Technology

Why Traditional Career Advice Isn’t Relevant in the 21st Century

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving fields in technology today.

I’m sharing brief points for basic help,, for more details I am available for a chat / call.

Strong Administration

Just, the executives are by a wide margin the main component that brilliant financial backers think about.

VCs put resources into a supervisory group and its capacity to execute on the strategy, as a matter of some importance.

They are not searching for “green” supervisors; they are searching preferably for chiefs who have effectively fabricated organizations that have produced significant yields for the financial backers.

VCs want to see that the startup has a team with a deep understanding of the technology and a track record of success in the industry. A new tech innovation is already an added advantage, like integration of blockchain in VR.

Any option for NFT or alternative ecosystem development in VR world.

Extraordinary Item with Strategic advantage

Financial backers need to put resources into extraordinary items and administrations with an upper hand that is enduring.

They search for items and administrations that clients can’t manage without — on the grounds that it’s such a ton better or in light of the fact that it’s such a ton less expensive than whatever else on the lookout.

VCs want to see that the startup is targeting a large and rapidly growing market and has a clear path to expansion.

This could include developing VR hardware that is more affordable and accessible to a wider range of consumers, or creating VR content that appeals to a broad audience.

In addition to these factors, VCs also look for a strong competitive advantage or unique selling proposition that sets the VR startup apart from its competitors.

VCs want to see that the startup has a clear vision for how it will differentiate itself and establish a foothold in the market.

Finally, VCs want to see evidence of traction and market validation.

VR startups that can demonstrate these qualities are more likely to attract the attention and investment of VCs in the competitive world of virtual reality.

Might administrative or legitimate issues at some point spring up?

Is this the right item for now or 10 years from today?

Is there enough cash in the asset to meet the open door completely?

Is there an inevitable exit from the venture and an opportunity to see a return?

An accelerator program like us, we are looking for strong team and great tech innovation to upscale with.

You are the artist of your life

In an age where skill sets can become obsolete in just a few years, many workers are scrambling just to stay current. How can organizations encourage continuous learning, improve individual mobility, and foster a growth mind-set in every employee, year after year?

Amidst all confusion, searching for career guidance wherever possible seemed like the only way to find any answers.

It seemed to most of us that we were playing a game of dodgeball, where we tried to avoid being hit by his sharp questions and words, struggling to keep the conversation flowing.

Here are four reasons why traditional career advice isn’t relevant in the 21st century and what can be more resourceful instead.

At the End of the Day, Experience Will Be the Only Determinant.

You had never wanted to escape a room so much as did that day. Every inch of you was laced with fear. You couldn’t imagine doing one thing for a decade. You didn’t know how to put all of your abilities and interests in a box- there wasn’t a thing that could check all of your wishes at once.

In a study, recent trends have been highlighted such as technological change, globalization, demographic change, etc that will play a major role in affecting the career of a present-day student.

The only thing that will give clarity is a true experience. Working as interns with head-on reality in our faces will give us the time and ability to tell what we really want to do. Little hints will nudge us in the right direction.

A subtle truth is that none of us have the whole picture in our heads. Most of us go forward with a vague idea in our head- based on the movies we watch, articles we read, or the environment we are raised in. All of these factors add up to give us a limited idea of what we want in life.

Most of us fear being jobless in a world dictated by automation. However, this research also shows that automation will create more jobs than it will take. Automation is simply one of the important aspects of the future. Many others aspects will contribute towards the future as well.

Skills Matter Much More in an Unstable World.

Young people are told to pick one option- because you can’t have it all.

We are told to work harder and be consistent with our goals- but when the time comes to choose, our careers must magically fit with what society deems as success.

The only thing that you knew is that you had won an essay writing competition in fourth grade- and writing was the only thing that made a little bit of sense. You decided to improve your creativity instead of panicking.

The future holds abundance for us. While fear for the future has always existed, technological innovation may bring more to us than we can imagine. The digital age will provide access to resources and opportunities that we may have never dreamt about.

Now, people with no access to traditional educational institutions can develop their skills through the internet. This can be a huge asset to the underprivileged, who can reach their potentials.

It shows in its research about six different hypothetical workers of the future- with a combination of different skills required for their individual role. Each one of them differs vastly but they contribute deeply to society. For example- the skill of being an active listener is very important not only for a counselor but also for a teacher.

Of course, you have to start somewhere. In an unstable world dictated by new and changing norms, skills will be the new deciding element of careers.

We Don’t Know What the Future Looks like Career-Wise.

If you told anyone ten years ago that you could record your life casually and get paid for it, he’d probably spit his coffee at you and tell you to jog on. Who knew that you could be a vlogger or a social media manager and get paid for it?

There is still hope for all of the people like me who never thought of a defined action plan. This might sound optimistic, but if we leap back in time, opportunities weren’t as endless as they are today. With the digital age rising and paving its way, new paths are being written and old ones are being replaced.

