Photo by Michael Martine, 2018

Concert goers unite in VR, perhaps even with virtual lighters.  The opener for this week’s episode is all about virtual concerts — following on the cohosts’ recent conversations on virtual conventions.  MelodyVR is the company mentioned in the article — Michael and Michael discuss how this recurring refrain has come back, and remember the example of the Marshmello concert in Fortnite last year.  

Harkening back to the Second Life days and the catalog of digital objects from a variety of companies, Sketchfab is brining forward a way for cultural organizations to contribute their models to the public domain for users to download, reuse and remix.  Very cool.

Speaking of cool, friend of the podcast Andy Piper suggested Michael and Michael have a look at the Hawkeye capability to monitor eye tracking, and control of your iOS and macOS environment.  This subject lent itself well to an article focused on a recent Apple patent for a “bionic virtual meeting room”, which uses EEG to use as input to the VR world.  The experiences of the cohosts with the Emotiv headset as well.

For the data visualization fans — and you know who you are — there are some intriguing maps of the United States from Ranker that are well worth checking out.  As this is an audio podcast, you’ll have to hit the links below to see the visualizations for yourself.

And for another example of something that is worth seeing, a collaboration between City University of New York and Harvard developed six tentacled micro robot that can gently capture a jellyfish for scientific marine biological observation & measurement without harming the jellyfish.  This is an incredible video that you have to see to understand how it works.  

The closing stanza for this episode features a French startup with a novel idea for combating electric vehicle range anxiety with a battery trailer that you can tow, and swap out.

Selected Links

CNN Business article:  How virtual reality is changing the live music experience — https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/27/tech/vr-live-music-intl/index.html 

MelodyVR — https://melodyvr.com 

BBC News article: Fortnite: ‘Millions attend’ virtual Marshmello concert — https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-47116429 

Sketchfab article: Public Domain Cultural Heritage — https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/sketchfab-launches-public-domain-dedication-for-3d-cultural-heritage 

Hawkeye Access — https://www.usehawkeye.com/accessibility 

Hawkeye Access on Youtube

Hawkeye Access app on Apple App Store — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hawkeye-access/id1492668476?mt=12 

Hawk-eye Innovations — https://www.hawkeyeinnovations.com 

Protocol article: Ready for bionic virtual reality meetings? Apple thinks so — https://www.protocol.com/apple-bionic-electrodes-virtual-reality 

Ranker article: 17 Maps Of The United States That Made Us Say “Whoa”...