philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

CES: Magic Leap 2 Exhibits Impressive Dimming Capabilities

By Phil Lelyveld
January 7, 2023

The most impressive feature of the Magic Leap 2 demo at CES 2023 involves Global and Segmented Dimming. Global Dimming is a feature that dims the entire display without dimming digital content to make text and images more solid and precise. Segmented Dimming dims specific portions of the display to enhance legibility and clarity of selected content, and can also be used to focus attention to areas or components of interest. Both of these features produced outstanding visual results during our CES demo. Segmented Dimming produced very bright digital objects in front of a well-lit room, while Global Dimming could be used for VR immersion.

Magic Leap describes the $3,299 ML2, which launched last year, as “the most immersive enterprise device.” The company emphasizes an AR wearable that is secure (“enterprises retain control of their data … store data anywhere and use any preferred cloud setup”), open (choice, ease of use, and support on an open platform — Android AOSP-based) and collaborative (“collaborate in real time across time zones”).

At its CES booth, Magic Leap is promoting applications for a range of key areas such as enterprise, design, manufacturing, training and medical. Booth demos of AR solutions on ML2 include Cisco Webex Hologram and Nvidia’s Omniverse, among others. The company also debuted its new remote assistance reference application, Magic Leap Assist.

Chief exec Peggy Johnson announced during AMD’s keynote that ML2 is the first AR device to earn IEC 60601 certification, a collection of tech standards to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical equipment.

The field of view is currently 70 degrees, which may need to be widened going forward. Resolution is 1440×1760 per eye, with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 2000 nits maximum brightness. Four eye-tracking cameras constantly adjust the lenses to avoid eye strain.

The Magic Leap rep called the current version of hand tracking “rudimentary.” The wire frame hand came close to overlapping on my hand in AR mode as it did a good job tracking my movements. More impressively, the Segmented Dimming rendered my hand invisible while clearly displaying the wire frame hand.

See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-magic-leap-2-exhibits-impressive-dimming-capabilities/

CES: The NPD Group Analyzes Changes in Consumer Trends

By Phil Lelyveld
January 5, 2023

The NPD Group’s Paul Gagnon and Ben Arnold presented “7 Ways the CE Consumer Has Changed” in the last few years. U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors changed from early-pandemic lockdown to the slow reopening, and then the fear of inflation and recession. In general, consumers are buying more for individuals than for shared home experiences, they have equipped themselves for remote work which may suppress future sales until they are ready to upgrade, and they buy when bargains appear even if they plan to actually open them for a holiday or special occasion.

Gagnon and Arnold addressed the following trends identified by The NPD Group.

Consumers are willing to pay more: Prices went up during the pandemic due to shortages and supply chain disruptions. That primed consumers for decreased price sensitivity just as prices started to go up due to inflation.

Non-traditional shopping seasons grow: Amazon created Prime Day in July as a global purchasing event. Other retail firms have built on both Prime Day and Black Friday; for example, Best Buy (October 10-12), Target (October 6-8) and Walmart (October 10-13).

Demographic changes matter: In 2022 consumers with incomes over $100K per year accounted for 46 percent of all consumer tech spending. Consumers ages 18-24 spent the most on notebook PCs, ages 25-34 led TV purchases, ages 35-44 were the largest purchasers of notebook gaming PCs, ages 45-54 were the largest cohort for desktop gaming PCs, and ages 55+ bought a significantly higher share of tablets.

Tech products are essential: The spike in work-from-home and remote schooling drove a spike in tech resource purchases. Consumers are buying for individuals within the household rather than shared resources for the household. Looking forward, 31 percent say that they will cut back on buying tech products in 2023, while only 25 percent plan to cut back on gaming and streaming.

Online and social shopping: The e-commerce share of total tech dollars spent increased from 44 percent in 2019 to 57 percent in 2022. This includes online purchases for both home delivery and in-store pick-up at brick-and-mortar retailers. Additionally, 20 percent of consumers plan to use social media to research products, a bump from past responses.

Technology to make life better: Item trackers, like the Apple AirTag, have achieved 41 percent revenue growth in 2022. Digital health tech similarly showed 31 percent revenue growth.

