user experience (UX)

Create compelling AR & VR apps quickly via the EON Creator AVR Enterprise & Education content builder

On 05/15/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital learning, digital video, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, tools, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

EON CREATOR AVR

The EON Creator AVR Enterprise and Education content builder empowers non-technical users to create compelling AR and VR applications in minutes, not weeks.

ENTERPRISE
With no programming required, EON Creator AVR Enterprise empowers workers to accelerate learning and improve performance, safety, and efficiency in the workplace.

EDUCATION
Teachers and students can create, experience, and share AVR learning applications with EON Creator AVR and quickly add them to their current classroom, seamlessly.

Also see:

A classroom of the future perhaps?

On 05/12/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, K-12 related, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, online learning, online media, universities, user experience (UX), virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
A classroom of the future perhaps? These graphics depict VR-based chats/talk shows from @guntersuniverse

Veeery interesting. Alexa now adds visuals / a screen! With the addition of 100 skills a day, where might this new platform lead?

On 05/09/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, microlearning, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, tools, trends, TVs, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual tutoring, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Amazon introduces Echo Show

The description reads:

Echo Show brings you everything you love about Alexa, and now she can show you things. Watch video flash briefings and YouTube, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, and more. All hands-free—just ask.
Introducing a new way to be together. Make hands-free video calls to friends and family who have an Echo Show or the Alexa App, and make voice calls to anyone who has an Echo or Echo Dot.
See lyrics on-screen with Amazon Music. Just ask to play a song, artist or genre, and stream over Wi-Fi. Also, stream music on Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more.
Powerful, room-filling speakers with Dolby processing for crisp vocals and extended bass response
Ask Alexa to show you the front door or monitor the baby’s room with compatible cameras from Ring and Arlo. Turn on lights, control thermostats and more with WeMo, Philips Hue, ecobee, and other compatible smart home devices.
With eight microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo Show hears you from any direction—even while music is playing
Always getting smarter and adding new features, plus thousands of skills like Uber, Jeopardy!, Allrecipes, CNN, and more

From DSC:

Now we’re seeing a major competition between the heavy-hitters to own one’s living room, kitchen, and more. Voice controlled artificial intelligence. But now, add the ability to show videos, text, graphics, and more. Play music. Control the lights and the thermostat. Communicate with others via hands-free video calls.

Hmmm….very interesting times indeed.

Developers and corporates released 4,000 new skills for the voice assistant in just the last quarter. (source)

…with the company adding about 100 skills per day. (source)

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Addendum on 5/10/17:

Everything You Need to Know About Amazon’s New Echo Show Alexa-Enabled Touch Screen Device — from medium.com
Excerpts:
- A touchscreen
- Video calling / intercom
- Music player
- News / Video player
- Cameras
- Skills / Apps
- Shopping

DC: This type of technology could be good, or it could be bad…or, like many technologies, it could be both — depends upon how it’s used.

On 05/06/2017, in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, digital audio, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, legislatures / government / legal, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
This type of technology could be good, or it could be bad…or, like many technologies, it could be both — depends upon how it’s used. The resources below mention some positive applications, but also some troubling applications.

Lyrebird claims it can recreate any voice using just one minute of sample audio — from theverge.com by James Vincent
The results aren’t 100 percent convincing, but it’s a sign of things to come

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence is making human speech as malleable and replicable as pixels. Today, a Canadian AI startup named Lyrebird unveiled its first product: a set of algorithms the company claims can clone anyone’s voice by listening to just a single minute of sample audio.

Also see:

Imitating people’s speech patterns precisely could bring trouble — from economist.com by
You took the words right out of my mouth

Excerpt:

UTTER 160 or so French or English phrases into a phone app developed by CandyVoice, a new Parisian company, and the app’s software will reassemble tiny slices of those sounds to enunciate, in a plausible simulacrum of your own dulcet tones, whatever typed words it is subsequently fed. In effect, the app has cloned your voice. The result still sounds a little synthetic but CandyVoice’s boss, Jean-Luc Crébouw, reckons advances in the firm’s algorithms will render it increasingly natural. Similar software for English and four widely spoken Indian languages, developed under the name of Festvox, by Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, is also available. And Baidu, a Chinese internet giant, says it has software that needs only 50 sentences to simulate a person’s voice.

