Monthly Archives: June 2015

by | June 4, 2015 · 11:00 am

I am a Supervillain, AMA: Pt. 1

I am a supervillain that comes from a long line of supervillains. Dad was a supervillain. Grandpa was a supervillain. Uncle Jim and Aunt Tina are a supervillain duo. My brother Brian is a used car salesman, but I guess every family has to have a black sheep.

To be a bit more specific, I am a villain of the mad scientist variety. While dad was an evil business tycoon, I chose not to follow in his footsteps and instead took after my grandfather, Professor Evilnik. He was one of the real greats! Started off back in the late 30’s making death rays and atomic powered robots… you know, the classics. By the time he retired in the early 70’s, he’d been taken down by every major hero in at least fifteen states and was directly responsible for the formation of three different superhero teams. As a kid, I really looked up to my grandpa. When it was time to pick my major at the Supervillain and Henchman Technical Junior College, I just knew I had to be a mad scientist.

There was just one, rather minor problem with this plan. I wasn’t what you might refer to as “proficient” in the sciences. Like, any of them. This isn’t to say I didn’t try. I did. In fact, I worked my ass off. I would put in extra hours in the lab, stay up late studying, get help in the evil learning center. None of my efforts really paid off. On more than one occasion, my advisor suggest that I go into supervillain business school, or maybe even consider being a henchman. Continue reading →

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by | June 2, 2015 · 11:00 am

Oculus Rift, a Gateway to New Worlds

I have a cool job working at a NASA Visitor Center, and occasionally, that means that I get to do some really cool things—some of which are creating or helping design and build exhibits to share exciting information with the public in engaging ways. The other day, I had the opportunity to experience a demonstration on how the Oculus Rift goggles could be used as a learning adventure and I must say, the hype surrounding the technology is well deserved.

For those who have not heard, Oculus Rift is a virtual reality hardware that is completely immersive and allows the user to look and move around in a virtual world. Since the earliest hints of this technology, gamers have been giddy at the possibilities. The ability to “get into the game” in a more visceral way has been a gamer fantasy for a long time. Imagine sitting in an X-Wing and having a space dogfight with a squadron of TIE Fighters. You will have complete control of the craft with the controller, but also the ability to look around the cockpit with a full, 3D, 360 degree view by actually turning your head. It is an amazing and exciting concept!

 

Oculus Rift headset

Practical people may prefer a more pragmatic application.   They can get excited about a full, room simulation that has been created to train teams on bomb disposal. One man puts on the Oculus and is able to walk around in a virtual room, find a bomb, and then relay what he sees to teammates so that they, in turn, can give him step-by-step instructions to diffuse the situation.

What is amazing about the Oculus is how seamless the world is, as the user moves around in it. I was able to walk through a couple of demonstrations of informational simulations that placed me in space, using the headset. The first simulation was called 6000 Moons and described the different uses of satellites, explained how different orbits help facilitate different functions, and gave a very cool visual of what all of the satellites look like as they circle the earth all at once. If each satellite were part of an alien invasion force, we’d be screwed! It looked like a swarming mass of insects around their queen.

Promotional image of 6000 Moons from binsoftware.com

 

The informational clips were all automated, and propelled the viewer through space at certain times while a narrator explains what the viewer is seeing. Because the technology works through motion detection, a three-dimensional tour can be designed and the world can be viewed at any angle. The immersive effect comes in from the ability to look above and below, and even turn completely around in your chair and still be in space. There are no hard stops to keep you inside a proscribed area. There are no graphical seams or lines depicting programming limits. It’s just you in space. After watching 6000 Moons, my first thought was, “What about a tour of the Solar System!?” So I asked the question and, even though it wasn’t the purpose of the visit, I was shown a beta version of a tour called Titans of Space.

This simulation starts with a view of Earth with the Moon circling it and the Sun ominously close. As the narration went on about the various particulars of our home planet, I was busy looking around. I looked back over my shoulder and was startled when I saw… my shoulder! Of course, it wasn’t really my shoulder. This program had a simulated body to act as an anchor for the experience. I must say that it was a good choice that added to the natural feel. Some trade-off is made for loss of view, but for those like me who suffer from motion sickness, the reference point allows for a much more comfortable tour.

