Virtual reality and Dining

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The history of entertainment is a long one. We have gone from banquet entertainment during Roman and Medieval times. We have had radio and television to entertain us. We have also had books, magazines and kindles. The idea of Virtual Reality and dinner is not that strange.

What is fascinating about Virtual reality is that in our lifetime it has gone from requiring massive computers and cumbersome devices. Today virtual reality can be experienced with a mobile phone. The technology has shrunk and become affordable to such an extent that restaurants want to take theme restaurants from décor, painted walls and location to virtual reality.

the impact of virtual reality is a natural fit for restaurants that want to create a complete experience around a meal, not just serve a plate of food.

In this article they discuss virtual reality as a way of enhancing your dining experience. To use a local example imagine that you are eating a fondue at the Valais or the Chateau D’If in Geneva. The restaurants are located at the side of busy roads. With the virtual reality set you could watch immersive videos of a peak of your choice. It could be live or pre-recorded. You would feel like you’re sitting at the Rocher De Naye or Aiguille Du Midi for example.

If you’re eating bison at home then you could have a live feed from Yosemite, the field with bison near Geneva or the Polish forests. If you’re eating certain types of fish you could watch a natural history document about the oceans and that specific type of fish. It could bring you closer to your meal and serve as an educational purpose.

There is one thing I am curious about, in relation to Virtual Reality meals. How do you see your food? What technological advances will allow you to be immersed in virtual reality and see your food and the person you are with? When that next step is taken Virtual Reality restaurants will be more enjoyable.

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I’m so happy not to need to fly in the next few days

Byrichard

There’s some great news and some bad news. The great news is that the English government says it managed to prevent a series of terrorist attacks within the last twenty four hours. What’s not so great is that many people end up stranded at various airports around the world. Apparently over 200 flights and 200,000 people are affected in the UK alone with repercussions around the world.

For those who are already on the spot this was good news since it means they’re forced to extend their holidays by a day or two. For those who were stranded at the airport it’s the nightmare scenario we’d all hate to experience. We’ve all known delays but in this circumstance we’re talking about hours of delay.

I hope that the idea of preventing people taking laptops and other devices on planes is not realised as I’d hate to be forced to put my electronics in the luggage hold as I know how battered it would be.

The Global Humanitarian Forum and live streaming

Byrichard

Working at the Global Humanitarian Forum today, providing the live streams, was fun as some interesting conversations took place.

Among the people present we had Micheline Calmy Rey, Kofi Annan, the writer of the wikonomics book (which I have as an audio book and haven’t finished yet), Nik Gowing, and a few more interesting people.

Whilst I was working I didn’t have time to listen to the discussions that were taking place but they ranged from new media and communication to providing funds for organisations and the aspects to be taken into account, managing displacement, demographic dynamics and many more topics.

We’ll be streaming quite a few more lives during the course of tomorrow so if you’re interested in humanitarian subjects visit Global Humanitarian Forum for more information. The live streams can be found by following the Launch Live video link provided on the site.

Self Driving Cars and ethics

Byrichard

In recent months we have seen articles about self driving cars and ethics. The question the research asks is whether to kill, a group of people, the driver of the car or others. The question is perfectly logical if you have never driven a car. If you have never driven a car then you believe that accidents may be unavoidable.

So these guys posed these kinds of ethical dilemmas to several hundred workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to find out what they thought. The participants were given scenarios in which one or more pedestrians could be saved if a car were to swerve into a barrier, killing its occupant or a pedestrian.

source

When you learn to drive in Switzerland you need to spend a number of hours being made aware of the dangers of the road. During these lessons you learn about where to look, about how to gauge people’s age, attention and intention. You are trained to look at their eyes and their body language, to anticipate their actions.

Road awareness also progresses to road conditions. Is it raining, is it snowing, are you in the middle of a drought and other such questions. The reason these questions are asked is that the stopping distance, risk of skidding and other dangers increase.

We also find that their are zones where cars are meant to be particularly attentive and may be asked to drive slower. Schools, pedestrian zones and other areas expect drivers to slow down and be able to stop instantly in case there is the need.

