How Army is using Metaverse, AR and VR?

18 June 2022

How Army is using Metaverse, AR and VR?

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Metaverse, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are on the big boom and “hype” right now. Everyday more and more projects, ideas and researches being created with the goal to investigate the technology, find more implementations, simplify the use and optimize it to the current industries and sectors. The US Military is one of the “biggest fans” of different technologies and their implementations in modern weapons and military trainings. It’s known that US Military was actively cooperating with Google on the projects related to integration of complex AI algorithms in drones and unmanned aircrafts, as well as with Microsoft and Amazon on other projects related to defense and automation. US Army highly relies on the technology and implements it as much as possible for the innovation and automation. It’s obvious that such an organization wouldn’t pass through the recent boom of VR and Metaverse, as well as work on its implementation in various processes. Currently US Army is actively cooperating with different companies that focus on VR, AR and Metaverse to create solutions for different use cases. The major ones for now are training the troops and air force pilots with the use of special games in VR and adding new features to the headsets of pilots/soldiers using AR.

On May 10, 2022, there was a major testing operation with the purpose to test the AR technologies for the training of military pilots. A big glowing 3d model of a refueling plane was injected in the AR headsets of the pilots that they were wearing while flying, which allowed them to see the tanker plane, successfully perform the necessary training on “air-fueling”, as well as test the reliability of AR headsets and the training program itself. It’s just 1% of air training programs that military-tech company “Red.6” developing for the US Army and other clients all around the globe. One of the most popular systems that’s still is being actively developed but already shows excellent results and brings excellent reviews, it’s a “Air Fight Simulator”, which allows pilots to fight virtual planes in the air that either controlled remotely or by AI.

Another major military VR/AR invention and technology that was developed recently and already became a part of the F-35 fighter jets’ helmets – is a specific military headset that displays specific information regarding the airplane and the task to be accomplished on top of the video displayed by the helmet. Also, US Army announced that it works on a similar system with Microsoft (IVAS), that will allow them to create a similar version of a Microsoft’s AR system HoloLens (Mixed Reality glassed), specifically optimized for military use cases.

There are a lot of AR projects in the Military Industry related directly to the education, trainings and support of pilots/soldiers. For example, Project Avenger, it’s a project which is focused on providing students a realistic experience of flying and dealing with different most common problems/situations on flight by using VR and AR. It was stated that Project Avenger significantly improved the speed of theoretical education of young pilots before they sit in the real plane. And, of course, significantly improved their performance on practice. Another project is related directly to support of the soldiers and called Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance. The main idea of the project is to support the soldier in various situations by analyzing the situation around, soldier’s actions and suggesting what should be performed further through sound or visual representation.

Overall, currently there is an enormous amount of VR projects that are being developed in the field of defense and military that are aiming to bring something new to the industry new and improve certain processes.

Resources

11 June 2022

AI-based music startup Musiio helps major music distributors to process and recommend the music!

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Not so long ago, a Singaporean startup “Musiio” was sold to the Sound Cloud for presumably 10$ million, which is a worth of the company at the beginning of 2022. SoundCloud is a very popular and famous music distribution platform where every single person can upload their tracks, beats, receive listeners and subscribers. There are a lot of famous artists that used SoundCloud to gain their first fan base before becoming globally recognized such as Denzel Curry, Suicide Boys, Night Lovell, etc. But, without a proper system that would process the tracks uploaded, assign specific metadata to them and put in a specific playlist or list, tracks of the artists mentioned could be simply lost in a flow of 300 million sounds that are present on the platform and would never find their listeners or interested parties. Recently the flow of new tracks from the young artists increased significantly and SoundCloud started struggling with structuring and recommending the matching tracks and playlists to the listeners, that is why SoundCloud showed a big interest in the technology that Music-Tech startup Musiio developed and as a result decided to acquire the startup for further development and integration.

