Today's topic was something close to the hearts of everyone: ICT. Be it our blackberries, ipods or radios, we all have a piece of ICT around with us. I was particularly interested in prof's post about project natal. My friend had introduced to me this video that prof had a year ago but back then I didnt think of how this "immersive" technology as prof described would actually help in society. It was interesting how prof suggested that such technologies could be used to talk to lonely individuals or even be used as a virtual assistant to remind us of our daily tasks.
I asked Zhu Yie and Michelle for their opinions on this and they gave me great ideas as well. Zhu Yie mentioned how this could actually help in talking to autistic people who usually keep to themselves. Perhaps this could be a way for them to open up themselves to people around them and be more comfortable. Michelle on the other hand, was talking about the setbacks that this technology may have if it were to replace humans in babysitting kids. "What if the child thinks this is real? Won't it replace the human touch?"
As for me, I felt that it was a whole new avenue to explore. Perhaps we could save up on our money and use this technology to virtually transport us to other countries with the use of GPS. No doubt the real thing is always better, I would think its a good alternative because we can't possibly travel everywhere in this lifetime!
Here's another video on Project Natal and how it brings new meaning to entertainment:
Which brings me to remember a movie called "Gamer" that came out in 2009.
In a nutshell, the movie's about players of the game where they get to control characters that are actually real people in the game and these characters are often being forced to fight to the death. Wow! Real people being stuck in a virtual world. Talk about immersive! It sounds abit far-fetched but it'll be cool if we could enter into our favourite games like Super Mario and experience how it'll be like to fight off the baddies. That said, the part where we get our butts kicked by the bad guys is a different story. But then again, this immersive technology has plenty of potential and many doors of opportunity to be explored be it in entertainment or in society!
Coming back to other class discussions, we learnt new terms such as cloud computing and crowdrise and had a debate on whether the Internet is necessary in rural areas. While I do agree educating those living in rural areas will improve their standards of living in the long run through the knowledge they gain, I would think that such progress may take a while for people to adapt to it. They have after all been living a life without much technology and may feel its not necessary. Their acceptance to it would lead them to new opportunities and a new and better life as well.
I personally enjoyed the session alot. I'd give it a 9/10. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment