Monthly Archives: July 2022

Communicated Content Technology is advancing quickly, bringing new discoveries and ground-breaking ventures every year. Some of the brightest minds working today are developing the next piece of technology that will fundamentally alter how we live. Although it sometimes seems that science is advancing steadily, over the past 50 years, technology has advanced significantly.

There are so many developments taking place right now that seem to have been lifted from the pages of science fiction. This article will show you some of the really cool innovations that have surfaced over the years due to modern technology.

A simulated experience known as virtual reality (VR) can be very similar to or dissimilar to the actual world. From the outside, it may look like VR is an entertainment tool for gamers and content consumers. In recent times, it has been incorporated into many games, including the games in casinos, which is why people think that way.

What most people fail to see is the potential of VR to transcend locality and enable humans to surpass the barriers of physical. To provide lifelike visuals, sounds, and other sensations that mimic a users physical presence in a virtual world, current standard virtual reality systems either use virtual reality headsets or multi-projected environments. When using virtual reality technology, a person can look around the created world, move around in it, and engage with virtual objects or features.

The importance and power of big data are one of the present realities of the global economy. This phenomenon significantly increases the barrier to entry and provides a huge advantage to major organizations that can gather and handle gigantic data sets. Blockchain enables the dispersion of this data-centric authority, reclaiming individual control over privilege and privacy.

Due to their simple user interfaces and seemingly limitless software alternatives, mobile operating systems for smartphones and other portable devices have made it possible for these devices to proliferate. The most consumer-focused computer operating systems nowadays are mobile ones. The operating system was just two years old when Google originally acquired Android Inc. in 2005, and the first iPhone (with its iOS) had yet to make its appearance in stores.

Without the fusion of universal broadband internet access and cloud computing data centers, which are used to store information and manage web traffic, online streaming would not be conceivable. The ability to distribute streaming material to huge audiences through the internet did not become possible until the middle of the 2000s, despite the fact that internet-based live streaming has existed virtually since the internets widespread adoption in the 1990s. The existential danger is being posed by online streaming to traditional methods of providing media enjoyment, like cable television and movie theaters.

Over the years, wearable technology has advanced significantly, giving our daily items and clothing new capabilities. Giving garments ears, or at least the same functionality as an ear is one intriguing approach. The material is currently thick and in development, but they intend to release it for consumer use over the next few years.

Amazingly, modern technology has brought about significant changes in organizations and industrial methods. New goods, services, and business models are now appearing. We can only speculate as to what advancements there will be in the future.

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Really cool innovations that have come with modern technology - Mid Hudson News Website

As companies struggle to return employees to offices full-time, interest in a virtual alternative like the metaverse has surged, providing new business opportunities for firms like New York-based IA Interior Architects.

As a trained architect, Guy Messick spent nearly 40 years designing physical offices and retail spaces globally. His design firm IA Interior Architects helped bring Ubers New York office and Mastercards Tech Hub to life.

The coronavirus pandemic changed everything. These days, youre more likely to find him donning a virtual reality headset in his home office than visiting construction sites.

When we all went home a couple of years ago, we got immediate interest from clients who had worked with us, saying well what about this extended reality stuff, said Messick, head of design technologies at IA Interior Architects. Immediately the light went on and we said lets leverage our experience in both design and this technology.

Gavin Menichini gives a demonstration of the Immersed Virtual Reality program at the Immersed offices on January 28, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Sergio FLORES / AFP)

Frustrated by Zoom calls and those muted squares, Messick said employers are increasingly seeking out new ways to engage workers, nearly three years into the work-from-home experiment. And, theyre finding that upgrades are much easier in the metaverse.

We initially thought along with clients that we would be replicating their [office] spacethat has not actually happened once, Messick said. [Virtual spaces] have the branding, and the feel and the look perhaps [of the physical office] but you dont have the same rules.

Case in point, IAs Atlanta Studio location. While the physical office was built near the citys Midtown neighborhood, Messick and his team opted to transport the same structure to the coast of South Africa, when it came to designing the metaverse. Employees have since taken to hosting happy hours and brainstorming sessions along the virtual waterfront, in the absence of face to face gatherings.

Messick said IA designers have placed particular attention on the use of biophilia, making sure the water rippling or grass and trees moving inside the virtual world are as close to real as possible.

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We did a lot of design study groups both internally and externally, and consistently the top two requests were outdoor spaces and vistas, Messick said.

