Michael, Michael and Andy return for an episode spanning face shields to additive & subtractive AR, physical and virtual location based life blogging, old and new games to play and pets jumping into the scene.
Many corporations and other groups are moving quickly to apply their capabilities to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, and there are several examples in the news from the past week from Apple, the UNC system & Duke designing and producing face shields, Tesla manufacturing ventilators from car parts and others combining wearable LED technology with cloth face masks.
While augmented reality is usually an additive concept, where visual or other data is layered upon the reality that a person perceives, in this episode, we have an intriguing subtractive version of AR, where data that hinders the view of the user may be removed. Examples from a recent IEEE conference presentation on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition provide examples how machine learning can subtract the glare from a picture taken through a glass, remove raindrops from a window pane or even make a chain link fence disappear. One can imagine that this capability could be further extended to reduce the ‘noise’ of irrelevant data in a photo or video, and provide the underlying system more clarity on what is really there.
In the games department, we take a bit of a stroll down the UK memory (computer) lane and visit with Andy the fun of the BBC Micro, along with an archive of the games on that platform. The discussion on Google making Stadia free to anyone with a gmail address sparks an interesting conversation that started with the Foursquare – Factual merger, namely that life blogging not only has a location-based element to it (Swarm), but also can have a game angle to it. Games are, after all, an important part of life, and during this time of social and physical distancing, and provide a space for community.
Wrapping up this week’s episode are stories on the recent success by researchers in France and the United states factoring two prime numbers, each with 125 decimal digits in the RSA-250 cryptographic challenge, the market success of jigsaw puzzles during this time higge, and how pets (in this case a cat) are becoming the unexpected star of remote videos.
We hope that everyone is staying safe, healthy and well. Looking forward to coming back again for another show next week!
Selected Links
TechCrunch article: Apple has sources one 20 million protective masks, now building and shipping face shields — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/05/apple-has-sourced-over-20-million-protective-masks-now-building-and-shipping-face-shields/
The Verge article: Apple publishes instructions and fitting guide for its new face shields — https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/7/21212245/apple-instructions-face-shields-ppe-fitting
Innovate Carolina article: Face Shield PPE: Makerspace Volunteers — https://innovate.unc.edu/fire-up-the-engine/
Need an emergency face shield for use at home? Retired chemistry professor Ed Samulski devised a simple way to make a face shield using a 2-liter bottle, scissors and masking tape: https://t.co/0aHHIO7EIE pic.twitter.com/dgfy4hGgKy
— UNC College (@unccollege) April 12, 2020
Laughing Squid article: Protective Face Mask That Displays Custom Animated Messages Using Wearable LED Technology — https://laughingsquid.com/face-mask-that-displays-led-animated-messages/
TechCrunch article: Tesla shows how it’s building ventilators with car parts — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/05/tesla-shows-how-its-building-ventilators-with-car-parts/
VFX Voice article: Real-Time CG Humans Hit the Big-Time — https://www.vfxvoice.com/real-time-cg-humans-hit-the-big-time/
Learning to See Through Obstructions — https://www.cmlab.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~yulunliu/ObstructionRemoval
TechCrunch article: Foursquare mergers with Factual — https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/06/foursquare-merges-with-factual/
Complete BBC Micro Games Archive — http://bbcmicro.co.uk//about.php
Polygon article: Google Stadia now are to anyone with a Gmail address — https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/8/21213551/google-stadia-free-pro-subscription
phys.org article: New record set for cryptographic challenge — https://phys.org/news/2020-03-cryptographic.html
New York Times article: Here’s How Those Hot Jigsaw Puzzles Are Made — https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-jigsaw-puzzles.html
Kotaku article: Cat Calmly Ruins Twitch Stream — https://kotaku.com/cat-calmly-ruins-twitch-stream-1842780452
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