Microbe, virus co-evolution: Model of CRISPR, phage co-evolution explains confusing experimental results Science Daily The study documented a strange survival-extinction pattern between bacteria and phages that helps explain seemingly conflicting experimental results that have stymied CRISPR researchers. "There's a co-evolution between the phages and the bacteria," ... |
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One of the first Easter eggs that players discovered when the new update arrived for Pokemon Go last week was the ability to give an Eevee the nickname Sakura to make evolve it into Espeon or Tamao to make it evolve into Umbreon. Unfortunately, this trick only works once, but the sleuths at Pokemon Go Hub have discovered that theres another way to ensure your Eevee evolves into one of the new forms.
After conducting research over the past several days, Pokemon Go Hub has determined that the following criteria must be met in order to ensure that your Eevee evolves into either Espeon or Umbreon:
In order to test the hypothesis that Niantic had added friendship to the game in the latest update, Go Hub put 27 different Eevees through their paces using a variety of variables to determines whether or not it was possible to make sure that Eevee would evolve into either Espeon or Umbreon.
With the Eevees that walked 10km with a trainer as a Buddy, but werent set as the Buddy at the time of evolution, Go Hub got Flareons, Jolteons and Vaporeons. The same was true when they walked 10km with Eevee as their buddy, but didnt receive 2 piece of candy along the way. No Espeon or Umbreon.
At the moment, it seems that the only way to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon or Umbreon is to either use the nickname trick or follow the guidelines that Pokemon Go Hub has laid out above.
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Pokemon Go trick: Another way to make Eevee evolve into Espeon ... - BGR
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BUY TICKETS: See the Daytona 500 live!
Can't get enough NASCAR Heat Evolution? Well, get ready. The game is about to get even more real.
An update to the Dusenberry Martin Racing game launched Feb. 21. It's $9.99 on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Marketplace and Steam. The update includes team and roster updates, new drivers, new 2017 paint schemes, the 2017 schedule, new Toyota Camry model and the video debuts of the No. 41 Monster Energy and No. 77 5-hour Energy cars.
Dusenberry Martin Racing's long-term and deeply rooted relationship with NASCAR has allowed the company to develop a wide range of games across multiple interactive entertainment platforms, giving fans a uniquely NASCAR gaming experience.
NASCAR Heat Evolution features fun and exciting gameplay for all skill levels, up to 40 player online multiplayer races (a console gaming first), more than 40 drivers, all 23 licensed Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tracks and a variety of thrilling gameplay modes.
In today's world of technology, video games can often take much time and skill to master, leaving a novice or causal gamer frustrated. Finding the balance between realism and fun, NASCAR Heat Evolution features an adaptive artificial intelligence (AI), which adjusts to gamers' competence, keeping them challenged based on their skill level.
Equal to the importance of the game's adaptive AI is the players' ability to relate and understand the connection between racing for hours in a video game and doing the same in real life. NASCAR Heat Evolution features numerous game play modes that allow gamers to run just a few laps or up to an entire race. Along with full-length races, the game includes a career mode that gives users an understanding of acquiring sponsors and how to improve their car race after race.
Brad Keselowski played a sample of the game last year with NASCAR.com and gave his insights. You can re-watch that video here.
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Evolution Digital and Conax announced that Conax will provide its multi-DRM solution for Evolution Digitals eVUE-TV platform, which is being made available on the National Cable Television Cooperatives (NCTC) VU-IT!Platform.
eVUE-TV is a managed IP platform for linear and on-demand video, as well as network DVR and catch-up TV features, that Evolution Digital has been pitching to tier 2/3 U.S. cable operators. Last year, Evolution announced that eVUE-TV is the first offering to be introduced as an option for VU-IT!, a platform that includes a solution for backoffice integration, OTT apps and enhanced services that enable IP-based linear and VOD services.
RELATED: Evolution Digital Notches Another NCTC Deal
Support for Conaxs content security system will enable partners to support multi-DRM technologies that utilize PlayReady, Widevine, FairPlay and Nagra PRM, as well as THE next generation Conax Connected Access security client that combines CA/IPTV/DRM functionalities, they said.
They added that the Conax Contego security back-end has been integrated with the eVUE-TV platform in hosted and on-premises models, and that the platform meets the MovieLabs Enhanced Content protection requirements for 4K/UHD.
We have partnered with Conax to offer a best of breed comprehensive content security solution to our NCTC members with eVUE-TV, Brent Smith, president and chief technology officer of Evolution Digital, said in a statement. As cable operators move to IP distribution and begin offering a wide-range of content that can be viewed anywhere, Evolution Digital is committed to delivering content securely and providing operators with a low cost and hassle-free solution that eliminates complexities of technology integration.
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Evolution Digital, Conax Connect on Content Protection - Multichannel News
Posthumously, Charles Darwin, possibly as much as any 19th-century scientific figure, has had his lifes work and reputation maligned, and still to this day, ridiculed with undeserved scorn. What Darwin a man who possessed a boundless curiosity and matchless intellect observed and the theory he then explained in On the Origin of Species is considered a classic.
It seems timely and appropriate that a corrective of sorts, debunking a few of the many myths about Darwin, A primer on Darwin Day, appeared in the LNP Faith & Values section Feb. 11.
After reading the Feb. 2 letter Theory of evolution has significant flaws, I think it seems only appropriate and fair that, in addition to reading a nicely illustrated book about The Origin of Species, the writer also read Darwins own work "On The Origin Of Species.
The oft-repeated claim of a lack of transitional forms and missing links ignores the fact that not all creatures inhabited areas near volcanoes or environments where they would leave history a nicely preserved fossil.
Actually fossils are quite rare. A relatively new technique, DNA sequencing, has filled in much that the fossil record does not tell us.
A book that I unreservedly recommend is Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World by Michael Dowd, a United Church Of Christ minister.
Ralph Waldo Emerson stated: The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God. Or as David Sloan Wilson stated: The blessings of religion do not require departures from factual reality.
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Combiningtechniques from a field calledresurrection ecology with a look atlake sediments reveals surprising evolutionary responses to heavy-metal contamination over the past 75 years.
Mary Rogalski hatched long-dormant eggs of Daphnia, tiny freshwater crustaceans also known as water fleas, that accumulated in the lake sediments over time. After rearing the critters in the lab, she exposed them to various levels of two heavy metals to see how their sensitivity to the environmental contaminants changed over time. Surprisingly, she found that sensitivity to copper and cadmium increased as the levels of those toxic metals rose in the lakes she studied.