Musiio is a Singaporean based startup that was established in 2018 by Musician Hazel Savage and ML Engineer Aron Peterson. Musiio uses Machine Learning and Deep Learning to identify the unique parameters of the track tag it with a set of tags such as BPM, Genre, Mood, Energy and record those parameters in the track’s metadata for further predictions, structuring and recommendations. For now, startup possess 3 ready to use APIs such as Music tagging, Music search and Music recommendation. Music search allows to search tracks similar to the track inputted by making use of tags and tags matchings. Music recommendation allows to learn the preferences of the listener by continuously processing tracks listened and as a result creating a personalized playlist for him. Here is the demonstration of the high-level pipeline that Musiio’s implemented for their algorithm:

In 2018 Musiio cooperated with a nonprofit organization called FMA (Free Music Archive) that possessed a database of over 120,000 tracks from different non-profit creators. It was the first major project of Musiio that proved the efficiency of their algorithms. According to the head of FMA, Musiio was able to attract thousands of listeners to the tracks that were “rot” in the FMA database for over 8-10 years. After success with FMA, Musiio started actively cooperating with different globally known companies such as Vans, Auribus, BeatStars and successfully implemented its solution in their recommendation use cases.

After 2 successful years of operation, Musiio became a part of SoundCloud ecosystem with the right to operate as B2B company. SoundCloud claims that Musiio’s tagging algorithms will significantly help to search the tracks that match the interests of the listeners, handle and structure the flow of tracks that’s being uploaded to the platform daily and of course to create personalized playlists and music selections.

References:

11 June 2022

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Apple promises secure “passwordless” future!

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Nowadays, World Wide Web becoming more and more dangerous because of the new and innovative ways to steal the online data. Only for 2020, it was reported that 16% of all organizations all around the world received on average 100.000 security alerts and threats. During 2021, it was reported that the daily Cybercrime damage costed approximately 19$ billion, which equals 6$ trillion per year. The cybercrime is evolving rapidly and becoming one of the most dangerous threats worldwide, but unfortunately most of the users and organizations are not aware of the potential damages and losses that it can bring and not taking seriously applying the security best practices when creating new passwords or strengthening the protection systems.

According to statistics the most “famous” way to extract the needed information from the target resource is to steal a password and access the data needed. One of the most popular ways to do so is called Phishing. For the 2021, it was reported that 80% of all cybercrimes were committed by using exactly the Phishing and Social Engineering methods. For example, convincing a user that he should send his password for solving a specific issue or just providing him an infected link with the dangerous software that will extract the needed credentials for intruders. The second most popular way to steal passwords is directly attacking the Web Servers and Databases that store users’ passwords and credentials. For example, make an SQL injection to the credentials database and extract a list of usernames and passwords or gain access to the webserver and extract the data from the system by using custom scripts.

Overall, there a lot of ways to steal users’ passwords and Apple promises to significantly decrease the amount of compromised accounts by creating a new more secure and simplified approach. The idea that Apple is planning to implement is called a “passwordless” technology. It will allow users to access websites and applications by using Apple’s Touch ID and Face ID. So, how does it work exactly? The process is pretty simple, whenever the user will register on the website or in a specific application, a specific private encrypted key (passkey) will be stored on the Apple device and a specific public key will be sent to the Web Server, so that it can be matched with the private key when the user will access the application again. After that, if registered user will try to login to the application, the Webserver will send a request to the user’s device to retrieve the private key (passkey) in order to match it with the public one that server possesses, to approve the request user should provide his Touch ID or Face ID. When the request will be approved, user will be able to access the needed application. Such an approach addresses the problems mentioned earlier, for example Phishing will not work anymore because user is not aware about the private key and doesn’t have a direct access to it, as well as the data stored on the webserver or in the database with credentials will be useless for criminals, because it stores only the public key that can be easily rotated and can’t be used to access the application.

Apple also announced an active cooperation with big tech companies such as Microsoft and Google. Apple plans to integrate its “passwordless” solution with the services and applications provided by tech giants. For example, Apple already announced the authentication technology for devices that doesn’t have a Face ID or Touch ID. In such a case, non-apple device will provide user a QR code, which should be scanned by Apple device that has the IDs and then the user will be identified.

Sounds promising and revolutionary! Let me know what do you think in the comments section.

Resources:

26 April 2022

Polish Startup created a user-friendly visual programming language for Data Science (ENSO)

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ENSO – is a polish startup based in San Francisco, whose founders Wojciech Danilo and Sylwia Brodacka decided to address the issues of modern “Data Related” programming languages and create a new Data language which is written on Scala, Rust, Java and also have some data-processing components on Python, R and visualizations on JS. Application also has a GUI on top of it. Their idea was evaluated in 16.5$ millions dollars by ventures such as Signal Fire, Khosla Ventures, Day One Ventures, Decacorn Capital, Y Combinator, Samsung Next, Harvard’s Endowment, West Coast Endeavors, Innovation Nest and others. Founder stated that this investment will be spend on creating the Enso Cloud (platform with powerful hardware that will be able to handle heavy data workflows)

According to the founders of ENSO the main idea and motivation behind the project was to create a Data-Specialized language that would be able to inherit all of the features of Data Science languages such as R, Python, Java and create User Interface on top of it, so that people that are nor programmers nor engineers were able to create end-to-end automated data pipelines (from ingestion to visualization) just in a few clicks without learning the syntax.

