This week, one company just might have beaten Magic Leap in the race for light field AR, another company is tracking motion using sound rather than light and Goodyear are trying out AI-powered spherical tires that morph and change for each situation!
Light field AR tech in action, tracking motion using sound and yep, that’s actually a smart tyre.
AI With The Best
You can attend this conference without leaving your house! The online developer conference, AI With The Best, is on April 29th and we’ve got discounted tickets at the link above (or use the code WTBVIP).
Virtual Reality
Striving to do good in the world with virtual reality and 360 video
Taryn Southern talks about something I hope to see a lot more of in 2017 — using VR to do good and have a positive impact on the world.
This company can track motion with sound instead of light
Motion tracking over speaker technology is an interesting idea.
What you need to know when building a Gear VR app in Unity
Some tips I put together that might save you some time!
Vimeo now supports 360-degree video
I think that makes 360 video available on quite a few platforms now!
Oculus introduces Facebook Live Streaming
It also introduced Oculus Voice speech recognition on the Rift and Gear VR.
Oculus publishes Touch CAD files for custom-made accessories
If you’re interested in making Oculus Rift accessories, they’ve released a download of the 3D CAD files.
Standalone VR headsets powered by Intel’s Project Alloy will cost “closer to $1,000”
About the cost of a cheaper laptop, but they won’t need a laptop to run on!
Oculus Touch doubled the number of Rifts using Steam for VR games
The number of Rifts playing VR through Steam doubled in December.
5 Steve Jobs methods to avoid VR’s failure in 2017
A look at how VR could improve its marketing to the public this year.
Giphy just launched a VR museum of GIF art
The Giphy Arts VR app lets you explore a gallery of animated GIF art.
Augmented and Mixed Reality
A small team may have just cracked one of the big obstacles facing smart glasses
Avegant, the company behind the Glyph, appear to have really good progress on light field tech — the approach Magic Leap have been working towards that allows you to have a range of focus points in AR.
Avegant “light field” display – Magic Leap at 1/100th the investment?
Another look at the Avegant tech for those who want to read more.
AR.js: Efficient augmented reality for the web
A new JavaScript project to help people create web-based AR!
WatchThru: An augmented reality system for your wrist
A team of researchers have come up with a neat AR wearable concept.
Google job listings point to “mass production” AR/VR hardware in the pipeline
“The latest listings paint a picture of a product ready to make the jump from the R&D phase to a consumer device.”
Wearables
Google and Levi’s connected smart jacket will come out this fall and cost around $350
2017 appears to be the year we’ll get a smart jacket from Google!
Movado to enter the Android Wear game, pricing starts at $495
Movado’s own one will also be accompanied later this year by two watches from the Movado Group’s brands, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss.
Fitbit wants to revolutionize your sleep with the new Alta HR wearable
Fitbit is finally going to be able to track your sleep stages like REM and deep sleep, like Jawbone’s UP bands! I’m excited to see how reliable they are.
Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics
Google’s Deep Learning AI project diagnoses cancer faster than pathologists
Absolutely invaluable for spotting potential cancer cases sooner.
What it’s like to build and market a chatbot when you’re only 14 years old
This 14 year old’s story has things we can all learn from his process. It’s a very impressive post!
The complete beginner’s guide to creating a bot on Facebook Messenger
A look at how to make your very own Messenger bot using Octane AI.
Physicists extend quantum machine learning to infinite dimensions
This one is above my level of understanding but it sounds really neat!
Blockchains are a data buffet for AI
It’s an interesting emerging tech combo I hadn’t thought of! Makes sense!
Google’s new machine learning API recognizes objects in videos
They have a new Video Intelligence API, seems like an early version of Clarifai’s service which is not quite as feature rich just yet.
Goodyear’s AI tire concept can read the road and adapt on the fly
It’s spherical and would adapt its tread and more in self-driving cars.
TensorFlow: How to optimise your input pipeline with queues and multi-threading
Here’s a look at optimising your TensorFlow by taking out a bad habit.
Internet of Things
Alphabet’s Nest working on cheaper thermostat, home security system
A cheaper thermostat, a home-security alarm system, a digital doorbell and an updated indoor security camera are in the works.
Particle’s Raspberry Pi beta now open to all
Want to use Particle services on a Raspberry Pi? Their beta program is now open to everyone — give it a go!
Applying machine learning to the Internet of Things
A look at the potential applications of machine learning in the IoT.
6 technology trends that aren’t AI, blockchain or VR
A lot of these are IoT-related trends that are pretty exciting!
Weeping Angel: Did the CIA really hack into TVs?
A WikiLeaks dump shared various hacks the CIA have access to, including a hack turning Samsung TVs into listening devices.
The perils of Alexa!
I wanted to finish up with a story of one man investigating some rather odd appearances (including an Amazon order!) in his Alexa voice history.
Got questions on emerging tech? Feel free to Snapchat me (devdiner), DM me on Twitter or just send me an email and ask! Please don’t hesitate — get in touch 🙂
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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!