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ksenia12348

The Sex Recession Is Making Young Americans Unhappy - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...586405

happiness trend young people social surveys

shared by ksenia12348 on 10 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • In 2018, happiness among young adults in America fell to a record low. The share of adults ages 18 to 34 reporting that they were“very happy” in life fell to 25 percent—the lowest level that the General Social Survey, a key barometer of American social life, has ever recorded for that population.
  • Happiness fell most among young men—with only 22 percent of young men (and 28 percent of young women) reporting that they were “very happy” in 2018.
  • We wondered whether this trend was rooted in distinct shifts in young adults’ social ties—including what The Atlantic has called “the sex recession,” that is, a marked decline in sexual activity for this group in recent years.
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  • We’re happiest when our ties with others are deep and strong. And the research tells us that the ebb and flow of happiness in America is clearly linked to the quality and character of our social ties—including our friendships, community ties, and marriage. It’s also linked, specifically, to the frequency with which we have sex.
  • So we investigated four indicators of sociability among today’s young adults—marriage, friendship, religious attendance, and sex—in an effort to explain
  • married young adults are about 75 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not married
  • As it turns out, the share of young adults who are married has fallen from 59 percent in 1972 to 28 percent in 2018. The decline has been similar for men and women, although from 2016 to 2018 the share of married men fell, while the share of married women rose.
  • Faith was the second factor. Young adults who attend religious services more than once a month are about 40 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not religious at all
  • The share of young adults who attend religious services more than monthly has fallen from 38 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 2018, even as the share who never attend has risen rapidly.
  • The third factor was friendship. The effect of seeing friends frequently is less clear than that of marriage or religion, but young adults who see their friends regularly do seem to be about 10 percent more likely to report being very happy than their less-sociable peers.
  • Indeed, it may be that rising social time spent with friends in recent years could be buffering young adults from the declines in institutions such as marriage or religion, as friends stand in place of other relationships or forms of community.*
  • And, finally, we looked at sex. Young adults who have sex at least once a week are about 35 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who have no sex.
  • This trend in rising sexlessness is broadly confirmed in other surveys of sexual behavior,
  • Less sex, we speculate, could help account for declining happiness for many young adults.
  • What’s more, as the #MeToo era has taught us, there has been too much unwanted or nonconsensual sex out there, which is obviously bad for the (more often female) target of such advances. From this perspective, the so-called sex recession might just amount to a sexual recalibration, with a lot of bad sex being eliminated from our social lives—and this would be a good thing. For all these reasons, the feminist family historian Stephanie Coontz is “suspicious of any hand-wringing” about the sex recession.
Maria Gurova

Motivating Millennials Takes More than Flexible Work Policies - 0 views

hbr.org/...re-than-flexible-work-policies

Social HR trends talent management Workforce shifting organizational structure motivation openness flexibility flexible hours work life balance work from home risk-tolerant environment feedback

shared by Maria Gurova on 03 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • A 2015 Gallup Poll found that Millennials are the least engaged cohort in the workplace, with only 28.9% saying that they are engaged at work. This, combined with high turnover rates and greater freelance and entrepreneurial opportunities, means that if companies want to retain these valued workers, they will have to double their efforts to meet Millennials where they are
  • A 2015 report on Millennials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce emphasized flex-time as one way to do this — it found that three out of four Millennials reported that work-life balance drives their career choice
  • Multiple studies have revealed that Millennials are keen to see their work as addressing larger societal concerns
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  • the number one reason this cohort leaves a job is directly related to a boss. Other research has found that Millennials want communication from the boss more frequently than any other generation in the workforce.
  • Millennials are strongly drawn to the “anything is possible” spirit of entrepreneurship. Rather than chase these workers away, companies that embrace a risk-tolerant culture and promote learning and experimentation will benefit from the heightened energy around innovation
  • “[Millennials] expect to work in communities of mutual interest and passion – not structured hierarchies,”
  • Shifts in organizational design—including fewer management layers, matrix structures, shared services, and outsourcing
  • Maria Gurova on 03 Apr 16
     
