Emerging technologies in eSports

Emerging technologies are not always new but technologies whose use and applications are not yet fully realised.

Watch: The Rise of Technology-Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) And Mixed Reality (MR) (8:39 minutes)

Watch the video below and complete the following activity.

Mobile technologies and cyborg humans?

How did we all basically become cyborgs? If I told you that computers are indispensable in our daily lives, and we could not function without them. You would probably be sceptic. But let's think this through.

Mobile phones have become a vital part of our life, from working, social life, health, finance, entertainment or even Communication. They are replacing human capabilities.

How new generations are becoming more and more dependent on these devices gives a big opportunity for eSports. The access and the assimilation of technology is massive. As a matter of fact, we are already living it in the industry.

• Game Of War: Fire Age ($2.8+ Billion)
• Gardenscapes ($3+ Billion)
• Clash Royale ($3+ Billion)
• Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle ($3+ Billion)
• Garena Free Fire ($3.4+ Billion)
• Lineage M ($3.5+ Billion)
• Fantasy Westward Journey ($4.7+ Billion)
• Fate/Grand Order ($5.4+ Billion)

And this is just starting... Look at the prospect for the upcoming generations when it comes to mobile usage:

InShot editing

InShot is a new video creation and editing application. Users can make good-quality, 360-degree videos with their phones to share on social media.

InShot has the following video editing features:

• Video splitting
• Video trimming
• Merging video clips
• Importing photos or images
• Applying various filter effects
• Adding music or sound effects
• Adding voice-over effects
• Adding animations, stickers, or text to videos

Source: How to Use InShot: A Quick Guide for Business Owners (clearvoice.com)

Starter InShot Editing

Watch: InShot Video Editor Tutorial (2020) Free Version | iPhone and Android (6:19 minutes)

Quantum Computers

In a matter of 6 decades, we have evolved from having a computer that occupies an entire room to one fitting in our pockets. Have you taken the time to think about this? The reason is that transistors and microchips have reduced in size and constantly improve storage, as a matter of fact, it is estimated that the increase in flops (processing power) has increased by one trillion. Yes, that's TRILLION with a T! Crazy huh?

It is also estimated that by 2040 computers will be so energy demanding that we will not be able to power all the computers on earth.

Well, now that you know where it comes from let's talk about what it is.

Quantum computers rely on quantum physics, yes, physics. It is important to know that Bits in classic computers can only exist, as we know it, on 1 and 0s (on or off). Qubits, the computing unit that quantum computers rely on, can exist in more than these two. They can be in any number between 1 and 0, making the options infinite. The result of this amazing capability will be a huge increment in processing power for only a fraction of the power usage.

Watch: Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology (7:16 minutes)

Watch the video below and complete the following activity.

Virtual Reality is a simulated experience in a digital world. It requires you to immerse yourself into a digital 3D world bounded and limited by the rules of a program.

Virtual Reality is being used now for incredible immersive experiences across several fields:

• Medicine
• Education
• Content Creation
• Entertainment

Watch: Virtual Reality eSport Tournament // Crowning a Champion (0:43 seconds)

Watch the video below and take notes.

Why is VR important? Because it is a big leap for immersive-ness. It requires you to make body movements in order to play a part in this digital world. See where we are going?

The future of massively popular eSports may seem closer than we thought. It would be the perfect merger of digital and real for competitive entertainment.

And with physical effort and mental discipline involved, chances are that the rest of the world will have to recognise it as a sport.

You can see in the following tournament hype video the exciting possibilities of harnessing VR in eSports events in the future.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a computer-generated alteration of reality affecting many senses like visual, auditorial, sensation, or even smell making it immersive for the user.

This is a technology that hasn’t been around much, but it may change the way we live forever.

In identifying patterns, a computer generates a 3D rendered image, overlaying them first for our eyes creating the effect of proximity.

Many companies are starting to pay some interest in this technology for their vast capabilities for commercial purposes.

You all know what a mmo rpg is right? Many people remember those glorious days back in university. World of Warcraft was a game we all played back then, and many of us got really excited about how our character looked whenever we found a new rare drop. But what if we told you that this may be happening in IRL as well?!

Cool huh!?

We can now try on clothes without leaving our house. But let's move one step ahead. Let's picture for a second that the barrier of entrance is short, that AR sets are sold by the millions and every person on earth has access to an immersive AR world. But wait... we have experienced that already! Remember the Pokemon Go fever? Yes. We already have access to that technology with our phones. Now it’s a matter of convenience. It will only improve with time, the more advanced technological capabilities the more immersive new technologies will become.

Imagine how amazing and fun the world could become by watching everyone's avatar roaming in the streets instead of the user. The possibilities are endless.

Blockchain is a database base built into many computers, and all these computers need to update and verify the information.

We have two important concepts for blockchain:

1. Hashing: It is like a fingerprint in the shared file, any modification to it will be visible.
2. Proof of stake: It is the verification process of several parties before the information goes from point A to point B.

To simplify how safe it is, let's picture a burglar.

The thief wants to enter a house because he wants to take your things (stored value) from it. To do this, he would need to pass through one door. Now, the way a blockchain works is that for the thief to access the value inside of the house, he would need to unlock not 1 but thousands of doors before entering. And by the time he managed to access many, he would have left a noticeable trail sounding several alarms.

Work through the following true or false questions. Click the arrow to navigate between the questions.

Internet 1.0 was the earliest form of the internet. Many of you will not remember it or may have been too young to use this tool.

It was a whole new frontier for cybernauts, a whole grid of computers all connected via hyperlinks to one another. It was like witnessing a miracle happening, thousands if not millions of people could always access the same information with the blink of an eye! Before this, we all must go to the library or purchase expensive CD encyclopedias to do our research. This stage had a flaw though; it only allows the user to observe and extract information, yet there was no way for the code (HTML) to recognise user modification to the main URL. The only way to contact any other person was email. But that was all about to change...

Welcome to the UGC or user-generated content. The main difference between internet 2.0 and its predecessor the Internet 1.0 was that the user was constantly able to give feedback in real-time to the content creator or web owner.

This event made the internet skyrocket in popularity amongst everyone. It started things that we know now as trending, viral, blogs and social media. It started a participative social web. This was mainly because technology allowed us to develop other types of computer language that were better for the coder and the user, amongst the best-known was JavaScript.

Mobile internet became a thing, and with such, many different types of needs became a reality. We had to adapt all our computer content to one that fits a small screen and is smart enough to adapt to different requirements. And it is with this change that a new wave of coding started to surface: the apps.

Finally, our contemporaneous stage of the internet, Web 3.0. Do you have any ideas of what is the difference between this one and the past versions?

Maybe do some exercises now? Fill in the blank and let us know some main differences they might think about?

If you typed: Decentralized, more accessibility, easy usage, engaging, better algorithms, autonomous, intelligent, smart, faster or any of the variations you were right.

The whole concept is for the internet to have a mind of its own. Artificial intelligence can react faster to our needs than our own brains, facilitating our life. Sadly, many times, this is not used for the right purposes, and we may be living in some dangerous times. Information is being gathered across all the digital platforms we use so stay vigilant. We want to make sure that you are ready for your quests ahead, so take some advice with you before you continue:

• Make sure you read terms before installing any app on your phone.
• Do not just accept the option to always share information, better just share it when you are using the app.
• Close the app whenever you are not using it. This will not only help your privacy, but it will also help your device to use less energy and less internet.
• Do not share private information with anyone.
• Make sure you do not compromise your device's safety. Never install unknown software. Never connect to unknown networks.