Games At Work dot Biz

Episode 296 — Soothing Soles

By Michael Martine | November 9, 2020 - 06:34 |November 15, 2020 Podcast

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Andy Piper rejoins Michael and Michael for this week’s episode, which pivots between AI, haptics, shoes, security and a plethora of game recommendations.

Starting things off with artificial intelligence stories, the first is from the wide world of sports, where the AI controlled camera winds up following what it believes is the ball, but turns out to be the head of the linesman. The second focuses on the power of visual AI for improving health outcomes, which has a very long history over the past several years.

Music can be be soothing or exciting, and even more so when experienced through the soles of your feet. DropLabs’ EP-01 speaker sneakers provide a toe-tapping way to feel the beat by creating vibrations that synchronize with the audio you’re listening to in order to create a more immersive experience. This reminded the co-hosts of Ian Hughes’ experience with the Woojer Edge vest.

After taking a quick look at the new Raspberry Pi computer in a keyboard, Michael, Andy and Michael discuss the security implications of how shoulder movements, coupled with a dictionary can create a way to identify what someone is typing while on a video conference call.

Then, games – games to relax and soothe, games to simulate and games to challenge. While putting together the show notes for this episode, even more games were added to the mix.

Wrapping up with the LEGO ideas example of the double helix and newest Ghostbusters Ecto-1, Michael, Michael and Andy close out with the just-released trailer for the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Check out the show notes below – even more than usual because of the number of games you should try out! What are your favorite examples of AI gone right – or wrong? Let the co-hosts know by dropping a line on Twitter to @gamesatwork_biz !

Selected Links

SB Nation article: Soccer match ruled when AI-controlled camera mistakes ref’s bald head for ball — https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2020/10/30/21541962/soccer-match-ai-camera-bald-head-ball

USA Today article: Your best tool for cancer prevention and early detection might already be in the palm of your hand — https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2020/11/01/how-your-phone-can-help-prevent-skin-cancer-early-detection/6073075002/

ScienceDaily article: The skin cancer selfie: Gigapixel camera helps diagnose early — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141006114113.htm

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center article: Noninvasive Imaging Tools Enable Better Detection of Skin Cancer — https://www.mskcc.org/news/noninvasive-imaging-tools-enable-better-detection-skin

Oncology Nurse Advisor article: Use of Artificial Intelligence on Camera-Based Images of Skin Lesions Shows Promise in the Diagnosis of Melanoma — https://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/home/cancer-types/melanoma/use-of-ai-on-camera-based-images-of-skin-lesions-promising-in-melanoma-diagnosis/

The Verge article: DropLabs’ EP-01 speaker shoes make for an excellent VR accessory — https://www.theverge.com/21540805/droplabs-ep-01-speaker-shoes-virbrating-bass-review-virtual-reality-gaming

DropLabs — https://www.droplabs.com

Feeding Edge blog post: Addicted to bass – Woojer haptics — https://www.feedingedge.co.uk/blog/2020/06/17/addicted-to-bass-woojer-haptics/

Woojer — https://www.woojer.com

Ars Technica article: Raspberry Pi 400 review — the under-$100 desktop PC you didn’t know you needed — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/raspberry-pi-400-the-under-100-desktop-pc-you-didnt-know-you-needed/

Schneier on Security blog post: Determining What Video Conference Participants Are Typing from Watching Shoulder Movements — https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/11/determining-what-video-conference-participants-are-typing-from-watching-shoulder-movements.html

Kotaku article: Relax, With A Game About Owning A Fish Tank — https://kotaku.com/relax-with-a-game-about-owning-a-fish-tank-1845576160

Blinkclick games — http://blinkclickgames.com

Sixcolors article: Another Apple event is coming Nov. 10! — https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/11/another-apple-event-is-coming-nov-10/

MacRumors article: Narrative Adventure Game ‘South of the Circle’ Out Now on Apple Arcade — https://www.macrumors.com/2020/10/30/adventure-game-south-of-the-circle-apple-arcade/

PC Gamer article: Neo Cab demo lets you try your hand at cyberpunk taxi driving — https://www.pcgamer.com/neo-cab-demo-lets-you-try-your-hand-at-cyberpunk-taxi-driving/

The Verge article: Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows on Apple Arcade is a surprisingly chill strategy game — https://www.theverge.com/21365603/game-of-thrones-got-tale-of-crows-review-apple-arcade-iphone-ipad

LEGO Ideas: LEGO DNA Double Helix Discovery — https://ideas.lego.com/projects/5bd5311e-5078-4a7b-8763-e9cfd8a38c42

Gizmodo article: LEGO’s New 2,352-Piece Ecto-1 Will Fill the Ghostbusters-Sized Hole Left by the Sequel’s Delay — https://io9.gizmodo.com/legos-new-2-352-piece-ecto-1-will-fill-the-ghostbusters-1845582434

Reebok Ghostbusters Ghost Smashers sneakers — https://www.reebok.com/us/ghostbusters-ghost-smashers-men-s-shoes/FY2106.html

Slashfilm article: ‘LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special’ Trailer: ’Twas the Night Before Life Day… — https://www.slashfilm.com/lego-star-wars-holiday-special-trailer/

Games!

