Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » MIT

Augmented Reality Experts Say Google Glasses Video Is Over-Hyped

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:38:38 +0000

This past week Google released a demo video of Google Glasses, an augmented reality project in the Google X Labs. The video showed an individual wearing glasses where the lenses would show him icons, maps, and other overlays. However the Google Glasses in the video were not really glasses because they lacked full lenses and it involved small rectangular pieces of glass hovering over the right eye of the person wearing them.

The hardware in the photos of the video does not appear to be capable of delivering the same augmented reality experience in the video. Pranav Mistry, an MIT Media Lab researcher that is famous for his TED Talks speech about the SixthSense wearable computing system said “The small screen seen in the photos cannot give the experience the video is showing.”

Georgia Tech’s director of the Augmented Environment Labs Blair MacIntyre agreed with Mistry. “You could not do AR with a display like this. The small field of view, and placement off to the side, would result in an experience where the content is rarely on the display and hard to discover and interact with. But it’s a fine size and structure for a small head-up display.”

The Project Glass video is a concept video, but MacIntyre believes Google may have created a level of over-hype and over-expectations that their hardware cannot live up to. Another issue is that a display that shows overlaid graphics may perform find indoors, but when walking outside in the brightness, the imagery would be washed out.

MIT Developing Software For Simulating Labs And Interacting With Professors

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:36:21 +0000

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is developing software that simulates labs for students to interact with professors and other students. Students can also earn certificates through the simulated labs.

“The driver is to reach everyone out there who can’t be here,” stated MIT Provost Rafael Reif. MIT is known for developing the OpenCourseWare program, which has 2,100 courses online for free.

So far students have worked through MIT course material on their own and were not tested. Soon enough, MIT students will be able to see sought after professors in videos, participate in discussion groups, and take exams through OpenCourseWare.

“It is making MIT available on a grand planet scale,” stated MIT’s Computer Science and A.I. Lab director Anant Agarwal. “This is a great way to marry our mission in education and our mission in research.”

Students that want to earn certificates through the MIT online program will have to pay a fee. The fees have not yet been set. Currently it costs $40,732 to attend MIT for one year. University officials stressed that this program would not be replacing a campus experience and online courses are just as rigorous as the classes that are outside the virtual world. “This is not MIT-lite,” stated Reif.

OpenCourseWare launched about a decade ago and over 100 million people have used the software to study subjects that range from Anthropology to Gender Studies. Stanford and Yale have similar online learning courses.

[Reuters]

Apple Board Member and Former Chrysler CFO Jerry York Passes Away

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:25:59 +0000

Its a very sad day in the tech and auto community. Apple Board member and Chrysler CFO Jerry York has passed away according to a brief statement by Apple. He was hospitalized after suffering from a burst brain aneurysm yesterday morning. He died shortly after.

York was the chairman, President, and CEO of Harwinton Capital. He was also the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler. And he joined the Apple Board of Directors in 1997.

York was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938 and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy. He also received an M.S. from MIT and an MBA from the University of Michigan. “It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs. [PRNewsWire]

MIT’s SENSEable City Lab Uses Flickr To Create “The World’s Eyes”

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:51:29 +0000

Every time someone on Flickr uploads an image, they let people know the location of where each photograph was taken. Each photo is also tagged. In the Design Museum in Barcelona, the above video is being used and the display is called “Los Ojos Del Mundo.”

The display tracks local photographers throughout their adventures around Spain and transmits it into the video. According to the MIT City Lab website:

When posting photos online, users of the photo sharing platform Flickr transmit to the world their perspective of a place or event through the lens of a digital camera. Each digital photo file codes both the time when that photo was taken and the location it captures. Analyzing this information allows us to follow the trail that each Flickr photographer travels through Spain. (Un)photographed Spain maps thousands of these public, digital footprints over one year. As photos overlap in certain locations, they expose the places that attract the photographer’s gaze . In contrast, the absence of images in other locations reveal the unphotographed spaces of a more introverted Spain.

[via GearCrave]