An example of BCG's metaverse. (Photo: BCG)

The global metaverse market is expected to reach nearly $400 billion in the next two years with virtual assets like NFTs and hardware driving the gains, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

But for all of the focus around Mark Zuckerberg and Meta (META)s vision of a digital commerce empire built in the virtual world, adoption outside of gaming has largely been concentrated in corporate offices. Fortune 500 companies are increasingly utilizing virtual reality headsets to train new employees, conduct meetings with co-workers, and gather a global workforce for company retreats.

Employees at BCG began exploring use cases for the metaverse several years ago. Since the pandemic began, the company has held more than 5,500 virtual sessions in the metaverse for internal conferences, client pitch meetings, and recruitment efforts, according to Sarah Willersdorf, BCG's global head of luxury.

The virtual office space, designed by Munich-based Arthur Technologies, includes snowy resorts and tropical retreats. Users can exchange post-it notes, share ideas on a whiteboard, and sip on virtual drinks while conducting private conversations within a group setting.

BCG's metaverse includes virtual meetings. (Photo: BCG)

I think after two years of Zoom or Teams, most people are exhausted and sick of looking at their own picture and sick of being on there, Willersdorf said. To actually be in a virtual setting that feels much more close is really unique.

Willersdorf and Messick said the virtual experience is still in the very early stages. While interactions are largely limited to legless avatars and clunky headsets right now, Messick sees a future that seamlessly connects the real with the digital in mixed reality.

A mixed reality is when you will be observing your office the way it is now and youll be greeting people from other locations as avatars and holograms, he said. We think thats in the very near future.

That reality is likely to take a giant leap, with the launch of mixed-reality headsets from Meta and Apple (AAPL), which are expected within the next year. And while companies remain divided over the viability of hybrid or remote work, Willersdorf said BCG plans to continue incorporating its virtual office space into its work low.

If I think about the next generation of workers, theyre interacting in this way now," she said. "They socialize in the metaverse, they play games in the metaverse, they exchange pocket money for V Bucks in Roblox. If you imagine them coming up and becoming employees, its not going to be foreign anymore.

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita

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How the metaverse is slowly transforming the workplace - Yahoo Finance

Crammed full of pop culture references nodding at everything from hit video games like Street Fighter to movie classics like Back to the Future and comic books like Batman, Ready Player One takes place in a dystopian near future, when climate change and an energy crisis have prompted people to seek refuge in a virtual reality universe called the Oasis.

When the Oasiss creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) dies, his in-game avatar Anorak announces a competition, inviting players to find the Easter egg hidden inside the simulation. The winner will become the new owner of the Oasis and receive half a trillion dollars.

Among those taking part is Wade Watts, an orphan who uses the avatar Parzival in the game and is played by Tye Sheridan in the film. Teaming up with friends like Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Aech (Lena Waithe), he travels to different planets in the Oasis to retrieve a series of keys that will help lead them to the Easter egg, dodging the villainous tech CEO Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn)s attempts to take the prize for himself.

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The film adaptation received mixed reviews, but the blend of relentless pop culture nods and impressive CGI world-building with classic Spielbergian adventure clearly proved successful with cinemagoers around the globe, meaning that anticipation for the second book was high when it was announced in the summer of 2020.

Clines sequel was almost a decade in the making, but picks up just days after the first books ending, and reveals what happens after Wade is placed in charge of the Oasis following his successful quest. The author, who collaborated with co-writer Zak Penn on the first films screenplay, was inspired to work on a second book when he saw Ready Player Ones sci-fi universe coming to life during the production process.

I dont think I really started writing until they started production on the movie, which got me back into living in the world of Ready Player One, he told Entertainment Weekly in 2020. Thats when I started to really write the sequel. The prospect of a second movie helped propel him forward - as did some nudges from Spielberg (what a double whammy of motivation).

I knew then there was like a ticking clock because if the movie does well, then theyre going to want to make a movie sequel, he revealed to EW. And if theres no book to base the sequel on, then that wont stop them. So that motivated me and it was great because as we were finishing the movie, Steven started to ask me questions about what the sequel might be about so he could get that into the ending of the first movie. Talk about pressure.

Details may be scarce right now, but here is what we know so far about the Ready Player One sequel (with some spoilers for the first film ahead).