Until recently, voice cloning—or voice banking, as it was then known—was a bespoke industry which served those at risk of losing the power of speech to cancer or surgery.
…
More troubling, any voice—including that of a stranger—can be cloned if decent recordings are available on YouTube or elsewhere. Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, led by Nitesh Saxena, were able to use Festvox to clone voices based on only five minutes of speech retrieved online. When tested against voice-biometrics software like that used by many banks to block unauthorised access to accounts, more than 80% of the fake voices tricked the computer.

Per Candyvoice.com:

Expert in digital voice processing, CandyVoice offers software to facilitate and improve vocal communication between people and communicating objects. With applications in:

Health
Customize your devices of augmentative and alternative vocal communication by integrating in them your users’ personal vocal model

Robots & Communicating objects
Improve communication with robots through voice conversion, customized TTS, and noise filtering

Video games
Enhance the gaming experience by integrating vocal conversion of character’s voice in real time, and the TTS customizing

Also related:

From DSC:
Given this type of technology, what’s to keep someone from cloning a voice, putting together whatever you wanted that person to say, and then making it appear that Alexa recorded that other person’s voice?

“Amazon’s new bricks-&-mortar bookstore nails what the web couldn’t” or my title: “How Amazon uses its vast data resources to reinvent the bookstore”

On 04/29/2017, in 21st century, Amazon, analytics, business, corporate / business world, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, ideas, innovation, reading, reinvent, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amazon’s new bricks-&-mortar bookstore nails what the web couldn’t — from hackernoon.com by Pat Ryan

or

A title from DSC:
How Amazon uses its vast data resources to reinvent the bookstore

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Amazon’s First Foray into Physical Retail — While Utilitarian — Takes Discovery to New Levels
As a long time city dweller living in a neighborhood full of history, I had mixed feelings about the arrival of Amazon’s first bricks-and-mortar bookstore in a city neighborhood (the first four are located in malls). Like most of my neighbors around Chicago’s Southport Corridor, I prefer the charm of owner operated boutiques. Yet as a tech entrepreneur who holds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the highest esteem, I was excited to see how Amazon would reimagine the traditional bookstore given their customer obsession and their treasure trove of user data. Here’s what I discovered…

…

The Bottom Line:
I will still go to Amazon.com for the job of ordering a book that I already know that I want (and to the local Barnes and Noble if I need it today). But when I need to discover a book for gifts (Father’s Day is coming up soon enough) or for my own interest, nothing that I have seen compares to Amazon Books. We had an amazing experience and discovered more books in 20 minutes than we had in the past month or two.

The physical manifestation of the “if you like…then you’ll love…”

The ultra metric combining insights from disparate sources seems more compelling than standard best seller lists

New Google Earth has exciting features for teachers — from thejournal.com by Richard Chang

Excerpt:

Google has recently released a brand new version of Google Earth for both Chrome and Android. This new version has come with a slew of nifty features teachers can use for educational purposes with students in class. Following is a quick overview of the most fascinating features…

Heads-up higher ed! These vendors can help us bring remote learners into our face-to-face based classrooms! [Christian]

On 04/20/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, blended learning, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, formal learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, geography / geology, global / globalization, Google, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, informal learning, innovation, internet, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, microlearning, multimedia, online learning, participation, platforms, professional development, reinvent, student-related, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, trends, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In terms of learning, having to be in the same physical place as others continues to not be a requirement nearly as much as it used to be. But I’m not just talking about online learning here. I’m talking about a new type of learning environment that involves both hardware and software to facilitate collaboration (and it was designed that way from day 1). These new types of setups can provide us with new opportunities and affordances that we should begin experimenting with immediately.

Check out the following products — all of which allow a person to contribute to a discussion or conversation from anywhere they can get Internet access:

When you go to those sites, you will see words and phrase such as:

Visual collaboration software
Virtual workspace
Develop
Share
Inspire
Design
Global teams
A visual collaboration solution that links locations, teams, content, and devices in an immersive, shared workspace
Teamwork
Create and brainstorm with others
Digital workplace platform
Eliminate the distance between in-office and remote employees
Jumpstart spontaneous brainstorms and working sessions

So using these types of software and hardware setups, I can contribute regardless of where I’m located. Remote learning — from anywhere in the world — being combined with our face-to-face based classrooms.