    Key factors that influences Millennials' workplace choices and keep them loyal
Maria Gurova

Pixar Vets Reinvent Speech Recognition So It Works for Kids | WIRED - 0 views

www.wired.com/...toytalk

Technology entertainment KE social Play kids learning VIVO inactive interface voice recognition play patterns transformative

shared by Maria Gurova on 26 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Though characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear are wonderfully realistic and lovable, the relationship that kids have with them is largely one-sided. Kids can hear these characters talk—not only through movies, but games, toys, and other movie merchandise—but they can’t engage them.
  • It was this idea that inspired Jacob to team up with his former Pixar colleague, Martin Reddy, and launch a new company, ToyTalk. The San Francisco-based outfit develops mobile games that let kids have conversations with animated characters—dialogues that can last for hours
  • Known as PullString, it’s equal parts speech recognition engine and script writing tool, and it’s quite a departure from other speech rec tools developed by the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. It’s tailored specifically to kids, whose sentence structure, pitch, and vocal tone have posed challenges for traditional tools.
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  • “The way kids talk and communicate is very different from how adults do, both in terms of how they use language and the fundamental frequencies that come out of their throats,
  • But as he points out, the way today’s children use technology will likely dictate the tech landscape for decades to come. If you can get kids hooked on speech technology young, they’ll stay with it forever.
  • Kids don’t want to ask a monkey character in a game what the weather will be on Tuesday. They want to sing him a song or ask him about life in the zoo.
  • While ToyTalk uses existing third party technology for its raw speech recognition, it works with those partners to develop better recognition models using ToyTalk’s own data. Now, ToyTalk has a trove of some 20 million children’s utterances, which Jacob believes is the largest database of kids conversation in the world
  • “Virtual assistants are awesome when they can answer every question. In our case, it’s the opposite,” Jacob says. “I have to know a lot of things that I’m not able to answer, and redirect the conversation to something that is within character.”
  • And Jacob says some toy companies are already testing PullString to power apps based on existing characters.
  • this technology could give kids a whole new way to play that falls somewhere in between the playground and the imaginary friend. “I think at some deep level if we succeed, we’ll inspire the imagination of kids to talk about things they might not otherwise talk about,”
  • Maria Gurova on 26 Sep 14
     
    the voice rec technology developed by ex-Pixar guy that is targeted to kids. It considers all nuances of kids speech behavior and analyses millions of kids conversations to make interaction with favorite characters within all possible media truly engaging
Maria Gurova

Mattel Unveils ThingMaker, A $300 3D Printer That Lets Kids Make Their Own Toys | TechC... - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...-lets-kids-make-their-own-toys

Technology Play learning creativity 3D Printer made by me maker movement customization personalization toys Physical vs Digital UGC play pattern transformation of play accessibility affordability

shared by Maria Gurova on 16 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Mattel unveiled its new, $300 3D Printer, the “ThingMaker,” which will allow children to print their own toys at home
  • While there are affordably priced 3D printers available today, the software that works with them can sometimes have a learning curve that can hinder adoption. With the new application, live now on iOS and Android, the goal was to make it easy enough for anyone to design their own toys – even younger children
  • The idea isn’t just to print an object and be done, however – instead, kids will print parts that can be assembled to form larger creations, like dolls, robots, dinosaurs, scorpions, skeletons, bracelets or necklaces, for example
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This process can take anywhere from 30 minutes for a small item, up to overnight (e.g. 6 6 to 8 hours) for a larger toy
  • Maria Gurova on 16 Feb 16
     
    Mattel presented a new affordable toy that allows kids to build their own toys at home using a kids-friendly app that is easy to use for a novice and a home 3D printer. The spread of this technology might put pressure on the traditional toy market and create opportunity for IPs owners to allow kids interact with their favorite franchise in the whole new way
alexbelov

Ending patent wars will be a huge boon to the tech industry | TechCrunch - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...huge-boon-to-the-tech-industry

