Tomorrow Daily 028: Treating addiction with VR, Qi wireless charging evolves, and more

Researchers are treating addiction with virtual reality. Oh yeah researchers? What are you gonna do when I get addicted to virtual reality huh? Checkmate. Drugs. New wireless standards are gonna make it easier to charge your smart phone. Don't worry I'm not going to make some cheesy joke here. And an artist made a color changing wall on a garage at a hospital. Medicated patients report seeing a shapeshifting building stalking them at night And that's what they look like. It's tomorrow daily. Greetings citizens of the internet, welcome to Tomorrow Daily, the best daily tech talk show in the known universe. I'm your host, Ashley Esqueda. As always, again, my consigliere of tech, Oh my gosh, can you believe? It is our weekend. It's Thursday when we tape. It's Friday for some of you watching. But it's all weekend. It is. It is. And I'm going tonight to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh, so lucky. 7 p.m. showing? First showing. Number one showing, dead center of the theater. I've got my reserved seat. Very exciting. I'm gonna try and see it this weekend as well. Do my best. It's my son's three year old birthday so, maybe I'll take him. maybe. Is it appropriate No I don't think it is, no I don't think Rocket Raccoon is appropriate for children. Imagine Rocket Raccoon is a rabies infested raccoon. Don't, not good for kids, or dogs. Probably not good. Okay. Let's hit the headlines. So our very first story today is a really interesting application of virtual reality. I found this story just incredible almost in a lot of ways. This research facility is using virtual reality to treat addiction and help patients. Not relapse when they get out into the real world. So this is, one of the videos that they might see while using the virtual reality, equipment and what is happening is they're at a party and the virtual reality people are like oh hey like welcome to the party there's some pizza over here and if you wanna, you wanna smoke a little. Go out add on the patio. [CROSSTALK] and some drugs that you shouldn't do. And so what they're also doing is they're integrating who there's this guy, you don't wanna trust this guy. You don't wanna trust this guy. Woah whats he doing? What was he licking? Ice cream, ice cream. so, stamps. Definitely stamped. but. They got, like the cleanest-cut guy ever for that. That's, well, because they're. I could've been that role. I, you could have. But the thing is, like, so, a lot of people have difficulty when they get out of rehab adjusting to the real world. So it's very easy to, for a lot of people to stay clean while in a sober living facility. But then when they get out in the real world and they start seeing their friends again and people who are not sober, it becomes very difficult. And so, what this says is. It helps people sort of know how to react in the situations and almost train them to understand how to make the right choice. And it's not just the virtual reality aspect. The researcher who is in charge of this, they pipe in smells as well. Yeah. So he's describing quote we have the raw marijuana smell, marijuana smoke, incense, anything that's associated with a drug. If you go outdoors, we have. A pine scent, an outdoor scent. Yeah. So they're recreating the entire situation including, you know, the virtual reality world that you may be, you know, experiencing these drugs in so hopefully help you not cave in. Yeah, not partake, not partake. And they even have the smell of pizza. So, like, when you go to the party, and they're like pizza's right over here, if you go by there's, like, the smell of pizza. But, I like how they're sort of using this, entire, sensory experience because, for me I know that, and I've read this. That, your memory is connected a lot, to smell. Oh absolute, you could, I could remember a smell, like my freshman year of college. They have like these certain plants by our dorm. Maybe it was just weed, I don't know but [UNKNOWN], certain plants. [LAUGH] But, it was this, it was this California plant that has this certain smell, and every time I walk past that plant, it reminds me of my freshman year of college. So I agree. It's the century, it's the, it's the It will remind you A coupling of those two things. RIght, it will remind you of that VR experience so it will help you kind of get through it, which I just think is awesome. So kudos to you guys and I also thought that this would be a really good, to expand on this. It's possible and I'm sure somebody is doing this somewhere using virtual reality to teach social anxieties and phobias. << Well, militaries. << Yeah, ptsd. << They're using it for the military in a big way, all these, you know, veterans that come back from