James Cameron on virtual reality: 'Yawn' (Tomorrow Daily 229)

On today's show a five year old girl gets to throw a very special pitch. We're gonna take a field trip. Also a book that's gonna help you filter water in third world countries. And James Cameron thinks VR is stupid. Thanks Cameron. Thanks a lot. Tomorrow Daily. [SOUND] [MUSIC] Greetings this is the internet. Welcome to Tomorrow Daily the best teen talk show in the known univer.se I'm Ashley Esqueda, that's Khail Anonymous. You're back! Welcome back! Yeah I am. I feel like I was here yesterday but I wasn't. and it like, was supper bizarre because I sent my identical twin to host the show and she just like pretended to be me. We have enough footage of you now that we just edited you in, actually. Wow. Yeah, it was just like audio, and we synced it, and used Siri. Twin for pickup, like one or two pickup? Yeah, it was super easy. That's impressive. Didn't have to pay anybody Just amazing that's great.>> pLease don't tell our boss that. Alright let's hit the headlines. I am so glad we're starting out with this one. Okay, so we are, everyone has their different opinions about it whether or not it's going to be huge. We don't know but everyone is excited about it except for James- Freaking Cameron. Because there was a Wall Street Journal event. Okay. We're gonna reel back. There was a Wall Street Journal event in which James Cameron had a change to speak and he said about VR, there seems to be a lot excitement around something that to me is a yawn, frankly. Well. Those are fighting words. Easy there, James Cameron. Before we crack into this, before we crack into how we feel about him saying that, because we could be mad if you can't tell, he says there hasn't really been a VR app that has really impressed him. It's been more like You just kind of look around in an environment. If you want to move through a virtual reality, it's called a video game. Oh, snap! It's been around forever, since James Cameron. The VR industry needs some cream for that sick burn. Yeah, I mean- I'm serious. There are video games in VR, James James Cameron. That's true. Yeah. So the Ripped creator, Palmer Luckey. Is it Luckey? Yeah. Okay, looks like Luckey. He's not convinced though. He says he is incorrect. Of course he would say that. Of course. All you have to do is try virtual reality to understand that it goes beyond anything that you can do. Even on a 3D television and a 3D movie screen, James Cameron. He didn't add the, I added the James Cameron. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, I can understand what James Cameron's saying. But Well, yeah. I don't know if you know anything about the way that he made Avatar, but he created this new technology in which they basically made the entire setting. Okay. And then he had this movable camera where he could walk, I don't know if this is footage of it. But he could walk through the environment and use this virtual screen to like take different shots.- I see.- So he was going around. Yeah there basically doing that in this shot. I was actually at this event? I think? Yes, I was at this event.- Wow.- Or this is a recreation, it was the same place that they filmed it or whatever.- Or some kind of thing.- But yeah they move around. See there's the screen. Well I guess that's not the screen. But anyways the point is He was using virtual reality. Basically like yeah maybe I guess it was AR. Maybe he thinks AR is the bigger potential of the two. Maybe that's what he's getting at, cause I mean obviously he is very technologically savvy. He dove for The Titanic. I mean he's really involved in new technology and he brought a lot of new technology to film And filmmaking, so for me it's very interesting that he is not interested in VR. Yeah. But remember, so many times when we talk about VR we always say like you have to try it. You have to really see it. And it's got to be the right thing to like spark your imagination, because the thing is if I threw on a video game for my mom, she wouldn't be interested. But if I gave my mom like a virtual tour of Fiji. Like she could go and see or like the Coral reef in Australia.