Lifeboat Foundation

The future imagined in “The Jetsons” is almost here — smart watches track our steps, Zoom connects us to the people we love, and camera drones steadily increase the views on any vlogger’s YouTube channel. The only thing we’re missing from the animated sitcom is air traffic in the form of flying cars. Although, it looks like we’re not too far from that reality, either. Consequently, robots and AR will also be commonplace.

If all of this seems too “Black Mirror” for you to process, we suggest taking a step-by-step approach. Invest in a watch that tells you how much you’ve walked but not how much you’ve slept. Until further notice, only board airplanes to fly. Instead of hiring your own Rosey the Robot housekeeper, meet with a robot every other week.

The proposed system would essentially convert existing instructional manuals into a format that could be used by augmented reality systems.

The company’s current Glass hardware is built on Android.

Google is hiring an “Augmented Reality OS” team focused on building software for an “innovative AR device,” according to job listings spotted by 9to5Google. The team is led by Mark Lucovsky, who announced he’d joined the company this week. Lucovsky previously worked at Meta developing an in-house alternative to Android to power the company’s hardware, and also co-authored the Windows NT operating system.

According to Google’s job listings, the Augmented Reality OS team is building “the software components that control and manage the hardware on [its] Augmented Reality (AR) products.” This is far from Google’s first stab at developing AR software, and follows the company’s work on ARCore for Android and Tango. The company’s Google Glass, which is aimed at the business and enterprise market, is currently built on Android.

Continue reading “Google staffs up to build OS for unknown ‘innovative AR device’” »

Nio’s soon-to-arrive ET7 is practically tailor-made to challenge Tesla’s Model S, and now the company appears to have a (partial) answer to the Model 3. Electrek says Nio has introduced the ET5, a more affordable “mid-size” electric sedan. It starts at RMB 328,000 (about $51,450), or well under the roughly $70,000 of the ET7, but offers similarly grandiose range figures. Nio claims the base 75kWh battery offers over 341 miles of range using China’s test cycle, while the highest-end 150kWh “Ultralong Range” pack is supposedly good for more than 620 miles. You’ll likely pay significantly more for the privilege and may not see that range in real life, but the numbers could still tempt you away from higher-end Model 3s if long-distance driving is crucial.

You can expect the usual heapings of technology. The ET5 will have built-in support for autonomous driving features as they’re approved, and drivers get a “digital cockpit” thanks to Nreal-developed augmented reality glasses that can project a virtual screen equivalent to 201 inches at a 20-foot viewing distance. Nio has teamed with Nolo to make VR glasses, too, although it’s safe to say you won’t wear those while you’re driving.

Deliveries are expected to start September 2022. That’s a long way off, but Nio appears to be on track with its EV plans as it expects to deliver the ET7 on time (if only just) starting March 28th.

Kindly see my latest FORBES article on technology predictions for the next decade:

Thanks and have a great weekend! Chuck Brooks.

We are approaching 2022 and rather than ponder the immediate future, I want to explore what may beckon in the ecosystem of disruptive technologies a decade from now. We are in the initial stages of an era of rapid and technological change that will witness regeneration of body parts, new cures for diseases, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, human/computer interface, autonomous vehicles, advanced robotics, flying cars, quantum computing, and connected smart cities. Exciting times may be ahead.

Continue reading “Welcome To 2032: A Merged Physical/Digital World” »

In recent years, engineers have been trying to develop more effective sensors and tools to monitor indoor environments. Serving as the foundation of these tools, indoor positioning systems automatically determine the position of objects with high accuracy and low latency, enabling emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, such as robots, autonomous driving, VR/AR, etc.

A team of researchers recently created CurveLight, an accurate and efficient light positioning system. Their technology, described in a paper presented at ACM’s SenSys 2021 Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, could be used to enhance the performance of autonomous vehicles, robots and other advanced technologies.

“In CurveLight, the signal transmitter includes an infrared LED, covered by a hemispherical and rotatable shade,” Zhimeng Yin, one of the researchers who developed the system at City University of Hong Kong, told TechXplore. “The receiver detects the light signals with a photosensitive diode. When the shade is rotating, the transmitter generates a unique sequence of light signals for each point in the covered space.”

Spatial has raised $25 million as it pivots away from augmented reality and virtual reality collaboration to nonfungible token (NFT) art exhibitions and metaverse events.

Spatial started out by providing AR/VR meeting places that people could access with AR glasses, VR headsets, and smartphones. But it found with the NFT art boom that it could provide a way for people to easily view digital art in virtual galleries, said Jake Steinerman, head of community at Spatial, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“We changing our direction,” said Steinerman.

Swiss technology company WayRay has unveiled what it says is the world’s first car to incorporate holographic, augmented reality glazing – the Holograktor. The innovation is designed around the company’s True AR technology and intended to operate with WayRay’s new ride-hailing business model. The system’s USP is its ability to render augmented reality scenes around the vehicle in real time, displayed via holographic projections.

Backed by early investments from companies like Porsche, Hyundai and Alibaba, WayRay says it is using the car to emerge from its ‘deep tech’ automotive supplier status to become a player in the world of new mobility models.

The three-seat vehicle has been conceived specifically for ride hailing and can be driven conventionally or by remote control, in the latter case via a 5G and satellite connection to a qualified driver. Its unusual single rear seat ‘throne’ layout was inspired by data showing that more than 80% of Uber trips were for one person only. “The idea is that you can choose Uber Black, Uber SUV or Uber Holograktor. And if you choose the Holograktor, your ride will be subsidized by sponsored content so that the price will be much lower,” said WayRay founder and CEO, Vitaly Ponomarev.

In the novel-turned-movie Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, the protagonist escapes to an online realm aptly called OASIS. Instrumental to the OASIS experience is his haptic (relating to sense of touch) bodysuit, which enables him to move through and interact with the virtual world with his body. He can even activate tactile sensations to feel every gut punch, or a kiss from a badass online girl.

While no such technology is commercially available yet, the platform Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is in the early stages of creating haptic gloves to bring the virtual world to our fingertips. These gloves have been in the works for the past seven years, the company recently said, and there’s still a few more to go.

These gloves would allow the wearer to not only interact with and control the virtual world, but experience it in a way similar to how one experiences the physical world. The wearer would use the gloves in tandem with a headset for AR or VR. A video posted by Meta in a blog shows two users having a remote thumb-wrestling match. In their VR headsets, they see a pair of disembodied hands reflecting the motions that their own hands are making. In their gloves, they feel every squeeze and twitch of their partner’s hand—at least that’s the idea.