Tuesday, November 17, 2020
QPORIT XR NEWSROOM
QPORIT XR
THE XR NEWSROOM
EXTENDED REALITY
TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, ISSUES
Quick Previews Of Random Interesting Things
COMING: 2020-11-24 (TUE NOV 24, 2020)
SUMMARY TALK: STATUS OF XR - FALL, 2020
- Eric Roffman (that's me, publisher & editor of QPORIT)
- will present a survey of where we stand now in the development of XR
- The talk will cover:
- Hardware - including new HMD's & the "fine print" about 5G;
- Software - including webXR
- also known as the Spatial Web & web 3.0;
- Content - including experiments with digital live Avatar theater;
- Issues - including possible regulation;
- Rumors - including Apple's plans
- And more, much much more...
- TUE NOV 24 6:30-8:30 EST
- For more info:
- To register:
2020-11- 20 (FRI NOV 20, 2020)
2020-11-17 (TUE NOV 17, 2020)
PRESIDENT TRUMP
- in the final weeks of his administration, is reported to:
- have seriously considered a military attack on Iran;
- be planning a major military withdrawal from the Mideast;
- be expressing anger at the Vaccine Makers for not announcing their progress sooner, to help his reelection campaign;
- be obstructing the transition to the Biden Presidency;
- be spreading distrust about American Democracy, by making false claims of Democratic Party voting fraud;
- be making no effort to help immediately slow the virulent growth of COVID-19 infections and deaths.
- The actions described above are not "a new normal";
- they are serious assaults on the United States;
- they are not the "faithful execution of the Office of the President".
- Congress should conduct a serious, immediate investigation on
- whether new legislation is needed to inhibit any President who may be working against the interests of the United States;
- whether Impeachment and Removal of President Trump and Vice President Pence (the head of the COVID "Task Force") is warranted by the facts, and necessary to help curb the virulent growth of COVID-19 during the next 2 months.
***
2020-11-10 (TUE NOV 10, 2020)
APPLE
- announced three upgraded laptops in its "one more time" event.
- More importantly, it announced a new home-grown Apple Silicon Chip, the M1.
- The M1 is an impressive chip, and marks the progress Apple is making in its creation of its own silicon, custom designed to work with its own hardware and operating systems.
- M1 features include
- 8 core CPU (faster processing)
- 8 core GPU (faster, better graphics)
- 16 core neural processing (faster, more useful AI)
- dedicated security processing
- 5 nanometer technology
- low power usage
- integration with the OS
- As a march to the future, the ability to continue to create upgraded silicon, extending the life of Moore's law (which predicts exponential growth of digital power with a doubling period of about 2 to three years), means the continued extension of digital processing to every facet of human life.
- The laptops themselves do not seem to be the real story. As John Hodgeman in a postscript to the main announcement pointed out, the fact that the laptops have longer battery life is nice but, gee, you can plug them in.
- The story is the chip, not the new laptops.
- To me, the problem with this event was
- 1) "One More Thing" is what Steve Jobs used to say before he introduced a whole new category of product.
- To focus on the laptops, or even the chips, is different from creating a whole new category of computing.
- It is the evolution and continuation of the current computing paradigm.
- 2) The slick Apple product launch is extremely slick, but we've seen that style of presentation before. Marketing has to innovate as well as perfect a style.
- 3) I did not, actually, learn much about the MACs that were announced:
- How are they really different from each other, except form factor? They all use the same chip and OS and the laptops have the same 13" size screen.
- What is the current screen resolution?
- What is the memory/storage system? How big?
- Do the new connectors (Thunderbolt / USB 4) and the new chip & OS mean that the Apple ecosystem will become even more isolated from the PC & Android world than it is now?
- From the perspective of xR innovation (that's lower case x as in a variable, which refers to VR, AR and MR) this event was both hopeful and disappointing:
- It was disappointing because it (xR) was never mentioned, and not the "one more thing" I was hoping for.
- It was encouraging because VR, AR, and MR all need better silicon than they now use, and the effort Apple is investing in xR development could be transformative if they are also making customized silicon for xR.
- Here is a very detailed discussion of what Apple has been doing in xR:
- https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-glasses/
2020-11-09 (MON NOV 9, 2020)
PFIZER
- reports positive results from its latest (not yet completed) trials
- 90% effectiveness (28 days after the first dose of a 2 dose regimen),
- relatively safe.
- This is based on a test with about 45,000 participants,
- about 40,000 had the full 2 doses.
- This is good news, but not yet the end of COVID-19
- The estimate is at best 25M vaccinations worldwide in 2020.
