Episode 228 – Dragons and Light Sabers

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Billboard advertising Hungarian Fencing from 2013
Photo by Michael Martine, 2013

As the sign says, just like in the movies, you can now fire up your lightsaber and enter the competitive world of fencing, courtesy of the French Fencing Federation, which has now officially recognized the lightsaber via l’Académie de Sabre Laser.  Michael M’s history of fencing while at UNC, and more recent martial arts experience has him especially intrigued by these stories.  Ian shared a link about Beat Saber, a VR music game that required Value to update Steam because the players were just too fast.  

Or you can stow your lightsaber in favor of your blaster and play a couple of rounds of the new Harmonix game Audica, blasting your way through some funky tunes.  

Measure twice, cut once, goes the saying — and the folks over at Medivis have that spirit at heart, with their augmented reality visualization tools to help surgeons envision not just the procedure, but the patient conditions, before they begin their work.

Walmart, with their incubator Store No. 8 have created an amazing VR experience jointly with the DreamWorks How to Train Your Dragon franchise, whereby people are transported to the world of the dragons via Positron Voyager VR motion chairs and powered by HP’s VR Backpack PCs.  Now, if there were only a way to train your dragon by playing a game involving awesome music…  

Michael R winds up this week’s show with his Emotiv headset experiences, tying them to the news about the Emotive VR project.

Selected Links

Lightsaber dueling now a competitive sport in France — https://www.si.com/olympic-fencing/2019/02/18/lightsaber-dueling-competitive-sport-france-fencing-federation 

Newsweek article: Star Wars in Real Life: Lightsaber Dueling Officially Recognized as a Sport by Fencing Federation — https://www.newsweek.com/lightsaber-duelling-star-wars-sabers-french-fencing-federation-lightsaber-1335111 

Fédération Française d’Escrime l’Académie de Sabre Laser (ASL) — http://www.escrime-ffe.fr/les-differentes-pratiques/anthony-lococo-s-impose-a-beaumont-sur-oise 

Kotaku article:  Value Updates Steam VR Because Beat Saber Players Are Too Fast — https://kotaku.com/valve-updates-steam-vr-because-beat-saber-players-are-t-1832536574 

Beat Saber by Czech-based indie studio Beat Games — http://beatsaber.com 

Fruit Ninja — https://fruitninja.com 

Audica — https://www.audicagame.com 

Tweet by Jesse Damiani about Audica: 

TechCrunch article: Medivis has launched its augmented reality platform for surgical planning — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/13/medivis-has-launched-its-augmented-reality-platform-for-surgical-planning/ 

Medivis — https://www.medivis.com 

Amateur Surgeon 4 — https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/amateur-surgeon-4/id1039971965?mt=8 

TechCrunch article: Walmart tech incubator Store No. 8 launches VR startup Spatial& — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/14/walmart-tech-incubator-store-no-8-launches-vr-startup-spatial/ 

Store No. 8 Spatial& — https://www.storeno8.com/spatialand 

HP Z VR Backpack PC — https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/vrbackpack/overview.html 

GoPositron VR chair — https://gopositron.com 

How To Train Your Dragon — https://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com 

Emotiv Research Project: Emotiv VR — https://www.emotiv.com/news/research-project-emotive-vr/ 

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Episode 227 – Video Killed the Audio Star

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audio and video gear
Photo by Tracy Thomas on Unsplash

Starting with the heartwarming story about how Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller allows everyone to play games, Michael and Michael begin a show full of video, audio and security/privacy themes.

A variety of video themes surface in this episode of Games at Work, including the business of video games, a conclusion on the Group FaceTime bug, background blurring in Skype and means for watching end users interact with mobile apps.  

The audio subject started off with a discussion of how Amazon is bringing choose your own adventure games to Alexa.  Michael M remembered that they had a show about choose your own adventure games, and sure enough, it was episode 35 from way back in 2013, when he actually created a game using Twine.  You can still play the Games at Work Podcast Game.  And there’s been some updates to Twine since 2013 — follow @twinethreads for all the details or enter the maze of twisty little passages, all alike.

There are several links & stories related to user security and privacy in this episode, everything from the transparency Facebook is instituting for describing why an ad is being presented, to GDPR.  The episode concludes with some excitement about a Raspberry Pi store, which could be an awesome maker space.  Have a listen, and join in the conversation here or on Twitter at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Selected Links

Microsoft Super Bowl Commercial 2019: We All Win (Extended Version)


Bloomberg article: The Flops Are Piling Up for Video-Game Titans — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/video-game-titans-suffer-deepening-slump-as-flops-pile-up?srnd=premium 

TechCrunch article: Apple to compensate teenager who found Group FaceTime eavesdrop bug — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/apple-group-facetime-fix/ 

TechCrunch article: Amazon’s Audible brings Choose Your Own Adventure stories to Alexa devices — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/04/amazons-audible-brings-choose-your-own-adventure-stories-to-alexa-devices/ 

Games at Work Episode 35: Pirates of Pizzazz — https://gamesatwork.biz/2013/02/03/episode-35-pirates-of-pizzazz/ 

Games at Work Podcast Choose Your Own Adventure Game — https://gamesatwork.biz/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Games-at-Work-Podcast-Game1.html 

TechCrunch article: Skype can now blur the background during video calls — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/06/skype-video-call-blur/ 