Tye Sheridan as Wade/Parzival and Olivia Cooke as Art3mis in Ready Player One (Warner Bros)

Cline has revealed that a film sequel is already in the works, albeit in the early stages of development. Speaking to Inverse in December 2020, shortly after the release of the book Ready Player Two, he confirmed plans to bring part two to the big screen, with the caveat that Hollywood is in limbo right now as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

I can tell from the experience of making the first movie that everybody had a lot of fun, he added. We talked about the possibility of there being a Ready Player Two when we were making Ready Player One. In Hollywood you never know. I really tried my best to focus on just writing a sequel to my book. There are characters in the movie that are alive that arent alive in the book. I focused on trying to give the fans the book without letting the film influence me. The movie will sort itself out later. Aside from Clines confirmation, though, details about the second movie are few and far between, and a director is yet to be attached to the project.

Recently Spielberg has been occupied directing The Fabelmans, a semi-autobiographical drama starring Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, and serving as an executive producer on projects like the fifth Indiana Jones movie and upcoming series Masters of the Air. He has also spoken about the challenges involved in bringing Ready Player Ones intricate sci-fi world to the big screen, describing the adaptation as one of the most difficult projects he has worked on across his decades in the film business, thanks to the extensive CGI work required to recreate Oasiss virtual realm.

Its the third most difficult [film] Ive made after Jaws and Saving Private Ryan, he told Empire magazine. I think there is a distinction between a physical challenge, which was both Jaws and Saving Private Ryan, and another kind of challenge, which is trying to do something technologically new that has never been done before I had to learn how to make a film like this while I was making a film like this. And that means a lot of trial and error.

Still, Cline has spoken of his hopes that Spielberg could be persuaded to come back on board. I really hope that if we do make another one, that he would do it, the author told Collider. Michael Crichton, the novelist, is the only one to get that lucky and have two of his books made into movies by Steven [Jurassic Park and The Lost World], but maybe Ill get lucky, too.

The second instalment begins just nine days after Wade wins Hallidays scavenger hunt and is put in control of the Oasis. He discovers an inscription on the Easter egg which points him in the direction of an Oasis Neural Interface headset, a new piece of tech invented by Halliday but never released to the public.

It allows the user to experience all of their real world sensations in the game, but its use must be limited to 12 hours per day to avoid dangerous sensory overload. Unsure about the ethics of his latest development, Halliday decided to leave the question of whether or not to roll out the ONI to his successor, meaning that the decision lies in Wade's hands.

Its a question that causes friction among him and his friends, especially with his love interest Art3mis, but Wade eventually gives the green light for the headsets to be made available to the public. Once a certain number of them have been sold, a new challenge goes live, asking players to find seven shards hidden in the game world in order to piece together the Sirens Soul. Cue another quest that will lead Wade and his pals to various worlds within the Oasis - which are teeming with pop culture references, just like those seen in the original story - and shed new light on the making of the game world, including a love triangle between Halliday, his Oasis co-founder Ogden Morrow, and Morrows wife, Kira.

Its possible, of course, that the film version could deviate from some of the books plot points, just as the first movie made some changes to the original, altering the structure of some of the quests for the keys and, as Cline previously noted, refraining from killing off some characters too, like Wades fellow gamer Daito (played in the film by Win Morisaki).

The poster for Ready Player One (Warner Bros)

Sheridan has previously spoken of his desire to return to the Oasis for a second film, telling ComicBook that he has his fingers crossed and hope[s] we get to do another, while his co-star Cooke has told Digital Spy that should a sequel happen, she has already signed up. Ive signed my life away, so Im contracted to sequels, she said shortly after the first films release, albeit with the caveat I havent heard anything.

The first film drew in an impressive array of stars, from Rylance as Halliday and Simon Pegg as his Oasis co-creator Ogden Morrow to Master of Nones Waithe and Rogue Ones Mendelsohn, but with movie number two currently in the early stages of development, theres no word yet on which members of the supporting cast might reprise their roles. Characters like Waithes Aech and Anorak, the Oasis avatar of Halliday, continue to play key parts in the second book, though, as does the villain of the piece, Sorrento.

The first book and film manage to pack in a staggering array of cultural callbacks, from a recreation of The Shinings Overlook Hotel to the DeLorean DMC-12 car that Wade drives. There are plenty of nostalgic nods to films and games from the 70s, 80s and 90s, but Spielberg decided against including many references to his own works from that period (though the T-Rex from Jurassic Park still makes an appearance).

