Not Impossible Lab
Founded on the principle of Technology for the Sake of Humanity, Not Impossible Labs LLC is a one-of-a-kind, award winning technology incubator and content studio dedicated to changing the world through technology and story.
Current technology initiatives include:
- Music: Not Impossible. A “surround body” music experience featuring innovative Vibrotextile™ technology. M:NI wearables provide music access to the deaf community and an enhanced music experience for all.
- Vaccine: Not Impossible. Overcoming the "Last Mile" obstacles that prevent vaccines from reaching remote communities .
- Absurdity Projects. The Absurdity Program is how Not Impossible crowd-solves issues of inability and inaccessibility looking to provide low cost solutions that allow the most vulnerable among us to survive and thrive. From "blind skateboarding" to designing a light weight power wheelchair, we run our program to discover an absurdity and solve for 'One'.
- Not Impossible Awards. The Not Impossible Awards recognizes the work and stories of people and companies who share Not Impossible's mission to create technology for the sake of humanity.
See the full story here: https://www.notimpossible.com
Budget Airline easyJet Packs Augmented Reality Luggage Checking Feature into Its Mobile App
See the full story here: https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/budget-airline-easyjet-packs-augmented-reality-luggage-checking-feature-into-its-mobile-app-0193551/
Apple Ramps Up Augmented Reality Efforts with New AR Marketing Chief
According to a new report by Bloomberg, Apple has appointed company veteran Frank Casanova to the position, which will oversee “all aspects of Product Marketing for Apple’s Augmented Reality initiative.”
Is Google Maps what augmented reality has been waiting for?
Beta testing AR walking directions with Local Guides. Now, with the impending introduction of AR into Google Maps, we may see a product that could have a massive impact. At Google’s 2018 developer conference, the company previewed Google Lens-like AR features offering improved walking directions and place information through the smartphone camera.
Google is now actively testing augmented walking directions. The company said today in a blog post, “We’re starting to test this feature with select Local Guides, a small group of Google Maps enthusiasts around the world who we know will offer us the feedback about how this approach can be most helpful. Like other AI-driven camera experiences such as Google Lens (which uses the camera to let you search what you see), we believe the ability to overlay directions over the real world environment offers an exciting and useful way to use the technology that already exists in your pocket.”
Why should you care. Google Maps is one of seven Google products that claims more than a billion users globally. Google is one of only a very small number of companies — the others being Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft — that can roll out practical AR applications to hundreds of millions of people simultaneously.
Most previous AR applications were about novelty or offered poor user experiences. Mapping and visual local search have obvious utility and should be widely adopted, if or when they are generally released. And if we assume that AR walking directions and other features make into Maps, it’s a safe bet that some form of AR monetization — aka paid marketing opportunities — will follow in time.
See the full story here: https://searchengineland.com/is-google-maps-what-augmented-reality-has-been-waiting-for-311957
Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy: How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Can Transform Live Entertainment
Hamilton-Ryker Uses Virtual Reality To Assess And Train Workers On Forklifts
Virtual Reality (VR) is revolutionizing training, and Hamilton-Ryker's (H-R) newest division TalentGro® is taking full advantage of this new technology. The company is using VR Forklifts to assess proficiency and provide training to both temporary employees and clients' direct employees. Hamilton-Ryker has VR Forklifts at offices in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, but the units can be transported anywhere.
See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hamilton-ryker-uses-virtual-reality-to-assess-and-train-workers-on-forklifts-300793553.html
NextVR Delivers Virtual Reality Highlights of the National Hot Rod Association
NextVR, the Official VR Partner of NHRA, will launch the exclusive partnership by releasing a virtual reality experience captured at the 2018 Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, CA. Content captured includes digital highlight packages produced by NextVR in a 3D stereoscopic VR format. This content is now available for free to fans globally on a new NHRA channel within the NextVR app.
Danny Keens, VP of Content at NextVR
See the full story here: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/02/11/nextvr-delivers-virtual-reality-highlights-of-the-national-hot-rod-association/
Making AI More Emotional – Part Two (Artie)
Artie, of Artie’s adventure fame, has taken a different approach to automated agents, using AR to give algorithms a friendly and familiar face. The company’s software allows users to create and share avatars based on celebrities, influencers, and popular fictional characters. These avatars are ‘emotionally aware, world-aware and object-aware through the use of computer vision and sentiment analysis,’ according to co-founder Armando Kirwin, and draw on a much wider range of natural communication than your average chatbot or digital assistant. ‘The average interaction with a digital assistant might be five seconds or less, but because interacting with an avatar is a much more natural experience, we’re able to increase the session time to around five minutes.’
Artificial personality
Giving a personality to an AI avatar is a novel way of getting around the problems that machine learning has in unpredictable situations. Establishing a narrative context for each interaction with a character or avatar allows users to interact with a being that has a defined personality, attitude, and way of speaking. ‘If you talk to an Iron Man avatar on social media, he’s not going to talk to you about politics, he’s going to talk to you about his world’ says co-founder Ryan Horrigan.
Cogito’s application trains AI to be more empathetic by detecting minute changes in tone of voice and speech patterns. Artie’s avatars use computer vision, natural language processing and sentiment analysis to replicate emotions in a virtual character and give AI a different way to interact with us.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2019/01/31/making-ai-more-emotional-part-two/#79e79045318e
Trump Signs Executive Order Promoting Artificial Intelligence
The executive order aimed to better educate workers in the field, improve access to the cloud computing services and data needed to build A.I. systems, and promote cooperation with foreign powers. But the order did not set aside funds for A.I. research and development, and the administration provided few details on how it planned put its new policies into effect.
In July 2017, Chinese unveiled a plan to become the world leader in A.I., aiming to create an industry worth $150 billion to its economy by 2030, and two Chinese cities promised to invest $7 billion in the effort. Other governments, too, began making large investments, including South Korea, Britain, France and Canada.
See the full story here; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/business/ai-artificial-intelligence-trump.html