Lifeboat Foundation

The oldest known animal in history has been discovered thanks to some well-preserved animal fat that’s been sitting in northwest Russia for the past 558 million years. The find expands the confirmed existence of animals by three million years.

The ancient animal is a Dickinsonia, which looks more like a creature from a sci-fi movie than something you’d expect to run into on Earth. Dickinsonia were oval-shaped creatures spread flat like pancakes that could grow up to four and a half feet long. Previously, the oldest macroscopic animal in the geological record was the mollusc-like Kimberella from 555 million years ago.

Shall we play a game?

Ryff has a big idea that it says could turn the $23 billion product placement market upside down. Product placement is the advertising tactic of placing a branded object, like a bottle of Coca-Cola, in a scene in a movie or a TV show.

Los Angeles-based Ryff has figured out how to do this digitally with cloud technology. Ryff figures out the places in video content where virtual objects can be placed in a scene where they seem like they are a natural part of the environment. That means the objects have to be rendered realistically enough so they can be mistaken for being part of a real scene, as recorded in a movie or TV show or a commercial, said Roy Taylor, CEO of Ryff, at an event on Thursday evening.

“We are on a new platform that makes images intelligent,” Taylor said. “Ryff is the world’s first image technology company using AI and visual computing to change the way we experience entertainment.”

Continue reading “Ryff lets advertisers place any virtual object into commercials and films” »

The Venus Project is looking for VR artists for their project, Check it out!

A new project at The Venus Project has been started and a team consisting of video game industry veterans has been formed for its development.

The VR (Virtual Reality) Simulator will give access for everybody with a VR set to dive into a 360° projection of a city according to The Venus Project’s designs and experience it from the inside.

Continue reading “Virtual Reality Simulation” »

You can now control the Xbox from Alexa and Cortana. Microsoft announced his morning it’s introducing a new way to interact with Xbox One using voice commands, by way of an Xbox Skill that works with both Alexa and Cortana, across platforms. The skill will allow users to launch games, adjust the volume, start and stop their broadcasts to Mixer, capture screenshots and more.

For example, players will be able to say to their Echo speaker, “Alexa, start Rocket League,” and the console would power on, sign them in, and launch the game.

To use the new feature with Alexa, players will first have to sign in with their Amazon account then link their Microsoft account to the skill. With Cortana, users will instead have to first sign into the Xbox they want to control, then sign in with their Microsoft account to link the skill on their Windows 10 PC.

Continue reading “You can now use Alexa and Cortana to control your Xbox” »

Acer is demoing an insane gaming chair / battlestation that’d be amazing to play with — if you could afford it.

Film has always had a special place in my heart. It’s helped me through so many stages in my life.

I’ve felt so unmotivated these past few years and decided to work on something that would inspire me.

Continue reading “Our Deepest Fear” »

The annual 2018 World Robot Conference in Beijing is a showcase of China’s burgeoning industry ranging from companion robots to those deployed on factory assembly lines and entertainment.

By integrating Watson with the Unity game engine, IBM is pushing its AI services to game and VR developers.