These findings are unexpected because evolutionary theory predicts that a population should adapt quickly to a stressor like this and become less sensitive to it, not more sensitive to it. It is difficult to explain the results of this study, says Rogalski, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Michigan department of ecology and evolutionary biology.
In one of the lakes, Daphnia hatched from sediments dating to around 1990when copper contamination was at its peakwere 46 percent more sensitive to copper exposure than individuals from the 1940s, a period with lower levels of copper contamination.
Rogalski reports her finding in the journal The American Naturalist. The study was part of her dissertation research at Yale University and involved fieldwork at three Connecticut lakes.
Rogalski then estimated sediment ages based on the presence of radioactive materials and measured concentrations of copper and cadmium in the layers back to the late 1800s. Copper contamination in the lakes was largely due to yearly applications of copper sulfate to control nuisance algae. The cadmium likely came from industrial and agricultural development in the region over the past century.
In the lab, Rogalski isolated dormant or diapausing Daphnia ambigua eggs from various dated sediment layers, then hatched and raised them. She measured Daphnias changing sensitivity to copper and cadmium by exposing them to various levels of the metals in glass flasks and determining the median lethal concentration.
In one Connecticut lake where copper contamination has declined recently, she found that Daphnia remain sensitive to the metal 30 years after peak exposure.
It is difficult to know what mechanisms are driving this evolutionary pattern, Rogalski says. Even so, this research suggests that we need to do more to uncover both the drivers and implications of maladaptation in nature.
Paleolimnology is the study of ancient lakes from their sediments and fossils. The branch of experimental paleolimnology that Rogalski used in this study has been dubbed resurrection ecology by its practitioners.
Human activities can drive strong and rapid evolutionary changes in wild animal populations. Those evolutionary responses often leave the population better able to cope with the new environmental conditions, a process called adaptation through natural selection.
For example, a newly introduced pesticide may kill the vast majority of the insects it targets, but the survivors can then give rise to a pest population that is resistant to the chemical.
Some populations, however, fail to adapt to changing environments or can wind up worse off than they were beforehand, an occurrence known as maladaptation. Maladaptive outcomes are less common than adaptive ones and are less studied. In many cases, it is impossible to examine a populations response to a stressor over multigenerational timescales without conducting a long-term study that could take decades to complete.
The Daphnia crustacean, with its diapausing eggs, provides a time machine of sorts, allowing researchers to examine long-term evolutionary responses to environmental stressors by reviving and rearing dormant organisms trapped in lake bottoms.
Daphnia offer a system where examining historic evolutionary trajectories is possible, Rogalski writes in the study. Hatching diapausing eggs from dated lake sediments and culturing clonal lineages in the lab allows us to examine how populations change through time and the genetic basis underlying those changes.
The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies supported the work.
Source: University of Michigan
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Pierre, SD -- This year, South Dakota has an opportunity to encourage more scientific inquiry in the classroom. The state's legislature is considering an academic freedom bill, SB 55, introduced by Senator Jeff Monroe. As noted here last week, the bill seeks to thwart censorship, yet ironically is opposed by the National Coalition Against Censorship. The group has misrepresented its contents, comparing mainstream exploration of weaknesses in Darwinian theory with Holocaust denial.
The text of SB 55 says just this:
No teacher may be prohibited from helping students understand, analyze, critique, or review in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information presented in courses being taught which are aligned with the content standards established pursuant to 13-3-48.
A prominent South Dakota scientist we heard from gets it, applauding the bill as a means to foster critical thinking. "SB 55, under consideration by the South Dakota legislature, is a promising step forward for South Dakota science education," said William S. Harris, PhD. Dr. Harris is the President of OmegaQuant Analytics, LLC (Sioux Falls, SD), and an NIH-funded biomedical researcher with over 300 scientific publications.
Under this legislation, students would have the opportunity learn more about scientific topics, practice critical thinking, and engage with scientific questions facing researchers today. One of those questions pertains to the origin of biodiversity.
Harris commented:
Scientific controversy over the ability of Darwin's version of evolution (i.e., natural selection acting blindly on random mutations) to explain the expanse of life on this planet continues to grow with each new revelation of the exceeding complexity of even the "simplest" life forms, not to mention humans. In my view, it is very important for today's students to understand the evidence for and against important scientific theories like Darwinism and to honestly consider challenges even to such long-held dogmas.
"South Dakota students can only benefit from such an approach -- and hopefully, legislators will seize this occasion to promote scientific inquiry," added Harris. If the bill is enacted, South Dakota would join Louisiana, Tennessee, and at least five other states with science standards or laws recognizing the role of teaching scientific strengths and weaknesses in the classroom.
The law has been a target for activists and journalists spreading misinformation about what SB 55 would permit. We have addressed false claims from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Washington Post, which merit being described as fake news, here and here.
Photo: William S. Harris.
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TechFire member Brett Gallagher, 14, of Stewartstown, works on his laptop while teammember Katie Neptune, 13, of Manchester Township, looks on as the team prepares for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)Buy Photo
For the past six weeksYork County's robotics team, TechFire 225, has been hard at work on their competition robot for the upcoming season.
During that time, 36 students on the team have poured every spare second they have into their robot before the Feb. 21 deadline, after which the team has very strict instructions on when and how they can work on their robot.
TechFire 225 is a local For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) team. FIRST is a global organization with a focus on getting kids interested in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and robotics. According tothe website, FIRST has more than 400,000 students who participate each year.
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TechFire 225represents 11 different schools in York County and has students from age 13 to 18. These students compete year round, but the main season runs from January to April each year.
On Jan.7, this year's FIRST competition was announced. Each year the competition hasa newtheme with different sets of rules, so upon the announcement the students, with the help of approximately 13 community mentors, begin building a brand new robot each year from scratch.
If you ask to see the robot or take photos, don't expect to get far. This team is the real deal and takes its competition seriously. They won't post any photos of their robot or its design before competition to keep that edge against other teams in the region.
This season:This year's theme is "FIRST Steamworks" and involves robots picking up balls, which represent fuel, and shooting them into a machine. The robots must also pick up gears that are handed to human players and must be able to climb up a rope at the end of the game, among many other things.Each part of the game results inpoints.Three FIRST teams form an alliance during the competition to compete against an alliance three other teams.
Amy Harmon Krtanjek
, a team mentor,said TechFire 225 spent two or three days after the worldwide announcementanalyzing the rules and coming up with different aspects the robot absolutely needed to have, like a space to carry the balls that the robot needed to be able to pick up.