Technology patents law science Economy

shared by alexbelov on 11 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • Because of these patent wars and patent trolls, technology companies are divesting huge resources to defend themselves rather than advancing their innovations. This is the equivalent of nuclear arms race and is a lose-lose situation.
  • do we even need patents in an era in which technology is advancing so rapidly that it makes entire computing platforms obsolete in less time than it takes to be awarded a patent?
  • This happens in the pharmaceutical industry when a company is allowed to exclude competitors for a fixed period of time to recoup its sizable investment in research.
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  • However, if a patent isn’t helping innovation get to consumers, it is not helping society.
  • it is clear that patents are not fulfilling the purpose for which they were intended. The often-cited defense ofpatents, that patent rights encourage inventions that would not otherwise occur, is no longer grounded in reality.
  • In this era of exponentially advancing technologies, the only protections that really matter are speed to market and technological obsolescence. The underlying technologies are changing so fast, that by a time a patent is filed, it loses its innovation value.
  • alexbelov on 11 Mar 16
     
    Patents are no longer serving society needs. Today they hinder the progress. Chances are that patents are going to be abolished or will take some different form.
Maria Gurova

Tesla's Model S Has New Autopilot Tech--And I Just Sat Behind The Wheel | Fast Company ... - 0 views

www.fastcompany.com/...nd-i-just-sat-behind-the-wheel

Technology tesla transportation Market autonomous transport autonomous vehicle self-driving car accessibility

shared by Maria Gurova on 16 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Tesla is rolling out version 7.0 of its software, and with it new autopilot features that allow the car to stay in its lane, change lanes, and parallel park itself.
  • the new Autosteer feature. This is designed specifically for highway driving, and when engaged keeps the car in its lane. When you need to change lanes, you flip your turn signal and the car will move over on its own when it determines it’s safe to do so.
  • That "hands-on" detail is an important one. CEO Elon Musk emphasizes that the update is a public beta. "We say keep your hands on the wheel because it’s very important to exercise caution at this early stage,"
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  • Musk acknowledges that eventually we’ll not only be able to take our hands off the wheel, but there won’t be a steering wheel to begin with.
  • "This version doesn’t take into account stop signs and stop lights, but a future version will,"
  • "The more miles that are driven the better it will get," says Musk. "People should see the car improve with every passing week."
  • Maria Gurova on 16 Oct 15
     
    Autosteer feature that has been added to the recent update of Tesla vehicles software update is another step toward self-driving cars. In 10 years time the technology might lead to a accessibility of driving to everyone without the necessity of having a driving license 
Maria Gurova

Is it curtains for the big screen? - FT.com - 1 views

next.ft.com/...e8-1c1c-11e6-a7bc-ee846770ec15

Theatrical entertainment in-home vs in-theatre screen fights The Screening Room premium formats windowing strategy Pause pushers tentpole strategy blockbuster

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, US movie attendance peaked in 2002 and has been steadily declining ever since. To compensate, theatres have rolled out new technologies such as 3D, Imax and premium large-format cinemas, raising their ticket prices and thus keeping the box office at record-breaking levels
  • The majority of us are increasingly staying home.
  • At Cannes this year, the studio with the most films in competition
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • was not one of the big studios, but the streaming service Amazon.
  • But blockbusters have a design flaw: their marketing costs are enormous — opening a movie typically costs anywhere from $20m — and they spend less and less time in cinemas. To take a recent example, ticket sales for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped by an astonishing 68.4 per cent on its second weekend
  • “What you’re going to end up with is fewer theatres,” George Lucas said during a panel at the University of Southern California in 2013. “Bigger theatres, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100.”
  • He argued that a film will come out in cinemas for 17 days — three weekends — which is where 98 per cent of films make 95 per cent of their revenues anyway. On the 18th day, the film will be available everywhere and you will pay for the size: a movie screen will be $15, a 75-inch TV will be $4, a smartphone will be $1.99.
  • “Fifty per cent of Americans did not step into a movie theatre last year, and of the 50 per cent that did go into a theatre, 95 per cent of them went to one or two films,”
  • Arguably, it’s more visual than television. It has our full attention: each frame must pull its weight in terms of narrative and spectacle. That is why it is a director’s medium: it envelops us. TV comes to us, into our homes, casual, familiar, favouring habit-forming episodic narratives. That is why it is a writer’s medium. The big screen glamorises — its stars are the stuff of myth; the small screen is more like a member of the family
  • And something like The Avengers, it’s too much fun laughing with the audience. These things are communal experiences.
  • But then many film-makers would argue that movies should be consumed differently from music: a song is a song wherever you play it, whereas films were built for the big screen.
  • “I don’t think that experience is going to die,” says Obst, “although I do worry that eventually we will all be inside on our huge computer screens, watching all of the different types of entertainment together
  • Nothing breaks the spell of the movie more instantly than the pause button.
Maria Gurova

