Lorne Fade of VR Vision discusses, VR for Enterprise Training, the Merits and Drawbacks of 360 Video and Measuring the ROI of VR Training Applications VR Vision VR Vision Clients: Avangrid Renewables Oculus Avangrid Renewables Case Study Siemens Toyota Connect: Lorne Fade, Co-Founder & COO at VR Vision Roni Cerga, CEO at VR Vision | CRO at Reality …

Deborah Worrell discusses how to get started in the Metaverse from a business perspective. We discuss the hardware and software needs, where to start, how to plan for a business presence in the Metaverse, and what exactly a VR experience is. Deborah Worrell Virtual Reality Marketing Reality Innovators Network Goldman Sachs Metaverse/Crypto Facebook…

EPISODE 021 SHOW NOTES: Edwin Rivera of CG1 Solutions discusses challenges and opportunities in developing and deploying XR training content for Healthcare, the importance of being platform agnostic, how he was inspired to enter the AR space, and the emergence of the Miami area as a tech innovation center. Edwin Rivera CG1 Solutions Total Immersion…

Deborah Worrell of Virtual Reality Marketing recommends VR collaboration and networking platforms, and discusses the Reality Innovators Network, Digital Twins and IoT, NFTs and virtual goods, and the best sources for keeping up with all things Metaverse. Deborah Worrell ​ Virtual Reality Marketing ​ Reality Innovators Network ​ AltSpace ​ Oculus ​ …

Episode No. 19. features former Disney Imagineer Brian Collins of The Brainstorm Institute and Magic Bytes on transforming education with XR, VR platforms AltspaceVR and Engage, and advice and insight on presenting in VR. Brian Collins Magic Bytes Brainstorm Institute FB The Mouse and the Imagineer Educators Who Love Disney Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge …

Steve Grubbs, founder and CEO of VictoryXR, discusses building a Virtual Reality Classroom Environment, engaging a team to develop and present a Standards-Based VR Curriculum, choosing the ENGAGE platform as VictoryXR's virtual campus, how hardware development is accelerating adoption of VR education, and some of his favorite educational VR experie…

In Episode No. 17 Rene Pinnell of Kaleidoscope VR discusses Cannes XR 2020, The VR Museum of Other Realities, and how he and his wife have built Kaleidoscope and a community-funded grant model that helps artists migrate into the new medium of XR. Rene Pinnell Kaleidoscope Cannes XR - June 22-26 2020 Elie Levasseur - XR program Leader - Cannes XR / …

EPISODE 016 SHOW NOTES: ​Featuring an interview with Bernard Francois, founder of Preview Labs, who discusses the unique challenges and benefits of rapid prototyping for XR, his company’s VR and AR projects for the National Institutes for Health and Yale University, and his experience presenting and networking at the online AWE 2020 Conference in M…

EPISODE 015 SHOW NOTES: Featuring an interview with Kai Liang of MEL Science and Smart Stone Technology. Kai discusses how he got his start in Virtual Reality for Education, the role quality content plays in the adoption of VR for K-12 use, subjects that VR excels at, and his recommendations of VR education content providers. Kai Liang MEL Science …

EPISODE 014 SHOW NOTES: Episode 14 of XR Connections features an interview with Tom Buchanan, Co-Founder and Chief of Product for the haptic glove maker Contact CI. Tom discusses his experience as a participant of the XR-focused MIT Reality Hack, his team's award-winning immersive Impact Journalism project, Rising Tide, haptic technology, the Varjo…

Episode 13 features an interview with Terry Proto, Co-Founder and CEO of Virtual Reality Marketing and Ubereal Agency. Terry is both helping brands find trustworthy XR development partners and helping XR creators find more clients and recurring business. We discuss Virtual Reality Marketing’s searchable database of over 2500 XR creators, the import…

Episode 012 presents an overview of leading-edge XR tech and hardware as seen at MIT Reality Hack 2020 in an interview with Thomas Jackson, founder of XR design and development firm Covalent Reality. A volunteer at this year's MIT XR Hackathon, Jackson discusses the Human Bionic Display of the Varjo VR headset, the open source AR platform Project N…

EPISODE 011 SHOW NOTES: Episode 011 features an interview with Dan Zaitsev, who discusses his vision for CatchAR, the community platform he has built for Augmented Reality creators, 2019’s biggest developments for AR creators, his advice for getting started in making AR prototypes and his plans for the future of CatchAR. Catchar.io SparkAR ​LensStu…

EPISODE 010 SHOW NOTES: Episode 010 covers XR in Retail and features an interview with Ed McCabe of Zebra Technologies, who discusses how AR headsets are improving efficiency in warehouses, the use of AR for picking and stocking, how XR is driving immersive brand experiences, and what consumers might expect to see this 2019 Holiday Shopping season.…