The paths that were defined for older generations are no longer valid anymore. Here lies a generation that is much more privileged with its options- hence we have the choice to select from things that weren’t available years ago.

Multipotentialites, therefore have the opportunity to combine all of their interests in a way that fends for them.

The future might be unpredictable- but that doesn’t mean we have to leave all of our skills and narrow it down to one.

Experimenting Is the Whole Game.

Not everyone comes out of the womb with a plan. Some of us scramble with choices, going from place to place, trying to figure out what suits us best. If we were stubborn with our choices, we would never know what could potentially be a better fit for us and our lifestyle. The past and the future will not only differ in time but also in the kind of opportunities. Emotional Intelligence and cognitive skills will be required for success in the professional world.

If you could salute the people who go on with their choices without a doubt, you would. But after all, the doubt is an incentive to reach for better opportunities. What makes us leave is what makes us grow.

Unlike the cliched advice that talks about ‘following your passion’ or ‘doing what we are best at’, maybe a better approach would be realizing that we’re going to be bored anyway.

As humans, boredom is a constant — we can get bored of anything. Research shows that boredom is beneficial to us. The struggles that we are willing to overcome are the struggles that are worth it. Hence, when we break through phases of boredom, the skillset required to go through adversity and challenges will be formed.

Final Thoughts

You found something much more resourceful to you. You would be challenged to think for yourself. Your fear was an incentive to search and explore the potential. These days, there isn’t any formula for a successful career. That’s what makes it all the more interesting.

Upgrading your skills, instead- is the right thing to do at an age where everything seems cloudy and distant. With the plethora of options, the dilemma of right and wrong shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

NextMind Review: select objects using your brain powers

Thinking of life as art, believe serves as a powerful guiding metaphor for us as we lead our lives.

As the artists, that is the creators of our lives, we realize certain maxims or truths.

Some of those maxims are:

Artists take responsibility for creating their art.

Artists are on a quest to continually perfect their art.

Artists know that they are always free to create again in the moment.

Each of our lives is overflowing with potential and possibilities. Let’s see how we can use that metaphor of life as art to create the best possible life that we are capable of creating. Looking at the first maxim that artists take responsibility for creating their art, simply means that the power to create lies with the artist and their vision. In other words, each of us is ultimately accountable and responsible for our lives. On an intellectual and intuitive level, we know that this is true. Yet at times, we tend to forget or blatantly disregard that the power to create the best life possible resides within us.

We blame external circumstances, our upbringing, other people and our past conditioning to abdicate taking responsibility for how our lives have turned out so far. Real maturity in life means accepting the fact that if we want to have or continue to have a great life, it starts with having a vision and a purpose. If you can consciously be accountable for your choices and actions, you will see a change in your attitude. You realize that you are responsible for your own happiness or…. the way that you react to your own challenges in life.

Now not totally life is not very challenging or difficult at times. Bad things do happen to good people and each of us have had our share of loss and heartbreak to contend with in life.

And sometimes through no fault of our own, we are forced to deal with the bad choices and actions of other individuals that have long lasting repercussions on our lives. What matters is that if we ever hope to create or continue to create the type of life that our heart truly desires, a life that is meaningful, the difference is the accountability factor. Be a true artist and take responsibility for the art that is your life that you create.

Art can and does mean so much more than that, to so many people. Art is a way of seeing the world, a way of expression, oftentimes a compulsion: we simply must create!

Art may be a way to explore your world or your imagination. Art may inspire a beginning painter to take steps into learning a new medium, or an accomplished artist to experiment with a new technique. Art is teaching, art is learning. Art can be exciting, empowering, and an expression of love.

Art can be a challenge: both frustrating and rewarding at the same time, leading to a sense of accomplishment — or a determination to do more. Art can be a message: of politics, of peace, of brutality or beauty. Art can be an escape, an idealization, or simply a means of play. Art can be anything and everything you let it be!

Every artist plays a different and necessary part in contributing to the overall health, development, and well-being of our society.

Creative thinkers and makers provide their communities with joy, interaction, and inspiration, but they also give thoughtful critique to our political, economic and social systems — pushing communities to engage thoughtfully and make steps toward social progress.

Art is about connecting with people’s emotions. It’s personal and at the same time, universal.

It’s a human urge to express emotion through the medium of mark-making. We all carry with us memories of our past experiences.

An artist has the ability to ‘feel strongly’ to be ‘sensitive’ to things and express this in the paint, gesture, or color. The artist ‘absorbs’ the atmosphere of a place or the memory of a feeling. Sometimes, it’s a burden for the artist to carry all this emotion – to be so sensitive.

Art is genuinely a gift to the world. It’s what we crave in the human experience. Art gives meaning to our lives and helps us understand our world. It is an essential part of our culture because it allows us to have a deeper understanding of our emotions; it increases our self-awareness, and also allows us to be open to new ideas and experiences. Art therefore continues to open our minds and our hearts and shows us what could be possible in our world.

