Episode 185 – Transparency

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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!

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Episode 184 – Floating Krack

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From @guuuuugl’s ICAROS tweet from

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 . 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

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Episode 183 – Enhanced Reality

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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

Blockchain — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Camelot (It’s only a model) —

Macworld article: Why Apple is probably working on a heads-up display — https://www.macworld.com/article/3229744/consumer-electronics/why-apple-is-probably-working-on-a-heads-up-display.html

The making of Ren & Stimpy documentary Indigogo — http://www.slashfilm.com/happy-happy-joy-joy-ren-and-stimpy-documentary/

What games are the hosts playing?

Michael M: Star Trek Timelines — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-trek-timelines/id1001250333?mt=8

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Episode 182 – Dungeons and Nike

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Thanks to @andypiper for sharing with us this cool Dungeons & Dragons tabletop, that Michael and Michael imagine could be brought to life via augmented reality like the Holochess example in Star Wars Episode IV.

What can be more personal than something you wear?  Nike’s new brand engagement digital experience with their recently announced Connected NBA jersey is precisely that.  Once a fan has committed to buy a team jersey financially, and linking that jersey to an account, the idea of what you could do next with all that data is extremely intriguing.  What if this was not an NBA thing — what if the wearable is tied to a band, and they could monetize their fan experience, with exclusive potential access backstage at their concerts?  What if, this was not sports or music — rather a political group — you could check in with your special rally hat to gain access?  Is the (potential) value of what could be offered worth the tradeoff of sharing your data and allowing tracking by a third party?

What do you think?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Selected links 

Polygon article: D&D group builds custom tabletop with 4K touchscreen — https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/18/16329482/dungeons-and-dragons-digital-table-4k-touchscreen-fantasy-grounds

Dungeons & Dragons — http://dnd.wizards.com

Fantasy Grounds — https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php

Overhead holographic projector (discussed in episode 175) — http://bgr.com/2017/07/12/augmented-reality-projector/

Roll 20 app — https://roll20.net

Polygon article:  D&D now on Steam, complete with dice and a Dungeon Master — https://www.polygon.com/2015/4/22/8470473/dungeons-dragons-virtual-tabletop-fantasy-grounds

Wizards of the Coast — http://company.wizards.com

Nike’s new Connected NBA jerseys  — https://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nba/jerseys

Discovery’s Manhunt:Unabomber — https://manhunt.discovery.com/unabomber/

Swarm — https://www.swarmapp.com

IntoNow — TV check in app — https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/28/to-every-social-tv-app-turn-turn-turn/

Spotify — https://www.spotify.com/us/

What are the hosts’ favorite D&D quests?

Michael M — created our own.

Michael R — not canned adventures, we created our own too!

What games are the hosts playing?

Michael R — Eggs, Inc.  — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg,_Inc.

Michael M — looking forward to some new AppleTV apps

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