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Featured by dilanshah

HOW CAN MIXED REALITY DRIVE MORE ENGAGEMENT IN MOVEMENT AND FITNESS?

* AR, Health, VR
* Curiosity, Machine Learning, VirtualReality, VR
* Leave a comment

Fitness is one of the most robust categories under discussion, across Augmented
Reality and Virtual Reality devices. For whom does this movement level merit the
moniker “fitness”? And what timeline are we working with to see the sweeping
adoption of fitness via spatial computing (the term widely known now due to
Apple’s Vision Pro announcement and curving of the terms VR / AR / MR
collectively)?

I’m seeing new unlocks particularly as it relates to the comfort of the device,
spatial awareness afforded due to camera passthrough, and greater respect for
ergonomic polish among developers.

The video seen here is a clip taken November 8th, 2023, showing a first-person
view of a Quest 3 experience that allows for gestures, hand tracking, and
movement to be used as input to an increasing number of games.

The title is built by YUR, the app name is YUR World.
January 3, 2024January 3, 2024 by dilanshah

EMERGENT ABILITIES IN LLMS

* Good Reads
* Curiosity, Learning, Machine Learning

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October 24, 2023January 3, 2024 by dilanshah

REFUGE

* Good Reads, Health
* Learning, Reflection, Uncertainty

With violent conflicts all over the world in Palestine, Gaza, Ukraine, Myanmar,
Chad, and many other places… the word refuge or sanctuary, was the center of
Jack Kornfield’s Monday Dharma talk tonight.

> What is your refuge? … What helps you forgive? … Take refuge in trust.
>
>
> Jack Kornfield

Jack shared that the wisest of us look at the roots of suffering and the causes
of conflict (for example, he mentioned cyclical, complex trauma). In light of
this, when we haven’t unearthed the axioms of a situation we may find
uncertainty and curiosity are valuable guiding traits. To represent this idea
further see ‘taking a position’ not a ‘side’.

The Dharma then naturally veers towards the crucial role of community in today’s
tumultuous times, especially in fostering peace and support. Somewhere you can
feel safe.

In a grounded sense, this takes much less than you might think. A community can
be just two people. I’ve seen that sending a simple text message saying “I’m
sending you a big hug” to one of my really traumatized and grief-stricken
Palestinian friends went a long way. In a sense, perhaps a litmus test of a
community is a place where you are seen and heard by another person
compassionately.

One poignant observation that was shared, particularly in the context of the
conflict in Palestine, spotlighted the hurdle one faction faces in empathizing
with the other, especially when their minds are clouded with their own distress.
I think this is of critical importance for us to understand. When suffering, we
all need to recognize that unconsciously we are likely to be less present to the
experience of others.

Join a Monday Night Dharma Talk & Meditation with Jack Kornfield [Click here].

> “Spirit Rock’s Monday Night Dharma Talk and Meditation program is open to all
> and meets every Monday night from 7:15 – 9:15 p.m. Jack Kornfield began this
> weekly practice and gathering over 36 years ago to introduce the practices of
> awareness and compassion.”
>
> Spirit Rock

“Don’t let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” – Dalai Lama

This entire post is scoped to discuss the primary definition of refuge, a
physical space. However, there are also virtual and psychological kinds of
refuge. The concept of refuge is helpful to those even without physical conflict
perhaps those who are burned out, lonely, or struggling otherwise.

March 21, 2020October 24, 2023 by dilanshah

MY EXPERIENCE WORKING OUT AT-HOME DURING THE GLOBAL COVID-19 OUTBREAK

* AR, Health, Oculus, Unity3D, VR
* Leave a comment

At first glance, this post might sound pedantic, for comprehensive info on the
Corona Virus visit the WHO Q&As or CDC. This post is in regard to immunological
fitness and how the virus is spread and my personal method of using virtual
reality as an additional form of exercise:

The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from
the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or
exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person.
Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces,
then touching their eyes, nose or mouth

source: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

For the above reason, gyms and other typically crowded workout facilities are
out. However, exercise is still a key part of staying healthy, more on this
further down. I’ve been using an at-home workout strategy using virtual
reality for over two weeks and I’d like to share why this is working for me.

TLDR

If you own a VR headset; some titles that could be used for cardio are:

- Beat Saber
- Box VR
- OhShape
- Thrill of the Fight
- Synth Riders
- Creed: Rise to Glory
- Until You Fall

Active titles that can be modified to be more of a workout:

- Rec Room
- RacketNX
- Pistol Whip
- Lone Echo
- Superhot VR

For general standing activity to afford you some low intensity movement:

- Racket Fury
- Sports Scramble
- VRChat

Virtual reality is a little known option for folks as it relates to fitness, but
now we know at my company YUR that thousands of people use VR games daily to
workout in a fun and efficient way. The big difference is that while wearing a
VR headset you are completely immersed in playing the role of a player in a
game. It’s important to note that this trend towards immersive fitness is
visible with Peloton, Les Mills, and other fitness names.