- A reasonable, optimistic estimate is still
- Summer 2021 before vaccines are widely available;
- Fall 2021 before vaccines significantly improve worldwide health
- That is in line with estimates in Jan 2020 that it would be at least 18 months before vaccines begin to make a substantial difference in world health and protection from COVID-19
- Here is the Pfizer announcement:
- https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-vaccine-candidate-against
- Currently there are
- more than 50,000,000 cases worldwide
- more than 1,250,000 deaths worldwide
- record numbers (more than 9,000) of daily deaths worldwide
- more than 10,000,000 cases in the US (most in the world)
- more than 240,000 deaths in the US (most in the world)
- more casualties, every week, than in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
- more than 1,000,000 cases in Texas
- more than 10,000 new cases today in Illinois.
APPLE
- is currently working very hard on XR technology
- they seem most interested in AR and MR, adding information as you view the real world (rather than VR, completely immersive experiences).
- They have released several generations of the ARkit software.
- They have added LiDAR distance sensing to top level iPhones.
- They purchased NEXT, the premiere real-time live streaming platform.
- They purchased several important smaller companies and hired many experienced XR developers that had worked with other XR companies.
- Here is a very detailed discussion of what Apple has been doing:
- Apple is having a "One More Thing" event tomorrow (see the post from Nov 2 below).
- It is not known whether XR will be in that program.
- Apple ONE MORE THING event: 1:00 EST Tue Nov 10, 2020:
2020-11-07 (SAT NOV 7, 2020)
WE VOTED ! Democracy wins!
- ACCORDING TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BIDEN WINS PENSYLVANIA, SO:
JOE BIDEN
WILL BE THE NEXT
PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES
JOE BIDEN ! President-elect:
- I will be the President of all Americans.
- It is "a time to heal".
- I will spare no effort to turn around this pandemic.
- (Today: more than 124,000 new cases; more than 1,025 deaths.)
2020-11-03 (TUE NOV 3, 2020)
VOTE !
- If you haven't already, cast your ballot: VOTE!
- Every vote matters!
- Keep your distance! Wear your mask!
- In case of a long wait, bring water, food, outdoor weather appropriate clothes!
VOTE BIDEN-HARRIS! Free the Senate!
- If you haven't already, cast your ballot: VOTE!
- Every vote matters!
- We described five crises below: See the Nov 1, 2020 item.
- Trump and his fellow Trumpublicans in the Senate have made all of them worse.
- The Senate has
- promoted right wing extremist judges to lifetime appointments,
- blocked needed legislation including a desperately needed relief bill
- stonewalled the Impeachment trial
- (removing Trump would have prevented Trump's disastrous response to COVID)
- and in a triumph of hypocrisy, did the exact opposite of what they "promised" four years ago, and confirmed a Supreme Court judge just days before a Presidential election.
2020-11-02 (MON NOV 2, 2020)
APPLE
- announced a "One more thing" event for Tue, Nov 10.
- For those who've never watched the live stream of an Apple event when Steve Jobs was alive:
- He would end a keynote full of new products by saying... "and, One more thing",
- And that thing was the introduction of a new kind of product, like the first iPhone or the first iPad.
- Three guesses would be
- 1) something related to Apple's home-made new chips;
- 2) something related to TV; or
- 3) the first Apple AR headset. (!!????)
- The event address is:
- https://www.apple.com/apple-events/
2020-11-01 (SUN NOV 1, 2020)
FIVE PROFOUND CRISES HOVER AS THE 2020 ELECTION APPROACHES
- HEALTH:
- More than 9 million people have been sickened.
- More than 225 thousand have died.
- It is getting worse.
- Trump & Trumpublicans are aggravating the epidemic, not dealing with it.
- FIRES, STORMS & THE ENVIRONMENT:
- People are dying, and property is being destroyed by
- Massive fires in the West,
- Huge storms in the South and Midwest
- Floods in some places,
- Droughts in other places,
- with a deteriorating infrastructure that can not withstand environmental stresses, and sometimes is even the cause of deadly events.
- These, together with the threat of irreversible environmental damage and irreversible global warming
- require urgent government attention, yet
- Trump & Trumpublicans are ignoring the issues, except when aggravating the problems with regulatory changes and suppression of scientific studies.
- EXTRA-JUDICIAL MURDERS AND A PREJUDICED JUDICIAL SYSTEM:
- The treatment of black Americans is intolerable.
- The problem is historical
- The original constitution was biased.
- US was a country with slaves less than 175 years ago.
- Trump & Trumpublicans are providing support to anti-equality groups and issues.
- It has to stop. Now.
- ECONOMIC INEQUALITY AND LOOMING COLLAPSE:
- We have a K shaped economy.
- The rich are getting richer.
- The poor are getting poorer (and dying faster).
- The rich: APPLE (1.9 $T), AMAZON, MICROSOFT, AND GOOGLE are each worth more than $1 TRILLION (That's 1,000,000,000,000 dollars).