ART ALLOWS US TO CONNECT WITH OUR INNER SELVES

Art can transform our lives. When we connect with art, we are ultimately connecting with our inner selves. Art enables us to look within and to listen to ourselves, realize who we are, and what we care about. It connects us to our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and our outer realities and experiences.

When we connect with a work, it is possible to encounter a rise in emotions because it introduces us to new experiences, provides us with a deeper understanding of our emotions, and shines light on questions we never knew we even had.

But as humans, it is essential to surround ourselves with art created by others. Art introduces us to a whole new set of experiences and ideas that we may have never witnessed before.

These experiences allow us to look within because as people, we decide what we’re seeing and feeling based on the emotional connection that we have with that work of art. As people, we tend to make emotional choices that are passionate to us, which allows us to realize what we care about and what we stand for.

When we are aware of this, we tend to be happier and healthier as individuals because we are able to figure out our purpose in life.

ART CAUSES US TO HAVE AN APPRECIATION AND GRATIFICATION FOR WHAT WE HAVE IN OUR LIVES

We tend to be happier when we are able to look at life through a standpoint of appreciation and gratification – when we are able to view all of the wonderful details that are going well in our lives instead of focusing on the alternative.

When we give ourselves the opportunities to connect with art, we are able to take a step back, reflect what’s going on in our world, evaluate our lives, and reflect. That is why I believe it is so important to gift yourself with opportunities to incorporate art into your life on a daily basis. This could be through visiting an artist’s studio, a museum, seeing a live show, watching a movie, or even reading a great book.

ART BRINGS MORE CREATIVITY, SATISFACTION, AND HAPPINESS INTO OUR LIVES

Have you ever had an emotional connection to a work of art? Have you ever experienced a wave of emotions while standing in front of an amazing painting?

Have you ever experienced a work and could not seem to explain the feeling that it gave you? This experience ultimately comes down to intuitively connecting with the artist’s story, their voice, and their experience. You are being welcomed into the artist’s world.

Art gives us meaning and helps us understand our world. Scientific studies have proven that art appreciation improves our quality of life and makes us feel good. When we create art, we elevate our mood, we improve our ability to problem solve, and open our minds to new ideas.

Art is a testimony of the human condition. It encompasses all of our hardships, emotions, questions, decisions, perceptions. Love, hatred, life, death. Essentially the way in which we perceive our world, every aspect of humanity can be expressed through art.

These times lay bare why art can’t be dictated nor contained by anything.

Creativity isn’t limited by its resources.

Creation is a primal source.

The authenticity in a painting or a piece of music is felt universally, because it resonates with the same essential being in the creator and the creation. The artist is often referred to as a magician, whereas her art only lays bare the heightened capacity to channel the universal truths.

The common story of life, love and death is what connects us humans.

Art is important because it functions as a holistic portal to a deeper understanding of humans and the self.

Widespread use of social media has changed the way we communicate, but many believe these changes aren’t necessarily positive. For example, lack of content moderation across social platforms have allowed misinformation to spread throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that misinformation can impact conversations about COVID-19 among family, friends, and others.

Even before COVID-19, many users were dissatisfied with how major social media platforms were dealing with the challenges of misinformation, as well as censorship, privacy, political neutrality, user control, and malicious activity. These concerns have sparked an emerging trend: decentralized social networks, also known as federated networks.

What are Decentralized Social Networks?
Decentralized social networks operate on independently run servers, rather than on a centralized server owned by a business. Mastodon is one example of a decentralized social network. It is based on open-source software and functions a lot like Twitter. Another example is a company, which runs on a social blockchain. Blockchain technology allows data entries to be stored in servers anywhere in the world. It fosters transparency, as the data can be viewed in near real time by anyone on a network.

Decentralized social networks give users more control and autonomy. An individual can set up their social network and determine how it operates and what users can say. Instead of having content monitored by a corporation, the founder of a federated social network can establish the terms of acceptable behavior for the site.

The Fediverse
Decentralized social networks make up the fediverse, a term for a collection of interconnected servers used for social networking and other activities such as blogging and web publishing. An independently hosted federated network can interact with other networks in the fediverse.

This is one of the primary differences between decentralized social networks and popular social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. For example, Twitter only allows users to send and receive messages to other people with Twitter accounts (e.g., Twitter users can’t send messages to Facebook accounts because there is no cross-platform alignment). Federated networks, on the other hand, allow users to engage across platforms.

Email offers an example of how federated social networks work. Take, for example, Google and Yahoo. Each company sets email rules for its users. Google does not impose regulations on Yahoo’s users. Yet, Google users can send emails to and receive emails from Yahoo users and vice versa. Federated networks work similarly.

