Michael and Michael get back together to talk about the latest smart home news, starting with the Amazon acquisition of Ring. The pair speculate on what this level of integration in the Amazon ecosystem could bring — everything from delivery verification, to drone delivery enablement to package recipient identification.
Mobile apps captured their attention with location-based & experience-driven marketing as well as with augmented reality. Augmented reality also features in this week’s episode in the form of a motorcycle helmet prototype and the upcoming Ghostbusters mobile game.
What do you think will be the next big thing in IoT? In AR? Share your thoughts with us!
Comments Off on Episode 193 – Icy Robotic HomePods
Curling at the 2018 Pyeonchang Winter Olympics
Michael M welcomes the HomePod and it’s robotic assistant Siri to his home, and shares some of his good experiences with his new smart speaker, not the least of which was listening to the radio broadcast of the Tar Heel Sports Network synchronized to the television video courtesy of the Tunecast app and the HomePod.
The 2018 Pyeong Chang Olympics’ opening ceremony incorporated augmented reality and drones, much to the delight of the Games At Work crew. Michael R pointed out the challenges involved in the droneshow, remembering the Super Bowl 51 weather, wind and security conditions that required that the drone performance be taped beforehand, just like what was done in South Korea. Nevertheless, an impressive performance by the Intel team!
Touching on The Void’s newest virtual reality experience, and remembering their earlier Ghostbusters example from episode 176, Michael and Michael discus how to optimize your home automation & Internet of Things setup, making suggestions on router configuration and the importance of frequent updates to keep current with security patches.
Closing out the episode, the team returns to Olympic competition and this time the thrill of victory goes to skiing robots, although the frozen trampoline does get honorable mention. Hope you enjoy!
On a Games at Work busy day — the co-hosts start with follow up to the last two episodes dealing with smart speakers about the new HomePod being released. While not said on the show, Michael M is looking forward to experiencing the dulcet tones of the Games At Work podcast on his HomePod in just a short few days!
Robotics & automation loom large for this episode with many stories converging on the concept of whether automation will be a net job destroyer or creator. The MIT Technology Review article gives a comprehensive snapshot of a variety of sources estimating the net jobs created and lost due to advances in AI — and the need for advanced education as the technology behind smart speakers and virtual assistants begins to take hold in the knowledge economy in the same way that physical robots have in warehouses and assembly lines. Education is key to the new roles being created and in preparing people for the next set of opportunities: how Artificial Intelligence bots are trained to do their jobs, the human-computer interface design, the maintenance of these systems as well as the integration to other systems.
Moving from virtual robotics, to physical robotics, Michael and Michael talk about the new Cyberdyne Medical Exoskeleton HAL.
Continuing the trend of finding examples of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the Games At Work team found two compelling stories published in the MIT Technology Review:
Joining AI and AR, the article on a lidar-enabled augmented reality experience to help construction workers know when something is not correctly installed can easily save time and money by making improvements when it is the easiest to do so.
The US Ski Team is taking advantage of virtual reality for practice on slope visualization to prepare for the Olympic events. Michael and Michael talk about the idea of using an augmented reality version of this to show the optimal apex & route, taking advantage of snow conditions to guide the skier, in a rich HUD fashion in the ski goggles.
Finishing up the episode, Michael and Michael conclude with a couple of intruding games, including TrapAdventure 2, a Mario Brothers-esque side scroller that had us in stitches, and the South Park game which requires player vs player gameplay in order to advance the storyline and upgrade (hence the tile of this episode!).
I game alone, yeah
With nobody else
I game alone, yeah
With nobody else
You know when I game alone
I prefer to be by myself
Every morning just before breakfast
I don’t want no mana, coffee or tea
Just me and my Infocom text adventures
That’s all I ever need
‘Cause I game alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I game alone
I prefer to be by myself
The other night I lay sleeping
And I woke from a terrible dream
So I called up my pal Duke Nukem
And his partner Leisure Suit Larry
And we game alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I game alone
I prefer to be by myself
The other day I got invited to a party
But I stayed home instead
Not to be grinding or crafting,
Just me and my pal Sid Meyers
And his brothers Techmo and Mario
And we game alone
Yeah, with nobody else
Yeah, you know when I game alone
I prefer to be by myself
Yeah, my whole family done give up on me
And it makes me feel oh so bad
Don’t want to be PvPing in a MMORPG
Just give me my plain ol’ Plants —
versus Zom-om-bies
And I game alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I game alone
I prefer to be by myself
We welcome Andy Piper @andypiper back on the show, part of the original Games At Work dot Biz trio – back together kicking off a detailed discussion of voice assistants, following last week’s discussion on Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomePod.
We then look at some of the more interesting things that came out at CES last week, and how tech seems to be looking for very niche problems to solve – are they worth it? Or are they so menial and trivial -causing more time to automate them then you save by using the automation. Would you were an airbag for your hip? While washing dishes for two? Before heading to your voice controlled toilet seat?
We wrap the show with a quick analysis of is it right for people to use the blockchain to lock in permission for sex – this is wrong on so many levels. And finally a bunch of great game recommendations for wasting your weekend