overseas are doing the same exact thing where they can put them in. An enclosed situation a controlled situation Right And have them experience it's pretty much anxiety and all the different symptoms that they're having and you know, have a psychologist that can actually figure out hey what's going on and make it so it's not a real life thing. What are your triggers understand your triggers things like that they're really great for mental health and also obviously now addiction. Treatment. I think it's, I think it's cool. I think it's cool that we're doing this. I'm seriously, virtual reality is just going to be amazing. Like it's. It's going to blow up. I, I was listening to a podcast yesterday and the person's like, this is the last step before nobody leaves their house. Like, there is. Maybe. Almost a reason to do that. It's going to be like Snow Crash, that's, that's one of my favorite dystopian. Novel. Sci-Fi novels. Cyber punk novels, and I'm telling you, I think it's gonna be like that. Not to be mistaken for Snow Piercer, your favorite movie right now. No, not to be mistaken for that. Not to be mistaken for Snow Piercer. Snow Crash by Niel Stevenson. Very, very good book, I highly recommend it, if you like dystopian future. It's got a good name. Cyber punk novels. It's, well it's like, like a virus. And then if you're in virtual reality, you have your avatar and stuff. And then you get snow crashed, which means it like wipes out your brain. Okay. It's, it's amazing. It's a really good book. Sounds good. Let's talk about QI. You know QI, it's the wireless. It's spelled QI. I harness, I harness my Chi often. It's spelled QI but it's pronounced chi, for the uninitiated. Some people don't know that cuz it's not really well known. Right. Like, most people aren't familiar with wireless charging unless. You have it or you use it, but otherwise like 99% of the world is like what is that I didn't even know that existed. Right. But basically they had, released some new standards today which are supposedly gonna make this a little bit better. So the new transfer power is 30 millimeters which doesn't sound like a lot but it used to be, when you put your phone on one of these devices to charge it wirelessly, it had to be right on that sweet spot. Centered right on the charger. And what you're seeing right now on the screen are examples of G chargers. So with this new standard, they're saying it's going to open up a whole new world. Not only can you have your phone slightly off center but the cool thing is, 30 millimeters, you can have it like, the charger underneath your desk so you can place your phone on your desk. Oh, I see. And even though there's like a, you know, whatever thickness between your phone and the charger. It can still charge. That opens up a big world. True. But here's the thing, There are so many, there's so much competition for this, right now. Yeah, Like there's two big alliances. There's the, are you familiar with this, the Wireless Power Consortium? There's two different ones, right, that's really big. And there's, like, Samsung. Wireless Power is, who this, Samsung. Microsoft. Microsoft. Nokia, Verizon. Okay. Just some of the biggest. I mean, there's a hundred. There's a whole bunch of companies involved. But then there's the Powers Matter alliance and Duracell. The PMA. The PMA, Duracell, AT&T is part of that and also Starbucks has the PMA pads in some of their Starbucks. I see. So think about it. Now you might be like well who cares if they're controlling wireless charging. Go Universal. Gotta be universal. But here's the thing I learned today cuz on the phone with these people. The I was on the phone with the Wireless Power. They were saying that the whole real Frontier is sending messages to your phone through the technology. Oh. So when you walk into a store. They can send you offers and things like that through this chee thing and, or through the wireless. Hey like welcome to Target. Here's a you know, a wireless message that just came through this. Oh wow. Not just about the charging. It's always about money. Always about the money. Follow the money. But I'll show you a picture of this car I just drove. It's a brand new Lexus that's coming out in November. Oh, delightful. And it's got an option for a chi charger in the center console. That's cool. So, $350 add on, and the cool thing is it's not part of any other package. You just say, do I want this. Just why not now 350 is a lot. Right, but if it's like you don't how, at least you don't have to get a $2,000 tech package. Exactly. You know, that's that's cool that you only have to pay that much. Thank you for doing that Lexus, but normally if you're spending that much on a Lexus, they should just throw it in. [LAUGH] Yeah, for for free Lexus. Come on. Give me it