This week, Bing was open sourced, we got a new series of Arduino Nanos, a robot that is just asking to punch you in the face, a really neat Wii controller hack and Alexa is ready to keep an eye on your home safety.
A crazy Wii controller hack, new Arduino Nanos and a robot ready to hit you.
Virtual Reality
Opinion: Is Oculus Quest too expensive to go mainstream?
360 Rumors ask whether US$399 might be too expensive (this is in contrast to the thrawls of hype in every article last week!)
Oculus Quest launch games pricing: only 1 is over $30
Looking at the prices for games and apps for the Oculus Quest — they’re all looking pretty reasonable so far.
Fan-made Star Wars VR Death Star trench run also researches sim sickness
This app simultaneously takes on the Death Star trench run in VR and fights sim sickness.
Oculus Quest VR covers now available
If you’re looking for a way to keep your Quest headset less gross after a while, you can now prepare by buying a foam replacement and cotton cover.
Oculus Medium 2.3 arrives with launch of Oculus Rift S
Oculus Rift S and older devices will have access to the new Medium VR updated app with new sculpting features.
Survios & AMC’s The Walking Dead VR game is all about zombie dismemberment
If you’ve been waiting for a VR game in which you can dismember zombies limb by limb — this could be the one for you.
Spoke, now on the web
Spoke, the editor that lets you create 3D scenes for use in Mozilla Hubs, is now available as a fully featured web app!
Augmented Reality
Minecraft Earth goes a step beyond Pokémon Go to cover the world in blocks
Minecraft style holograms are an ingenius way of bringing the concept of the “AR world” to fruition.
Jeri Ellsworth’s Tilt Five teases forthcoming augmented reality twist on board gaming
AR board games with this headset look like they could be fun!
Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 drops to $999 and adds Qualcomm’s XR1
Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 has a faster processor, improved camera, and new Smith Optics frames.
Vuforia Engine licensing update
Vuforia have changed how they do licensing for their AR platform, so it’s worth reading up on if you’re using it or have used it in the past.
ARCore reaches 400 million devices
ARCore is growing and growing with more and more Android devices supporting it!
Next reality is giving away free tickets to AWE
Keen to go to the annual Augmented Reality Expo (AWE)? Next Reality are giving away free tickets!
Reality check: the marvel of computer vision technology in today’s camera-based AR systems
A look at how computer vision for camera-based AR actually works right now.
Stanford research explores how AR can affect human behavior
The way we design AR will certainly have an impact on the future of human lives as it becomes a common part of our day to day experience.
Google & Magic Leap developer create augmented reality mobile apps for warping real world into art
“Two new mobile apps, one from Google and another from an indie developer with ties to Magic Leap, invert the creative conceit by taking the real world and morphing it via augmented reality”.
AR will mean dystopia if we don’t act today
“The AR industry can avoid the creepy aspects of today’s data collection methods without hindering innovation”.
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics
Microsoft open sources Bing’s AI algorithm in another huge policy shift
“The Bing AI algorithm is now available to download, fork and tweak”!
We need to embrace AI’s humanity to unlock its creative promise
“Amid all the discussion of how AI could displace humans and human thought, we seem to be forgetting that AI itself *is* human”.
This company is betting the future is personal AI avatars, so it made me one
Personal AI avatars look and sound like you, but they can sing and speak multiple languages.
LG developed its own AI chip to make its smart home products even smarter
One day, every smart home product will have an AI chip in it.
AI-generated petitions are the funniest thing you’ll see all day
“Sign Petition for Houston’s New Fireworks to be Offensive”
This boxing robot punches you while you play VR
Oh great, now we’re giving the robots fists with boxing gloves.
Inspired by a soft body of a leech: a wall-climbing robot: 180 degree rotation from one side of the wall to the other
And a flexible bodies with suction cups that can climb walls.
Introducing Translatotron: an end-to-end speech-to-speech translation model
It avoids splitting the process into multiple stages (e.g. speech to text, then translation, then text to speech) and just does it all in one go.
New AI sees like a human, filling in the blanks
“Computer scientists have taught an artificial intelligence agent how to do something that usually only humans can do – take a few quick glimpses around and infer its whole environment”.
Robot therapists need rules: use of embodied AI in psychiatry poses ethical questions
Using AI within therapy will definitely raise curious ethical questions.
Internet of Things and Makers
Introducing four new Arduino Nanos
These are less targeted at general makers — “while they may be breadboard compatible, they’re intended to be surface mounted as modules” rather than used standalone.
Alexa Guard keeps US homes safe from fire, intruders
Amazon announced Alexa Guard, which can notify Echo owners when it detects the sounds of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms or the sound of breaking glass. Those sounds would wake up Alexa similar to its wake word.
Electrodermis makes wearable electronic patches comfortable and aesthetically pleasing
A step closer to connected devices that are more comfortable to wear.
Arduino is now in the phone business
Introducing the new Arduino SIM card!
You can sort of fit a Raspberry Pi Zero W inside a Wii joystick controller
It can become an accelerometer controller for pretty much anything!
Events
2019 State of The AR Cloud Symposium and Showcase — May 28
Open AR Cloud are running a full day event on AR Cloud technology at San Jose. I’d go if I was in the area as this is a hugely important area in the future of technology! The coupon code OARCPromo will get you US$15 off!
Got questions on emerging tech? Feel free to DM me on Twitter or just send me an email and ask! That’s what Dev Diner is here for 🙂
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Want more?
A neat way to add I/O with the physical world — the Wio Terminal
The world of micro-controllers and maker creations is a vast and ever-growing one that can be super intimidating to newcomers. Should you start with an Arduino? A Raspberry Pi? What's an ESP something something? How do you add a screen? Sensors? The team at Seeed Studio are trying to make things easier and their Wio Terminal looks like a nice option for those who want to start with a screen and some sensors.
Building a 3D printed AR headset with The Triton Project
It's always exciting to stumble upon another AR headset being developed! Graham Atlee has been putting together The Triton Project, an exciting new headset similar to Project North Star that can be put together with off-the-shelf parts! Here's a Q&A with Graham on how it came about and how you might be able to get your hands on one!