Because electrocuting users is secretly what all developers long to do.

Originally shared by Roy Hembree

Electrical muscle stimulation used to create boundaries in VR

The Hasso Plattner Institute has developed a system that delivers electrical muscle stimulation to provide haptic feedback. It can create the illusion of holding and moving heavy objects as well as create the feeling of touching walls and turning knobs. The system is compact enough to fit in a backpack.

“When the user grabs the virtual cube, the user expects the cube’s weight to create tension in the user’s biceps and the cube’s stiffness to create a tension in the user’s pectoralis. In order to create this sensation, the system actuates the respective opposition muscles. In order to put a load onto the user’s biceps, it actuates the triceps and in order to put a load onto the user’s pectoralis, it actuates the user’s shoulder muscle. This creates the desired tension in biceps and pectoralis, thereby creating the desired experience.”

Link to the study: https://hpi.de/baudisch/projects/vr-walls.html

Source of GIF: https://youtu.be/OcSmCamMKfs

Of course the headline is an exaggeration – I knew that without even clicking through. This is cool, though, and a genuine advance in our understanding of how dreams work – with implications for being able to manipulate dreams. Without too much handwavium, you could write a story about an interactive lucid dream machine.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Neuroscientists Can Now Read Your Dreams With a Simple Brain Scan

http://suhub.co/2oPGhVJ

Originally shared by Alan Stainer

Electric jet startup is backed by Boeing and JetBlue

EV technology is not just about cars.

h/t Renaud Janson

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1109858_electric-jet-startup-is-backed-by-boeing-and-jetblue

Lots of questions raised here, most of them well explored by SF writers. New to me: the idea that gene manipulation might lead to less diversity, as we manipulate ourselves towards social ideals.

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

Gene Editing Might Change What Being Human Actually Means http://suhub.co/2pOyV48

I’ve thought for a while that as telecommuting becomes more feasible, the demand for housing in urban areas will reduce – which would certainly be a good thing in Auckland, where I live, as it’s one of the least affordable housing markets in the world.

Along with that comes an influx of money into rural and semi-rural areas, and probably the establishment of office centres in small towns and villages where people who still want to go somewhere outside their home and work in the presence of other people can do so. It’s just that the people they work alongside probably won’t be working for the same organization.

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

Today I’m going to get out my crystal ball and talk a bit about some potentially good news in the economy: a shift in telecommuting which suggests it may have a much deeper effect on the world in the next decade or two, which for once will not entirely serve to screw the workers.

It’s rare enough to be able to make a prognostication like that with a straight face that I thought this was worth sharing.

(This is a more in-depth version of an earlier post: https://plus.google.com/+YonatanZunger/posts/QZDyxcbEDjF . There are some great comments and discussion there, if you want to see how the conversation began!)

https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/the-future-of-telecommuting-4d019770d3e7

I wonder if Britain had similar issues when the prices of manufactured goods were dropping rapidly in the early 19th century? (See The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage. Yes, that Charles Babbage.)

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

“The issue, they say, is that Japan finds itself in the grips of a perfect, tech-generated storm. A situation made worse by central institutions failing to fully appreciate the magnitude of what is happening.” http://suhub.co/2peQNsq