Tech Museum embraces augmented reality with Body Worlds Decoded exhibit
The Body Worlds Decoded installation is a permanent exhibit of “plastinated human bodies,” or a spin off of the popular Body Worlds exhibit that has traveled around the world.
The exhibit stands on its own, but you can enhance your experience with AR, which turns the whole place into an anatomy lab. Incatasciato handed me a Google Tango tablet, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which was running Iris, an app for the Body Worlds Decode exhibit. The museum partnered with the Institute for the Future to build the software.
I pointed the tablet at the exhibit area and walked around. I could see on the tablet screen that there were some icons floating in space. I tapped on one of the star icons and came face-to-face with a human eyeball.
“The AR lets us see motion,” said Incatasciato. “It visualizes what you might otherwise see as just a 2D picture in a book.”
The bodies and specimens were preserved by Gunther von Hagens’ Institute for Plastination, which created Body Worlds exhibitions to help people better understand the human body and its function.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/15/tech-museum-embraces-augmented-reality-with-body-worlds-decoded-exhibit/
The perils of augmented reality
A lesson masquerading as a comic.
See the original here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/10/14/the-perils-augmented-reality/o8xQtfuIwfsQ5urFrqyBDM/story.html
Busan: Virtual Reality Conference Draws Big Crowds
The keynote was delivered by Jerome Blanquet, creator of the narrative VR experience “Alteration,” starring Bill Skarsgard, Pom Klementieff, Lizzie Brocheré and Amira Casar, that has taken audiences at the Tribeca and Venice festivals by storm earlier this year, and won the special jury prize at the Paris Virtual Film Festival.Virtual Reality For Empathy Versus Entertainment
Facebook’s virtual reality tour of Puerto Rico offers a case study in what happens all too often when Silicon Valley attempts to apply its technological capabilities to the humanitarian world. From talking about “really cool” applications to an “interesting video” of destruction to describing standing in the midst of a completely destroyed town as “really magical,” the disaster itself becomes secondary to the technology demo, with the narrators seemingly oblivious to the scenes of destruction and pain surrounding them as they laugh and high five against the backdrop of a flooded street.
In response to the backlash against the tour, Zuckerberg subsequently issued the brief apology “One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy. My goal here was to show how VR can raise awareness and help us see what's happening in different parts of the world. I also wanted to share the news of our partnership with the Red Cross to help with the recovery. Reading some of the comments, I realize this wasn't clear, and I'm sorry to anyone this offended.”
In stark contrast to Facebook’s approach is the Emmy-nominated virtual reality film Behind The Fence, produced by The Nexus Fund, which also uses a VR approach to communicate personal stories and life in a Rohingya camp in Burma. Instead of Facebook’s top-down approach of outsiders explaining the lives of others, The Nexus Fund worked with individuals inside the camp who were looking for a way to show the world what life was like there and to tell some of the stories of those living there. They chose the medium of a short VR film, with its 360-degree panoramic viewpoint to offer an experience that could immerse viewers far better than a traditional television screen.
As The Nexus Fund’s Executive Director Sally Smith put it when asked how they approached the making of the film, “There is a tremendous difference between entertainment from people suffering and using a novel medium to feel and take action.”
In short, Silicon Valley appears to have once again decided to tell the story of "people far away" without actually inviting them to the table to tell their own stories. The result is disaster tourism, complete with laughter and high fives about the “magical” technology, rather than an exploration of how VR could be used to help generate empathy and understanding for events on the ground.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/10/14/virtual-reality-for-empathy-versus-entertainment/#64f7c2096ef2
In ‘The Hubble Cantata,’ opera blasts into the world of virtual reality
McNitt’s VR experience is the metaphorical tail on the multimedia comet that is classical composer Paola Prestini’s “The Hubble Cantata,” which swept up that huge audience in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park last summer and stages its West Coast premiere Wednesday at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood. Presented in association with Los Angeles Opera, the show features soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Nathan Gunn singing a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Members of the L.A. Opera Orchestra, L.A. Opera Chorus and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus are also part of the production.
“What is so exciting about this project was being able to bring a new perspective to an art form that has existed for so long in order to provide a new way of experiencing it,” McNitt said by phone from New York. “I think storytelling is at the heart of all these experiences. We are trying to leave people with a sense of wonder and awe.”