Fishkeeper — https://store.steampowered.com/app/1425780/Fishkeeper/

Mowing Simulator — https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222320/Mowing_Simulator/

Virtual Cottage — https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369320/Virtual_Cottage/

Little Computer People — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Computer_People

Neo Cab — https://neocabgame.com

Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows — https://www.devolverdigital.com/games/game-of-thrones-tale-of-crows

Coffee Talk — http://coffeetalk.info

Beyond Blue — https://www.beyondbluegame.com

LEGO Legacy Heroes Unboxed — https://www.lego.com/en-us/categories/games/apps/legacy

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Episode 295 — Car Speakers

By Michael Martine | November 2, 2020 - 06:12 |November 2, 2020 Podcast

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speaker — Photo by **Nao Triponez** from **Pexels**

Michael and Michael get together to do some time traveling – through cities, food, television commercials and more. The co-hosts start things off with Google Rә (a bit of a challenge to type that in!) which lets you move through time in a Google Maps style experience, and then turn down an alley with a memory of the Pace Picante sauce commercial from 1993.

Turning to the automotive audio world, Michael and Michael marvel at Continental’s ac2ated sound system — not Lincoln Continental as Michael M first thought! — which transforms the car itself into a speaker system. Michael R is reminded of his experience with the Bass Egg Verb which operated on much the same principle. Moving right along to 3D doodling, Michael R sees great progress in the 3Doodler Pro Plus from his original kickstarter edition.

After talking about the Miso Robotics implementation at White Castle, a bot named Flippy, Michael and Michael turn to the world of Apple, with stories about Clips and the new Apple One services bundle launch.

Wrapping things up for this episode with block based stories, namely Minecraft and LEGO, the co-hosts express excitement about the LEGO Star Wars holiday special due to be released next month on Disney+.

Selected Links

Fast Company article: This incredible Google experiment lets you time travel to your hometown 200 years ago — https://www.fastcompany.com/90568911/this-incredible-google-experiment-lets-you-time-travel-to-your-hometown-200-years-ago

Google Rә — https://re.city/#15/40.74096/-73.99254

Texas Pete — https://texaspete.com

Pace Picante Sauce — https://www.pacefoods.com/product-category/picante-sauce/

Car & Driver article: Continental Plays with the Future of Car Audio — https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a34451356/continental-plays-with-the-future-of-car-audio/

Continental’s ac2ated sound system — https://www.continental-automotive.com/en-gl/Passenger-Cars/Information-Management/Multimedia-Systems/Ac2ated-Sound

Lincoln Continental — https://www.lincoln.com/luxury-cars/continental/features/design/

Contiental Automotive — https://www.continental-automotive.com/en-gl/

PC Magazine article: Bass Egg Verb Review — https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/bass-egg-verb

The Verge article: 3Doodler Pro Plus is a refined version of the 3D-printing pen — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/28/21539083/3doodler-pro-plus-pen-3d-printing-update-features

TechCrunch article: White Castle rolls out more robots from Miso Robotics to cook in its kitchens — https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/27/white-castle-rolls-out-more-robots-from-miso-robotics-to-cook-in-its-kitchens/

Miso Robotics — https://misorobotics.com

TechCrunch article: Apple eyes the TikTok generation with an updated version of Clips — https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/28/apple-eyes-the-tiktok-generation-with-an-updated-version-of-clips/

Apple Clips — https://www.apple.com/clips/

TechCrunch article: Apple One services subscription bundles start launching tomorrow — https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/29/apple-one-services-subscription-bundles-start-launching-tomorrow/

Gizmodo article: Are the Apple One Subscription Bundles Worth It? Let’s Math It Out — https://gizmodo.com/are-the-apple-one-subscription-bundles-worth-it-lets-m-1845530831

The Verge article: Minecraft will require a Microsoft account to play in 2021 — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/22/21527647/minecraft-microsoft-account-mojang-java

Minecraft — https://www.minecraft.net/en-us

The Verge article: Build a video game like a LEGO set with this new Unity tool — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/26/21535212/lego-microgame-unity-game-engine-programming

Slashfilm article: ‘The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special’ Will Have Rey Fight Darth Vader and More Crossover Craziness — https://www.slashfilm.com/the-lego-star-wars-holiday-special-will-have-rey-fight-darth-vader-and-more-crossover-craziness/

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Episode 294 — Sheepish to the Max

By Michael Martine | October 26, 2020 - 06:04 |October 25, 2020 Podcast

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sheep — Photo by Monika Kubala on Unsplash

Games-a-plenty for this week’s episode! Starting off with the benign idea of playing Mario Kart Live together while apart, Michael and Michael do take a turn toward the security side, where someone else might have camera access in your home via Mario’s remote car. Veering back to the safe and comfortable, the co-hosts talk about the joys of clerics, healers and support staff roles with a story about Star Wars: Squadrons roles that are not limited to first person shooters and dogfights. Then an entertaining Doom replatform, this time in Microsoft with pixel perfect sheep — have a look at the link below — this is even more amazing than playing Doom on a coffee machine.

