On (most) Fridays I post here a roundup of interesting things I’ve read and/or posted on social media since my last roundup, generally stories about emerging technologies, experiential activations, interactive art, advances in scientific research, and other things I find interesting.
Featured Image: Disney
Spotify turned the Broadway-Lafayette subway station into an interactive homage to David Bowie
Image: Spotify
Following on the success of Alexa, Amazon reportedly has a top-secret plan to build robots for the home:
Image: Shutterstock
Amazon has updated Alexa with a new ability called “Alexa Blueprints” that lets users build their own skills to customize their digital assistants:
Image: Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photos by Thinkstock
Magicians are using AI to create new kinds of tricks – “What people don’t realise is any sufficiently deceptive magic is indistinguishable from technology”:
Image: Ana Cuba
Ready Soldier One – the US Army has made a virtual North Korea to train its soldiers in VR:
Image: US Marines Photo/Alamy Stock Photo
A new RAND Corporation report explores how artificial intelligence could increase the risk of nuclear war by changing the incentive structure of Mutually Assured Destruction:
Image: Photos by kyryloff, Jorge, Scanrail/Adobe Stock; MakaronProduktion/Getty Images. Design by Chara Williams/RAND Corporation
MIT researchers have developed a glove called Dormio to control the fleeting state between wakefulness and sleep (hypnagogia) in order to capitalize on the intensely associative thinking and microdreams experienced there:
Image: Oscar Rosello/MIT
Disney’s prototype Force Jacket is designed to simulate physical effects in virtual reality such as hugs, punches and a snake slithering across your body:
Image: Disney
ClearMotion is a startup that aims to prevent carsickness in autonomous vehicles so we can keep barf bags out of our driverless cars:
Image: JAN BUCHCZIK
To see stories like this as I find them, follow me on Twitter: @josiah17