O Showmetech TRIO is a compilation of the most interesting news of the week. Today we are going to talk about the world's largest LED sphere, which was linked in Las Vegas; we show a little of Will Cogley's invention: a retro futuristic robot who brings Alexa with her and still has a very friendly face; and we brought information about the Threads, by Meta, which reached more than one hundred million users within a week of launch. This is Showmetech TRIO, your weekly news trio.
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The world's largest LED screen and sphere
Call of "The sphere”, or “The Sphere”, in literal translation, the largest LED screen in the world is currently located in downtown Las Vegas. During its first exhibition in July 2023, it was possible to see the impressive lighting of the 1,2 million LEDs that compose it. The almost panel 54 thousand square meters (which is equivalent to approx. eight soccer fields) displayed animations of fireworks, the American flag, the moon, and even a giant blinking eyeball. It was an impressive visual spectacle.
Las Vegas is famous for its extravagant landmarks, but this one goes beyond just being a giant display on a sphere. Inside, the sphere houses a spherical theater with a capacity of 18.000, along with a high resolution LED screen of 16K. Construction of the sphere cost the company more than $2 billion. Sphere Entertainment. It is an impressive undertaking that combines cutting-edge technology and large-scale entertainment.
As informed by the responsible company, the LED panels on this huge screen are spaced every eight inches and consist of 48 individual LED diodes. Each of these diodes is capable of displaying up to 256 million different colors. While the official unveiling of The Sphere's interior has yet to take place, it will continue to light up its façade, with U2 kicking off concerts at the venue in September 2023.
Retro futuristic robot with Alexa
A video posted by Will Cogley on the Workshop Nation channel I brought a somewhat interesting invention. In the aforementioned video, the creators turned a device Amazon Echo in an animatronic robot with design retro-futuristic, something very similar to fiction films from the 90s. Including a lot of inspiration for the construction of this robot were these films, like Star Wars.
Animatronic eyes designed by Will Cogley and used a face tracking sensor called the Person Sensor to bring the robot to life. When the person interacting with this robot moves, the eyes follow. One of the most attention-grabbing parts is the robot's mouth, which is a small television screen. When the robot communicates, the screen reacts with moving lines. During construction, they used a variety of tools, including a Brymen BM235 multimeter, a terminal crimp kit, and many others.
In the video, Cogley refers to the robot as “Desktop” and we can see how he interacts with the machine just as we currently do with the Alexa. As the robot was built around an Amazon Echo Dot, naturally its personal assistant was also included. But here the difference is that we have a male voice instead of Alexa itself, but which is equally functional.
Threads Success
Many people have come across a new social network in recent days. We are talking about Threads, a social network very similar to Twitter, based on Instagram, from Meta. As soon as an Instagram account replicates its information to Threads, a new account is created, and in this game more than 100 million new users on the social network in about a week.
The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that the number of registrations exceeded the company's expectations. Currently, Threads user count is above 100.005.103 users. Compared to other popular apps, it's interesting to note that the Chat GPT reached 100 million users in two months: TikTok it took nine months to reach that mark, and the Instagram delayed two and a half years.
Of course, the integration between Instagram and Threads accounts makes it easy for Instagram's existing 1,6 billion users, except the European Union, who sign up for Threads and start using the app with an engaged audience from day one. The reason why Threads is not available in the European Union should be explained shortly.
Twitter did not stand still and in response to the growth of the new social network, a letter was sent to Meta threatening sue her. In the letter, Twitter implied that Meta hired former Twitter employees who would have access to trade secrets and other confidential information. Even Elon Musk, the current CEO of Twitter, has spoken out by tweeting that “Competition is cool, but cheating is not.”. Then Musk and Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, mocked Threads by stating that it would be better if the world invested in flying cars instead of having 7 alternatives to Twitter.
And you, what did you think of this week's news? Tell us in the comments!
See also:
Check out our latest edition of Showmetech TRIO! As usual we talk about various subjects related to games, technology and pop culture. Just take a look at what we brought:
- The “robot conductor”;
- M4, the all-purpose robot;
- Yes, another robot! This time in the water.
Source: TheVerge [1], [2] e search engine journal.
I bought a tcl esmart TV and it didn't last 2 years and I took it
In the authorized one and they told me that it was a chronic problem, because the image disappeared. I paid a lot and now I was at a loss, very good but I was frustrated.