Tag Archives: Augmented Reality

AI, Augmented Reality, Business, Information Architecture (IA), Virtual Reality

Microsoft’s Plethora of Portals

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As I was looking through Microsoft’s catalog of applications, it occurred to me just how many of their platforms are information-centric and seemed to overlap in functionality. Where should I go when I want to get stuff done, find information or produce it? Since the early days of AOL and AltaVista, we’ve seen the awesome power of a “Jump Page” as the starting point for our information journey.

Microsoft, which one do I choose?

From one software vendor’s perspective, we’ve got many options. What’s the best option for me? Seems like there should be opportunities to gain synergies between available Microsoft platforms.

Bing.com

Searching for information on the internet? News, images, encyclopedias, Wikipedia, whatever you need, and more is on the web. Microsoft Bing helps you find what you need regardless if you’re using text or an image to search for like for like information. It also serves up “relevant” information on the jump page, news mixed with advertisements. There is also a feature enabling you to add carousel “boxes”. for example, containing latest MS Word files used, synergy from Office.com

Office.com

Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, Power BI… If you’ve created content or want to create content using Microsoft applications, Office.com is the one-stop-shop for all your Office apps and the content created using these applications.

SharePoint

Another portal to a universe of information around a centric theme, such as collaboration/interaction with product/project team members, an Intranet, SharePoint site with one or multiple teams. At the most fundamental level is the capability to collaborate/interact with teams, potentially leveraging Microsoft collaboration tools. Just one of many of its capabilities “out of the box” is a document management solution and the use of version control.

SharePoint can also be used for any type of Internet/web platform, i.e., a public-facing portal platform. However, SharePoint, in fact, is a sharing tool in which the authors of the website can share video presentations, shared calendars of public events, and a plethora of customized lists.

Yammer

Engaging your people is more critical than ever. Yammer connects leaders, communicators, and employees to build communities, share knowledge, and engage everyone. I’m thinking synonymous with a bulletin board. The implementation of Yammer looks like Facebook for the Enterprise.

  • Use the Home feed to stay on top of what matters, tap into the knowledge of others, and build on existing work.
  • Search for experts, conversations, and files.
  • Join communities to stay informed, connect with your coworkers, and gather ideas.
  • Join in the conversation, react, reply to, and share posts.
  • @ mention someone to loop them in.
  • Attach a file, gif, photo, or video to enhance your post.
  • Praise someone in your network to celebrate a success, or just to say thanks.
  • Create a virtual event that your community can ask a question and participate live or watch the recording afterwards.
  • Use polls to crowd source feedback and get answers fast.
  • Stay connected outside the office with the Yammer mobile app.
  • Use Yammer in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, or Outlook.

“Yammer helps you connect and engage across your organization so that you can discuss ideas, share updates, and network with others.”

Microsoft Teams

For any team, there is a wealth of information varying from the group or single Chats, Teams, Calls, Files, and practically integration for almost all Microsoft applications and beyond. The extensibility of MS Teams seems relatively boundless, such as integrations with Wikis, SharePoint document folders, etc. From what I can tell, many organizations just use Teams for the group, or individual Chat channels are barely grazing the surface of MS Teams’ capabilities.

Setup of MS Teams, Teams “landing” page is a great place to start constructing your “living space” within MS Teams. From there, you can carve out space for all things related to the team. For example, in the “Team ABC” Team channel, you can add N number of “tabs” relating to everything from an embedded Wiki to specific SharePoint folders for the team’s product specifications. A team could even create an embedded Azure DevOps [Kanban] Board to show progress and essentially “live in” your MS Team, team channel.

Another porta;l overlap, Microsoft Teams Communities, seems to equate to Yammer.

Delve

What is Delve – Microsoft 365?

Use Delve to manage your Microsoft 365 profile and to discover and organize the information that’s likely to be most interesting to you right now – across Microsoft 365.