Pros and Cons of Decentralized Networks
Social media promotes connectivity, community building, and knowledge sharing. People can use social media to drive social and political change, bring awareness to important issues, raise funds for those in need, and promote their businesses. However, social media’s ugly side can include cyberbullying, political misinformation, and even criminal activity. Because decentralized social networks are largely unmoderated, both the positive and negative outcomes become more extreme.

User Control, Free Speech, and Censorship Resistance
Corporate entities control major social media sites, and a small group of people within these companies sets the rules of engagement. This has raised concerns about free speech and censorship among users. Last year, Facebook enacted high-profile bans on individuals from all sides of the political spectrum. Banning violent, hateful, and dangerous messaging helps protect social media users from malicious online activity, but some believe the bans run contrary to ideals of free speech.

A decentralized social network allows users more control. Unlike centralized social networking platforms, federated networks foster independence without a central authority. Benefits include censorship resistance, ownership over personal data, and improved control over user-generated content. In other words, users do not accept censorship and insist on having the final say on their content. This means no one else, whether a corporation or site administrator, can make modifications to content created by users. No one can remove content generated by users, either.

In a federated network, no single group can dictate other groups’ rules. For example, anyone can run their own social media site without a central authority, meaning they (and other users) can post anything they want without worrying about having their post taken down. A downside of this structure is that hate groups also have the freedom to launch their own social media sites. While individuals can block these groups, they cannot prevent them from engaging on the network.

Personal Data, Privacy, and Security
User concerns about control of their personal data have led to the establishment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The legislation considers users “data controllers.” Social media companies are known as “data processors.” The GDPR definition of data controller means that users own their own data. By law, companies must hand over more control of personal data to users. Companies are penalized for not following GDPR regulations.

Decentralized social networks have provided another answer to data privacy and security. On federated social networks, users can create accounts without having to link to real-world identities, like email addresses or phone numbers. Furthermore, these networks often rely on public-key cryptography for account security, rather than relying on a single organization to protect user data.

While this can create advantages from a data security perspective, it also presents challenges. For example, bootstrapped federated social networks may shut down because of a lack of funds, causing users to lose their data and connections. In this instance, users have no simple way to reconnect with others on the network because federated networks do not keep records of personal data on servers. In terms of privacy, these platforms do not necessarily encrypt data, which means that private messages may be visible to administrators.

Economic Neutrality
Economic neutrality is an essential ideal for many who turn to decentralized social networks — they wish to liberate themselves from invasive advertising and the risk to privacy it poses. Federated networks look to new forms of monetization to remain solvent. They often use a form of digital currency, such as Bitcoin, to keep operations running. For example, a company pays its users for creating or curating intriguing content, which incentivizes content creators to focus on quality. It gets its money from investors who believe the platform will grow in value over time and will one day be profitable.

Oculus Quest Software Improvements Could Aim VR For Chromebook Market

Using the power of your brain to turn up the volume on the TV might be the sort of thing couch potatoes dream of, and it could soon be within their grasp. That is, according to neurotechnology startup NextMind, with the help of their new $399 brain-to-computer interface (BCI) wearable.

NextMind has announced that the device, which comes in the form of a small, round gadget that can be clipped on to the back of the head, will start shipping to developers and partners this month.

The concept behind the technology is similar to that of the electroencephalograms (EEG) that are currently found mostly in hospital rooms. Like EEGs, NextMind’s device records the brain’s electrical activity and “reads” the signals to understand what information is being sent to the body.
After capturing and translating brain activity, the technology transforms it into a digital command for compatible devices. If the user’s brain sends a signal to change TV channels, for example, the wearable can directly trigger the action – with no need to use a remote control or even move their hand.

NextMind’s CEO Sid Kouider unveiled the device last November, and explained that the wearable’s eight electrodes measure the activity in one specific area of the brain – the visual cortex, which processes the information sent through our eyes.

“When you face several objects, the eyes project an image of these objects in the visual cortex,” he said. “If you mentally decide to focus your attention on a specific object, it will be magnified in the cortex. The NextMind device can decode which object you are selecting, and send back the information to the display in real time.”

This is how users can trigger commands such as play, pause, or turn up the volume, in this example on a TV display, simply by focusing their attention on the relevant part of the screen.

Another potential application of NextMind’s device is gaming: instead of using a controller, gamers could fire at opponents by just focusing on their target. Add a VR headset and it is easy to see how BCI could provide another degree of immersion to the whole experience.

But this type of application of NextMind’s technology is still a thing of the future. Although Kouider demoed how the device could be used to control a TV set or a game, the company has called for developers to come up with new brain-controlled environments and applications.

It still remains to be seen whether the new wearable will withstand the limitations that BCIs currently face – namely, the skin, hair and bone between the visual cortex and the device that weakens the strength of the electrical signals.

“There are many obstacles but it’s all about one thing: improving the bandwidth of the signal you can record from the brain. NextMind created a new device with two main innovations.

