Episode 250 — See Clearly Now

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double rainbow
Picture by Michael Martine, 2016

Celebrating the 250th episode of Games At Work, Michael and Michael focus this week on several stories about augmented vision.  The rumored Apple Glasses resurface, and speaking of surfaces, a new kickstarter for holographic tabletop gaming takes center stage, reminding Michael and Michael about some earlier conversations on other virtual tabletop concepts.  Michael R discusses his passions for flying robots, and the amazing camera shots that can be done with the Mavic Mini, a 249g drone that can go just about anywhere you do.  

And this episode doesn’t stop with bots that fly.  MIT’s self-assembling and swarming cubes capture the interest of the co-hosts, and recall the novel from Daniel Suarez about swarming technology, as well as episode 150.  Rounding out this episode is a must-see example of a science fair prototype that 14-year-old Alaina Gassler built to solve the problem of the A-pillar blind spot in automobiles.  Her creativity is astounding, and it is easy to see how this will be a great way to augment drivers’ vision in the very near future!

Happy viewing (and listening!)

Selected Links

I Can See Clearly Now 

Seeking Alpha article: Apple Pay overtakes PayPal – Appleinsider — https://seekingalpha.com/news/3513168-apple-pay-overtakes-paypal-appleinsider 

iMore article: Yelp updates Apple Watch app with compass support for Apple Watch Series 5 — https://www.imore.com/yelp-updates-apple-watch-app-compass-support-apple-watch-series-5 

tom’s guide article: Apple Glasses Details Just Revealed by Bloomberg — https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-glasses-details-just-revealed-by-bloomberg 

Bloomberg Businessweek article: Apple’s Smart Glasses Could Make 2020 the Year of AR — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-21/why-2020-is-looking-great-for-apple-products-and-consumer-gadgets 

The Verge article: Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion — https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943318/google-fitbit-acquisition-fitness-tracker-announcement 

Kickstarter: Tilt Five: Holographic Tabletop Gaming — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-tabletop-gaming 

VR Scout article: Geek & Sundry Debuts Weekly VR180 Board Game Series — https://vrscout.com/news/geek-sundry-vr180-board-game-series/# 

gamesatwork.biz episode 199 — Augmented GDPR Reality — https://gamesatwork.biz/2018/05/28/episode-199-augmented-gdpr-reality/ 

DJI Mavic Mini — https://www.dji.com/mavic-mini?from=store-product-page 

Real Clear Science article: New Lithium Ion Battery Design Could Allow Electric Vehicles to Be Charged in Ten Minutes — https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2019/10/30/new_lithium_ion_battery_design_could_allow_electric_vehicles_to_be_charged_in_ten_minutes.html 

electrek.co article: Tesla plans to increase vehicle power, range, and charging through new software update — https://electrek.co/2019/10/24/tesla-increase-vehicle-power-range-software-update/ 

TechCrunch article: MIT’s self-propelled block robots can now manage basic swarm coordination — https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/01/mits-self-propelled-block-robots-can-now-manage-basic-swarm-coordination/

Discussion on swarming robots from gamesatwork.biz episode 150 — Cyber Dementors — https://gamesatwork.biz/2016/10/23/episode-150-cyber-dementors/ 

Kill Decision novel by Daniel Suarez — http://daniel-suarez.com/killdecisionsynopsis.html 

The Verge article: Snapchat now lets you 3D Paint faces and pretty much anything else — https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/30/20939665/snapchat-augmented-reality-drawing-lens-ar-bar 

Mashable article: Teen girl invents simple, yet innovative way to remove blind spots in cars — https://mashable.com/article/blind-spot-invention-teen-girl-broadcom/ 

BuzzFeed article: 398 New Emojis Are Officially Here And FYI They’re Pretty Freakin’ Great — https://www.buzzfeed.com/ajanibazile/398-new-emojis 

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Episode 249 — Oceans of Data

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Moonrise on Hatteras Island, Michael Martine 2011

While somehow avoiding any discussion of the Green Lantern Corps, Michael and Michael talk through some ring wearable concepts and move into the religious quantified self realm with the eRosary, an IoT device to help keep track of prayers.  It is incredible to imagine the data streams coming from such devices.

Changing themes from data streams to the open oceans, and specifically to Coral Vita’s novel means for coral reef rebuilding, growing coral at 50 times the normal rates.  Imagine the impact this could bring to restoring the health of the ocean habitats. This story reminded Michael M of a novel approach that University of Lancaster researchers are working on to strengthen concrete using carrots and sugar beet fibers.  

Also in this episode, there are conversations on Sonos’ stereo-as-a-service offering, robots machine learning their way to a feel for how to grasp objects and solve a Rubik’s cube one handed, boarding alerts now being included in the American Airlines mobile app and some retro & current games.  