>> Yea>> She would be stoked. Like she would be so jacked about that and be like I get it. So, maybe it's just there's not a specific thing yet that he's seen like you said that's really like- Opened his imagination about VR, maybe he thinks it's AR. Maybe he thinks it's AR. Listen James. You have a lot of cool tech and you get to do a lot of crazy things in a virtual and augmented reality space. True. Most people do not have that. Most people have like a flat-screen or anything, like they don't get to look around in a virtual space and work in high-tech stuff. So I think that's what you're missing. You're not impressed because we're catching up. We're living it. Yeah. Maybe that's it. Come on, man. He's also seeming kinda like an old man and not letting people wanna do that. But that's not. We wanna know what you guys think, so that's our hashtag of the day. Our hashtag is #TDYawn. Well picked. Thank you. Nicely done. #TDYawn. Don't take our opinion for it. We wanna know, does James Cameron have a point? Does he have a point? Does he? Are we fan booing too much or is he right. Is it kinda beyond. What would you do to convince him? If the think VR is cool, what would you do to convince him? What's the thing either that you've seen or either that should exist that would convince James? James Cameron. Yeah, so. You know what I think it would be? Avatar in virtual reality, being able to watch the movie and being able to hang out in, like Avatar 2. Like doing it entirely in VR. Right, so we know they won't have any VR rides or anything at the new Animal Kingdom Avatarland that they're building. Get that VR out of my face. James Cameron says what James Cameron cuz James Cameron is James Cameron. That's very true. Very true. But I like your point a lot about he is so immersed in the most cutting edge technology that maybe it's not as impressive to him. I think that it's actually a really good It's selling points. Yeah that's really smart.- There going to show an old person a phone and there going to be like "WOW" and i'm like no i'm like a generation behind. They have one that just came out six months ago. But there just blown away by it. No I get So there you go. Let us know. TD Yawn. James Cameron. Yawning. Meh. He basically was like eh. VR. Eh, meh. All right. Stinking billionaires. I gotta tell you about this. This is really cool. I saw this and thought it was actually pretty brilliant. So a lot of people in the world don't have access to clean water. And One person who is a Carnegie Mellon University post doc. Her name's Theresa Dankovich. She's been thinking a lot about that and so she came up with this really brilliant idea called the drinking book. This is called the drinking book. [CROSSTALK] And these are pages. You see her, like, sifting through these things. It's an actual book and the pages can be torn out And use to filter water to 99.9% purity. Oh, wow! It's so cool. I love this idea. So each page has two filters. You can tear out a filter. You insert it into a holder that comes with the book, and then you pour dirty water through it, and it filters it out. And they were saying that there's still some levels of silver nitrates and other trace amounts of stuff. But it's well below for what the standards are for the World Health Organization and EPA standards, it's well, well below that. So here you go, slide this in a custom filter box and pour water through. Again, the book comes with this filter box and then, there's your drinkable water. There you have it, like it's not incredible. Okay. So. And there's information about having safe drinking water in the book printed onto these pages, filtered, so that Potentially for people that don't speak English [CROSSTALK] Only if you can like educate people about what they would with the book, like. And they can print in different languages, and this is amazing to me. This is absolutely incredible. They have Each filter can clean 100 liters of water before being unusable, so hypothetically one book would last a person about four years. Which is amazing. It comes in the box that's the filter box. Pretty cool. It was field tested in South Africa, Ghana, Haiti and Kenya, and it had again, 99.9% purity when filtering water that had high bacteria concentrations from recently dumped raw sewage, 99.9% purity, pretty amazing. She wants to do more studies, she wants to keep refining the book I just think it's a really cool idea, and honestly, good for you! Yeah, that's pretty cool. Theresa Dankovich So is she getting it out there or is it just a concept now? No, it's out in field testing. She's bringing it to countries. I think she's going to try really hard to kind of ramp up manufacturing it. I'm sure if we could make more of them quickly then it would be a little easier to get them out to more countries, but She is field testing them, so they are out there and people seem to respond very well to them, Alright. So good for you. Yeah! I really would have liked it if she had printed on school books so not only do they get this filter but they Like the kids are like learning and also they have to read really fast because their thirsty and their like aah I need a drink and then ya know.>> Every first chapter, then I get water.