I'm sure you saw John Oliver's cogent argument for neutral Internet, but maybe you were busy. His rant crashed the FCC (all over the news). Thought you should see it, if you didn't. Some of you mentioned that Net Neutrality was next (after ISPs were freed to do as they please). We all knew this, and it creates a less diverse internet. But did you know who benefits? This aired on May 7, 2017.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Monday, May 8, 2017
Tech Briefing: Virtual Reality
Introduction:
Today’s newest and most rapidly growing technology is virtual reality, and there are many important reasons why virtual reality will be an integral part of the future. While 2016 has been called the “year of virtual reality”, the truth is that virtual reality is still in its early development stages. However, within the near future, we can expect virtual reality to ascend into technology that we have never experienced before and will change the way we interact with our environments forever.
Virtual reality is defined as a computer-generated simulation of a 3D image or environment that can be interacted with using a headset or other equipment. The VR headset enables a user to become visually separated from their physical area, allowing them to virtually experience a location, a point in history, a new world, and much more using computer generated images.
Virtual Reality Today:
Today’s virtual reality technology has the versatility to capture the interests of the enthusiast or hobbyist, while at the same time presenting scientific rigor to satisfy the eager student or skilled technologist.
Virtual reality is offered in many different formats and on different platforms due to the growing adoption of virtual reality. The fasting growing form of virtual reality is the use of smart phones as a head-mounted display, which allow for head tracking and immersion. Virtual reality on smart phones has become a quickly growing industry because consumers already have these devices and usually just need to buy an add-on to secure the phone to their head. While this form of VR technology is the fastest growing, it is less advanced and does not offer the capabilities that standard VR platforms possess.
VR platforms such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Playstation VR are much more advanced than their mobile phone counterparts and often have a controller or other device to allow the user to interact with their environment, albeit a much higher entry price.
To many, VR believe that it encompasses only video games and mobile phone apps. However, the widespread adoption of VR is encouraging developers to create new, immersive content and applications. Some examples that can be possible with the power of VR include visiting a world landmark, enjoying a basketball game with courtside seats, or studying in a virtual classroom with teachers and students from all over the world. Some articles even discuss how the health industry is exploring the use of VR as a method of consulting with a doctor face-to-face.
Virtual Reality in other Industries:
Virtual Reality can change the entertainment industry forever, enabling a new platform to deliver content to viewers and other consumers. Events such as television broadcasts, broadway plays, concerts, movies, and other forms of entertainment have the potential to be shown through virtual reality, enabling another method for the industry to make money. For example, the entertainment industry can capitalize on the fact that consumers will pay money to view a sold-out concert through a virtual reality platform.
Scientist are still researching VR and its benefits in the health industry, but there are many promising VR applications being developed. There have been multiple scientific studies which explore how virtual reality training improves operating room performance in surgeons. Other studies explored how VR can be used to relieve the sensation of pain, as a form of therapy, and treat phobias or PTSD.
The education industry also has a lot to gain from the growing virtual reality industry. For example, education can be experienced in an entirely new way, as medicine, chemistry, physics, and other sciences can be modeled in an incredible visual way that our minds have not seen before. Imagine rearranging molecules with your hands right before your eyes. An application like this is only possible using the imagination aspect that virtual reality brings. Beyond virtual modeling, a learning environment through virtual reality can be the next innovation in teaching. In other words, if a student in one part of the world perhaps wanted to be taught by a famous professor who lives on the other side of the world, the power of VR enables the “real” teaching and learning interactions to be possible
For more information, here are some interesting links that discuss the future of VR and its potential.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/02/06/how-will-virtual-reality-change-the-healthcare-industry/#40bd46a0429e
Virtual Reality: The Future Is Coming | John Vechey | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJf7BfpKTOY
The Future of Virtual Reality | Phil Kauffold | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-HRgfJbPvk
Will virtual and augmented reality move us into the knowledge age? | Zenka | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FA-IuDTMjE
Today’s newest and most rapidly growing technology is virtual reality, and there are many important reasons why virtual reality will be an integral part of the future. While 2016 has been called the “year of virtual reality”, the truth is that virtual reality is still in its early development stages. However, within the near future, we can expect virtual reality to ascend into technology that we have never experienced before and will change the way we interact with our environments forever.
Virtual reality is defined as a computer-generated simulation of a 3D image or environment that can be interacted with using a headset or other equipment. The VR headset enables a user to become visually separated from their physical area, allowing them to virtually experience a location, a point in history, a new world, and much more using computer generated images.
Virtual Reality Today:
Today’s virtual reality technology has the versatility to capture the interests of the enthusiast or hobbyist, while at the same time presenting scientific rigor to satisfy the eager student or skilled technologist.
Virtual reality is offered in many different formats and on different platforms due to the growing adoption of virtual reality. The fasting growing form of virtual reality is the use of smart phones as a head-mounted display, which allow for head tracking and immersion. Virtual reality on smart phones has become a quickly growing industry because consumers already have these devices and usually just need to buy an add-on to secure the phone to their head. While this form of VR technology is the fastest growing, it is less advanced and does not offer the capabilities that standard VR platforms possess.
VR platforms such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Playstation VR are much more advanced than their mobile phone counterparts and often have a controller or other device to allow the user to interact with their environment, albeit a much higher entry price.
To many, VR believe that it encompasses only video games and mobile phone apps. However, the widespread adoption of VR is encouraging developers to create new, immersive content and applications. Some examples that can be possible with the power of VR include visiting a world landmark, enjoying a basketball game with courtside seats, or studying in a virtual classroom with teachers and students from all over the world. Some articles even discuss how the health industry is exploring the use of VR as a method of consulting with a doctor face-to-face.
Virtual Reality in other Industries:
Virtual Reality can change the entertainment industry forever, enabling a new platform to deliver content to viewers and other consumers. Events such as television broadcasts, broadway plays, concerts, movies, and other forms of entertainment have the potential to be shown through virtual reality, enabling another method for the industry to make money. For example, the entertainment industry can capitalize on the fact that consumers will pay money to view a sold-out concert through a virtual reality platform.
Scientist are still researching VR and its benefits in the health industry, but there are many promising VR applications being developed. There have been multiple scientific studies which explore how virtual reality training improves operating room performance in surgeons. Other studies explored how VR can be used to relieve the sensation of pain, as a form of therapy, and treat phobias or PTSD.