Flexible work: Desktop monitor sales grew 78 percent in 2020 and another 7 percent in 2021.

Looking toward the near future, The NPD Group is watching experimentation with features-as-a-service. Last November, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would lock faster acceleration for its EQ electric models behind a $1,200 annual pay wall. NPD posited it is possible that a display manufacturer may make one full-featured device and sell it at different price points and subscription levels depending on which features are unlocked at the point of sale.

See the original post here: https://www.etcentric.org/ces-the-npd-group-analyzes-changes-in-consumer-trends/

Carmakers Have Another Screen in Their Sights: Your Windshield

... The National Highway for Traffic Safety Administration’s distracted driving guidelines do not govern augmented reality technology, which was still considered novel when it was published in 2013. However, car makers also have to comply with state motor vehicle laws or contend with potentially violating other established regulations that might be affected by new technology, such as lighting standards. 

“You can put a new technology in a vehicle not because of a law that says you can, but because there's no law that says you can’t. There's also always uncertainty about how existing law awkwardly applies to these new things that that law did not contemplate,” says Walker Smith.

That’s a strategy that some automotive newcomers may attempt more frequently than conservative legacy carmakers. Tesla was the first car company to release video gaming integration using its embedded display late in 2021. Although the feature was initially marketed as a way to entertain vehicle occupants while parked at charging stations, there was nothing that stopped someone from using it while driving. It only took a couple of weeks before NHTSA began its investigatory process into the feature. Shortly after, Tesla released an over-the-air update that restricted the ability to play video games while the vehicle was in motion. ...

Reclaiming the third space

... “The Sony Bravia Core, which is in the Afeela, is a streaming platform that allows us to bring Sony Pictures, both TV and movies, directly to our Sony customers using the Bravia core app,” says Larry Harrison, product marketing manager for Sony-Honda Mobility. That means that not long after a blockbuster movie, such as Spiderman or the upcoming Gran Turismo is released in theaters, you’ll be able to stream it in the cabin in just a few clicks, he explains. Again, the Afeela program made no mention specifically of windshield projection, but it does represent a major step forward for immersive in-car entertainment. ...

See the full story here: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a42594729/your-windshield-is-the-next-big-screen/

ChatGPT passes MBA exam given by a Wharton professor

... Professor Christian Terwiesch, who authored the research paper"Would Chat GPT3 Get a Wharton MBA? A Prediction Based on Its Performance in the Operations Management Course," said that the bot scored between a B- and B on the exam. 

The bot's score, Terwiesch wrote, shows its "remarkable ability to automate some of the skills of highly compensated knowledge workers in general and specifically the knowledge workers in the jobs held by MBA graduates including analysts, managers, and consultants." ...

Still, Terwiesch said ChatGPT3’s performance on the test has “important implications for business school education, including the need for exam policies, curriculum design focusing on collaboration between human and AI, opportunities to simulate real world decision making processes, the need to teach creative problem solving, improved teaching productivity, and more.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chatgpt-passes-mba-exam-wharton-professor-rcna67036?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR0PFNig5cd4R7bwoUDZWmqWEKR3TkbJs2LdTVONSAc6pAGvnD6pEKTPNIA

I’m a Congressman Who Codes. A.I. Freaks Me Out.

... What we need is a dedicated agency to regulate A.I. An agency is nimbler than the legislative process, is staffed with experts and can reverse its decisions if it makes an error. Creating such an agency will be a difficult and huge undertaking because A.I. is complicated and still not well understood.

But there is precedent for establishing a necessary agency to protect people from harm. How molecules interact with millions of unique human beings is a complicated subject and not well understood. Yet we created an agency — the Food and Drug Administration — to regulate pharmaceutical drugs. ...

Congress has been slow to react when it comes to technological issues. But things are changing. We now have more members who are fluent in technology because they grew up with it, and we also have members like Representative Don Beyer, who is pursuing a master’s in machine learning. Having more members who recognize the promise of this technology — and its potential harms — will serve us well as we tackle this challenge. ...

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/ted-lieu-ai-chatgpt-congress.html

Why AI and creativity are not at war

... We are living through a bending in the curve of AI advancement, with things long viewed as next to impossible being accomplished on a seemingly weekly basis. There is a great saying in the AI world: People mistakenly believe AI is going to steal their job. It won’t. But someone who uses it better than they do will. ...

