All posts by Harry Underwood

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About Harry Underwood

Website designer, blogger. Columbus, GA. #LGBT #p2 #wordpress

I Tried All The AI Glasses (So You Don’t Have To)

Videos

I compared a bunch of glasses with AI and AI features.

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Resources From Today’s Video:
Ray-Ban Metas: https://ift.tt/ZFWmvK8
XReal Air 2: https://ift.tt/P5En2YH
Brilliant Frame: https://brilliant.xyz/products/frame
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Time Stamps:

via YouTube

Meta Had a Big Two Weeks with Quest

Tech, , ,

Meta had an intense two weeks. First:

Quest Update v64 Improves Space Setup and Controllers

Quest Platform OS v64, released April 8, came with two undocumented features:

  • Automatic detection and labeling of furniture objects during Space Setup
  • Detection and tracking of both hands and Meta brand controllers

It is interesting that this automatic detection and labeling of objects made it into a regular release of the Quest OS firmware:

  • Without documentation nor announcement
  • Within a month after first appearing in a video of a research paper from Reality Labs

My theory is that someone else at Meta may have seen the SceneScript video and thought that the automatic detection and labeling would be a good feature to try adding separately to Quest OS, but as both an Easter egg as well as an experimental option, and are anticipating user feedback on how well this implementation is performing without making it obvious.

To compare it to SceneScript below:

It is slower and not as complete as the SceneScript videos, but it definitely seems to save time when adding furniture during Scene Setup. This definitely moves the Quest Platform further in the direction of frictionless setup and operation.

In fact, this is such an undocumented feature that it was only found and confirmed by Twitter users and publicized by one YouTuber, The Mysticle, and the AndroidCentral blog at the time of writing. So this is very new.

Also, I don’t know if the Vision Pro has automatic labeling of furniture yet, although it has automatic room scanning with the sheer number of cameras built in.

What may be coming in v65

Currently reading about changes in the code of v65 PTC, some things stand out as possibilities:

I guess we’ll find out in early May.

Rebrand and Third-Party Licensing of OS and App Store for Meta Quest

The news from Meta’s April 22 announcement:

  • Meta announced that they’re renaming the OS for Quest devices to Horizon OS, as well as the Quest Store to Horizon Store.
  • Also: Horizon OS will be licensed to third party OEMs, starting with Asus and Lenovo.
  • App Lab will be merged into Horizon Store, App Lab name will be retired, Horizon Store will have more lax threshold for accepting app/game submissions.
  • A spatial software framework will be released for mobile app developers to port their apps to Horizon OS.

My thoughts:

  • This is the first time that the operating system for Quest 3 and its predecessors has had an actual brand name.
  • They’re really wanting to distinguish their software and services stack from their hardware.
  • Surprised they didn’t rename the Quest Browser as Horizon Browser. Maybe that will come later?
  • This may be the cementing phase of XR headsets as a computing form factor, a maturation from just an expensive magical toy/paperweight to play games with.
  • Two drawbacks: more hardware to design the OS for, and probably a slower update cycle than the current monthly.
  • We will probably need an FOSS “third thing” as an alternative to both visionOS and Horizon OS.
  • XR hardware may flourish and advance by using Horizon OS instead of their own embedded software. Pico, Pimax and HTC a come to mind as potential beneficiaries of this.
  • Meta may use this as a launchpad for extending Horizon OS into other form factors, like something that can straddle the gap between XR hardware on one end and the Meta Ray-Ban Glasses on the other end.
  • In terms of software feature parity, Meta has been trying to play catch-up with Apple’s Vision Pro since February, and have made it plain that Apple is their real opponent in this market. Google is merely a bothersome boomer at this point.

Other news

VIDEO: Cornell Keeps It Going with/ Sonar + AI: Now for a Hand-tracking Wristband

Tech, , ,

Now Cornell’s Lab have come up with yet another development, but not a pair of glasses: EchoWrist, a wristband using sonar + AI for hand-tracking.

(This also tracks from a 2022 (or 2016?) paper about finger-tracking on smartwatches using sonar (paper).)

Based on what I’ve read from this Hackerlist summary as well as Cornell’s press release, this is a smart, accessible, less power-hungry and more privacy-friendly addition to the list of sound+AI-based tools coming out of Cornell for interacting with AR. The only question is how predictive the neural network can be when it comes to the hand gestures being made.

For comparison, Meta’s ongoing neural wristband project, which was acquired along with CTRL Labs in 2022, uses electromyography (EMG) and AI to read muscle movements and nerve sensations through the wrist to not only track hand, finger and arm positioning, but even interpret intended characters when typing on a bare surface.

There shouldn’t be much distance between EchoWrist, EchoSpeech and using acoustics to detect, interpret and anticipate muscle movements in the wrist (via phonomyography). If sonar+AI can also be enhanced to read neural signals and interpret intended typed characters on a bare surface, then sign me up.

EDIT 4/8/23: surprisingly, there is a way to use ultrasound acoustics to record neural activity.