Furthermore, due to the fact that ENSO project is open source and its code is available on GitHub, companies’ Data Engineers or Software Engineers can dig into it and create new features on top of it that will be able to fulfill some organization specific tasks, such as for example recently some programmers from the ENVO community committed several features to the project, which right now allow to process and analyze the 3D models, sounds and IoT devices networks.

It was also stated that ENSO has features of managing, orchestration and control of data processing pipelines such as identifying errors and even preventing some of the common errors for happening using ingested AI algorithms. Moreover, ENSO has a support for all of the modern deployment, versioning technologies and also supports importing Python, Java and R packages for performing specific tasks.

As it was mentioned by the engineers of Enso, programming language can perform data processing tasks 80x faster that it was intended to be on the original programming language such as Python for example.

Finally, Enso team already released a few initial versions of the Enso language itself and the optimized GUI on top of it, so anyone can test or use it right now after just watching a short video tutorial in 20 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQvWMoOjmQk

Sources:

https://enso.org/

https://github.com/enso-org

https://medium.com/@enso_org/luna-the-visual-way-to-create-software-c4db520d6d1e

20 April 2022

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Kitchen as a Service, Egyptian startup created a “Cloud” for restaurants

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The food industry is one of the largest, rich and financed industries in Africa and the Middle East. According to statistics over 30% of total income of citizens from all over the Africa and Middle East is being spent on food supplies and rations. But, unfortunately there are a lot of restaurants that are struggling to successfully operate their businesses and as a result having problems with increasing margins, ROIs or even operate in a loss.

That’s why Wesam Massoud, Kareem El Daly and Ahmed Osman who are the founding fathers of the startup called “The Food Lab” came up with an innovative idea of the platform that will take care of a vast amount of infrastructure, food operations of the restaurants and as a reward take a small fee from the overall restaurant’s income. All of the founders have a big amount of experience in the restaurant businesses and all of them experienced difficulties in setting up the different operational processes of the restaurants properly to establish a growing margin. That’s why they created a centralized platform that provides infrastructure and food related services to the restaurants, so that management was able to focus more on the strategies and marketing, rather than on questions related to the kitchen and infrastructure.

The idea of the “The Food Lab” was established and created in 2019 by three passionate entrepreneurs who wanted to address the modern issues faced in the restaurant and food industries in Egypt and Middle East. First major success The Food Lab faced recently when the idea had blown up and startup received approximately 4.5$ millions in a pre-seed phase of a venture financing campaign. Founders claim that this amount will be enough to completely take over the Egyptian market and also to enter other Middle East and African markets. For now, startup has two kitchens located in Egypt with the total of 175.000 processed and delivered orders from different customers.

So, what are the services that “The Food Lab” provides and what’s the overall idea of the Cloud for the restaurants? The main idea is to provide a kitchen and cooks as a service for the restaurant and at the same time fully take care of the procurement of the food supplies, delivery to the customer and support of the kitchen equipment. Due to the recent rapid increase in the demand of the delivery services, that can be a perfect solution for restaurants that are struggling with managing all of their processes correctly.

Also, “The Food Lab” has a Machine Learning and Data driven solution that tracks all the data related to the customer orders and makes analysis of their activity and provides dashboards to the restaurant management, so that they were able to build more accurate marketing strategies or for example restructure and reengineer the menu.

For now, startup is planning to “Expand their Borders” and hire more employees for handling operations and also to build new “Kitchen Centers” all around the Egypt and further in other regions of Africa and Middle East.

Resources:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/the-food-lab-an-egyptian-cloud-kitchen-provider-raises-4-5m-pre-seed-for-expansion/

https://thefoodlab.com/

https://innovation-village.com/the-food-lab-an-egyptian-cloud-kitchen-provider-raises-4-5m-in-pre-seed-funding-round/

8 January 2020

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Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security

Reading Time: 3 minutesCyberattacks are becoming more and more common nowadays. Almost every day we hear news, that huge private companies or government organizations were hacked or attacked by cybercriminals. Unfortunately, in most cases hackers are getting information that they need without any problems. The main reason for this is that intruders have already started to use some modern custom tools that help them to bypass sophisticated corporate security. Because of that, organizations suffering from cyberattacks must start thinking about someu-to-date solutions of this problem, like, for example, bringing Artificial Intelligence in this process. In next few paragraphs, I will explain how AI can help to protect the data of companies and also will try to figure out whether it is really efficient.