In light of everything that we are expected to consider as human drivers it makes sense to provide autonomous cars with the same knowledge and intelligence. If there has been a drought for six months and rain is falling then the car’s software should anticipate the longer stopping distances and the chance of skidding. The car should slow down.

When they decide on the ethics of self driving cars they should spend time writing code that is friendly and safe to cyclists using the roads. The software should be written to slow down and wait for a safe place to overtake. The software should be written to overtake from a safe distance. The same is true of cars near horses and other animals. You don’t want self driving cars to scare animals.

As a driver it is expected of me to anticipate all dangers and threats to life. It is for me to decide to drive at or below the speed limit. It is for me to assess the risk of someone crossing the road, of someone turning left on a roundabout and more. If I was to make a mistake that would cost someone their life then it would be my fault, according to insurance because i had failed to adapt to the situation. Self driving cars should be programmed to anticipate all problems and issues and be held to the same standard as humans.

These problems cannot be ignored, say the team: “As we are about to endow millions of vehicles with autonomy, taking algorithmic morality seriously has never been more urgent.”

Self driving cars should in no circumstance cause death. They should never face the decision. If they face the decision then the programmers have not spent enough time consulting with drivers, emergency services and road safety professionals. Death should be eliminated from the equation.

Experimenting with Spherical photographs
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Experimenting with Spherical photographs

Byrichard

I was in Spain with the Ricoh Theta S last week so I took the opportunity to experiment with the Ricoh Theta S in a number of locations. What I like about such a device is that it takes a click to get pictures. I experimented with a manfrotto monopod and a smaller monopod. The Manfrotto base was clearly visible in shots so the immersive experience is degraded. With the smaller monopod the base is the same width as that of the camera. This means that at least the support was hidden.

runners in Denia, Spain – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

The first image was taken at Denia port, showing two runners running along the port wall/promenade. You can look around and see that the sea was flat, that the car park is relatively full and buildings behind the scene. It provides you with context.

Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

The second image is taken with the monopod fully extended so that it is among the branches of the trees. You can see a light house ahead and you can look at the tree at the same time.

theta archaeology. 🙂 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

It would be interesting to experiment with archeology and 360 pictures and video. Instead of placing the camera to one side and having the camera operator choose what you see the action could take place around the camera and the viewer, sitting in a swivel chair could turn and look at where the most interesting thing is happening next. You can zoom in and out within reason, to see details or to see a wider picture.

Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

At the Denia Marina part of a bar is floating on the water. it has a sphere of sun shades around with speakers and lights. You can sit in comfortable seats and look up. A conventional image would show the dome from outside but with a spherical camera you can capture the feeling of being in the centre of the structure.

my camera and I, between shots. 🙂 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

This image was taken in Basel during a recent trip. This location is ideal for 360/spherical images because each wall is covered with paintings, the clock is decorated and more. As it surrounds you the subject lends itself well to 360° photography.

a rock outcrop – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

For the last image I went to sea level and photographed the view from a headland and beaches on either side. One of those beaches has bars and a number of people whereas the other beach is nice and quiet. It is nice to look at these images and get a feel for the place.

The challenge in taking these photos is how to get the camera in to an interesting place and hide yourself or the support for the camera. I usually knelt down and tried to stay directly below the camera. The other option is to find a system to stand the camera at the right height but make the monopod invisible. With multi-camera setups parallax makes hiding tripods and other objects easier. The next step is to find a base that makes hiding the stand simple.

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Fribourg Nanowrimo

Byrichard

I always go to social media events and meet a lot of geeks who love to use new technology such as twitter, seesmic and more. For once it’s a little different. I’m in Fribourg where I’m surrounded by writers. There are a lot of PC rather than Mac computers. The hot chocolate is good and the city is nice.

Fribourg, Switzerland

At the time of writing there have been two word wars. The concept is simple. Write solidly for five minutes at a time and see who has the highest word count. So far I’ve written 313 and then 328 in two sessions, not bad.

Word count is now over 24,000 words.

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