Games At Work dot Biz

Episode 186 – Accio Mjolnir

By Michael Rowe | December 4, 2017 - 06:15 |December 3, 2017 Podcast

Comments Off

Michael and Michael use their prognostic skills to divine what the next Niantic game might be in 2018 based on the non-specific reports in the media about the Wizards Unite game to be unveiled in a few months.

Could there be a spell collecting game that drives players to bookstores and libraries to discover & unlock spells? Maybe use newspaper vending machines as something to check into in order to open powerups. How about zoos to collect your own fantastic beasts into your virtual menagerie?

Speaking of pictures, the data in the pictures can provide an huge amount of value in monetizing the activities of.the players. Warby Parker is doing this — using the new capabilities of the iPhone X facial mapping to recognize the contours of the user’s face in order to match the best glasses to the face of the user.

Any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic, and Michale R has found a couple examples of two Avengers, Thor and Iron Man whose mighty feats are duplicated by a drone and micro-gas turbines, respectively. Check out the videos to see these in action.

Selected links

Tech Crunch article: Niantic’s follow-up to Pokemon Go will be a Harry Potter AR game launching in 2018 — https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/niantics-follow-up-to-pokemon-go-will-be-a-harry-potter-ar-game-launching-in-2018/

Fortune article: Commentary: Pokemon Go’s Creator is Making a Harry Potter Game. Will It Bomb Too? — http://fortune.com/2017/11/14/harry-potter-pokemon-go-game-augmented-reality/

Pokemon Go Starbucks drink link —

9 to 5 Mac article: Warby Parker is using face mapping on the iPhone X to provide glasses recommendations — https://9to5mac.com/2017/11/07/warby-parker-is-using-face-mapping-on-the-iphone-x-to-provide-glasses-recommendations/

Warby Parker iOS app — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glasses-by-warby-parker/id1107693363?mt=8

Mashable article: Real-Life ‘Iron Man’ sets Guinness World Record because of course he does — http://mashable.com/2017/11/09/iron-man-guinness-world-record-tony-stark-richard-browning

Tech Crunch article: Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is a parkour master — https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/16/boston-dynamics-atlas-robot-is-a-parkour-master

Reddit: AI email program designed to reply to email scammers — https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/7brzw4/rescam_ai_email_program_designed_to_reply_to/

Tech Crunch article: They turned ‘Rampage’ into a movie (and here’s the first trailer) — https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/16/rampage-trailer/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:48 — 41.2MB) | Embed

Episode 185 – Transparency

By Michael Martine | November 23, 2017 - 06:30 |November 19, 2017 Podcast

Comments Off

Jimmy Kimmel’s Tonight Show, Tonight Showbotics, featuring Hanson Robotics’ Sophia

They’re playing basketball! 🏀 Both for the start of the college basketball season, and at the state fair. Michael R found an interesting article about how one can win those games of skill and chance at the state fair, leveraging a combination of science and professional sports talent.

In addition to making transparent the ways that a Mets pitcher can win the games at your local carnival, the team takes a look at the transparent skull of Sophia, the artificial intelligence android by Hanson Robotics, how NPR is crowdsourcing journalism with the recently made public JFK Files, that Facebook & Twitter are making strides in ad transparency and how a recently created Soduku Solver uses augmented reality and optical character recognition to do it’s thing.

Michael M remarks that these examples show a gateway to where augmented reality and artificial intelligence is about to explode in a very short amount of time. How do you think that the combo of AR & AI will change the world?

Selected links

Kurtis Blow Basketball video —

Mets — http://mets.com

NC State fair — http://www.ncstatefair.org

TechCrunch article: Watch a real rocket scientist figure out (and beat) carnival scams — https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/26/watch-a-real-rocket-scientist-figure-out-and-beat-carnival-scams/

TechCrunch article: Saudi Arabia bestows citizenship on a robot named Sophia — https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/26/saudi-arabia-robot-citizen-sophia/

Hanson Robotics — http://www.hansonrobotics.com/robot/sophia/

Tonight Show with Jimmy Kimmel Tonight Showbotics with Sophia — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_tJvCA8zw

Future Investment Initiative where Sophia was announced as being the first robot to receive Saudi Arabian citizenship — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_tJvCA8zw

NPR article: The JFK Files: Calling On Citizen Reporters — https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/560220148/the-jfk-files-calling-on-citizen-reporters

TechCrunch article: Facebook says its ad transparency features will go live next month — https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/27/facebook-says-its-ad-transparency-features-will-go-live-next-month/