So, first of all, let’s start with an AI based tool that is able to monitor, analyze machine behavior in the company’s network and soon will be able to do the same with human behavior. Its name is “Behavior- based analysis tool”. Actually, this tool works in a pretty simple way, all you need to do is just to set a “behavior norm” of machines that operates in your company network and, when some small deviations appear, AI gadget will activate an alarm. However, like every AI-based invention nowadays, it also makes some errors that lead to false alarms. Because of that, companies are forced to spend big amounts of their time observing fake situations and fixing system errors. So, it makes me I think that this tool is not really that useful nowadays since it requires so many bug fixes and adding extra features like predicting human behavior. Users are the most complicated element of the Internet nowadays and gadgets still have to learn how to deal with the “human aspect” to be able to protect huge databases efficiently. Actually, I wouldn’t say that “behavior-based tool” is completely useless as it can quickly and easily track actions performed by machines, but this is just not enough.

The second security AI-based tool that most of all are already using nowadays is what’s known as Apple “Face ID” – feature that was released with a new Iphone X. Actually, this one is a pretty useful invention, because it protects your device efficiently and allows to unblock it without spending an extra time on entering password or putting a finger on Touch ID detector. Now, let’s see how it works and what role AI plays in protecting a device from hackers. Iphone X has a specially equipped frontal camera system called “TrueDepth” that allows Face ID to analyze and remember special features of its owner’s face in different conditions. This system consists of two cameras and some sensors that work simultaneously when you try to access your mobile phone by using Face ID. So, the first and the main part of “TrueDepth” is Infrared camera that captures 30.000 dots, that were thrown by a dot projector, to create a 3D map of user’s face. When a 3D map is successfully created, a built-in AI will use it when the user will try to access the mobile phone. Moreover, it is not even necessary to take down any accessories from your face when you unlocking your device, because, according to Apple, the 3D map of your usual face will completely match your face with glasses. In my opinion, Face ID is the most effective security AI-based tool nowadays because it is so hard to get around. Usual photos and pictures won’t work anymore and to fool the system attackers will need an exact 3D mask of the user’s face or his twin brother.

In the end, I would like to say that cybersecurity is the sector that we need to develop more than others, because technology is rapidly developing and more hackers are trying to use new features to break systems and steal different kinds of information.

References:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/339509

https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/14/apple-is-using-machine-learning-for-face-id-is-that-a-good-thing/

https://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/976228

https://www.cisomag.com/the-future-of-ai-in-cybersecurity/

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-cyber-security/

13 December 2019

Lie-detecting computer kiosk (AVATAR)

Reading Time: 3 minutesNowadays, there are a lot of technologies and tools that protect our world and society from different kinds of danger. We already have AI-based gadgets that can predict and even prevent crimes by using the Internet, cameras and other tech equipment. So, today I want to introduce you an invention of Arizona State University researchers, that can prevent terrorist acts or just usual crimes by analyzing person’s face and voice, its name is AVATAR (Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-time). In next few paragraphs I will try to explain how it works, where it can be used and what exactly it can do for our security.

Firstly, let’s start with the working principles and basic description of this amazing tool. AVATAR is an AI-based computer kiosk that was developed specially for airports and border checkpoints in order to ask travelers some standard questions and simultaneously analyze their reactions to them. By the word ‘standard’ I mean, that AVATAR will ask, if you transport with you some prohibited items such as weapons, drugs, bombs, etc. If, your reaction to the question is calm and usual, AI-based kiosk will let you through without any additional checks, but if it will ‘notice’ some strange face changes such as running gaze or not natural eyebrow twitching, it will ask some more questions in order to hear your voice and analyze if your speech is clear or not. If the voice also does not sound really natural, than it will ask you to go in the other section for passing a full check of your luggage and pockets. According to statistics, in 80%-85% of cases AVATAR was right. Those people, that were behaving restlessly, really were criminals, illegal immigrants, etc. Actually, it’s really impressive result, because some other ‘lie-detecting’ gadgets were showing much worse results.

