Week Three: Magic Leap

Magic Leap is a company that seems to be developing a truly futuristic technology. They have created a digital light field that mimics the way real objects appear to your brain. The implications of such technology are astounding, and if this really pans out, I can't wait to see it hit the market. What Magic Leap has shown us so far is incredible. So incredible, I have to wonder if it's real.

But even though they won't commit to a release date, or show us how they are making their technology, a little research shows us that Magic Leap is indeed a real thing. It's founded by Rony Abovitz, who tells us that they will eventually release some kind of wearable device that will project 3D images into the real world.

When it finally comes out, this tech is going to completely change the way the world works. I can't wait.

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual reality game where you can live an alternate life through a customization avatar. The game is based on real life with the addition of endless opportunities to choose from. For example, you can fly in Second Life. It was really big when it first came out and people thought that it was going to be the future of business. The hype died down after a couple years, but the game still has a huge following of devoted players. It's supposed to be a pretty cool game, and it's free, so I downloaded it. I didn't like it at all.

One of the reasons I didn't like it is probably due to the quality of my computer, but I got a lot of lag when I started playing. It was very frustrating to learn how to move around.
Another thing I didn't like it was the confusing user interface. It's super complicated and the tutorial doesn't show you how to use it at all. There's just a bunch of buttons everywhere that do something, and the only thing the tutorial shows you how to do is move around.

When I got to the second island I tried to customize my character, but that too is needlessly complicated. There are a million different avatars you can choose from, and editing them requires at least three components. Some of the avatars that I thought would be cool, like the tiger one or the cat one, turned out to be incredibly cheesy. Something else that disappointed me about the character customization is that you can't have the lower body of say, a tiger, by clicking on tiger legs, and the upper body of a human. I found this to be extremely frustrating since at first glance it seemed to be set up that way.

I suppose this might be a cool game for some people, but it really didn't interest me and I wasn't too impressed with it.

Second Life Source

Week Two: Virtual Reality- The Future of Gaming

Virtual reality is something that has interested me since I was a little kid. I've always dreamed of technology that allows me to be IN a story. Now, finally, it's become a reality; and from the looks of things it's going to be even more amazing than I could have dreamed.

The first Virtual Reality headset to hit the market was the Oculus Rift, which launched on March 28th. Soon after that came the HTC Vive, which launched on April 5th. Both of these VR headsets connect to gaming PCs, and are available for much the same price. Which one is better seems to be a matter of opinion and preference.

But what I'm really excited about is the new VR device coming out in October, the Playstation VR. This is a new headset by Sony, made for the PS4, with a lot of new games coming out to accompany it. And from the looks of things, it's going to be even better than the Rift and Vive headsets, which were pretty amazing. I'm beyond excited about how quickly Virtual Reality is progressing and I can't wait to see what the future holds for this new approach to gaming.

Week One: How Cool Could This Be!

Project Ara: This is a new phone idea, made by Google.

Essentially, you get to build your own phone, with all the components that are important to you.
Is battery life a big deal? You get to put in as big a battery as you want.
Do you want a crystal clear camera image? You got it.
Is data storage a big deal? Go for it!
With Project Ara, you start with a basic shell and then add all the different parts of a smartphone that are important to you. And guess what? You also get to design what it looks like! Here's a video explaining all about it.

Unfortunately, Project Ara seems to have run into some difficulties with their drop test. The initial market launch was to be in late 2015, but because the electromagnets they were using to attach the components to the phone body weren't holding up to drop tests. Therefore the new market launch is said to be happening this year. This looks like it could be something really cool and I'm excited to see how it turns out! I might actually buy a smartphone!

Project Ara Source

Introduction

I am taking this class because it's part of my required classes for the HIT program. I'm excited about it because I've always wanted to learn more about computers, but I don't have the natural head for it that my brothers do. I'm looking forward to all that we learn and I hope to be able to take some other computer classes on down the line, maybe as electives or something.