Video of EchoWrist (hand-tracking wristband)

Video of EyeEcho (face-tracking)

Video of GazeTrak (eye-tracking)

Video of PoseSonic (upper-body tracking)

Video of EchoSpeech (mouth-tracking)

On Florida

Uncategorized, , , ,

Matt Isbell, a stellar Florida-based political data analyst, posted this on Twitter for the doubters:

On Sheriffs, Counties and Connecticut

law, Politics, , , , , ,

In regards to this October 2023 post from Democracy Docket about the non-necessity of elected sheriffs, I looked up which states abolished the role of sheriff. Turns out that there are few, but notable, examples:

  • Only Alaska and Connecticut lack an office of sheriff
  • Alaska does not have county governments.
  • Connecticut voters moved to abolish the office of sheriff in 2000, replacing the elected office with both state marshals and judicial marshals, which are both non-elected contractors.

But also, who runs the jails if not a sheriff?

Connecticut seems to be far ahead of most states on the question of the relevance of sheriffs, as well as the role of counties, to modern-day government and corrections. This also eliminates the nonsense of “constitutional sheriffs”, and the corruption and feudalism inherent to the office itself.

Imagine such abolition taking place in larger states. How much efficiency would this allow to state government when it comes to zoning, housing, infrastructure, and more?

Georgia Democrats Qualify for a Variety of Seats in a Presidential Year

Politics, , , , , , , ,

Qualifying for the May 21 Democratic primary and nonpartisan election ended last Friday at noon.

House seats being competed for by Democrats in November 2024. Districts in yellow are Biden-voting or slightly-Trump-favoring districts according to 2020 data.
Senate seats being competed for by Democrats in November 2024.

Statewide:

  • John Barrow is running for Andrew Pinson’s seat on the Supreme Court. This is the first likely-substantial contest against an incumbent justice in years. This “nonpartisan” election is on May 21.
  • There will be a “nonpartisan” contest for an open seat on the State Court of Appeals. Attorney Jeff Davis will face off against Cobb County Magistrate Judge Tabitha Ponder. This “nonpartisan” election is on May 21.
  • The Public Service Commission elections have been cancelled again, and the current commissioners will remain on the ballot for the next two years. It’s likely that we will be voting on all five commissioners in 2026.
  • We are now running for 38 seats (2/3rds) in the Senate and 135 seats (3/4) in the House. To compare, since 1992, we’ve ran for at least 75% of the House in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2020. 
  • We are running for District Attorney positions in 14 circuits. There will be Republican challengers in three circuits: Atlanta, Chattahoochee and Eastern.
  • Democrats are running for all 14 congressional districts. There will be Republican challengers in all but GA13.
  • At the end of qualifying, we left HD104, a Biden district in Gwinnett County, HD151, a slightly-Trump voting district in Southwest GA, and SD4, a Biden district near Savannah, on the table. 

And now for local elections around Columbus:

  • We will have a Democrat, Carl Sprayberry, for HD139 (open).
  • We will have a Democrat, Ellen Wright, for SD29. 
  • Debbie Buckner in HD137 will have a primary challenge from Carlton Mahone Jr and a Republican challenger. 
  • Teddy Reese in HD140 will have a Democratic challenger in Alyssa Nia Williams. 
  • There will be a Democratic primary for the open seat in deep-red GA03. Val Almonord, who was the Democratic nominee in 2020 and 2022, will have a challenge
  • There will be a Republican challenger for GA02. 
  • We now have a Democrat running for District Attorney in Chattahoochee Circuit: criminal defense attorney Anthony L. Johnson. He has no primary opposition, and will be on the ballot in November against Republican and acting DA Don Kelly. We are also challenging a Republican for DA in Eastern Circuit as well. 
  • Our incumbent Sheriff Greg Countryman is running for re-election as a Democrat. He will be opposed in November by Republican Mark LaJoye.
  • Our incumbent state court solicitor Suzanne Goddard, who previously held office as a Democrat, is running for re-election as a Republican. We have a Democratic challenger in Shevon Sutcliffe Thomas. 
  • Buddy Bryan is running for re-election as Coroner as a Democrat. He will be opposed in the May primary by Royal Anderson. No Republican is running in November. 
  • Lula Lunsford Huff is not running for re-election as Tax Commissioner. David Britt is running as a Democrat for the position and is unopposed in May and November. 
  • We will likely not have a challenger to Gary Allen for Council District 6. A potential candidate fell through. I am sad about this as well since I live here.
  • Toyia Tucker will have a challenge in Council District 4. This “nonpartisan” election is on May 21.
  • There will be a four-way race for Council At-Large 10. This “nonpartisan” election is on May 21.
  • There will be a contest for Board of Education District 7, with Lakeitha Ashe challenging incumbent Pat Frey. This “nonpartisan” election is on May 21.
  • Incumbents unopposed in May and November: Danielle Forte (D) for Superior Court Clerk, Reginald Thompson (D) for Clerk of Municipal Court, Marc D’Antonio (D) for Judge of Probate Court. 
  • No contests for HD138 (Vance Smith (R)), HD141 (Carolyn Hugley (D)), City Council Districts 2, 6 or 8, Board of Education District 1, 3, 5, or At-Large 9, nor State Court Judge (Temesgen). 
  • In addition, there may be some party primary advisory ballot questions. 

Retirements:

  • Both Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler (SD55) and House Minority Leader James Beverly (HD142) are not running for re-election to either house.
  • Other Senate Democratic retirements: Valencia Seay (SD34) and Horacena Tate (SD38).
  • Other House Democratic retirements: Doug Stoner (HD42), Roger Bruce (HD61), Mandisha Thomas (HD65), Pedro Marin (HD96), Gregg Kennard (HD107), Gloria Frazier (HD126), Patty Bentley (HD150).