Episode 009 features an interview with Kevin Williams, a leading specialist in the digital Out-of-Home entertainment industry. Kevin discusses recent trends and developments in Location Based Experiences, focusing on Virtual and next generationMixed Reality/Cross Reality attractions, rides and games. From motion simulators to arena-scale VR, Kevin …

EPISODE 008 SHOW NOTES: ​In Episode 008 Antony Vitillo of The Ghost Howls and Wise Realities discusses how VR changed his life, his experience as the co-founder of a VR startup, the Mixed Reality game HitMotion he’s developing, advice on attending China’s World Conference on VR Industry, VR for physical and mental rehabilitation, and who to follow …

EPISODE 007 SHOW NOTES: ​ Episode 007 features an interview with DJ Smith, Chief Creative Officer of the XR startup-focused Glimpse Group. DJ is also the leader of the New York Virtual Reality Meetup (NYVR) and the discussion includes the origins and growth of NYVR, the impact of the Oculus Quest, how the Glimpse Group is contributing advances in A…

Episode 006 of XR Connections features an interview with Lukas Roper of Virti, who are creating AR and VR medical training experiences already in use in schools and hospitals. Also discussed are XR Location Based Experiences including the Samsung AT&T 5G AR Fan Experience and Free Roam VR experiences such as Sandbox VR. SHOW NOTES: AR and VR LOCATI…

XR Connections Episode 005 features an interview with Emilie Joly, Co-Founder and CEO of apelab, who are bringing XR into the classroom with SpatialStories, a gaming and storytelling toolkit allowing students and teachers to quickly design and develop AR and VR experiences. Also highlighted is the XR InLearning Global Summit, which aims to share be…

Episode 004 of XR Connections features an interview with David Ripert of Poplar, a collaborative platform connecting AR creators with brands and institutions aimed at making the creation of AR experiences quick and affordable, and XR items of interest including Modelo's Day of the Dead out of home AR experience and the VR/AR Association's Global Su…

Episode 003 features an interview with Aidan Wolf, creator of the DoodleLens AR app and covers items of interest in XR including Google’s AR Wrapper bringing 3D models to the Web (Web AR) and the NYVR New York Virtual Reality Meetup.

Episode 002 covers items of interest in XR from the week of August 26th, 2019, including the New York Augmented Reality Meetup AWE NITE NYC, the Airbus 3D Holographic Tactical Map App, the Doodle Lens AR app, Looking Glass Factory's 3D hologram display, and an AR Scavenger Hunt featuring David "Big Papi" Ortiz. Show notes at marsandmercury.com.…

Episode 001 introduces the podcast and covers items of interest in XR from the week of August 21, 2019, including Instagram AR Filters, Oculus Quest and AR, a guide to 2019's Best VR, and Lego's Hidden Side AR Experience. Show notes at marsandmercury.com. EPISODE 001 SHOW NOTES: INSTAGRAM USERS CAN CREATE THEIR OWN AR FILTERS "Facebook now lets any…

FinisOleh Lorne Ipsum

Now that we've gone through the science behind climate change, and knocked down most of the kooks surrounding the issue, it's time to talk about what we're up against. In this episode, I spend a bit under 30 minutes laying out the most likely future impacts of climate change -- and while I wouldn't call it a catastrophe, things don't look too prett…

Since the opponents of the climate change consensus have had their turn, now it's time to give the supporters of the consensus a little working over. Since this is the seventh episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode, you first listen to episodes 45, 47, 54, 56, 57, and 58.…

A couple of Geek Counterpoint listeners (thanks, Travis and Bill!) pointed me to a show recently aired on BBC channel 4 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It purports to be a documentary, and is uniformly critical of the science behind climate change and the global warming concensus. It's generated a lot of heat both in British papers and o…

Now that we've simplified things by covering the more common arguments made by climate change skeptics, this episode is devoted to discussing some specific climate change skeptics and their arguments. Since this is the fifth episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode, you first listen to episodes 45, 47, 54, and 56. In…

A continuation of episode 54's treatment of general points used by climate change skeptics. Since this is the fourth episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode, you first listen to episodes 45, 47, and 54.Oleh Lorne Ipsum

When the Chinese government demolished one of its aging weather satellites a few weeks ago, they did more than just test out a potentially useful technology. They also cluttered up low Earth orbit with a huge amount of debris, and stirred up a comparable amount of controversy in the press. While nobody is yet quite sure what the motivation behind t…

It's taken some time to do a reasonable level of fact checking, but my climate cats have now been successfully herded, so it's (finally!) time for another climate change episode.Since (at least in the media) the discussion over climate change has been boiled down to two "sides," I'll start with the case made by various parties skeptical of the main…

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a giant of space exploration -- Sergey Korolyov (sometimes also transliterated as Sergei Korolev). For much of the 20th century, Korolyov was the prime driving factor behind the Soviet space program. He led the efforts to launch Sputnik, put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, and hold up the USSR's end of the ra…