- Together they are worth more than 5 trillion dollars.
- Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are each worth more than 100 billion dollars.
- The not rich: More than 8 million people were unemployed in September; several million without any job since the March lockdown.
- Protections against evictions are expiring.
- Travel, restaurants, and arts events are not coming back soon.
- Colleges have lost revenue.
- State and local governments have had additional expenses, but have lost tax revenues.
- An inverted yield curve last year "predicted" financial distress next year.
- Trump & Trumpublicans did not provide support: neither to individuals, nor to local and state governments, with another economic relief bill.
- Are they defunding the police?
- Among the casualties, if governments have trouble balancing their budgets, are essential services like fire departments and policemen.
- DEMOCRACY -- INCLUDING TRUTH AND IMPARTIAL JUSTICE:
- Democracy itself is under threat when the government does not take responsibility for preventing:
- Voter suppression, including
- intimidation;
- interference with the postal service to complicate mail-in voting;
- inadequate staffing of polling places causing long delays for certain voters.
- Attacks on the legitimacy of the election, including
- baseless claims of fraud.
- refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power.
- Threats of criminal prosecution of political opponents outside the systematic process of criminal law.
- Systematic lying.
- Ridiculously vain and false bragging, and requiring obeisance of subordinates.
- Suppression of accurate, truthful reporting by government agencies.
Definition: Trumpublicans - legislators and employees of government agencies who used to be traditional Republicans, but who now, under Trump, support policies that Trump advocates even when these are completely opposite to what they supported before 2016.
2020-10-29 (THU OCT 29, 2020)
STANFORD & SAMSUNG RESEARCHERS
- have developed an OLED technology that would allow pixel densities of 10,000 pixels per inch.
- This would be about 20 times the density of current displays.
- It would mean really good resolution in VR headsets!
- https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/22/future-vr-employ-new-ultrahigh-res-display/
- Technical paper, full text (for a price):
- https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6515/459.full
2020-10-24 (SAT OCT 24, 2020)
THE US IS NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD!
- 230,068 deaths, the most in the world.
- 784 deaths today, the most in the world.
- 8,827,154 total cases, the most in the world.
- 78,671 new cases today, the most in the world.
- 2,855,475 active cases now, the most in the world.
- 16,367 critical & serious cases now, the most in the world.
- The "president" continues to organize superspreader events around the country.
- Ask not what your country can do for you, Donald, ask what you can do for your country.
- Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ 2020-10-24 20:50 EST
2020-10-22 (THU OCT 22, 2020)
2020-10-20 (TUE OCT 20, 2020)
THE DEPARTMENT OFF JUSTICE
- has filed a complaint against Google, charging anti-competitive behavior.
- Any resolution of this will likely take months to years.
- The final verdict/decision in the Microsoft case helped trigger (I believe) the massive market selloff in 2000.
- The Judge ordered a break-up of Microsoft on June 7, 2000.
- Around August 1, the Nasdaq and Dow averages began a major slide.
- Regulatory and legal challenges, domestic and international, to Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon are fueled by issues of possible
- excessive harm to consumers
- excessive suppression of competitors
- excessive concentration of wealth
- as well as political and competitive interests.
- Microsoft is currently relatively free of these pressures.
- Here is the full text of the complaint:
2020-10-19 (MON OCT 19, 2020)
THE MAJORITY STAFF OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
- has issued a comprehensive report on their
- "Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets"
- with Recommendations.
- Here is the full text of the Report:
2020-10-14 (WED OCT 14, 2020)
THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
- will hold hearings, tomorrow (THU Oct 15, 2020 1:30 PM ET), on Misinformation And Conspiracy Theories Online
- Here is the notice:
- https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1092
- The hearing will be available online here:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9vU8xQf2QM
2020-10-13 (TUE OCT 13, 2020)
APPLE
- announced the iPhone 12 series, with some MAJOR features that are the opening salvo in the next generation of technology.
- (They also announced a new mini audio device.)
- The biggest feature is that all iPhones in the 12 series will have 5G support.
- 5G is in its infancy, but this support is essential!
- The next most important feature is that some model(s) will have LiDAR support.
- LiDAR is an accurate distance measuring "camera" that will improve focus in poorly lit spaces and accelerate Augmented Reality (and, ultimately, photogrammetry, 3D photography and volumetric videography also).
- Powering these advances is new chip technology.
- Apple claims 40% and more improvement in their new A14 "Bionic" processors.
- "Bionic?" -- As far as I know they contain no living parts.
- The phones will be available within weeks, at prices similar to the previous generation of iPhones.
- But headphones and charger may not be included in the box!
- https://www.apple.com/iphone/
2020-10-12 (MON OCT 12, 2020)
TOMORROW, TUE OCT 13, IS A BIG DAY:
- AMAZON
- The start of PRIME Day.
