Episode 215 – Great Jumpin Robots

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From parking tickets to parkour, robots are excelling at anything they put their artificial intelligence to.  This episode jumps right into action with the story of a robotic attorney accessed through Joshua Browder’s DoNotPay app and how he has continued to extend the capabilities of this agent beyond parking tickets, now including filing suit against companies who have had data breaches.  Will be interesting to see how robotic attorney processes may wind up meeting their judicial counterparts, as one bot can talk to the other to arrive at a fair settlement in mere fractions of the time it would take to go to court.

The co-hosts then take a (quantum) leap to the Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot leap up stairs alone, or presumably in pairs, with all the skill and ease of an accomplished parkour athlete.  The graceful side-to-side jumps involve the Atlas robot moving in the X, Y and Z axes. And all this without any tethers.  Simply amazing.  

Speaking of amazing, the Salto-1P is a one legged robot that uses precision jumping and balance to get where it needs to go — something that an audio podcast just can’t do justice to.  See the link below and check out the video of this bot.  A humanoid structure is not necessarily the only means for successful locomotion.

Michael and Michael conclude this episode with a mixed reality discussion about Varjo’s detailed resolution and how AI might be able to handle the in-classroom differentiation so that each child is operating in their optimal performance zone.  This reminds the team very much of Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.

We hope you enjoy this week’s show! 

Selected Links

Business Insider Australia article: The 21-year-old who built a robot lawyer to fight parking tickets has a new tool to help you automatically sue companies who get hacked — https://www.businessinsider.com.au/donotpay-lock-security-down-sue-after-hacks-2018-10 

DoNotPay app — https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1427999657 

TechCrunch article: Watch Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot leap up massive stairs like it’s nothing — https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/11/watch-boston-dynamics-humanoid-robot-leap-up-massive-steps-like-its-nothing/ 

TechCrunch article: The Salto-1P now does amazing targeted jumps — https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/09/the-salto-1p-now-does-amazing-targeted-jumps/ 

TechCrunch article: Atomico leads $31M Series B in Varjo, the Finnish startup developing ‘human-eye resolution’ VR and XR — https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/07/varjo/ 

Forbes article: 100% Literacy: Or What if AI Could Fix Our Broken Educational System? — https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2018/10/08/100-literacy-or-what-if-ai-could-fix-our-broken-educational-system/#3246b2a777b4 

Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age 

Games the co-hosts are playing 
nothing new this week!


Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:27 — 14.6MB) | Embed

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Episode 214 – Green Robots

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Mini robot in grass
Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

It isn’t easy being green, unless you are a robot with a green thumb.   The cohosts prepare to welcome their new, green robotic overlords in this episode, starting off with Iron Ox and a story about how they have created an autonomous farm.  

Continuing on the robotic theme, the pair marvel at HRP-5P, a humanoid robot that is adept at installing drywall and imagine how such a robot could be exceptionally useful for installing drywall in the ceiling.  It is also interesting that the robot is very human in appearance, with arms & legs for locomotion.  

Pivoting to an easter egg game launched from the main Google search page, Michael and Michael almost walk down into a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.  Interestingly enough, Michael R does not get to the game, and the likely culprit is from his Pi Hole, something discussed at length in episode 205. 

Selected Links

TechCrunch article: Iron Ox opens its first fully autonomous farm — https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/03/iron-ox-opens-its-first-fully-autonomous-farm/ 

TechCrunch article: Watch this humanoid robot install drywall — https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/01/watch-this-humanoid-robot-install-drywall/ 

The Martian movie — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/ 

The Verge article: How to find and play google.com‘s secret adventure game — https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/1/17922628/google-text-adventure-easter-egg-console 

Infocom games — http://infocom-if.org/games/games.html 

Pi-Hole — https://pi-hole.net 

Games At Work Episode 205, Fashionable AR — https://gamesatwork.biz/2018/08/06/episode-205-fashionable-ar/ 

Games the co-hosts are playing 
work work and work are taking priority for the time being! 

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Episode 213 – Solar Heartbeat

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Michael and Michael are reminded of the new innovation in first class travel by Alaska Airlines with the therapeutic example used by some hospitals on burn victims, and expound on how the VR environment piped to the headsets could also include the ability of the passengers to see a view from the cockpit, or really anywhere else around the plane.  Intriguing opportunities for the application of VR in travel, beyond movie watching.

On the heels of last week’s discussion on Mozilla’s Firefox Reality browsing experience, it is interesting to note that YouTube is now available on the Oculus platform.