Also, the push for Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) continues across higher education. Such hands-on, project-learning based, student-centered approaches fit extremely well with the collaboration setups mentioned above.

Then, there’s the insight from Simon Dudley in this article:

“…video conferencing is increasingly an application within in a larger workflow…”

Lastly, if colleges and universities don’t have the funds to maintain their physical plants, look for higher education to move increasingly online — and these types of solutions could play a significant role in that environment. Plus, for working adults who need to reinvent themselves, this is an extremely efficient means of picking up some new skills and competencies.

So the growth of these types of setups — where the software and hardware work together to support worldwide collaboration — will likely create a powerful, new, emerging piece of our learning ecosystems.

Remote learning — from anywhere in the world — being combined with our face-to-face based classrooms.

“5 things to know about Facebook’s huge AR fantasy” + other recent announcements from Facebook

On 04/19/2017, in 21st century, Augmented Reality (AR), collaboration, communications, computer science, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, human-computer interaction (HCI), programming, social media, tools, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Five things to know about Facebook’s huge augmented reality fantasy — from gizmodo.com by Michael Nunez

Excerpt:

One example of how this might work is at a restaurant. Your friend will be able to leave an augmented reality sticky note on the menu, letting you know which menu item is the best or which one’s the worst when you hold your camera up to it.

Another example is if you’re at a celebration, like New Year’s Eve or a birthday party. Facebook could use an augmented reality filter to fill the scene with confetti or morph the bar into an aquarium or any other setting corresponding with the team’s mascot. The basic examples are similar to Snapchat’s geo-filters—but the more sophisticated uses because it will actually let you leave digital objects behind for your friends to discover. Very cool!

“We’re going to make the camera the first mainstream AR platform,” said Zuckerberg.

Here’s Everything Facebook Announced at F8, From VR to Bots — from wired.com

Excerpt:

On Tuesday, Facebook kicked off its annual F8 developer conference with a keynote address. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others on his executive team made a bunch of announcements aimed at developers, but the implications for Facebook’s users was pretty clear. The apps that billions of us use daily—Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram—are going to be getting new camera tricks, new augmented reality capabilities, and more bots. So many bots!

Facebook’s bold and bizarre VR hangout app is now available for the Oculus Rift — from theverge.com by Nick Statt

Excerpt:

Facebook’s most fascinating virtual reality experiment, a VR hangout session where you can interact with friends as if you were sitting next to one another, is now ready for the public. The company is calling the product Facebook Spaces, and it’s being released today in beta form for the Oculus Rift.

From DSC:

Is this a piece of the future of distance education / online learning-based classrooms?

Facebook Launches Local ‘Developer Circles’ To Help Entrepreneurs Collaborate, Build Skills — from forbes.com by Kathleen Chaykowski

Excerpt:

In 2014, Facebook launched its FbStart program, which has helped several thousand early stage apps build and grow their apps through a set of free tools and mentorship meetings. On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled a new program to reach a broader range of developers, as well as students interested in technology.

The program, called “Developer Circles,” is intended to bring developers in local communities together offline as well as online in Facebook groups to encourage the sharing of technical know-how, discuss ideas and build new projects. The program is also designed to serve students who may not yet be working on an app, but who are interested in building skills to work in computer science.

Facebook launches augmented reality Camera Effects developer platform — from techcrunch.com by Josh Constine

Excerpt:

Facebook will rely on an army of outside developers to contribute augmented reality image filters and interactive experiences to its new Camera Effects platform. After today’s Facebook F8 conference, the first effects will become available inside Facebook’s Camera feature on smartphones, but the Camera Effects platform is designed to eventually be compatible with future augmented reality hardware, such as eyeglasses.

While critics thought Facebook was just mindlessly copying Snapchat with its recent Stories and Camera features in Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg tells TechCrunch his company was just laying the groundwork for today’s Camera Effects platform launch.

Mark Zuckerberg Sees Augmented Reality Ecosystem in Facebook — from nytimes.com by Mike Isaac

Excerpt:

On Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg introduced what he positioned as the first mainstream augmented reality platform, a way for people to view and digitally manipulate the physical world around them through the lens of their smartphone cameras.