The education industry also has a lot to gain from the growing virtual reality industry. For example, education can be experienced in an entirely new way, as medicine, chemistry, physics, and other sciences can be modeled in an incredible visual way that our minds have not seen before. Imagine rearranging molecules with your hands right before your eyes. An application like this is only possible using the imagination aspect that virtual reality brings. Beyond virtual modeling, a learning environment through virtual reality can be the next innovation in teaching. In other words, if a student in one part of the world perhaps wanted to be taught by a famous professor who lives on the other side of the world, the power of VR enables the “real” teaching and learning interactions to be possible
For more information, here are some interesting links that discuss the future of VR and its potential.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/02/06/how-will-virtual-reality-change-the-healthcare-industry/#40bd46a0429e
Virtual Reality: The Future Is Coming | John Vechey | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJf7BfpKTOY
The Future of Virtual Reality | Phil Kauffold | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-HRgfJbPvk
Will virtual and augmented reality move us into the knowledge age? | Zenka | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FA-IuDTMjE
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Drones and Uses
My Experience
By now, I’m sure everyone has both heard and seen a drone. Although this technology seems to be popping up just now, drones have been around for a long time. Drones have been a hobby of mine since high school and I was even employed at GoPro as a Multi-rotor Pilot. Simply put, a drone is a remote-less controlled piloted aircraft or missle. They are also typically known as UAV’S quad-copters, etc.
History of Drones
Drones were first developed during WWI around 1916-1918. These were much different than todays but the great innovation has also remained. At first they came in the form of the modern cruise missiles such as The Aerial Target, Hewitt Sperry Automatic Airplane, and Kettering Bug. These particular examples showed the first concepts of unmanned aircrafts ever. In November 1917, the Automatic Airplane was demonstrated for the US Army. The real birth of UAV’s began in the 60s when the US Air Force was concerned about losing pilots over hostile territory. There solution was: Unmanned Aircrafts!
While most drones were utilized by the military in the old days, this technology was commissioned by the CIA after 9/11. They began the first UAV program called the Eagle Program, flying over Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. However recently, drones are becoming popular for hobbyists, commercial markets, private markets, and it was reported that drones are being used by at least 50 countries.
Unusual Drone Uses
-Drone Combat
The ASL(Aerial Sports League) drone combat games sets a new standard for robotic sports. What started as a top-secret drone “flight club” attended by a select group of robot builders, designers and artists in an Oakland warehouse became a global sensation. Attendance quickly grew from a few friends to hundreds of people, and then thousands in a matter of months. From this drone flight club the ASL was born. I was introduced to this by one of my coworkers and its really REALLY fun.
The so-called “Swarm” was constructed out of a metal and polycarbonate frame with the passenger seated so as to keep him as safe as possible. For now, the Swarm can only reach a height of around 15 feet, with a flight time of only ten minutes on a single battery charge, and it's loud as heck to boot, but with future modifications, it promises to only get better and go further.
Future in Business
Drones are changing the way we think and act in every aspect. I believe in the future current companies such as Amazon will continue to grow in this industry and market. Although its new and some of the regulations are unclear on the FAA’s side, there is just too much cool innovation going on that humans will eventually come to depend on.
References
http://digitaledition.rotorandwing.com/march-2017/the-great-embrace-how-drones-can-advance-business/
http://www.dsports.io/combat/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/02/15/a-drone-carrying-human-passengers-prepares-to-take-flight-in-dubai/
References
http://digitaledition.rotorandwing.com/march-2017/the-great-embrace-how-drones-can-advance-business/
http://www.dsports.io/combat/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/02/15/a-drone-carrying-human-passengers-prepares-to-take-flight-in-dubai/
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Deep Reading in the Age of Internet
Background
Reading first of all does not come naturally. Unlike speaking and listening, reading a word and recognize its meaning in a sentence, in a paragraph or in a book takes years of training.
As we grow and reading skill advance, we start to develop deep reading. Deep reading or slow reading, is a sophisticated process in which people can critically think, reflect and understand the words they are seeing on the page. With most, that means slowing down — even stopping and rereading a page or paragraph if it doesn’t sink in — to really capture what the author is trying to say.
Experts warn that without reading and really understanding, it is impossible to be an educated citizen of the world, a knowledgeable voter. or even an imaginative thinker.
Concerns
The concern that deep reading is going by the wayside is a phenomenon that may have something to do with our use of technology and our habits while browsing the Web.
Just last summer, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he was concerned about what he sees as a decline in slow reading. Instant messages and 140-character tweets appear to be taking over our ability to concentrate on a single idea or theme in a book.
Marshall McLuhan once noted: Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. Internet and the Web is shaping who we are and how we read.
It’s easy to forget the benefits of deep reading in an age where anything worth doing is done fast, or not at all. Canadian author John Miedema says that we surf the Internet, gather snippets of information and click hyperlinks that bring us to different topics and authors, he says. In less than a second, we can go from reading about Beethoven the composer to watching a clip about Beethoven the St. Bernard online.
Distracted Readers and Short Memory Cycle
The Web is essentially a distraction machine. Hyperlinks are meant to take you away from where you are.
One research indicated that “Nowadays, access to information is digital: less than 0.1% of the information currently generated is on paper. 99.9% of the information is only digitally available. Every minute, 2 million searches are made in Google.
The average number of Google searches per day has grown from 9,800 in 1998 to over 4.7 trillion today This may not be surprising, since we've all come to appreciate the thrill of instant information. But while it's certainly convenient to have the sum of all knowledge at our fingertips, studies show that the "Google effect" is changing the way we think.
In a 2011 experiment published in Science Magazine, college students remembered less information when they knew they could easily access it later on the computer. With 49% of Americans now toting around Google on their smart phones, researchers concluded that the effect is the same. We're relying on Google to store knowledge long-term, instead of our own brains.
Marshall McLuhan once noted: Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. Internet and the Web is shaping who we are and how we read.
It’s easy to forget the benefits of deep reading in an age where anything worth doing is done fast, or not at all. Canadian author John Miedema says that we surf the Internet, gather snippets of information and click hyperlinks that bring us to different topics and authors, he says. In less than a second, we can go from reading about Beethoven the composer to watching a clip about Beethoven the St. Bernard online.
Distracted Readers and Short Memory Cycle
The Web is essentially a distraction machine. Hyperlinks are meant to take you away from where you are.
One research indicated that “Nowadays, access to information is digital: less than 0.1% of the information currently generated is on paper. 99.9% of the information is only digitally available. Every minute, 2 million searches are made in Google.
The average number of Google searches per day has grown from 9,800 in 1998 to over 4.7 trillion today This may not be surprising, since we've all come to appreciate the thrill of instant information. But while it's certainly convenient to have the sum of all knowledge at our fingertips, studies show that the "Google effect" is changing the way we think.
