Month: March 2014

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Is there other after Facebook?

lavreb

Facebook’s oculus acquisition diseheartens some, but won’t end virtual reality rebound Palmer Luckey, inventor of the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, was literally hacking VR goggles in his garage 18 months ago. Now, he’s a billionaire. A little over a month after paying $19 billion for messaging firm, WhatsApp, Facebook said it would acquire Luckey’s Oculus for a cool $2 billion (making it the first Kickstarter campaign to accomplish the feat). The technology, the story, and its heroes (a group of gaming geeks resurrecting virtual reality) won the respect of developers and gamers alike—which is probably why the Facebook acquisition … Continue reading Is there other after Facebook?

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Is virtual reality truly coming?

lavreb

Sony vs. Facebook: the battle for your reality has just begun Virtual reality is truly coming. There’s no longer any question. In the span of a single week, two titans emerged to proclaim that VR would be the future of their industries. Facebook and Sony, companies which respectively defined social networking and personal electronics, each validated what plucky startup Oculus VR had been saying all along: that virtual reality will be a bold new medium for gaming, for communication, and much, much more. Facebook’s play was to buy Oculus outright, spending $2 billion to bring an array of impressive talent … Continue reading Is virtual reality truly coming?

economic behavior, economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Is virtual gambling the business of today?

lavreb

Gamblit Gaming raises $12M to create new kinds of real-money gambling games Gamblit Gaming is announcing today it has raised $12 million in funding for its real-money gambling platform. But rather than convert a social casino slots game into a gambling game, Gamblit is looking for something altogether new. Glendale-based Gamblit wants to make it easy for game developers to create games that can be easily adapted for real-money gambling in places such as the United Kingdom, where online gambling is legal. The money came from American Capital, a publicly traded private equity firm with $19 billion in assets under … Continue reading Is virtual gambling the business of today?

economic behavior, economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Are we addicted to Bitcoin?

lavreb

Why Everybody Who Doesn’t Hate Bitcoin Loves It After being bombarded by email requests for months, Freakonomics Radio has finally caved and made an episode about Bitcoin. It’s called “Why Everybody Who Doesn’t Hate Bitcoin Loves It.” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via the media player above, or read the transcript.) The gist: thinking of Bitcoin as just a digital currency is like thinking about the Internet as just e-mail. Its potential is much more exciting than that. itcoin is often described as “virtual gold” — as well as everything from a “bubble” to a … Continue reading Are we addicted to Bitcoin?

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Is Oculus Rift the business of the future?

lavreb

Greetings from planet Facebook You blink and open your eyes to a fantastic new sun above your head. You’re lying in a field of tall grass, but in the distance you hear sounds of machinery. The city. As you lay there, a blimp begins to float into view, its bulbous shape painted in the striking cherry red and stark white ripple of the Coca-Cola logo. “Go Offworld with Coca-Cola today!” bellows a voice from a loudspeaker high above your head. “The adventure of a lifetime awaits… and all you have to do is say yes!” Offworld huh? You haven’t been … Continue reading Is Oculus Rift the business of the future?

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

The anarchist way to Bitcoin

lavreb

A better way to but bitcoin? When Zach and Josh Harvey opened a guitar store in Tel Aviv, in 2006, they only sold instruments made by musicians who viewed the pieces as works of art. To the brothers, who were twenty-six and thirty-two at the time, the idea of plugging in a mass-produced electric guitar wasn’t in keeping with the spirit of rock and roll. But their idealism was expensive. The instruments the brothers sold were made by little-known foreign manufacturers, and the Israeli government’s regulatory branch requires safety tests for many products when they are imported for the first … Continue reading The anarchist way to Bitcoin

economic behavior, virtual realityLeave a comment

Are virtual environments an effective therapy for obesity?

lavreb

Virtual conferencing effective weight management intervention A weight management intervention delivered virtually via video conferencing helped participants lose weight, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology & Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity & Metabolism Scientific Sessions 2014. Forty-seven obese men (21-60 years-old) participated in a 12-week group weight management intervention led by a healthcare provider. They were assigned to start the intervention immediately or three months later. “This is a first attempt to deliver group-based healthcare services remotely, in a face-to-face virtual environment,” said Kristen M.J. Azar, R.N., M.S.N./M.P.H., one of the study’s authors and assistant nurse researcher … Continue reading Are virtual environments an effective therapy for obesity?

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

How popular are flight simulators?

lavreb

The Pilots in the Basement Much has been made of the flight simulator found in the home of Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. Why would a guy who spends so much time flying real airplanes want to pretend he’s flying a fake one in his off hours? No one knows Mr. Shah’s motivation, of course, but he represents just one of hundreds of thousands of virtual aviation enthusiasts. They grip yokes and advance throttles in their spare bedrooms and basements, virtually flying everything from Piper Cubs to the Concorde. They get clearances and … Continue reading How popular are flight simulators?

economics, virtual realityLeave a comment

Is wearable technology going to change sports?

lavreb

Augmented Reality Is About to Turn Football Into a Real-Life Videogame Picture an NFL game from the quarterback’s point of view. He looks and looks, but can’t find an open receiver. Then a green spot appears on the grass. He rockets the ball toward the spot just as the receiver appears. That may sound like the latest living-room video game. But Chris Kluwe says that’s how real football will be played in the not-to-distant future. And it won’t just change the game, he says. Wearable technology will also change the business of sports because the teams that win will be … Continue reading Is wearable technology going to change sports?

economic behavior, virtual realityLeave a comment

Visual insights into people mood

lavreb

This Computer Can Tell When People Are Faking Pain You can tell when someone’s faking a smile or pretending to be in pain, right? Sure you can. But computer scientists think they can build systems that do it even better. There’s already a Google Glass app in beta testing that claims to provide a real-time readout of the emotional expressions of people in your field of view. And a new study finds that the same technology can detect fake expressions of pain with 85% accuracy — far better than people can, even with practice. Granted, the study was done in … Continue reading Visual insights into people mood