TechCrunch article: Twitter announces new ‘transparency center’ for ads — https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/24/twitter-advertising-transparency/

Prototypr blog post: Behind the Magic: How we built the ARKit Sudoku Solver — https://blog.prototypr.io/behind-the-magic-how-we-built-the-arkit-sudoku-solver-e586e5b685b0

Magic Sudoku — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic-sudoku/id1286979959?ls=1&mt=8

Watson on Jeopardy —

What games are the hosts playing?

none! Busy busy busy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:14 — 31.6MB) | Embed

Episode 184 – Floating Krack

By Michael Martine | November 20, 2017 - 06:12 |November 18, 2017 Podcast

Comments Off

Excited to play around at #AWE2017 #icaros I‘m next 🙂 pic.twitter.com/rwV8BQflUs

— Guido Gleinser (@Guuuuugl) October 19, 2017

From @guuuuugl’s ICAROS tweet from #AWE2017

Recording on a crisp October day, Michael and Michael start off this episode with the ICAROS virtual reality fitness rig @epredator shared from his experience at Augmented World Expo #AWE2017. The pair continue their mixed reality discussion with a thought experiment on Tinder prompted by an iMore article on the best AR experiences for social media. Michael R shares his understanding of a vulnerability in the WPA security profile stack known as Krack. The net is, it is best to set up a separate router and separate network for your internet of things devices. Michael R recommends “keep your stuff updated”.

Selected links

ICAROS — Virtual Reality Fitness Experiences — http://www.icaros.com

Virtuix Omni 360 degree treadmill — http://www.virtuix.com

Augmented World Expo — https://www.augmentedworldexpo.com

iMore article: Best AR experiences for social media right now! — https://www.imore.com/best-ar-experiences-social-media-right-now

Tinder — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tinder/id547702041?mt=8

Wired article: Why the Krack Wi-Fi Mess Will Take Decades to Clean Up — https://www.wired.com/story/krack-wi-fi-iot-security-broken/

Motherboard article: KRACK for Dummies — https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kaxz3/krack-wifi-hack-attack-guide-explainer

Security Now podcast show notes on KRACK — https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-633-notes.pdf

What games are the hosts playing?

Michael R — Gunman Taco Truck — http://www.gunmantacotruck.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:39 — 29.5MB) | Embed

Episode 183 – Enhanced Reality

By Michael Martine | November 13, 2017 - 06:26 |November 12, 2017 Podcast

Comments Off

Michael & Michael talk about the promise of bots who listen into meetings, take notes & action items on your behalf, entering them into your tool of choice for follow up. Talk about the power of the pen — and quite a step up from “Alexa, add eggs to my grocery list”.

Michael R brings up the fact that we’re still in a generation 1.1 world when it comes to AR — really in the beginning stages. Starting point will be in enterprise and entertainment before AR applications begin to really show up outside of these areas.

Intriguing question: are the Stormtrooper’s helmets augmented reality viewing devices? What do you think?

It’s Only A Model
Michael and Michael talk about 3D models launching off the example of Sketchfab and move quickly to the concept of integrating blockchain for provenance.

Looping back to the start of this episode, the Macworld article speculating on Apple’s work on a head up display to allow people to interact with the world through augmented reality lenses that are wearable, and not something that the user needs to hold in front of their eyes makes sense, and will be the breakthrough method to truly accelerate the use of the technology. Do you think that this is the main hurdle to mass adoption and use? Let us know!

Selected links

zoom.us — http://zoom.us/

Zoom, the 1970s children’s TV show — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_(1972_TV_series)

TechCrunch article: Zoom brings a dash of augmented reality and artificial intelligence to meetings in latest release — https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/26/zoom-brings-a-dash-of-augmented-reality-and-artificial-intelligence-to-meetings-in-latest-release/

Zoomtopia — http://zoomtopia.us

Meta — http://www.metavision.com

Meta blog: Check Out What Our Partners Have Achieved with Meta — https://blog.metavision.com/the-meta-2-now-supports-rendering-of-steam-vr-applications

Uncanny Valley — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

TechCrunch article: Sketchfab’s app may be the best way to try ARKit — https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/26/sketchfabs-app-might-be-the-best-way-to-try-arkit/

Sketchfab — https://sketchfab.com

Thingiverse — https://www.thingiverse.com

Adobe Capture CC app — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-capture-cc/id1040200189?mt=8