Lifeboat Foundation

Fog, blizzards, gusts of wind — poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A new helmet-mounted display, developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), may in the future be able to help pilots detect hazards at an early stage, even when their visibility is severely impaired: the information required to do this is created in an on-board computer and imported into digital eye glasses.

A new study has shown that this augmented reality improves the performance of pilots.

Thick clouds hang over the Tegernsee. The range of sight is just a few hundred meters. Under normal circumstances, a helicopter would not be allowed to take off in such weather — the danger that the pilot would not be able to react in time to a construction crane, a power line or a mountain would be too great.

Human civilization has always been a virtual reality. At the onset of culture, which was propagated through the proto-media of cave painting, the talking drum, music, fetish art making, oral tradition and the like, Homo sapiens began a march into cultural virtual realities, a march that would span the entirety of the human enterprise. We don’t often think of cultures as virtual realities, but there is no more apt descriptor for our widely diverse sociological organizations and interpretations than the metaphor of the “virtual reality.” Indeed, the virtual reality metaphor encompasses the complete human project.

Virtual Reality researchers, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, write in their book Infinite Reality; “[Cave art] is likely the first animation technology”, where it provided an early means of what they refer to as “virtual travel”. You are in the cave, but the media in that cave, the dynamic-drawn, fire-illuminated art, represents the plains and animals outside—a completely different environment, one facing entirely the opposite direction, beyond the mouth of the cave. When surrounded by cave art, alive with movement from flickering torches, you are at once inside the cave itself whilst the media experience surrounding you encourages you to indulge in fantasy, and to mentally simulate an entirely different environment. Blascovich and Bailenson suggest that in terms of the evolution of media technology, this was the very first immersive VR. Both the room and helmet-sized VRs used in the present day are but a sophistication of this original form of media VR tech.

Read entire essay here

My new story for Vice Motherboard on the future of political campaining:

Lest we think future elections are all about the candidates, perhaps the largest possibility on the horizon could come from digital direct democracy—the concept where citizens participate in real time input in the government. I gently advocate for a fourth branch of government, in which the people can vote on issues that matter to them and their decrees could have real legal consequence on Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency.

Of course, that’s only if government even exists anymore. It’s possible the coming age of artificial intelligence and robots may replace the need for politicians. At least human ones. Some experts think superintelligent AI might be here in 10 to 15 years, so why not have a robot president that is totally altruistic and not susceptible to lobbyists and personal desires? This machine leader would simply always calculate the greatest good for the greatest amount of people, and go with that. No more Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, or whatever else we are.

Continue reading “Wild Transhumanist Campaign Tech We’ll See in Future Presidential Elections” »

Justin Trudeau seems to enjoy the Microsoft HoloLens.

Wait until you see with Dynamics CRM and AX as well as SharePoint, PowerBI, Skype, PowerPont and Excel just to name a few other ones besides what can be done already with Azure and big data.

Checking you email might not be so bad if you’re using AR.

By Emma Boyle

Continue reading “Microsoft Bringing Outlook and Calendar to HoloLens” »

Lenovo brings out the first smartphone using AR. Will consumers bite?

Not bad.

Lenovo is ready to tango—utilizing Google’s Project Tango tech that is.

Fun video and article with some transhumanism now on the main China Public TV (English).

We’ve heard a lot about Augmented and Virtual Reality. But outside of gaming, is it practical in the workplace? That’s a key focus at this year’s Augmented World Expo in Silicon Valley.

At the Augmented World Expo, it’s goggles, goggles and more goggles.

Continue reading “Augmented virtual reality for business” »

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Suppose your smartphone is clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings — the room’s size, the location of doors and windows and the presence of other people. What could it do with that info?

We’re about to get our first look. On Thursday, Lenovo will give consumers their first chance to buy a phone featuring Google’s 3-year-old Project Tango, an attempt to imbue machines with a better understanding about what’s around them.

Location tracking through GPS and cell towers tells apps where you are, but not much more. Tango uses software and sensors to track motions and size up the contours of rooms, empowering Lenovo’s new phone to map building interiors. That’s a crucial building block of a promising new frontier in “augmented reality,” or the digital projection of lifelike images and data into a real-life environment.

Continue reading “Your phone may soon sense everything around you” »