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University of Miami's sports VR app goes behind the scenes
The Olympics aren't the only sports-in-VR news this week -- college athletics will take the (virtual) field too. In conjunction with the University of Miami, EON Sports VR is starting a VR channel showcasing the school's sports teams. Previously, EON has brought VR to baseball and football training. Men's and women's scrimmages, practice footage and huddles will be accessible via a $30 Hurricane-branded headset, according to a prepared statement.
New algorithm aims to predict ISIS attacks
A physicist from the University of Miami has created an algorithm that can scan the Islamic State's social media posts and may eventually be used to predict the group's next terrorist attack. In the journal Science today, Dr. Neil Johnson and his team described their method of searching through roughly a year's worth of posts on the Russia-based social network Vkontakte, looking for pro-ISIS statements in multiple languages. The resulting data allowed Johnson and team to build out "a statistical model aimed at identifying behavioral patterns among online supporters of ISIS."
Study: Men who harass women online suck at games (and life)
Researchers think that they've worked out why certain men abuse women over the internet: because they suck... at games. According to a study by Michael Kasumovic and Jeff Kuznekoff, the most vocal abusers of women online are the ones most threatened by their presence in the digital sphere. The short explanation for this is because less-skilled men have the most to lose playing games against a woman, thanks to the perceived social stigma of "losing to a girl." Rather than risk this supposed humiliation, they'd much rather create a toxic environment that's outright hostile to newcomers.
University of Miami's hurricane tank simulates storms for scientists
Researchers from the University of Miami have started looking more closely into category five hurricanes this month. No, not by chasing them around -- they're thankfully quite rare -- but by simulating their effects inside a huge indoor tank. Oceanographers from the institute built the 66 x 20 foot tank officially called SUSTAIN or Surge-Structure-Atmosphere Interaction Facility on an island off the coast of Florida. The scientists merely have to flip a switch for the paddles inside to start churning the waters and for fans to begin mimicking howling winds -- in just few minutes, it all turns into a small-scale storm.
NASA awards $100,000 grant for sideways supersonic plane concept, sonic boom not included
NASA isn't just interested in extra-terrestrial exploration, but in pushing the boundaries of atmospheric flight as well, which is why it's just awarded $100,000 in funding for the supersonic plane concept shown above. As you can see, the symmetrical plane is basically all wing, and that's because it has two different configurations based on how fast you want to go. For normal, subsonic flight, a plane needs a decent wingspan to get off the ground and sustain flight at lower speeds. But, when you want to go supersonic, large wings become a bit of a drag, which is where the concept's bi-functional design comes in. The plane begins its journey in the long-winged setup, but spins 90 degrees amongst the clouds to use its stubby wings for efficient faster-than-sound flight and "virtually zero sonic boom." Gecheng Zha from the University of Miami has been touting his concept for quite some time, but now he's got the cash to refine the design, run simulations and do some wind tunnel testing, with the potential for more funding in the future. Unfortunately, the concept is, at best, decades from becoming a reality, but we're sold on the ninja star-like design. Guile, however, is not impressed.