The first one was improved sensors, using a “new material with increased sensitivity that can capture signals much better”. But most importantly, the technology incorporates more sophisticated neural networks, which, combined with organic neural activity, can effectively interpret our brain data in real time.

NextMind’s hardware looks like a great tool for gaming and the consumer market. However, while it might gather slightly higher bandwidth than previous consumer EEGs, as long as the electrodes are placed outside the brain, there’s only so much you can get.

The think most of the improvement comes from the algorithms that interpret the signals, which over the past years have been getting better, despite the limits of the hardware.

As Schaefer pointed out, no further details of NextMind’s technology were disclosed. But Kouider seems confident: “This is just the beginning for us, as we look forward to the future and further evolving this technology.”

He is dreaming big while NextMind’s device can currently only decipher visual intent – where our mind focuses when presented with objects that we can see – believes that one day the technology could also read visual imagination.
In other words, that the wearable could project what we imagine – the “real-life cinema inside your mind”, onto a platform.

The idea is not an impossible feat, said Schaefer, but only to a certain extent. You can probably reconstruct what a user is imagining, but only from a limited number of options – say, a flower, or a racket. This is why gaming, where you have a defined space, would be an interesting application.

But if have no idea what you’re imagining, and put a headband around your head, skeptical that could reconstruct what you are thinking exactly.
In the meantime, there is a lot to look forward to: NextMind’s call for partners to “play around” with BCI could lead to unexpected advances. Developers, to your tool kits.

The Boundless Applications of AR in Manufacturing

Facebook is trying to increase production of Quest 2 amid a global silicon chip shortage while planning regular software updates for its $299 headset that may put the headset, and its follow-ups, on a path that may convince some buyers to pick up a standalone VR headset instead of a Chromebook or tablet.
A recent talk between Facebook’s vice president in charge of VR, Andrew Bosworth, and consulting technical officer John Carmack offered some of the clearest insights we’ve seen yet into the company’s strategy in VR.

For instance, the talk revealed Facebook is planning to keep Oculus Quest 2 available to buy for a “long while” while making clear a more sensor-laden “Quest Pro” won’t be hitting store shelves this year. The conversation was held in Twitter Spaces, which doesn’t yet archive audio broadcasts. We recorded the interaction, however, and plan to post a full transcription and edited audio file later this week.

Oculus Quest’s Year Of Software
Another section of the talk refers to a “year of software” updates meant to deliver “a rolling thunder of product improvements for the Quest 2,” as Bosworth put it.

Back in January we learned Facebook planned monthly updates for Quest with the latest version, software v28, marking a significant milestone with the addition of “Infinite Office” features to bring your desk into VR and the ability to track a bluetooth keyboard with integrated trackpad so it is feasible to actually do some work in VR.

Carmack mentioned the need for Facebook’s VR products “to be something that somebody hard up for money decides I’m going to buy a VR headset instead of a Chromebook or instead of a tablet. And we need to do everything that those devices do. You know, we need to have similar app libraries. We need to be just as effective with keyboard and mouse. We need it to be something that you could put on your head and do the work that you need to do during a normal day.”

Carmack notes this type of use case has been regularly demonstrated for the better part of a decade, but they “were silly gimmicks at the lower resolution” inherent to earlier headsets. He noted the need to further improve the optics, resolution, and weight of headset designs over subsequent products, but argues that Quest 2 is “at the point where it’s becoming reasonable,” and they need to get the “software infrastructure in place” so that when the hardware is good enough they can tap into “hundreds of millions of users.”
“We can absolutely make it better than cheap little netbooks that people are hunched over in terrible posture,” he said.

Upgraded Guardian mode
The Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2’s Guardian mode is a good way to “paint” out a virtual space to prevent yourself from walking face-first into a wall. But until now, it was a little limited.

But the good news, as reported by UploadVR, is that the Quest headset is getting an upgrade that lets you mark out a chair or couch as part of your virtual environment.

This means rather than appear as a VR space boundary, the Guardian system will trigger a couch mode (basically seated VR mode) when you sit down in it without removing your Quest headset.

Currently, you have to draw a VR boundary onto a sofa or seat, meaning it marks the edge of your VR area and thus the headset won’t register it as a usable space. But with this upgrade, you’ll be able to mark out a couch by dragging a virtual rectangle across it to get its correct dimensions, in a similar fashion to how you’d mark out your VR space.

Once you’re done, the couch or chair will appear as a 3D model in the Oculus Home virtual menu environment. That means the chair will be recognized and you can sit on it, triggering the seated VR mode.

Just bear in mind that this upgrade is currently in an experimental process, so it may not have rolled out to your Quest or Quest 2 yet.

On the surface, this incoming upgrade might seem like a small one. But anything that makes the experience of using VR more seamless is definitely significant. Setting up a VR headset and measuring out the space you need, especially in a small room or apartment, can be a tricky process. So having the tools to simplify that is much appreciated.

