Episode 133 – Game Brains

Episode 133 – Game Brains was recorded on Friday, the 18th of February 2016. Does playing video games make you smarter?  Michael and Michael answer this question with a resounding “maybe”, as they go through a tour of several interesting links, from Google’s DeepMind computer playing Go, to Volvos starting up without keys, to toys that think and 3D printing going back to 1964 with plastigoop. We hope you enjoy the show! Selected links Can Video Games make you Smarter? — https://youtu.be/OOsqkQytHOs Luminosity — http://www.lumosity.com Gmailification — http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/17/google-launches-gmailify-a-way-to-use-gmails-best-features-with-non-gmail-accounts/ Mailbox — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailbox/id576502633?mt=8 Airmail — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/airmail-your-mail-with-you/id993160329?mt=8 Google Now — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Now Connected Toys and the Serious … Continue reading

Episode 122 – Motivational Design

Phaedra and Michael M start off the show with a discussion about Phaedra’s experience at the SimTecT conference in Adelaide, Australia.  Phaedra reflected on an interesting question posed to her while at the conference — how motivational design could be used to extract someone from an indoctrinated, calcified way of thinking.  Motivational design leads to humanitarian design and then on to persuasive design, not just for simulation content, but also for how the experience is created and tailored for the user to know when and how to interrupt their flow for maximum benefit and impact. As you pass through the … Continue reading

What’s been going on

There is something about spring that seems to impact our co-hosts getting together.  Between the demands of work schedules, conferences, and holidays with friends and family I would like to apologize for the infrequency of our podcast.  At one point in time we had planned on having a bunch of reserve episodes in backup that we could post, but that is not really fair to you, the listeners.  So for this week, I am going to write a quick post about some interesting things I’ve seen lately. My schedule has been impacted by a bunch of customer visits and conferences … Continue reading

Episode 96 – The Professional Line Sitter

The Michael’s are back with a bit gamification for travel, we try and take a different approach then our prior episodes were we talked about how the Airline Industry was gaming boarding, and see if we can setup an on-line auction for improving your seating on the plane. Perhaps we can get a bit of advice from Zaboo and his seat saving network idea (see “The Guild” season 5). How can you make this game work for both the passenger and the airlines? When at restaurants can we figure out a way to swap locations in line? Can the Restaurant … Continue reading