Oculus Chief Scientist Dives Deep Into the Near Future of AR & VR
PhilNote: this is a write-up of his Oculus Connect presentation.
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
To advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to benefit humanity.
See the full site here: http://hai.stanford.edu/?fbclid=IwAR0WyBWBnl2_VrkymJMWnm2YeAbjCMsd0qKA8N32p8r1ylHqUVNZ4YsApeY
David Lynch and Showtime Are Creating a Virtual Reality Experience for Twin Peaks
David Lynch wants to bring Twin Peaks viewers into his imaginary world via virtual reality.
The scene begins in Glastonbury Grove, the forest setting familiar to anyone who’s seen the show. Using a flashlight in one hand, the viewer is able to “walk” through the forest at night before coming to a small pool of water that suddenly fills with blood.
See the full story here: https://www.adweek.com/digital/david-lynch-and-showtime-are-creating-a-virtual-reality-experience-for-twin-peaks/
Virtual Reality Game Chainbreakers to Be Developed on Ethereum-based Decentraland
[Philip Lelyveld comment; Other than promoting Libertarianism and enriching the developers, what's the point of this game and why is it using Blockchain?]
As described by Decentraland’s blog post, Chainbreakers is a “strategic role playing game” - which has been developed to capture a “fictional and stylized rendition of Ancient Greece.” The main theme, or story, of the VR game is based on the idea of “a corrupt, evil government” and those opposing its authoritarian regime.
In the VR game, these items are “represented” by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - which are crypto tokens that represent “something unique” and are “not interchangeable.” Users may receive NFT-based rewards after successfully completing in-game tasks.
See the full story here: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/10/virtual-reality-vr-game-chainbreakers-to-be-developed-on-ethereum-based-decentraland/
Teaching Platonic Polyhedrons through Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
The act of teaching has become a challenge as the content becomes more democratic and present in the daily life of elementary and middle school students. Mathematics has presented great difficulty for students to understand since several of its contents, of an abstract nature, need to be presented efficiently, mainly due to the lack of appropriate didactic resources. The present work presents three software for the teaching of mathematics of Plato's Polyhedrons through the visualization of their characteristics: faces, vertices, edges, planning and separation of faces, using technologies of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, so that the user can manipulate and view in 3D. The goal of software development was to provide accessible, easy-to-use tools that draw students' attention to help math teachers in basic education.
Download the paper here: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3274243&preflayout=tabs
‘CourtVision’ Review: We tested Steve Ballmer’s attempt to transform the NBA viewing experience
Can augmented reality provide anything so indispensable that NBA fans would howl in protest if it were taken away?
Not yet. But the technology is impressive, and the potential is there.
That’s my takeaway after trying out Clippers CourtVision for two games. The experience was unveiled this week by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his NBA team, the L.A. Clippers.
In “Coach” mode, for example, when Clippers center Boban Marjanović set a screen and cut to the basket for a pass, the system put his name and number over his head to identify him as the player with the ball, diagrammed the play in real-time on the floor (below), and showed his point total above his head after he scored.
It all happens automatically, without human intervention, which is no small technological feat. The stream is currently delayed by two minutes from the live action, to allow time for the required processing, but that’s down significantly from earlier testing, and Ballmer and Second Spectrum say the time gap will get even shorter over time.
One feature of the CourtVision app is the ability to switch the audio away from the game commentators to “Sneaker Squeaks” mode. Unfortunately, this silences only the broadcasters, not the incessant music and sound effects that plague NBA games (and other professional sports). For this basketball purist, at least, the ability to take away that modern “advance” would make the technology truly indispensable.
In the meantime, CourtVision is an impressive technological accomplishment with useful features for basketball fans, and the potential to become even more valuable as it evolves over time.
See the full story here: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/courtvision-review-tested-steve-ballmers-attempt-transform-nba-viewing-experience/