Titans of Space, photo from blog.dcxn.com

After the smaller planets were described, the next planet was Jupiter and here was where the name of the program, Titans of Space, started to make sense. The background music turned ominous and the planet filled the space in front of me. It was imposing and intimidating—feelings I don’t normally associate with a description of the Solar System. I felt compelled to look away to get my bearings and I was rewarded with a view of the Sun behind me and a silhouette of all of the planets I had passed in front of it. I was actually in space! This was not a frame by frame look at a world, in which only the part being focused on is rendered. I was actually being moved through a digital world around objects programmed in relative scale and distance. It was awesome and amazing and by the end of the tour, which went on to describe the largest known stars, I felt very, very small.

The Oculus Rift is coming for mass consumption very soon—right now it is scheduled for release in the first quarter of next year. I’m not sure yet how the gaming world will react. There are a lot of interesting possibilities, but it will take some experimentation to figure out which are good ideas and which are just impractical because of movement limitations. Either way, if this sort of tech is up your alley, it’s coming, and it’s coming fast. If you’re lucky enough to live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, it’s coming to a museum near you and possibly within the next two months.   You’ll definitely want to see this.

A big thanks to binsoftware and the folks at The Virtual Reality Learning Experience for their efforts in utilizing this new technology for public education and use.

– by Kurt Klein

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by | June 1, 2015 · 11:00 am

Editorial | On Fantasy

I ready an article recently in which noted British novelist Kazud Ishigurd expressed surprise at the backlash he received from his existing fans for writing a fantasy novel.  Ishigurd had previously written a muggle novel called The Remains of the Day, which won the Booker prize in 1989, and a science fiction novel called Never Let Me Go in 2005 that received massive acclaim.

Now he has written his seventh book, The Buried Giant, a book about a quest to kill a dragon, set in a Briton that never quite existed, and his fans are flummoxed.  There seems to be quite a bit of confusion over why an author who is well respected for his plain prose and his appeal to the futuristic as social commentary would need to stoop to writing fantasy.  He addresses those concerns in his guest appearance on the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast:

“When we’re teenagers we’re very prone to this, you know, ‘If you like that band you’re not cool, if you wear those sneakers you’re cool,’ but with reading we should grow out of that, and for some reason books with dragons in them arouse some sort of fear on the part of a certain kind of insecure reader.”

I have felt this type of prejudice myself.  As a child, I was not subjected to the whims of popularity and status, so I was very confident in all of my own choices, because there was really no one to challenge them.  I loved fantasy novels more than any other types of entertainment because they were far larger on the inside than they were on the outside.  Some introduced me to tight, exquisitely concise description, some to witty repartee, and some to creatures I would never have imagined on my own.  However, as I got a little older, it became very apparent that my choice of reading material was not particularly well received by other kids my own age, and certainly not by adults.  I quickly learned to hide my books in a backpack, or under my pillow when my friends came around.

This week I picked up a copy of Brent Weeks’ The Black Prism, and have been enjoying it so much.  The plot twisted in ways I did not expect, which is always intriguing.  However, the nearly 700 page tome attracts a lot of attention, and yesterday I had to explain the book to fellow beachgoers.  A twinge of familiar shame twisted in my gut as I answered inquiries, “It’s a fantasy book…”  Faces changed, ever so slightly.  “Oh… sure,” was the response, almost too brightly–at least it seemed that way to me.

So that brings me to the question, why are fantasy novels placed a little lower in the hierarchy than science fiction or historical novels?  Where exactly in that hierarchy do they fall?  Is it above or below romance novels?

I personally believe that the genre contains just as wide a range of writing styles and reading levels as any other.  Perhaps that is why it gets less respect than, say, science fiction, which caters to a more mature audience, as a rule.  In any case, when it comes to Ishigurd’s decision to follow his other literary successes with an Arthurian legend, I have to agree with the letter of this quote from James Wood, of The New Yorker, in his review of The Buried Giant, if not the snarky spirit in which it was said:

“You can’t help admiring a writer who so courageously pleases himself, who writes so eccentrically against the norms.”

I have hope that with brilliant contemporary fantasy authors such as Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss, and Brent Weeks writing intelligent, witty material, the fantasy genre will finally emerge as respectable.  Until then, I will continue to read my fantasy novels, and perhaps with time the guilty twinges will finally fade completely.

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