Archive for VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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June 8, 2013 Best In Class, Best in Software, Computer, Education, Event Photos, Future Arts & Media, Future Visions, In The News, nab show, News, Press Releases, Products, Social Networking/Web 2.0, Social Networking/Web/Education, Tech, Video, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics, Your Money Find it No comments
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Nanoclusters that diffuse laser beams or create 3D telepresence

August 31, 2012 Nanotech/Materials Science, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments

Atomic clusters of metals are an emerging class of extremely interesting materials occupying the intermediate size regime between atoms and nanoparticles. (credit: Reji Philip et al./Nano Letters)

Think of the possibilities.

University of Central Florida assistant professor  Jayan Thomas, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University Associate Professor Rongchao Jin, has developed a new material based on gold nanoparticles smaller than 2 nanometers, in a regime between atoms and nanoparticles called nanoclusters.

Thomas and his team found that nanoclusters developed by adding atoms in a sequential manner could provide interesting new optical properties that make them suitable for creating surfaces that would diffuse laser beams of high energy.

Protecting pilots and instruments from laser beams

Think of commercial pilots or fighter pilots’ glasses or helmet shield could be coated with nanoclusters that potentially diffuse high-energy beams of light, such as laser beams.

Highly sensitive instruments needed for navigation and other applications could also be protected in case of an enemy attack using high-energy laser beams.

Real time 3D telepresence 

Thomas is also exploring the use of these particles in the polymer material used for 3D telepresence to make it more sensitive to light. If successful, it can take current polymers a step closer to developing real time 3D telepresence.

3D-Telepresence, aka the holodeck, would provide a holographic illusion to a viewer who is present in another location by giving that person a 360-degree view (in 3D) of everything that’s going on. It’s a step beyond 3-D and is expected to revolutionize the way people see television and in how they participate in activities around the world. For example, by allowing a viewer to “walk around” a remote location as if in a virtual game, a surgeon could help execute a complicated medical procedure from thousands of miles away.

Others who contributed to the new material include: Reji Philip from the UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center, Panit Chantharasupawong from UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics, and Huifeng Qian from Department of Chemistry at the Carnegie Mellon University.

I wonder what would happen if they combined this with a metamaterial? A diffusion-based cloaking device?

Foglets

Foglet (credit: J. Storrs Hall)

Taking the a step research further out, in 1993 J. Storrs Hall conceived the idea of utility fog, consisting of a swarm of nanobots (“foglets”) that can take the shape of virtually anything, and change shape on the fly.

Perhaps Thomas’ nanoclusters could one day be developed into self-assembling modules that actualize Storrs’ concept — and take it from the micron level down to the nanometer level?

In Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of, Storrs suggested that an appropriate mass of Utility Fog can be programmed to “simulate most of the physical properties of any macroscopic object (including air and water), to roughly the same precision those properties are measured by human senses.

That could include cars, houses, and just about any other object. “The pattern you both set your houses to could be anything, including a computer-generated illusion. In this way, Utility Fog can act as a transparent interface between ‘cyberspace’ and physical reality.”

“Consider the application of Utility Fog to a task such as telepresence. The worksite is enclosed in a cloud of Fog, which simulates the hands of the operators to assemble the parts and manipulate tools. The operator is likewise completely embedded in Fog. Here, the Fog simulates the objects that are at the worksite, and allows the operator to manipulate them.”

So what would you do with nanocluster foglets?

 

 

 

First attack on a cyborg

July 17, 2012 Human Enhancement, Social/Ethical/Legal, Survival/Defense, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments

EyeTap (credit: Steve Mann)

UPDATE: McDonald’s provided this statement to KurzweilAI on July 18, 2012:

“We share the concern regarding Dr. Mann’s account of his July 1 visit to a McDonald’s in Paris.  McDonald’s France was made aware of Dr. Mann’s complaints on July 16, and immediately launched a thorough investigation. The McDonald’s France team has contacted Dr. Mann and is awaiting further information from him.

In addition, several staff members involved have been interviewed individually,  and all independently and consistently expressed that their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation.  Our crew members and restaurant security staff have informed us that they did not damage any of Mr. Mann’s personal possessions.

