Nvidia’s VR design lab opens its doors to designers and developers
MUNICH: NVIDIA HAS ANNOUNCED that it has opened up early access to its Holodeck virtual reality (VR) platform.
Nvidia Holodeck, first shown off earlier this year, allows designers and developers to build and explore creations in a « photorealistic » collaborative and physically-simulated VR environment.
For example, using Holodeck, designers will render large and highly detailed models in real-time at life-like scale, which means they can save « significant » time focusing on their designs instead of simplifying complex models to achieve a smooth experience in VR.
Original, unmodified CAD designed can be imported directly into Holodeck, although it only supports Maya and 3DsMark at present. Nvidia said it expects all CAD packages to be supported in the future.
The self-styled virtual playground also allows users to collaborate in VR. Globally-dispersed teams can collaborate on the same model together in Holodeck enabling them to bring products to market faster, for example, while also enabling designers to create and interact with robots in the virtual environment.
The system can also train AI machines, Nvidia boasts, thanks to Holodeck’s realistic simulated environments that enables machines to be deployed more safely, quickly and cost-effectively.
« We think of Holodeck as the design lab of the future, which means it needs to obey the laws of physics, » said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during Tuesday’s keynote.
« If you drop something, it should drop in virtual reality. It should allow us to all be in there, from anywhere we are in the world. And if there’s going to be AI in the real world, there should definitely be AI in the virtual world.
NASA, impressively, has come out as one of Holodeck’s early adopters and claims that the platform has improved the agency’s design process.
« During our design process, teams of our engineers and scientists work together to imagine an idea, plan a design, create that model, experiment and test that solution, then take time to reiterate and improve the original — all steps that are crucial to mission success at NASA, » said Frank Delgado, lead for NASA’s Hybrid Reality Lab.
« With Holodeck, we will be able to clearly visualise our models, easily collaborate in a physically simulated environment, and review to ensure the efficiency and safety of our designs. »
Nvidia’s early-access programme is open now to « select » designers and developers, with applications being accepted via the Holodeck website. Those accepted will be sent a Steam key, which Nvidia claims makes it easy to push out updates to those signed up.
To access the platform, you’ll need to be using either a Nvidia 1080 Ti or Titan XP GPU, but Nvidia says it will lower the hardware requirements over time. µ

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Nvidia revealed a new artificial intelligence computer based on its Drive PX platform designed specifically to bring Level 5 (completely self-driving)..
Nvidia revealed a new artificial intelligence computer based on its Drive PX platform designed specifically to bring Level 5 (completely self-driving) autonomous vehicles to market. The Drive PX Pegasus builds on its predecessor the Drive PX 2, offering over 10 times as many operations per second in terms of computing capability, and it’s already being used by over 25 companies to develop fully driverless taxi vehicles for eventual deployment.
The self-driving computer is built on Nvidia’s CUDA GPUs, and also increase the practicality of the computing hardware requirements for actually fielding self-driving cars on real roads. Nvidia points out that vehicles today using Nvidia tech to field on demand autonomous taxis include basically entire data centres in the trunk, and Drive PX Pegasus is designed to help put them on track to bring this down to something more manageable for actual production deployment.
Drive PX Pegasus packs in four AI processors, including two of Nvidia’s latest generation Xavier system-on-a-chip models with embedded Nvidia Volta GPUs, with two next-generation discrete GPUs designed specifically to hep accelerate deep learning and computer vision. The overall size of the system is roughly that of a license plate, Nvidia says, and it greatly reduces energy consumption and overall cost as well.
Pegasus is set to be available to Nvidia partners during the second half of 2018, while companies can get started now with Drive PX 2 if they want to chart a path to upgrade later on.