>. Why not get a bonus out of it so- She does have, like all of the pages have facts about clean water, like how to use the book like it's all in there. Like basically it's the book is also the instruction manual which is pretty amazing. So good for you. You can imagine if the martian was printed on that. Like the book The Martian. That would be amazing. He makes water in the book. Create water. See! So much science you guys. See! Okay so last thing but certainly not least, do you have the permission flip for the field trip we're about to take? My dog ate it? Okay that's fine. I'll forge your mom's signature. There's this little girl, she's five years old. Her name is Hailey Dawson. She is a huge Baltimore Orioles fan who also happens to have what is called Poland Syndrome. Which I have never heard of this syndrome but apparently it causes kids to be born with abnormal or missing abdominal muscles on like one side of their body. But it can also debilitate their hands. And so she has a hand issue Like a deformity or an abnormality that allows her to not really use it very well So her parents turned to the University of Nevada Las Vegas and they said hey, could you help us make a prosthetic. So we talked about this, they're expensive. They're really expensive. And of course, she's growing. She's a little girl, so she's gonna need more as she gets older. They said, sure, no problem, engineering department's on it. We got it. And recently they made, I believe this is her third one. It has a Baltimore Orioles logo on it. And she threw out the first pitch with that hand, that 3D-printed hand. at a Baltimore Orioles game. Whoa! And I love the fact. So,she's got it on. It's on her right arm. And they're going to hand her the ball, and she's going to throw, this is her favorite player. Ahh. This is her absolute favorite Baltimore Oriole. And, she's super cute, and her parents were really excited about First of all, the idea that, you know, I think they said the first one she grew out of, the second one, I think broke after the mom was trying to restring one of the one of the fingers, and then they, so they printed her a new one, and now they're working on a fourth one. And they're going to keep improving the hand every single time they give her one. But, it's a myoelectric prosthetic So she- Oh, my God, give her the ball. > I know, give her the ball, all right. I know this video takes a little while to get there. Her brother sucks, yeah. [LAUGH] There we go. Well, that might just be, maybe it's the ball boy. So, yeah, there you go. This hand is able to grip and there she goes. Throw out the first pitch. > Yeah. Cutest thing ever. I love the technology that they use to help people and Again, that's her favorite player. Whoa! That bird is creepy. That bird is terrifying. Now she's gonna have nightmares. But that's great. Yeah, so there you go. I thought that was the best way to end this week's headlines with a really nice, feel good story about people helping other people. Yeah. It's pretty good. All right guys, we are gonna take a quick break, but before we go we have to tell you what Cnet and Gamespot are playing right now. So this is Play This. We'll be right back. [MUSIC] All week I have been playing Poly Bridge, because in a former life I was possibly an engineer or a mad building psychopath. Yo CNET, it's been over ten years since N first came out, the Flash game. It's been over seven years since N+ came out. N++, now on PS4. You're a ninja. You collect gold, you go in the door done. So I have been playing Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It is a walk them up or womp. I have been playing Rare Replay lately. It is 30 games for XBox One from Rare the old developer that made Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie, Battle Toads which I just played for the first time because I'm collecting. It's amazing because, in addition to constructing useful things for the world I can also build hideous monsters that also help cars get across the river. It's about this town that's completely empty, everyone's gone, and you don't know why. And, you need to figure out why they're all gone, presuming from the name of the title they've been raptured. But, that's not exactly the case. Been having a lot of fun with it, but a lot of the games kind of don't hold up as well as you might expect. Others still do, but yeah, all in all, having a good time with it. I really like the story. I think it's really a great tale, of like love and science and mysticism and I really like the way the game is not linear, unless you unravel it at your own pace, and sort of Figure it out for yourself. So it takes both boxes of me creating, and me destroying. [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC]. Welcome back to the show. We've returned. It's a Thursday. Cala is looking very charming You got your wink on? It's a Thursday which means it's time to tell you about the stuff that we like. I mean we do that all week but now it's really important. This is Into It. [SOUND] Can I go first? I'm pretty excited. Well