Archive of ‘technology’ category

11
Nov
2020

Nreal Smartglasses

categories: AR

Nreal Smartglasses Launch In Japan

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2020/11/10/nreal-smartglasses-launch-in-japan/

Nreal, the Chinese creator of highly anticipated augmented reality smartglasses, announced a December 1st launch of its Nreal Light in Japan with KDDI. Following a successful introduction in Korea with LG this summer, pre-orders for Nreal Light can now be made on their Japanese telco partner KDDI’s online store. The Nreal is compatible with 5G smartphones including the Sony Xperia 5 II and Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

The new glasses must be tethered to an android phone, which acts is its controller. The Nreal Light went on sale in Korea August 21 for just under $600, or $295 when bundled with a Galaxy Note 20 from the LG U+ network in Korea.

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more on augmented reality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=augmented

10
Nov
2020

Privacy data ignored by Android iPhone

categories: digital citizenship, digital identity, Digital literacy, Digital rights management (DRM), information technology, iPhone, issues, mobile learning, privacy, technology

 

+++++Under EU law, citizen can demand a copy of all personal data that companies hold about them. However, more than one year after implementation of the new law, most Android and iPhone apps still completely ignore this right, a new study has found. from r/iphone

https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3407023.3407057

How do App Vendors Respond to Subject Access Requests? A Longitudinal Privacy Study on iOS and Android Apps
the results of a four-year undercover field study.

Besides a general lack of responsiveness, the observed problems range from malfunctioning download links and authentication mechanisms over confusing data labels and le structures to impoliteness, incomprehensible language, and even serious cases of carelessness and data leakage. It is evident from our results that there are no well-established and standardized processes for subject access requests in the mobile app industry. Moreover, we found that many vendors lack the motivation to respond adequately. Many of the responses we received were not only completely insucient, but also deceptive or misleading. Equally worrisome are cases of unsolicited dissolution of personal data, for instance, due to the

apparently widespread practice of deleting stale accounts without prior notice

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New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they’re not even in use? from r/technology

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more on privacy data in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy+data

10
Nov
2020

XR Bootcamp Microsoft

categories: announcement, AR, VR

For details, go here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/behind-the-scenes-with-microsoft-vr-in-the-wild-tickets-128181001827

Behind the Scenes: Microsoft’s Principal Researcher Eyal Ofek speaking about technical and social perspectives of XR

About this Event

The XR Bootcamp Open Lecture Series continues with Microsoft’s Principal Researcher Eyal Ofek!

Agenda:

Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented reality (AR) pose challenges and opportunities from both a technical and social perspective. We could now have digital, and not physical objects change our understanding of the world around us. It is a unique opportunity to change reality as we sense it.

The Microsoft Researchers are looking for new possibilities to extend our abilities when we are not bound by our physical limitations, enabling superhuman abilities on one hand, and leveling the playfield for people with physical limitations.

Dr. Ofek will describe efforts to design VR & AR applications that will adjust according to the user’s uncontrolled environment, enabling a continuous use during work and leisure, over the large variance of environments. He will also review efforts to the extent the rendering to new capabilities such as haptic rendering.

His lecture will be followed by a Q&A session where you can ask all your questions about the topic.

Lead Instructors:

Eyal Ofek is a principal researcher at the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, WA. His research interests include Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), Haptics, interactive projection mapping, and computer vision for human-computer interaction. He is also the Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Virtual Reality, for the area of Haptics and an Assoc. Editor of IEEE Computer Graphics and Application (CG&A).

Prior to joining Microsoft Research, he obtained his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has founded a couple of companies in computer graphics, including a successful drawing and photo editing application and developing the world’s first time-of-flight video cameras which was a basis for the HoloLens depth camera.

This event is part of the Global XR Bootcamp event:

The Global XR Bootcamp 2020 will be the biggest community-driven, FREE, online Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality event in the world! Join us on YouTube or AltspaceVR for a 24 hour live stream with over 50 high quality talks, panels and sessions. Meet your fellow XR enthousiasts in our Community Zone, and win amazing prizes – from vouchers to XR hardware.

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more on XR in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=xr

04
Nov
2020

virtual worlds definition

categories: Digital literacy, distance learning, distributive learning, e-learning, educational technology, instructional technology, VR

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/25604/virtual-world

A virtual world is a computer-based online community environment that is designed and shared by individuals so that they can interact in a custom-built, simulated world. Users interact with each other in this simulated world using text-based, two-dimensional or three-dimensional graphical models called avatars. Avatars are graphically rendered using computer graphics imaging (CGI) or any other rendering technology. Individuals control their avatars using input devices like the keyboard, mouse and other specially designed command and simulation gadgets. Today’s virtual worlds are purpose-built for entertainment, social, ed

Girvan, C. (2018). What is a virtual world? Definition and classification. Educational Technology Research and Development, 66(5), 1087–1100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9577-y
“definitions of virtual worlds lack an essential conceptualisation of what a virtual world is. The propensity towards a techno-centric definition has its advantages as it allows for a myriad of user experiences, however it results in confusion between technologies with similar technical features, most likely because a virtual world, much like a smart phone, relies on a combination of different technologies.
Shared, simulated spaces which are inhabited and shaped by their inhabitants who are represented as avatars. These avatars mediate our experience of this space as we move, interact with objects and interact with others, with whom we construct a shared understanding of the world at that time.”

https://www.yourdictionary.com/virtual-world

A 3D computer environment in which users are represented on screen as themselves or as made-up characters and interact in real time with other users. Massively multiuser online games (MMOGs) and worlds such as Second Life are examples. See MMOG, MMORPG, Second Life and metaverse.