Virtual Desktop streaming
Another Oculus Quest upgrade comes courtesy of the Virtual Desktop app, which has finally received Oculus store approval. That means you can now buy it in the main Oculus Quest store for $19.99, meaning there’s no need to go through the process of sideloading it.

Virtual Desktop means you can stream PC-only VR games to a Quest headset, as well as run other apps on your PC. And all this can be done wirelessly.
Furthermore, there’s support for Bluetooth mice and keyboards, as well as other peripherals. And you can even connect up to four computers to the Quest and switch between them on-the-fly.

‘Hey Facebook’ voice control
Another feature is also rolling out ot the Oculus Quest and Quest 2, in the form of “Hey Facebook” voice commands. This opt-in feature basically brings in a raft of Facebook’s existing voice commands to the Quest headsets when the microphone is turned on. When the mic is off Facebook can’t listen in.
The voice commands allow you to reset your headset’s viewpoint, navigate settings, and launch apps all with the power of your voice providing you utter the “Hey Facebook” activation phrase.

Combined, these upgrades demonstrate Facebook’s commitment to building out VR and show why a headset like the Oculus Quest 2 is our top pick for the best VR headsets. If you want one, check out our where to buy Oculus Quest 2 article for a suite of U.S. and U.K. retailers selling the headset.

MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS FOR OCULUS LINK AND VIRTUAL DESKTOP

When you are using Oculus Quest 2 to play PC VR with Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop, your PC has to not only play the VR game, but also has to stream it at the same time to the Quest, therefore it will require a more powerful graphics card. See the list of compatible cards here. As of 2020, the most affordable graphics card that can work with Oculus Link is GTX 1650 Super (not just a GTX 1650). Please note that unlike the GTX 1650, a GTX 1650 Super card will require a 6-pin power connector. Note also that when using Virtual Desktop, the more powerful your CPU and graphics card are, the better the graphics will be.
Here are the minimum requirements for Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop:
• Intel i5-4590 or better
• 8GB RAM or more
• GTX 1650 Super or better
• USB 3.0 port.
The cheapest and probably also the easiest way to get a PC that meets these specs is to get a used PC with i5-4590 or better, 8GB RAM or more, with Windows 10. I suggest looking for one with a tower case. A PC with small form factor can use only half-height PCI cards and the fastest low profile graphics card is the GTX 1650, which is not sufficient to run Oculus Link.

UPDATE: due to the rise in prices of cryptocurrency, graphics card prices have now spiked up as well.

Another option for a VR PC is to use cloud computing. With this option, you use a powerful PC to run VR remotely. This option is possible for wireless PC VR gaming (see below), but it cannot be used to run Oculus Rift S.

Follow deeptechknowledge.com for more technology updates.

How companies can use quantam technology and AI to improve cyber security

Being reduced their aircraft manufacturing time by over 25% and lowered error rates to nearly 0% by equipping their production lines with AR-based technology!

Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly becoming a technology to reckon with in several industries and sectors, more so in the manufacturing sector. Every stage of the production or manufacturing process, beginning from research and product development to end-of-life management, is reaping the benefits of a melange of AR offerings that bolster the manufacturing process.

Why AR in Manufacturing?

‘If you want to see your product in the environment it will be used in, AR can do that for you faster, and less expensively than building a prototype’ – Matt Huybrecht.

Hard-ware based products are increasingly being manufactured through cutting-edge technological processes that leave little to no room for error. Organisations across the globe need to ensure that quality is preserved to stay ahead, or at least on par with the competition.

AR bridges the gaps in technology that can potentially lead to errors, and results in quality production, optimised planning, quicker turnaround, lesser wastage, and a host of other tangible and intangible benefits. Augray has enabled hundreds of organisations to enhance and improve their end-to-end manufacturing processes by enabling AR-based technologies. Here is a sneak peek into what AR can do for your business.

Visualisation and Prototyping

creating multiple prototypes for the purpose of visualisation and functionality testing of often expensive, labour intensive, and time consuming. AR makes this process of visualisation extremely efficient with respect to economics and labour. By creating a digital twin or a virtual model, engineers, designers, and product developers can visualise the product without having to build a physical prototype. This considerably reduces the time spent in design and development and subsequently shortens the time the product takes to reach the market.

With the power of AR, products can be translated from the drawing board to visual and even physical prototypes (through rapid prototyping or 3D printing) within days or weeks instead of months.

Complex Assembly

Every large machine requires hundred if not thousands of parts to be assembled with utmost accuracy and precision. In the case of aircraft, ships, large automobiles, and power generation machinery, tens of thousands of components need to be assembled, and the wafter thin error margin literally leaves no room for errors. In such a scenario, manual assembly and inspection would require the expertise of multiple technicians to ensure that precision. However, when the process is enabled with AR, the makes the process of assembly skill agnostic and ensures that all components are fitted in accordance with requirements and norms.