My month so far has been characterized by workouts between 250 kcals and 750
kcals as you can see, every day (except for March 4th). I’ll tend to use games
such as Box VR or Beat Saber, and with YUR the cool part about this is any game
can be played and tracked which allows for constant novelty the moment you feel
bored of your current exercise regime. This doubles as a benefit if you are
feeling cooped up at home.

> … with YUR any game can be played and tracked which allows for constant
> novelty the moment you feel bored of your current exercise regime

I would characterize the kind of workouts I do in VR as plyometric, and
explosive in nature similar to a HIIT workout. However, this is up to your
personal preference.

As a perennial gym-goer, I have to point out here what VR workouts are not
providing me and others. Hypertrophic or strength benefits from lifting weights,
cycling, rowing, calisthenics, and running are all different from VR workouts.

So how does staying immunologically fit factor into this as well as COVID-19?
I’m not posing a risk to others (as long as I am the only one using my VR
headset). By doing this I’m participating in a community.

To be immunologically fit, you need to be physically fit. “White blood
cells can be quite sedentary,” says Akbar. “Exercise mobilises them by increasing your blood flow, so they can do their surveillance jobs and seek
and destroy in other parts of the body.” The NHS says adults should be
physically active in some way every day, and do at least 150 minutes a week
of moderate aerobic activity (hiking, gardening, cycling) or 75 minutes of
vigorous activity (running, swimming fast, an aerobics class).

`source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/mar/08/how-to-boost-your-immune-system-to-avoid-colds-and-coronavirus`

So basically, in the middle of my day between 1 pm or 6 pm, I throw my Oculus
Quest on and workout for maybe half an hour or so. I hope that this has been
insightful to you and if you have a VR headset perhaps this can factor into your
virus response.

This post initially appeared on my Linkedin.

December 23, 2019October 26, 2023 by dilanshah

BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACES AND VR

* AR, VR
* Curiosity, Curious, Learning, Machine Learning, Oculus, Perspectives,
Student, VirtualReality, VR
* Leave a comment

This post presents a TEDx talk threading through the connected research topics
of games, neuroscience, vr as an input device, and BCI.

https://youtu.be/X-hkS82IFT0

September 25, 2019November 9, 2023 by dilanshah

OCULUS CONNECT 6 TAKEAWAYS

* AR, Oculus, VR
* Leave a comment

Ahead of Oculus Connect 6 (OC6), I attended the Oculus Launchpad and Start
dinner tonight. I saw a ton of vibrant communication and hopes for the next few
days. In no small order, developers were internationally based, from places such
as Canada and New Zealand. I noticed a pattern of developers who seem to be
holding full-time jobs all the while in pursuit of publishing an app to the
Oculus Store.

> .@CymaticBruce opens the Oculus Start and Launchpad Dinner #OC6
> pic.twitter.com/To48xVbUK5
>
> — Dilan Shah #OC6 (@dilan_shah) September 25, 2019

July 30, 2019July 30, 2019 by dilanshah

REALITYKIT MOTION CAPTURE AND APPLE’S FUTURE IPHONE INCLUDING A
TIME-OF-FLIGHT CAMERA

* AR, Good Reads, iOS, Prototyping
* Apple, AR, ARKit, AugmentedReality, iOS, VirtualReality, VR
* Leave a comment

> Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claiming in his latest report that two of the 2020
> iPhones will feature a rear time-of-flight (ToF) 3D depth sensor for better
> augmented reality features and portrait shots, via MacRumors.

“It’s not the first we’ve heard of Apple considering a ToF camera for its 2020
phones, either. Bloomberg reported a similar rumor back in January, and reports
of a 3D camera system for the iPhone have existed since 2017. Other companies
have beaten Apple to the punch here, with several phones on the market already
featuring ToF cameras. But given the prevalence of Apple’s hardware and the
impact it tends to have on the industry, it’s worth taking a look at what this
camera technology is and how it works.

What is a ToF sensor, and how does it work?

Time-of-flight is a catch-all term for a type of technology that measures the
time it takes for something (be it a laser, light, liquid, or gas particle) to
travel a certain distance.

In the case of camera sensors, specifically, an infrared laser array is used to
send out a laser pulse, which bounces off the objects in front of it and
reflects back to the sensor. By calculating how long it takes that laser to
travel to the object and back, you can calculate how far it is from the sensor
(since the speed of light in a given medium is a constant). And by knowing how
far all of the different objects in a room are, you can calculate a detailed 3D
map of the room and all of the objects in it.

