Minecraft is back in the the Games At Work feed for this episode because of the improvements in both the ray tracing and AR capabilities included in Minecraft Earth. Michael and Michael agree that the ray tracing takes Minecraft a bit too far away from the 8-bit roots, while the ability to build in AR is right up their proverbial alley.
After checking out a few other AR apps from the Mashable list, the co-hosts marvel at what appears at first to be a random walk by several people looking intently at their phones, but in reality is a group who are rapidly mapping in 3D their surroundings using only their phone cameras and a new api from 6D.ai. While certainly an expected feature and need for autonomous vehicles, the ability to create dynamic maps in real time by walking around with your camera could prove to be enormously valuable, and make everyone a contributor to keeping maps up to date.
Rounding out this episode with a discussion on bluetooth security and the cat and mouse efforts with credit card skimmers, Michael and Michael didn’t have quite enough time to talk about all the cool articles from the week. The ones they thought interesting are included in the bonus links below.
Check out the links and have a listen to the podcast!
Selected Links
The Next Web article: Minecraft with ray tracing looks so good I actually want to play it — https://thenextweb.com/gaming/2019/08/19/minecraft-with-ray-tracing-looks-so-good-i-actually-want-to-play-it/
Andy Piper’s tweet about Minecraft Earth
Hey @GamesAtWork_Biz how are we enjoying Minecraft Earth? pic.twitter.com/x8sQTTC3nA
— Pipes (@andypiper) August 21, 2019
Minecraft Earth — https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/earth
Macworld article: 10 augmented reality apps for iPhone and iPad you should be using right now — https://www.macworld.com/article/3390180/best-augmented-reality-ar-apps-for-ios-iphone-ipad.html
New World Notes article: Watch: Real World Location Virtually Recreated To Scale In Minutes — https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/08/volumetric-mirror-world-mapping-6d_ai.html
6D.ai — https://www.6d.ai
SLAM, Simultaneous localization and mapping — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping
New World Notes article: Sansar Getting Experience Points & Questions — Smart Break From Linden Labs’s Past “Second Life Is Not a Game” Mistake — https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2019/08/sansar-linden-lab-social-vr-backstory-quest-system.html
UC San Diego News Center: App Allows Inspectors to Find Gas Pump Skimmers Faster — https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/bluetana
TWiT network: Security Now episode 728: The KNOB is Broken — https://twit.tv/shows/security-now/episodes/728?autostart=false
Mashable article: Bluetooth is bad and you should stop using it — https://mashable.com/article/bluetooth-is-bad/
Bonus links
TechCrunch article: Silicone 3D printing startup Spectroplast spins out of ETHZ with $1.5M — https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/22/silicone-3d-printing-startup-spectroplast-spins-out-of-ethz-with-1-5m/
Spectroplast — https://spectroplast.com
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences article: The RoboBee flies solo — https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/06/robobee-flies-solo
TechCrunch article: Mobile gaming is a $68.5 billion global business, and investors are buying in — https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/22/mobile-gaming-mints-money/
ESPN article: Introducing a new way to rate college football players — https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/PSimpactrating0819/introducing-new-way-rate-college-football-players
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:56 — 10.2MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Email | Youtube Music | RSS | More
Such a fun episode, Michael & Andy! Loved your discussion on Life by You.