Until recently, VR has widely been considered a niche purely for a specific type of gamer. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology is seeing more advancements and further adoption in other areas, outside of gaming. Oh, and AR (augmented reality, like Pokemon Go), has been getting a big boost, also.
The OPLIN 4cast Posts
OPLIN 4Cast #706: Behind Clubhouse’s velvet rope
Posted in 4cast, and Social Networks
Venture capitalists are stumbling over themselves to invest in it. Members have been bragging on Twitter about the dozens of hours they’ve spent there. What’s it all about, and will the drama and backlash overwhelm the buzz?
My teenage son has been using the chat/voice app Discord for some time, in order to communicate with his gaming buddies and even some of…
This week, Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference: the big gala held every June when Apple developers get together to learn and network, and…
OPLIN 4Cast #703: Big tech denies facial recognition to police, but is that enough?
Posted in 4cast, and facial recognition
Last week, IBM sent shockwaves through the tech world when it announced that it was leaving the facial recognition market entirely. The reasons cited centered…
Last week, we discussed the Stingray surveillance tool that may be used to collect information on the people at protests. The resistance has its tech…
With the protests and riots happening around the country this week, a controversial surveillance tool has again taken center stage. Known commonly as “stingrays,” these…
OPLIN 4Cast #700: Balancing Privacy and Public Health
Posted in 4cast, and Healthcare
Last month, we covered plans by Apple and Google to build contact-tracing capabilities into phones. These new exposure-notification tools were released last Wednesday, allowing for…
We’ve certainly covered drones before on the 4cast, but the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to highlight some of their capabilities; in some cases, those capabilities…
Artificial intelligence applications are getting very good at learning from images, so Intel and Microsoft are exploring a way to convert binary computer code into grayscale pictures. Their A.I. can then scan the images for patterns, and in this way, identify malware with increased accuracy.