- https://www.amazon.com
- APPLE
- The announcement is expected of new 5G iPhones.
- https://www.apple.com/apple-events/
- OCULUS / FACEBOOK
- The release of the QUEST 2 VR headset.
- https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/
- (THE HP/MS/VALVE REVERB G2 is expected next month).
2020-10-12 (MON OCT 12, 2020)
DISNEY
- has announced a major restructuring
- the news was reported by CNBC
- Disney+ has been extremely successful.
- Other parts of Disney have suffered from the pandemic.
- This restructuring is designed to focus on direct-to-consumer streaming.
2020-10-12 (MON OCT 12, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS
- The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Paul R. Milgrom and
- Robert B. Wilson
- "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2020/summary/
2020-10-10 (SAT OCT 10, 2020)
IT'S 2020-10-10
- Or 10/10/2020
- Always nice to have a day with an "interesting" date.
2020-10-09 (FRI OCT 9, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to
- the World Food Programme (WFP)
- "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."
- https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/10644350/7277031683435010266
2020-10-08 (THU OCT 8, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
- The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to
- Louise Glück
- "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2020/summary/
2020-10-07 (WED OCT 7, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Emmanuelle Charpentier and
- Jennifer A. Doudna
- "for the development of a method for genome editing (CRISPR)."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-chemistryprize2020.pdf
2020-10-06 (TUE OCT 6, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided,
- one half awarded to
- Roger Penrose
- "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity",
- the other half jointly to
- Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez
- "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-physicsprize2020.pdf
2020-10-05 (MON OCT 5, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Harvey J. Alter,
- Michael Houghton and
- Charles M. Rice
- "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-medicine2020.pdf
QPORIT XR DAILY NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2020
QPORIT XR DAILY NEWS
JANUARY - AUGUST 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Event: XR STATUS, FALL 2020, Experiments in Digital Storytelling & Advances in Technology
FALL 2020 – XR STATUS UPDATE!
Experiments in Digital Storytelling
&
Advances in Technology
TUE
NOV 24, 2020
6:30 - 8:30 EST
JOINT MEETUP
RSVP at any Meetup below FOR ZOOM
LINK
https://www.meetup.com/NYXR-New-York-eXtended-Reality-Meetup/events/274462587/
+
https://www.meetup.com/StoryCode-New-York-City/events/znvnbsybcpbgc/
+
https://www.meetup.com/StoryForwardNYC/
eXtended
Reality (XR)
includes all the content, all the issues, all the technology that is enabled by
the exponential growth of digital computation, doubling in power every 2 to 3
years. We are now at a stage in this development where every doubling
introduces profound changes in our lives!
Our reality is indeed extended as we learn more and more ways to understand the world we live in, through the facts that science reveals, and the fiction, the storytelling, that helps us understand that world.
In this talk we will provide an Overview (with details to the limit of what’s possible in an hour) of the current status of XR as of Fall 2020, plus links to supplementary resources.
We will explore ways that creative artists have used and are exploring digital technology in telling stories: From scattered remote locations, To a remote audience --including Zoom theater, Social spaces, Avatars, Holographic renditions, interactivity, the Spatial Web and more.
And we will review new VR and AR headsets, changing modes of using XR, and new developments in VR cameras, volumetric capture & point clouds, real time processing, development frameworks, the Spatial Web, 5G, AI, and the main ecosystems (Facebook/Oculus, Microsoft, SONY, Valve, HTC and more). Plus… rumors on what’s coming!
We will see how storytelling and improving technology work together. And we will provide a guide to resources for learning, developing, understanding, and keeping up with the news in XR.
The speaker will be Eric Roffman
Eric was a backer of the Oculus Kickstarter. He invented the term eXtended Reality (XR) in 2015. He created THE AMERICAN FILM MAGAZINE, selling the title to the AFI, later creating the online site QPORIT: Quick Previews Of Random Interesting Things - writing news, views, reviews, previews and interviews on film, theater, public issues, and new technology, (especially XR).
Eric has a PhD in Theoretical Physics, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Courant Institute, and CN Yang’s group at Stony Brook University. He wrote a book on Neutrino Astrophysics. And created one of the first animated films from computer generated scientific research results. He also ran a few planetarium shows at City College.
Eric invented an award-winning multimedia computer game, created live interactive demos for IBM, made dramatic stagings of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and numerous XR fictional and interview videos, and was a Director of Viacom’s channel websites.
Eric is currently converting QPORIT from the current flat web (web 2.0) to the Spatial Web (aka web 3.0 or webXR).
He is also writing a book:
EXTENDED REALITY
and the
FUTURE of US All
Labels: AR, meetup, MR, NYXR, Status Report, Storycode, theater, VR, XR