After that, the team immediately began prototyping and building different aspects of the robot. The robot must be sealed in a bag at midnight on Feb. 21 to ensure it is not opened again. The team may unseal the bag and work on the robot for a total of sixhours after the deadline and leading up to the start of competition in March, but these hours need to be meticulously logged or they could be disqualified from competing, team mentor Donnie Krtanjek said.
Donnie Krtanjek is Amy Harmon Krtanjek's husband. Their son, Jagr
, is also involved in TechFire 225 as a student from York Country Day School.
TechFire 225 goes above and beyond just completing a competition robot, a difficult task alone.
They also create an exact replica of their competition robot, which they will work on and use after the Feb. 21 deadline. This extra robot allows them to practice after the deadline and make changes. If they like the changes or notice problems, they know exactly what to fix on the competition robot and can do it quickly, so they don't waste one minute of thesixhours they have.
Being a student on the TechFire 225 team requires important skills for the future, like working on a large team, working on deadline, marketing, communicating an idea effectively and, of course, plenty of skills in technology and engineering.
"It teaches kids persistence," Amy Krtanjek said. "A lot of times the kids here are really smart, so they've never really hit a wall in school."
They hit plenty of walls with TechFire 225, though.
JagrKrtanjek,a sophomore at York Country Day school who works with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) section of the team, said that building involves a lot of trial and error. Jagr helps builda computerized idea of what the robot should look like, so that while teams are working on different aspects, he can make sure they all come together seamlessly. This requires a lot of updates and changes as they go.
The regional competition starts in March, but TechFire 225 won't compete until March 18 and 19.On March 18 the team will compete for their rank, which is used with other data by teams to figure out who their alliances should be. March 19 will be the playoffcompetition. This competition will take place in Philadelphia.
After that, the team will compete in Montgomery, Pennsylvaniaon April 1 and 2. Depending on how well they do, the team will move on to compete in the world championships at the end of April.
TechFire team member Ben Schwartz, 14, of Hopewell Township, looks for spacers for the gear holder while working on the teams robot for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition, in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)
Last year:TechFire 225 could very well attend the world matches. The team is coming back from last year's phenomenal season, during which they did attend the world championship and placed in the top 24 teams out of 3,200, according to an earlier press release.
The team also attended the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI), a competition Jagr described as even more difficult than FIRST's competitions because it is by invitation only. Each year only 70 of the most successful teams in the country are chosen. TechFire 225 has been invited for the past three years, but this year they took second place in their alliance with other robotics teams and broke a world record.
York robotics students excel at world championships
The Team:Representing 11 different schools in York County and a variety of ages, the TechFire 225 team is incredibly diverse. One thing they all have in common is a passion for their robot, yet to be named. Each member chips in by doing whatever they can, even if it has littleto do with the technological side.
For example, 16-year-old Elle Wagner works on the scouting side of things. She's worked with other members to build an app that organizes different FIRST teams' competition information. She's instrumental in choosing who they should partner with during competitions. She first joined three years ago when she heard about the team in class at Susquehannock High School and went to an event.
"I love the strategy, I think it's so cool," Elle said.
Her favorite part about being on the team is the dynamic, not only among her own team members but the other teams during competition. FIRST, and thus TechFire 225, are huge proponents of gracious professionalism, which means being gracious even to your competitors regardless of the outcome.
"Everyone respects everyone," Ellesaid. "It's not just robots. The team environment is different than any other sport."
TechFire CAD team member Jagr Krtanjek, 15, of Loganville, works with specs for the FIRST Robotics Competition Team's robot in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)
Through her time at TechFire, Elle has found a passion for bio engineering, which she ultimately hopes to major in when she graduates.
Kylie Nikolaus, a 17-year-old senior on the team from Eastern York High School, has had a similar experience, but unlike Elle she loves the technical side. She joined the team four years ago with her best friend and has been an active member ever since.Thanks to TechFire 225, Kylie will also studyengineering, but she isn't sure which school she'll attend just yet.
"I think no matter what someone is interested in, there's a place for them here," she said, referring to the opportunities to work on the team's social media, marketing to sponsors and donors and other aspects.
Bryce Neptune, a 16-year-old student from Central York High School, joined TechFire 225 two years ago after he heard about it through the grapevine and was hooked immediately. He said TechFire helped him break out of his shell and realize his dream of studying engineering at MIT.
"It helps you broaden your horizons and helps you refine skills," Bryce said.
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Tuesday, 21 February 2017 20:47 GMT By Stephany Nunneley
If Doomfist isnt the next Overwatch hero, maybe 11-year-old robotics prodigy Efi Oladele can provide us with some sort of hint.
In the latest blog entry on the Overwatch website, an in-universe interview with Numbani native Efi Oladele has been posted.
According to the post (thanks PC Gamer), Efi Oladele won a genius grant from the Adawe Foundation for her work in artificial intelligence and robotics.
In the interview, Efi discusses how she became obsessed with creating small drones after receiving her first robotics kit. In the future, her goal is to build something that can keep us safe, like the new OR15, and as far as how shes going to use the grant money, its secret for now, but she is taking a trip to celebrate her achievement first. And it will be her first time flying. We can only assume she will fly somewhere outside if the current Numbani locations in the game, but you never know with Blizzard.
Also, what is the OR15? Speculation is running all over the place on that end, but one interesting theory pointed out by reddit user andygb4 is rather intriguing.
As he points out, the third Doomfist in the poster which was shown in the original Overwatch cinematic has Omnic text underneath instead of the normal font on the other two.
Maybe she builds a robot that eventually becomes Doomfist?, he suggests.
If you arent familiar with Overwtach lore, an Omnic is a type of robot with artificial intelligence both are subjects Efi seems to have plenty of knowledge on. Omnics were originally designed and built by humans, mostly notably the Omnica Corporation, to serve the economy. Eventually, the Omnic Crisis occurred when the machines became infected by God Programs, developed militarized Omnics of themselves and started attacking humans (see Overwatch wiki link above).
Numbani, where Efi lives, is one of the few places in the Overwatch universe where omnics and humans live in harmony and equality. Formed after the Omnic Crisis, its one of the worlds greatest and most technologically advanced cities. This is also where as part the Unity Day festivities, the gauntlet of Doomfist is exhibited at the Numbani Heritage Museum.
So. Even though the 24th hero coming to Overwatch is apparently not Doomfist, unless Blizzard is messing with us, its quite possible Efi may have something to do with his story, or will possibly introduce some sort of new Omnic hero into the game. Or, she could transform into a hero or even be the hero. Only Blizzard knows.
