This week, we’ve finally got Valve’s massive VR title, “Half-live: Alyx” out into the world (it’s getting great reviews!), the new iPad has a LiDAR scanner in it, Magic Leap’s Magicverse AR cloud platform is out and Fitbit Premium is free for 90 days to help you through Coronavirus lockdown!
Answering those relevant questions so you’re prepped and ready to play Half-life: Alyx, which is out and ready for you to give a go!
Devindra Hardawar from Engadget is a pretty big fan of the flagship game!
Clearly timed for Half-Life: Alyx’s release!
A nice meditative style app with a curious idea — colouring virtual colouring book worlds!
If you’re looking to get some exercise happening in VR while stuck at home — BoxVR is fantastic and you’ll have even more tracks to choose from!
With COVID-19, all those real world VR entertainment spots are closing for a bit — which is probably for the best… sharing VR headsets with someone who is unwell is definitely not a good idea.
The Ghost Howls has a nice list of all the cancelled physical events you can attend virtually in VR instead this year.
There are limited places, so if you’re interested in trying out this arena style game, submit your interest!
The developer behind Space Pirate Arena has a new competitive multiplayer shooting game — they’re looking for people keen to help test too, so fill out that form if you’ve got a Quest and are interested!
Using their proprietary tracking system. They “can turn any space, such as a large gym or a vacant office, into a virtual arena”.
It has what is code-nameda a ‘Jedi’ controller. Not sure what it is for sure yet, but I’m liking the idea of it being a neural armband or some sort of armband tracker to compliment hand tracking.
Oculus’s Chris Pruett said that “90% of those who got an Oculus Quest at Christmas were new to the Oculus ecosystem”. That’s a lot of fresh faces eagerly trying out new VR content!
The Time Crisis-inspired Crisis VRigade is seeking community support. They’ve added a co-op mode for their VR game alongside a pay-as-you-want Itchio store page to help fund things.
“You can now use the 360 video from any camera to create a virtual tour on Google Street View, using GoThru’s new StreetBuilder”.
Magicverse AR cloud is Magic Leap’s exciting release that doesn’t require a headset to be used — it’ll work on iOS or Android apps too.
A nice write-up of Nreal and their plans to release $500 AR glasses this year.
Apple has added a depth sensor to the rear camera of the new iPad Pro.
Stefan Alexander, North’s VP of Advanced R&D, discusses the North Focals in the Everything VR & AR podcast.
10 free books to read if you are keen to do some machine learning study during your extra at home time this month.
“It draws inspiration from the structure and electrical activity of the brain to distinguish between odors”.
“Once inflated, it can change shape and move without being attached to a source of energy or air” — and it retains the same amount of air the whole time.
“A new platform is recruiting amateur drone pilots to offer their services in finding mosquito-breeding hotspots”.
“Moxi is designed to reduce nurse workloads by handling tasks like collecting supplies, gathering soiled linens, and delivering fresh ones, and it’s coming to market during the COVID-19 crisis, when nurses are in short supply”.
TechCrunch interviewed this AI researcher on the threat from AI and his solution to that very threat — a change in approach.
Never before have data scientists been so very valuable in saving the world as it appears they are during COVID-19!
Smartphone location tracking would be super helpful but also a super big breach of privacy.
This robot limb aims to rebound like natural physiology for much better movement.
“Facebook announced a program that will connect its developer partners with governments developing chatbots to track the spread of COVID-19”.
An interesting question posed by Wired… “We’ve been led to believe that robots and AI are replacing humans en masse. But this economic catastrophe is blowing up that myth”.
Enhanced POET is an algorithm that creates and solves its own challenges to train AI agents. How self-sufficient!
This project aims to build a DIY smartwatch with long battery life, not a lot of features or sensors. Initially with its own software but they’re looking to get it to run the Rebble operating system (the same they’re going to run on old Pebble watches) at some point.
The Amazfit X smartwatch/fitness band concept merges a smartwatch and fitness band in one!
A quote from the article which I thought was kinda funny — “When I asked Alexa, ‘Should I take a COVID-19 test?,’ it recommended a voice app called Egg Test that helps you understand whether eggs in your refrigerator are still fresh.”
Siri appears to be doing a little better at the moment.
Fitbit has made its paid-for service, Fitbit Premium, free for 90 days to help people stay healthy during the coronavirus lockdown!
The ESP8266 is about six years old now, here’s one of its next iterations!
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