philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

‘Optical magic’: New flat glass enables optimal visual quality for augmented reality goggles

... The paper was published online August 8, 2022, by Light: Science & Applications. ...

Nonlocal metasurfaces

Yu's team invented a "nonlocal metasurface" that can manipulate light waves in distinct ways at distinct targeted wavelengths, while leaving light at untargeted wavelengths unaffected. The new devices exert both spatial and spectral control over light by selecting a color (spectral) and focusing it (spatial) not just at a single wavelength but also independently at multiple different wavelengths. 

For example, one demonstrated device functions both as a converging lens that focuses light at one color, and as a concave lens that disperses light at a second color, while staying transparent, like an unpatterned slab of glass, when illuminated with light at colors over the rest of the spectrum. ...

See the full story here: https://phys.org/news/2022-09-optical-magic-flat-glass-enables.html

Google Maps gets augmented reality search results

Google Maps loves augmented reality. After launching augmented reality walking navigation in 2019 and indoor AR navigation in 2021, it's now showing off augmented reality search results.

Augmented reality search results will put markers in your video feed, positioned in 3D space. It's a dream interface for augmented reality goggles, but for now, it will only work on a phone.

As usual for Maps AR features, this will be powered by Google Maps VPS or "Visual Positioning System." This is a camera-powered location system: You fire up the camera, point it at the world, and your camera feed is compared against Google's huge collection of street view data to determine your location. This is an extremely data-intensive way of determining location, but it's a lot more accurate at orientation and street-level location than a phone compass and GPS, which are both prone to interference.

Like Google said in that original post, "the accuracy of localization through VPS is greatly affected by the quality of both the imagery and the location associated with it." So this AR feature is getting a limited rollout to only a few cities: London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. Google says it will be out on Android and iOS "in the coming months."

See the full story here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/google-maps-gets-augmented-reality-search-results/

Danielle Takahashi Honored with Hedy Lamarr Award

A few months ago, Media Arts + Practice undergrad Danielle Takahashi ('23) knew next to nothing about bees, mycelium or kelp. But she's a quick learner as evidenced by recent projects on those topics that earned Takahashi a Hedy Lamarr Achievement Award for Emerging Leaders in Entertainment Technology. Named after the Hollywood actress/scientist whose inventions paved the way for wifi technology, the prize, including $10,000 cash, will be handed out this fall by a consortium of media and tech companies called Digital Entertainment Group. ...

You're on track to graduate from SCA next spring. Then what?  My current plan is to be a 3D generalist for games, doing 3D modeling, character sculpting and visual effects. I've just finished an internship at the Concept Art House, which makes art for games and NFT stuff. I also hope to continue in bio design. ...

See the full story here: https://cinema.usc.edu/news/article.cfm?id=64062

ETC@USC Announces RoninX Foundation as Board Member

By joining the board, the RoninX Foundation will provide valuable feedback from Japanese camera manufacturers, broadcasters, studios, game companies, anime companies and represent these companies in ETC’s exploration of open, interoperable multiverse standards. ...

Three working groups underway:

Glass-to-Glass 8K Live Streaming Working Group: This group is working with Streamonix, ASTRODESIGN and Tata Communications (RoninX’s preferred telecommunications partner) to develop a pilot network project for real-time 8K (and beyond) glass-to-glass streaming that maximizes performance and security while reducing cost (opex and capex) and carbon footprint.

Camera Metadata Interoperability Working Group: This group is working with Videogram and Japanese camera manufacturers to agree on an open universal metadata container (for lens data, color lookup table, and video frame metadata auto-extracted using AI) to be carried by the open source Integrated Real-time Protocol (IRP). RoninX is working on the embedding of IRP into 8K cameras as the transport protocol and media container for metadata, audio, video and other digital media payloads.

Japan Open Multiverse Working Group: This group is working with Sento to build partnerships with Japanese anime companies, game developers, broadcasters, media brands and advertisers for the Japanese open multiverse for Osaka Expo 2025 and beyond. ...

See the full story here; https://www.etcentric.org/universal-character-model-first-steps-white-paper/

EU AI Act should ‘exclude general purpose artificial intelligence’ – industry groups

... By including general AI, the group say the Act would subject low-risk AI systems to heavy scrutiny, simply because there is no clear definition of how they will be used.

“As a result, the AI Act would no longer regulate specific high-risk scenarios, but a whole technology regardless of its risk classification,” the group wrote in a paper on the issue. ...