Were just speculating on all of this obviously. Hopefully, well know more soon.
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Every detail -- the latex skin, the mat of baby black hair -- seemed as realistic as a Ron Mueck sculpture. The left arm rose slowly, the mouth half-open, the eyelids flickering into a squint. I studied it intensely, half expecting a response -- a cry, a gurgle -- but without any desire to rescue the baby from the wall and cradle it. Side on, it was unmistakably a machine. An umbilical cord of shiny metal tubing fed into its spine.
"Robots" is as much about culture as it is about science. It answers a deceptively simple question that has been pondered for the last 500 years: How do we design robots we can happily interact with?
The question has become increasingly topical as humanoid robots multiply in the lab, with some likely to end up in our homes, schools, universities and clinics, as well as theme parks and museums.
Curator Ben Russell spent five years assembling over 100 humanoid robots for this show. He's tracked down historic robots and automata and along the way, and managed to salvage a few of them. (One was made out of central heating components, another out of scrap metal and found rusting outside.)
"We like to anthropomorphize. We are the only species who do. We like to invent objects like us," he says of the humanoids on display.
In 1970, a Japanese robotics researcher named Masahiro Mori posited a complex phenomenon known as the uncanny valley. His basic theory was that we respond positively to a robot as it becomes more human in look but only up to a certain point. And then suddenly, we are strongly repelled by it.
"Robots can reach a point where they become too much like us, are too corpse-like and creepy," Russell says.
The robot appears nearly human, but not quite right. It induces the discomfort of being close to something that is ill, and reminds us of our own mortality.
Contemporary robot designers seem to have responded to this challenge in different ways.
The trumpet playing robot, Harry (2005), made by the Toyota car company, is plainly a white silicon humanoid robot but without any real facial features. He exists to entertain just like one of the old toy automata, and can play tunes like "What a Wonderful World."
One of Russell's favorite exhibits, Eccerobot (2009), was more realistic, with a design based on the 19th century medical textbook "Gray's Anatomy."
It's human in shape, but without any kind of skin or proper face. All the innards are exposed and mimic the inner mechanics of the human body. Motors, cord, kite line and polymorph are substituted for muscles, tendons, joints and bones.
(I did find it humanly sympathetic in one respect: Eccerobot regularly seizes up with backache and has to be rested overnight.)
Russell introduced a Japanese communication robot called Kodomoroid as "one of the freakiest robots in the show."
I didn't disagree. With a helmet of black hair (almost a Mary Quant bob) and dressed immaculately in white smock and ballet flats, she seemed unnervingly real and yet also like a shop mannequin come to life. As with the animatronic baby, I examined her intensely. She too wasn't quite right.
Her job, back in Japan, is to read the daily news at the National Science Museum.
According to Russell, the Japanese have embraced robots culturally more than any other country. In fact, about a third of the robots in the exhibition are from Japan.
Russell draws a connection with Japan's dominant Shinto faith, in which there is no large between humans and inanimate objects. The sun, the moon, mountains and tree all have their own spirits or souls.
Telenoid (2013), developed at Osaka University, is a communication robot, glistening white and bald with tapering limbs devoid of hands and feet. A child, operating it remotely by computer, can use it to communicate with someone in another country.
The claim is that Telenoid reproduces in a physical form the child's movements and personality, as well as the voice. In trials, people have apparently been happy to talk to and cuddle the robot. They speak of the warmth of feeling in Telenoid's eyes.
Conversely, robots are often seen as a threat in the West, and we're still trying to overcome our suspicions.
Even the origin of the term "robot" was a bit sinister: It first entered the lexicon in 1921 via a dystopian play, "R.U.R.," by Czech writer Karel Capek. (R.U.R stands for Rossum's Universal Robots.)
The drama was set in a factory manufacturing humanoid robots from synthetic organic material. The robots rebel and wipe out the human race.
However, American robotics designer David Hanson has chosen not to worry about unnerving us and is already designing robots of uncanny realism with artificial intelligence and empathy, facial expression and the ability to chat. I was disappointed not to meet one; Hanson's robots aren't on display at the Science Museum.
"In the not-too-distant future, Genius Machines will walk among us. They will be smart, kind, and wise," it reads on his website. "Together, man and machine will create a better future for the world."
We shall see.
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THE CHATHAMS In only its second year, the advanced robotics class at Chatham High School is sending two teams to compete in a state championship tournament Sunday, Feb. 26.
The rookie team, //Cougars, and Chatham Cougars, which was formed last year, will go up against 46 other teams at the state level of the FIRST Tech Challenge. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization that runs several competitions and provides college scholarships.
Julianna Ryan, who teaches advanced robotics and coaches the teams, said about 160 teams competed statewide this year, compared with about 110 last year. Its growing immensely.
Winners of the state tournament will go on to a super-regional tournament in March, which will be followed by the world championship tournament in April in St. Louis.
Ryan said the class is set up like marching band and chorus, so students could take it as sophomores, juniors and seniors. Freshmen take introductory robotics. Students who cant fit the class into their schedule may stay involved as a club member, participating during their lunch break or after school.
The advanced robotics class is meant to be much more student-driven, Ryan said. Theyre brainstorming, working together, and Im ... micromanaging their time management, keeping them on task. Then when they run into errors, Im able to step in and we have discussions on whatever it might be.
Theyre all working on different things simultaneously to come together to build a really powerhouse team.
The teams build their robots from a bunch of aluminum parts, screws, and nuts and bolts without directions. While all the robots are the size of an 18-inch cube, teams design different parts to fold out to handle various tasks. The Chatham teams have benefited from use of a 3D printer that allows them to make parts for the robots as they design them.
Last year, our robot was rebuilt time and time again, Ryan said. It was a building year. We didnt really know what we were doing as a whole.
This year, there was a lot more planning in the beginning so students have made changes but have not broken the robots down entirely. This year, there has been a lot of growth in their design process.
Six students enrolled in advanced robotics in its inaugural year; 17 are taking the class this year, including three who took it last year. Teams can have no more than 15 members, so the class formed two teams.
The fall semester is dedicated to the FIRST Tech Challenge; in the spring, students will work with drones and other devices, including a prosthetic hand.
Tony Tesoriero, a junior from Chatham Township, called the advanced robotics class "awesome." "Before, there was nothing that combined all these awesome robotics stuff, almost every single type of engineering - mechanical, electrical, software - even management stuff. There's a lot of computer tasks too," such as computer-aided design, he said.