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Uber is offering its customers the option to ride in one of 50 new Tesla electric-powered vehicles in Dubai.
Uber is offering its customers the option to ride in one of 50 new Tesla electric-powered vehicles in Dubai, where large gas-guzzling sedans and luxury sports cars dominate the emirate’s six-lane highways.
The U. S.-based ride-hailing app launched the UberONE option on Tuesday in partnership with Dubai Taxi Corporation, which added 50 Tesla Model X and Model S to its fleet last month.
The vehicles, which Uber riders can select for a slightly higher fare, are equipped with self-driving components.
Dubai’s transport authority is aiming to add another 150 Tesla vehicles to its fleet in 2018 and 2019.
Uber’s General Manager in the United Arab Emirates, Chris Free, says the partnership is line with the company’s drive to provide riders with « new and progressive experiences. »

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Panasonic Corp’s autonomous driving system is expected to be launched in commercial vehicles as early as in 2022, in a move that will likely help the Japanese company narrow its gap with rival suppliers in a highly competitive market.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Panasonic Corp’s autonomous driving system is expected to be launched in commercial vehicles as early as in 2022, in a move that will likely help the Japanese company narrow its gap with rival suppliers in a highly competitive market.
Panasonic, the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla Inc’s mass-market Model 3, has been reinventing itself as a provider of advanced auto parts to escape the price competition of smartphones and other lower-margin consumer products.
The new autonomous driving system will enable autonomous driving at low- and medium-speed ranges including self-valet parking, Panasonic said on Tuesday.
“We know we are behind our rivals right now,” said Shoichi Goto, director in charge of vision and sensing technologies at the firm’s automotive R&D division.
“But we have developed key LSI (large-scale integration) chips for advanced image processing and sonar sensing that would give us major advantages, using expertise from television sets and cameras.”
The new chips need more testing and polishing before the commercial launch of the autonomous driving system, added Goto, previously a TV engineer.
Panasonic has been pushing to expand its range of advanced driving-related products to better compete with top suppliers such as Bosch [ROBG. UL] and Continental AG.
The firm has said it plans to nearly double its automotive business revenue to 2.5 trillion yen ($22 billion) by the year to March 2022, from 1.3 trillion yen in the year to March 2017.
Panasonic established the automotive R&D division in April, transferring about 350 engineers from TV, the company’s mainstay at the time, and other consumer electronics businesses.
To bolster its push into the automotive field, Panasonic took control of Spanish auto parts maker Ficosa International SA earlier this year.
($1 = 112.5400 yen)

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Samsung’s limited edition Star Wars-themed PowerBot vacuum cleaners take inspiration from the Dark side.
The Empire in Star Wars can be accused of many things, but one of them is not uncleanliness – Darth Vader’s cloak is always pressed to perfection and it’s very much to the credit of the Stormtrooper’s that they’re able to keep those white uniforms so pristine. Did you ever see a speck of dust on the Star Destroyer? We didn’t.
That’s why it makes so much sense, then, that Samsung has announced it’s releasing robot vacuum cleaners inspired by the Dark Side.
There are two models to choose from, one that looks like Darth Vader’s mask and another that resembles a Stormtrooper.
These are essentially just limited edition versions of Samsung’s original PowerBot vacuum so you can expect the same CycloneForce technology. It separates dust from dirt and debris to keep the filter cleaner for longer as well as an extra-wide 290mm brush, and sensor technology which allows the vacuum to map out the space of your home and calculate an efficient cleaning path that avoids obstacles.
There is one key difference that sets these models apart from the standard Samsung PowerBot vacuum, though – they come pre-loaded with Star Wars phrases and music that will play as they clean.
The Darth Vader model will apparently state “you are powerful” when it goes into turbo mode and play the Imperial March when it’s returning to its charging station.
The vacuum can be controlled remotely using a smartphone app but it’s also compatible with Amazon Alexa so you can use voice commands too.
Both models are currently available for pre-order from Samsung’s website for $799 (around £600) and they’re expected to ship from the week beginning November 6. available for pre-order from Samsung’s website
The price did, admittedly, immediately force us to reconsider our plan to buy enough of these to form our own legion. Robot vacuums are usually likely to appear in Black Friday sales, though we imagine these particular models will be hard to come by. Black Friday sales
Availability outside of the US hasn’t been confirmed just yet but we’ll update when more availability information becomes available. More of a Dyson fan? These are the best Dyson vacuum offers you can get right now More of a Dyson fan? These are the best Dyson vacuum offers you can get right now

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