This is not a dire warning; it’s a call to rethink what’s possible. There is a long history of human-technology partnerships that, I believe, show us a more likely future. ...

Closer to home in creativity, Adobe’s suite of Creative Cloud tools has revolutionized an industry, but they are just as useless as a driverless car without a creator to bring an idea and direction into their powerful platform for idea substantiation. ...

AI-based tools have enabled a growing number of technology platforms to instantly unpack creative decisions in every frame of millions of ads, and compare that creative attribute information to a raft of performance signals. ...

But here’s the thing: The models can only tell us what the signals are. They cannot tell us the why. And in that “why” lies the strategic insight that can unlock millions of dollars in value for a marketer.

A human creative analyst can parse that stream of AI-enabled “whats” and get to the “why.” ...

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/ai/why-ai-and-creativity-are-not-at-war/

Artist Uses AI To Show Astronauts In Bridal Attire, Internet Calls It “Mind-Blowing”

... The images show women astronauts decked up as brides. The AI models are embellished with flowers and ornaments. One of them is also seen holding a helmet in her hand, while another is seen donning it with pride. ...

See the full story here: https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/artist-uses-ai-to-show-astronauts-in-bridal-attire-internet-calls-it-mind-blowing-3712352

Microsoft layoffs effectively kill HoloLens & mixed reality projects

... The mass layoffs at Microsoft could be especially damaging to VR and AR efforts at Microsoft, as sources of Windows Central say that the entire team from AltSpaceVR, acquired by Microsoft in 2017, has been laid off in the last week, with the company closing fully in March. 

With AltSpaceVR formerly leading Microsoft's own "metaverse" work, it now leaves Microsoft Mesh as the potential replacement. ...

Another entire team culled from the company is the one behind the "MS "Mixed Reality Tool Kit (MRTK) framework, a cross-platform system for producing spatial anchors within virtual space. MRTK had some success, with it made for Unity VR integrations as well as working with headsets produced by Meta, and Microsoft's own HoloLens. 

The removal of the MRTK and AltSpace VR teams means there's little impetus for Microsoft to continue working on the HoloLens headset. ...

See the full story here: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/21/ms-layoffs-effectively-kills-off-mixed-reality-projects

Microsoft is sunsetting social VR pioneer AltspaceVR

AltspaceVR will be no more as of March 10, and Microsoft says it will direct more resources toward its mixed reality platform Microsoft Mesh.https://jac.yahoosandbox.com/1.5.1/safeframe.html

“We look forward to what is to come, including our launch of Microsoft Mesh, a new platform for connection and collaboration, starting by enabling workplaces around the world,” the announcement reads.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/21/rip-altspace-vr-microsoft/

Higher Ed Meets Hollywood: ASU-Incubated VR Company Raises $20M to Transform STEM Education

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --Dreamscape Learn, today, announced a $20 million Series A investment by backers including Bold Capital Partners, GSV Ventures, Verizon Ventures, and Cengage Group. Built in collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU), the company develops immersive learning experiences that blend innovative pedagogy with the emotional power of cinematic storytelling.

"When I first experienced this technology, I immediately knew it could power a whole new way of teaching," said Michael Crow, president of ASU. "It allows us to place students in situations and roles never before possible. When students are captivated by these environments, we can send them on academic missions that are authentic, rigorous and emotionally compelling." ...

To date, Dreamscape Learn and ASU have focused on the STEM fields with the highest failure rates and impact on college access and completion. Data suggests that just 20% of high school graduates are prepared for college-level coursework in STEM majors...

During the spring semester of 2022, hundreds of ASU biology students piloted Dreamscape Learn's biology lab experience. "Biology in the Alien Zoo" situates students as field biologists within a virtual environment conceived by Parkes and Steven Spielberg as a movie concept. Students are then sent on a variety of missions through which they encounter and solve complex life-science problems in the Alien Zoo. Astudy of this pilot found that participating students performed better on lab assignments and earned higher lab grades than those in traditional science labs. ...

See the full press release here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/higher-ed-meets-hollywood-asu-incubated-vr-company-raises-20m-to-transform-stem-education-301725400.html