I already said mine. Did you? Yeah, well during that little break thing. Oh, okay, all right. Yeah, go ahead. All right, fair enough, all right. So this is called, it's an app, it's called VHS camcorder, and it makes your video recording look like you are literally recording an old VHS taps, and if you turn it, it gets all messed up. Oh my god I wanna get that right now. Yeah, it's great. This is way better than mine today, so So it's like a- What's it called? It's called VHS Camcorder. Does it cost money? No. Oh I'm sorry. Yes. It's four bucks. Wait, and then. I have by that. But here, watch this. So, if the old video footage, like it even looks like it's zooming in on an old camera. There's my stupid face. But it's so cool. And you can set the date, so you can have it say 1987. In the menu, you can spoof the recording date. Here's some footage that Anthony Demanco from CNET. He recorded this as test footage. You can do black and white, videos.>>You can do like a found footage movie. [CROSSTALK] You totally could. I want to shoot a horror, a found footage horror movie, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this app. I'm like, oh my gosh, I want to do a little short That's sound footage from the 80s. That's gonna be amazing. I just bought it. Did you get it? Okay, cool. I don't know what I'm doing this weekend, but now I do. Yeah. Maybe upload all this stuff. It's gonna be great. I was thinking about that, but it'll take your video footage and crop it. Oh, no. It has both widescreen and 4:3. Well, 4:3. To swear. So as long as you're okay I think it actually has, there should be enough space to give you a fully square with still the timestamp, the date and timestamp on it. Okay. Technically you could make Instagram video for this. But I love it, it's like so weird and just I love AV apps, I've got photo and video apps. Like, I download them all the time. So, I saw this, got very excited, and, man, I'm going to make '80's videos for all my life, all my life.>> Yeah, that's great. .. I love it. Both of our's are camera based. Oh, okay. What are you. So, mine is also, and I'm way behind the times on this, but I've been to light painting this week. Oh, light painting. Because I actually did a DIY. With another company so about light paints.- About how to do it?- And I just like we were just, we had a new idea every single time. But it you don't know what light painting is It's basically a long exposure photo that you take and you move light around and it creates crazy shapes and it basically looks like magic. And people have been doing this forever. This is not new but there's Not, by far, everything hasn't been done before. No. Like I did one where I was facing the wall and it made it look like I was peeing on the wall. I did one where I stood in one place and I made it look like I was The Flash, because it looked like streaks running behind me. Yeah, it's just a fun thing to goof around with. Like if you have, if you think you haven't done this with your camera yet, it's just fun to mess around with. And you can do this with your cell phone. As long as you can find a way to like steady your phone. So, yeah, it's just a fun thing to goof around with, that you've got some free time and you're in the dark and you want some sort of- Oh, they're gonna light that up. Some sort of light, yeah. And you can create- Like a top. It's a very DIY thing, and you can, like I said, create really interesting like Facebook photos or cover photos and just a fun thing that I hadn't tried out until this week. Again, it's nothing new, but But new for you. It's a blast, yeah. That's cool. No, I dig that. If you haven't tried at light painting, like Khail said, it's pretty easy and there are apps on Android and iOS that allow you to, you can get slow shutter apps so you can do like long exposure pictures. I've got one called Slow Shutter, actually. Yeah, that's what I have too, yeah. I do that for like astrophotography. Stars and stuff. All right. That's pretty cool. Yeah, so that's what we're into. Let us know what you're into in the comments. We're dying to know. We're reading about you. I wanna see if you make any of the camcorder Yeah send us your VHS VHS camcorder footage or send us your light photos. Alright guys let's talk about you. It's time for your user feedback. [MUSIC] But yesterday we asked everybody to use TD 20/20 to say what they wanted to see at the Tokyo Olympics. Opening ceremonies? Yeah. That's some pretty good ones. By the way- Didn't they say Tupac? No, sadly, Judd, but you know- [CROSSTALK] They're not my idea. Honestly, he's in hiding, so he probably not in a place with internet, so he probably doesn't watch the show. He's actually hiding, he's actually producer Logan. Yeah. I don't know if you guys, [INAUDIBLE] don't tell anybody. Producer Logan