The solar powered “second skin” wearables innovation from Japan is intriguing because it does not have the need for a battery, can deal with the flexing  movement of the human body and has no wires.  This ultra-thin sensor is a wearable that because of the solar power, never needs to be taken off.  Michael and Michael talk about the challenges involved in creating electricity from such small photovoltaics, and how the varying angle of how light might hit it requires a special approach to power it.

Michael R shares his expertise in working with Siri shortcuts and highlights an intriguing example of how these sets of code can quickly be shared and easily edited and enhanced using an example from the Cult of Mac article on a particular shortcut that can be used during a routine traffic stop.  

Rounding out this week’s episode, Michael and Michael talk about Augmentality Labs in Durham — looks like a great place for a Games At Work field trip! 

Selected Links

TechCrunch article: Alaska Airlines is trying to make VR part of its first-class experience — https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/alaska-airlines-is-trying-to-make-vr-part-of-its-first-class-experience/ 

Allosky VR Headset — http://www.skylights.aero/skylights-allosky-vr-headset 

R&D Mag article: Virtual “SnowWorld” Help Burn Victims Cope with Extreme Pain — https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/08/virtual-snowworld-helps-burn-victims-cope-extreme-pain 

VR Pain Reduction — http://www.vrpain.com 

The Verge article: YouTube is finally coming to all Oculus mobile VR headsets — https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/26/17906550/youtube-vr-oculus-go-mobile-app-launch 

Inverse article: Japan’s New Solar-Powered “Second Skin” Device Revolutionizes Wearable Tech — https://www.inverse.com/article/49325-smart-flexible-heart-rate-sensor-self-powered 

Cult of Mac article: This Siri shortcut keeps an eye on police during a traffic stop — https://www.cultofmac.com/578615/shortcuts-siri-traffic-stop/

Augmentality Labs — https://www.augmentalitylabs.com 

Games the co-hosts are playing 
Michael R — Addictive new iOS game is all about … throwing strips of bacon? — https://www.cultofmac.com/579832/addictive-new-ios-game-is-all-about-throwing-strips-of-bacon/

Bacon – The Game — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bacon-the-game/id1413085106?mt=8 

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Episode 212 – Virtually Browsing

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Michael and Michael start up this week’s episode with the newly announced Firefox Reality mixed reality browser — available for a wide variety of VR headsets, and remember the early days of Second Life when browser windows were brought into the 3D Internet.  This reminded the pair of widgets that could be used in a mixed reality space to stream content from the internet into familiar 3D objects such as a virtual stock ticker, or even a virtual computer screen.

Moving to the augmented reality space, the Angry Birds example game that could be played using the Magic Leap One looks intriguing, and was similar to the WWDC multiplayer AR demo where the participants tried to knock down the virtual blocks from the other team.  A level generator would be especially interesting to try — and really leverage the ability of the user to move around in physical reality.  

Closing out the show this week, Michael and Michael marvel at the cinematography used to create the spectacular Apple WatchOS 5 watch faces with fire, water and more.  Check out the link in the show notes below to see for yourself.

Selected Links

ZDNet article: Mozilla releases Firefox Reality, its web browser for VR — https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-releases-firefox-reality-its-web-browser-for-vr/ 

TechCrunch article: Mozilla’s Firefox Reality web browser is now available — https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/18/mozillas-firefox-reality-web-browser-is-now-available/ 

Linden Labs SecondLife — https://secondlife.com/ 

TechCrunch article: Microsoft is putting HoloLens to work with new Dynamics 365 applications — https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/18/microsoft-is-putting-hololens-to-work-in-dynamics-365/ 

Mozilla Mixed Reality — https://mixedreality.mozilla.org 

Gadgets have been discontinued — https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13787/gadgets-have-been-discontinued 

Konfabulator / Yahoo! Widgets — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets 

Microsoft Bob — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob 

TechCrunch article: Magic Leap One’s first big game is another Angry Birds; here’s what it’s like — https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/19/magic-leap-ones-first-major-game-is-angry-birds-heres-what-its-like-to-play-it/ 

WWDC 2018, What’s New in ARKit 2 — https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/602/ 

Weather Channel interactive weather forecast — 

Making An Apple Watch Motion Face — 

Making An Apple Watch Motion Face from HODINKEE on Vimeo.

Games the co-hosts are playing 


Nothing new this week! 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:37 — 15.6MB) | Embed

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