While we continue to learn more about the situation, we are hearing from customers who have questions about what happened.  We urge everyone not to speculate or jump to conclusions before all the facts are known.  Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment and stellar service to McDonald’s customers around the world.”

- McDonald’s

On July 1, Steve Mann, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto and renowned as the world’s first cyborg, was physically assaulted in a McDonald’s in Paris for wearing his EyeTap eyeglass, with resulting damage to his eyeglass, which is surgically attached to his skull.

“I’m not seeking to be awarded money. I just want my Glass fixed,” said Steve. Paris police and McDonald’s were unresponsive, he said.

Maybe KurzweilAI readers in France and Europe can help? Here’s the McDonald’s contact page in France. We will pass along your comments and suggestions to Steve.

UPDATE:  Khader Aissani, 36, manager, McDonald’s of Champs-Elysées as of Oct.2011:

Khader Aissani (credit: 20minutes.fr)

Here is Steve Mann’s report. It raises significant questions for future wearers of Google Glass and other enhancements.

Digital Eye Glass

I believe that Digital Eye Glass will ultimately replace glasses, and will help many people see better, and improve the quality of their lives through Augmediated Reality.

I wear a computer vision system, and carry a letter from my family physician, as well as documentation on this system when I travel.

I have worn a computer vision system of some kind for 34 years, and am the inventor of the technology that I wear and use in my day-to-day life.

Although it has varied over the last 34 years, I have worn the present embodiment of this system (pictured below) for 13 years. This simple design which I did in collaboration with designer Chris Aimone, consists of a sleek strip of aluminum that runs across the forehead, with two silicone nose pads. It holds an EyeTap device (computer-controlled laser light source that causes the eye itself to function as if it were both a camera and display, in effect) in front of my right eye. It also gives the wearer the appearance of having a “glass eye”, this phenomenon being known as the “glass eye” effect (Presence Connect, 2002).

Over the years the EyeTap has also therefore been known as the “Glass Eye” or “Eye Glass”, or “Digital Eye Glass”, using the word “Glass” in its singular form, rather than its plural form “Glasses” (See figure caption, “EyeTap digital eye glass”, Aaron Harris/Canadian Press, Monday Dec. 22, 2003).

Recent news has described me as “the father of wearable computing” in the context of various commercially manufactured versions of similar eye glass, such as those made by companies like Google, Olympus, and the like (see below), so as this technology becomes mainstream, McDonald’s might need to get used to it.

I originally created this technology, and the computer vision algorithms (e.g. HDR = High Dynamic Range), to help people see better. I have also assisted a number of blind and visually impaired (partially sighted) persons with various projects, and I continue to conduct research in this area. I was also part of the team that invented, designed, and built rehabilitation technology for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and this technology continues to be used by the CNIB.

Physical assault and willful destruction of customer’s property by persons acting as representatives of McDonald’s

In June of 2012, my wife, children, and I traveled to Paris, France, for our summer vacation, in order to give our children the opportunity to learn true Parisian French (we have them enrolled in French immersion at school).

On the evening of 2012 July 1st, my wife and children and I went to McDonalds at 140, Avenue Champs Elysees, Paris, France, after a day of sightseeing (8 museums and other landmark sights, as part of a boat cruise package), and while we were standing in line at McDonalds, I was stopped by a person who subsequently stated that he was a McDonalds employee, and he asked about my eyeglass (digital computer vision system, i.e. EyeTap).

Because we’d spent the day going to various museums and historical landmark sites guarded by military and police, I had brought with me the letter from my doctor regarding my computer vision eyeglass, along with documentation, etc., although I’d not needed to present any of this at any of the other places I visited (McDonald’s was the only establishement that seemed to have any problem with my eyeglass during our entire 2 week trip).

Since I happened to have it with me, I showed this doctor’s letter and the documentation to the purported McDonalds employee who had stopped me in the McDonalds line.

After reviewing the documentation, the purported McDonalds employee accepted me (and my family) as a customer, and left us to place our order. In what follows, I will refer to this person as “Possible Witness 1″.

We ordered two Ranch Wraps, one burger, and one mango McFlurry, from a cashier who I will refer to as “Possible Witness 2″. My daughter handled the cash to pay Possible Witness 2, as my daughter wanted to practice her French. Possible Witness 2 complimented my daughter on her fluency in French.