For instance, aircraft companies and automotive manufacturers now use AR-enabled goggles to ensure that seats are fitted in the right place. When these devices are used, an alarm is raised even if the technician deviates the positioning by a millimetre. This ensures that the technician does not waste time in refitting seats by ensuring that they are assembled the correct way at the first instance.

Supply Chain and Logistics

Small and medium scale establishments that do not have a separate division for procurement and stock-taking more often than not find themselves in a soup when they require a particular component but find it short in supply. On the other hand, in the case of fast-moving goods, organisations often find they have ingredients or perishable components in excess and stand to lose if these constituents are not processed at the right time.

AR-enabled organisations can simulate the process and predict machine failure, downtime, and shortage of demand. This enables the organisation to plan the supply chain, enabling the organisation to optimise machine run time, minimise wastage, reduce manufacturing lead time and most importantly, achieve shorter sales processes.

Product Life Cycle Management

The entire product life cycle can be simulated using AR. Multiple-use cases can be modelled to test the efficacy and life of the product, enabling organisations to play the end-of-life of the product even before the product actually hits the market. Additionally, with the combination of AR and 3D printing, organisations need not even produce spare parts for retired products in the long run. Users can purchase, retrospectively modify, or even reverse engineer parts to suit their needs long after an organisation has stopped producing a product.

This opens up a new space in which organisations can monetise their offerings while simultaneously catering to the needs of the customers.

AR in every step of Manufacturing

The novel, cutting edge AR-based technologies are undoubtedly changing the face of modern era manufacturing by making processes swifter, more sustainable and efficient. Augray has borne witness to this paradigm change in Industry 4.0.

The possibilities that AR offers in enhancing Manufacturing is immense and boundless. Necessity, the mother of invention, has made it mandatory for organisations to embrace this change of offer the best value for themselves and all their stakeholders.

Virtual reality is showing some effective industry use-cases as well, from real estate applications to tourism. On a recent trip to Israel, I witnessed the Jerusalem Visitor’s Bureau using VR to immerse tourists in how the city looked 5,000 years ago. These types of innovative VR experiences are unveiling in industries worldwide.

Although augmented reality technology is less mature than virtual reality due to the limitations of AR technology, lack of standardization and a higher price tag, it is already being utilized in industries including manufacturing, healthcare and logistics. Augmented reality experiences are typically delivered through headsets, such as Meta, ODG, Vuzix and HoloLens, and are showing early signs that the technology is set to transform commercial and industrial markets. However, there is still work to be done before these technologies can reach mainstream adoption.

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Virtual Reality (VR) – The Technological Revolution in Sports

Quantum computing is based on quantum mechanics, which governs how nature works at the smallest scales. The smallest classical computing element is a bit, which can be either 0 or 1. The quantum equivalent is a qubit, which can also be 0 or 1 or in what’s called a superposition — any combination of 0 and 1. Performing a calculation on two classical bits (which can be 00, 01, 10 and 11) requires four calculations. A quantum computer can perform calculations on all four states simultaneously.

This scales exponentially: 1,000 qubits would, in some respects, be more powerful than the world’s most powerful supercomputer.

In this digital-oriented world, hackers are evolving in parallel to technological advancements. Fortunately, engineers, mathematician and physicists are simultaneously working on innovative concepts that harness the progression of classical encryption methods. New devices are utilizing principles of quantum physics and deploying sophisticated and powerful algorithms for safe communication.

What is cryptography?

Cryptography is a means of securing data and information to dodge malicious hackers. Thanks to cryptographic methods, everything from web conferences to individual browsing history remain privileged and safe. Data are protected using algorithms that require a unique key for decryption and encryption. Utilization of the same private key, i.e. a specific string of bits for decryption and encryption, is called symmetric cryptography. Utilization of public keys for encryption and private keys for decryption — each of which are created by algorithm-fuelled random number generators — is called asymmetrical cryptography.

Genuine randomness is considered unachievable by purely classical means, but can be accomplished with the added application of quantum physics.

Quantum key distribution
There are two methods by which large-scale quantum and classical computers can obscure private information.
• Method #1: Recover the key generated during the key agreement phase.
• Method #2: Interrupt the encryption algorithm.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a quantum cryptographic primitive designed to generate unbreakable keys. QKD ensures key agreement, including well-known BB84 and E91 algorithms. In 2017, a Chinese team successfully demonstrated that satellites can perform safe and secure communications with the help of symmetrical cryptography and QKD.
Still, it’s clear that QKD alone can’t satisfy all protection requirements, but there are other mechanisms for security enhancement by utilizing “quantum-safe” encryption algorithms based on solving mathematical problems instead of laws of quantum physics.

An optimistic view of quantum-computing obstacles
The most immediate challenge is accomplishing the most sufficient number of fault-tolerant qubits to boost quantum computing’s computational promises. Tech giants such as Google, Amazon, IBM and Honeywell are taking this problem under consideration and investing in it to come up with a solid solution.