for free. Come On. [CROSSTALK] But [CROSSTALK] Maybe they have an Iphone and they can't use it. Well, you can get a Wah wha. You can get a case for it. Okay. That's true. We did, they showed us the little case. It's got, like, a little power charger case. Yeah, yeah. But how cool? When you get in your car you just throw it in there and then bluetooth and. You could just put it down, that, that would be nice. I mean. I do, I do really get irritated at plugging in my phone in the car, We need this. We need this to be a thing. Let's get going on this everybody. You guys, you too power groups, wireless power groups. You need to. Kiss and make up. You need to just hug it out, that's what i'm telling you. Hug it out. You were much more politically correct. Yes, I am. Hug it out Hug it out. Our very last story is a morphing building. Hmm Now, that is maybe a little bit of an exaggeration. Ok But there is a hospital in Indiana that has a, a very, very specific name that I'm going to butcher for sure. This is Esk. [LAUGH] Esken, Eskenazi. Eskenazi. Okay, are you sure that's in Indiana? I feel like everything in Indiana- It- Would have, like, a really simple name. I feel like this should be in Germany, no. Right? Yeah, like, what's up with that name? So, this, there's not a lot of technology involved in terms of, like, LED or anything. But these are actually just panels in different shapes. That have been placed around the building. So you can see, as you're driving or walking past it, it changes color. [LAUGH] Which is pretty awesome. Yeah. So this this artist decided to make this large-scale piece of artwork for all intense purposes, for. A a car park facade. So this is, this is where you park your car at the hospital. Well, I like that they're a) making a parking garage look beautiful. Yes, that's very nice. Because it, it, it, you know, I'm not. Okay, so nothing moves. It just. Okay I see. As you move it changes. It's just as you move. That's really cool so. So here's the other side of it. Right, right. It's yellow. And then the other side is black. So as you go from one side to the other, it changes. See? Look. So cool. So when you like, this would be cool like if you're, This looks like it would be at an airport more than a hospital. Yeah. Which maybe they should do it there. But it's like, when you arrive on the plane, like it's one color. And then you're like looking for the parking garage, it's another color. You're like, wait, I know I parked there. Yeah. It was a yellow parking garage. Like. Here's no there's only a blue parking garage back there yeah, no. It's only [CROSSTALK] look at the other angle and it's like there it is. Yeah, so they're gonna actually change this the colors of it which is cool. They can actually change the panels oh so they're gonna do that every, about six months. So I think they're changing the colors of this in September. Oh, that's not confusing. [CROSSTALK] Well I think there's only one major parking garage at this hospital. Okay. So they, they thought about active camouflage techniques. That's actually how this came about. Oh. They're thinking about active camouflage and what they could maybe do as an installation. And then they worked through a bunch of design and development drawings. And came to this conclusion. Which I really like the fact that. He was saying we didn't wanna use moving parts. We wanna use static parts and we built it based on a fact that people would be moving past it. So, they built physical mock ups throughout six months and then they used a whole lot of software to sort of design which squares. To figure it out, right. Which squares need to be placed where and what size they needed to be to sort of give an illusion of motion almost as if it was a water changing or wave like you were saying earlier. so, I just think this is really cool, it's just one of those nice details, like one of those things that Yeah, you don't have to have it, but it's cool. I wonder if there's any buildings where they've made it sort of, transparent, based on something, because it looks like you could do what you're talking about. Make it almost see through, or blends in with like the wall behind, or the sky behind it. Yeah, maybe, I really like the fact that this actually, if you're really looking at it, it conceals all the cars inside the car park, and it conceals all the concrete beams, it just. Makes it look like Conceals all the ugliness. Yeah, you drive past it it's such a nice experience. You feel happier once you drive past it, I know I would. Cool, hey awesome. Yeah pretty fun. So we are gonna take a quick 30 second break, we'll be right back. We have an into it. Rich and I are gonna tell you what we're into this week and we also have your user feedback and of course our phone for the week Welcome