In a 2011 experiment published in Science Magazine, college students remembered less information when they knew they could easily access it later on the computer. With 49% of Americans now toting around Google on their smart phones, researchers concluded that the effect is the same. We're relying on Google to store knowledge long-term, instead of our own brains.
Neuroimaging of frequent Internet users shows twice as much activity in the short term memory as sporadic users during online tasks. Basically, our brain is learning to disregard information found online, and this connection becomes stronger every time we experience it. So the more we use Google, the less likely we are to retain what we see.
Our brains use information stored in the long-term memory to facilitate critical thinking. We need these unique memories to understand and interact with the world around us. If we rely on Google to store our knowledge, we may be losing an important part of our identity.
Check out this cool short video explaining the prolong effect of internet on human memory and reading habits
Check out this cool short video explaining the prolong effect of internet on human memory and reading habits
Changing reading pattern
Before the emergence of the multimedia contents on the Internet, people are trained and used to the traditional linear reading which is up to bottom, left to right. The writers use this to lay out structure and contents and the readers use this to follow the thought process of the writers. Now the reading pattern has changed. To be more adaptive on reading out of a webpage, people are now developing F-Pattern reading.
The F-Pattern describes the most common user eye-scanning patterns when it comes to blocks of content. F for fast. That’s how users read your content. In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across your websites page.
The pattern was popularized by NNGroup eyetracking study which recorded more than 200 users looked at thousands of web pages and found that users’ main reading behavior was fairly consistent across many different sites and tasks. This reading pattern looked somewhat like an F and has the following three components:
Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar. Next, they scan a vertical line down the left side of the screen, looking for points of interest in the paragraph’s initial sentences. When they found something interesting they read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar. Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement.
The NNGroup demonstrates how eye-tracking studies revealed that users (in left-to-right reading cultures) typically scan heavy blocks of content in a pattern that looks like the letter F or E. The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn’t attract any fixations.
Many online news platforms are using F-Pattern to get people’s attention and increase the site visits.
Below is an example by CNN.
Below is an example by CNN.
Efforts to Encourage Deep Reading
There are many efforts to encourage people to come back and pick up this deep reading skills. Below are two of them.
RAVE-O - Strategies of Teaching Reading
http://www.voyagersopris.com/curriculum/subject/literacy/rave-o/take-a-closer-look
Thinking reader – Center for Applied Special Technology's (CAST)
http://udleditions.cast.org/INTRO,telltale_heart.html
References:
http://babich.biz/f-shaped-pattern-for-reading-content/
http://www.mercurynews.com/2011/01/04/is-deep-reading-in-trouble-2/
http://www.voyagersopris.com/curriculum/subject/literacy/rave-o/take-a-closer-look
Thinking reader – Center for Applied Special Technology's (CAST)
http://udleditions.cast.org/INTRO,telltale_heart.html
References:
http://babich.biz/f-shaped-pattern-for-reading-content/
http://www.mercurynews.com/2011/01/04/is-deep-reading-in-trouble-2/
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Music and Technology
Music is something that is all around us. While some choose to listen to music through ways such as vinyl records or tapes, electronic distribution and recording has allowed music to become more integrated into our lives. Technology’s relationship with music can be viewed in a variety of ways. While the move to digital has decreased the overall quality of the music due to compression, technology has allowed for more platforms and methods on which to distribute, share, and enjoy music.
Streaming
Technology has allowed individuals to be exposed to more and more genres of music as your music is a click away. An individual can utilize technology to explore a fresh new genre or artist in a single evening with the convenience of being able to stream from home. Streaming services have also benefited music artists, who can upload their songs without needing a record label or distributor. This puts music more in the hands of the musicians and listeners if the musician can promote themselves. Although streaming services have allowed artists to reach a broader audience, the way money is made has changed.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
The Recording Industry Association of America gives out awards based on the number of albums and singles and artist has sold. Since we are talking about streaming in this tech briefing, I will be addressing singles. The certifications for singles are as follows:
Singles
Gold- 500,000 units
Platinum- 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum- 2,000,000 units
A unit is identified as one purchase of a song or 150 streams of the song. The RIAA keeps track of these sales statistics to honor success of a music artist. For example, the two artists D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty’s song Broccoli reached 5x platinum last week, putting it at 5,000,000 units sold. One unit is considered 150 streams of a song. This would mean Broccoli has potentially been streamed 750,000,000 times. If you are interested to see how much your favorite artist is making, click the RIAA website here.
How much money are artists making?
Copies of contracts between record labels and the streaming service Spotify have been leaked. In article by The Verge, it was found that a right holder for a song earns anywhere between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream. A right holder can be considered an artist, label, or publisher. This number depends on what streaming service or platform is used to listen to a song. With the Spotify average in mind, if D.R.A.M.’s song received all its sales units from Spotify, he has the maximum potential to make $6,300,000. This does not take into consideration the money paid to his label and the featured artist. Of course artists do not get all of their sales from one platform, but it is interesting to see the surprisingly low amount of money that streaming generates.
Streaming has continued to be a difficult subject for artists and record labels. Although a streaming service does not provide an artist with the most amount of money, streaming numbers do add up over time and allow for an artist to be more easily discovered. Smart artists will utilize the benefits of streaming platforms and other revenue sources such as CD and digital sales, merchandise and live shows to be financial successful.
MP3: The Exploration of Music Distribution and the Exchange to Digital (1/15/17)
Sources
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/ [great resource on the way music died]
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9861372/spotify-year-in-review-artist-payment-royalties
http://www.tunecore.com/guides/promote-introduction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification
Streaming
Technology has allowed individuals to be exposed to more and more genres of music as your music is a click away. An individual can utilize technology to explore a fresh new genre or artist in a single evening with the convenience of being able to stream from home. Streaming services have also benefited music artists, who can upload their songs without needing a record label or distributor. This puts music more in the hands of the musicians and listeners if the musician can promote themselves. Although streaming services have allowed artists to reach a broader audience, the way money is made has changed.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
The Recording Industry Association of America gives out awards based on the number of albums and singles and artist has sold. Since we are talking about streaming in this tech briefing, I will be addressing singles. The certifications for singles are as follows:
Singles
Gold- 500,000 units
Platinum- 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum- 2,000,000 units
A unit is identified as one purchase of a song or 150 streams of the song. The RIAA keeps track of these sales statistics to honor success of a music artist. For example, the two artists D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty’s song Broccoli reached 5x platinum last week, putting it at 5,000,000 units sold. One unit is considered 150 streams of a song. This would mean Broccoli has potentially been streamed 750,000,000 times. If you are interested to see how much your favorite artist is making, click the RIAA website here.