The Public Costs of Private Distribution Strategies: Content Release Windows as Negativ... - 0 views

www.project-disco.org/...dows-as-negative-externalities

Theatrical windowing strategy Political policy legal Copyright content production piracy Pirates don't Surrender

shared by Maria Gurova on 08 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • “copyright extremism” – a term he used to describe extended delays in content distribution, which often result in content reaching foreign markets months after it is released in the United States.
  • Essentially, “extremism” is another way of saying that piracy is more a business model problem than a policy problem. 
  • The strategy of windowing has long been practiced because it is believed to maximize revenue opportunities for a given film.  By giving successive distribution channels exclusive rights to the work, a film distributor aims to extract maximum revenues from licensees in each channel.
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  • Even if film distributors were to reject the conventional wisdom of windowing, those windows are jealously guarded by their respective sectors.  The theatrical exhibition window is particularly so
  • announced in September 2014 that they would distribute a sequel to the 2000 hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon simultaneously via Netflix and IMAX theaters worldwide, movie theater chains swiftly circled the wagons and announced a boycott of the Weinsteins’ film.
  • “value of ownership for the consumer” is a euphemism for “consumer willingness-to-pay.”  The longer a consumer must wait before they can watch a movie on their Netflix subscription, the likelier that consumer is to pay for a DVD
  • numerous industries have attempted to insulate themselves from disruption by persuading lawmakers to prescribe their exclusive industrial role in public laws, including auto dealers and beer distributors
  • windowing has been widely criticized as contributing to piracy, and “leaving money on the table.”  Empirical evidence bears that out.  Content producers are not unaware of this data; their calculus is that the revenues attributable to aggressive windowing (and avoiding friction with their distributors) exceed losses associated with piracy.
  • Windowing alienates consumers and arguably undermines respect for copyright in countries that receive content late
  • In the content distribution example, compensation might involve repayment for government resources expended on attributable piracy, perhaps based on a user-fee model that various government agencies already have.  If the windowed release distribution model generated more revenue than the costs it incurs, it would continue, taxpayers would be made whole, and the externality would be “internalized.”
Maria Gurova

How To Get More People Into Movie Theaters (Without Higher Ticket Prices) - 3 views

www.forbes.com/...s-without-higher-ticket-prices

CIS Technology entertainment Theatrical Immersive Experience Market Economy

shared by Maria Gurova on 02 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Its newest toy is called Barco Escape and right now it’s essentially three theater screens in one space — the main screen and then additional screens on the left and right walls. The effect is a 270-degree image that makes viewers feel like they are in the middle of the action.
  • It’s the kind of premium experience that most people would expect to pay extra for but Schilowitz says part of the point of Escape is to give viewers a more theme-park like experience without charging any more for a ticket.
  • One of the biggest trends right now is people watching other people play video games.
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  • Schilowitz hopes to engage brands to make 270-degree short films to show before the actual movie. Think Red Bull's Red Bull's many extreme sports videos. Now picture them in an immersive experience.  The money coming from brands could help offset the costs of the Escape screen.
  • Schilowitz believes you could take that experience into the theater. Have two people playing a virtual reality game while strapped into Oculus Rift-type devices and people would pay to watch the game on the big screen if top- ranked players were competing.
  • Escape will also be used to show things like concerts which can be better experienced with a wider screen. A Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett show will debut in Escape theaters in 2015.
  • Maria Gurova on 02 Oct 14
     