Next my family and I seated ourselves in the restaurant right by the entrance, so we could watch people walking along Avenue Champs Elysees while we ate our meal.

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Left-to-right: Perpetrator 2, Perpetrator 1, and Perpetrator 3 (credit: Steve Mann)

Subsequently another person within McDonalds physically assaulted me, while I was in McDonand’s, eating my McDonand’s Ranch Wrap that I had just purchased at this McDonald’s. He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools.

I tried to calm him down and I showed him the letter from my doctor and the documentation I had brought with me. He (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 1) then brought me to two other persons.

He was standing in the middle, right in front of me, and there was another person to my left seated at a table (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 2), and a third person to my right. The third person (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 3) was holding a broom and dustpan, and wearing a shirt with a McDonald’s logo on it. The person in the center (Perpetrator 1) handed the materials I had given him to the person to my left (Perpetrator 2), while the three of them reviewed my doctor’s letter and the documentation.

mann_perpetrators_2

Left-to-right: Perpetrator 2 tearing up my doctor’s letter, while Perpetrator 3 watches (credit: Steve Mann)

After all three of them reviewed this material, and deliberated on it for some time, Perpetrator 2 angrily crumpled and ripped up the letter from my doctor. My other documentation was also destroyed by Perpetrator 1.

I noticed that Perpetrator 1 was wearing a name tag clipped to his belt. When I looked down at it, he quickly covered it up with his hand, and pulled it off and turned it around so that it was facing inwards, so that only the blank white backside of it was then facing outwards.

Perpetrator 1 pushed me out the door, onto the street.

The computerized eyeglass processes imagery using Augmediated Reality, in order to help the wearer see better, and when the computer is damaged, e.g. by falling and hitting the ground (or by a physical assault), buffered pictures for processing remain in its memory, and are not overwritten with new ones by the then non-functioning computer vision system.

As a result of Perpetrator 1′s actions, therefore images that would not have otherwise been captured were captured. Therefore by damaging the Eye Glass, Perpetrator 1 photographed himself and others within McDonalds.

The images, all taken by Perpetrator 1 (i.e. their having been captured was caused by Perpetrator 1′s actions), were among those recovered from the damaged computer vision system, and will hopefully help in solving this crime.

Please help

I tried on many occasions to contact McDonald’s but have not received any response. As McDonand’s does not publish any direct contact email information, I used the whois database to find some email addresses, e.g. of domains like “mcdonalds.com” and emailed those addresses.

My attempts included filling out various online forms on mcdonalds.com but to no avail. I also tried calling the main number, at mcdonands.com: 1-800-244-6227, but got a voice recording that was totally unintelligible (very loud and distorted), and it appears this number does not work.

I also contacted the Embassy, Consulate, Police, etc., without much luck.

In my research, I came across Penny Sheldon, a travel agent from Boise, Id., who was physically assaulted by McDonalds staff in Paris, France, because she photographed their menu. This seems surprising because many people use a handheld camera as a seeing aid to magnify and read signs, etc. (zooming into a picture to see it on screen).

Penny Sheldon contacted the Police in Paris, but did not receive much help from them. I’m not seeking to be awarded money. I just want my Glass fixed, and it would also be nice if McDonald’s would see fit to support vision research.

I don’t have the resources to take on a branch of a large multi-national corporation operating in a distant country, but I could use some help and advice as to how to resolve this matter, how to ensure it doesn’t happen again to me or anyone else wearing Eye Glass, and what can be done to advance Digital Eye Glass research in not just the technological realm, but also the realm of social responsibility and “culture and technology.

Best regards,

Steve

Dr. Steve Mann, PhD (MIT ’97), PEng (Ontario),
330 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, M5T 1G5.

Research in Wearable Computing and Augmediated Reality

The more people that adopt this technology to improve the quality of their lives, the more that McDonald’s will become accustomed to it.  You can become involved by building your own wearable computer vision system.  See for example, the following links:

http://www.eyetap.org/publications/

http://interaction-design.org

http://wearcam.org/textbook.htm

http://wearcam.org/ece516/

Why immersive virtual reality is the next generation of gaming: part 2

July 14, 2012 Entertainment/New Media, Innovation/entrepreneurship, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments

At the recent E3 2012 show, I saw the future of virtual reality and gaming.