is actually Tupac in disguise. Is that right? Is that right? It looks like. [LAUGHTER] He does say that all the time. That is Tupac's catchphrase. So it's 100% Tupac. All right, so we have you guys TD2020, and Derrick wrote in and said I want a Japanese robot that will get me a front row seat Into every Olympic venue. Wait, what? Oh, yeah. I liked it. He has this robot going for him like saving him a chair, like oh, just save my seat. Save a seat for me. Oh, okay. Cool. I like that. I like his emojis, though. He has all of the different Olympic sports, that was amazing. Amazing. You could enter the Olympic games for emojis. There probably will be an emoji Olympics. Oh, man. And then Neal wrote in and said, "Have Mario and Sonic race Usain Bolt. See who's fastest." I'm guessing Mr. Bolt. I love that. Like augmented reality races with characters from video games. That would be so amazing. I'd be more into it to see Sonic get like destroyed and then be like depressed and like lose his scholarship. Behind the music. Yeah. Usain Bolt added to Smash Brothers. Yeah. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Dark real fast. Gets so dark. And then Michael wrote in and said flying toasters so that the sky could be turned into a giant screen saver and he sent in the flying toaster picture and I love that! [APPLAUSE] Really well done. Why can't we have flying toasters? Just in general. Just around. I still to this day, I still want, once we get really inexpensive foldable screens, I'm dying to have a whole wall that is a screen that I can just program and do like flying toaster or just color. Whatever it is that day that I feel like. I can just look it up I just put it up on the wall. Amanda, I thought you bought one. No, that's a canvas, yeah. That's just canvas. But like no, I'm talking about like wallpaper, like you could literally connect them in like rolls, and then like make your whole wall. A screen that you can program and you can just put active video on it or whatever. Yea. It would be amazing. Put up like nudes. Yea, put up your nudes whatever. Caleb takes a lot of those. I'm sorry. [LAUGHTER] Kale he said something and producer Logan to everybody. Yea, exactly. To strangers, I mean I don't now what's going on. In the comments leave your phone number. Yeah and Kale will send you the fancy photos. It's not sad. No please on all accounts don't do that. So we've got to talk about. [LAUGH] Did you just wink at everybody? Thursday what up. So my favorite. All right we've got to talk about our very last basic user feeds with phone tograhper of the day. [NOISE] [MUSIC] That was maybe my favorite moment of all time on this show. All right, Leo wrote in, he's not a lion, not a real live lion, so calm down, lions can't use phones yet. He sent in this photo. He says, there's a whole nice story with this. This is an amazing picture by the way. Hello! I took this beautiful photo with my iPhone 5S while on a camping trip in a group in northern Utah. We hiked two miles and set up camp. In the middle of the night it started snowing. We did not expect this, so you can imagine how the trip back was. But as soon as I got out of my tent I chose to take a shot. Hope you enjoy using this photo, thanks. Keep in mind this not edited whatsoever. Look at that mountain. Look at everything. That looks like a render in Skyrim. Yeah, or like a painting. That is legit, that's like a Bob Ross painting, right? Put a little tree in there. Exactly. And paint the little tree. Nobody on this show who's watching knows who Bob Ross is. Unless they love Internet memes, in which case they totally know who Bob Ross is. That is an amazing picture. Absolutely amazing. It looks incredible. That's a place that I would like to look at in a picture but never go to because I don't like cold. The only thing missing from this picture is Tu Pac. Like a holographic Tupac just in there. Holographic Tupac doing a concert right next to the lake. Do you think you'd ever go there, Tupac? I don't know. I like California. Fair enough. California's the best, yeah. They know how to party, yeah. It's true. There you have. And there you have it. If you wanna send in your phonetography, send us your photo. Your device you took it and permission to use it to tomorrow@cnet.com. If you wanna keep up with the show you can check us out. We're TomorrowDaily on Tumbler, Twitter, and pretty much, you know, Facebook, other places. But really, if you want the color of your two hosts, you wanna find us on social media, because we're very colorful weirdos. And so i'm at Ashley Scevon on Twitter and I'm at Kel Anonymous. And that's it for the show this week. We'll be back on Monday with a brand new docket of weird and wonderful science facts and science fiction but until then be good humans. We'll see you guys next time. Bye.