The technology is typically used in cameras for things like drones and
self-driving cars (to prevent them from crashing into stuff), but recently,
we’ve started seeing it pop up in phones as well.”

The current state of ARKit 3 and an observation

ARKit 3 has an ever-increasing scope, and of particular interest to me are those
AR features which under the hood rely upon machine learning, namely Motion
Capture.

Today, ARKit 3 uses raycasting as well as ML Based Plane Detection on awake or
when the app using ARKit 3 is initially opened in order to place the floor, for
example.

Check the video below. In it, I’m standing in front of my phone which is propped
up on a table.

In this video, I’m using motion capture via an iPhone XR. My phone is sitting on
a surface (namely the table) that it has determined is the floor plane, and as a
result, you’ll notice that our avatar, once populated into the scene, has an
incorrect notion of where the ground is.

It’s the hope that new ToF sensor technology will allow for a robust and
complete understanding of the layout of objects in the room and the floor. Such
that, for the same context, the device is able to tell that it is sitting on a
table yet, the floor is not that plane but the one further away in the real
world scene before it.

Source:
The Verge, “Apple’s future iPhone might add a time-of-flight camera — here’s
what it could do”

June 8, 2019June 8, 2019 by dilanshah

REBLOG: THOUGHTS ON SWIFTUI FROM WWDC 19

* iOS
* iOS, Learning, reblog
* Leave a comment

SWIFTUI

So what’s the big deal with SwiftUI? Well here’s why I think it’s great.

1. One UI framework for all platforms It has always baffled me why Apple never
made UIKit work on the Mac. If it worked for iOS and tvOS it could certainly
also work on the Mac (which it does now thanks to Project Catalyst). For me,
this means having double the work on many parts of the UI on Secrets for
Mac and iOS. Now and then, you would see rumors that would give you hope.
“Maybe next year” you’d think… but the years passed and nothing. Looking
back, I can’t help but wonder if this was Apple’s plan all along. SwiftUI is
certainly a multi-year effort. The underpinnings of the combined framework
are at least 5 years old:

> Joe Groff@jckarter
> · Jun 4, 2019
>
> Replying to @edwardaux
>
> Combine goes back before even Swift existed. I’ve been helping the SwiftUI
> folks for at least three years, and they were probably working on stuff
> before I knew about it

> David Smith@Catfish_Man
>
> I was curious what the earliest Combine-related file I have on my computer
> is, and it turns out it’s August 14th 2013. I filed the radar it
> references on 10/23/2012.
>
> Also apparently yet another short-lived project name I forgot about??
> pic.twitter.com/FR6NADWrs5
>
> 65
>
> 11:56 PM – Jun 4, 2019
> Twitter Ads info and privacy

And although I haven’t played much with it yet certainly there’ll be a lot
of bugs/shortcomings to iron out for next few years.

2. Declarative To put it succinctly, this means that instead of telling the
framework what to do you tell it what you want. The framework then figures
out how to achieve. And you’ve seen this style of coding already with Auto
Layout. It offloads much of the complexity to the framework.By introducing
this abstraction and letting the framework do the job of composing the UI
for you we get:
* Automatic support for many of the system features: dynamic type,
accessibility, dark mode, etc;
* Adaptive layouts on different platforms (a switch on the iPhone becomes a
checkbox on the Mac);
* Freedom from having to adapt our UI whenever Apple needs to evolve it
(what SwiftUI uses to satisfy a Text element may change on the next
release).

I had a professor that used to say:

> All problems in CS can be solved with one more level of indirection.

It still holds.

3. Reactive I’ve never invested much time with any of the reactive frameworks
out there. I definitely appreciated the principles behind them but I’ve
always been very critical of frameworks1 or technologies2 that are too
invasive.With what I’ve already seen on the sessions and demos, I’m just
about ready to forgive Apple for abandoning development of the controversial
Cocoa Bindings3.

We write so much glue code that I’ve got no problems accepting the learning
curve of all the new stuff that is driving this both in the Swift language
and the new Combine framework.

I’m cautiously excited about SwiftUI and sincerely hope it will live up to
expectations.
Did you enjoy this article? Then read the full version from the author’s
website.

April 9, 2019 by dilanshah

REBLOG: SUFFERING-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

* Good Reads
* Pocket, reblog
* Leave a comment

Suffering-oriented programming can be summarized like so: don’t build technology
unless you feel the pain of not having it. It applies to the big, architectural
decisions as well as the smaller everyday programming decisions.
Suffering-oriented programming greatly reduces risk by ensuring that you’re
always working on something important, and it ensures that you are well-versed
in a problem space before attempting a large investment.