It’s a robust stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD) called the Oculus RIFT from hardware pioneer Palmer Luckey, shown off by legendary computer graphics guru John Carmack, technical director of Id Software.

Using aspheric lenses and side-by-side stereoscopy, the Oculus RIFT boasts a wide field-of-view of 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees vertical, with a target price of $500, according to Palmer, which totally kills anything on the market today in the consumer price range. It also uses a gyroscope for orientation data, so you can actually look around inside the game environment quite naturally.

As evidence of its importance, Carmack is integrating support for the Oculus Rift into Bethesda Softworks’ DOOM 3: BFG Edition, slated for release in North America in October. (If you want to learn more about the Oculus hardware, you can check out detailed specs here.

This is the beginning. 

The RIFT isn’t yet ready to be a neat consumer package; it’s still a DIY device for enthusiasts and hackers, modders, and homebrewers, but “one of the big players will take this as one of the next steps in display [and] interaction technology,” as Carmack notes in the video.

It’s the spark of a revolution in the first-person shooter gaming niche.

Skyrim (credit: Bethesda Softworks)

Many DIYers on the Meant To Be Seen forums (Palmer’s DIY community, where he posts about his projects) are already working on open-source software projects to make the Oculus RIFT compatible with other first-person shooters besides Doom 3, such as Skyrim and Mirror’s Edge, as well as many Valve games, such as Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

I’ve had the chance to collaborate with Palmer over the past year or so on other VR projects, such as Shayd and Project Holodeck (a work in progress), and I’ve have worked with a number of his prototypes, like the PR4 and others.

Pre-warping

The lenses that are built into the HMD tend to stretch the image output so that it wraps around a 90-degree field-of-view, thus giving the player a wide FOV that feels much like peripheral vision.  To compensate for this wide FOV optical distortion, John Carmack coded the Doom 3: BFG Edition demo to pre-warp the image coming out of the screen.

Pre-warped stereo image in Doom 3: BFG Edition (credit: id Software)

This same warping effect can be utilized in all FPS games to make them compatible with the RIFT. One MTBS  community member, Joshua Lieberman, AKA Emerson, is working on his open source project Biclops to achieve this “barrel” pre-warping with Skyrim and Mirror’s Edge

Other amazing VR games coming

Valve is also diving into wearable computing, and it is highly likely that they are already working with the Oculus RIFT to integrate it with their Source Engine (this link explains exactly how to integrate a gyroscope properly in the Source Engine for use with an HMD, and I’ve been playing a lot with that C++ code recently).

Portal 2 (credit: Valve Software)

Thus existing games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 could be experienced with enhanced visual immersion, and even orientational tracking of the head provided through a gyroscope input.

Due to the diverse and dynamic community based around the Source Engine, if the RIFT is made easily compatible, numerous mods would begin springing up that are built specifically for a head-mounted display.

Much like how the Razer Hydra was sold with Portal 2, the first truly immersive VR games built for VR hardware could start being sold on Valve’s Steam online gaming platform for developers.

Of course, other engines can be just as easily made compatible, particularly the new Unity Pro 4 Engine, which has already been used as the basis for numerous VR experiences at the MxR Lab and the USC Interactive Media Division. The current game I’m producing, Wild Skies, will be using Unity Pro 4 with the Oculus RIFT as well as a positional tracking for a full 360-degree virtual play space.

Consumer version coming

In his latest update, Palmer revealed he is talking with Valve, Bethesda, Epic, Crytek, and Unity about a consumer version of the headset to be developed in 2013. This new version will have built-in support for the most popular game engines, a higher-resolution screen, and wider field-of-view optics.

Now, since teaming up with Carmack a few months ago, Palmer can finally launch the final iteration of his RIFT, and dole out some harsh VR justice to the universe. A Kickstarter for of the first round of development of the RIFT head-mounted display is starting around July 19, according to the latest update from Palmer, to coincide with Carmack’s involvement at QuakeCon and Gamescom.

“Imagine an HMD with a massive field of view and more pixels than 1080p per eye, wireless PC link, built-in absolute head and hand/weapon/wand positioning, and native integration with some (if not all) of the major game engines, all for less than $1,000 USD,” Palmer says. “That can happen in 2013!”

