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There’s never been a house call quite like this. In a first for telepresence communication, a NASA flight surgeon was ‘holoported’ to the International Space Station (ISS), appearing and conversing as a virtual presence in real time, hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth.

If it sounds like Star Trek, you’re not too far off. (after all, Star Trek: Voyager did feature an artificial physician who was a holographic projection.)

But this isn’t science fiction. When NASA flight surgeon Josef Schmid was beamed up to the ISS in October of last year, the illusion was made possible thanks to Microsoft’s ‘holoportation’ technology, which lets users interact with 3D representations of remote participants in real time.

There is no doubt that the “metaverse” will continue to dominate conversations — in both marketing and culture — for years. But there’s no need to sit on the sidelines as the new paradigm of 3D or “spatial” communication emerges; it’s already here and consumers are engaged and creating. Get active in AR/VR/XR today to entertain your audiences and keep your brand top-of-mind for the influencers driving the next revolution in creativity.

Jason Steinberg is managing partner of Pretty Big Monster.

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The researchers behind an energy system that makes it possible to capture solar energy, store it for up to eighteen years, and release it when and where it is needed have now taken the system a step further. After previously demonstrating how the energy can be extracted as heat, they have now succeeded in getting the system to produce electricity, by connecting it to a thermoelectric generator. Eventually, the research – developed at Chalmers University of Technology 0, Sweden – could lead to self-charging electronic gadgets that use stored solar energy on demand.

“This is a radically new way of generating electricity from solar energy. It means that we can use solar energy to produce electricity regardless of weather, time of day, season, or geographical location. It is a closed system that can operate without causing carbon dioxide emissions,” says research leader Kasper Moth-Poulsen, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers.

The researchers behind the solar energy system MOST, which makes it possible to capture solar energy, store it for up to 18 years, and release it when and where it is needed, have now taken the system a step further. After previously demonstrating how the energy can be extracted as heat, they have now succeeded in getting the system to produce electricity, by connecting it to a compact thermoelectric generator. The research, which was carried out at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, could eventually lead to self-charging gadgets that are powered on-demand by stored solar energy. Credit: Chalmers University of Technology.

With some parts held together by duct tape.

In the raging battle between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s small drones have been reported to be taking a deadly toll on Ukrainian forces. A new video, however, is revealing that the highly efficient precision drones are not as advanced as one might expect.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry shared a video on Sunday that shows a soldier allegedly dismantling a Russian military surveillance drone and pointing out several highly unsophisticated features. In fact, seeing what the whole drone consists of it seems like something a schoolchild could put together.

## A generic handheld Canon DSLR

The drone being taken apart is an Orlan-10 model that fell on Ukrainian soil. The first thing the soldier points out is that the drone’s camera is a simple generic handheld Canon DSLR, the kind you can find on any tourist’s camera. How can such a complex war tool have such a common feature?