    The new technology that may transform all that real estate Theaters owns into the arcades of the future.  
Maria Gurova

Driverless cars, pilotless planes … will there be jobs left for a human being... - 3 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...rs-pilotless-planes-jobs-human

robotics Technology Social KE CIS employment expertise jobs big data wicked issues wellbeing

shared by Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • From staff-free ticket offices to students who can learn online, it seems there is no corner of economic life in which people are not being replaced by machines.
  • One of the reasons Google is investing so much is that whoever owns the communications system for driverless cars will own the 21st century's equivalent of the telephone network or money clearing system: this will be a licence to print money.
  • The only new jobs will be in the design and marketing of the cars, and in writing the computer software that will allow them to navigate their journeys, along with the apps for our mobile phones that will help us to use them better
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  • The invention of 3D printing, in which every home or office will be equipped with an in-house printer that can spew out the goods we want – from shoes to pills – anticipates a world of what Summers calls automated "doers". They will do everything for us, eliminating the need for much work.
  • we have come to the end of the great "general purpose technologies" (technologies that transform an entire economy, such as the steam engine, electricity, the car and so on) that changed the world. There are no new transformative technologies to carry us forward, while the old activities are being robotised and automated.
  • The second is in human wellbeing. There will be vast growth in advising, coaching, caring, mentoring, doctoring, nursing, teaching and generally enhancing capabilities.
  • Notwithstanding robotisation and automation, I identify four broad areas in which there will be vast job opportunities.The first is in micro-production
  • The third is in addressing the globe's "wicked issues" . There will be new forms of nutrition and carbon-efficient energy, along with economising with water, to meet the demands of a world population of 9 billion in 2050.
  • And fourthly, digital and big data management will foster whole new industries
  • the truth is, nobody knows. What we do know is that two-thirds of what we consume today was not invented 25 years ago. It will be the same again in a generation's time
  • Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13
     
    demand for the new expertise may impact not only the school and academic education, but earlier development stages
Maria Gurova

FuturePundit: Regulations For Offspring Genetic Engineering - 0 views

www.futurepundit.com/...009750.html

bioengineering Health DNA genetic engineering inequality ethics Political population Future of Talent enhanced offsprings world government Humanity

shared by Maria Gurova on 07 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • The prospect of genetically much altered future generations is no longer in the distant science fiction future but rather in the "some of the people reading this will live to see it on large scale" future.
  • Some more competitive governments might mandate genetic editing to put a floor on intelligence. Want a first class high tech economy? Allow no kid below 120 IQ. The first government to do that will have the highest per capita income economy in the world 50 years later if not much sooner.
  • My expectation is that differences in regulatory response to germ line genetic engineering technologies will cause the populations of the world's various countries to diverge in a variety of ways that will be immediately visibl
  • Maria Gurova on 07 Apr 15
     
    in the highly delicate mater of genetic engineering that might become a reality sooner that one might expect, how would the individual governments react? And is this an internal affair that is to be handled inside the country that might get the first access to the high-end bio engineering technology. 
Vladimir Antonov

Soon, Gmail's AI Could Reply to Your Email for You | WIRED - 0 views

www.wired.com/...ate-automatic-replies-in-gmail

Technology AI Big Data recognition simplification communication emotion manipulation customisation personalisation scanning Social

