Lifeboat Foundation

If and when self-driving cars become a practical reality, you’ll probably want something to do during your journeys besides chatting with passengers or checking your phone. Thankfully, Ford might have an answer. It recently obtained a patent for an “autonomous vehicle entertainment system” that would let you watch videos when you’re hands-free. Kick your vehicle into self-driving mode and a projector system could swing into action, complete with its own screen — yes, you could watch a movie while you’re on the way to visit family. Think of it as in-flight entertainment, just grounded.

As with most patents, there’s no certainty that Ford will ever use this. While the car maker is serious about autonomous vehicles, it could just as easily resort to flat-panel displays and other less dramatic hardware. There are some safety concerns, too. Do you really want the driver to be completely oblivious to road hazards? For this to work, driverless car tech will have to advance to the point where it’s truly reliable — where you can watch a 2-hour flick without worrying that your car might plow into a bus.

Amsterdam is now home to the world’s first VR cinema, and it’s just as strange as you expect it to be.

Personally, I cannot wait to visit historical sites where they are leveraging AR to bring history to life. Visiting Versailles or the Winter Palace in Russia and seeing historical figures acting out as they did then would be pretty amazing.

DALLAS, TX — (Marketwired) — 03/07/16 — Parks Associates today announced Glenn Hower, Research Analyst, will address the evolving virtual reality market at the Cablefax Multiscreen Summit this week in New York City.

“Virtual reality is still in its earliest days, though there are clear signs that VR is about to move from concept to market reality,” Hower said. “The big change for 2016 is the emergence of multiple players making VR headsets. The Oculus Rift is currently the most recognized brand, but HTC, Samsung, and Sony have all expanded the market with their own models, which could help move this market beyond gaming and into new use cases such as virtual field trips, training, and recreation of historical events.”

Continue reading “Parks Associates Analyst to Discuss Digital Content and Virtual Reality at Cablefax Multiscreen Summit” »

Wow; Six Flags new VR Roller coaster. My nephews are going to be excited.

Samsung is “Official Technology Partner” at Six Flags Theme Parks Nationwide.

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), and Samsung Electronics America, Inc., today announced a broad marketing partnership which appoints Samsung as the “Official Technology Partner” of the world’s largest regional theme park company. The partnership includes the debut of ground-breaking experiences coming to nine Six Flags parks — North America’s first Virtual Reality (VR) Roller Coasters, using Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus.

Continue reading “Six Flags Entertainment : and Samsung Partner to Launch First Virtual Reality Roller Coasters in North America” »

This new video game would take over 5 BILLION years to fully explore!

People who play video games are geared (at least their brain is) for teleporting.

UC Davis researchers found that when people experienced virtual teleportation, their brains still managed to keep them on course.

In June, a team of programmers will release a ground-breaking new video game called No Man’s Sky, which uses artificial intelligence and procedural generation to self-create an entire cosmos full of planets. Running off 600,000 lines of code, the game creates an artificial galaxy populated by 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 unique planets that you can travel to and explore.

Though this artificial universe is realistic down to the dimensions of a blade of grass, faster than light-speed travel is available in order for players to bridge the unfathomable distances between stars.

Chief architect Sean Murray says No Man’s Sky is different than most games because the landscapes and distances aren’t faked. While most space-based games utilize a skybox that simply rotates between different modalities, No Man’s Sky is virtually limitless and employs real physics.

Continue reading “The Video Game that Made Elon Musk Question Whether Our Reality is a Simulation” »

Thanks to “room-scale” VR, full-body gaming is coming. WIRED’s Peter Rubin tries out “Raw Data,” a first-person shooter that turns players into jumping, shooting, crouching, katana-slicing action heroes. Your living room will never be the same again.

Gaga has gone gaga over robotic arms for her keyboard.

“You have to institute and build a robotic system that would be ready to perform in six minutes in front of millions of people on national television.”

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