As the market for products aimed at older users explodes, some entrepreneurs are turning to a radical idea: actually get the customers involved, reports Andy Wright.
Listening time: Longevity Explorers is part of an experiment to improve the way technology is developed for older adults. It’s mostly about just sitting and listening to what they have to say.
A common mistake: Designers commonly assume around the age of 60 people lose interest in aesthetics and design, and this can have dire consequences for products meant to help people with their health: they simply won’t adopt them. The list of lousy products for older people is long.
Fighting back: The Stanford Center on Longevity is helping to bring a number of more slick, easy-to-use products for older consumers to market. A handful of major companies are trying to set an example by doing something similar. And designing for older users doesn’t only benefit them. It turns out that it can lead to good design decisions for everyone.
Leading directors including Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Ryan Coogler, Patty Jenkins and Rian Johnson have teamed up with the UHD Alliance — a coalition whose members include Hollywood studios and consumer electronics manufacturers — to introduce a new UHD TV setting aimed at preserving the filmmakers' creative intent on consumer displays.
There’s been growing concern in the production community that with the many settings available on consumer TVs, the filmmaker’s creative decisions that are made during production and post are not always what is displayed. This new "Filmmaker Mode" for supported TV models is aimed at giving viewers a consistent, cinematic representation of images as the filmmakers intended, in terms of color, contrast, aspect ratio and frame rates.
He noted that Filmmaker Mode offers “a single button that lines up the settings so it works for the benefit of the movie and not against it.” He got a laugh as he added, “If you love movies, Filmmaker Mode will make your movies not look like poo poo.”
I toured through the website for Portal for the first time this week. The product debuted last year, and the whole website for the device reads like Facebook put a mirror up to itself and had trouble figuring out how to explain what it saw. The gadget is supposed to help you video chat with your contacts, but there’s a whole section of the product site dedicated to privacy. There is a physical cover you can place over the device’s camera when you don’t want a palantir-like glass eye staring into your room all the time and there’s a red light, too, that comes on when you a press a button to physically disconnect the camera and microphone from the rest of the device’s electronics.
If Portal and Quest could communicate automatically to deduce their locations relative to one another, then you’ve got yourself most of the way toward an auto-calibrated mixed reality studio. For the player in an Oculus Quest — at any given moment they should be able to activate mixed reality on the nearby Portal and show everyone in the room exactly what they are doing.
In December, the Israeli army launched an anti-tunnel operation on the Lebanese border dubbed "Northern Shield".
"Technology is an essential part of the fight," which justifies heavy investment, says H., commanding officer of Yahalom's training centre at a military base in central Israel.
The Hezbollah tunnels exposed by Israel have been digitally scanned and appear on a soldier's headset as they are in reality.
"The soldier sees what a tunnel looks like," says H.
Since it is not always possible to train in the field, the virtual world allows personnel to familiarise themselves with a hostile underground environment without leaving their base, he added.
There are a dozen soldiers on the current course; 100 have been through it since it began three years ago.
Whilst the VR Headset has a sense of commonality with users, VR hand controllers are largely incongruent with each other. This paper examines the common ground between VR developments in the area of hand control devices. This paper looks at VR controllers through the lens of older people, specifically for the purpose of including people from any age in the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of VR experiences. This study uses Fitts' Index of Difficulty to determine areas of concern in terms of dexterity and accessibility. The study recommends a standardized approach to agility and access in VR hand control development.
See the full story here: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3328262&preflayout=tabs
On Tuesday (August 21), the company announced that the pop titan's upcoming Madrid show on September 3 will be shot and available to watch later that evening beginning at 9:30 PM ET via Oculus Go, Gear VR or Quest headsets. Additionally, Oculus is partnering with the streaming company Supersphere for the upcoming broadcast. "It's really nice to be able to have something that makes the show so accessible, and to have a platform to bring the live experience to people who haven't been able to be at a show yet," Eilish said in a statement. "I just want everyone to have a good time. That's always my only goal, even when you're watching the show at home."
“'Copycat' is really fun,” Eilish added. “I make everybody get really low, and we all jump when the drop comes in. Even though you'll be watching on a VR headset, you should still get low and jump with everyone.”
Harvard Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Free and open to the public
“Travel” in fifteen minutes to an archaeological site in Ashkelon, Israel to explore the first-ever excavation of a Philistine burial ground. For years archaeologists have searched for evidence of these Biblical people. Transport yourself to the center of 360° scenes of an archaeological expedition while your gallery facilitator explains what you are seeing. Borrow a device from the museum or download the virtual reality app on your smart phone and bring it to place in a 3D viewer at the museum for an immersive experience.
MediaPipe can map up to 21 points on the hand and fingers with up to 96% precision and do it all on a mobile device (ie not in the cloud), opening up the possibility of using the tehcnology in other applications such as controlling applications on your smartphone.
The Private Training Establishment, cofounded by Ruth Green-Cole and George Norris, will be the first of its kind in the area and seeks to address the skills shortage in the tech sector - both in the region and on a national scale.
Developers Institute is working with industry leaders to create job placement opportunities for graduates. A core focus for the establishment is to help develop practical skills, according to a statement.
Courses will be taught by industry professionals and will focus on areas of the highest employment demand, such as software development, UX and UI design and product management.
Initially, the school will target students who are ‘career changers’, aka people with life experience who wish to retrain into the tech sector. School leavers with the right attitude for learning will also be considered.
Developers Institute is currently taking expressions of interest to join a waiting list. Once the applicants have been interviewed, successful candidates will be invited to attend the inaugural class. Spaces for the initial programme will be limited.
“Using a different approach — employing assistive technology to enhance, not replace, natural senses — our team adapted AR glasses that project bright colors onto patients’ retinas, corresponding to nearby obstacles,” Humayun said.
Patients with retinitis pigmentosa wore adapted AR glasses as they navigated through an obstacle course based on a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-validated functional test. Using video of each test, researchers recorded the number of times patients collided with obstacles, as well as the time taken to complete the course. Patients averaged 50% fewer collisions with the adapted AR glasses.
Patients also were asked to grasp a wooden peg against a black background — located behind four other wooden pegs — without touching the front items. Patients demonstrated a 70% increase in grasp performance with the AR glasses.
How the AR system works
The AR system overlays objects within a 6-foot wireframe with four bright, distinct colors. In doing so, the glasses provide visual color cues that help people with constricted peripheral vision interpret complex environments, such as avoiding obstacles in dimly lit environments.
Leading directors including Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Ryan Coogler, Patty Jenkins and Rian Johnson have teamed up with the UHD Alliance — a coalition whose members include Hollywood studios and consumer electronics manufacturers — to introduce a new UHD TV setting aimed at preserving the filmmakers' creative intent on consumer displays.
In December, the Israeli army launched an anti-tunnel operation on the Lebanese border dubbed "Northern Shield".
Date:
MediaPipe can map up to 21 points on the hand and fingers with up to 96% precision and do it all on a mobile device (ie not in the cloud), opening up the possibility of using the tehcnology in other applications such as controlling applications on your smartphone.
“Using a different approach — employing assistive technology to enhance, not replace, natural senses — our team adapted AR glasses that project bright colors onto patients’ retinas, corresponding to nearby obstacles,” Humayun said.