Facebook Launches Social VR App ‘Facebook Spaces’ in Beta for Rift — from virtualrealitypulse.com by Ben Lang

Addendums on 4/20/17:

Facebook Unveils Two New VR Cameras With ‘Six Degrees of Freedom’
F8 2017: Facebook Launches React VR To Push WebVR Development
With Facebook’s New Tool, You Can Easily Make Your Own 360 Videos In VR
The 360 Capture SDK will allow developers to let their users capture real-time video from within VR games and other experiences.
F8 2017: Facebook Announces 360 Capture SDK To Record And Share VR Experiences With Cube Mapping

From DSC:
First of all, let me say again that I’m not suggesting that we replace professors with artificial intelligence, algorithms, and such.

However, given a variety of trends, we need to greatly lower the price of obtaining a degree and these types of technologies will help us do just that — while at the same time significantly increasing the productivity of each professor and/or team of specialists offering an online-based course (something institutions of higher education are currently attempting to do…big time). Not only will these types of technologies find their place in the higher education landscape, I predict that they will usher in a “New Amazon.com of Higher Education” — a new organization that will cause major disruption for traditional institutions of higher education. AI-powered MOOCs will find their place on the higher ed landscape; just how big they become remains to be seen, but this area of the landscape should be on our radars from here on out.

This type of development again points the need for team-based
approaches; such approaches will likely dominate the future.

California State University East Bay partners with Cognii to offer artificial intelligence powered online learning — from prnewswire.com
Cognii’s Virtual Learning Assistant technology will provide intelligent tutoring and assessments to students in a chatbot-style conversation

Excerpt:

HAYWARD, Calif., April 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Cal State East Bay, a top-tier public university, and Cognii Inc., a leading provider of artificial intelligence-based educational technologies, today announced a partnership. Cognii will work with Cal State East Bay to develop a new learning and assessment experience, powered by Cognii’s Virtual Learning Assistant technology.

Winner of the 2016 EdTech Innovation of the Year Award from Mass Technology Leadership Council for its unique use of conversational AI and Natural Language Processing technologies in education, Cognii VLA provides automatic grading to students’ open-response answers along with qualitative feedback that guides them towards conceptual mastery. Compared to the multiple choice tests, open-response questions are considered pedagogically superior for measuring students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills, essential for 21st century jobs.

Students at Cal State East Bay will use the Cognii-powered interactive tutorials starting in summer as part of the online transfer orientation course. The interactive questions and tutorials will be developed collaboratively by Cognii team and the eLearning specialists from the university’s office of the Online Campus. Students will interact with the questions in a chatbot-style natural language conversation during the formative assessment stage. As students practice the tutorials, Cognii will generate rich learning analytics and proficiency measurements for the course leaders.

Looking to build the campus of tomorrow? 5 trends you should know [Ascione]

On 04/10/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business side of he, change, changing business models, collaboration, communications, competency-based learning/education, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, expectations, face-to-face, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, society, student-related, surviving, trends, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Looking to build the campus of tomorrow? 5 trends you should know — from ecampusnews.com by Laura Ascione
Today’s trends will bring about a new vision for the traditional college campus.

Excerpt:

“Innovations in physical space must be made to accommodate demands for accessibility, flexibility and affordability,” according to The State of Higher Education in 2017, a report from professional services firm Grant Thornton.
…
Changes in infrastructure are being driven by a handful of trends, including:

Digital technology is decoupling access to the classroom and information from any specific geographic location.
Learning is becoming more “modular,” credentialing specific competencies, such as certificates and badges,, rather than the model of four years to a degree via fixed-class schedules. This requires a less broad range of academic buildings on campus.
Students will engage with their coursework at their own time and pace, as they do in every other aspect of their lives.
Price pressure on colleges will create incentives for cost efficiencies, discouraging the fixed-cost commitment embodied in physical structures.
Deferred maintenance is a problem so large that it can’t be solved by most colleges within their available resources; the result may be reducing the physical plant footprint or just letting it deteriorate further.

These developments will prompt physical space transformation that will lead to a new kind of campus.

The State of Higher Education in 2017 — from grantthornton.com

Browse the report articles:

Innovative thinking will be vital to successfully moving into the future.