Catarina DeMatos, a senior from Chatham Township, said she has learned many skills besides programming and engineering in the class, including communication, presentation, technical writing and business skills.
"The class itself is a lot of fun because you learn different things every year because the game changes every year," said DeMatos, who also took advanced robotics as a junior and competed on an independent team as a sophomore.
Last year, the Chatham Cougars team was one place away from qualifying for the state tournament. They did really well, but this year, theres been immense growth, Ryan said.
During the fall, the teams attended three weekend meets called scrimmages where they were ranked. They also went to one or two qualifying tournaments; winners of those go to the state tournament. Some teams advance to states based on their scrimmage rankings.
Chatham Cougars qualified for the state tournament by being named second runnerup for the Inspire Award at the December qualifying tournament in Livingston. Winners and runnersup for the Inspire Award qualify for states, Ryan said.
The Inspire Award is the best thing you can get there. It says not only is your robot great but youre doing a really good job with your engineering notebook, with your problem-solving, with your connections to the community.
//Cougars qualified by winning the Northwest League Tournament, open to teams from Morris, Sussex and Warren counties, after just missing out at two qualifying tournaments. At the league tournament, the team was undefeated in nine matches and was first runnerup for the Inspire Award.
During a tournament, four teams compete at once in a match, with two teams as the red alliance and two as the blue alliance.
During a 30-second autonomous period, the robots complete a series of tasks, such as shooting a wiffle ball into a basket and pushing a button that matches the alliance color. Those tasks have been preprogrammed by the team.
The autonomous period is followed by two minutes when a team member drives the robot using a game controller. The robot works with its alliance partner to score as many points as possible.
At a tournament, teams compete in five matches, then the field is narrowed to semifinals, then finals.
Its very much like a sports team. Its just robots competing rather than people, Ryan said.
It actually gets very intense, with people cheering on the robots, she added.
Catarina, a member of the Chatham Cougars team, said she is excited about competing at states and is looking forward to seeing what other schools' teams have done with their robots.
Tony, who went to states last year with an independent team, said it was a scary experience. "It's huge. It's pretty much every single good team that you see at your previous matches all at one competition."
WhenCatarina tells other students about advanced robotics, she urges them to give it a try. "It's not just a bunch of nerds hunched over a computer ... it's fun," she said.
If students are not interested in the engineering and programming aspects, "there's so much more that goes into this competition," noting that she just created a video for states. Others are making posters or doing 3D modeling on computers.
In addition to building, programming and operating the robots, the teams compile an engineering notebook; do community service projects, such as providing tech help to senior citizens; and go out into the community to find financial sponsors and to promote robotics.
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Two high school robotics teams headed to statewide contest - New Jersey Hills
Posted: Feb. 20, 2017 2:30 pm
At a central New Jersey regional robotics and engineering competition held at East Brunswick High School, the Sparta Robotic Engineering teams performed well with three sub teams qualifying for the state championships to be held at Cherry Hill High School on March 4. The teams each won passage to the states by their combined performance in two areas: programming skills and driver-controlled skills.
The Sparta team 5249A, led by Conor Smetana, is currently ranked fifth in the state. Other members of 5249A include Hailey Koerner, Luke Kurian and Lucie Wolfson. The Sparta team 5249C, led by Evan Marcino and Julia Lopez, ranked 11th in the state. Other members of 5249C include Alexandra Poret, Julia Muth, Sam Roscoe, Alan Yeung, Ryan McQillan and Brendan Brusberg.
The Sparta team 5249E, led by Thiago Santos and Emmet Sedar, is ranked 17th in the state. Other members include Zach Herbert. Earlier in the season this team won both an Innovation award and a build award.
Sparta was also recognized by receiving what is called an "Amaze Award."
The Sparta team of 5249D led by Jack Willamson and co-led by Sarah Ramos received this award. The Amaze award is presented to a team that has built a competition robot that clearly demonstrates overall quality and solid mechanical design, key attributes assessed for this award. Other members of 5249D are Erich Schwarzrock, Grace Masterson, Nicole Kwok, Soumya Duggirala.
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Sparta Robotics teams head to state championship - New Jersey Herald
After six long weeks of planning, constructing and testing, Pitt Countys robotics teams are ready to battle teams from across North Carolina for robot supremacy.
Local students joined parents, teachers and mentors on Monday night at C.M. Eppes Middle School to introduce the robots they will send into the FIRST Robotics STEAMWORKScompetition next month. Gemini will run the gauntlet for the veteran Pitt Pirates team. Gearitation will duke it out for a Boneyard Robotics team in its third year.
We are excited this year, said Ann McClung, a former teacher at South Central High School and now the science coordinator at the Center for STEM Education at East Carolina University.This is our first year hosting the district competition.
The two Pitt teams will compete against about 30 other teams during the district competition March 4-5 at South Central High School. Winning teams advance to the state level of competition.
Pitt County Robotics, in its 10th year, is part of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. FIRST, which began in 1989, is an international program with a goal of inspiring young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
We have a great interest locally, McClung said. Once people get involved ... they are hooked.
McClung said getting a robot ready for competition takes a partnership among students, parents, mentors and sponsors.
The students work with mentors from various disciplines, she said. We have engineers, tech support people and electricians. But we also have people from other disciplines like marketing ... its a team effort.
Teams get just six weeks from the time the concept is revealed to completion of a robot. After that, it is bagged up so no modifications can be made before competition.
After the unveiling ... the robots are put away until the competition, McClung said.Its amazing what these teams do in six weeks.
In STEAMWORKS, robots must capture fuel, deliver gears to their teams and then climb a rope before the airship takes flight.
This year has a Steampunk theme, McClung said.I think this is the coolest theme yet for this competition.
McClung said that she would like to see more teams compete next year, but the program needs more mentors and sponsors.
There are a lot of kids interested in getting involved, but we need more mentors in order to get more teams, she said. I encourage anyone that might be interested in getting involved to come out to the competition in March. ... That is all it will take for them to get hooked.
For more information about theFIRST Robotics program or the competition in March, call McClung at 252-258-3974.
Contact Shannon Keith at skeith@reflector.comor at 252-329-9579.
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Robots revealed: Gemini, Gearitation ready to battle - Greenville Daily Reflector
If you've spied a number of shell-backed critters in recent days, best let NHM know via a photograph or two.
May flowers being successfully summoned by April showers is one of the most tried-and-truest of the old-timey sayings.
But where's that perfect phrase that summarizes how soggy February weather can invite bunches of sidewalk-crawly, garden-dwelling snails and slugs?
