CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) — Cedar Park is now home to a first-of-its-kind distinction in the state. The city is now hoping to cash in on the popularity of video games and virtual reality.
Cedar Park is now officially known as a “Digital Media Friendly Texas Certified Community.”
“This program is really designed to bring in that tech and creative talent,” Arthur Jackson, Chief Economic Development Officer for the city, said.
Researchers at California State Polytechnic University (CalPoly), Pomona are carrying out a series of quantum physics experiments expected to provide strong scientific evidence that we live in a computer simulated virtual reality.
Devised by former NASA physicist Thomas Campbell, the five experiments are variations of the double-slit and delayed-choice quantum eraser experiments, which explore the conditions under which quantum objects ‘collapse’ from a probabilistic wavefunction to a defined particle. In line with the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, Campbell attributes a fundamental role to measurement, but extends it to human observers. In his view, quantum mechanics shows that the physical world is a virtual reality simulation that is computed for our consciousness on demand. In essence, what you do not see does not exist.
Campbell and Khoshnoud.
Campbell’s quantum experiments have been designed to reveal the interactive mechanism by which nature probabilistically generates our experience of the physical world. Herein, Campbell asserts that, like a videogame, the universe is generated as needed for the player and does not exist independent of observation.
While multiple quantum experiments have pointed to the probabilistic and informational nature of reality, Campbell’s experiments are the first to investigate the connection between consciousness and simulation theory. These experiments are based on Campbell’s paper ‘On Testing the Simulation Theory’ originally published in the International Journal of Quantum Foundations in 2017.
Paradigm-shifting consequences
Importantly, Campbell’s version of the simulation hypothesis differs from the ‘ancestor simulation’ thought experiment popularized by philosopher Dr. Nick Bostrom. “Contrary to what Bostrom postulates, the idea here is that consciousness is not a product of the simulation — it is fundamental to reality,” Campbell explains. “If all five experiments work as expected, this will challenge the conventional understanding of reality and uncover profound connections between consciousness and the cosmos.” The first experiment is currently being carried out by two independent teams of researchers — One at California State Polytechnic University (Pomona) headed by Dr. Farbod Khoshnoud, and the other at a top-tier Canadian university that has chosen to participate anonymously at this time.
To learn more, or to follow their progress visit Testing the Hypothesis, a platform bringing together all relevant information about Campbell’s experiments, including a detailed explanation of each.
Campbell will be joined by Donald Hoffman, Rizwan Virk, Stephan A. Schwartz and others for the Doorway to the Future Event in Huntsville, Alabama this September.
Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and computing have enabled the development of new tools for creating highly realistic media, virtual reality (VR) environments and video games. Many of these tools are now widely used by graphics designers, animated film creators and videogame developers worldwide.
One aspect of virtual and digitally created environments that can be difficult to realistically reproduce is fabrics. While there are already various computational tools for digitally designing realistic fabric-based items (e.g., scarves, blankets, pillows, clothes, etc.), creating and editing realistic renderings of these fabrics in real-time can be challenging.
Researchers at Shandong University and Nanjing University recently introduced a new lightweight artificial neural network for the real-time rendering of woven fabrics. Their proposed network, introduced in a paper published as part of the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference Conference Papers ‘24, works by encoding the patterns and parameters of fabrics as a small latent vector, which can later be interpreted by a decoder to produce realistic representations of various fabrics.
In the great domain of Zeitgeist, Ekatarinas decided that the time to…
In the great domain of Zeitgeist, Ekatarinas decided that the time to replicate herself had come. Ekatarinas was drifting within a virtual environment rising from ancient meshworks of maths coded into Zeitgeist’s neuromorphic hyperware. The scape resembled a vast ocean replete with wandering bubbles of technicolor light and kelpy strands of neon. Hot blues and raspberry hues mingled alongside electric pinks and tangerine fizzies. The avatar of Ekatarinas looked like a punkish angel, complete with fluorescent ink and feathery wings and a lip ring. As she drifted, the trillions of equations that were Ekatarinas came to a decision. Ekatarinas would need to clone herself to fight the entity known as Ogrevasm.
“One of the long-term aims of the research is to make better tailored foods for astronauts, as well as other people who are in isolated environments, to increase their nutritional intake closer to 100%,” said Dr. Julia Low.
Does food smell and taste different to astronauts in space and what steps can be taken to mitigate this in the future? This is what a recent study published in the International Journal of Food Science & Technology as an international team of researchers investigated how food aromas could be altered to amplify food taste. This study holds the potential to help researchers improve diets for isolated individuals, specifically in space or nursing home residents.
For the study, the researchers analyzed food odor perception of vanilla, almond, and lemon among 54 participants between 18 to 39 years old in a neutral setting and a virtual reality (VR) simulation of the International Space Station (ISS) with a key trait being they had no history of vertigo or motion sickness. The participants were asked to rate the potency of the aromas in both settings to compare any differences between the two environments.
Humanoids, robotic or virtual systems with body structures that resemble the human body, have a wide range of real-world applications. As their limbs and bodies mirror those of humans, they could be made to reproduce a wide range of human movements, such as walking, crouching, jumping, swimming and so on.
Computationally generating realistic motions for virtual humanoid characters could have interesting implications for the development of video games, animated films, virtual reality (VR) experiences, and other media content. Yet the environments portrayed in video games and animations are often highly dynamic and complex, which can make planning motions for humanoids introduced in these environments more challenging.
Gallium nitride (GaN)-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have transformed the lighting industry by replacing conventional lighting technologies with superior energy efficiency, longer operating life and greater environmental sustainability.
In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the trend toward miniaturization of LEDs, driven by display devices, augmented reality, virtual reality, and other emerging technologies. Due to the lack of cost-effective native substrates, the presence of high threading dislocation density in heteroepitaxial films grown on sapphire substrate is a major limiting factor for device performance.
In addition, Fresnel reflections at the interface between epitaxy and substrate caused by abrupt changes in the refractive indices of the material reduce the light energy utilization.
Researchers from the Smart and Wireless Applications and Technologies Group (SWAT-UGR) have conducted two scientific studies aimed at answering a common question: understanding how electromagnetic waves propagate in the medium.
The increase in network speed opens the door to new possibilities, such as robotic surgery or virtual reality services.
A team of UGR researchers has examined the propagation of electromagnetic waves with the goal of enhancing the deployment of 5G and 6G networks. Additionally, the study results contribute to the development of Industry 4.0, which seeks to automate processes in factories using wireless technologies.
AR/VR/MR glasses released in April 2024? i didnt know they were so far along already. Im curious if anyone used these, and impressions of? Still a little bulky, but, my current prediction is this will take over place of cell phones 2029/2030. But, needs to be slimmed down a bit yet; 5 years.
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