back to Tomorrow Daily, we, we're trying to figure out a way to install that art installation in the studio I can't. We're gonna need a lot more computers. We'll have to remeasure everything. Yeah I don't think that'll work. Maybe on the side. If the camera's moving and stuff. Can we just move that camera, can you just get that shot? No. Okay. No? Alright, good. Well it is, it is that time of the week where we talk about what we're into. This is into it. [MUSIC] Now Rich, what are you into this week? Because I think if I'm not mistaken, what you're into is not exactly, not exactly brand new, but you're now just getting in. Just starting. I now I'm getting late to the party, Halt and Catch Fire. I've heard good things. IT is a show on AMC if you havent heard of it, it premiered in June so I'm a little behind but you have to understand I have a kid at home and you know, I'm like. I hear producer. The life, the eternal life of a parent. The eternal life of a parent, I have a producer Logan telling me how great this show is. I remember hearing the buzz at south by and all that and I wanted to watch it. And I should have because A, this was so hard to find for free online, well the legit way. Of course you could find it streaming on a bunch of different sites. But anyway so I went to AMC dot com to see if I can watch it for free. I went to all the different sites, can I stream it to see. Not free. So I had to pay $3.00 for each episode to watch. Point is, it's fine, it's worth it. It's a good show. It's about sorta the personal computer revolution back in the 80s. Mm. And it takes place in Texas. So everyone's always, like, a little bit sweaty. [LAUGH] And it's just got that Texas, kinda you know, kinda. Big Texas feel? Yeah, it's got that Texas feel to it. The title of the show refers to this machine code. Have you heard of this, halt and catch fire? I haven't. Which supposedly causes a computer to like, if you put this code into it, it just grinds to a halt. Like it stops. It's like bricking your Android phone. Blows up. And just yeah, boom. I don't know if that's true or not. Mm-hm. People are debating whether that's true. I see Mythbusters. And the whole show is fictionalized. So, none, you Okay. Like, when I watch tech shows in general, anything that happens I'm always like, wait, is that real? Is that fake? Wait, what, what's she doing with the bios here? It's a fun show. It's entertaining. It's clearly a drama. but, you know, I love anything that involves tech. They have a speak and spell in the first, episode, which really brought me back to my childhood. So that was kind of cool. And, you know, it's just kind of a fun little show to watch. It's streaming, like I said, not for free. Okay. But a couple of the episodes are. Is it still on the air? it, no. It's the season finale is like this weekend. So- Oh. August 3rd is [CROSSTALK] So listen if you wanna catch the season finale on time with everyone else, you gotta binge watch it. You gotta, you gotta get there. Couple, you only got a couple days. What about you? As for me, I was at Comic-Con last week as we all know. And I found these little itty-bitty ray guns at Weedabill's Wee Workshop. Oh. And they are Doctor Grordbort. Ray guns. Nice. And these are, this is their, they have these amazing little commercials for these. So they did this old timey commercial, for the for the gun. They have full size versions of these that are I think like $700, plus. Wow. Which I was like [UNKNOWN] maybe I could spend my money a little bit wiser, just right, for right now. So you didn't buy one? I bought the miniature version. Okay. So I bought two miniature versions of these guns. I bought the Pierce 75, which, producer Logan, I think, has pictures of. These are the, this is the ad, this is the ad when they first came out. This better be a picture of you with it. Is that you? No, it's not. No. No? That's definitely not me. Okay. I though you were dressed up. [CROSSTALK] My mustache isn't as good, if you if you click on producer Logan Good, the magnifying glass would appear 75, you should be able to see a large. Or actually the I'm sorry, the other little, whatever that is, window thing in that bottom right corner. Is this what like Peter Jackson's thing in New Zealand? Is that the same what They work on, [CROSSTALK] they had a, their their booth at Comecon was a giant smoug head. Like this. Top of the booth was probably, like, a, an actual to scale malghead. It was huge. Wow. It was awesome. See now, here's the Pier 75, which is my favorite. Now what will you do with this. nothing. They're just for show. Okay. But I love them and they're, like, 50 bucks each. That's ok. But they're tiny. They're, they're, like, three and a half inches high. Like that? They're itty bitty, they're itty bitty little