New Florence. New Renaissance.

"Digital teleportation"

Proponents of the technology, which some call “live delivery,” believe that in the coming years, a mix of virtual reality, fast wireless networks and machines like drones and rovers will allow people to immerse themselves in actual, far-flung environments—in real time. “Live delivery is a new type of tool that will reinvent the way we experience the world, that will allow us to be on the spot when things are happening,” said Marc Carrel-Billiard, senior managing director at Accenture Labs, who advises businesses on VR and augmented reality.

While VR shows prerecorded scenes, live VR, which is starting to show up in classrooms and operating rooms, allows users to experience what is happening in situ. Companies are already starting to pair simplified versions of live VR with drones to give users a sense of being in another place.

WSJ

 

 

2020: New Year. New Buzzwords.

Happy New Year!

From Mashable

"Once upon a time, "WiFi" was just another silly tech term you had to know before it became a daily necessity. Will the 2020 tech terms on this list ever rise to that same level of importance? We don't know, but it can't hurt to learn them now just in case they get to that point."

One of the terms you can expect to hear is Hand Tracking. Here is the Oculus Quest version

 

Mixed Reality in Medical Training

Immertec’s technology involves placing special cameras in an operating room. During a surgical procedure, doctors in other locations can use a Medoptic-enabled headset to watch the surgery in 180-degree 3-D VR. Users also can talk to one another remotely, ask questions and zoom in on the patient’s surgical site. Dean, now Immertec’s acting chief medical officer, regularly performs endoscopies that are livestreamed via the Medoptic platform.

Immertec’s competitive advantage is its speed: The network lag — the length of time it takes for data to travel between the sender and receiver — is less than 200 milliseconds, Maltais says.

“Our IP (intellectual property) is around compression and distribution. It’s exactly real time,” says Maltais. “You can ask questions, and there’s no lag time.” Immertec’s competitors use simulated training, he says — “you’d put on a headset and you’d practice surgery in a video game-like experience, or you’d watch a video recording.”

Florida Trend

 

 

 

Immersive classroom to teach you Mandarin

In a new collaboration with IBM Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a university based in Troy, New York, now offers its students studying Chinese another option: a 360-degree virtual environment that teleports them to the busy streets of Beijing or a crowded Chinese restaurant. Students get to haggle with street vendors or order food, and the environment is equipped with different AI capabilities to respond to them in real time. While the classroom is largely experimental, it is being used for the first time in a six-week, for-credit course at the university this summer.

MIT Tech Review

 

 

VR for Mental Health

Riding a wave of interest in mental health tech, companies creating VR content for therapeutic outcomes are receiving a deluge of attention and funding. And, while VR has been used successfully to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1990s, these new programs address a much broader range of conditions. The library of Palo Alto–based Limbix, for instance, includes VR content designed to treat issues including alcohol addiction, claustrophobia and teenage depression. Barcelona-based Psious offers treatments for eating disorders.

Today’s VR content is primarily designed to aid exposure therapy, a treatment for anxiety disorders in which patients are exposed to anxiety-inducing stimuli in a safe, controlled environment, eventually learning that the “threats” they’re worried about are not actually very dangerous. For example, someone who fears heights might visit progressively taller buildings under the guidance of their therapist (in vivo exposure), while someone with PTSD might revisit traumatic memories in therapy sessions (imaginary exposure).

Scientific American

 

 

 

Mixed reality at Airbus

Mixed reality allows aerospace trainees to learn in an immersive virtual environment without the need for an actual physical aircraft or parts. This 3D environment can offer features that real-life training cannot, such as the ability to view elements in three dimensions from any angle.

HoloLens helps Airbus designers virtually test their designs to see if they are ready for manufacture. Mixed reality speeds up the process substantially, decreasing the time spent by 80 percent.

Mixed reality technology can also help workers on the production line access crucial information while keeping their hands free. Digital information, such as instructions or diagrams, can be overlaid on a real piece of machinery to aid in complex or hard-to-reach tasks. These kinds of mixed-reality solutions have allowed Airbus to cut manufacturing time by a third while improving quality.

Microsoft Transform blog

 

 

 

Mirrorworld

The Mirrorworld doesn't yet fully exist, but it is coming. Someday soon, every place and thing in the real world—every street, lamppost, building, and room—will have its full-size digital twin in the mirrorworld. For now, only tiny patches of the mirrorworld are visible through AR headsets. Piece by piece, these virtual fragments are being stitched together to form a shared, persistent place that will parallel the real world. The author Jorge Luis Borges imagined a map exactly the same size as the territory it represented. “In time,” Borges wrote, “the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it.” We are now building such a 1:1 map of almost unimaginable scope, and this world will become the next great digital platform.

Wired

Here is a architect related concept film from Leap Motion

HoloLens in the U.S. Army

The military calls its special version of the HoloLens 2 “IVAS,” which stands for Integrated Visual Augmentation System.

It’s an augmented-reality headset, which means it places digital objects, such as maps or video displays, on top of the real world in front of you.

When I first put it on, I saw a map in front of me that showed exactly where I was. It gave me a birds-eye view of the building I was standing in and also showed a nearby building. It’s like any satellite image you can find online.

But as I turned my head, a small arrow icon representing my location also turned. I could also see several other dots representing my other “squad members” who were also wearing the headsets.

But IVAS goes even further. It can also be used for thermal imaging. Night vision goggles currently used in the field emit a green glow, which the enemy can see. IVAS doesn’t glow as much, and still allows soldiers to see other people in the dark.

CNBC

 

 

 

VR in the OR

A few days before tugging on surgical gloves to slice open a patient’s brain, doctors at Stanford University slip on virtual reality goggles to help prepare for the risky procedure. Conventional MRI or CT scans can reveal only so much about what a patient’s brain looks like. But feed those images into VR technology, and surgeons can see the brain—all the ridges and fissures, lobes and veins—in 3D, so they can simulate surgery before stepping into the operating room.

Fortune

 

Mixed reality at Chevron

Previously (Chevron) was required to fly in an inspector from Houston to a facility in Singapore once a month to inspect equipment. Now it has in-time inspection using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and can identify issues or provide approvals immediately.

In addition, remote collaboration and assistance have helped the company operate more safely in a better work environment, serving as a connection point between firstline workers and remote experts, as well as cutting down on travel and eliminating risks associated with employee travel.

Microsoft Blog