Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality News & Discussions

[Tadasuke]

Here's a very good long blog explanation article on why VR/MR/AR aren't developed further than they are right now and why they aren't better already:

https://www.matthewball.vc/all/why-vrar ... into-focus

I recommend reading or listening if you are interested in this topic.

[Vakanai]

Here's a very good long blog explanation article on why VR/MR/AR aren't developed further than they are right now and why they aren't better already:

https://www.matthewball.vc/all/why-vrar ... into-focus

I recommend reading or listening if you are interested in this topic.

From the article:

Just last December, six years after he told Venture Beat that such devices were five to seven years away, Tim Sweeney told Alex Heath, “Well, I think that augmented reality is the platform of the future. But it’s very clear from the efforts of Magic Leap and others that we need not just new technology but, to some extent, new science in order to build an augmented reality platform that’s a substitute for smartphones. And it’s not clear to me whether that’s coming in 10 years or in 30 years. I hope we’ll see it in my lifetime, but I’m actually not sure about that.”

Arguably a new technology is creating that new science - the advancements in AI is paving the way for and already creating new advancements in science. AI has simulated and tested in those simulations all kinds of new designs and new metamaterials with unique properties.We maybe be years away from AGI, but narrow AI may be enough to usher in a new age of progress and innovation all by itself. It takes time and scale to create these new designs and materials AI has come up with and in abundance to be useful and implemented in devices, but just the fact that the mere knowledge the "knowing it can exist and is possible and this is how to do it" is now in our possession has shaved years and perhaps decades away from the process. True they don't exist in our hands now and won't for a few years yet at least, but it's accelerated things from "not in our lifetimes" to "maybe with this decade or maybe within a few decades." In our always "now" perception of time it might not feel like the future has gotten any closer but it indeed has.

All this to say, there's starting to slowly be room for optimism. True, the future isn't here yet, and it's still feeling a lot like the perpetual "it's just a few years away" mindset of the past 20 years, but that perpetual bit might not remain perpetual for very much longer. It might not be a few years away yet, but we're getting to the point where in a few years when the experts repeat the age old mantra of "a few years away" it might actually for the first time ever really just be a few years away from then. I think that's the promise of current AI some of us are missing, the timeline is actually shortening.

[funkervogt]

I'm sure these deficiencies will be fixed.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Apple Vision Pro is about to enable fully immersive 3D music production
By Paul Ridden
February 21, 2024
https://newatlas.com/music/hitnmix-ripx ... ision-pro/

Producing music these days can be something of a flat experience, undertaken using powerful software running on a computer. With the sales launch of the Apple Vision Pro, DAW maker Hit'n'Mix is planning to immerse musicians in their creations.

Apple wasn't first to the mobile music game, but the iPod supercharged the market. Likewise with smartphones and tablets. With players like Meta and HTC already well established in the VR/AR headset space, Apple finally revealed its challenger in June of last year in the shape of the US$3,499 Vision Pro "spatial computer."

It only actually went on sale earlier this month though, and launched with hundreds of apps to immerse users in digitally augmented or virtual worlds – but there were a few notable omissions, including Netflix and YouTube. Reviews from users and tech mags have been mostly positive – though Mark Zuckerberg cheekily took to Insta last week with an unsurprising recommendation for folks to use the latest Quest instead.

[weatheriscool]

Lenovo Unveils 'Augmented Reality' Laptop With a Transparent Display
It definitely looks cool, but use cases are few and far between, for now.
By Josh Norem February 26, 2024

Two weeks ago, a rumor circulated that Lenovo was about to introduce a laptop with a transparent display. We thought it sounded like a cool gimmick at the time, but we'd wait and see what Lenovo has in store for us. Today, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, the company officially pulled the wraps off it, and our thoughts have not changed. It looks wicked cool, but it's hard to imagine anyone using one in the real world soon. Still, it's a novel concept, and perhaps it'll be useful 10 years from now.
The laptop's see-through back panel

https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... nt-display

[Tadasuke]

It doesn't seem like adoption of new tech is being faster than let's say smartphone (or tablet) adoption in the past. Perhaps, adoption of Large Language Models or Text-To-Image "AIs" is quicker (not for me). But I meant tech as physical stuff, not computer code. We don't live in computers (as of today at least).

There are some new things and more things, but it certainly doesn't feel like we are approaching some "tech singularity" event or period. Just more and slightly better things <--- that's pretty much it.

VR could enable us to live our lives in realities with different rules, situations and bodies we choose for ourselves, instead of being cruelly forced to "just accept and adapt".

AR could enable us to live better (or worse) lives in this reality (with acceptance and adaptation becoming easier and more fun). Depends how it will be used. It will surely lead to some accidents and addictions for some individuals, could be even worse than smartphones in that regard.

I don't see any major "revolutions" in areas of VR, AR and MR in the next few years. At least PS VR 2 is coming to PC.

[firestar464]

AI is accelerating, but not much else imo

[weatheriscool]

Surgical Teams Are Using the Apple Vision Pro to Double-Check Their Work
Apple's augmented reality headset helps medical professionals map out and cross-reference hands-on procedures.
By Adrianna Nine March 13, 2024

If you're in the pre-op room and you see a nurse strapping on a Vision Pro right before the anesthesia hits, don't freak out. Medical professionals are beginning to test the viability of Apple's augmented reality headset as a cross-reference tool for hands-on work. According to a few surgeons and operating room (OR) nurses who have worn the Vision Pro in the surgical suite, the goggles might help eliminate the sliver of human error within every medical procedure.

The Vision Pro's compatibility with real-life surgery is all thanks to eXeX (short for eXpanded eXistence Inc.), a Florida-based mixed-reality startup. One of eXeX's three core products, ViewerX, typically allows surgical teams to organize and track procedures on an iPad. Now ExperienceX, the company's AR-oriented version of the software, puts the display in the nurse's or surgeon's view. The eXeX website claims this improves organization and a higher "flow state" during surgery.

https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... their-work

[Time_Traveller]

The new tech bringing loved ones back to life through AI

Friday 29 March 2024 09:55, UK



When technology entrepreneur Artur Sychov's father was diagnosed with cancer, he was forced to accept a day may soon come when he wouldn't be able to speak to him again.

The 38-year-old knew he would give anything to have another father-son conversation after his dad's death.

So, using artificial intelligence, he got to work on a way that could make it happen for others in his position.

Artur has created a virtual reality tool called "live forever mode". It features digital avatars who can simulate a person's voice, mannerisms and movements after just 30 minutes of the user being observed.

The goal is for the avatar to live forever online as a memory of its creator so future generations of their family can interact with it.

https://news.sky.com/story/we-all-want- ... e-13101996