This week, we have one genius math teacher teaching math within Half-life: Alyx, a new AR headset project that looks crazy exciting, Star Trek: Voyager is going 4K with a fan-created AI project and we have pre-orders open for the new Wyze Band!
Learning math in Half-life: Alyx, Star Trek goes 4K with AI and the new Wyze Band!
Virtual Reality
World’s greatest teacher delivers VR math lesson in Half-life: Alyx
There’s a greenhouse in the game with an eraser and markers which players can use to write on the glass — a small part of the game but a massively exciting one for one genius Math teacher.
HP teases new VR headset designed in collaboration with Microsoft & Valve
They say it will have “a more immersive, comfortable and compatible experience” than the HP Reverb. Very curious that Valve is involved in this one!
Valve predicts Half-life: Alyx will eventually be playable without VR
Valve developer Robin Walker believes it’s only a matter of time until modders develop a non-VR port of the game.
Creator of Second Life sells Sansar social VR platform
Linden Labs will instead refocus its efforts on Second Life, letting “Wookey Project Corp” handle the Sansar platform.
Arriving today is Arizona Sunshine’s Dead Man DLC for Oculus Quest
It has new weapons and a new campaign mission, it’s a pretty cost effective way to get more out of your zombie shooting experience!
Holoswitch turns your phone into a security camera while in VR
“Answer calls, respond to texts and view your real-world surroundings while in VR”!
A new leak may reveal information about the first game for Apple’s rumored VR/AR device
It looks like a HTC Vive Focus controller and a “crosswalk bowling game”. Nothing is confirmed of course.
Get creative on PlayStation VR with painting app Tilt Brush
Finally Tilt Brush is out on PlayStation VR!
Spaces app enables folks to attend Zoom meetings in VR
This PC VR app has successfully allowed video calls with Zoom, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, and Skype from within virtual reality!
34 VR apps for remote work, education, training, design review, and more
There are a whole heap of options if you want to give remote experiences within VR a go.
Augmented Reality
Building a 3D printed AR headset with the Triton Project
I had a Q&A with Graham Atlee on his new Project Triton headset!
Microled maker Plessey agrees exclusive deal with Facebook
Apple reportedly wanted to purchase them at one point too, but Facebook has got the exclusive deal now to work with them to build AR glasses.
Immersal maps Helsinki in city-scale AR using crowdsourcing mobile app
A Finnish competitor to Scape (which Facebook aquired last month) has a city-scale AR mapping app for Android and iOS phones that “crowdsources 3D point map creation to enable shared experiences”. It looks pretty cool.
WebXR Emulator Extension AR support
Desktop browsers don’t usually have all the features necessary to test WebAR — so this emulator helps bridge the gap for testing and developing.
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics
‘Star Trek: Voyager’ gets an unofficial 4K remaster thanks to AI
The effects in Voyager were shot on video rather than added to film after the fact, making it much harder to upgrade the quality than it was for The Next Generation — but one fan is doing their best to bring it up to scratch with AI. It takes about six hours for each episode.
Automating my job using AI
One developer used torch-rnn to try to talk to people and write code for him (spoiler, it’s not as capable as he’d hoped).
How robots can help combat COVID-19
This article says robots can be used for clinical care, logistics and reconnaissance.
Microsoft can filter out the sound of you eating potato chips on a conference call
Awkward background noise in your video calls be gone!
How ISPs are using AI to address the Coronavirus-driven surge in traffic
“Internet service providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Cox, say they’re using AI and machine learning to maintain service in the face of surging traffic”.
UC Berkeley Robotics Lab wants to fully automate a polyculture garden
“The goal is to find out if AI can learn a function as complex as polyculture gardening, or farming with multiple species of plants growing alongside one another, instead of monoculture growing”.
Huiying Medical claims its AI can detect Coronavirus from CT scans with 96% accuracy
They say it might be useful in regions of the world without access to the standard testing method for COVID-19.
Monitoring is critical to successful AI
The idea is that by using real-time monitoring we can see a bit into the “black box” of AI models.
Microsoft’s AI determines whether statements about video clips are true
“Researchers at Carnegie Mellon, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Microsoft propose an AI task for reasoning about videos”.
Microsoft’s AI-powered editor can generate rewrite suggestions
“Microsoft’s AI-powered text editor is getting more powerful with rewrite suggestions and will soon be available for Outlook.com and browser extensions”.
Internet of Things and Makers
Wyze Band goes live: $24 fitness tracker with Alexa built in
From the company that makes Wyze Cams and all sorts of IoT devices, this one has a nice AMOLED touch screen and has Alexa built in. Looks really good, especially for the price!
FluSense takes on COVID-19 with Raspberry Pi
“Researchers at UMass Amherst have created FluSense to forecast viral outbreaks, using a mic array, thermal sensor, neural computing engine, and Raspberry Pi”.
Hacking my arm prosthesis to output CV so that it plugs into my synth: Thought-controlled music!
The SynLimb allows this guy to plug his prosthesis into his snythesizer to control its with the signals from his body that normally control his hand!
Printed door handle turns key with a servo
One maker wanted to make his front door smarter, but none of the IoT door locks were compatible with his door, so he 3D printed his own smart lock.
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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!