[Nathan Marz has] a mantra for suffering-oriented programming: “First make it
possible. Then make it beautiful. Then make it fast.”

via Did you enjoy this article? Then read the full version from the author’s
website.

October 6, 2018October 6, 2018 by dilanshah

REBLOG: ADVENTURE AT THE 5TH OCULUS CONNECT CONFERENCE

* Good Reads, Oculus, VR
* Leave a comment

The following is a write up from a friend, Kathryn Hicks, on the Danse blog. The
link to the original is at the bottom.

Last week I attended the 5th Oculus Connect Conference held at the San Jose
McEnery Convention Center. This two-day conference is held annually during the
fall, which showcases the new virtual reality technology from Oculus. It was my
second time attending, and it felt even better than the last one.

During the Keynote address, Zuckerberg announced a wireless headset that doesn’t
need a cell phone, and an external computer. The Quest, a standalone headset
with 6 degrees of freedom, touch controllers and is a potential game-changer for
the VR industry. If you are familiar with the Rift and the Oculus Go, the Quest
would be a marriage of the two. The Quest is scheduled to come out this spring
and will be $399, and a lot of the Rift titles will be available on the Quest.
While unfortunately, I was not able to try it, the feedback that I heard from
others was positive. The tetherless aspect of the headset creates a more
immersive experience and doesn’t feel confined. While the graphics capabilities
of the headset are not as high as the Rift, they are good enough and don’t
hinder the experience. Plus the optics, as well as the sound, have improved from
the Oculus Go. On the downside, the Quest is reportedly top heavy and a denser
headset than the Go, which I find the Go to be more substantial than the
lightweight Rift. Since the Quest has four inside out cameras on the front of
you, if you move the controllers behind you, you could potentially lose
tracking. Hopefully, they will make these adjustments before it launches in the
spring and add tracking on the strap. I can see much potential with the Quest,
such as eSports, education, businesses, medical, engineering, set design; the
list goes on. The possibilities are endless, and for the price point, it could
substantially increase VR users. Considering that the Quest will be the price of
most gaming consoles, without the need of television or home set up.

Walking around the conference was lovely, I felt like a kid in a candy store
seeing people putting their full body into the Quest. The well-orchestrated
design layouts and theme of the different experiences were terrific. It was a
pleasure hearing eSports commentary and cheers as competitors go head to head
playing Echo Arena and Onward. Seeing the VR community connect, share laughs,
smile, and have a good time, warmed my heart. I enjoyed watching people play the
Dead & Buried Quest experience in a large arena and seeing their digital avatars
battle each other on screen. I can see more VR arenas being built specifically
for the Quest, kind of like skate parks, or soccer parks, but with a sports
stadium vibe.

While I was at the conference, I tried a few experiences like The Void – Star
Wars Secrets of the Empire, which is a full sensory VR experience. You are an
undercover Rebel fighter disguised as a Stormtrooper, as a user you get to
interact with your teammates fully, feel, and smell the environment around you.
It was a fantastic experience, and I would encourage others to try it at one of
the nine locations.

Another experience I tried was the Wolves in the Walls a VR adaptation of Neil
Gaiman’s book and created by the company Fable. The audience explores parts of
Lucy’s house to try and find hidden wolves in the walls. It was a more intimate
experience, and Lucy’s performance felt pretty lifelike. The environments and
character designs were beautifully portrayed. Overall it was an enjoyable VR
experience.

I also played a multiplayer combat experience called Conjure Strike by The
Strike Team. It’s an engaging multiplayer experience, which you can play as a
different rock like characters that have different classes like an Elementalist,
Mage Hunter, Earth Warden and more. The multiplayer session I had played was
similar to capture the flag game. One player has to push a box toward the other
side while the opposing player stops the player. It was a fun experience similar
to that of Overwatch but in VR. The multiplayer mechanics were excellent, but
some of the controls felt foreign to me. Overall it’s an engaging game that
seems like it would be popular amongst most VR users.

While I didn’t get to play as many demos as I would have liked, I enjoyed the
ones I experienced, especially The Void. It was the most immersive experience I
tried, the few things I would change are: update the headset and enhance the
outside temperature and wind strength.

I’m looking forward to more development put towards, the Quest and I’m
optimistic about the future of VR. As a team member at The Danse, I am excited
to work on projects utilizing immersive technology such as virtual & augmented
reality. Also, to work in an industry, the is ever changing and improving. It’s
nice coming back to the Oculus Connect Conference and see the community excited
about the future of VR.

* Kathryn Hicks
via read the full version from the author’s website.

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