Currently, quantum computers are programmed for individual quantum logic gates. This might be acceptable for small-scale quantum computers, but less so once we come across a large number of qubits.

Organizations such as IBM and Classiq are developing more and more abstract layers in the programming stack, allowing developers to nurture incredible and powerful quantum applications to provide solutions to real-world problems.

For the implementation of complex problems including error-correction schemes, organizations need to prove that they can control numerous qubits. This control must have low latency and it must come from adaptive-feedback control circuits based on CMOS. Ultimately, the issue of “fan-out” must be addressed. The question that needs to be answered is how to pace up a number of qubits within a quantum chip. Multiple lasers or control wires are currently required, but it’s hard to see how we can develop multiple qubit chips with millions of wires connected to the circuit board or coming out of the cryogenic measurement chamber.

Applying quantum computing to cybersecurity
In recent years, researchers and analysts have been striving for the development of quantum-safe encryption. According to American Scientist, the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology is presently evaluating 69 new methods known as “post-quantum cryptography,” or PQC. Quantum computing offers an eminent, potential solution to cybersecurity and encryption threats. Any security-forward organization ought to develop an understanding of crypto agility.

Quantum revolution is uncertain. While the intense impact of extensive fault-tolerant quantum computers may be far off, near-time quantum computers still present enormous advantages in enhancing levels of communication privacy and security. All organizations must consider developing innovative strategies around the long-term benefits and risks of quantum technology and computing, and be ready for the forthcoming quantum revolution.
Today’s classical computers use two primary classes of algorithms for encryption: symmetric and asymmetric.

• In symmetric encryption, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt a given piece of data. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is an example of a symmetric algorithm. Adopted by the US government, the AES algorithm supports three key sizes: 128 bits, 192 bits, and 256 bits. Symmetric algorithms typically are used for bulk encryption tasks, such as enciphering major databases, file systems, and object storage.

• In asymmetric encryption, data is encrypted using one key (usually referred to as the public key) and is decrypted using another key (usually referred to as the private key). Although the private key and public key are different, they are mathematically related. The widely employed Rivest, Shamir, Adleman (RSA) algorithm is an example of an asymmetric algorithm. Even though it is slower than symmetric encryption, asymmetric algorithms solve the problem of key distribution, which is an important issue in encryption.

Quantum risks to cybersecurity
The advent of quantum computing will lead to changes to encryption methods. Currently, the most widely used asymmetric algorithms are based on difficult mathematical problems, such as factoring large numbers, which can take thousands of years on today’s most powerful supercomputers.
However, research conducted by Peter Shor at MIT more than 20 years ago demonstrated the same problem could theoretically be solved in days or hours on a large-scale quantum computer. Future quantum computers may be able to break asymmetric encryption solutions that base their security on integer factorization or discrete logarithms.

Although symmetric algorithms are not affected by Shor’s algorithm, the power of quantum computing necessitates a multiplication in key sizes. For example, large quantum computers running Grover’s algorithm, which uses quantum concepts to search databases very quickly, could provide a quadratic improvement in brute-force attacks on symmetric encryption algorithms, such as AES.⁵

To help withstand brute-force attacks, key sizes should be doubled to support the same level of protection. For AES, this means using 256-bit keys to maintain today’s 128-bit security strength.

Even though large-scale quantum computers are not yet commercially available, initiating quantum cybersecurity solutions now has significant advantages. For example, a malicious entity can capture secure communications of interest today. Then, when large-scale quantum computers are available, that vast computing power could be used to break the encryption and learn about those communications.

Eclipsing its potential risks, quantum cybersecurity can provide more robust and compelling opportunities to safeguard critical and personal data than currently possible. It is particularly useful in quantum machine learning and quantum random number generation.

Why create a Quantum computer?
The reasons are not only to improve the processing capacity and solve the problems that cannot be done with traditional computers. In the last 20 years, the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU have increased exponentially. It seems that we found the limits of the transistor technology in the integrated circuit.

The extreme miniaturization of electronic doors is causing the effects of a phenomenon that become much more significant, such as Electromigration and the Sub-threshold. These obstacles are, among other factors, that make researchers study new computing methods, such as the quantum computer.

Preparing for The Quantum Future

The quantum revolution is upon us. Although the profound impact of large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers may be a decade off, near-term quantum computers will still yield tremendous benefits.

We are seeing substantial investment in solving the core problems around scaling qubit count, error correction and algorithms. From a cybersecurity perspective, while quantum computing may render some existing encryption protocols obsolete, it has the promise to enable a substantially enhanced level of communication security and privacy.

Organizations must think strategically about the longer-term risks and benefits of quantum computing and technology and engage in a serious way today to be ready for the quantum revolution of tomorrow. If you want more updates on latest technologies, please follow deeptechknowledge.com where we post about the upcoming technologies and their uses.