Using real footage from the telescope, McNitt crafted a film that took scientific theories grounded in hard data and interpreted them through an artistic lens, making sure to consider crucial points of interest including the color of a star when it is born and what solar flares look like when they’re circling off the body of a star.
‘The Hubble Cantata’
Where: Ford Theatres, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Tickets: Start at $65 (subject to change)
Info: (323) 461-3673, www.fordtheatres.org
See the full story here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-hubble-cantata-20171010-story.html
Daqri new CEO
Daqri's founder and CEO, Brian Mullins, will step down, according to an announcement from the company on Tuesday.
Roy Ashok, Daqri's new CEO.Daqri
He'll be replaced by Roy Ashok, who was previously Daqri's chief product officer and a director at Qualcomm.
Daqri says its Smart Glasses will ship later this month. Its helmet retails for $15,000, including customer service.
Brian Mullins, Daqri's founder and former CEO. Daqri
See the full story here: http://www.businessinsider.com/daqri-ceo-brian-mullins-is-stepping-down-2017-10
Beyond the Future: SpaceCRAFT VR – Changing the Fate of Space Exploration
SpaceCRAFT VR, helmed by Dr. Greg Chamitoff, current Texas A&M professor and former NASA astronaut, is a VR “sandbox” environment designed to enable government, university and commercial entities to collaborate in the design, use and evaluation of technology for future operations in space. While it isn’t yet ready for the public, SpaceCRAFT VR is well on it’s way to achieving its mission of, according to Dr. Chamitoff, “enabling anyone and everyone, to contribute to, and participate in, the design of the future for our species beyond planet Earth.”
Dr. Chamitoff is advancing the future of the final frontier with many brilliant minds including, Nazareth Bedrossian, Ph.D., Joe Woskow, Andrew Shulkind and several graduate student...
Keeping with SpaceCRAFT VR’s tradition of out-of-the-box thinking, the team is also joined by Andrew Shulkind, a leading immersive content expert and award-winning cinematographer of film and commercials. When asked about his role in SpaceCRAFT VR and his thoughts on it’s mission, Shulkind said, “Greg and I are partnering on few projects, but SpaceCRAFT is one that I’m most excited about. Space exploration is a focus for everyone with an eye to the future, in almost every discipline. It speaks to the very nature of human curiosity. The questions of “how" and “who" have always been a challenge, and SpaceCRAFT answers these concretely. ...
See the full story here: http://www.ign.com/blogs/maxshaferlandau/2017/10/10/beyond-the-future-spacecraft-vr-changing-the-fate-of-space-exploration
Mattel releases biologically inspired foldable robot bugs
Photographer Rafael Ortega Stylist Alison Zukovsky
Photographer/Stylist
Photographer - Jeremy Lloyd, Job # 1751629
Stylist
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/11/mattel-releases-biologically-inspired-foldable-robot-toys/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter
Each $50 robot features an accelerometer, gyroscope and an IR transmitter and receiver that allow them to interact with their surroundings and one another for games like freeze tag and “sumo,” in which they relentlessly bash into one another. They can also be controlled remotely through the mobile app, or preprogrammed with a basic coding application designed to teach some programming basics.
Facebook Security Chief Warns of Dangers in Fake-News Solutions
Alex Stamos, who’s handling the company’s investigation into Russia’s use of the social media platform ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, cautioned about hoping for technical solutions that he says could have unintended consequences of ideological bias.
It’s very difficult to spot fake news and propaganda using just computer programs, Stamos said in a series of Twitter posts on Saturday.
“Nobody of substance at the big companies thinks of algorithms as neutral,” Stamos wrote, adding that the media is simplifying the matter. “Nobody is not aware of the risks.”
The easy technical solutions would boil down to silencing topics that Facebook is aware are being spread by bots -- which should only be done “if you don’t worry about becoming the Ministry of Truth” with machine learning systems “trained on your personal biases,” he said.
Stamos’s comments shed light on why Facebook added 1,000 more people review its advertising, rather than attempting an automated solution.
See the full post here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-07/facebook-security-chief-warns-of-dangers-to-fake-news-solutions