There’s going to be a lot of innovation with this kind of hardware in the next ten years during the following console cycle — if you even want to call it a console cycle anymore. All I know is it’s going to be a hell of a decade.

By the time 2013 comes to a close, the returning VR industry will be back in full swing — this time as part of the multi-billion dollar games industry.

Why immersive virtual reality is the next generation of gaming: part 1

July 14, 2012 Entertainment/New Media, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments

FOV2GO (credit: USC/MxR)

It’s now obvious that immersive virtual reality is finally back in the consumer market — with a vengeance.

Especially with the recent advent of FOV2GO, a free DIY portable fold-out iPhone and Android viewer that turns the smartphone screen into a 3-D VR system.

You can create one with foamboard and 2 cheap plastic lenses, and downloadable software lets you create your own virtual worlds or environments to display.

FOV2GO for iPhone (credit: USC/MxR)

(There’s also an iPad3 version.)

What made this possible: high-resolution screens and built-in gyroscopes. The retina display on the iPhone 4, for instance, provides 960×640 DVGA high resolution on a compact screen.

That means we can now construct ultra-lightweight VR head-mounted displays. The gyroscope lets the device track your head movement so you can look around in real time.

FOV2Go is actually a hardware and software kit for the creation of immersive virtual reality experiences using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. More info here.

At the Maker Faire showcase of FOV2GO in May, we showed off a few apps such as Tales from the Minus Lab and Shayd Mobile, both running in the Unity3D game engine with custom C# scripts to create the side-by-side in-game camera.

Harness the power to freely shrink and grow as you explore the uncharted worlds and solve environmental physics puzzles… (credit: USC Games)

I created a Mobile version of the Shayd Virtual Reality installation. While the full installation of Shayd encompasses an entire motion capture stage and wide-FOV head-mounted display, Shayd Mobile is much simpler, utilizing the FOV2GO stereoscopic Unity package developed by Perry Hoberman.

The game could also play on an iPad 3 with very large stereoscopic lenses, allowing for a tasty field-of-view approaching 130 degrees.

Considering that the human eye sees at about 180 degrees, this was pretty realistic! You start out walking around with a flashlight in a dark office, looking for a light switch. Using other inputs on the iPad, you can click on letters on the desk and read them by lantern, or use your flashlight. Eventually you can pull out your gun and fire bullets!

The epicenter for FOV2GO (and other cool projects, including motion capture with the Kinect) is the Mixed Reality Lab (MxR), part of the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California (USC).

But there’s something coming that’s even cooler. Much cooler.

People have always been dreaming about virtual reality since Neuromancer and Snow Crash, and in the late 90’s it really captured the public imagination. VR companies were popping up left and right, but the technology wasn’t quite there yet, and the industry crashed and burned around the same time as the dotcom bubble.

Now that it’s experiencing a resurgence fifteen years later, a ton of pseudo-VR devices are coming out that don’t really make any sense.

There’s been a ton of tinkering with controllers, motion devices, stereoscopy, and the like to make gaming a bit more interesting. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all developed devices that encourage players to get off the couch and into the action. Like the Kinect, the Playstation Move, the Wiimote, the Razer Hydra for PC, and most recently, the Wii U.

Nice try, no cigar (credit: Sony)

Sony, Vuzix, Senics, and NVIZ are all trying to push towards the consumer market, but their HMDs (head-mounted displays) — like the Sony HMZ-T1 and the Vuzix WRAP 920 — are either too expensive or too low-quality, and they have a narrow field-of-view, so you have no sense of peripheral vision.

There’s also no built-in gyroscope or head-tracking, so even if you did play a game with it, you couldn’t move your head around in the virtual environment.

These consumer HMDs feel like a floating television that you are looking at from 5 feet away. So it’s not sparking any real innovation in the games industry, or first-person shooters.  Besides, if it looks just like a TV, why not just watch a TV? 

Immersive virtual reality hardware

But I found something at the recent E3 Expo 2012 that I’ve been evangelizing since I was a kid. That I know in my heart of hearts is the future — the immediate future — of gaming.

