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How AI will change the way we search, for better or worse
Search engines doped with generative AI systems are on the way, if not already here, and they're ready to ride herd on your daily browsing habits. You know, to help.
UC Irvine debuts the first public college esports arena in the US
The University of California, Irvine, is serious about esports. This fall it will officially launch a competitive-gaming initiative, complete with scholarships and an already-decorated League of Legends team, and it's just finished construction on a 3,500-square-foot esports arena that's set to open Friday, Sept. 23rd. The arena is packed with 80 gaming PCs loaded with top eSports titles, a webcasting studio and viewing screens. The arena will serve as a home base for the university's gaming community and a place for its competitive players to train. It also represents another step forward for collegiate esports across the country. "Esports is the future of competition. Period," UCI's Acting Director of Esports Mark Deppe says. "It transcends language, geography, race, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability and many other identities. In five years many more schools will official programs and more structure will be in place to regulate and provide guidance to schools. Esports also has a huge opportunity to learn from the successes and shortcomings of traditional sports and provide a model for collegiate competition in the 21st century."
Paralyzed man regains use of arms thanks to 'wireless spinal cord'
Remember that paralyzed guy from Southern California who managed to walk on his own accord thanks to a revolutionary technique that bridged the gap in his severed spinal column with a wireless Bluetooth link? A team of doctors at Ohio's Case Western Reserve University have reportedly accomplished the same feat with a patient's arms.
OutRun AR project lets you game and drive at the same time, makes us drool
Cool game, or coolest game ever? That's the question we were asking ourselves when we first came across Garnet Hertz's augmented reality-based OutRun project -- a concept car that weds Sega's classic driving game with an electric golf cart, allowing players to navigate their way around real-life courses using only arcade consoles. Hertz, an informatics researcher at the University of California Irvine, has since brought his idea to fruition, after outfitting the system with cameras and customized software that can "look" in front of the car to automatically reproduce the route on the game cabin's screen. The map is displayed in the same 8-bit rendering you'd see on the original OutRun, with perspectives changing proportionally to shifts in steering. The cart maxes out at only 13 mph, though speed isn't really the idea; Hertz and his colleagues hope their technology can be used to develop game-based therapies for disabled users, or to create similarly AR-based wheelchairs. Scoot past the break to see a video of the car in action, and let your dreams converge. [Thanks, Stagueve]
UC Irvine to compare WoW players from America, China
The University of California at Irvine has been granted $100,000 to study the differences between Chinese and American World of Warcraft players, according to the Orange County Register. The study will mostly focus on explaining why American players are much more likely to employ modifications such as Cosmos than Chinese players are, but project lead Bonnie Nardi made some interesting observations outside the scope of this particular endeavor.For example, she noted that Chinese players are for some reason more likely to talk about the aesthetic appearance of the game than are Americans. Whereas American players often play with their children, parents, or siblings, Chinese players are unlikely to do that. "The older generation dislikes video games," she said, and playing with siblings is obviously rare since most Chinese of the gaming generation have none."The vast majority of Chinese players are not gold farmers," she said. "They're ordinary players like anyone. The media has blown that story out of all proportion. Many people think Chinese play for a job. They play for fun." Enlightening stuff. We're looking forward to seeing what else comes out of her research.[Via Ten Ton Hammer] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
HOWARD device helps stroke victims grasp again
While we've got robotic assistants that give aid to our ankles, arms, upper bodies, muscles, and legs (just to name a few), researchers at the University of California, Irvine are offering up yet another solution to assist stroke victims regain functionality in their hands. Sure, the Cyberhand and modified P5 glove have already been down this road before, but UCI's Hand-Wrist Assisting Robotic Device (cleverly-dubbed HOWARD) is a purely medical device that was constructed to "help people regain strength and normal use of affected hands long after a stroke." Considering that the first three months after a stroke are when the most "spontaneous improvement" occurs, the device is set into a lineup of scheduled therapy sessions which help victims regain motion, feeling, and grasping abilities of their hands. Additionally, HOWARD requires patients to move at least one-tenth of an inch before the assisting kicks in, which purportedly helps them "remember the feeling" of making motions on their own. Currently, 13 participants have been through HOWARD therapy, and all of them saw 10 to 20-percent improvements in various grasping tests, and while we've no idea when these contraptions will sneak into hospital wards, the team is already hard at work developing a smaller sibling with a bit more software options than the existing rendition.[Via Slashdot]
UCI Game Conference Spotlights WoW
We all know that WoW has been a success for Blizzard Entertainment beyond all expectations, reasonable & unreasonable...and some of the finest minds in our country are putting their heads together to try and figure out why.No, I don't mean the guys from Microsoft. University of California, Irvine recently held a conference on the future of MMO gaming, featuring network technicians, gamers & anthropologists (no mention of greedy moneymen), to discuss just where we'll all go from WoW. Some interesting topics were raised, and it sounds like it was quite an interesting event. The full story can be read here.