Just this big? Ray guns. And they're so cool, though, and I just love them. And I wanna just collect them all now. So that's- That's an expensive collection. $50 for a three inch like. But- That's- But all of them are cheaper than like one full-sized Raygun. Well, if you buy ten small ones, you can almost buy a full-size. Almost, but still even. But you'd have one huge full-sized Raygun. That's true. Well they haven't even, they have like a huge like. It's like a rifle. It's like a giant rifle rig. It's crazy, like good, really cool steampunk guns. That's what I'm into. I think it's awesome. Dr. Grordbort's Rayguns are the best. I'm, I'm into it. So that's what I'm into. And with that being said, let's get into your user feedback. {MUSIC] Yesterday, we asked you guys to send us tweets with the hashtag TV robo fan and tell us. Who you would be rooting for and give us your game faith that you would upload the robot. And we got some, some great treats. We picked one with the pictures because they are the greatest. So our very first treat comes from Walter Tech Addict. And he says #tdrobofan Carolina Panthers. Even during our years of sucking, people filled that stadium! This is OUR TIME. Nice! #warface. And there's Walter's warface. [LAUGH]. And just to catch you up, by the way, this was the team in Korea. They made robot fans in the stands because, the team was doing so bad, they wanted fans to be able to log on from home. And upload your face. Upload your face. And robot move and, like, they do the wave. Yeah, and they make sign, you can send signs, like messages to the team. The robot to hold up the sign. Great. Every stadium should have this. It's so great. And then our second one is from Tony Maggio. And he says, or @Techbeats He says, my robot picture #TDROBOFAN. Big fan of the show, you both are awesome. And then he just photo shopped himself onto a robot, which I love more than Nice. Anything in the whole universe. This, this tweet took work, and we like that. ANy time something takes effort, we enjoy. And thank you for saying we're awesome. Yeah, I appreciate the effort and you're awesome, Tony, you're awesome. You the best. I have the italian last name too. Tony Maggio. No not, you know, my last name ends in a, ends in an o. Okay, fair enough, DiMaggio, DeMero. Murrow Maggio. I like it, alright, good. And now our hash tag of the day today, is we [LAUGH] I'm hesitant about hash tag TD VR. Oh okay. Is our hash tag today. We went with a very we wanted it politically correct, okay we thought about TD addicts but then we said no, no, no. Actually TD addicts kinda works. Should TD addicts kinda works. Didn't we take tech addicts at the beginning of the show I think so When we were watching it. So Haiti VR is your hash tag today. We want you to Tweet us and tell us what geek addiction you need to be cured of with virtual reality? For me it would definitely be my cell phone addiction. I literally am like addicted to cell phones have like ween you off I don't mean like on my cell phone, I mean like have to have every new cell phone that comes out. Like every new smartphone I must use. I have a, I have a online shopping problem. Mm, oh, yeah. Like I love to shop online, like I just. I will just buy things. Anything. Yeah. I'll go onto Amazon. I have this really big problem. I'm sure a lot of you guys can relate. I will go onto Amazon and I will just get into a black hole of like purchasing. I don't actually need anything. No. I'm just shopping and I'm just adding stuff to the cart and then all the sudden, I look at my cart and it's like $200. I'm like, I got to take some stuff out of this cart. Have I told you my idea for Amazon? No. Okay, so real quick. They should make it, because you buy a bunch of stuff throughout the week, right? Right. Like everyday, you're just like, oh, I need this on Amazon. Yeah, just like random stuff. They need a cart that automatically kind of like swoops in after you spend like the minimum shipping, whether it's 35 for you, depending on the type of account you have. It just automatically ships that stuff. So let's like say I think of a little thing I need, like who knows, something little like. Like a power strip or something. You throw it in there, it's only like nine bucks. Until the next three things you throw in, now it adds up to 50. Automatically ships. Oh, I like that. It's almost like a waiting room for your products. They need like a name for it, like sweep the floor cart or something. Whatever it is, it sweeps in. Broom cart. The broom card. The broom car. [CROSSTALK] sound ridiculous. Take it Amazon. Free idea. You're welcome, Amazon. You're welcome. All right. Let's check out our phonetographer of the day. [MUSIC] Our phonetographer of the day comes from Frytz. Frytz D. And this picture is