That same developer would also have to continuously monitor the operation of the tool, creating possible GDPR conflicts as it could also be used to extract personal data. ...

However, not everyone agrees with the group’s assessment. Adam Leon Smith from Dragonfly, a UK industry representative to the EU AI standards group, said general purpose systems need to be included in the legislation due to potential unintended consequences.

“Such components can be the cause of the harm the AI Act is intended to prevent,” Leon Smith said. “In fact, the risk is arguably greater if the AI component is being used in a way that the developers did not envisage. ...

“The latest draft proposals include a get-out clause for developers, they simply need to include a usage limitation in the instructions for use.  Frankly, it would be unusual to download open source software without legal documentation already being included – so this is an extra line or two in there – not a huge burden upon developers.”

See the full story here: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/ai-and-automation/eu-ai-act-general-purpose

Are We Heading Towards a Post-Responsibility Era? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Morality

AI, Today and Tomorrow

77% of our electronic devices already use artificial intelligence (AI). By 2025, the global market of AI is estimated to grow to 60 billion US dollars. By 2030, AI may even boost global GDP by 15.7 trillion US dollars.  And, at some point thereafter, AI may come to be the last human invention, provided it optimises itself and takes over research and innovation, leading to what some have termed an ‘intelligence explosion’. In the grand scheme of things, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai thinks, AI will then have a greater impact on humanity than electricity and fire did.

... we may face a ‘responsibility gap’, a situation in which no one is responsible for the harm caused by AI.  Responsibility gaps may arise because current AI systems themselves cannot be morally responsible for what they do, and the humans involved may no longer satisfy key conditions of moral responsibility, ...

See the full story here: http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2022/09/are-we-heading-towards-a-post-responsibility-era-artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-morality/

IMAX 3.0 Underway with Acquisition of Streaming Tech Firm

... “The fact is that we are not a theater exhibitor, but a technology licensing company,” IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond said in an interview with Deadline. The executive has for some time been referencing IMAX 3.0 in investor presentations, including one this month for SSIMWAVE.

“SSIMWAVE boasts a brilliant team of engineers, technologists, and academics obsessed with image quality and on the leading edge; the similarities between this company and IMAX when we acquired it nearly 30 years ago are uncanny,” Gelfond expounded in the company announcement.

In addition to nearly 1,700 IMAX theater systems in 80 countries, the company markets a content library of more than 200 IMAX Enhanced titles across global streaming platforms, including Disney+. There are more than 10 million IMAX Enhanced certified devices in the market worldwide, according to the firm.

“In the near-term, SSIMWAVE brings to IMAX new, SaaS-based revenue and a world-class client roster that tightly aligns with some of our strongest, most successful content partnerships,” said Gelfond. ...

See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/imax-3-0-underway-with-acquisition-of-streaming-tech-firm/

Storytech CEO Makes Sense of Web3 and the Metaverse at EES

... Noting that Web3 is just a “new iteration of the worldwide web,” she explained: “Basically at the heart, it’s the next version of everything and what it’s really about is decentralization.”

Along with blockchain-based technologies,” it’s also about “artificial intelligence (AI) helping to empower more intelligence and more adaptive applications; it’s all these things that are happening in our world right now, 5g as well – all these  behaviors.”

She added: “Everything that’s being driven is all coming under this umbrella of Web3. And I want to just say right now that the metaverse, NFTs and all these other buzzwords are tactics inside of this larger Web3 environment.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.mesaonline.org/2022/09/26/storytech-ceo-makes-sense-of-web3-and-the-metaverse-at-ees-2/

Media Landscape map

James Earl Jones has stepped back from voicing Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars’ projects

James Earl Jones, the original voice of Darth Vader who has delivered some of the most iconic lines in cinematic history, has officially stepped back from the villainous role.

According to a Friday report by Vanity Fair, the 91-year-old screen legend has permitted Disney and Lucasfilm to use artificial intelligence and archival recordings to re-create his menacing tone in future “Star Wars” projects. Jones was most recently billed as Darth Vader on the Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which premiered earlier this year.

While working on “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Skywalker Sound editor Matthew Wood and the Ukrainian company Respeecher consulted with Jones to create a sound for Vader that captured his chilling vocal performance from the flagship “Star Wars” trilogy. ...

See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-09-25/james-earl-jones-darth-vader-star-wars-obi-wan-kenobi