TechCrunch article: Facebook will reveal who uploaded your contact info for ad targeting — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/06/why-am-i-seeing-this-ad/ 

General Data Protection Regulation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation 

MacRumors article: Some Popular iPhone Apps Secretly Record Your Screen for Analytics Purposes — https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/iphone-apps-screen-recordings-analytics/ 

Glassbox — https://www.glassboxdigital.com 

TechCrunch article: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/the-raspberry-pi-store-is-much-cooler-than-an-apple-store/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:10 — 15.8MB) | Embed

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Episode 226 – RoboEverything

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robots
Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

Michael and Michael struggle to remember a game from 1981 named Qix as they discuss robotic lawn mowers from iRobot and Husqvarna, thinking that there could be a way to paint a lawn vs using beacons or wires to set the boundaries of a lawn for the robotic mowers.  Moving from robotic mowers, the co-hosts turn to robotic beer pouring, and then quickly turn to the subject of robocallers.  

After talking about all things robotic, Michael and Michael discuss the FaceTime bug, some cool album art mashed up with Star Wars characters and close out with a cool open source synthesizer that Michael R discovered.

Selected Links

Gizmodo article: iRobot’s New Robot Lawn Mower Sure Looks Like It’ll Piss Off Your Neighbors — https://gizmodo.com/irobots-new-robot-lawn-mower-sure-looks-like-itll-piss-1832169602 

Husqvarna Robotic Lawn Mowers — https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ 

Qix game — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix 

Forbes article: How Artificial Intelligence Is Used To Make Beer — https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/02/01/how-artificial-intelligence-is-used-to-make-beer/#202b1a9770cf 

The Verge article: Robocallers blasted Americans with 26.3 billion spam calls last year — https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/30/18203413/robocalls-spam-text-calls-2018-analysis-hiya 

TechCrunch article: Apple fixes FaceTime eavesdrop bug, with software update incoming — https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/01/apple-facetime-privacy/ 

TechCrunch article: Cheap Internet of Things gadgets betray you even after you toss them in the trash — https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/cheap-internet-of-things-gadgets-betray-you-even-after-you-toss-them-in-the-trash/ 

Design You Trust post: Famous Classic Album Covers Mashed Up With Star Wars Characters — https://designyoutrust.com/2017/12/famous-classic-album-covers-mashed-star-wars-characters/ 

Audiokit Synth One — https://audiokitpro.com/synth/ 

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Episode 225 – Ah ha – it’s AI!

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Michael and Michael take on the topic of the advances Google’s DeepMind has made since playing Go by examining the AlphaStar results with StarCraft II.  Games have long been used by AI to have the AI play the game against itself to learn and improve.  Michael and Michael talked about AlphaGo back in 2016 during Episode 133 — Game Brains and a team of AIs playing Dota2 was not quite the match for a human team during Episode 202 – Everything Old is New Again in July of 2018.  It is clear that the bots are making great strides in more and more complex games.

Robots & drones factor into this week’s episode with Facebook partnering up with Airbus to provide internet connectivity by flying solar powered drones in Australia, reminding the team of Google’s Project Loon, which aims to accomplish the same idea with balloons.  Amazon is in the mix with utility belts that help the bots in the warehouse know where the humans are, and create a safety zone around the human workers.

Being music fans and 1980s music fans, Michael and Michael just loved the easter egg in Just Cause 4 — have a look at the show notes below to see for yourself.  Totally awesome.

Selected Links

TechCrunch article: StarCraft II-playing AI AlphaStar takes out pros undefeated — https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/24/starcraft-ii-playing-ai-alphastar-takes-out-pros-undefeated/ 

StarCraft II — https://starcraft2.com/en-us/ 

AlphaStar: Mastering the Real-Time Strategy Game StarCraft II — https://deepmind.com/blog/alphastar-mastering-real-time-strategy-game-starcraft-ii/ 

AlphaGo: https://deepmind.com/research/alphago/ 

The Verge article: A video game-playing AI beat Q*bert in a way no one’s ever seen before — https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2018/2/28/17062338/ai-agent-atari-q-bert-cracked-bug-cheat 

Eurogamer article: This Just Cause 4 Easter egg is the greatest Easter egg of them all — https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-09-this-just-cause-4-easter-egg-is-the-best-easter-egg-of-all-time 

a-ha Take On Me video —

Just Cause Wiki – Database for the Just Cause Universe — https://justcause.fandom.com/wiki/Just_Cause_4 

TechCrunch article: Facebook is reportedly testing solar-powered internet drones again — this time with Airbus — https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/21/facebook-airbus-solar-drones-internet-program/ 

Project Loon — https://loon.co 

The Verge article: Amazon warehouse workers are getting utility belts that ward off robots — https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/21/18191338/amazon-robot-warehouse-tech-vest-utility-belt-safety 

TechCrunch article: Intel announces an inside-out tracking camera for robotics and AR/VR hardware — https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/intel-announces-an-inside-out-tracking-camera-for-robotics-and-ar-vr-hardware/ 

TechCrunch article: Twitter testing ‘Original Tweeter’ tag to distinguish who started a thread — https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/twitter-testing-original-tweeter-tag-to-distinguish-who-started-a-thread/ 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:23 — 12.3MB) | Embed

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