Day: August 10, 2023

The World ID Orb And The Question Of What Defines A Person

August 10, 2023 by 67 Comments

Among the daily churn of ‘Web 3.0’, blockchains and cryptocurrency messaging, there is generally very little that feels genuinely interesting or unique enough to pay attention to. The same was true for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Ethereum blockchain-based Worldcoin when it was launched in 2021 while promising many of the same things as Bitcoin and others have for years. However, with the recent introduction of the World ID protocol by Tools for Humanity (TfH) – the company founded for Worldcoin by Mr. Altman – suddenly the interest of the general public was piqued.

Defined by TfH as a ‘privacy-first decentralized identity protocol’ World ID is supposed to be the end-all, be-all of authentication protocols. Part of it is an ominous-looking orb contraption that performs iris scans to enroll new participants. Not only do participants get ‘free’ Worldcoins if they sign up for a World ID enrollment this way, TfH also promises that this authentication protocol can uniquely identify any person without requiring them to submit any personal data, only requiring a scan of your irises.

Essentially, this would make World ID a unique ID for every person alive today and in the future, providing much more security while preventing identity theft. This naturally raises many questions about the feasibility of using iris recognition, as well as the potential for abuse and the impact of ocular surgery and diseases. Basically, can you reduce proof of personhood to an individual’s eyes, and should you?

Continue reading “The World ID Orb And The Question Of What Defines A Person” →

Weird Lens Allows Light Field Passthrough For VR Headset

August 10, 2023 by 16 Comments

Light Fields are a subtle but critical element to making 3D video look “real”, and it has little to do with either resolution or field of view. Meta (formerly Facebook) provides a look at a prototype VR headset that provides light field passthrough video to the user for a more realistic view of their surroundings, and it uses a nifty lens and aperture combination to make it happen.

As humans move our eyes (or our heads, for that matter) to take in a scene, we see things from slightly different perspectives in the process. These differences are important cues for our brains to interpret our world. But when cameras capture a scene, they capture it as a flat plane, which is different in a number of important ways from the manner in which our eyes work. A big reason stereoscopic 3D video doesn’t actually look particularly real is because the information it presents lacks these subtleties.

Continue reading “Weird Lens Allows Light Field Passthrough For VR Headset” →

Minimizing Stress On A Coin Cell Battery

August 10, 2023 by 20 Comments

When it comes to powering tiny devices for a long time, coin cell batteries are the battery of choice for things like keyfobs, watches, and even some IoT devices. They’re inexpensive and compact and a great choice for very small electricity needs. Their major downside is that they have a relatively high internal resistance, meaning they can’t supply a lot of current for very long without decreasing the lifespan of the battery. This new integrated circuit uses a special DC-DC converter to get over that hurdle and extend the life of a coin cell significantly.

A typical DC-DC converter uses a rapidly switching transistor to regulate the energy flow through an inductor and capacitor, effectively stepping up or stepping down the voltage. Rather than relying on a single converter, this circuit uses a two-stage system. The first is a boost converter to step the voltage from the coin cell up to as much as 11 volts to charge a storage capacitor. The second is a buck converter which steps that voltage down when there is a high current demand. This causes less overall voltage drop on the battery meaning less stress for it and a longer operating life in the device.

There are a few other features of this circuit as well, including an optimizer which watches the behavior of the circuit and learns about the power demands being placed on it. That way, the storage capacitor is only charged up to its maximum capacity if the optimizer determines that much charge is needed. With all of these features a coin cell could last around seven times as long as one using more traditional circuitry. If you really need to get every last bit of energy from a battery, though, you can always use a joule thief.