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 05 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • what’s called “deep learning”—a form of artificial intelligence that’s rapidly reinventing a wide range of online services—the company is beefing up its Inbox by Gmail app so that it can analyze the contents of an email and then suggest a few (very brief) responses
  • The idea is that you can rapidly respond to someone while on the go—without having to manually tap a fresh message into your smartphone keyboard.
  • system learns to generate appropriate replies by analyzing scads of email conversations from across Google’s Gmail service
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  • neural network—a vast network of machines that approximates the web of neurons in the human brain—and this neural network analyzes the information in order to “learn” a particular task.
  • Google’s Smart Reply system doesn’t always get things right. But that’s part of the reason the company provides three potential replies to each email—not just one.
  • The system uses what’s called a “long short-term-memory,” or LSTM, neural network. Essentially, this is a neural net that exhibits something akin to human memory. It can “remember” the beginning of an email as it’s parsing the end—and that helps it, on some level, understand this natural language
  • Vladimir Antonov on 05 Nov 15
     
    This technology could be developed further to other areas, to tailored made games for kids for example, that are adopt to each individual gaming style so kids find that games are actually made specially for them what makes their experience really personal and unique.
Vladimir Antonov

Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says aid expert - 0 views

www.dezeen.com/...erview-humanitarian-aid-expert

refugee social Technology Economy environment segregation

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 26 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Governments should stop thinking about refugee camps as temporary places
  • "These are the cities of tomorrow,"
  • The average stay today in a camp is 17 years. That's a generation."
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • lack of willingness to recognise that camps had become a permanent fixture around the world
  • "We're doing humanitarian aid as we did 70 years ago after the second world war. Nothing has changed."
  • He believes that migrants coming into Europe could help repopulate parts of Spain and Italy that have been abandoned as people gravitate increasingly towards major cities
  • "Many places in Europe are totally deserted because the people have moved to other places," he said. "You could put in a new population, set up opportunities to develop and trade and work. You could see them as special development zones which are actually used as a trigger for an otherwise impoverished neglected area."
  • "It creates tons of jobs, even for those who are coming in now. Germany will come out of this crisis."
  • that aid organisations and governments needed to accept that new technologies like 3D printing could enable refugees and migrants to become more self-sufficient.
  • With a Fab Lab people could produce anything they need – a house, a car, a bicycle, generating their own energy, whatever
  • my god, these are just refugees, so why should they be able to do 3D-printing
  • We have to get away from the concept that, because you have that status – migrant, refugee, martian, alien, whatever – you're not allowed to be like everybody else.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 26 Nov 15
     
    Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says humanitarian-aid expert. The main idea is those people could be relocated to the abandoned areas in Europe and start a better life with their communities, but governments should provide them with these opportunities and stop thinking about those cities as permanent relocation places.
Maria Gurova

Instagram to ramp up efforts to lure small businesses - FT.com - 1 views

www.ft.com/...44-11e5-846f-79b0e3d20eaf.html

Social Media social networks Economy monetization ad market maker movement entrepreneurship digital advertising one-click purchase buy now micro-moments Hyper Consumerism accessibility big data manipulation Technology advertising to kids

shared by Maria Gurova on 08 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • When we launched ads two years ago, ads were available in just eight countries. In September, we opened for business in around 200 countries
  • Facebook’s global sales team was beginning to push Instagram’s advertising to small businesses, providing them with the ability to target marketing at particular users
  • that international expansion was a priority, with 75 per cent of its more than 400m users based outside the US
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  • it has said that its second-largest market outside its home country is Brazil, where it has about 29m users. On Monday, it announced that it has 9m users in Germany and has previously said that it has more than 14m users in the UK
  • Analysts only just started releasing their estimates last year, suggesting the app could generate between $1.2bn and $2bn in sales in 2016
  • Instagram’s monthly active user base could reach up to 520m by the end of 2016.
  • Instagram launched an advertising format that allowed marketers to include links to their products and websites. The so-called “carousel adverts” allow a brand to display several images at once and use a “learn more” button to lead consumers to its own sit
  • the company had no immediate plans to introduce a “Buy” button, similar to the one that Facebook has been trialling. Retailers want the group to introduce functions that will allow users to purchase products seen through the app
  • Instagram is attractive to advertisers partly because of its popularity with hard-to-reach teenagers.
  • A lobbying push by big technology groups, including Facebook, helped to water down the proposed ban. National governments will now be able to reduce the age at which personal data may be used to 13
  • Maria Gurova on 08 Feb 16
     
