Singularity University Announces Virtual Reality Training Program and On-Demand Classes at 2019 Global Summit
Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges, announced today availability of its two newest products,
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190819005184/en/
- On-Demand Classes, affordable, bite sized, learning on topics such as such as security and hacking, artificial intelligence and human healing, and
- Uncommon Learning, a personally adaptive virtual reality (VR) training system with first of a kind integrated neuroadaptive features.
On-Demand Classes, a new series of online content, is made up of 2-3 hour classes developed by global experts in conjunction with SU around specific areas of expertise.
“The pace of change will never be slower than it is today, and humans will experience unprecedented changes in their lives in the next decade,” said Tammy Lakes, executive vice president of online learning and digital business at SU. “With On-Demand Classes SU is able to educate, inspire and provide deeper insight into these changes on a scale that is affordable and global.”
On-Demand Classes will be updated monthly on SU.org and start at $100. Current available classes include:
- Surpassing Limitation with Khalil Osiris and Dr. Makaziwe Mandela
- How-to-Hack for Kids…and Executives with Nico Sell
- Symbiotic Systems: Designing an Inclusive Future with John Wise
- Transforming Business With Nature with Francisco D’Elia
Uncommon Learning is a personally adaptive virtual reality training system where users will learn new skills in an immersive environment and their training experience will be modified based on individual performance as well as biometric data including brain response, heart rate and eye tracking.
“We all learn differently; even individual needs change moment by moment, and yet traditional training methods are rigid and remained unchanged for decades, ” said Kyle Nel, executive vice president of Uncommon Partners Lab. “Uncommon Learning combines immersive virtual reality with adaptive features made possible with neuroscience and machine learning technologies to create a holistic training system that is more effective and drives higher employee confidence and performance.”
Integrated adaptive features maintain optimal user engagement by automatically slowing down during moments of stress or becoming challenging if the user appears to be bored, this amplifies the effectiveness over and above that seen in typical VR training alone. Skills are learned faster and with greater retention, resulting in higher performance, improved safety and employee satisfaction. The system can be deployed across any industry.
Uncommon Learning is currently accepting applications for VR training. To learn more about the program or to apply, visit su.org/enterprise/uncommon-partners-lab.
See the original PR here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/singularity-university-announces-virtual-reality-130000391.html
Augmented Reality to save industrial plant workers from electrocution
UNSW Sydney’s Maker Games hailed an augmented reality system as this year’s winner.
An average of 27 workers dies each year from electrocution, while more than 530 people are hospitalised with electrical injuries.
The Team safAR students responded to the problem by creating a system that uses augmented reality (AR) to provide step-by-step instructions to workers on how to safely isolate machinery.
The software uses AR object recognition and speech recognition.
It is an easy-to-use tool that any construction worker can look at the machinery and instantly get feedback on what they should do in the field.
It uses some small safety glasses that give you a VR/AR kind of display. This allows workers to operate the software hands free while in the field.
Other projects
Other prototypes presented by the Maker Games finalists were:
- An app-controlled system to protect the home against bushfires
- A mask that protects water utility workers in India from inhaling deadly hydrogen sulphide
- An app that simulates trading on the stock market as well as real life events affecting personal finances
- A virtual reality house inspection app
- An augmented reality remote inspection tool for fire engineers
- Drones and robots that can safely navigate wet and dry environments in water vessel tanks
- A robot that can calibrate and test optimum microphone positioning for audio hardware manufacturers
- Wearable clipboard/tablet device holder enabling nuclear plant workers to carry out inspections hands-free
See the full story here: https://www.opengovasia.com/augmented-reality-to-save-industrial-plant-workers-from-electrocution/
Facebook makes augmented reality accessible to SMEs
Unfortunately, most of the AR use cases seem to come out of large organizations rather than small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are usually expected to be more creative — but thanks to Facebook, that’s about to change.
“Starting today, anyone can create and publish their own Spark AR effects on Instagram,” said the Tech@Facebook blogpost announcing the development.
“We’re also introducing the new Effect Gallery, which includes niche AR effects from up-and-coming artists, making it easier for people to discover unique effects from the creator community. To discover and try on new effects yourself, simply “Browse Effects” at the end of your effects tray in the Instagram Camera.”
The fact that users can quickly discover new filters is what can help brands quickly get the most out of their efforts, making AR projects more valuable to them in the first place.
See the full story here: https://techwireasia.com/2019/08/facebook-makes-augmented-reality-accessible-to-smes/
Got Pain? A Virtual Swim With Dolphins May Help Melt It Away
"I get a strong feeling of pleasure, relaxation and peace," he says.
It doesn't take long to produce that effect — about 10 minutes or so, via the headset.
Norris is no stranger to pain. He's got chronic pain through his spine, back and hips, from injuries that go back years.
Ever since he was introduced to virtual reality, he's been hooked. In addition to swimming with dolphins, he's tried other VR experiences, such as wilderness walks.