taken with a Galaxy Note 3 in Japan and he says, I know you love Japan. I went to Japan for the first time, sadly it was only four days. That's four days more then I've been. I went to the Northern part, Mikimoto, which was still cold in April compared to Singapore and when I went back to Tokyo to take some more pictures of cherry blossoms, my DS, my DSLR. Ran out of juice faster than normal. Since I didn't bring a charger I just used my phone instead. Great show by the way. Keep it up, Frytz. Cool. So it's a very nice picture. Look at how beautiful that is. Very zen. It is. It feels very relaxing. I wonder what, what is on the side there. Is it like a tree stump? I, it's some sort of, yeah, like, cherry. it, [CROSSTALK] I'm trying to see if there's like a little sign there. Oh a sign there or something yeah? Maybe it's a special stump? But yeah it's I mean gorgeous of course, it's ridiculously beautiful. and, for it's, you are everyone else is, has been to Japan but me. I feel like everyone in the fricken world has been to Japan except me. Everyone who watches this show has been to Japan, except you. Everyone's like, Ashley you're so out of the loop. By the way I love how everybody after our ComiCon thing, our game where. I, I told you to name the cosplayer. We may have to make this a recurring segment. Heh. Where I literally just get pictures from other people's websites who go to other cons like throughout the year. And we do this with Rich. Because you guys loved it, number one. And number two, I thought it was hilarious. And number three, I can't believe you're so removed from like geek pop culture because you're so into technology. I, well, that's the thing. Just because you're into tech doesn't mean you have to be into like Grodo or whatever the. Grodo? What was the thing we talked about in TD Group that everyone sent in yesterday? [LAUGH] Grodo. What. [LAUGH] I thought. Get out. Number 1, I thought I did very well in that game. I rewatched it I got five and a half. I have to give you hints. You didn't even know who Gandalf was? Well. Who doesn't know Gandalf. Well, I probably read that book back in college, in high school. Oh my god. Yeah, okay. But here's the other thing. We're gonna do this game [INAUDIBLE] To my, to my defense. Hold on. To my defense, I thought about this a lot. Cuz some of those things I did know. I don't, I'm not good with names. Right. Like, even if I know characters, I know of them, I don't know their names. I know, I'm sorry. I'm still laughing at you, cuz it was insane. Those little things, those little gremlins. Like, do you remember their names? The gremlins? Yeah. Gizmo was like the main little gremlin. Yeah, they, I would have remembered that right off the bat. I remember all I actually I probably would have. I love all that stuff. [CROSSTALK] That was just on TV the other day. No, I think I would have. It was on TV? You watched it and you don't remember? I haven't seen Gremlins in like 15 years. And I remember that. So good. It's like. The name of the plant in Little Shop of Horrors? No. Dorothy? No. definitely not Dorothy. But there's a y at the end so maybe you're kinda close. See I was close, I'm always close. Right literally drives the freeway around geek pop culture and never gets off the on, off ramp. No too scared. But he just drives around and kinda looks in and he's like, I think I'm gonna remember. I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna look. Keep driving, just keep driving. Don't, don't look over. Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact with the nerds. That is it for the show today. If you wanna send in your phonetogrophy, your comments, your questions, you need advise or whatever, you can email is tomorrow@cnet.com. You can also send us your hashtag of the day if you do not use Twitter, which is always handy. Just like Basil from India emailed us. He did. He said, Rich you gotta catch up with Ashley's geekerires. So I said I agree. Yeah. Many people were shocked. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+. We are TomorrowDaily on all those places except Google+, where we are TomorrowDailyTV. And of course you can find me on Instagram, or on Twitter. Give me a hard time about my lack of geek knowledge. Yeah, you guys should train him up. That's what you should be doing. I'm a nerd, I'm not geeky. Geek pop culture, it's like your Achilles heel. Yeah, it is. Definitely your weakness. I'm Rich Dimero on those things. I'm Rich on tech on Facebook. And i'm Ashley [UNKNOWN] pretty much everyone on the internet, with the exception of instagram and I think ask fm, so just go to twitter and you'll find. Find me everywhere on the Internet. That is it for Tomorrow Daily. You guys be good humans, and we will see you on Monday. Have a great weekend. [MUSIC]