    Instagram is now focusing on leveraging more of the parent company resources to increase app's monetization through ad sales. Therefore making their ad features available on the international markets and focusing on the smaller companies and entrepreneurs 
al_semenchenko

There Are Some Super Shady Things in Oculus Rift's Terms of Service - 1 views

gizmodo.com/-oculus-rifts-terms-1768678169

Technology Social economy entertainment VR concerns VR Oculus digital economy

shared by al_semenchenko on 02 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • If you create something with the Rift, the Terms of Service say that you surrender all rights to that work and that Oculus can use it whenever it wants
  • Oculus can collect data from you while you’re using the device
  • Furthermore, the information that they collect can be used to directly market products to you
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • What’s most worrisome here is that the emergence of VR technology opens up an new type of data for companies to mine en masse which can be collected efficiently. The fact that Oculus, the clear leader in the new VR marketplace, is setting this precedent could be dangerous for the future of the technology.
  • the Oculus Rift is a device that is always on (much like Microsoft’s Xbox One Kinect feature) which leads to further concerns about when the information will be collected.
  • al_semenchenko on 02 Apr 16
     
    Oculus already gathering much more personal data than were possible before, and owns any UGC created with the help of Oculus.
Maria Gurova

James Cameron on the Future of Cinema | 40th Anniversary | Smithsonian - 1 views

www.smithsonianmag.com/...on-the-future-of-cinema-983659

Theatrical Technology entertainment moviegoing content production talent Storytelling

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • The technology has changed but the basics of the job haven’t. It is still about storytelling, about juxtaposing images, about creating a feeling with images and music. Only the technical details have changed
  • I think there will be movie thea­ters in 1,000 years. People want the group experience, the sense of going out and participating in a film together
  • I think it will be standard in 4 years, not 40. We will have a glasses-free technology in five years at home and three years for laptops. The limiting factor is going to be content. You can’t rely on a few films a year for this. It is going to have to be 3-D broadcast sports, scripted television, non-scripted television and reality television
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  • Hollywood is also the place for filmmakers who want to make movies for a global market. China and Russia make films for their own markets, but I don’t see the likelihood of those places replacing Hollywood
  • Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16
     
    James Cameron believes that despite of exciting new technology - making movie is and will always be about the story. also he is certain that going to watch a movie together is a shared group experience that audience will still be looking for in the future, no mater how advance the in-home technology will be
Maria Gurova

The future of local government - 0 views

newcity.ca/publicspace.html

Social KE public spaces citizenship government kid's health community

shared by Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • We increasingly live in a world where we don’t have to leave our homes, and when we do, we travel in isolation
  • It is in public space that we encounter a wide variety of people different from ourselves. Public spaces are important because they provide room to negotiate how we will live together in a highly populated environment. Encountering people of different races, classes, ages and abilities on a daily basis has the potential to cultivate a citizenry that is more tolerant of diversit
  • Streets are declining as a form of public space because street life often is perceived – and sometime is – unsafe: thus we frequently retreat indoors, making the streets even less safe
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Harford argues that much can be done to make public space safe for children. “I would like to see pedestrian-friendly crossings more frequently on streets. I would like to see the streets be more kid-oriented with wider sidewalks, as well as a more coherent attitude amongst people on the street to be watching out for kids.”
  • in “real life, only from the ordinary adults of the city sidewalks do children learn – if they learn it at all – the first fundamental of successful city life: People must take a modicum of public responsibility for each other even if they have no ties to each other.
  • Ronda Howard, a Vancouver senior city planner, notes that when there are greater incentives for people to walk in their neighbourhoods, there are more eyes on the street: thus the streets become safer.
  • Despite the challenges facing parents raising children in the city, different social networks can augment child involvement in public space. Harford says that strong social ties help increase her son’s autonomy in Vancouver
  • When we actively engage with others who are different from us, we have the opportunity to become more sophisticated and tolerant citizens. When we get to know the diverse members of our communities, we create social networks that make our cities safer and more enjoyable. Public spaces are integral to making this happen. These spaces are an antidote to the inward gaze of individualism. We need to reclaim public space and work to expand its boundaries. It’s time for us to leave the house of the self in the background, and go outside
  • Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13
     
    how modern public spaces are interconnected with the health and social skills of the future generation. When kids spent less time indoors not only their health become vulnerable, but also their position as future citizens 
Maria Gurova