Copies of contracts between record labels and the streaming service Spotify have been leaked. In article by The Verge, it was found that a right holder for a song earns anywhere between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream. A right holder can be considered an artist, label, or publisher. This number depends on what streaming service or platform is used to listen to a song. With the Spotify average in mind, if D.R.A.M.’s song received all its sales units from Spotify, he has the maximum potential to make $6,300,000. This does not take into consideration the money paid to his label and the featured artist. Of course artists do not get all of their sales from one platform, but it is interesting to see the surprisingly low amount of money that streaming generates.
Streaming has continued to be a difficult subject for artists and record labels. Although a streaming service does not provide an artist with the most amount of money, streaming numbers do add up over time and allow for an artist to be more easily discovered. Smart artists will utilize the benefits of streaming platforms and other revenue sources such as CD and digital sales, merchandise and live shows to be financial successful.
Sources
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/ [great resource on the way music died]
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9861372/spotify-year-in-review-artist-payment-royalties
http://www.tunecore.com/guides/promote-introduction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
The Role of Robotics and AI in Medicine
Background
Robots and the use of AI first entered the medical scene in the late 1980s to 1990s with namely prosthetics and laparoscopic procedures. Now, as we as humans generate more and more health related data, there arises an issue as the use of these technologies expands in regards to both ethical issues as well as properly harnessing the data we generate to provide a higher and more widespread level of healthcare.
Levels of Autonomy
The role of robotics and AI in medicine is becoming more and more widespread and due to the nature of the industry the possibilities for scenarios and uses are endless. Robots can be used for logistics, such as in pharmacies and delivering supplies-- it is estimate that nurses spend 7% of their time simply looking for things, as well as for performing surgeries. For this reason, it's important to look at it in terms of autonomy.
- No autonomy- the user has complete control, an example being a prosthetic limb.
- Robot assistance- the device provides the patient with assistance with movement or balance support.
- Task authority- there is the ability to perform certain tasks independently, an example being sewing stitches.
- Conditional autonomy- a system is capable of creating their own tasks to perform independently, but is still mostly reliant on a human's decision.
- High autonomy- the device is capable of making decisions under the supervision of qualified doctors.
- Full autonomy- the robot is able to perform an entire surgery as well as a general surgeon without any supervision.
Currently, the FDA is capable of approving levels 1-3. The issue arises is that when we get to level 4 and above, even if some are yet in the realm of science fiction, it likely requires getting the American Board of Surgery in for approval of their abilities.
da Vinci Robot
The da Vinci surgical system is a robotic surgical platform that allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgeries. The FDA cleared it in 2000 to become the first robotic surgical platform commercially available in the U.S. to be used in general laparoscopic surgeries. With the da Vinci, surgeons are able to use just 1-2 cm incisions as opposed to much longer ones without it. There are three parts to the system: a surgeon's console, four interactive robotic arms, and a high performance vision system and EndoWrist instruments. Today, there are over 1,700 systems in hospitals around the world that have treated over 775,000 patients.
IBM Watson
IBM's Watson aims to tackle the issue of reconciling the massive data we are now generating as people with practical applications. The health industry is a $7 trillion industry and medical data--whether that be from clinical trials, research, implanted devices, medical records, and more-- is being created at an exponential rate. Additionally, IBM estimates that 35 cents from every dollar spent on medical care is wasted due to this gap in utilizing data. With Watson Health, the goal is to apply the cloud technology of Watson to help optimize performance, engage consumers, enable effective healthcare, and manage population health.
Sources:
http://uchealth.com/services/robotic-surgery/patient-information/davinci-surgical-system/
https://www.ibm.com/watson/health/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/20/medical_robots_need_autonomy_classifications/
https://neurochangers.com/2012/08/09/the-history-of-medical-robots/
The Power of Drones
When many people think of drones, they often think of the cool overheard video footage one can take with them. Many professional photographers and videographers have been catching onto the trend of drones over the past few years, and their popularity continues to increase. However, as technology is expanding, there are many different industries also hopping onto the drone bandwagon and implementing this technology in a variety of ways. Drones are now being used in many companies and are helping these industries work more efficiently to their end goal.
Deliveries
One of the biggest uses of drones that people are hearing about is with deliveries. Amazon first started testing this service several years ago, and now many other companies are figuring out how to implement it as well, such as pizza companies. With Amazon’s delivery service, called Prime Air, one can place an order and receive the package via drone within 30 minutes. Amazon tested this service and made their first delivery in December 2016, in Cambridge England. In February 2017, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “granted Amazon a patent for a method to guide packages released from drones safely to the ground” (CNN Tech). This patent suggests that Amazon should keep drones high above customer’s homes, and rather than landing them in people’s yards, they will be dropping parachutes from the drones. Once these parachutes are dropped, the drones would monitor them to ensure they are dropped in the correct location, making sure wind does not interfere. Since Amazon’s testing, Google has started to work with similar plans.
Construction
Another newer trend with drones has been with construction. Drones are cheaper to fly than planes and are a lot faster than human surveyors. In addition, drones “collect data more frequently than either, letting construction workers track a site’s progress with a degree of accuracy previously unknown in the industry” (Fortune). With the data that drones are able to collect at construction sites, builders will be able to create 3D structural models, topographical maps, and volumetric measurements. Other tasks that drones can perform are enhancing safety at construction sites, since they will have real-time data of safety violations or situations that could have a negative impact during the process (The Balance). The benefits of using drones are endless including minimizing potential issues, decreasing costs, and limiting delays.
Public Safety and First Responders
Drones have been a hot topic discussion in regards to their use by the police. The first initial response by the public was a fear of privacy being violated. Since the technology was and still is in its infancy stage, many erred on the side of precaution. But in recent times, this thought of losing privacy has dwindled, while the awareness for the positive drones can bring to helping people has become clearer. In 2013, an Institute for Homeland Security Solutions (IHSS) and RTI International survey found 57 percent of the general public supports the use of unmanned aircraft systems for any application. It found:
- 88 percent of the general public supports drone use in search and rescue operations
- 67 percent support drone use in homeland security missions
- 63 percent support drone use in fighting crime
The potential for the use of drones by police has always been there. Yet a better understanding of the practicality of this becoming a reality recently has become clearer. Drones would be able to help forensic photographers cut down their process time at accident sites. Using a few simple ground measurements as reference points, the drone can fly over the accident to capture images, and the analyst can conduct the accident investigation on a computer rather than at the scene. This allows for the roads to be reopened quicker and traffic can get back to a normal flow.
Agriculture
Drones have also shown a potential in agriculture uses. With this comes the potential to help increase productivity and sustainability. There following are the 6 main reasons drones can help the agriculture industry:
- Soil and Field Analysis - This will allow for the farmers to better strategize where to plant seeds.