Some snappy writer needs to get to work on that saying, like, pronto. Because many Southern Californians have encountered a host of gastropods during all of these rainy January and February days of late.
Whether or not you call the shell-rocking wet-weather denizens of your yard "snails" or "gastropods" or some adorable pet name you invented, know this: The Natural History Museum wants to know about your snail- and slug-based sightings.
So we'll crawl no more, at a snail's pace, toward what this all means: SnailBlitz 2017! has begun. Your part, as a curious-about-the-world citizen scientist? Snap photos of your local snails and slugs and share them, either by emailing slime@nhm.org or uploading your pics at iNaturalist.
Tagging them on social media is cool, too. Just use the hashtag #SnailBlitz. "The goal is to reach 1,000 images by midnight on March 31!" says the Exposition Park science museum.
This isn't being done simply to cute-ify social media with snaps of wee slugs. Rather, the museum says that these photos help "...to accelarate our efforts to catalogue the biological diversity of terrestrial gastropods (land snails and slugs) around Southern California."
Also? There shall be prizes for some of the top photographs in different categories, including "Best snail/slug meme."
Best snail/slug meme. Welcome to 2017.
The Grand Prize is almost as awesome as traveling with your own personal shell: Lunch with Jann Vendetti, NHMLA Curator of Malacology, as well as one free annual family membership to the museum. (We mean, that's all extremely awesome, but, come on: Nothing beats your own personal back shell.)
There are other NHMLA-cool prizes, too.
Some "rare snails" were spotted by camera-wielding SoCalers in 2016, do note, and other nifty finds, too. Could you contribute the next photo that excites the snailologists of the world?
Okay, malacologist is the more accurate term, granted. But, still. You might just have a rare snail happily sliming about under your hydrangea bush and not even be aware.
Time to celebrate that lil' guy, and all of our local gastropods, by assuming the important role of citizen scientist.
Details? Slime this way, as slowly as you like, but keep in mind that the deadline for photos is March 31.
Published at 12:36 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017 | Updated at 12:46 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017
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SnailBlitz 2017: Citizen Scientists Wanted - NBC Southern California
You know that PewDiePie guy youve been hearing about lately? I have a funny story about him.
I made this YouTube video back in 2012, wherein a bunch of us mocked PewDiePie using a satirical version of The Fine Bros. React videos. I made the centerpiece the fact that, back then, PewDiePie tended to use the word rape quite a bit.
Please note, as many get wrong, I dont think he was making rape jokes at all; it was just yelling the word more than anything. The video blew up a little and prompted him to make a specific apology video to his viewers.
PewDiePie has since actually turned over a new leaf. He had a video called Old vs. New PewDiePie in which he watched his old content and appeared to be a little surprised at his original self. In fact, he contacted me and we had a very cool email exchange, in which he said that my video led to him thinking more about the things he said and re-examine the kind of jokes he was making.
Wow! My trolly little video where I made trouble for a really big YouTuber although not quite the biggest, back then had inadvertently caused some self-reflection and ultimately some good in the world. Not a bad deal!
Well, thats my story. It was a little short for a Polygon article, but alls well that ends well and there has never been, nor will there ever be, any new developments there. Im positive of this fact. Not even gonna Google it.
Now to read my favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal ...
Well, instead of just deleting the previous few paragraphs, what say we just go ahead and write a whole article about this?
I go by slowbeef, and Ive been doing Lets Plays and related content since about 2007. Im certainly not rich off of, or successful from my videos, but I run in those circles because Ive been doing it for so long in addition to my day job. Some people even consider me a progenitor of it. I talk to a lot of the A-Listers the people whose names you know rather often and I have some insight into that world. I have one foot in the door, and see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes.
PewDiePie isnt remotely the only e-celebrity to have this sort of scandal, though most controversies tend to be a bit smaller in scope.
Did you ever hear about the streamer who got drunk and told her fans that kids getting cancer was just natural selection? Or the two YouTubers who conveniently forgot to tell their fans they were getting paid for their Ryse gameplay? Or that guy who got caught masturbating on camera during his pre-show? This stuff happens with regularity.
Allow me to extrapolate on a meme those kids today are using: Dude, you had one job. And it looked like a really easy one. Lets Players, streamers or content creators, whatever you like, get to play video games and make jokes while doing so. It seems like a dream gig, so why even risk these sort of gaffes? Why do people risk their jobs for jokes or mistakes that seem easy to avoid?
Well, its complicated. But there are three reasons this keeps happening.
Lets play (ha) a game you cant win. In the comments below, tell me how to get your videos featured, get your subscribers to watch videos or get your related videos in the related videos sidebar as opposed to some other person on YouTube.
Im not joking, go down and do this right now. The rest of the story will be here when you get back.
I can bet that some of you got it right, but the problem is that your answer will become wrong in the next month or so. Content producers get frustrated with the system because the rules keep changing; it always seems like the site is keen to promote someone else, and it can feel impossible to keep up.
For example: subscriber burn, which is a nefarious little side effect of not uploading a new video for a couple of weeks. The term was popularized by the Game Theory channel in 2014; your subscribers stop getting notified of your videos if they stop watching or you stop uploading. Going on vacation? Lets hope you got a backlog, because youll see a big drop in views if you take a week or two off. And they might not come back.
Heres another fun one. If you manage your YouTube settings as a viewer, youll see the selected default option is occasionally notify me of videos and activities from my subscriptions. Occasionally. A lot of viewers dont know this, but YouTube doesnt default to always showing you new videos from their favorite channels.
Youll frequently see uploaders complain that users suddenly get unsubscribed, certain videos no longer appear, or you have to explicitly check a whole new notification setting for some reason. As of this writing, theres a little bell icon next to the subscribe button. The button itself isnt enough to see videos of people to subscribe to, you need to hit the bell and tell YouTube to always send you notifications, the notifications they default you to only sometimes getting.
If this doesnt make much sense to you, you see what we deal with. Its constantly changing. Now, imagine your business hinges on all these random changes.
Most uploaders begin to believe they have to flood the site with videos for a chance one goes viral or to reach subscribers who arent notified or to make up for losing them. And the numbers do go up when you start to do that, leaving many to believe its the only reliable way to keep relevant.
You need ad revenue if you want to make a living talking over video games, which means views and that means uploads. Or at the very least, you need brand deals which means you need clout, which means you need subscribers, which means views, which again means uploads. Most pros create at least one video a day, and its a punishing schedule. Some create as many as three videos a day.