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface | ExtremeTech - 0 views

www.extremetech.com/...anted-brain-computer-interface

Technology science wireless implants brain-computer interface

shared by Maria Gurova on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Researchers at Brown University have succeeded in creating the first wireless, implantable, rechargeable, long-term brain-computer interface. The wireless BCIs have been implanted in pigs and monkeys for over 13 months without issue, and human subjects are next.
  • Brown’s wireless BCI allows the subject to move freely, dramatically increasing the quantity and quality of data that can be gathered — instead of watching what happens when a monkey moves its arm, scientists can now analyze its brain activity during complex activity, such as foraging or social interaction
  • the device’s power consumption, which is just 100 milliwatts. For a device that might eventually find its way into humans, frugal power consumption is a key factor that will enable all-day, highly mobile usage
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Amusingly, though, the research paper notes that the wireless charging does cause significant warming of the device
  • While the wireless BCI isn’t approve for human use (and there’s no indication that they’re seeking approval yet), it was designed specifically so that it should be safe for human use.
Maria Gurova

2 | Samsung Introduces A Wearable Health Tracker That Geeks and Insurance Companies Wil... - 0 views

www.fastcompany.com/...-tracker-that-geeks-and-insura

wearable health tracker Technology samsung big data

shared by Maria Gurova on 29 May 14 - No Cached
  • The popularity of wearable health trackers, such as Fitbit, Jawbone UP, and Nike FuelBand, have created a problem
  • Hardly anyone has developed algorithms that derive actionable insights from the data that your body generates, and the dashboards are separate
  • Samsung is not planning to release a wearable health monitor to consumers, but expects other developers to build on the reference design shown today.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • In a study conducted with the University of Chicago involving 15 patients who had experienced heart failure, sensors and predictive analysis were able to detect early signs of heart problems
  • Though Samsung will still compete on a consumer level, the data on its platform could ramp up its business serving health care professionals.
  • "big data to small data, and small data to insights that people can understand--that are actionable,"
  • Maria Gurova on 29 May 14
     
    Samsung is trying to find a solution on how to interpret the big data collected from the health tracking wearable devices 
Vladimir Antonov

Scientists create a prototype for the human skin|Interesting E... - 0 views

interestingengineering.com/e-prototype-for-the-human-skin

Technology entertainment science skin

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 25 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • What makes this device very interesting is that it is extremely cheap to make. Replicating the human skin involves creating a device that can detect pressure, touch, proximity, temperature, humidity, flow, and pH levels all at the same time. In order to achieve this, one would expect that highly sophisticated sensors and circuits will be used. That does not happen to be the case. This team used common household items such as sticky notes, napkins, aluminum foils and sponges to create the paper skin. The whole device cost only $1,67 to make.
  • “My vision is to make electronics simple to understand and easy to assemble so that ordinary people can participate in innovation.”
  • Compared to various pricey sensors out there, the paper skin looks to be a good alternative with many potential applications. According to test results, it has already been seen that the paper skin performs on the same level as the more expensive sensors currently available.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “Compared with the sophisticated and complex artificial skin platforms found in the literature, Paper Skin not only provides the most functionalities on one platform, including 13-cm range proximity sensing, but also displays improved sensing performances over the highly expensive counterpart materials,” said Joanna Nassar, an electrical engineer at KAUST and the lead author in the research work.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 25 Feb 16
     
    science's getting cheaper
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