- Planting Seeds - Drones can also help in physically planting the seeds. In fact, drone-planting systems that achieve an uptake rate of 75 percent and decrease planting costs by 85 percent.
- Crop Spraying - the tools drones are equipped with allow them to accurately fly over fields and spray the right amount of liquid. This results in increased efficiency with a reduction of in the amount of chemicals penetrating into groundwater.
- Crop Monitoring - This is one of farming's biggest obstacle. Since farms can be so large there hasn’t been an efficient way to monitor a field. By using a drone one can increase efficiency and cut down costs.
- Irrigation - Drones are able to help identify which areas of a field are not getting enough water. This information can be used to adjust watering practices.
- Health Assessment - By using a drone to scan crops, farmers are able to tell if a plant is growing well. One is also able to tell if the plant has a fungal or bacterial infections. A speedy response can save an entire farm. In addition, as soon as a sickness is discovered, farmers can apply and monitor remedies more precisely.
Sources:
"Amazon Prime Air." Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.
Link to Survey Experiment
https://goo.gl/forms/LfcP1aBt2IPJH9rX2
Please take this survey to help me with a class experiment.
If you choose not to participate, please click "No" on the survey and submit.
Thank you,
Jesus Gurrola
Please take this survey to help me with a class experiment.
If you choose not to participate, please click "No" on the survey and submit.
Thank you,
Jesus Gurrola
Airbnb and Racial Profiling
Company Background:
Airbnb is an online popular marketplace for short-term rentals, where people list or rent their apartment, houses or even spare rooms they have in their houses. The company makes money from charging commission to both the host and the guest. It was founded in 2008 and has around three million lodging listings in 165,000 cities and 191 countries.
Racial Profiling:
It all started in 2015 with a twitter hashtag called #AirbnbWhileBlack, where African-American users shared their rejection stories while using Airbnb. In january 2016, a study done by Harvard Business School concluded that applications with distinctively African-American names were 16% less likely to be accepted relatively to applications with distinctively white names. The study was done by sending out 6,400 booking requests from fake Airbnb account without pictures, and 50% of the time white-sounding names were booked successfully compared to 42% for African-American names.
Airbnb Reactions:
- Implementing policies that play down the use of photos of hosts and guests, while emphasizing trip details, reviews, and user verification.
- Pushing a new policy, where hosts agree to treat everyone with respect regardless of race, religion, national origin or ethnicity and violators will be banned from the site.
- Increasing instant bookings so the guest does not have to wait for host pre-approval.
- Hiring a permanent full time team to fight bias and promote diversity.
- Open door service which ensures renters who experience discrimination find a place to stay even if it is not through Airbnb.
My question is: Do you think those solutions will be enough for Airbnb to weed out discrimination among its platform?
Sources:
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Artificial Intelligence
Background
When we think of artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to mind for many people are sentient robots that we created that exist alongside us, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not so peacefully depending on your viewpoint on robots. But we are a far ways away from that becoming a reality. In reality, what we have accomplished so far with artificial intelligence is still nothing short of remarkable. Researchers have divided artificial intelligence into four different categories, Type 1 to Type 4. As it currently stands based on these categories we are only partially thru type 2 and we are still some ways out from reaching the criteria that defines a Type 3 Artificial Intelligence.
Type 1 Artificial Intelligence
Type 1 artificial intelligence is defined as reactive machines. How these work is they take inputs and cues from data they are given or data that is gathered based upon what the computer can perceive. Some real-world examples of this that many of us have probably heard of are IBM’s Watson and Google’s DeepMind/AlphaGo. These operate on a form of artificial intelligence called neural networks. These are essentially computer “brains” that form from a program executing a variety of different scenarios until it eventually forms “neurons” that it remembers produces a certain result. Below is a video of one of these neural networks in action.
Type 2 Artificial Intelligence
Type 2 artificial intelligence is defined as machines with limited memory. While Type 1 AI operates by looking at things at that current moment, Type 2 AI is capable of referencing things that it has stored as well as look at current things happen to decide what action is the best action to take. The best example of this that is out there today is self-driving cars. Tesla has been able to take this concept and figure out a way to make it work in the real world with fantastic results. However, there is still difficulty in trying to figure out to make these machines remember what they’ve learned for any prolonged period of time which is the sticking point with getting us thru Type 2 AI and into Type 3 AI.
Type 3 Artificial Intelligence
Type 3 artificial intelligence is defined as theory of mind. This type of AI deals technically with machines and technology that hasn’t been built quite yet. In psychological terms, theory of mind is how thoughts and emotions can play as a determinant as what a person, animal, or object behaves after the fact. If in the future, for example, if robots with AI are to interact and be in an environment with people, they’ll have to be able to study and understand human behavior, and be capable to adjust their thought process as to how to treat that specific behavior or action. It’s essentially like giving a brain to the machine, so it can have its own thought process.
Type 4 Artificial Intelligence
Type 4 artificial intelligence is defined as Self-awareness. This type is somewhat an extension of type 3’s “theory of mind”. It’s all about building a system that is aware of itself and has a conscious. The system is smart enough and has enough internal thought to be able to know what state it is in and being to predict the feelings and emotions of people. For example, if we see someone smile, it’s most likely because they are happy. We know this because we smile when we are happy too. A very elementary fact, but that is the basis for being self-aware. It’s like the same thing when Arizona Basketball loses, and we see people not speaking and heavy hearted because they’re sad. We know how they feel because we feel the same way. An important step towards creating systems that are self aware is being able to retain and learn from memory, essentially basing decision or action on what has happened in past experience.
Sources:
When we think of artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to mind for many people are sentient robots that we created that exist alongside us, sometimes peacefully and sometimes not so peacefully depending on your viewpoint on robots. But we are a far ways away from that becoming a reality. In reality, what we have accomplished so far with artificial intelligence is still nothing short of remarkable. Researchers have divided artificial intelligence into four different categories, Type 1 to Type 4. As it currently stands based on these categories we are only partially thru type 2 and we are still some ways out from reaching the criteria that defines a Type 3 Artificial Intelligence.
Type 1 artificial intelligence is defined as reactive machines. How these work is they take inputs and cues from data they are given or data that is gathered based upon what the computer can perceive. Some real-world examples of this that many of us have probably heard of are IBM’s Watson and Google’s DeepMind/AlphaGo. These operate on a form of artificial intelligence called neural networks. These are essentially computer “brains” that form from a program executing a variety of different scenarios until it eventually forms “neurons” that it remembers produces a certain result. Below is a video of one of these neural networks in action.
