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Tech NewsNewsX Prize Offers $8 Million Dollar Bounty for Building Robot Avatars for Humans by 2021
From Power Rangers to Pacific Rim, we’ve always had the same dream: controlling a badass robot and saving the world. Now’s the time. The X Prize Foundation (stylized as “XPRIZE”) is a nonprofit helmed by Peter Diamandis that funds technological grand challenges. Since the inaugural 1996 competition, challenge themes have included adult literacy, AI, women’s … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogleGoogle Wants to Represent You in VR With Googly Eyes
In the VR future, less is more. Though video games and the like have people used to extremely complicated avatars, Google’s VR engineers are seeing how much they can strip down the avatars without making people confused. Engineer Rob Jagnow, who is working on the Daydream VR platform, writes that avatars can be“be simplified to … Continued
By Angela Chen -
Tech NewsFacebook
WTF, People Are Combating Facebook’s Rainbow Avatars With American Flags
If your Facebook friend suddenly debuts an especially patriotic avatar this week, it might not be because they’re extra excited about the 4th of July. To combat all that gay in their timelines, some conservatives are calling for true Americans cover their profile photos with American flags instead. To counter the 26 million or so … Continued
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Tech News
Deepak Chopra Has the Worst Avatar Ever on Twitter
Deepak Chopra, online werewolf and mortal nemesis of Gizmodo’s Matt Novak, wants you to know the possiblities are infinite. A message he decided to share with the world using the only medium that matters anymore—his Twitter avatar. The possibilities are so infinite, in fact, that he has freed himself from the shackles of spelling. B … Continued
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Tech News
What Was Your First Avatar?
When I joined Friendster in 2003, I uploaded my first avatar. It was Chuck Close’s undeniably gritty and terrific “Big Self-Portrait” from the 1960s, dangling cigarette and all. When I joined Facebook a year later, I used the same one. Friends I hadn’t seen for ages thought my life had taken a turn. I liked … Continued
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Tech NewsArtificial Intelligence
Job Applicants Admit More to a Computer Avatar, Says U.S. Gov’t Study
Applying for a U.S. government job? You’ll have to answer questions on drug use, criminal activity, and your loyalty to the U.S.A. And thanks to a government study, you might answer to an on-screen avatar, rather than a paper questionnaire. Researchers at the National Center for Credibility Advancement, the U.S. military’s “premiere educational center for … Continued
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io9
Brain interface lets one monkey control the movements of another
Neuroscientists have taken us one step closer to an Avatar-like world after demonstrating a brain-to-spinal-cord interface that allowed a “master” monkey to remotely control the hand movement of an “avatar” monkey who was completely unconscious. Scientists have already developed brain-to-brain interfaces, but this is the first demonstration of a brain-to-spinal-cord interface. The breakthrough could eventually … Continued
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Tech NewsMicrosoftThis Genius Kinect Rig Puts You Inside a Video Game in Two Minutes Flat
What if, the next time you played a video game, the main character not only looked like you but had the same body, same clothes, same everything? How would it change the way you related to the game? How would it change the way you relate to the other characters in it? I found out. … Continued
By Brent Rose -
Tech News
Twitter Just Outlawed Animated GIF Avatars
Amid all the horrible horrible changes and new policies Twitter has implemented in the past six months, one of the few saving graces is that it never nixed the ability to upload animated GIFs for use as avatars. As Buzzfeed FWD points out, Twitter has claimed it would enforce the policy sooner or later, and … Continued
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Tech News
Do You Want to Live Forever?
If you saw James Cameron’s Avatar and thought “Hey now! That looks like a wise and wonderful way of existing in this world!” a Russian dreamer named Dmitry Itskov is the man you want to know. HIs “2045 Initiative” is modern, multi-billion dollar answer to the mortality. Or so he hopes it to be. But … Continued
By Molly Oswaks -
Tech News
Computer Program Uses Avatar Role Play to Help Children Combat Social Anxiety
Computer programs have long been used to help teach children important life skills: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing a shining early example of a virtual world in which kids could learn. And as the technology has improved, so too has its application. The University of Central Florida Anxiety Disorders Clinic in partnership with the Atlanta-based company … Continued
By Molly Oswaks -
Tech NewsThis Flirtatious NYC Airport Avatar Was Definitely Designed by a Dude
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has installed in Newark Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia airports an interactive avatar projected onto a plexiglass silhouette of a woman’s body. Lost and disoriented travelers can ask her for help with things like getting to the correct gate, security checkpoint rules, and duty-free shopping. And all … Continued
By Molly Oswaks -
Tech News
Augmented Reality Avatar James May Is Your New Museum Buddy
Unlike Tupac, BBC host James May doesn’t have to be dead before we get an augmented reality version of him. Granted, this is not quite as thrilling as having a Hologram Tupac Shakur perform as if still living, but as far as museum guides go, an augmented reality miniature man is a pretty sweet deal. … Continued
By Molly Oswaks -
Tech NewsMicrosoftThis Is Why Xbox Live Avatars Are Cartoon-y, Not Creepy
Xbox’s Avatar Kinect is pretty wild: It tracks and replicates your facial expressions with surprising precision. Which probably made you think about having a more realistic Avatar reppin’ yourself owning up 12-year-olds in Halo, or something. But Microsoft Research‘s Photo-Real Talking Head project, which uses 2D photos to make a photo-realistic 3D model of a … Continued
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Tech NewsMicrosoft
Avatar Kinect: Now Your Avatar Smiles, Smirks and Talks When You Do
Your Xbox Live avatar leads a lonely existence. Or did, anyway, before Avatar Kinect came along. Now, Kinect recognizes your face: When you smile, when you raise your eyebrows, when you talk—and your Avatar uncannily does the same. We knew Avatar Kinect was en route, but the details are even more impressive than the speculation. … Continued
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Tech NewsMichael Jackson’s 3D Body Scans on eBay for $1.5 Million
This just seems wrong. A U.S businessman claims he’s been sitting on 3D scans from 1996, when MJ was aged 37. It’s rumored the singer wanted a virtual or robot double, and this data, if real, would enable just that. You might remember that Jackson had once planned a 50-foot mecha with a moving face … Continued
By Danny Allen -
io9Movies
Electric New Surrogates Clips Show The Advantages Of Being Plugged In
A brand-new Surrogates trailer and two clips show all the pros of having your own robot avatar. For example: being able to take a hit from a speeding car, or giving Bruce Willis sexy robo-hair. These trailers and clips feel like the first time we’re actually getting a taste of the Surrogates, and it’s got … Continued