Delve never changes any permissions, so you’ll only see documents that you already have access to. Other people will not see your private documents. Learn more about privacy.

Delve is a content curation platform for the person it’s most relevant to…you. It gives the appearance of a user experience similar to carousels of video streaming apps. There are “Popular Documents” carousels and other carousels that are based on the most recent access. Based on how files are saved based on who can access content is how the platform gives you a treasure trove of documents you never knew you had access to or existed. It actually paints a potential compliance nightmare if people select the default document access as “…anyone within my organization…”.

Outlook.com / Best of MSN

Another portal of information focused around you: your email, your calendar, your To-Dos, and your contacts/people. It’s not just your communication with anyone, e.g., your project team members; it’s organizing your life on a smaller scale, e.g., To-Dos. You can also access other shared calendars, such as a team release schedule or a PTO schedule.

The Best of MSN is information, i.e., news around your interests, a digest of information relevant to you, delivered in an email format. Other digests of information from other sources may be curated and sent if subscribed.

Mediums to Traverse Information: AR, VR…

The visual paradigms used to query and access information may drastically influence the user’s capacity to digest the relevant information. For example, in an Augmented Reality (AR) experience, querying, identifying information, and then applying it, serving up the content in a way most conducive to a user’s experience is vital.

Users can’t just “Google It” and serve up the results like magic. The next evolution of querying information and serving up content in a medium to maximize its usability is key and is most evident when using Augmented Reality (AR). If you’re building something, instructions may be overlayed by the physical elements/parts in front of the user. Even the context of the step number would allow the virtual images to overlay the parts.

Automated and Manual Content Curation is a MUST for all Portals

Categories, Tags, Images, and all other associations from object A to everything else, the Meta of Existence, are essential for proper information dissemination and digestion. If you can tag any object with metadata, you can teach an AI/search engine to identify it in a relevant query. Implementing an Induction Engine, a type of Artificial Intelligence that proposes rules based on historic patterns is a must to improve query accuracy over time.

Next level, “Information applications” – Improved Living with Alzheimer’s

Next Ecosystem: Google..?

Advertising, Augmented Reality, Business, Economy, Games, Technology

Facebook name change: what is Meta, the meaning of new name and Metaverse – Mark Zuckerberg

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Mark Zuckerberg surprised the world in October when he announced his company had changed its name to Meta.

The announcement came as the Facebook founder and CEO delivered a presentation showcasing Facebook’s work on virtual reality technologies and the Metaverse – a concept which some believe could become the next version of the internet.

It’s a move that echoes what Google did when it changed the name of its parent company to Alphabet in 2015 – an alteration that represented its shift beyond simply being a search engine.

Mark Zuckerberg said he had chosen it as in Greek it means ‘beyond’.

“For me, it symbolises that there’s always more to build; there’s always a next chapter to the story,” he explained.

“Beyond the constraints of screens, beyond the limits of distance and physics and towards a future where everyone can be present with each other, create new opportunities and experience new things.”

A metaverse is an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment.

This world already exists today through Meta-owned brand Oculus, which will itself be re-branded to Meta Quest in 2022, as well as Meta’s collaboration with glasses manufacturer Ray-Ban that allows users to see social media notifications via their glasses or sunglasses.

In his presentation, Mark Zuckerberg showed how his new metaverse concept ‘Horizon’ could apply to our future lives.

For example, he demonstrated how it could be used to hold realistic work meetings and help with education.

Source: Facebook name change: what is Meta, meaning of new name and Metaverse concept – and what Mark Zuckerberg said | NationalWorld

Augmented Reality, Business, Energy, Mobility, Science Fiction, Technology, Travel

Another Episode of “WHAT IF…” this BIZ meets that Tech

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The idea for the “What If…” Business and Technology series for me, comes directly out of Marvel comics.  The comics ranged from “fictional” battles or plots that were so abstract yet tangent that it was nearly impossible to happen other than in a “one-off”, alternate reality, comic book in the Marvel Universe.   On the same premise, I will spin several stories that will most likely not happen in the “real world”, but we will bring them to light.

