[LINK] Drones For Schools

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Tom and Jore write,

> > Is this a plot to train a new generation of techno-warriors?:
> >
> > "Drones For Schools...
>  
> One could argue, quite seriously, that this culture has already been
> doing this for a long time---training the next generation of
> techno-warriors.


This NYTimes piece today is sort-of related ..

(There is a) quest by computer companies, Hollywood and video game makers 
to move entertainment closer to reality — or at least a computer-generated 
version of reality. 

Rather than simply watch movies, the thinking goes, we could become part of 
the story. We could see people and things moving around our living rooms. 

The actors could talk to us. Gamers who today slouch on the couch could 
step inside their games. 

They could pick up a computer-simulated bat in computer-simulated stadium 
while a computer-simulated crowd roared around them.

“The (Star Treck) holodeck is something we’ve been fixated on here for a 
number of years as a future target experience that would be truly 
immersive,” said Phil Rogers, a corporate fellow at Advanced Micro Devices, 
the computer chip maker. 

“Ten years ago, it seemed like a dream. Now, it feels within reach.”

At A.M.D.’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., Mr. Rogers and his team have 
built a version of a holodeck. It’s shaped like a dome and is covered with 
wall-to-wall projectors. The room uses surround sound, augmented reality 
and other technologies to recreate the real world.

“Eventually, wallpaper will become intelligent and we will paper over our 
entire living room with intelligent paper, surrounding and immersing 
ourselves with 3-D images,” said Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist. 

“Much of this technology already exists, but in crude form.”

How would you walk through these virtual worlds without hitting your 
bedroom or office wall? The United States Army Research Laboratory has 
already solved that problem. It has created a floor called an 
“omnidirectional treadmill” that enables people to seemingly wander around 
a room while the floor moves and the person stays in place.

This all sounds fun. But it also sounds terrifying to some industries.

As a byproduct, the holodeck could render traditional TV makers obsolete, 
cutting the already dwindling TV market, where an estimated 226 million 
televisions shipped in 2013, according to IHS, a research company.

Business travel, which is projected to rake in $288 billion from United 
States travelers this year, according to the Global Business Travel 
Association, could fall as holodecks become less expensive and more 
productive than hopping on a plane, booking a hotel and suffering 
unproductive jet lag, all for a 30-minute meeting.

But all of this “reality” might be a bit too much for many of us. 

As much as I like playing a first-person shooter game once in a while — who 
doesn’t like to kill a few zombies before bed? — I’m not sure I want to run 
through a war zone and see lifelike brains sprayed across my face. I might 
need some virtual therapy after playing a game that realistic.

Yet gaming seems to be what is driving this technology, and the major 
computing it requires.

“Our desire for more realistically spattered blood seems to be our saving 
grace in terms of keeping Moore’s Law going,” said Brad Templeton, a 
futurist and a member of the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, 
referring to the observation that the number of transistors on 
semiconductors tends to double every two years.

Mr. Templeton said holodecks would change photography, too. People will 
take pictures to show off in their holodecks, he said. Rather than buying a 
coffee-table book, your coffee table might become a giant book.

Microsoft has also been at the forefront of this technology, filing several 
patents related to holodecks and building prototypes in labs.

Andy Wilson, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, said his lab 
created a product called the IllumiRoom, which creates illusions of the 
area surrounding a television, making real-life furniture look like it’s 
moving or warping using a projection display. “We can do things like make 
the furniture in the room disappear,” he said.

Another Microsoft research project is called a Lightspace, a digital 
chandelier that can detect the people and objects in a room and then 
display images from the ceiling that cover the walls and floor.

Last year researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago created a 
version of a holodeck called CAVE2, with funding from the National Science 
Foundation and the Department of Energy. CAVE2 uses eight-foot high screens 
that cover 320 degrees of a room and can be used to model global weather 
patterns, study the way new drugs work in the body and help doctors 
practice surgeries.

Dr. Kaku warned that there were dangers with this technology. “One day, 
people might prefer to live in a virtual world rather than the real one,” 
he
said.

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