Immersive virtual reality hardware — with real HMDs — has finally arrived. And it’s about to make a huge splash in the first-person shooter hardcore gaming niche.

More in my next post….

A miniature humanoid robot lives on your shoulder and wants to be your friend

May 30, 2012 Robotics/ AI, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments
mh2_shoulder_robot

MH-2 telepresence robot (credit: Yuichi Tsumaki, Fumiaki HOno, Taisuke Tsukuda/Yamagata University)

OK, this one pushes me over the “Onion threshold,” to coin a term.

A wearable miniature humanoid lives on your shoulder and can be remotely inhabited by your friends from anywhere in the world.

Hey, I’m not making this stuff up — it comes from IEEE Spectrum, a credible source, and it’s not April 1!

Anyway, it turns out Yamagata University researchers are developing a robot to make sure you’ll never, ever have to be alone again.

Think of it as Facebook Version 23 meets Revenge of the Nerds.

MH-2 (that’s “MH” for “miniature humanoid”) is a wearable telepresence robot that acts as an avatar for your remote friend, who’s also terrified of being alone. Know what? I don’t want to be alone with the creepy little robot, OK?

MH-2 is designed to be able to mimic human actions as accurately and realistically as possible. Think Telenoid, except it can actually do stuff besides wiggle around semi-creepily, as Spectrum puts it.

Instead of having said friend come along with you on a trip, for example, you can bring along an MH-2, explains Spectrum. Back home, your friend puts on a 360-degree immersive 3D display and stands in front of some sort of motion capture environment (like a Kinect, for example). Then, they get to see (shudder) whatever the MH-2 sees.

Meanwhile, the robot on your shoulder acts like an avatar, duplicating the speech and gestures of your friend right there for you to interact with directly.

The 20-DOF Miniature Humanoid MH-2: a Wearable Communication System, by Yuichi Tsumaki, Fumiaki Ono, and Taisuke Tsukuda, from Yamagata University in Japan, was presented this month at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in St. Paul, Minn.

Shortly after that, tiny robot outfits mysteriously showed up in K-Marts nationwide. OK, I made that part up.

Update: Kidding aside, a future version of this innovative tech could possibly find its way into future 3D versions of gadgets like Google Glass.

‘Avatars’ to replace some humans at NYC area airports

May 23, 2012 Social/Ethical/Legal, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments
airlineavatar1

A human customer service representative at LGA airport next to a newly unveiled customer service 'avatar' (credit: Jim O'Grady/WNYC)

As if TSA groping in airports wasn’t enough, now we’re going to be subjected to some kind of creepy composite of Princess Leia from Star Wars and the advertising scene in Minority Report.

“I can be just about anything you want me to be,” over-enthuses the simulated “customer service representative,” five of which are intended for installation in LaGuardia, JFK. and Liberty Newark airports in early July, according to Time Techland and other sources.

The “avatar” — actually, a simple looped video recording — will be projected onto a life-sized flat screen in the shape of a woman. She will dispense flight information and tips about services like shuttle bus and taxi pick-ups when a customer approaches.

Weirdly, she will not be interactive, which is at least consistent with my experience with airport personnel.

What’s next? Groping by robots? Hmm, probably preferable.

Avatars meet in Second Life to celebrate Future Day 2012

March 5, 2012 Singularity/Futures, Social Networking/Web/Education, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments
natashafutureday2012

Natasha Vita-More kicks off Future Day 2012 in Second Life

The first Future Day on March 1 featured events in 14 cities in 8 countries. The largest event was at Terasem Island in Second Life, with about 50 attendees.

The auditorium at Terasem Island was full and we were eagerly awaiting three of the speakers to arrive: Ben Goertzel, Martine Rothblatt, and Howard Bloom.

I introduced the event by asking: “What kind of future do we want to design?  In what diverse directions are the set of emerging and speculative technologies heading? What types of societies and cultures can be developed and what types of people will inhabit them?”

I believe this future cannot be developed by just science and technology, although they’re crucial building blocks. “The future is a story — a narrative and we are the strategists, the scenario makers of our own lives.”

I spoke about being bold in a world of caution. I said that there are plenty of naysayers — those who discount innovators for not being practical enough. Instead we need more innovators, not less.