Apple Adopts the Palm OS Business Model

Apple spins off its mobile hardware business and focuses on the iOS operating system.  The mobile OS business unit, in theory, will have a robust and direct focus to drive revenue to their area.  We may see partnerships that would have never developed if these units are continued to be tied together.  Mobile iOS on OEM, 3rd party devices?   Multiboot mobile hardware for Android, Linux, and Mac iOS out of the box.  Competing and evolving lines, between the iOS tablets. How about mobile hardware from Motorola, Nokia, or Blackberry using iOS?

Allow Customers to Buy Gasoline as Units at Current Price on Loyalty Debit Cards

A legitimate reason IS NEEDED why in this day and age of commodities trading, storage, pipelines, trains, tankers, and trucks, why if I can buy stocks at current market value, or go on Ebay and buy 50 yards of antique bobbed wire at an auction, why can’t I go to a gas station and buy 50 UNITS of gas at the current price of gas that day? Upon return to the same brand gas station, I should be able to use my same loyalty debit card and subtract units of gas from the card, instead of the current price of gas that day.

EVs “in the field” Use Existing Home Energy Provider, with Transportation Charges Applied

Similar logic can be applied to Electric, and EVs but with a twist, incorporating the use of your home “energy provider”, and when charging ‘on the go’, only pay local “line usage/distribution” fees.

Full Article Here

Fundraising Using Public WiFi, and an UL/DL MB Meter Reading

What if commercial, public WiFi Hotspots partnered with a fundraising cause, and every MB exchanged (up and/or down), a donation of N cents would go to a charity-sponsored by you with Paypal. The business providing the WiFi would match the donation.

Greece Prosperity / Tourism: The World will Come See You in Augmented Reality (AR)

While perusing through all of the ruins, looking at the sites, watching the tour groups, and the tour guides explaining these empty ruins, I pondered, wouldn’t it be amazing to see the people of ancient times dressed in their clothing of the times, interacting with each other through the ruins as though the tourists were not even there. In effect, acting out scenes that perhaps took place thousands of years ago, echoes of the past. I thought why wouldn’t for starters, the government pays the people of the Arts and Sciences to go through scenes, such as basic interactions with a Librarian, studying in one corner, ignoring the world, and just reading and thinking, and in another corner of this library, there might be a quiet debate going on, in Greek of course, and through a translation application, any foreigner could hear their native language the interactions. It could be ancient commoners, to known ancient people of the past acting out scenes like echoes of the past, while tours just come up close and personal, pass by, even wave their hand in front of an actors hand, and he continues to act as if the tourists were not even there. All of these Greek actors would be prerecorded and play out in Augmented Reality (AR).

Full Article Here

 Tune in next time for more “What If…” episodes.

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Legal, Machine Learning, Technology

AR Sudoku Solver Uses Machine Learning To Solve Puzzles Instantly

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Very novel concept, applying Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence (i.e. Machine Learning) to solving puzzles, such as Sudoko.  Maybe not so novel considering AR uses in manufacturing.

Next, we’ll be using similar technology for human to human negotiations, reading body language, understanding logical arguments, reading human emotion, and to rebut remarks in a debate.

Litigators watch out… Or, co-counsel?   Maybe a hand of Poker?

Source: AR Sudoku Solver Uses Machine Learning To Solve Puzzles Instantly

Augmented Reality, Technology

Bose AR, Audio Augmented Reality – Use Cases

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I’ve been enamored with Bose products for well over a decade. However,  we’ve seen quality brands enter the hi-fidelity audio market over that time.  Beyond quality design in their classic audio products, can Bose Augmented Reality (Bose AR) be the market differentiator?