Protip: You can oversaturate your audience, so dont read this as, its good to upload 10 videos a day.
None of this is good for your mental health if you want to do this job or even come up with a standard workflow, which creates the next big problem.
Theres an apparent double standard, right? Comedians tell AIDS jokes, Holocaust jokes, 9/11 jokes and much more. When a popular YouTuber does it, its suddenly being reported by the media (and, cough, other YouTubers). Didnt George Carlin once say no topic is off limits?
Yeah. But like most comedians, he also spent a lot of his time writing those jokes, refining them, trying them in smaller clubs before his big venues, commiserating with his peers, etc. A secret of successful comedians is you dont just spit out jokes that come to you. You develop bits, callbacks, sets, etc. There are legit reasons that Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, and Jim Jefferies get away with questionable jokes and JohnnySephiroth315 doesnt.
Many YouTubers do some of this work, mind, but they also have to prep footage, record it, process it, do editing, transcode it, upload it, schedule it... there are many steps to take before the audience sees the content. And this has to happen, for most, at least once a day. On a platform that changes its rules on the fly, all the time.
Come on, you say. How much work can it be to make a ten-minute video? Try it. Speak about a topic you care about, and then edit out all the pauses and awkward moments but keep your flow. Aim for five minutes, if you like. If you want it to look good, you might have had to do a couple of takes, re-read your outline (you wrote one, right?), mull over editing decisions and make sure the sound is just as good as the video.
Its different for everyone, but there is no process in which you can do this well that doesnt eat up a lot of time and energy. Its a grueling job, especially when positivity is so often tied to success.
There isnt much time to mull over a joke, consult with colleagues, rewrite it, see how smaller audiences take it, and then tailor accordingly. Again, many of us want to have new content every day. The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment. Watch the video below, and imagine having to do this for every joke, on every video for every day of your life.
PewDiePies now infamous sketch? Bit? You know, where he pays a couple of Indian kids on Fiverr ... eh, Im sure youve heard of it. There really is a joke there somewhere at Fiverrs expense, and I think thats what he was going for.
The parts are there, loosely, if you cock your head and squint a bit. Theres an air of exploitation (on Fiverrs part, but also often claimed to be on PewDiePies part) but it was a rush job. Seinfeld, in contrast, maps out goofy jokes about Pop Tarts down to the syllable.
PewDiePie ends up looking like the villain because he uses the old South Park haha anti-Semitism! routine, but the whole joke is malformed. People are quick to dismiss it as merely an edgy throwaway when it couldve been meant as a commentary on paid online services. But who can blame them? As it stands, the joke is really hard to read. It doesnt land cleanly at all.
You can actually imagine, if you like, PewDiePie doing a stand-up set and having comedian friends tell him at the bar that man, youve been leaning on the Nazi stuff a bit lately. Or an audience groaning at a smaller venue, which signals to him its time to do a rewrite. Thats why there are workshops, writing sessions and smaller venues and drinks with fellow comedians. You have to fail often when the stakes are low to learn how to get the big wins. Its a process.
Online personalities cant really know that theyve lost the goodwill of the audience, or that the material will gain mainstream anger if theyre famous, until its too late. Theyre already forming tomorrows video without even seeing the storm thats coming.
Even worse is that there is this air of everyone gets sooo offended and, while thats a whole different conversation, some people use the reverse-outrage to mask the fact that they fucked up a joke and have to pay a price. Or they blame others for pointing it out.
Its one of the cons of being an entertainer. But it all adds up to a firestorm thats always a spark away, no matter where you fall on the ultimate outcome. Come to think of it where was Disney and Maker and YouTube in all this? What the hell are they doing to manage their most popular asset?
One time, a much more successful friend, someone with over 500,000 subscribers, was going to be interviewed by a major television network. He spoke with me about it beforehand.
I warned him off the situation; it sounded like he was going to be sandbagged. He was adamant about the opportunity, and I turned out to be wrong. It also turned out I was one of the only people who were trying to offer an opinion on it.
This guy had tons of views and made a bunch of money; didnt anyone at his Multi-Channel Network, or MCN, know or care that he was gonna do this interview? Did they offer advice or prep him for challenging questions? Was there a conversation about avoiding sound bites that can be taken out of context?
Nope.
MCNs are agencies that partner with you, Maker Studios was PewDiePies MCN, and if youre someone big enough to be worth their time youll get brand deals and opportunities to work with others and increase your audience and revenue. They handle a lot of the backend stuff that most people dont think about when it comes to big entertainers.
The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment
But if someone asks why they should give an MCN 10 percent of their revenue and theyre not a managed partner that means youre in a special relationship because youre big enough for them to really care there may not be much of an answer.
My MCN is typically pretty nice and in touch, but Im not managed and if I decide to do an interview or write this article a PR person wont notice or care. Im completely on my own when it comes to thinking about how my audience views me, for better or worse. I dont have a manager to call for advice, guidance or media training.
Surprisingly, this is also true of some of the biggest names in the business. I dont want to make it sound like MCNs do nothing, they are valuable business partners that make it easier to pay the bills, but they definitely dont curate your content. They dont tell their big talent to lay off the political posting, or dial it back on the hard stuff for a bit. Its all business, no grooming or advice.
I dont think this is due to apathy or greed. Im not sure they know how to handle these things either. I mean, even if youve worked in Hollywood or television, here comes a bunch of kids who get tons of ad revenue for screaming over video games. And heres another batch who pantomime being cartoonishly scared of the games. And heres a channel that comments on their commentary! Its baffling to people who dont like or understand it, so I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs. They just know people are paying attention, and thats worth money.
PewDiePie is a bit anomalous among even the A-Listers, and consider this: part of his contract was that he retained full editorial control (in retrospect: maybe not a win), and Disney agreed to those terms.
Disney.
Jesus, do these italics slant any farther over? Disney! There is almost no other company more protective of its intellectual property or image, and they let a guy in his twenties with one of the largest audiences in the world say and do whatever he wanted under their umbrella. If you combine that with a contract that likely gave Disney a lot of easy ways to drop him if things went south, and you have a creator who is in a bad situation without any guidance from people who can help manage the situation.
Thats huge, and its also telling. It feels like Disney was thinking, Were not exactly sure what you do, or how it makes money, but it does, so lets partner and leave shit alone and hope it keeps making us money. But when you get in trouble, well, bye.
I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs
Theres always someone else with a funny screen name and a million subscribers who can reach the same audience. But youd think this whole situation couldve been avoided if there were somebody checking in when the first few issues with the content begun. This controversy didnt happen all at once, there were plenty of chances for someone to step in and try to cool things down or provide help or advice when the media got involved.
