary outcomes included clamp time, estimated blood loss, and LOS.
“Surgeons have long since theorized that using 3D models would result in a better understanding of the patient anatomy, which would improve patient outcomes,” said lead study author Dr. Joseph Shirk, clinical instructor in urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release. “But actually seeing evidence of this magnitude, generated by very experienced surgeons from leading medical centers, is an entirely different matter. This tells us that using 3D digital models for cancer surgeries is no longer something we should be considering for the future—it’s something we should be doing now.”
See the full story here: https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/hem-onc-picks/virtual-reality-improves-outcomes-in-robotic-assisted-partial-nephrectomy/