Bose: Using a Bose-AR-equipped wearable, a smartphone, and an app-enabled with Bose AR, the new platform lets you hear what you see.

It sounds like Bose may come up with an initial design, sunglasses, but turn to 3rd party hardware manufacturers of all sorts to integrate Bose AR into other wearable products.

Bose Augmented Reality isn’t just about audio. The devices will use sensors to track head motions for gesture controls and work with GPS from a paired smartphone to track location.  The company also aspires to combine visual information with the Bose AR platform.

Bose AR Use Cases

  • Bose Augmented Reality device reenact historical events or speeches from landmarks and statues as you visit them.
  • The Bose and NFL partnership could be leveraged to get these AR units into the football player’s helmets.  Audio queues from the on-field lead, quarterback, and dynamically replayed/relayed at the appropriate time of required action by the receiver.
  • Audio directions to your gate when your GPS detects that you’ve arrived at the airport, or any other destination from your calendar.  Audio queues would be richer the more inclusive you are to the access to Calendars, To Do lists, etc.
  • Combine visual information with the Bose AR platform, too, so you could hear a translation of a sign you’re looking at.

  • Hear the history of a painting in a museum.

Time until it’s in consumer’s hands?  TBD.  Bose objective is to have the developer kit, including a pair of glasses, available later this year.

When I was on vacation in Athens, Greece, I created a post which had Greek actors running tours in their ancient, native garb.  The Bose AR could be a complementary offering to the tour, which includes live, greek local actors portraying out scenes in ancient ruins.  Record the scenes, and interact with them while walking through the Greek ruins in your Bose AR (Augmented Reality) glasses.

Greece, Prosperity, and Taxes: The World Will Come See You in AR

Please take a moment to prioritize the use cases, or add your own.

Takeaway

I’m a cheerleader for Bose, among several others in this space, but I question a Bose AR headset that produces a high fidelity sound. Most of the use cases listed should be able to “get along OK” with an average quality sound.  Maybe high definition AR games with a high level of realism might benefit from the high-quality sound. However, their site reads like Bose is positioning themselves as a component to be integrated into other AR headsets, i.e. “Bose-AR-equipped wearable“

Business, Entertainment, Food, Technology

Cooking Wars: Popularizing the HoloLens before it’s Released.

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An aspiring Chief or Cook armed with a HoloLens on a special edition of the Food Network show Chopped?  How well would HoloLens and Human come together to create a brilliant dish?
At the TV show’s core rules, each contestant must come up with a dish to be served to the Judges.  The caveat, the Chiefs must use all the ingredients from a ‘blind’ basket.  To enable a Chief with a HoloLens would instantly give the contestant a potentially ‘unfair’ advantage.  Bringing a computer with Internet access and your list of digital recipes would, on the ‘Surface’, be an equivalent advantage.
If the producers of Chopped want to level the playing field,  why not allow the other contestants use of a Microsoft Surface, continuing along the same lines of providing a HoloLens to one, or potentially all of the Chiefs.
‘Adhoc’ cooking with a HoloLens, the user may:
  • Search libraries of food recipes, filtered by the basket ingredients.   HoloLens uses object recognition to identify each of the items taken out of the basket.  Chiefs should not have to ‘say’ or ‘input’ the ingredients to the HoloLens.  Take every advantage to speed up, not slow down interaction of Chef and machine ‘working together’
  • A step by step walk through to execute the recipe, HoloLens and human working together. e.g. HoloLens highlights the salt on the user’s field of vision.  HoloLens articulates what is needed and when, like a tutor over your shoulder.
  • Recipes may have a ‘pause’ to allowremind the Chief to ‘check the food’, and provide feedback to the HoloLens.  AI on the HoloLens may indicate back to the Chief to action, such as the Chief saying it tastes too XYZ, so HoloLens responds, add NN of Salt.
  • HoloLens may also state reminders such as ‘you should be plating your food by now’,  or you haven’t added this ingredient yet.
  • The HoloLens may guide the ‘food plating’ process, almost like an empty puzzle being populated.

