Episode 188 – Star Wars Bucks

With the opening of the latest installation of the Star Wars saga this weekend, Michael and Michael start off this episode, recorded a week earlier, with the new AR capabilities of the Star Wars app.  Michael M, being the enterprising person that he is, boldly managed to try this out by loading up the image on a website to allow the AR experience to work.

The newest Starbucks opened in Shanghai and in addition to being the largest in the world, coming in at 30,000 sq ft, is also AR-enabled.  Visitors to this Starbucks can walk around with their AR-enabled phone to learn more about the inner workings of this Starbucks, earning badges to receive a custom roastery photo filter when all the badges are collected.

Michael M was fascinated by the way the Kuri robot emotes by changing the shape of the eyes using “eyelids” that come up from the bottom of the eyes, as well as from the top.  Michael R shared an intriguing app that reads audio waveforms, which the PhonoPaper app describes as “the 2D audio barcode (by analogy with the QR-code)”

Selected Links

The First Order Arrives… In The Star Wars App — http://www.starwars.com/news/the-first-order-arrives-in-the-star-wars-app

The Star Wars App — http://www.starwars.com/games-apps/star-wars-app

Mashable article:  The world’s biggest Starbucks outlet is also AR-enhanced — http://mashable.com/2017/12/05/starbucks-shanghai-outlet

Wired article:  The Genesis of Kuri, the Friendly Home Robot — https://www.wired.com/story/the-genesis-of-kuri/

Rosie the robot from the Jetsons — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Jetsons_characters#Rosie

Twiki the robot from Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century — http://buckrogers.wikia.com/wiki/Twiki

IEEE Spectrum article:  New Carbon Nanotube Sheets Claim World’s Top Heat-Sink Performance — https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/new-carbon-nanotube-sheets-claim-worlds-top-heatsink-performance

Handbrake — https://handbrake.fr

Apple App Store article:  From Hit Game to Arcade Sensation — https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1309536407

Kate Bush’s album Ariel — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_(album)

PhonoPaper app — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phonopaper/id865947553?mt=8

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:17 — 37.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More