Episode 320 — Artificial Oblique Hums

Space, the current frontier, AirTags, AI convolutional networks improving game photorealism, explosive propulsion, the Infinite Improbability Drive and a bevy of games.

Andy starts off this episode with his shiny new AirTag experience and reflects on the discussion from last week’s show.  Andy and Michael both consider the rapidity of which the AirTags have been hacked.

Michael R and Andy then launch into deep space.  The co-hosts reflect on the amazing fact that the Voyager spacecraft are still transmitting data after so long, and being so far away from Earth.  After discussing the strange ‘hum’ that’s been detected by the Voyager spacecraft, the pair talk about the Star Trek: Legends game on Apple Arcade and a couple of television shows.  

Switching from spacecraft to aircraft, Michael R and Andy turn their attention to a story from UCF researchers who have had success with a hypersonic detonation engine.  This engine draws power from oblique wave detonation that theoretically could create enough thrust to power an aircraft up to 17 times the speed of sound.  Incredible!

Coming back down to Earth, the cohosts then take a look at the improved photo realism stemming from the Cityscapes dataset in conjunction with a convolutional AI network for Grand Theft Auto V.  Michael R notes that the hills in California light brown while German hills are green, and this had a factor in the machine learning model which tinge the California hills green.

Andy and Michael then make the connection to last week’s episode on generating interiors, and with the combination play of outdoor landscapes (Flight Simulator) to cities (GTA V) to the interior of buildings to have fully livable virtual worlds in only 50 years. 

Demeo is a great example of playing virtually together in the Oculus social/digital realm.  Check out the launch video below.  The pair then close out this week’s episode with D&D, Board Game Geek, genres and categories to indulge your inner game geek.  

Selected Links

AirTags — https://www.apple.com/airtag/ 

Macworld article: AirTag already hacked and reprogrammed — https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/airtag-already-hacked-reprogrammed-3804443/ 

Voyager 1 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 

Voyager 2 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2

Star Trek Voyager (TV series) — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/ 

Red Shirts Always Die article: New RPG called Star Trek: Legends launches on Apple Arcade — https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2021/04/02/star-trek-legends-new-rpg-launches-exclusively-on-apple-arcade-today/ 

Star Trek Legends (Apple Arcade game) — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/star-trek-legends/id1529664467 

The Independent article: NASA spacecraft hears strange ‘hum’ outside our solar system — https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/space/nasa-voyager-1-space-hum-b1845015.html 

New Atlas article: World first: Oblique wave detonation engine may unlock Mach 17 aircraft — https://newatlas.com/aircraft/oblique-wave-detonation-engine-hypersonic-ucf/ 

The Expanse (TV show) — https://www.syfy.com/the-expanse 

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy wiki: Infinite Improbability Drive — https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Infinite_Improbability_Drive 

Enhancing photorealism enhancement paper by Stephan R. Richter, Hassan Abu AlHaija, and Vladlen Koltun — https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.04619.pdf 

Kotaku article: Grand Theft Auto V Looks Almost Photorealistic Thanks To Machine Learning — https://kotaku.com/grand-theft-auto-v-looks-almost-photorealistic-with-mac-1846882588 

The Verge article: Intel is using machine learning to make GTA V look incredibly realistic — https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/12/22432945/intel-gta-v-realistic-machine-learning-cityscapes-dataset 

Cityscapes dataset — https://www.cityscapes-dataset.com 

Games at Work episode 319 — Tracking Vinyl Discs — https://gamesatwork.biz/2021/05/10/episode-319-tracking-vinyl-discs/ 

Pong — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong 

Road to VR article: ‘Demeo’ Review – Excellent Tabletop Gameplay Needing More Native VR Touch — https://www.roadtovr.com/demeo-review-quest-2-steam/ 

Wizards of the Coast Dungeon & Dragons — https://dnd.wizards.com 

Board Game Geek andypiper user profile — https://boardgamegeek.com/user/andypiper 

Board Game Geek categories — https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgamecategory 

Carcasonne — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game) 

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