Note: Microsoft is not responsible for any  accidental cuts. 🙂

What’s Next?

IBM’s Watson goes into battle on Bravo’s Top Chef  with the aid of any household  cook, and an Augmented Reality (AR) Headset, such as the HoloLens.

Business, Development, Economy, Education, Mobility, Science, Sports, Technology

How Microsoft Gets Back into Mainstream Popularity

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The HoloLens may propel Microsoft back to the ‘Cool’ kid on the block.    The HoloLens has the potential to “fly off the shelves” in tandem to Windows 10.

Ever since I saw the movie Blue Thunder, I wanted my own Heads-up display (HUD).   Here are a few suggestions for implementation:

Must Have’s

  • ‘Priced to sell’:   Even if the cost of the hardware is reduced to a thin the margin, that may or may not be enough.   From day one, these “Windows into Windows” must be viewed as essential to the ‘enhanced’ OS package, like ‘Windows 10 Home Media’.
  • Microsoft, Enable Channel Sales (DELL, HP) to offer Microsoft Windows 10 and HoloLens ‘Media’ package deals, together both the OS and the HoloLens are offered at a reduced price.
  • The HoloLens and Windows 10 User Interface (UI) significantly enhances how the consumer interacts with Operating Systems.
  • [Channel] Sales may offer bundled HoloLens / Windows 10 applications, e.g. Minecraft;
  • Analyze / prioritize top 10 (N)  opportunities for application development, and produce internally, and/or with partners.
    • Partners may range from software vendors to accredited training programs, e.g. flight school XYZ
  • Intuitive  and feature rich developer APIs:
    • Provide the HoloLens developer a software ‘Simulator’
    • Products with source code examples
    • Quick path from development to market: Lean application vetting process; including the vetting of app developers.
  • Education levels 6 to 12 and beyond can benefit, segmented by: the sciences (e.g. Chemistry, Microbiology, Physics);  Trade Schools such as Automotive and HVAC;
    • Colleges and Universities may be early adopters, and expand their Massive open online courses to including remote participation, e.g. medicine
  • Applying for an ‘operator license’?  HoloLens, accompanied with a licensed operator,  allows users to wear the HoloLens, and follow a step by step, interactive tutorial within the vehicle, e.g. Car, Boat, Helicopter, Truck, Airplane, etc.

Click here:  comprehensive list of Augmented Reality (AR) apps.

Interesting articles on Microsoft’s Hololens:

Microsoft dives deeper into HoloLens details: ‘Holographic processor’ role revealed

Microsoft leaps into 3D computing with Windows Holographic and HoloLens

Hands-on with Microsoft’s HoloLens: The 3D augmented reality future is now

 

Microsoft HoloLens

 

Business, Education, Finance

Greece, Prosperity, and Taxes: The World Will Come See You in AR

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High Unemployment,  Influx of Foreigners, and Tourism

I am on vacation in Athens, Greece.  Every food bill I received, and gifts from shops had a 25% tax rate which, the people explained to me ‘nicely’, goes to the government.  It seems that people are very odds with the huge unemployment, high taxes, and forcing illegal immigrants out of the country.  I got all of this from the nice people.  There were others who seemed bitter and standoffish, visible disdain of anyone not from Greece, from the Turks, Pakistanis, all the way to the Jews. Extremely xenophobic, and this is the birthplace and cradle of logic, and helped with the maturation of the Western civilization?!  From their perspective, I surmise, the local Greeks have to yield to the ‘foreigners’ because they do, in fact, gather a large sum from tourism, and the other aspect, or perspective, they must also loathe having to yield jobs, even their own profession, to foreigners.  I spoke to a Greek man, taxi driver, by trade, was a bartender and had a degree in hotel, restaurant, and management.  In the states, he worked as a bartender, but his home was Greece, his parents Greek, but he said it was a tough market to get a job for hotels.  Now this man had been out of Greece for a while, worked in the U.S., and had a US foreigner accent.  Bartending to a Cab Driver was a natural transition, and truth be told, he could probably go to the United States and make more money verse the cost of living than he had in Greece, and as well, perform his occupation of choice.   I asked him why he stayed, and he said Greece was his home, and he loved it there.