Type 2 artificial intelligence is defined as machines with limited memory. While Type 1 AI operates by looking at things at that current moment, Type 2 AI is capable of referencing things that it has stored as well as look at current things happen to decide what action is the best action to take. The best example of this that is out there today is self-driving cars. Tesla has been able to take this concept and figure out a way to make it work in the real world with fantastic results. However, there is still difficulty in trying to figure out to make these machines remember what they’ve learned for any prolonged period of time which is the sticking point with getting us thru Type 2 AI and into Type 3 AI.
Type 3 Artificial Intelligence
Type 3 artificial intelligence is defined as theory of mind. This type of AI deals technically with machines and technology that hasn’t been built quite yet. In psychological terms, theory of mind is how thoughts and emotions can play as a determinant as what a person, animal, or object behaves after the fact. If in the future, for example, if robots with AI are to interact and be in an environment with people, they’ll have to be able to study and understand human behavior, and be capable to adjust their thought process as to how to treat that specific behavior or action. It’s essentially like giving a brain to the machine, so it can have its own thought process.
Type 4 Artificial Intelligence
Type 4 artificial intelligence is defined as Self-awareness. This type is somewhat an extension of type 3’s “theory of mind”. It’s all about building a system that is aware of itself and has a conscious. The system is smart enough and has enough internal thought to be able to know what state it is in and being to predict the feelings and emotions of people. For example, if we see someone smile, it’s most likely because they are happy. We know this because we smile when we are happy too. A very elementary fact, but that is the basis for being self-aware. It’s like the same thing when Arizona Basketball loses, and we see people not speaking and heavy hearted because they’re sad. We know how they feel because we feel the same way. An important step towards creating systems that are self aware is being able to retain and learn from memory, essentially basing decision or action on what has happened in past experience.
Sources:
- Arend Hintze Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology & Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University. (2017, April 14). Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from http://theconversation.com/understanding-the-four-types-of-ai-from-reactive-robots-to-self-aware-beings-67616
- Copeland, M. (2016, July 29). The Difference Between AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning? | NVIDIA Blog. Retrieved April 12, 2017, from https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/07/29/whats-difference-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-deep-learning-ai/
- Deep learning. (2016, October 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:04, April 10, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deep_learning&oldid=743563119
- (2016, October 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:50, April 10, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DeepMind&oldid=743552789
- Go (game). (2016, October 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:21, April 12, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Go_(game)&oldid=744033064
- Machine learning. (2016, October 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:29, April 10, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Machine_learning&oldid=743566912
- Computational theory of mind. (2016, December 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_theory_of_mind
AlphaGo
What is AlphaGo?
“AlphaGo is a narrow AI (Artificial Intelligence), a computer program developed by Alphabet Inc.'s Google DeepMind in London to play the board game Go.” In October 2015, the team claimed that AlphaGo had beaten its human rival and won by five games to zero. This is the first time that a computer program has beaten a human professional Go player on a full-sized 19x19 board without handicaps. From then on, the program starts to play thousands of games between its neural networks to make evolutions. It uses a technique called trial-and-error process which is also known as reinforcement learning.
Why Go?
Go is a board game which is believed to be invented in ancient China over 2500 years ago. It is regarded as the oldest board game, and people still play it today. Go is played on a grid of black lines (usually 19×19). Game pieces, which called stones, has two different colors – black and white, and are played on the lines' intersections. Unlike cheese, each move of Go has about 200 possibilities. As a result, there is so many possible configurations on the board – even more than there are atoms in the universe. Go is too complexity for computer programs to play. Before AlphaGo, there is no program can beat human professional players. Therefore, Google’s DeepMind team believes that it is an excellent opportunity for them to generate an AI to beat human players in the Go, in order to make further study and progression in the AI field. The ultimate goal of the team is to use AI techniques solve real-world problems, such as climate change, healthcare, starvation, and so on.
Competition
In March 2016, Google invested $1 million in a five-game Go match, to set up a contest between AlphaGo and 18-time world champion Lee Sedol. Before the game, most of the professional Go players did not believe that a computer program can beat human on the Go board. On the other hand, most of the AI developers declared that they thought there was a great chance for the AlphaGo to win the game. Especially that some of the Google engineers said that they believe there was no possibility that Lee Sedol could win the game. When the time came to March 15th, 2016, the last game had ended, AlphaGo had won 4 out of 5 of the match, and gained $1 million rewards. It became the first computer program ever beat a 9-dan professional human player without handicaps. Google donated all the money prizes to charities. The Korea Baduk Association also awarded AlphaGo an honorary 9-dan after this competition. During the rivalry, Lee and the team found that AlphaGo had a longer respond time when it is playing the black. AlphaGo had also made a mistake on the 79th move in game four which resulted it in losing the game. However, the DeepMind team claims that they have already fixed these problems on June 29th.
“Master”
On December 29th, 2016, there was a mysterious player called “Magist” had appeared on the Tygem server – one of the online Go game’s website. On December 30th, the account shifted its name to “Master”, then moved to the FoxGo server on January 1st in 2017. As of January the 5th, AlphaGo won all of the 60 games, which included three victories over Ke Jie, the top-ranked Go professional players in the world. “Master” was suspected to be an AI player as it had little to no quiet time between games. And on 4th January, the Google’s team admitted that both “Magist” and “Master” were played by the advanced version of AlphaGo. "Its adversaries included many world champions such as Ke Jie, Park Jeong-hwan, Yuta Iyama, Tuo Jiaxi, Mi Yuting, Shi Yue, Chen Yaoye, Li Qincheng, Gu Li, Chang Hao, Tang Weixing, Fan Tingyu, Zhou Ruiyang, Jiang Weijie, Chou Chun-hsun, Kim Ji-seok, Kang Dong-yun, Park Yeong-hun, and Won Seong-jin; national champions or world championship runners-up such as Lian Xiao, Tan Xiao, Meng Tailing, Dang Yifei, Huang Yunsong, Yang Dingxin, Gu Zihao, Shin Jinseo, Cho Han-seung, and An Sungjoon." All60 games except one were fast paced games with three 20 or 30 seconds byo-yomi. AlphaGo team extend one minute when playing with Nie WeiPing due to his old age. After finished the game, the “Master” even typed “Thank you professor Nie!” in Chinese to show its respect to Nie. One of the professional players Gu Li even offered a 100,000 yuan (14,400 USD) reward to the first human player that can defeat the “Master”.
Nonetheless, it is believed that human players tend to make more mistakes in fast-paced games, as they have less thinking time. We still don’t know if AlphaGo can make it as successful as in a slow-paced game (tournaments).
