Bleeding edge: the best of emerging tech
TechLife’s practical monthly roundup of emerging tech experiences with Joel Burgess, including all the latest virtual and augmented reality apps, alongside AI apps and other useful tools.
Whether it’s the early reveal of the next Magic Leap One headset, new Cybershoes for the Oculus Quest or the Nuralink brain chips, it’s clear that the augmented and virtual reality spaces are maturing into powerful technology arenas. AI is showing no signs of slowing down either, considering Clearview AI is filing patents for commercial facial recognition tech applications and astronomers are using AI to find gravitational lenses that help us understand deep space better. The machines also seem to be pretty good at finding giant plastic plumes we’ve left in the ocean, in case we feel like ever removing them.
AI AI car bingle valuer bot values at US$6.5bn
Car insurance photo recognition tool gets a huge market valuation.
$NA | cccis.com
A company that uses AI image recognition to estimate the repair cost of car accidents for insurance companies and policyholders is planning on going public on the New York Stock Exchange for a value of US$6.5 billion. The company’s software allows policyholders to upload photos of their car after an accident to get an immediate estimate on the cost of damages. The software is currently available to 300 insurers in the US and partners with 25,000 collision repair facilities.
XR Magic Leap One 2
Is the second leap as magical as the first?
$TBC | magicleap.com
The second iteration of the ambitious augmented reality headset hasn’t been officially announced yet, but slides from a presentation at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by the company’s CEO, Peggy Johnson, shed some light on the next iteration. “Our second generation headset is 50% smaller, 20% lighter, with 100% larger field of view – early access begins Q4 2021,” read the slide. If these updates coincide with a price drop it will make the new headset a competitive offering.
AI AI ocean plastic finder
New algorithm identifies plastic concentrations from aerial images.
$NA | doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116490
The Ocean Cleanup Project, a non-profit foundation that is hoping to remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch within five years has been using aerial imagery to identify and geolocate garbage by hand, but a new University of Barcelona algorithm may be able to automate the identification process. The neural network was trained on the non-profit’s 3,800 aerial infrared images and analysed them to achieve an 80% accuracy rate in plastic identification.
XR Cybershoes for Quest
These shoes are Doomed.
US$399 | igg.me/at/cybershoesforquest/x#/
Cybershoes managed to blast past its funding goal in 2018 with its popular VR shoe controllers, but the original silicon slippers were compatible with PC only. However, a new campaign running on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo has announced new wireless Cybershoes that are compatible with the Oculus Quest. The new shoes also feature novel compatibility with Doom3 as well as a decent list of existing games including: Myst, Arizona Sunshine, and a handful of others.
AI Clearview AI patent goes after private business
Offering facial recognition for dating apps and identifying drug users or homeless people.
$NA | clearview.ai
There’s already a fair bit of stigma attached to being homeless which can often compound the problem and prevent people from rejoining sheltered society, but if a new Clearview AI patent comes to fruition then AI might prevent people from ever emerging from homelessness. The patent details the potential for rapid background checks in dating, retail and social work, despite promising a federal court just a few months earlier that it would take voluntary steps to avoid doing business with non-governmental customers anywhere.
XR Nuralink hooks up monkey to video game
Is this the missing Nuralink?
$NA | neuralink.com
Elon Musk’s medical device side project Neuralink has successfully managed to implant a monkey with one of its brain chips, allowing it to play video games with its mind. The company is trying to get two monkeys to play a game of mind Pong, an achievement that Musk says would be “pretty cool.” This is one step on the path to making a human digital interface that will speed up our ability to pass information between computers and each other.