Selected Links

iDrop article: ‘Apple Ring’ May Be in Development with Touch Screen, NFC and More — https://www.idropnews.com/rumors/apple-ring-may-be-in-development-with-touch-screen-nfc-and-more/120605/ 

Echo Loop Smart Ring with Alexa Day 1 Editions product — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JPK4XJ6/ref=sxts_snpl_1_0_53133e95-1613-47ff-a8b9-9f163f49e8fb?pd_rd_w=PxX63&pf_rd_p=53133e95-1613-47ff-a8b9-9f163f49e8fb&pf_rd_r=FZDY1EWCREPCPZNAMQH1&pd_rd_r=c7ff58c4-976c-4a2a-9cd5-f42cdfdcade4&pd_rd_wg=ih389&qid=1571584953 

CNBC article: Vatican launches $110 smart Rosary bracelet that tracks your prayers — https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/17/vatican-launches-110-smart-rosary-bracelet-that-tracks-your-prayers.html 

Click to Pray (how does it work?) — https://clicktopray.org/how-does-click-to-pray-work/ 

Click to Pray eRosary app — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/click-to-pray-erosary/id1477960251 

TechCrunch article: In the Accelerator over the Sea — https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/16/in-the-accelerator-over-the-sea/ 

Beyond the Sea

Coral Vita — https://www.coralvita.co 

Japan Times article — Carrot nanomaterial found to make cement stronger and greener — https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/10/20/world/offbeat-world/carrot-nanomaterial-found-make-cement-stronger-greener/#.Xax_EC-ZOuB 

CelluComp’s Curran: Revolutionary Technology: Vegetables used for high-performance materials — https://www.cellucomp.com/products/curran 

Motley Fool article: Is Sonons’ Speaker Rental Program as Odd as it Sounds? — https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/10/17/is-sonos-speaker-rental-program-as-odd-as-it-sound.aspx 

TechCrunch article: MIT develops a way for robots to grasp and manipulate objects much faster — https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/17/mit-develops-a-way-for-robots-to-grasp-and-manipulate-objects-much-faster/ 

Episode 247: Off the Cuff — https://gamesatwork.biz/2019/10/07/episode-247-off-the-cuff/ 

TechCrunch article: Traptic uses 3D vision and robotic arms to harvest ripe strawberries — https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/02/traptic-uses-3d-vision-and-robotic-arms-to-harvest-ripe-strawberries/ 

TechCrunch article: Watch OpenAI’s ‘human-like’ robot solve a Rubik’s Cube one-handed — https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/15/watch-openais-human-like-robot-solve-a-rubiks-cube-one-handed/ 

Rubik’s Cube 40 years of history — https://www.rubiks.com/en-us/about 

The Points Guy: American Airlines (finally) rolls out boarding push notifications to all app users — https://thepointsguy.com/news/american-airlines-boarding-push-notifications/ 

Trusted Reviews article: Here’s how to access thousands of retro games for free — https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/free-retro-games-3946453 

Sensible Soccer International Edition v1.2 (1994) — https://archive.org/details/msdos_International_Sensible_Soccer_1994 

SSC 2019 The King of Retro Soccer — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ssc-2019/id1451802899 

Lego Ideas Dinosaur Fossils — https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/dinosaur-fossils-21320 

What the Golf? — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/what-the-golf/id1415190483 

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Episode 248 — Distractions

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squirrel in tree
Photo by Toimetaja tõlkebüroo on Unsplash

Michael and Michael get together for a distraction-filled episode, including innovations from London Cocktail Week, x-ray spec radio cameras, the potential for soldiers to be distracted on the battle field with their screens and how rocket ride sharing along with payload standardization are making launching satellites into orbit easier than ever.

Check out the episode and links below!  We think you’ll be — oh, look!  A squirrel! 

Selected Links

Slate article: What, and Why, Is a Whisky Pod? — https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/10/whisky-pod-edible-seaweed-encased-cocktails-why.html 

Notpla — https://www.notpla.com 

The Glenlivet — https://www.theglenlivet.com/ 

London Cocktail Week 2019 — https://drinkup.london/cocktailweek 

Tubthumping – They Might Be Giants & The AV Club Chorus

MIT Technology Review article: Machine vision has learned to use radio waves to see through walls and in darkness — https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614470/machine-vision-has-learned-to-use-radio-waves-to-see-through-walls-and-in-darkness/ 

Wired article: The Dangers of Distracted Fighting — https://www.wired.com/story/the-dangers-of-distracted-fighting/ 

MIT Technology Review article: Rocket ride-shares could make going to space like catching a bus — https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614519/rocket-ride-shares-could-make-going-to-space-like-catching-a-bus/ 

NASA article: NASA Mission Supports Launch of CubeSats Built by Middle and High School Students — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-mission-supports-launch-of-cubesats-built-by-middle-and-high-school-students 

What’s Happening!! TV Show Intro 70’s — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZG97YMWTn0&feature=youtu.be

Ultimate Metal forum post: Barry Manilow loves Iron Maiden — http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/barry-manilow-loves-iron-maiden.206724/ 

Roseanne Roseannadanna — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseanne_Roseannadanna 

boas.io — https://boas.io 

slither.io — http://slither.io 

Spaceland — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spaceland/id1450972094 

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