A Seattle start-up has just launched Pluto, a virtual reality app currently in Early Access that lets gamers communicate with each other via headsets while connected to the Steam service. Much like the Discord app, which lets gamers chat and message each other whether they’re playing together or not, Pluto runs alongside existing SteamVR games.
Using the app control panel, you can design your own avatar, choose the opacity of other avatars, and mute mics. Using the app’s overlay icon, you can adjust the settings on they fly while still in your game. Friends can even call and see what you’re up to while you’re playing. While it doesn’t currently allow real-time sharing, you can grab a screenshot and pass it along.
Forest Gibson, co-founder of Pluto VR, told GeekWire that they want to make online social interactions more like real life. “Ultimately, we’re focused on shaping the future of face-to-face interactions in artificial spaces,” he said. “We want all kinds of multi-user VR experiences to be more interactive, more collaborative, and ultimately less lonely,”
Currently, the app only shows avatars made of floating heads and hands, which are tracked by the headsets and controllers. As tracking technology improves, Pluto VR hopes to add things like eyebrow movements.
Calling it a social network is somewhat of a misnomer, however — the app is not designed to help you find new people to play with. There are no meeting rooms or public chat spaces; its purpose is to virtually connect with people you already know.
The founders of Pluto have an impressive resume, with experience at places like Disney, PopCap Games, Valve, and Microsoft. The company raised $13.9 million in its latest round of funding. There are other communication apps for VR, but Pluto aims to become a familiar presence across a variety of platforms.
Some publications have dubbed Pluto the “Skype of VR,” but former PopCap founder John Veschy doesn’t like the comparison. “We’re not big fans of the ‘this for that,’” he explained. “How do you make a simple comparison of a brand new form of communication? What was the this for that of the telegram?”
Pluto is now available free in Early Access on Steam, with all the normal caveats that accompany a pre-release version. It works with Rift, Vive, and Windows VR alongside existing SteamVR games.
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.