“Nature has its many surprising, unexpected, uncertain events that can turn our plans inside out. We need continually ask questions about what we are attempting to create and challenge our own intentions. One necessary tool is speculation, and what could be called ‘emerging and speculative design.’”

Martine’s talk (via text chat) suggested each person could bring Future Day into her/his life making commitments to working toward better cooperation, a broader outreach across the world, more compassion and giving. She also suggested projects that we could work on and the concept of a film came up.  What a wonderful idea!  We talked about many of Martine’s projects, include the “Bina48” robot head. We also talked briefly about the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the backup technology of cryonics being timely.

Giulio Prisco said the future is not fixed in stone, and that the positive Singularity that we want to see will only happen if we work to make it happen, which requires enthusiasm and positive thinking. He also proposed a film project, with positive visions of the future to stimulate enthusiasm and drive.

giuliofutureday2012

Giulio Prisco (in space suit) proposes film project

Howard spoke jubilantly about pushing forward, not accepting the naysayers, and in fact being every more selfish about our own futures: “It’s our life and we should create it in the visionary way we desire — no holds barred. We can be the future!”

Adam A. Ford’s talk (from Australia, where he had just organized Australian Future Day) was a recipe for preparing for the future, knowing the skill set, and using it. “Let’s go negative with caution. It is very important to empower people to help, instead of giving the impression that we are helpless or that making a better future is intractable. If we scare with scale, we’ll lose a lot of the people we are trying to connect with. If we empower with feasible steps, we’ll make social change.  And what we are really after is social change around thinking about the Future.”

adamfutureday2012

Adam A. Ford teleports in from Australia

Ben Goertzel in Hong Kong had a bandwidth problem, but sent an audio file: “Welcome to Future Day 2012. I conceived the idea of a Future Day holiday because I think it’s important for us all to focus our attention on the future. We shouldn’t forget or ignore the past, but this is a critical juncture in human history — the next few decades hold the possibility of amazing transcendence or terrible destruction for humanity, and we need to be focusing our attention on how to guide things in a positive direction… and reveling in the amazing positive possibilities. A Future Day holiday is one fantastic way to do this.  So thanks for joining the celebration!!”

As I noted in closing remarks, “Future Day is a day for action!  If all matter in the universe is comprised of patterns, let’s redesign what doesn’t work and form new methods for approaching the future with fluidity. Let’s grow neuromolecular wings for deeper perceptions in our flight in fostering a world of diversity and compassion.” And I closed with a quote from Sonia Arrison: “Future Day is important since it reminds us that a great future does not create itself. In order to realize our hopes and dreams, we have to actively work to make them happen. One of my dreams is to see a day when disease, and the suffering associated with it, is obliterated.”

We look forward to next year’s March 1 Future Day!

Beyond texting: augmented-reality windshields — what could go wrong?

January 16, 2012 Innovation/entrepreneurship, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments
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Mercedes' gesture-controlled augmented reality, Red Bull optional (credit: Mercedes-Benz)

What? You thought distracted drivers texting on cell phones and swerving erratically is a problem? That’s so 2011.

Imagine a future in which icons flash on your car windshield, hologram-style, as your car approaches restaurants, stores, historic landmarks or the homes of friends, effuses CNN.

Simply point your hand at them, and the icons open to show real-time information: when that bridge over there was built, what band is playing at that nightclub on the left, whether that new café up the street has any tables available. Wave your hand again, and you’ve made a restaurant reservation.

Wow, it’s like Second Life, or Fringe, or something, dude!

BTW, note the text message in the photo above: “On my way to HiDive Bar!” Oh yeah, now there’s the perfect combo: AR, booze, and driving.

“Driver, put down the Kinect and step out of the vehicle!”

‘Driving while intoxicated’

Mercedes-Benz showed off this wacky vision of the future of driving at CES in Vegas, where wacky is the new normal. (Mercedes’ “mBrace” — get it? — a $200/year system that will let drivers run customized apps like Yelp and Facebook controlled by voice commands or on a dashboard touchscreen), targeted to Generation Y.

An upload gone awry? Seemed like a good idea at the time. (Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer)

We’re working on a new generation of vehicles that truly serve as digital companions,” said Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, in a keynote speech at CES. “They learn your habits, adapt to your choices, predict your moves and interact with your social network.” OK, “My Mother the Car” on acid. Got it.