In the Future
On April 10th in 2017, the China Go Association, Google Corporation, and Zhejiang Provincial Sports Bureau held a news release conference in China Qiyuan jointly. They announced that AlphaGo would compete to several Chinese professional Go Players who are led by Ke Jie -- the world number 1 Go player. The competition will be held on May 23rd – 27th on Wuzhen Future of Go Summit, which includes:
- · A best of 3 matches versus world number 1, Ke Jie
- · AlphaGo versus a collaborating team of top Chinese professionals
- · Pair Go: human plus AlphaGo versus human plus AlphaGo
The whole Go community is looking forward to this competition. Some of the Go experts believe that it is very likely for human players will use AI technology as training in the future.
Source：
Hassabis, D. (2016, January 27). AlphaGo: using machine learning to master the ancient game of Go. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://blog.google/topics/machine-learning/alphago-machine-learning-game-go/
About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://deepmind.com/about/
Artificial intelligence: Google's AlphaGo beats Go master Lee Se-dol. (2016, March 12). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35785875
Google achieves AI 'breakthrough' by beating Go champion. (2016, January 27). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35420579
Google reveals secret test of AI bot to beat top Go players. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.nature.com/news/google-reveals-secret-test-of-ai-bot-to-beat-top-go-players-1.21253
Exploring the mysteries of Go with AlphaGo and China's top players. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://deepmind.com/blog/exploring-mysteries-alphago/
Virtual Reality in Social Media
The first VR head mounted display and motion tracking HMD
were created in the early 1960’s, it wasn’t actually virtual reality yet, but
the display was made so that head movements would move a remote camera and the
user would be able to see their entire environment. VR has been around for a
long time and has been used for various industries, military, film and
entertainment and video games. Now VR has moved into the social media realm and
it is changing the business entirely.
Facebook and Oculus Rift
On March 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition of
Oculus Rift VR for $2 billion, this was a firm confirmation as to where social
media is going next, with Facebook being the largest social media company in the
world. Zuckerberg stated that the acquisition would allow users to “share
unbounded spaces and experiences with people in your life.” At the most recent F8 conference in San Francisco, Facebook presented its vision for the future of VR. It showed a group of avatars that people will be able to create and wear like masks, a toy box where people can draw on the image they are looking at to create accessories and props and a way to share images through virtual post boxes. They also allow users to step into a photo and have a 360-degree view by clicking on it, they even added selfie sticks to take pictures with other people’s avatars.
Other Social Media VR
Since then other platforms like Youtube and snapchat have introduced new VR systems that are changing the way users share their experiences. Youtube presented a the 360-degree video support and spatial audio, which gives an immersive experience that people can share like any other video. Snapchat has also added products into the virtual reality fold, the Snapchat lenses. These lenses add augmented reality elements to any picture or scene. Users can walk around the 3D objects with the smartphone camera. The World lenses actually follow around the 3D environment, they move and rotate according to where the camera moves. Pokemon Go was the first to try something like augmented reality, but it did not incorporate the social media aspect, instead focusing on just the gaming experience.
Since then other platforms like Youtube and snapchat have introduced new VR systems that are changing the way users share their experiences. Youtube presented a the 360-degree video support and spatial audio, which gives an immersive experience that people can share like any other video. Snapchat has also added products into the virtual reality fold, the Snapchat lenses. These lenses add augmented reality elements to any picture or scene. Users can walk around the 3D objects with the smartphone camera. The World lenses actually follow around the 3D environment, they move and rotate according to where the camera moves. Pokemon Go was the first to try something like augmented reality, but it did not incorporate the social media aspect, instead focusing on just the gaming experience.
Facebook VR vs. Other Platform VR
The industry is using VR in different ways, Facebook for
example and other platforms like vTime create virtual spaces that people can go
in and out of and invite friends. The platforms require users to have an avatar
and are designed to interact with people in these virtual spaces. While other
platforms like snapchat augment what the user is already seeing by adding 3D
objects to the ‘actual’ world. Platforms like Youtube allow the user to also experience the actual world in a 3D setting through 360-degree video. Most VR effects are in their infancy stage but
we can expect that VR will be changing all social media platforms in the coming
years.
Facebook, Oculus Rift v Zenimax Media Lawsuit
Zenimax Media, a private video game company, filed a lawsuit
against Oculus Rift in May 2014. Zenimax claimed that an ex-employee, John
Carmack’s, contributions to Facebook or Oculus Rift were the intellectual
property of ZeniMax. They stated that ‘ZeniMax provided necessary VR technology
and other valuable assistance to Oculus employees in 2012 and 2013 to make the
Oculus Rift a viable VR product, superior to other VR market offerings.’ Oculus’
response was that ZeniMax falsely took ownership to take advantage of the
Facebook acquisition and that they never shared a single line of code or
technology with ZeniMax’s code or technology. In February 2017, a Texas jury
awarded ZeniMax $500 million in their lawsuit. The court found that oculus
violated ZeniMax’s copyrights and trademark and had violated a nondisclosure agreement.
Sources:
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Microsoft HoloLens
Microsoft HoloLens
Daniel Imblum
"Microsoft HoloLens is the first self-contained, holographic computer, enabling you to engage with your digital content and interact with holograms in the world around you." (Microsoft.com, 2017) The HoloLens is similar to virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. A big difference is that instead of needing to rely on a computer or smartphone, The HoloLens is its own Windows 10 PC. This is impressive in itself. Starting from its early days a year ago, there was actually a mini pc that the user would need to wear around their neck. That is not the case anymore.
Microsoft describes the HoloLens as a mixed reality headset more than a virtual reality headset. A virtual reality headset puts you in a completely different environment to make you feel immersed. Mixed reality is described as mixing elements of virtual reality with the real world around you. One of the biggest ways this is shown is through the video game component. In 2014, Microsoft bought one of the highest selling video games of all time, Minecraft a few years ago for 2.5 billion dollars. For those that don't know, the best way to describe Minecraft is a sandbox open world video game version of Lego Building Blocks. You can play the traditional way which is from a 1st or 3rd person view of a character you play, moving and interacting with the world around you if you play with a controller. However, with the HoloLens you can drop the controller and enter a sort of god mode to control huge landscapes by using your voice and hand gestures right on your coffee table.
A huge part of the way the HoloLens' works, is its depth effect cameras. The HoloLens has a camera facing the same way your view does that is similar to the Kinect camera. That camera measures the items around, how far they are from you, and the gestures you do with your body. Then the headset projects the images as holograms to your eyes that are based on the area around you. This means that the application you are currently working with will interact based on your surroundings. There is also a camera that records what the user is looking at, so you can record your view and others can see what you are looking at.