The director was able to use 80 per cent of the properties mentioned in the book, largely thanks to his industry clout, but licensing restrictions meant that certain references had to be written out. One of those references was a scene based on Blade Runner, which was vetoed as, had Ready Player One stuck to its original release date in winter 2017, it might have overlapped with the release of the sequel Blade Runner 2049. I actually at one point wrote a sequence set in Blade Runner and I think the problem was they knew the new Blade Runner was gonna come out right around then, Penn later revealed. I think I had somebody driving Deckards car and I think they didnt give us the right to do it.

Ready Player Two crams in an equally eclectic line-up of references. One planet, Shermer, is named after the fictionalised Illinois town in which John Hughes set many of his 80s teen movies, and throws together his characters in one high school. Their challenge revolves around Hughess film Pretty in Pink, and includes some meta nods to some near-miss casting decisions. Another world is based upon J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy works, with references to The Silmarillion, a collection of stories which take place thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings.

A further location, Afterworld, is dedicated to Prince, where the gang must battle seven villainous versions of the singer from different eras in his career. As the Blade Runner anecdote proves, though, referring to famous films, games and figures in print is one thing, but bringing them into a film is another. This segment is one that might prove particularly difficult to adapt for the screen, as the late musicians estate controls the rights to his image; when plans were leaked for a hologram of the star to appear during Justin Timberlakes 2018 Superbowl performance, they were quickly quashed, perhaps because Prince described the whole virtual reality thing as demonic in a 1998 interview. Maybe Abbas digital avatars could step in instead

With the movie still in the early stages of development, fans will have to wait a while before a release date is confirmed. With no further announcements beyond Clines initial confirmation so far, its safe to say that the project is a few years away from cinemas yet not least because its stars are booked up with a slew of exciting projects.

Cooke has swapped the Oasis for Westeros, taking a leading role in upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, while Sheridan is set to star as a young paramedic in new thriller Black Flies, starring alongside Sean Penn and Katherine Waterston. Rylance, meanwhile, remains one of the most in-demand stars in Hollywood and beyond, and has movies with the likes of Luca Guadagnino and Terrence Malick in the works.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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Ready Player Two: everything we know so far about the virtual reality movie sequel - RadioTimes

Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 54 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover a patent relating to future AR Selfies, Apples Face ID and their AR Measure app. And as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Augmented Reality Selfies

Apple was granted a patent today by the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) that covers systems, methods and apparatuses that relate to the generation of Augmented Reality or AR Selfies."

In an embodiment, a method comprises: capturing, by a first camera of a mobile device, live image data, the live image data including an image of a subject in a physical, real-world environment; receiving, by a depth sensor of the mobile device, depth data indicating a distance of the subject from the camera in the physical, real-world environment; receiving, by one or more motion sensors of the mobile device, motion data indicating at least an orientation of the first camera in the physical, real-world environment; generating a virtual camera transform based on the motion data, the camera transform for determining an orientation of a virtual camera in a virtual environment; and generating a composite image data, using the image data, a matte and virtual background content selected based on the virtual camera orientation.

(Click on image to Enlarge)

For more on this, review Apples granted patent 11,394,898.

Biometric Authentication: Face ID

Patently Apple first covered Apples original Face ID patent from a European patent filing in December 2018. Apples invention provides efficient methods and interfaces for implementing biometric authentication of biometric features. Apple noted in their patent that there was a need for electronic devices to provide a convenient and efficient method for enrolling one or more portions of a biometric feature. For another example, there is a need for electronic devices that provide a quick and intuitive technique for selectively accessing secure data in accordance with biometric authentication.

For another example, there is a need for electronic devices that provide a quick and intuitive technique for enabling a function of a device in accordance with biometric authentication.

Such techniques can reduce the cognitive burden on a user who enrolls a biometric feature and/or biometrically authenticates with a device, thereby enhancing overall productivity. Further, such techniques can reduce processor and battery power otherwise wasted on redundant user inputs.

Apples original granted patent contained 81 patent claims. In Apples third granted patent, Apple added a whopping 93 new patent claims to better protect their invention from competitors, patent trolls and copycats. To review Apples patent in general and their new patent claims specifically, review Apples granted patent 11,393,258.

Apple was also granted patent 11,391,561 covering their AR Measure App titled Devices and methods for measuring using augmented reality. This is Apples second granted patent. We covered Apples first granted patent in April 2020. In this current granted patent, Apple added 21 new patent claims to better protect their invention from competitors, patent trolls and copycats.

Todays Remaining Granted Patents

Read the rest here:

Apple was granted 54 Patents today covering Augmented Reality Selfies, Face ID, Apple's AR 'Measure' App & more - Patently Apple