Lithodomosvr.com: Archaeology Virtual Reality Content for Tourism, Education and Entertainment

On 04/08/2017, in education technology, emerging technologies, Europe, history, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Lithodomosvr.com: Archaeology Virtual Reality Content for Tourism, Education and Entertainment

An excerpt from their website:

Head mounted virtual reality devices have an enormous potential to provide non-destructive immersive experiences for visitors to archaeological sites and museums as well as for researchers and educators. By creating a model that suggests an anastylosis of a building, the user can simply put on a headset and view the streetscape and its suggested reconstruction.

VR simulations are a much cheaper and more flexible solution than on-site physical reconstruction. Of course, necessary checks and measures are important to signify what is certain and what is guesswork, and as such, Lithodomos adheres to section 2.4 of the ICOMOS Charter for the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites.

By using photogrammetry, texturing and mesh modelling, Lithodomos VR creates immersive experiences of the Greek and Roman worlds for viewing on Virtual Reality Head Mounted devices, for example: the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and many others. Unlike many VR content creators, our point of difference is that we specialse in VR content for the Greek and Roman worlds. Our reconstructions stem from years of research and firsthand knowledge, and they reflect the best academic practices to ensure that the end product is both as accurate as can be possible and informative for the viewer.

World’s first holographic call occurred on Monday, 4/3/17

On 04/06/2017, in Apple, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), communications, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile technologies, telecommunications, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

[On 4/3/17] the World’s First Live Hologram Phone Call was made between Seoul and New Jersey on a 5G Network — from patentlyapple.com

Excerpt:

[On 4/3/17] a little history was made. Verizon and Korean Telecom (KT) unveiled the world’s first live hologram international call service via the companies’ trial 5G networks established in Seoul and in New Jersey, respectively. Our cover graphic shows Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam (left) and KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu demonstrate a hologram video call on a tablet PC at the KT headquarters in central Seoul Monday.

In the demonstration, a KT employee held a meeting with a Verizon employee in New Jersey who appeared as a hologram image on a monitor in the KT headquarters building.

With today’s revelations from South Korea, it’s easy to imagine that we’ll see Apple’s FaceTime offer a holographic experience in the not-too-distant future with added AR experiences as Apple’s CEO has conveyed.

Looking to build a home? A learning space? Or move into an apartment across the country? How about a VR-based look around first.

On 04/06/2017, in business, design, emerging technologies, ideas, immersion, innovation, learning spaces, photography, platforms, society, technologies for your home, trends, Uncategorized, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The use of virtual reality in industries such as architecture, construction, and real estate is growing. Below are some articles that speak to this trend.

In the future, it’s highly likely we’ll be able to get a nice VR-based tour of a space before building it, or renting it, or moving into it. Schools and universities will benefit from this as well, as they can use VR to refine the vision for a space with the appropriate stakeholders and donors.

Coming Soon: A Virtual Reality Revolution — from builderonline.com by Jennifer Goodman
American consumers will soon expect homes to be viewable before they are built. Are you ready?

Excerpt:

In what ways are builders using VR today?
There are two primary uses of the panoramic style VR that I mentioned above being used: 1) photography based experiences and 2) computer generated (CG) experiences. The former is getting quite a bit of traction right now through technologies like Matterport. They are what I consider a modern version of iPix, using a camera to photograph an existing environment and special software to move through the space. But it is limited to real world environments. The CG experiences don’t require the environments to be built which gives builders a huge advantage to pre-market their properties. And since it is computer generated, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility in what is presented, such as various structural options or cabinet selections. And not only homes! Developers are using the technology to market the amenities of a new master planned community.

Local builders step further into virtual reality — from richmondbizsense.com by Jonathan Spiers

Excerpt:

While 3D modeling and online virtual tours have become more commonplace in the home design industry, at least one local builder is taking the custom home building and buying process into a new dimension.

At a recent preview event for this year’s Homearama, an annual home design showcase to be held this May at Chesterfield County’s NewMarket Estates, Midlothian-based Lifestyle Home Builders let attendees virtually walk through and look around a completed version of the house it is building – while standing within the same unfinished home under construction.

Participants were invited to wear virtual reality (VR) headsets for a full immersion, 360-degree experience, or they could navigate the finished product via a virtual tour on a computer screen. LifeStyle is using the technology, which it adapted from building information modeling (BIM) and off-the-shelf software, to allow homebuyers a chance to see their custom home before it is built and make any changes prior to construction starting.

How Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize The Real Estate Industry — from forbes.com by Azad Abbasi

Excerpt:

Consider the top two hurdles of the average real estate agent:

Agents have to manage the time it takes to go from one visit to the other, dealing with traffic among other elements out of their control.
The most commonly heard phrase in real estate is, “It doesn’t look like the pictures.”

Virtual reality can help immediately resolve both of these issues. It offers the possibility to virtually visit a lot more homes in a lot less time. This will naturally increase sales efficiency, as well as allow the ability to see more potential buyers.

Here are three different options you can explore using virtual reality to heighten real estate experiences:

“The Best Amazon Alexa Skills” [Griffith] & “5 Alexa skills to try this week” [Johnson]

On 04/03/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, human-computer interaction (HCI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

The Best Amazon Alexa Skills — from in.pcmag.com by Eric Griffith

Example skills:

5 Alexa skills to try this week — from venturebeat.com by Khari Johnson

Excerpt:

Below are five noteworthy Amazon Alexa skills worth trying, chosen from New, Most Enabled Skills, Food and Drink, and Customer Favorites categories in the Alexa Skills Marketplace.

From DSC:
I’d like to see how the Verse of the Day skill performs.

Also see:

From DSC:
This topic reminds me of a slide from my NGLS 2017 Conference presentation:

Samsung introduces Bixby, their own version of a personal assistant

On 04/03/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Apple, communications, computer science, emerging technologies, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile technologies, Natural Language Processing (NLP), trends, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Samsung’s personal assistant Bixby will take on Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri — from theaustralian.com.au by Chris Griffith

Excerpt:

Samsung has published details of its Bixby personal assistant, which will debut on its Galaxy S8 smartphone in New York next week.

Bixby will go head-to-head with Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Echo and Apple Siri, in a battle to lure you into their artificial intelligence world.

In future, the personal assistant that you like may not only influence which phone you buy, also the home automation system that you adopt.

This is because these personal assistants cross over into home use, which is why Samsung would bother with one of its own.

Given that the S8 will run Android Nougat, which includes Google Assistant, users will have two personal assistants on their phone, unless somehow one is disabled.

There are a lot of red flags with Samsung’s AI assistant in the new Galaxy S8 — from businessinsider.com by Steve Kovach

Excerpt:

There’s Siri. And Alexa. And Google Assistant. And Cortana. Now add another one of those digital assistants to the mix: Bixby, the new helper that lives inside Samsung’s latest phone, the Galaxy S8. But out of all the assistants that have launched so far, Bixby is the most curious and the most limited.
…
Samsung’s goal with Bixby was to create an assistant that can mimic all the functions you’re used to performing by tapping on your screen through voice commands. The theory is that phones are too hard to manage, so simply letting users tell their phone what they want to happen will make things a lot easier.

Samsung Galaxy S8: Hands on with the world’s most ambitious phone — from telegraph.co.uk by James Titcomb

Excerpt:

The S8 will also feature Bixby, Samsung’s new intelligent assistant. The company says Bixby is a bigger deal than Siri or Google Assistant – as well as simply asking for the weather, it will be deeply integrated with the phone’s everyday functions such as taking photos and sending them to people. Samsung has put a dedicated Bixby button on the S8 on the left hand side, but I wasn’t able to try it out because it won’t launch in the UK until later this year.

Samsung Galaxy S8 launch: Samsung reveals its long-awaited iPhone killer — from telegraph.co.uk by James Titcomb

Also see:

Recent years have brought some rapid development in the area of artificially intelligent personal assistants. Future iterations of the technology could fully revamp the way we interact with our devices.

Learning Ecosystems

“Amazon’s new bricks-&-mortar bookstore nails what the web couldn’t” or my title: “How Amazon uses its vast data resources to reinvent the bookstore”

Lithodomosvr.com: Archaeology Virtual Reality Content for Tourism, Education and Entertainment

World’s first holographic call occurred on Monday, 4/3/17

Looking to build a home? A learning space? Or move into an apartment across the country? How about a VR-based look around first.

Samsung introduces Bixby, their own version of a personal assistant

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