Daniel Imblum
"Microsoft HoloLens is the first self-contained, holographic computer, enabling you to engage with your digital content and interact with holograms in the world around you." (Microsoft.com, 2017) The HoloLens is similar to virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. A big difference is that instead of needing to rely on a computer or smartphone, The HoloLens is its own Windows 10 PC. This is impressive in itself. Starting from its early days a year ago, there was actually a mini pc that the user would need to wear around their neck. That is not the case anymore.
Microsoft describes the HoloLens as a mixed reality headset more than a virtual reality headset. A virtual reality headset puts you in a completely different environment to make you feel immersed. Mixed reality is described as mixing elements of virtual reality with the real world around you. One of the biggest ways this is shown is through the video game component. In 2014, Microsoft bought one of the highest selling video games of all time, Minecraft a few years ago for 2.5 billion dollars. For those that don't know, the best way to describe Minecraft is a sandbox open world video game version of Lego Building Blocks. You can play the traditional way which is from a 1st or 3rd person view of a character you play, moving and interacting with the world around you if you play with a controller. However, with the HoloLens you can drop the controller and enter a sort of god mode to control huge landscapes by using your voice and hand gestures right on your coffee table.
This sort of technology seems obvious to gaming, but there are some other real world applications that the HoloLens plans to relate to. One is the ability to create 3D art models which can bring any art made to life. Another application is a way to give step by step directions for projects such as home improvement. Imagine having it feel like a person is helping you fix your sink except just from wearing a headset. Another application is a heads up GPS. This is a cool idea except I am not sure if it is okay to drive a car with the headset on.
Overall, the HoloLens is a great view into the future of reality and how we perform daily tasks. As of right now there is a way to purchase the HoloLens for around $3000. So if anyone is interested we can pool our money together to get one.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Virtual Reality: Health Obstacles
Brief History of Virtual Reality
Link C3 Flight Simulator
The first tech-based Virtual Reality concept was designed in the 1920's and was meant to serve as a flight simulator for novice pilots. Since then, we've dramatically redesigned the hardware involved and have made strides to making Virtual Reality a revolutionary experience. However, not only until recently have we actually noticed any significant advancements in Virtual Reality applications. Currently, firms are betting heavily on the odds of VR actually becoming a standard in areas such as gaming, medical training, and national defense training. However, rather than turning a point in history we've mostly become consistently disappointing and have flooded and overwhelmed the VR market. One of the major issues surrounding the acceptance of VR in the tech community is the real lack of comfort and safety issues involved regarding a user's experience. Consequently, these two negative binding forces have not allowed VR to grow to its true potential.
Lack of Comfort
Although we have come a long way since the Link C3 Flight Trainer we're still miles away from developing mainstream-ready hardware. Currently, the industry relies heavily on clumpy head-gear with large fields of view that may cause an individual to experience VR motion related sickness. The motion sickness experienced in VR causes the brain significant issues with the movement the eyes are seeing when immersed and the lack of motion the body is feeling. Because of this, many users experience a lack of comfort and will stop using the system completely due to fear of simply getting sick. Consequently, this display technology may cause individuals to trip and fall- making for some entertaining videos.
Health and Saftey Issues
It is not possible to accurately tell what the long term effects of VR immersion are- one can only speculate from current indications. First, the most obvious safety issue regarding VR immersion is the strain on your eyes it causes from looking at a screen so close to your face. According to scientific trials conducted on rats, this strain on the eyes and lack of physical awareness caused by ordinary VR hardware has been shown a drastic shut down of 60% of neurons in the brain (CNBC). This major shut down in brain activity has the potential to damage our mapping of our physical location of space, memory, learning, and dreaming (livescience). Although the true long-term damages of VR technology are still unknown it is important to understand them in order to develop hardware and software that can mitigate the risk involved. Understanding the health and safety issues regarding VR will be detrimental to the success of VR technology becoming a successful standard.
So, What Can Be Done?
Essentially, we don't know yet. Mostly because we're still trying to understand the true effects of the system and what we can do to allow the brain to act and react normally when immersed. We don't know how negative the effects of long-term VR can be on the brain- we can just speculate. Nevertheless, some of the steps that can be taken in order to increase the level of comfort and improve long-term safety issues concerning VR are:
1. Reduce hardware barriers- create slicker, lighter, and friendlier headgear
2. Increase the number of gaze sensors in head gear
3. Creating a more organic experience
4. Restricting the field of view to reduce motion sickness
5. Focus on human-machine interference. How do we process information?
Sources
CNBC- http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/08/virtual-reality-are-health-risks-being-ignored-commentary.html
LiveScience- http://www.livescience.com/49669-virtual-reality-health-effects.html
CNET- https://www.cnet.com/news/the-dangers-of-virtual-reality/
https://www.cnet.com/news/virtual-reality-is-taking-over-the-video-game-industry/
NewAtlas- http://newatlas.com/columbia-university-vr-motion-sickness/43855/
TechCrunch- https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/03/virtual-reality-is-about-to-go-mainstream-but-a-lack-of-content-threatens-to-hold-it-back/
TechRepublic- http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ways-virtual-reality-is-revolutionizing-medicine-and-healthcare/
Recode - https://www.recode.net/2015/3/2/11559592/its-official-there-are-too-many-virtual-reality-headsets
Army- https://www.army.mil/article/84453
So, What Can Be Done?
Essentially, we don't know yet. Mostly because we're still trying to understand the true effects of the system and what we can do to allow the brain to act and react normally when immersed. We don't know how negative the effects of long-term VR can be on the brain- we can just speculate. Nevertheless, some of the steps that can be taken in order to increase the level of comfort and improve long-term safety issues concerning VR are:
1. Reduce hardware barriers- create slicker, lighter, and friendlier headgear
2. Increase the number of gaze sensors in head gear
3. Creating a more organic experience
4. Restricting the field of view to reduce motion sickness
5. Focus on human-machine interference. How do we process information?
Sources
CNBC- http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/08/virtual-reality-are-health-risks-being-ignored-commentary.html
LiveScience- http://www.livescience.com/49669-virtual-reality-health-effects.html
CNET- https://www.cnet.com/news/the-dangers-of-virtual-reality/
https://www.cnet.com/news/virtual-reality-is-taking-over-the-video-game-industry/
NewAtlas- http://newatlas.com/columbia-university-vr-motion-sickness/43855/
TechCrunch- https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/03/virtual-reality-is-about-to-go-mainstream-but-a-lack-of-content-threatens-to-hold-it-back/
TechRepublic- http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ways-virtual-reality-is-revolutionizing-medicine-and-healthcare/
Recode - https://www.recode.net/2015/3/2/11559592/its-official-there-are-too-many-virtual-reality-headsets
Army- https://www.army.mil/article/84453
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