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more on virtual worlds in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+worlds

03
Nov
2020

virtual reality definition

categories: VR

This is an excerpt from my 2018 book chapter: https://www.academia.edu/41628237/Chapter_12_VR_AR_and_Video_360_A_Case_Study_Towards_New_Realities_in_Education_by_Plamen_Miltenoff 

Among a myriad of other definitions, Noor (2016) describes Virtual Reality (VR) as “a computer generated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds. The user wears a headset and through specialized software and sensors is immersed in 360-degree views of simulated worlds” (p. 34).   

Noor, Ahmed. 2016. “The Hololens Revolution.” Mechanical Engineering 138(10):30-35. 

Weiss and colleagues wrote that “Virtual reality typically refers to the use of interactive simulations created with computer hardware and software to present users with opportunities to engage in environments that appear to be and feel similar to real-world objects and events” 

Weiss, P. L., Rand, D., Katz, N., & Kizony, R. (2004). Video capture virtual reality as a flexible and effective rehabilitation tool. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 1(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-0003-1-12 

Henderson defined virtual reality as a “computer based, interactive, multisensory environment that occurs in real time”  

Rubin, 2018, p. 28. Virtual reality is an 1. artificial environment that’s 2. immersive enough to convince you that you are 3. actually inside it.
”artificialenvironment ” could mean just about anything. The photograph is an artificial environment of video game is an artificial environment a Pixar movie is an artificial environment the only thing that matters is that it’s not where are you physically are.  p. 46 “VR is potentially going to become a direct interface to the subconscious”

  1. p. 225 Virtual reality: the illusion of an all-enveloping artificial world, created by wearing an opaque display in front of your eyes.  

From: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/11/07/can-xr-help-students-learn/ : 
p. 10 “there is not universal agreement on the definitions of these terms or on the scope of these technologies. Also, all of these technologies currently exist in an active marketplace and, as in many rapidly changing markets, there is a tendency for companies to invent neologisms around 3D technology.” p. 11 Virtual reality means that the wearer is completely immersed in a computer simulation.

from: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2018/11/07/can-xr-help-students-learn/ 

There is no necessary distinction between AR and VR; indeed, much research
on the subject is based on a conception of a “virtuality continuum” from entirely
real to entirely virtual, where AR lies somewhere between those ends of the
spectrum.  Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino, “A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays,” IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, vol. E77-D, no. 12 (1994); Steve Mann, “Through the Glass, Lightly,” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 31, no. 3 (2012): 10–14.

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Among a myriad of other definitions, Noor (2016) describes Virtual Reality (VR) as “a computer generated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds. The user wears a headset and through specialized software and sensors is immersed in 360-degree views of simulated worlds” (p. 34).   Weiss and colleagues wrote that “Virtual reality typically refers to the use of interactive simulations created with computer hardware and software to present users with opportunities to engage in environments that appear to be and feel similar to real-world objects and events.”
Rubin takes a rather broad approach ascribing to VR: 1. artificial environment that’s 2. immersive enough to convince you that you are 3. actually inside it. (p. 28) and further asserts “VR is potentially going to become a direct interface to the subconscious” (p. 46). 
Most importantly, as Pomeranz (2018) asserts, “there is not universal agreement on the definitions of these terms or on the scope of these technologies. Also, all of these technologies currently exist in an active marketplace and, as in many rapidly changing markets, there is a tendency for companies to invent neologisms.” (p. 10) 

Noor, Ahmed. 2016. “The Hololens Revolution.” Mechanical Engineering 138(10):30-35. 

Pomerantz, J. (2018). Learning in Three Dimensions: Report on the EDUCAUSE/HP Campus of the Future Project (Louisville, CO; ECAR Research Report, p. 57). https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2018/8/ers1805.pdf 

Rubin, P. (2018). Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life (Illustrated edition). HarperOne. 

Weiss, P. L., Rand, D., Katz, N., & Kizony, R. (2004). Video capture virtual reality as a flexible and effective rehabilitation tool. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 1(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-0003-1-12 

02
Nov
2020

360 degree images definition

categories: VR
  • 360-degree video
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360-degree_video
    360-degree videos, also known as immersive videos[1] or spherical videos,[2] are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras. During playback on normal flat display the viewer has control of the viewing direction like a panorama. It can also be played on a displays or projectors arranged in a sphere or some part of a sphere.360 Degree Video is an immersive video format consisting of a video – or series of images – mapped to a portion of a sphere that allows viewing in multiple directions from a fixed central point.
    The mapping is usually carried out using equirectangular projection, where the horizontal coordinate is simply longitude, and the vertical coordinate is simply latitude, with no transformation or scaling applied. Other possible projections are Cube Map (that uses the six faces of a cube as the map shape), Equi-Angular Cubemap – EAC (detailed by Google in 2017 to distribute pixels as evenly as possible across the sphere so that the density of information is consistent, regardless of which direction the viewer is looking), and Pyramid (defined by Facebook in 2016).
    This type of video content is typically viewable through a head-mounted display, mobile device, or personal computer and allows for three degrees of freedom (see section 4.2 for an explanation of the concept of degrees of freedom).
    https://xrsi.org/definition/360-degree-video
  • 360 Degree Video is Not Virtual Reality
    https://www.theprimacy.com/blog/360-degree-video-is-not-virtual-reality/
    “In layman’s terms, 360 means it surrounds you. 3D means it has depth, like looking at a landscape, you’ll notice that there are objects closer to you, and objects that are further away. An image can be 360 and not 3D, or 3D and not 360, but keep in mind the distinction.”

  • for more advanced definition of 360-degree videos and in conjunction with virtual experience (VX) and immersive reality in
    Engberg, M., & Bolter, J. D. (2020). The aesthetics of reality media. Journal of Visual Culture, 19(1), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412920906264

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