Yes, real celebrities do mess up. But there are publicists and agencies that try to prevent this from happening and then help with damage control. YouTubers start their careers doing everything solo, get into the Ill take care of it all myself mentality, and MCNs dont seem super equipped to deal with the downsides to some of that.
So you end up with very famous and very rich (and often, very young) personalities with no one to help manage genuine crises. Which means the bad decisions continue.
On the surface, humor seems easy and I think people make the mistake of thinking it just comes naturally. People think Lets Play is just I get paid to play video games and talk?!
But creativity takes time and reflection and refinement and work. Content creators are in this system where theyre incentivized to pump it out faster and faster, which means a lot of jokes come out half-baked and rushed. Short-term controversies cause everyone to rush to make their own reaction video, which is the YouTube version of the hot take, or thinkpiece.
Eager to compete with each other, you get misleading titles and custom thumbnails its kinda clickbaity, really. Hell, even PewDiePie uploads daily despite the fact that hes on top and every publication in the world wont stop telling me how much he makes.
I dont think this system will be improved any time soon, but I would like to end on a positive note. If there is someone whos making the stuff you enjoy (and maybe that still is PewDiePie), find ways to contribute. If they have alternate payment systems like merchandise or Patreon, consider it so they dont have to play the ad revenue works in volume game. Support the people you like and boost their signal. Get them out of the realm where they need to make a video a day.
YouTube has a speed and quantity problem, and it affects all aspects of the business. If you are a content creator, take a little time with controversial stuff. It really is fun to make things, but irreverent, boundary-breaking stuff is high-risk/high-reward. Dont just spit it out: run things by friends and people not in the business. Test the tone before you go live. Sleep on it. That way, you too can be a successful celebrity with a long, stalwart career like Mel Gibson or Michael Richards, only with video games involved, somehow.
Sorry to end this early, but I have a video to upload. Later!
Michael Sawyer goes by the alias "slowbeef" and has been doing Let's Plays since 2005, despite being incredibly unsuccessful at them. He is a self-described video game humorist and is officially way too old to being doing that. You can find him on Twitter, Twitch or YouTube.
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The three reasons YouTubers keep imploding, from a YouTuber - Polygon
The Verge | Samsung's latest C-Lab projects embrace augmented and virtual reality TechCrunch Samsung created C-Lab (that's Creative Lab) half a decade ago as an attempt to incubate employee creativity within the larger confines of its corporate culture. Among the decided benefits of its place as a giant among consumer electronics companies is ... Samsung's incubator lab is getting seriously into virtual and augmented reality Samsung will showcase C-Lab's AR and VR projects at MWC |
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Samsung's latest C-Lab projects embrace augmented and virtual reality - TechCrunch
Five Considerations For Entertainment Marketers To Use Virtual Reality Forbes Over the past year, global search interest in virtual reality has quadrupled. The VR hype is here but how do we convert interest into action? Recent developments in technology, changes in viewing behavior, and solutions in mobile have pushed open the ... |
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Five Considerations For Entertainment Marketers To Use Virtual Reality - Forbes
NEWS10 ABC | New virtual reality lounge opening in the Capital Region NEWS10 ABC CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. (NEWS10) For millions around the world gaming is a way of life, and a virtual reality lounge in Clifton Park is bringing that experience to a level of immersion never seen before. Toxic VR, a virtual reality lounge opening right ... |
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New virtual reality lounge opening in the Capital Region - NEWS10 ABC
If a tree falls in a virtual world, but no one has a headset, binaural audio, or an expensive PC so they could watch it falldid it really happen?
Virtual reality hardware makers and content producers are busily building up the value proposition of virtual reality; the better the experience, the more consumers who will buy in. But its a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma. How do you entice audiences to buy in to virtual reality before the technology and content offerings have matured? And how do you have the resources and consumer data to make a great product before the audience has congealed?
VR is the next inflection point for [telling] great stories and the way to do that is with compelling technology, says Jaunts new Chief Revenue Officer JP Colaco, who also told VideoInk, that the mile markers for VRs impending growth are already visible, despite various hurdles, including its accessibility.
But the early-adopters and innovators press on nevertheless. Here are three companies working to solve VRs access problem today:
IMAX is bringing the movie theater model to virtual reality. The company launched its flagship VR Experience Centre in Los Angeles (near the Grove) earlier this year. IMAX knows that a high quality VR setup costs upwards of $1K, so the opportunity to buy tickets to visit a VR theater space and go home afterwards is appealing to tourists and LA early adopters alike. The model replicates the VR cafe in eastern Asia. You can buy tickets ahead of time, but walk-ins are welcome. Reportedly, the IMAX VR Center has already seen over 5,000 visitors come through their doors, 75% of which have never experienced VR in their lifetime. And the momentum is strong, with IMAX stating that paid admissions have been increasing 75% week over week. IMAX plans to launch five additional pilot locations this year, including some centers that will share space with traditional movie theaters.
Kitsplit connects creators and the gear they need to create. Its essentially a camera gear rental company that conveniently solves the VR access problem. A quick search on Kitsplit for VR & Edge Tech in Los Angeles revealed both 360 camera and VR setup offerings. You can rent VR 360 Camera Nokia OZO for $2500 per day, or a HTC Vive setup for $200 per day. Its a great solution for events, creators with modest resources or limited space, and allows consumers to experience VR without investing in a full setup.
Stanfords Computational Imaging Lab is solving the VR headache problem that results from eyes that are tired of focusing on a fixed point and expanding VR to users with glasses. Researchers are developing a technology called adaptive focus display, which adjusts the screen using either liquid lenses or mechanically adjusting the lenses a la binoculars.
The researchers are in touch with VR hardware companies, who have a vested interest in personalizing VR headsets to make the viewing experience as smooth as actual reality.
Accessibility is key to the success of virtual reality as a content industry. The experience itself has to be available, affordable, and comfortable for consumers in as many demographics as possible. While hardware and software companies generate cutting edge headsets and experiences, others tackle the logistical and technical challenges of making virtual reality accessible to all.
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WRIC | #MadeInRVAJr: Hanover siblings want to bring virtual reality to your event WRIC RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) Last spring break, Ellie Morris and her two older brothers, Hayden and Parker, went to Europe. When we came back from that, we felt so great because we felt like we explored and did new things, she said. And that's kind of ... |
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#MadeInRVAJr: Hanover siblings want to bring virtual reality to your event - WRIC