Emerging tech
TechLife’s practical monthly roundup of emerging tech experiences, including all the latest virtual and augmented reality apps, alongside AI apps and other useful tools.
While there’s undoubtedly been bad actors and unintended consequences amongst emerging technologies over the last few years, for the most part AI has been a force for good thus far. Unfortunately, this month, it’s increasingly looking like we’ve already reached the watershed point for AI’s net positive contribution to mankind. In addition to Russia announcing its intent to build fully-autonomous military assault vehicles and weaponised robots capable of taking human life, it seems the first deadly AI drones have already been deployed in conflicts in Libya in 2020. Hey, at least we’ll be able to hide in the virtual world using tech like the Omni One VR Treadmill and the reality might not seem so bad after watching the Dan Carlin narrated War Remains WWI VR experience.
XR Omni One VR Treadmill
VR movement in all directions.
US$1,995 or $55 per month | virtuix.com
A fully mobile VR experience is basically the holy grail of immersive media and the Omni One is bringing that reality a step closer with its VR treadmill prototype. We’re clearly not the only ones impressed with Virtux’s structural vest and treadmill contraption, since the company was able to raise over US$19 million in funding to take the company to consumer products. The clever contraption holds the user’s torso allowing them to mimic running and walking in any direction and it can even track crouching and jumping movements.
X War Remains WWI VR narrated by Dan Carlin
An immersive western front experience presented by Hardcore History host.
$8 | warremains.com
War Remains is a virtual reality experience that explores the experience of a soldier fighting in the trenches of the First World War through a first-person perspective. In addition to the immersive benefit of VR, the host of Hardcore History, Dan Carlin, is the perfect narrator to draw out some of the more conceptual elements of what it would have been like to spend months on the front line.
XR Virtual Planet
Sea Level lise explorer.
Free | virtualplanet.tech
Most of us are pretty aware of just how critical it is for mankind to get its emissions under control to avoid catastrophic climate change, but for anyone still on the fence, actually seeing the projected impacts in VR is a visceral way for them to grasp the impact on their hometown. Virtual Planet is creating interactive VR experiences that detail realistic projections of things like sea level rise and increased bushfire risk for Oculus and other AR platforms.
XR Transport NSW Metro Street View
NSW government takes street views into complex Sydney train stations. Free | maps.google.com
Transport NSW has partnered with Google on a project to expand Google’s Street View and directions functionality to the complicated internal layout of Sydney’s train and metro stations. Rolling out to 130 train stations and a dozen metro stations in the Sydney region, the new directions functionality will guide patrons to the exact platform they need to go to in order to get the particular train for their destination.
AI Debuild AI web app builder
AI that’ll write software for you.
Free | debuild.co
Imagine if you could use natural language to describe an application to an AI and it would go away and build the fully-formed software for you. Sounds a bit like magic right? Well apparently GPT-3, the large language model that’s capable of writing essay responses to custom questions, is pretty good at coding too. Head over to the experimental Debuild website by Greenhouse and Vectordash flounder Sharif Shameem to generate apps in JSX, HTML or CSS with just a few lines of description. It’s pretty amazing.
AI Google LaMDA
A major natural language upgrade to Google’s large language models.
Free | blog.google/technology/ai/lamda/ In a nutshell, Language Models for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) opens the door to have a conversation with AI and talk to it as naturally as you would a friend. Conversations are often complicated and fluid, jumping back to topics with new ideas or moving on to new topics as they’re thought of. This requires AI to be awar e of the chat history without assuming everything is related to what has been spoken before. So we guess it won’t be long till you’re having a ‘deep-and-meaningful’ with your Google Home.
AI French Government AI business assessor
New stimulus package designed for France’s most viable businesses under pandemic strain.
$NA | economie.gouv.fr
The French Government is using AI to determine businesses with a viable future that are most at risk of collapse from the winding back of pandemic lending conditions and will provide them the funds needed to stay afloat through the transition. In perhaps the most targeted stimulus package to be rolled out at national scale the AI will examine the financial statements of between five and eight percent of French companies in the hospitality and retail sectors to determine the most suitable candidates for the 3 billion euro package.