philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Virtual Reality Statistics 2022

PhilNote: lots of statistics in the article.

Nearly 1 in 3 consumers own an AR/VR device, and 15 percent will buy such a device in 2022: As per a 2022 GroupM Annual Survey on Consumer Attitudes Towards Technology, 32 percent of respondents said they own an AR or VR device, and another 15 percent added they were looking to buy a device in this category in the next 12 months. 

More than 1 in 3 US consumers would rather buy AR/VR devices from Apple: Even though Apple is yet to launch a VR headset, it has a large number of loyalists. Roughly 33 percent of respondents to an said the preferred an Apple-provided headset as their first choice, followed by Google at 20 percent. Meta’s Quest is still the first choice for less than 10 percent of buyers.

Social VR users spend over 3 hours a day in VR: According to a Social VR Lifestyle Survey 2021 survey, those engaging in social VR experiences spend over 3 hours a day in virtual reality. Interestingly, 75 percent said they maintain less physical distance between themselves and those they meet in VR than in real-world surroundings.

See the full story with more statistics here: https://www.xrtoday.com/virtual-reality/virtual-reality-statistics-2022/

Foo Fighters to Perform Virtual Reality Concert on Super Bowl Sunday

The Foo Fighters are going virtual.

The band is set to perform a virtual reality concert after the Super Bowl on Sunday at 11 p.m. ET — or whenever the football game finishes — on Horizon Venues, a VR app available on the Meta Quest headsets. ...

Though listeners will be able to watch the concert on the Foo Fighters’ and Meta’s social media pages, users who access the concert from their Meta Quest headsets on the Horizon Venues app will be able to create their avatars, customize their outfits, interact with other fans and play games in the virtual concert lobby. ...

See the full story here: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/foo-fighters-vr-concert-super-bowl-sunday-1235028323/

Apple buys startup that makes music with artificial intelligence

... Technology developed by AI Music can create soundtracks using royalty-free music and artificial intelligence, according to a copy of its now-defunct website. The idea is to generate dynamic soundtracks that change based on user interaction. A song in a video game could change to fit the mood, for instance, or music during a workout could adapt to the user’s intensity. ...

While relatively small, the deal is one of the tech giant’s few acquisitions in the past year. Apple’s last reported purchase was also for a music company: Primephonic. That startup ran a classical music streaming service that Apple intends to turn into an app tied to Apple Music this year.  ...

See the full story here: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/apple-buys-startup-that-makes-music-with-artificial-intelligence-11644278429572.html

Top 5 Augmented Reality Trends for 2022

4. “Phygital” retail experience ascendance

According to a 2021 study by IBM, 73% of people who used to frequent shopping centers are eager to return to physical stores. ...About a third of Generation Z customers would go out of their way to visit a store equipped with smart mirrors. 

See the full story here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/412819

The Return of Meaning

... Culturally isolating people so that they are forced to attempt to autodidactically cobble together the practices of wisdom and connection by themselves or in their social media echo-chamber only tends to make matters worse.  We need dynamically self-correcting ecologies of practices that are tutored and vetted by the best cognitive science and that, in turn, provide on-going rich data and innovation of technique to that science. ...

The return of meaning is a scientific, existential, and cultural phenomenon that is gaining momentum. It is in a race with the degradation of lives and environment that is also gaining momentum. It is unknown which will win the race. ...

See the full story here: https://iai.tv/articles/the-return-of-meaning-auid-2043

Meta moves to tackle creepy behaviour in virtual reality

... Meta has now announced a new feature, Personal Boundary, which begins rolling out on 4 February. It prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of each other, creating more personal space for people and making it easier to avoid these unwanted interactions.

It stops others "invading your avatar's personal space", said Meta.

"If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, the system will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary." ...

See the full story here: https://news.yahoo.com/virtual-reality-creepy-behaviour-abuse-140447911.html

The state of AI ethics: The principles, the tools, the regulations

What do we talk about when we talk about AI ethics? Just like AI itself, definitions for AI ethics seem to abound. A definition that seems to have garnered some consensus is that AI ethics is a system of moral principles and techniques intended to inform the development and responsible use of artificial intelligence technologies.

If this definition seems ambiguous to you, you aren’t alone. There is an array of issues that people tend to associate with the term “AI ethics,” ranging from bias in algorithms, to the asymmetrical or unlawful use of AI, environmental impact of AI technology and national and international policies around it.

For Abhishek Gupta, founder and principal researcher of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, it’s all that and more. The sheer number of sets of principles and guidelines that are out there that each try to segment or categorize this area into subdomains — sometimes overlapping, sometimes not — presents a challenge.

The Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI) is an international nonprofit organization democratizing AI ethics literacy. ...

See the full long article here: https://venturebeat.com/2022/02/03/the-state-of-ai-ethics-the-principles-the-tools-the-regulations/

An Artist Placed a Cube Made From $11.7 Million Worth of Gold in Central Park—Protected By Its Own Security Detail

The German artist Niclas Castello is, of course, launching a cryptocurrency alongside the physical work.

This morning, joggers in New York’s Central Park may have come across a curious, rather illustrious sight. A cube composed of 400 pounds (186 kilograms) of pure 24-karat gold, conceived by the German artist Niclas Castello who has billed it as a conceptual “socle du monde” (base of the world) sculpture for our time, was wheeled out to the Naumburg Bandshell this morning at around 5 a.m. 

Although the work is not for sale, according to the artist’s team, based on the current price of gold at $1,788 per ounce, its material worth is around $11.7 million. Flanked by a heavy security detail, the 410-pound work is set to be displayed in the park until the day’s end. ...

See the full story here: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/solid-gold-cube-central-park-2067281?utm_content=buffer4691f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=news&fbclid=IwAR2-W0bSOdFl4nOqrcszxLdxRQVIreyWiEcCS8wIWILbbMfevIlK7XSDiho

Virtual bartender Cecilia has joined Florida International University as a new teaching tool. Cecilia’s conversational AI and 3D avatar combination makes cocktails using the attached automated bar and will act as both teacher’s aide and student at FIU’s Bacardi Center of Excellence. ...

The AI is programmed to converse with customers, suggest drinks, make jokes, and generally act like the classic stereotype of a human bartender. The machine comes with contactless payment methods and the AI collates and analyzes its interactions to determine what kinds of drinks are popular and other marketing data. ...

See the full story here: https://voicebot.ai/2022/02/03/virtual-bartender-joins-florida-international-university-as-teachers-aide/

Mozilla is shutting down its VR web browser, Firefox Reality

Mozilla is instead directing users who still want to utilize a web browser in VR to Igalia’s upcoming open source browser, Wolvic, which is based on Firefox Reality’s source code. This browser will be available for download starting next week, so users won’t have to go without — they’ll just have to make the switch. ...

Igalia touts its commitment to the XR space — XR being the umbrella term that covers both virtual reality and augmented reality and similar technologies. But its own announcement hints that the company felt Mozilla’s efforts on this front had stalled, noting how it’s excited to take up the experiment and “continue this work as a complete project.” ...

Initially, the Wolvic browser will run on Oculus, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Interactive, Daydream, Huawei VR Glasses and open source Lynx devices. However, the browser that launches next week will still be in a “beta” phase as it works to transition some of the features Mozilla had previously provided over to its own browser. ...

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/03/mozilla-is-shutting-down-its-vr-web-browser-firefox-reality/