This week, we’ve got rather confused cats seeing their owners’ AR filters, Lenovo has a new AR headset, Fitbit has new sleep tracking features on the way, John Carmack steps down as Oculus CTO and two executives leave Magic Leap!
Confusing cats with AR, Lenovo’s new AR headset and John Carmack steps down as Oculus CTO
Virtual Reality
Oculus Link for PC is live: everything we know about cables, GPU support
The beta for being able to use your Oculus Quest as a wired VR headset is now live — you’ll need to use your own cable for now but the official Oculus Link cable is coming soon.
John Carmack stepping down as Oculus CTO to develop ‘strong AI’
He wants to make his mark on the challenges of AI instead.
Gear VR app development no longer supported from Oculus SDK suite 1.42 and future versions
It looks like the time has come and Oculus are moving beyond Gear VR development.
Facebook’s DeepFovea AI promises power-efficient VR foveated rendering
“A new approach to foveated rendering uses AI to imagine the pixels in your peripheral vision, cutting down on actual pixels sent over a video stream”.
Valve will reveal Half-Life: Alyx on November 21
Half-Life: Alyx is going to be revealed November 21st at 10am Pacific Time and will be their feature VR game — shall be exciting to see what Valve has produced!
Is virtual reality the next big thing in art therapy?
“Researchers have conducted a study to see if virtual reality can be used as an expressive tool in art therapy”.
Oculus Quest & A Fisherman’s Tale among VR Awards 2019 winners
Curious to see who won some of the VR Awards for 2019?
Augmented Reality
How does AR/VR feel for animals?
This video compilation on Twitter shows a range of cats’ reactions to when their owners have augmented reality cat masks on. This is a must watch.
Magic Leap loses CFO Scott Henry & effects wizard John Gaeta following news of funding woes
Two of Magic Leap’s top executives are leaving!
Lenovo plans sleek AR glasses that let PC users see multiple workspaces
This new compact AR headset can simulate multiple Windows monitors — very similar to what Meta was aiming for. Looks cool!
University of Sussex researchers develop method for making holograms touchable
“Researchers at the School of Engineering and Informatics of the University of Sussex published a paper detailing a method for displaying tactile holograms without an AR headset”.
Turn your home into a mixed reality record store with Spotify on Magic Leap
A curious look at how Magic Leap and Spotify see music streaming looking in a mixed reality world.
Building a camera that can see Wi-Fi
A very different sort of augmentation on our view of the world… what if you could see Wi-Fi? This project managed just that!
Wearables
Fitbit OS 4.1 update brings new sleep and heart tracking features to your wrist
Finally Fitbit will be able to wake you at the best point in your sleep cycle!
The death of the Blocks modular smartwatch – burned backers have their say
The Blocks modular smartwatch is a rather sad story, this article looks at what happened and the aftermath.
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics
Computers evolve a new path toward human intelligence
This article was worth it just for the incredible featured artwork at the top, but also covers some really curious ideas!
With new APIs, Sony’s robot dog could be the smart home assistant you’ve always wanted
A new web-based API is ready for developers to try out to extend what Aibo, with both a visual programming (like Scratch) and a more typical API to work with.
Hacking neural networks: A short introduction
A pretty detailed look at how neural networks are exploited — valuable to know if you want to be able to build in a way that defends against that.
mTiny robot review: screen-free coding for kids
“mTiny can teach the core concepts of coding, without sticking your kid in front of a screen”.
The USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates
Now that’s an interesting question — Can an algorithm create copyrightable work?
Why is Google slow-walking its breakthroughs in AI?
Wired say “the company’s new facial-recognition service comes with limitations to prevent abuse, which sometimes lets competitors take the lead”.
Is AI in a golden age or on the verge of a new winter?
VentureBeat asks, “Are we headed for a golden age of AI, or will the technology hit a wall over the next several years and lead to a new winter?”
Researchers develop an AI system with near-perfect seizure prediction
This AI system is 99.6% accurate at predicting seizures which could help a lot of people out there.
This 2,000-year-old cartoon figure was rediscovered by IBM’s Watson in Peru
It turns out AI is good at revealing drawings that have since faded by erosion.
The computing power needed to train AI is now rising seven times faster than ever before
“An updated analysis from OpenAI shows how dramatically the need for computational resources has increased to reach each new AI breakthrough”.
Researchers teach robots to use inference to complete complex tasks
Researchers propose a new technique that teaches robots to infer goals from actions.
Google’s AI-powered FreddieMeter can tell if you sing like Queen’s frontman
Google’s Creative Lab wants to let you see how close you can come to matching Freddie Mercury’s vocals.
Internet of Things and Makers
Cooling off your Raspberry Pi 4
Here is how you can cool off your Raspberry Pi 4 with a range of cooling solutions including firmware updates.
Rotary dial becomes USB keyboard
Using an Arduino Leonardo, this rotary dial phone becomes a USB keyboard!
Arduino does multitouch
A recent paper “shows how just about any capacitive sensor can work as a multitouch sensor with nothing more than an Arduino although a PC running processing interprets the data for higher-level functions”.
A foolproof Raspberry Pi media player
A whole lot of people use a Raspberry Pi as a media player, here’s a simple implementation for those keen to try something straightforward.
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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!
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