Sure, it's not much to look at -- but this humble lump of corroded bronze completely demolished our previous understanding of the history of mechanical inventions. The Antikythera Mechanism was built late in the 2nd century BC, and is the earliest example ever found of a geared mechanism, but represents a level of mechanical technology not seen aga…

Yes, I know -- I just talked about Stardust in episode 50. But in the meantime, the first batch of preliminary science papers was released on the 15th of December in the journal Science. There's a full set of material available (currently, at least, freely available) on the Science website, but many folks could probably use a bit of help in interpr…

Yes, it's time for another "grab bag" episode to get everybody caught up on recent and semi-recent developments in topics I've covered in past episodes. This week's fodder includes updates on the following subjects:Mars -- see episode 41 (September 2006)Asteroids and comets and dinosaurs -- see episodes 16, 17 (January 2006), and 24 (April 2006)RFI…

It's the holy grail of flight -- propulsion without the expenditure of reaction mass. A practical reactionless drive system would render wheeled vehicles (flying cars, anyone?), aircraft with wings, and rockets as we know them obsolete. But is it real? Can it ever be real?This episode covers the history of attempts at reactionless drives, and some …

I talked at length about the Neanderthals just a few months ago, and then as often seems to happen, a bunch of new Neanderthal news popped up shortly afterwards. Listen in this week, and you'll get caught up with some really interesting recent discoveries on our beetle-browed friends (and relatives?).Before you listen to this episode, I'd recommend…

This episode, the second in a series on climate change, is intended to give everybody a little background in logical fallacies. In particular, a number of logical fallacies seem to be particularly prone to use in news reports, political debates, and various pundits' writings on climate change -- so this episode will cover my own "top 10" list of cl…

A few weeks ago, researchers finished the first exhaustive study performed of the wreck of the USS Macon, a U.S. Navy airship. What's unique about this particular wreck is that the Macon isn't alone on its piece of ocean floor off the California coast -- it's debris also contains the wreckage of four fighter aircraft. The Macon was one of a handful…

At least in the U.S. (and judging by material on the net, increasingly in Canada and Australia as well), debate about climate change long ago left the scientific arena, and entered the world of politics. As a result, if you're trying to figure out for yourself where the truth lies, you're confronted with a confusing mess of information -- some of i…

A few days ago, the White House released an update to the United States' "National Space Policy" document. In a sense, an update is overdue as this document hasn't been tweaked since 1996, when Clinton was president. It's release got a number of folks spun up, labeling the document agressive and unilateral. Some commentators got even more excited, …

So-called social "Darwinism" and eugenics are two intertwined topics that always seem to come up whenever somebody wants to insult, or at least disparage, the scientific community in general. Realistically, though, neither one is really "Darwinian," and both represent the misuse and abuse of some basic biological concepts when applied in social and…

We recently had a family reunion of sorts in Ohio, and after some pretty stiff negotiations, I managed to finagle some time at the "National Museum of the U.S. Air Force" in Dayton. Anybody who's even slightly interested in military aviation, or the history of aviation, could easily spend a whole day here just looking at all the airplanes (and a fe…

MRO, a.k.a. the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, just got into its science orbit. As a result, you should expect to soon see a flood of new images and other interesting data coming back from Mars (adding, of course, to the goodies already coming back from MGS, Odyssey, and the MER rovers). Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to get folks up to …

This week's episode is a "grab bag," including news on three broad topics:* Stem cells -- see episodes 18 and 20 (February 2006), and episode 21 (March, 2006)* Evolution vs. "Intelligent Design" -- see episodes 4 (October 2005) and 11 (December 2005)* The "Hobbits" of Flores Island -- see episodes 15 (January 2006) and 30 (June 2006)Also, a brief c…

This episode started as an examination of political interference in science. But while doing research for the episode, I ran across two studies on the brain activity involved in partisan politics, and decided to also look at what science has to say about politics (or at least, partisan thinking).Listen in this week, and find out how politics really…

Reminder of video episode (for non-iTunes subscribers), announcement of upcoming server swap (may see odd behavior in last week of August)Oleh Lorne Ipsum

We recently got back from a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park, and I thought the park would make a nice subject for a quick video podcast episode -- OK, and it gave me an excuse to test out a new camcorder. Aside from the fun tourist aspects (although any place out of pager & cell phone range is a good vacation spot in my estimation), th…

Planetary science used to be so simple. Our solar system had 9 planets, and a bunch of little leftover scraps called asteroids and comets. But over the last few decades, improvements in observing technology have helped astronomers to discover hundreds of new objects -- and they don't all fit the old, tidy categories (many of them don't even fit wel…

2006 has been dubbed "The Year of the Neanderthal," since the first official discovery of Neanderthal remains was made 150 years ago this month in a limestone quarry in Germany's Neander Valley, east of Dusseldorf. Listen in this week, and you'll learn where things currently stand with respect to Neanderthal's place in our family tree, as well as l…