To Control Its Destiny, Facebook Bets Big on Hardware(theinformation.com) |
To Control Its Destiny, Facebook Bets Big on Hardware(theinformation.com) |
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
There's a related thread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21836862.
A couple binary inputs for CTRL and SHIFT from reading brainwaves seems doable. Feedback on whether they're active from different high frequency vibrations on the hands, neck, or ears.
There are lots of easy wins here if I can just push a couple mental buttons with my brain. Trigger scrolling or text selection based on eye movement. Select a buffer or macro based the mental buttons I'm pushing. You basically get a binary digit for every mental button you're capable of simultaneously tracking.
I'm home sick, and maybe it's the fever talking, but I think I'm going to do some basic research and start hacking something together. Very small chance of success, but I want mental modifier keys with vibrational feedback!
I don't want to rain on the parade but BCI (brain computer interfaces here EEG that is interpreted as input for something) is far from being usable for everday things. The technology sort of works but it is slow and unreliable. Most reliable method was P300 [0] which requires several repetitions of a signal someone decided to select. Entering letters for example can be done by flashing rows and columns of a matrix of these letters and concentrating on the one to choose. It's reactive in the sense as it will only trigger when an expected stimulus is detected. A lot less reliable was a system trained to recognize imagined motions (raising the left or right leg or arm as different categories) and worst method I saw was a simple feedback loop between EEG for moving something on the screen in one of two directions. This rarely worked even though it was a simple binary choice. Any switch will be better than this for now.
* I get to push the EEG button with just my brain, which is neat and fun.
* I get to build multiple high resolution EEGs into something that doesn't look terrible like a pair of headphones or a hat, which is fun (yet flammable).
* I play a few instruments (most recently bought a violin, which I'm still terrible with). It took years to become good at each instrument. I assume that it would take years to become good at using a BCI and properly adjust it to my brain.
* I'm working on this with the initial assumption that I'm most likely going to fail, but I'm going to have a good time.
I'm curious what research is being done on this front.
I think that this is one of the reasons why Apple bets so heavily on privacy, they had a much better long term vision when it comes to wearables and man-machine interfaces in general. If Cook distances Apple from China they have such a big advantage there, if not FB will use Apples connection with China to their advantage.
Personally I think a lot of it is being driven by the comoditization of advanced chip fabrication. Now with TSMC you can actually have better manufacturing capabilities than Intel. A situation we've not been in for over 30 years.
That's an interesting perspective. With mobile device chip manufacturing being modularized, Facebook is able to integrate forward with the end user by combining software (i.e. their portfolio of apps) with consumer electronics.
Aggregation theory at work: https://stratechery.com/2015/aggregation-theory/
Goes in cycles. Xerox, hp, ibm
Whatever product comes out of Facebook under its current business model will be optimized for serving ads. Not necessarily serving the user.
This in itself is not bad, as it will still stimulate the growth of an ecosystem where developers can create products with different business models.
TBC
My attitude changed when I bought an Oculus Go and a week later when I bought an Oculus Quest. These devices use the FB platform, and all the videos that I now upload to FB can now be watched in the VR theater on the Oculus devices.
So basically, the Oculus products are so good that I decided to give FB another chance and I use FB a bit more often now.
EDIT: and the Star Wars Vader Immortal trilogy on the Oculus Quest is my favorite entertainment experience ever, including the industrial strength VR experiences I used to work on. My respect to the teams that did the Vader Immortal material.
Maybe if someone did it as a layer on top of news sites (like Google/FB login)... Maybe ...
Guessing there is some geo-thing or A/B test going on.
The company has a lot of public statements that are easy to find, and the people who aren’t “providing comments” are likely either working on the next ones or think providing this comment would not be helpful to the company (including taking into account how much time they can invest in it).
Of course none of this is specific to FB in any way.
I love XR (=VR/AR/MR), but I still didn't manage a good easy open source way to do that.
Glasses can make a viral and sticky form factor that we already have centuries of experience with. If we can build an AR glasses product people want to wear then we have the potential to greatly increase the amount of digital information a human sees and processes. This information can be addictive, like smartphones, and of high utility, like smartphones.
being able to overlay information, in context, onto objects that it relates to, will be massive.
But only eventually.
Who says you have to create a new account on every site? A cookie set after the payment processor has completed is all you need.
Especially with a tech-ninded crowd, relying on the persistence of cookies is completely unworkable because of the large percentage of users with extensions that block or wipe cookies eagerly.
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"Coins" would be a manual process. If something is clickbaity, then you don't have to insert a coin.
I’ve heard “mixed reality” being used to refer to the continuum between reality - augmented reality - virtual reality. In the above question I’d read it as asking about the state of problems particularly pertaining to the transitions along this continuum. (Made up example: of you solve locomotion in VR by putting people on moving belts, a problem in MR would be how to transition someone from walking around in unobstructed reality to walking in VR. I don’t know if that’s a real problem—please take it just to illustrate what I mean.)
Edit: Wikipedia’s article on MR includes a whole section on “differences in terminology”! \o/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_reality They also use the word “continuum”, but don’t seem to directly back up my further claims about using the word to refer to problems arising specifically at the interface of AR/VR.
[1]https://www.vox.com/2015/7/27/11615046/whats-the-difference-...