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Roximity, a smartphone app that provides real-time deals and specials relevant to a user’s location, demonstrated on Ford SYNC at the 2012 International CES (credit: Ford)

Not to be all uptight or anything, Ford also plans to display real-time discounts relevant to a driver’s location, and Audi and Kia also plan Web-based dashboard entertainment systems.

In December, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a ban on all use of mobile devices while driving, including hands-free devices, Technology Review points out. “One board member compared the use of phones in cars to driving while intoxicated.”

Well, at least Kia is doing one rational thing: a “user-centered driving concept”: an infrared LED and camera to monitor the driver’s face for alertness. The system would recognize whether the driver’s eyes are opened or closed, safeguarding against an accident caused by the driver falling asleep. OK, that’s nice, but how about recognizing when the driver is distracted by dopey AR displays and applying a taser or something?

Here’s an app I want: one that warns me when a Ford, Mercedes, Audi, or Kia — or one of those autonomous cars — is approaching so I can swerve the hell out of the way.

 

How to learn things automatically

December 12, 2011 Cognitive Science/Neuroscience, Social Networking/Web/Education, Social/Ethical/Legal, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics No comments
Decoded Neurofeedback

Automatic neurofeedback learning (credit: Boston University)

OK, this one’s right out of The Matrix and The Manchurian Candidate.

Imagine watching a computer screen while lying down in a brain imaging machine and automatically learning how to play the guitar or lay up hoops like Shaq O’Neal, or even how to recuperate from a disease — without any conscious knowledge.

Researchers at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan used decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce visual cortex activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.

“Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe, director of BU’s Visual Science Laboratory.

Neuroscientists have previously found that pictures gradually build up inside a person’s brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example. Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.

“However, none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said Watanabe. So they used decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers found that repetitions of the activation pattern caused long-lasting visual performance improvement on that visual feature — without the subject’s active involvement. The method could be used for improving memory or motor (muscle) skills, the researchers suggest.

But that’s where is gets a bit scary. “In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome,” said Kawato. “However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way.”

Uh, ya think?

Ref.: Kazuhisa Shibata et al., Perceptual Learning Incepted by Decoded fMRI Neurofeedback Without Stimulus Presentation, Science, 2011 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1212003]

interlife

InterLife project (credit: ESRC)

Are virtual worlds better than the real world for learning?

Here another one that weirds me out just a little. It uses virtual worlds to help students learn.

Academics at Glasgow University and elsewhere have developed 3D virtual worlds to act as informal communities that allow students to learn by interacting in shared learning activities, such as film making and photography.

“We demonstrated that you can plan activities with kids and get them working in 3D worlds with commitment, energy and emotional involvement, over a significant period of time,” project lead researcher Professor Victor Lally said.

OK, but those are things sound like fun to do. Why do they need avatars and elaborate virtual worlds — just give me a video cam and some software and get the hell out of my way! These kids are sitting there in from of monitors vegging out watching virtual worlds instead of shooting Occupy Edinburgh for YouTube.

My guess is that this is really intended as a tool to teach stuff that students have no interest in. In other words: more effective compulsory government-controlled education.

“It’s a highly engaging medium that could have a major impact in extending education and training beyond geographical locations. 3-D worlds seem to do this in a much more powerful way than many other social tools currently available on the Internet,” Lally insisted. “When appropriately configured, this virtual environment can offer safe spaces to experience new learning opportunities that seemed unfeasible only 15 years ago.”

“You can now create multiple science simulations of field trip locations, for example, using 3-D world ‘hyper-grids’ that allow participants to ‘teleport’ between a range of experiments or activities. This enables the students to share their learning through recording their activities, presenting graphs about their results, and use voting technologies to judge attitudes and opinions from others. It can offer new possibilities for designing exciting and engaging learning spaces. This kind of 3D technology could be used to simulate training environments, retail contexts, and interview situations.”

A mobile app is also in development. The research is part of the Inter-Life project in Scotland, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

OK, maybe I was wrong. For some subjects (think: math, science), hanging out in (and building) virtual worlds is a hell of a lot more fun than sitting around listening to some boring teacher drone on and on. What do you think?

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