Battlezone, a first-person tank shooting game, was the first video game where players could manoeuvre through an imaginary landscape. Its developers used vector graphics, made of points and lines with no filled spaces instead of pixels, to save processing power. The system calculates the centre points of objects and uses those to decide if they should be displayed on the screen. The downside to this system is that objects disappear when they get too close because their centre points are now beyond the screen. Read full article here
Societal Issues
To curb drug deaths, communities turn to Reddit, texts and wastewater
With drug overdose deaths on the rise, authorities are attempting to curb the epidemic by tracking and sharing information in real time. In one unique effort, a nonprofit in New York City is using drug-testing equipment and stamping or marking habits of dealers to identify drug batches that may endanger users. Other approaches are also being used, such as monitoring drug-related chatter on Reddit and analyzing local wastewater for opioid and other drug levels. With the combination of these efforts, researchers hope to put a dent in the opioid crisis and reduce overdose deaths. Read full article here
Merv
June 1, 2023