Now, let’s figure out how AVATAR looks like and what equipment it has to check if human lying or telling the truth. So, before the flight, instead of staying in queue on passport control, you will be staying opposite one of various computer kiosks, that will ask your passport and ID. After you put your passport in special sections, it will thoroughly check all information about migrations and compare photo in passport with your face using HD video camera. If this procedure will be done successfully, you will move to the next verification step called ‘Questions’. As you already know from the paragraph above, computer will ask some basic questions and analyze your reaction to them by using usual HD camera and Near-infrared camera, that will monitor every movement of your face, pupil dilation and glance location. Also, AVATAR will switch on a microphone that will analyze your voice and the clearness of your speech. If kiosk will spot some strange behavior, instead of sending you on the extra check, it can also ask you to put your finger on a Fingerprint scanner to check if you are in the police database and if you are there, it will browse your criminal story and provide it to border guards.

AVATAR currently being tested on north and south USA boarders, also in some airports in Europe such as Henri Coanda’s in Bucharest and Sharl De Gol’s in Paris. Actually, AVATAR is really useful in places like international airports and heavily loaded borders, because it can perform registration tasks faster and more efficient than human workers.

In the end, I would like to say that AVATAR is a really useful and practical invention, which could be really useful nowadays, because borders and airports are overcrowded and staff members cannot provide the service quickly and effectively. AVATAR can help solve this problem.

References:

https://www.wired.com/2013/01/ff-lie-detector/

https://www.ft.com/content/c9997e24-b211-11e9-bec9-fdcab53d6959

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/lie-detectors-with-artificial-intelligence-are-future-of-border-security.html

https://thetechnologyheadlines.com/editors-picks/17-years-after-911-how-the-us-using-technology-to-prevent-terror-attacks/

30 November 2019

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Can AI clone the voice?

Reading Time: 3 minutesNowadays, there are lots of startups and just single entrepreneurs trying to improve society by injecting AI systems in different spheres of our life. We are already getting AI based cars, loudspeakers, mixers, etc. But, can you imagine that one day you will come home and «Alexa» will start speaking with your mother’s voice, pitch and manner of speaking? Sounds quite creepy and unusual. Someone will even say that this invention is completely useless and only has disadvantages. Actually, I wouldn’t even argue, because everything in our world has its bad sides and good sides. In the next few paragraphs I will try to introduce both of them.

Firstly, let’s start with owners of this unusual project and its principle of working. Actually, not so long time ago, a company called «Baidu» and considered to be the Chinese Google, posted full documentation of their new AI-based tool called Deep Voice that is able to simulate a usual human voice by listening to a short fragment of their speech. As written in official Baidu’s documents, this tool was made by using a neural network that analyzes a spectrogram with human voice and then generates a similar audio. Also, with the help of this network, AI learned by itself how to pronounce some difficult words and names.

Advantages

When I was looking for some sources of information connected with this topic, I was thinking that this invention is strange, useless and wouldn’t find its place between other huge technology projects, but then I saw some examples of using Deep Voice and was really impressed, because it can be used in many spheres of our life. So, first and the main mission of this tool is to substitute a usual human voice. For example, person, that can’t speak for some reason, can buy such kind of technology and «regain speech» by using someone else’s natural voice, not the «Google Man». Also it can be used in various technology spheres as a voice of AI-based gadgets. Smart homes, smart cars and other AI-based inventions will be able to speak with natural voice, not specific robot sounds that often make us feel uncomfortable. Actually, you can even have some fun using Deep Voice, because this tool provides a possibility to listen to your own speech with different accents and communication manners.

Disadvantages

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, everything has its own disadvantages and Deep Voice is not an exception. Nowadays, hacking is becoming more frequent and a tool able to copy everyone’s voice without any difficulties can be used by cybercriminals. Actually, if they properly learn how to use this invention, they will be able to perform various hacking processes easily. For example, hackers will easily capture databases or systems that are protected by voice security or fool people by using the voice of their relatives, friends, etc. Also, other individuals may try to record some bad things with voices of famous actors, singers and upload it in the internet just for fun and laugh, but no one will even think about the fact that it can seriously damage the celebrity’s reputation or even ruin it. So, in my opinion, this program must have some restrictions or other things, that won’t allow to criminals or cybercriminals use it in a bad way.

In the end, I would like to say, that AI voice copying tool is a really interesting and potentially useful invention, but it shouldn’t be launched yet because it needs some serious improvements in the field of security.

