e422 — Meta-Empire Strikes Back

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VR headset
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash

Published 3 July 2023

Michael and Michael get together to cohost this episode, all about 3D, AR, VR, AI and the metaverse.  Starting things off with a story from Gizmodo, the pair discuss how scientists are able to recreate 3D images of reflections from a person’s eye.  After remembering other intriguing security stories from past episodes, the team turns to a story reporting that Google has discontinued Project Iris – it’s augmented reality glasses effort.  

Next, several metaverse stories take center stage.  Per an article from The Register, metaverses are not succeeding in the marketplace.  The Atlantic has an excellent article on Second Life, authored by Wagner James Au, who also has a new book out called Making a Metaverse that Matters.  Continuing on this theme are stories about how Meta is bundling games in a subscription model and have provided a significant software update to Meta Quest 2 owners.  There is also a piece on how LEGO and Epic Games are partnering up to leverage the Unreal Engine for new experiences.

Then the team turns to AI with several stories on Marvel’s use of AI in a human + AI augmented fashion, what AI is doing to the “old web” and amazing new capabilities from Midjourney.

What are your predictions for AR, the metaverse and AI?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

3D / AR / VR

Gizmodo article: Computer, Enhance: Scientists Reconstruct 3D Images From Eye Reflections

Games at Work e321 – Three Thumbs Up

The Verge article: Google has reportedly killed its Project Iris augmented reality glasses

The Register article: Metaverses are flopping – hard – says Gartner

The Atlantic article: There Will Never Be Another Second Life

Making a Metaverse that Matters by Wagner James Au

The Verge article: Meta’s new Quest Plus subscription gets you two free VR games per month

Fast Company article: Lego and Epic Games want to prove the metaverse is alive and well

LEGO Castaways

Laptop article: Meta Quest 2 owners now own a Meta Quest 2.5 (sort of)

AI

The Verge article: Secret Invasion studio under fire for AI art says ‘no artists’ jobs’ were lost

The Verge article: AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born

Ars Technika article: “Stunning”—Midjourney update wows AI artists with camera-like feature

Bonus links

SlashFilm article: LEGO’s Batman Returns Batcave Is A Punishingly Tedious Build, But It’s Worth The Time And Effort

Laughing Squid article: ‘The Mandalorian’ Reimagined as ‘The A-Team’

Uncharted Territories blog post: Maps Distort How We See the World

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e421 — Zero AIs Given

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NYC pedestrian light signal showing a red stop hand and the countdown clock at zero
Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

Published 26 June 2023

The full contingent of cohosts were available for this first episode of summer 2023.  Following on the last two episodes discussion of Apple’s WWDC keynote, Michael R’s edu-staycation and the Vision Pro, there was much to discuss.

Leading off for this episode, is proof positive of Andy’s correct observation that there was zero mention of AI in the WWDC keynote – and for good reason, as the Atlantic article explains.  Michael R shares some of his experiences in working in visionOS (including a screenshot from the visionOS simulator from his Wasted Time app using the newly available developer tools.  The team has a discussion on the kinds of apps that are not allowed as yet for the VisionPro, and notes that there is a “Travel Mode” when the speed of the person wearing the VisionPro exceeds a certain threshold.  

Wrapping up for this week is a discussion on the latest Marvel movie incarnation “Secret Invasion” which uses generative AI for the opening credits, much to the chagrin of the internet, and a robotic version of an AT-AT that takes Andy down memory lane to the Kenner toy.

We are curious to know what you think about the kind of apps that will be among the first and best uses for VisionPro and visionOS.  What toy would you like to see made into a robot?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

The Atlantic article: Apple Is an AI Company Now

Games at Work e419 – A Vision of the Future

IMDB Babylon 5 A Voice in the Wilderness: Part 1— Claudia Christian: Lt. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova

Financial Times article: Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang: ‘The machines we have now are not conscious’

Apple VisionPro

Cult of Mac article: Here are the Vision Pro apps that Apple won’t allow

visionOS SDK is out!
apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/dev

— ntakayama (@ntakayama) 2023-06-21T20:38:39.638Z

Apple Newsroom post: Developer tools to create spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro now available

visionOS simulation image capture of an amazing website & the Wasted Time app
visionOS simulation image capture by Michael Rowe

Apple App Store: Wasted Time by Michael Rowe

@michaelrowe01 I (well an AI) created you a 3d cuckoo as per your request and conversation with @andypiper on @gamesatwork_biz last week 🙂

— Epredator (@epredator) 2023-06-23T13:51:58.777Z

9 to 5 Mac article: Apple Vision Pro has a speed limit, Travel Mode required for use on flights

MacStories article: Developers’ Early Experiments with visionOS

@gamesatwork_biz one for you 🙂 pcgamer.com/they-actually-did-

— Epredator (@epredator) 2023-06-22T07:27:16.767Z

Has anyone ported the 90's Virtuality games to Apple Vision yet?

— Thomas 🔭🕹️ (@thomasfuchs) 2023-06-23T04:00:08.555Z

Wikipedia article: Virtuality

AI and AT-AT

Huffpost article: Marvel Slammed Over Using AI For ‘Secret Invasion’ Opening Credits

huckster.io article: Boring AT-AT Toy Becomes Impressive Robot

ActionFigure411.com post: Kenner vintage collection AT-AT

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e420 — Such A High

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Image of a 1440p Spatial Computing VR headset, a black device in a glass cabinet

Photo by Andy Piper June 2023

Published 19 June 2023

There are so many links to explore this week, that we put them all in the show notes for you to check out for yourselves… because… we wanna talk about other stuff that we wanna talk about.