A study published this month in the journal PLOS ONE is just the latest to document that an immersive, virtual reality experience can be an effective strategy for reducing pain.
VR "changes the way we perceive the pain," explains study author Brennan Spiegel, a physician and the director of Cedars-Sinai Health Services Research in Los Angeles.
See the full story here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/08/19/751495463/got-pain-a-virtual-swim-with-dolphins-may-help-melt-it-away
Bentley Concept Car Gets Its Own Augmented Reality App, but the Price of Admission Is Steep, Sort Of
Only a handful of people can actually afford a Bentley, but no one can afford the Bentley EXP 100 GT — because, as a concept car, it's not for sale (yet). So the only way to really get a good look at this vehicle is in AR. Select Bentley dealers around the world will actually have their own version of the QR code on the floor of their showroom. This will bring up a full-scale 3D model of the car you can actually walk around.
Ironically, the car is more advanced than the app and its relatively primitive marker-based AR. The EXP 100 GT is an all-electric vehicle and was "inspired by the company's deep understanding of the desires of its intelligent, forward-thinking customers," according to Bentley.
The company also claims that the vehicle "embraces Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a means to reassert the car as a place for creating, experiencing and capturing extraordinary human experiences and emotions." Additionally, the vehicle has a self-driving mode and can go from zero to 60 mph in under 2.5 seconds, reaching a top speed of 186 mph.
See the full story here: https://next.reality.news/news/bentley-concept-car-gets-its-own-augmented-reality-app-but-price-admission-is-steep-sort-0203487/
World’s largest ‘Virtual Reality’ hospital to open in Bydgoszcz
The world’s largest virtual hospital is set to be built in Bydgoszcz by InventionMed, a medical technology firm that uses virtual and augmented technology simulators to aid the training of medical professionals.
The company has received a grant of 16.2 million złoty from the Ministry of Investment and Economic Development, and will sink that back into a 29.5 million złoty project that will see the development of a virtual hospital and leading edge R&D centre.
Principally known for their TutorDerm simulation, InventionMed’s centre will play to the firm’s strengths and specialize in aesthetic and clinical dermatological training.
In addition, the five-storey, 3,000 sq/m centre will also explore other areas of medicine such as cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, anatomy and neurological rehabilitation.
“The concept behind creating a VR/AR Centre of Innovative Medical Simulations is a response to the research and technological gap existing on the Polish market,” says Tomasz Kierul, the President of the Board of InventionMed.
See the full story here: https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/worlds-largest-virtual-reality-hospital-to-open-in-bydgoszcz-7176
The SunCAVE, the World’s Highest Resolution Walk-in Virtual Reality Environment, Turns Two
Tucked into a cozy-feeling room on the first floor of the UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute are 70 screens, bundles of cables and 35 computer nodes that make up a powerful system that can process massive amounts of data transmitted over the Internet from researchers all over the US or even Antarctica.
It can also take you, virtually, into worlds as varied as a temple in Egypt, an ancient copper smelting site in Jordan or an underwater cave system on the Yucatan Peninsula. Or even into the abdomen of Crohn’s disease patients.
Front and center in the room is a 360-degree sphere-like scaffolding covered in screens called the SunCAVE—the world’s highest resolution walk-in virtual reality (VR) environment.
Two years ago this summer, the Qualcomm Institute’s CAVE (or Cave Automated Virtual Environment) morphed from the StarCAVE, as it was known, into the SunCAVE. Its physical shape changed, as did the technology running it behind the scenes.
“The fact that we can use 35 PCs and 70 game-class graphics cards (GPUs) and memory together makes it a computer cluster that also happens to immerse you in realistic 3D pictures, algorithmic visualizations, and even MRI-scans of human brains and other organs,” he said.
See the full story here: https://www.newswise.com//articles/world-s-highest-resolution-walk-in-virtual-reality-environment-turns-two
The world’s top deepfake artist is wrestling with the monster he created
Hao Li has spent his career perfecting digital trickery. Now he’s working to confront the problem of increasingly seamless off-the-shelf deception, reports Will Knight.
Raising awareness: Li has been trying to get CEOs and politicians around the world to consider the consequences that videos doctored with AI—“deepfakes”—could have for them, and for the rest of us. They are virtually guaranteed to be weaponized.
About Li: He isn’t your typical deepfaker. He’s edited some of the most famous faces in the world for modern blockbusters, fooling millions of moviegoers into believing in a smile or a wink that was never actually there, or adding their faces onto stunt people’s.
Breakthrough: In 2009, Li developed a way to capture a person’s face in real time and use it to operate a virtual puppet, without needing motion-trackers.
Troubling potential: Even as Li races ahead with digital fakery, he’s troubled by the potential for harm. He’s working with researchers refining tools to detect deepfakes. But he thinks it’s just a matter of time until deepfakes are totally undetectable.
See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614083/the-worlds-top-deepfake-artist-is-wrestling-with-the-monster-he-created