Is it live, or is it Memorex?  AR and Actors

So, while perusing through all of the ruins, looking at the sites, watching the tour groups, and the tour guides explaining these empty ruins, I pondered, wouldn’t it be amazing to see the people of ancient times dressed in their clothing of the times, interacting with each other through the ruins as though the tourists were not even there.  In effect, acting out scenes that perhaps took place thousands of years ago, echoes of the past.  I thought why wouldn’t for starters, the government pay the people of the Arts and Sciences to go through scenes, such as basic interactions with a Librarian, studying in one corner, ignoring the world, and just reading and thinking, and in another corner of this library, there might be a quiet debate going on, in Greek of course, and through a translation application, any foreigner could hear their native language the interactions.  It could be ancient commoners, to known ancient people of the past acting out scenes like echoes of the past, while tours just come up close and personal, pass by, even wave their hand in front of an actors hand, and he continues to act as if the tourists were not even there.

These narratives/scenes could be recorded, and played out through Augmented Reality glasses, and/or live actors.

As this plan develops, I thought it would inspire not only the locals in their own rich culture, but, tourists to bathe in this once, pinnacle of civilization.  I went to Greece in the “off-season”, but the streets were still not empty. The shops and restaurants had guests, but as one local restaurant family business owner said, and I am paraphrasing, it’s a tough job in the off season trying to attract people into his restaurant, which had excellent food, by the way.

Government Representation Partakes as a Sign of Solidarity

The plan develops further in my mind as I sit in the runes of an ancient Greek library, it would be inspiring for the people of the nation to see guest appearances of their local representatives of government to see the government officials also taking part in these acting events.  The founding fathers of the United States of America weren’t career politicians, they were agriculture, farmers, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, his father Spence Monroe was a moderately prosperous planter who also practiced carpentry.  People of Greece suspect their governments of terrible things, such as corruption, especially when they aren’t visible to the people constantly.  Appearing along side the people of their country as commoners of a great society with a world of fascination and myths surrounding it, is like fodder for actors and play writes.

Greek people in universities,  the Arts and Sciences, may debate some elementary topics in the sciences in public forum, and if the professors and students of universities dressed in ancient traditional Greek garb, I think it would be amazing to add them into the ‘scene’ so to speak.

Tourism for Greece

Tourism in Greece has been a key element of the economic activity in the country and is one of the country’s most important sectors. Greece has been a major tourist destination and attraction in Europe since antiquity, for its rich culture and history.  Greece attracted 26.5 million visitors in 2015 and 30 million visitors in 2016, making Greece one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world, and contributing 18% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Final Act – Broadway and Universities

These live productions can go on year-round in cooperation with global exchange student university programs, of the finest caliber.  This forum may attract global play writes of note, not just of University, but of the major, well-respected avenues of theater, such as Broadway, and the motion picture actors turning to the theater might want to give ‘this avenue’ a try first, as a sampling.

Revenues from the University exchange programs, revenues from play writes actually paying royalties to use the archaeological sites, as well as more jobs, for cultural supervisors to oversee these programs, as well, as jobs for my taxi driver, because the once birth of logic will again become the maturation place of Education, the Arts, and Culture, as well as all the other good stuff that comes with it, such as revenue and jobs to help support this boom people going to Greece.  Oh, sorry, my taxi driver might want to go back to bartending and serve drinks to those university professors, students, and still, have to deal with those pesky tourists. 🙂   To those students around the world, don’t be surprised if your waitlisted here too!