Instead of our regular links-driven format, it’s time for a round-up of Michael R’s learnings from WWDC 2023!

After Andy has finished grilling Michael on all of these topics, he wants to talk (even) more about VR and headsets, and also, checks in on the goings on around Reddit, and the sudden migration to the Fediverse (Lemmy and Kbin).

Let us know what you think about the topics discussed in this week’s show, or, any of the links we didn’t get to talk about!

Michael’s Stuff from WWDC

Overall notes and content –  https://michaelrowe01.com/index.php/tag/wwdc23/ 

What Andy has been thinking about

The new Babylon 5 animated movie

The actual links we should have talked about

highly recommended content

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e419 — A Vision of the Future?

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Photo by Andy Piper June 2023

Published 12 June 2023

Andy and Michael M (this time) get this week’s episode of Games at Work underway with a set of articles and links focused on last week’s announcements from Apple’s WWDC and the world wide engagement on the newly announced VisionPro.  It was a fun to experience WWDC together, even though we were physically distant from one another.  Before getting into VisionPro, the pair takes a couple of moments to focus on some of the other announced capabilities, such as rotating docks in conjunction with continuity camera for FaceTime, the updates for autocorrect in iOS17 (no more ducking!) and that developer access is now available.

Both Andy and Michael have their perspectives on the headset, and the thirty minutes for the episode could not hold all of their epic discussion on the subject.  They are both pleased to see the augmented reality treatment afforded by the VisionPro, and the thoughtful design and user experiences baked into the headset.  The partnership with Zeiss is also intriguing – since custom lenses will need to be used with the VisionPro.  Andy has a longer form blog post in the making with more of his impressions, and Michael M is cooking up some further ideas as well.

Andy made the point that there was no mention of VR, metaverse or AI during the WWDC keynote, but plenty of machine learning, and the focus on privacy and security continues to remain core to Apple’s messaging.  Andy, in his early toot at the start of the WWDC keynote, said that this is Tim Cook’s legacy.  Michael M wondered if when Steve Jobs said that he had “cracked TV” if VisionPro is perhaps what he meant, and perhaps the VisionPro is Steve’s legacy as well.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if Apple could crack vision correction in the future with VisionPro?  

Michael M made the connection between the multiple context and design choices Apple has been putting into MacOS and iOS that lend themselves well to an easy integration with the user experience of VisionPro.  One such example is the recent OS feature called Stage Manager which has similarities in the way windows are grouped and positioned that are familiar with the VisionPro keynote demos.

Taking a brief couple of moments after the WWDC reactions, Andy and Michael discuss the Stable Diffusion powered generative AI artwork that encompasses QR codes as the output.  The picture for this week is a memento mori vision in store for all people that Andy took during at a 3D printing show.  Andy and Michael round out this week’s episode by touching briefly on a story where lasers have been used to guide lightning.

We are curious to know what you think about Apple’s take on mixed reality.  What was most striking to you?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know! 

These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

Selected Article Links

WWDC — all things Apple

Apple’s WWDC 2023

Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda

BBC News article: ‘Ducking hell’ to disappear from Apple autocorrect

Tom’s Guide article: iOS 17 developer beta is open to anyone — here’s how to download it now

9 to 5 Mac article: iOS 17 has new DockKit API to integrate camera apps with motorized iPhone stands

Games at work e290: Flying Cam

So there's a lot of folks reacting against the headset, which is not surprising. I’ll be watching to see how quickly or virally today’s presentation affects the rest of the industry / how far other companies instantly pivot to this same sort of direction. That was the impact of the iPhone, remember – suddenly every phone had to have a touch screen, camera, a similar-to-iOS experience. Let's see what comes from this: that's the *real* test for Tim Cook's Legacy

— Andy Piper (@andypiper) 2023-06-05T18:45:52.483Z

A big day, or the ? We’ll see shortly!

— Michael Martine (@michaelmartine) 2023-06-05T17:04:19.736Z

Apple right now

— Brianna Wu (@briannawu) 2023-06-05T19:07:14.177Z

— Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh: (@cassidy) 2023-06-05T19:35:40.245Z

Please say we can use other peoples eyes.

— John Moltz (@Moltz) 2023-06-05T19:44:56.670Z

y'all, the apple vision pro is incredibly affordable and basically pays for itself if you just stop using electricity

— Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) 2023-06-06T16:48:31.179Z

getting started building my "I need  Vision Pro for work" case

— Gavin Nelson (@gn) 2023-06-07T18:18:05.693Z

— You hang up!
— No, you hang up!
— You hang up!
— No, you hang up!
— Honey, I’m running the iOS 17 beta. I literally cannot hang up.

— Ole Begemann (@ole) 2023-06-06T12:10:44.376Z

Other innovations

Ars Technica article: Redditor creates working anime QR codes using Stable Diffusion

reddit r/StableDiffusion post: ControlNet for QR Code

Smithsonian Magazine article: Scientists Guide Lightning Bolts With Lasers for the First Time

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:40 — 35.9MB) | Embed

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