Transitioning to augmented humans, there are a couple of interesting articles on wearable kinetic nanogenerators, fooling car autopilots with split second holograms, and Adobe Photoshop’s newest neural filters & sky replacement tech.

Michael and Michael wrap things up with NASA’s asteroid sample harvest, and the totally insaney Hulu reboot of the Warner Brothers (and Warner sister Dot) Animaniacs. Narf!

Selected Links

Input Mag article: Go wild on Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit anywhere from the web — https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/go-wild-on-mario-kart-live-home-circuit-anywhere-from-the-web

Surrogate TV: Mario Kart Live — https://www.surrogate.tv/game/mariokartlive

Polygon article: Star Wars: Squadrons makes support roles feel rewarding — https://www.polygon.com/2020/10/22/21527439/star-wars-squadrons-support-healer

PCGamesN article: Here’s a Minecraft modern playing Doom on some sheep — https://www.pcgamesn.com/minecraft/mod-doom-sheep?amp

phys.org article: New device powers wearable sensors through human motion — https://phys.org/news/2020-10-device-powers-wearable-sensors-human.html

Schneier on Security blog post: Split-Second Phantom Images Fool Autopilots — https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/split-second-phantom-images-fool-autopilots.html

TechCrunch article: Adobe Photoshop gets new AI smarts with neural filters, sky replacement and more — https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/20/adobe-photoshop-gets-new-ai-smarts-with-neural-filters-sky-replacement-and-more/

The Verge article: Stunning images show NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stirring up rocks on an asteroid — https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/21/21527475/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-bennu-sampling-rocks-images

Slashfilm article: ‘Animaniacs’ Trailer: Come for the Zany, Stay for the Brainy in the New Hulu Reboot — https://www.slashfilm.com/animaniacs-trailer-hulu/

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Episode 293 — AR 4 K9

By Michael Martine | October 19, 2020 - 06:23 |October 18, 2020 Podcast

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Michael and Michael are left to their own devices to explore several stories featuring AR and AI — with games, drones and literature all making an appearance in this week’s episode.

Andy’s copy of Mario Kart Live was just delivered, and judging from the initial response to the game, it is completely understandable that this is where he wanted to spend his time! What a tremendous augmented reality implementation to transform your own home into a racetrack, and experience it through the camera mounted on the race car and viewed on your Nintendo Switch. In another AR game example, Patched Reality’s game Epic Marble Run makes use of the iPad Pro (and just announced iPhone 12 Pro Max) LiDAR sensor to blend the world around you with the game’s task of getting the marble from start to finish.

But wait, there’s more AR: the US Army is testing augmented reality goggles for canine units, which spark a discussion between the co-hosts on how the dog’s handler could use the goggles to paint certain targets which the dog could investigate more closely. This story is followed by the SiteAware example of using drones to quickly and easily evaluate construction project progress in conjunction with building an digital twin powered by artificial intelligence.

The cohosts then get a little more philosophical while discussing an article about StoryFile, an way to allow for natural conversations between people — the person who was recorded answering questions, and the viewer who is asking questions that are responded to by the person who was recorded. This reminds Michael and Michael of some earlier conversations on how recordings could be used to create a semblance of immortality, or at least how an artificial intelligence agent might use the corpus to determine how someone would have responded to a question. One conversation on this topic happened back in 2012 on episode 26 of the podcast. Michael R brings up Neil Stephenson’s book The Diamond Age which has examples of how a reader can interact with recorded and live other people. Amazing how aspects of what Neil imagined in 2000 has become commonplace with today’s tablets and e-readers.

Following on the fantastically cool discussion with Mark last week, Michael and Michael explore some new ways to think about the code that goes into games, and how some of the delivered code is never activated because the conditions to execute that code are never triggered. Which then requires one to ask the question, if code to make a sound never executes, does it really make a sound? OK, so maybe that’s not the question, but still, it’s intriguing to know that there are visuals, dialog and gameplay that never saw the light of day that could be uncovered, restored and shared.

Wrapping up this week’s episode, Michael and Michael share some of their favorite games that they would like to see a similar source code treatment, and links to those are listed below. “Elf needs food badly!” What games would you want to see the source code for?

Selected Links

Cnet article: Mario Kart Live turned my son into a terrifying monster — https://www.cnet.com/news/mario-kart-live-turned-my-son-into-a-terrifying-monster/

Nintendo’s Mario Kart Live — https://mklive.nintendo.com

Here’s a sneak peek at our soon to be released #AugmentedReality game Epic Marble, which takes advantage of LiDAR on the current iPad Pro 2020, and eventually iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max. #madewithunity #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/5ME81BPFg2
— Patrick O’Shaughnessey (@patchedreality) October 13, 2020