Examples of using Deep Voice: https://audiodemos.github.io/

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/05/06/artificial-intelligence-can-now-copy-your-voice-what-does-that-mean-for-humans/#d2bd3ac72a2a

https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/baidu-using-machine-learning-for-voice-cloning-to-get-closer-to-consumers-all-in-just-3-7-seconds/

https://medium.com/syncedreview/baidu-ai-can-clone-your-voice-in-seconds-93558a7b984f

10 November 2019

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Can videogames help to solve real problems?

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe world we are living in now is full of different kinds of gadgets, technologies, mechanized tools that help us to perform our daily tasks easier and better. In my opinion, one of the biggest part of technological progress is taken by videogames. Videogames are specific programs that allow us to imagine ourselves as professionals, chief commanders, special force soldiers, etc. The main aim of this miracle of technology is to help people to drop the stress off their shoulders after working or studying hours. But, what benefits instead of relaxing can person get and give by playing games?

Firstly, I would like to mention that most of the games require skills in performing different kinds of activities. For example, my favorite game DotA 2 requires fast making decision skill, developed hand agility and, most importantly, ability to work in team with your mates. If you are interested in this game, but you do not have such skills, I will confidently say that you will need to develop them – otherwise you will not be able to win.

So, my first point is that games are developing mental skills that are useful in real life. Now, I will try to convince you by using my personal example. I was playing DotA 2 since 2015 and every day I was spending an hour in average on my favorite game. Then, when my first 200 hours of playing DotA passed, I started to notice that I can easily perform some various that I had not been able to do before playing it. I started to communicate with people more tactfully and effectively; also I noticed that some kinds of activities like helping my father with repairing something were no more a problem for me because my hands could repeat everything that he was showing me. Thus, having analyzed this evidence, I can make a conclusion that games are really helpful and help develop skills that will make your life easier.

But, can gamers make a positive impact on our environment? Of course, they can! University of Washington already proved it in 2008 by uploading to the web an intellectual game called “Foldit”. Foldit is a game where players must predict the protein’s structure and then make a new one after that. The main goal of this game was to find the structure of the AIDs protein in monkeys to begin working on the treatment. Scientist were searching for solution of this problem for more than 10 years, but when the game was released, gamers solved it in just 10 days. Because of this example, it easy to say, that games sharpen gamer’s brains to such extent that they can solve the most complicated and challenging real-world problems easily without using special equipment or another tools.

Most parents will not believe my words about a positive impact of videogames on us and the world, but who knows, maybe the child that is playing a videogame now, will save the world in the future.

References:

https://www.creativepixelmag.com/can-video-gaming-help-solve-world-problems/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldit

20 October 2019

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Web Conferencing in business

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WEB CONFERNCING

What a great age we are living in now! There are so many different kinds of technologies that make our life easier. Washing machine makes washing process easier and simple, so that everyone can do it without spending energy and time. The same in business, new apps and devices allow entrepreneurs to spend less amount of money and time on performing important tasks of the company. The best example of such technology is a web conferencing.

Web Conferencing – it’s a new way of organizing formal meetings using an internet and a computer.

The main benefit of a virtual conference is that company don’t need to pay almost anything to organize a perfect meeting. For example, to organize a usual conference you need to order a conference hall ( if your office doesn’t have one ), pay for tickets ( if you was invited on a meeting in another city or country ) and of course bring some materials with important information that are not really comfortable to carry sometimes. But in case of virtual conference, all you had to do is just setup a special software, get yourself a headset and some basic computer skills to be able to download important files.

Another not less important benefit of web conferencing is that its saves a big amount of business time. Time is the most irreplaceable resource and its plays a big role in completing a company mission, so entrepreneurs must save it as much as possible using all kinds of tools.

On the other hand, web conferencing has some disadvantages:

1)Сonnection problems with overseas conferences. If you are living in Ukraine and your partner living in USA most likely that lags will occur sometimes and it will interrupt your conversation.

2)Pretty modern hardware needed, because conference program system requirements are really high.

3) Basic computer skills required to deal with the files that conference members will be sending.

The best example of web conferencing tool can be Zoom. Zoom– cheap and pretty easy in usage, allows us to collaborate with coworkers and clients through using fast file sharing system, video chat and ability to stream your screen.

To sum up, I will say that Web Conferencing is a pretty attractive kind of making formal meetings. But if your company has the ability to organize conference or fly on the conference to another country, I think you would better do it, because live communicating is much more effective than speaking through the webcam.