Metaverse One

I just wrapped up presenting at the Internet of Things World Event  and being the Master of Ceremony for the event's hackathon here in San Francisco. For those that don't know, the Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Watch this video from Mashable below for a very basic explanation. More about the event can be found at the event's webpage and while I did get a chance to walk to the expo floor, most of my time was spent in the hackathon area. The IoT hackers were going after two categories, Best Consumer IoT Project and Best Industrial IoT Project. Participants w...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. Released during the Game Developers Conference, the now viral “Kara” concept video made by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, developers of the Heavy Rain game, is a look at the future of gaming, using full-body motion capture and a new computer-graphics engine. It is running in real time on Sony’s PlayStation 3 platform. The video is thought provoking as a robot comes to life and is quickly scared by the idea of how precious that can be. What I find interesting is that this type of artificial intelligence is not too far in the future thanks to friends like David Hanson of Hanson Robotics . I got the chance to hang out with David for several days during a trip last year to New Zealand and I was amazed by his work and the state of the A.I. industry. While I have some reservations about 'smart machines' thanks to Hollywood (Terminator, Matrix), David assures me th...

Monday was the Virtual Medical Environments Workshop by Media X at Stanford University. This event was really intriguing to me as no industry has used 3D for visualization as long as the medical industry has. Parvati Dev with Innovation in Learning Inc and Media X at Stanford University lead the workshop that looked to, " bring together selected industry and academia representatives with experience in developing and disseminating virtual medical environments. Existing use cases will be presented and discussion will focus on opportunities and barriers. The goal will be to generate a Roadmap that presents some possible paths from the trough of disillusionment to a plateau of productivity." The workshop had over a dozen presentations of work being done in the medical field with web3D technologies. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations from UBC students AJung Moon's ' Nonverbal human-robot interaction and opportunities for cognitive rehabilitation in virtual...