philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

75 Years of Innovation: augmented reality binoculars

The AR binoculars were built from several components:

• Wide Field of View (FoV) Lens: used for context and to recover the 3D location and orientation of the binoculars
• Narrow FoV Lens: used for augmentation and improving tracking precision
• Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU): a microelectromechanical (MEM) system that tracks angular rate and acceleration
• Global Positioning System (GPS): a satellite-based location and navigation system for location estimation
• Magnetometer: measures the Earth’s magnetic field and used for measurements related to orientation estimation
• Barometric pressure sensor: measures atmospheric pressure and used for measurements related to altitude estimation

Two cameras were able to be seated in the lens bay of the binoculars.

See the full story here: https://medium.com/dish/75-years-of-innovation-augmented-reality-binoculars-a341086029ee

The Walt Disney Company Announces Participating Companies for 2021 Disney Accelerator Program

The Walt Disney Company today announced the companies that will participate in the 2021 Disney Accelerator, a program designed to accelerate the growth of innovative companies from around the world. Eight companies have been chosen for the three-month mentorship program that will connect them with the creativity, imagination and expertise of Disney, including by providing unique access to Disney's leadership team.

The companies selected for the 2021 Disney Accelerator program are:

Attentive: Attentive is a comprehensive mobile messaging platform that allows retail and e-commerce brands to connect directly with consumers through personalized communication experiences.

Bambuser: Bambuserisinnovating retail and social media with live streamed shopping.

Camp: Camp creates experiential retail stores and online media destinations for the whole family. 

Holler: Holler uses artificial intelligence to deliver content that helps peer-to-peer messages be more engaging and effective.

Illumix: Illumix is an augmented reality company that allows brands to create immersive experiences across entertainment and e-commerce.

Miko: Miko creates adorable robots that are playful learning companions for children across 140+ countries and utilized by parents, educators and technologists.

Mojo Vision: Mojo Vision is developing Mojo Lens, the world's first augmented reality smart contact lens with a built-in display that delivers "Invisible Computing."

Play On! Sports: Play On! Sports is the destination for fans across the country to watch live and on-demand high school sports and activities, streaming over 320,000 live events last year.

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-walt-disney-company-announces-participating-companies-for-2021-disney-accelerator-program-301340906.html?fbclid=IwAR0pY6EwyCeuQcXI7HypW00FlIpMTqZ4ps5Y1TDcNOJWrBCgYerVmFwLOvA

Venice Film Festival Unveils Virtual Reality Lineup

The Venice Film Festival, one of the first major events to embrace VR, has unveiled its 2021 Venice VR Expanded line-up.

A total of 37 projects from 21 countries will screen during this year’s VR Expanded event, including 23 works in competition.

Competition works range in length from the seven-minute Italian-Spanish production Il Dubbio — Episode 2 from directors Matteo Lonardi, Javier Lajara, and Javier Martinez, to the one-hour immersive theater production The Severance Theory: Welcome To Respite from U.S. artist Lyndsie Scoggin.

Taiwanese VR artist Hsin-Chien Huang has two works in Venice’s VR Expanded competition: Samsara, which won the Best VR Story prize at the Cannes film market’s VR showcase earlier this month, and The Starry Sand Beach, produced together with French artist Nina Barbier.

Here is the full list of 2021 Venice VR Expanded:

In Competition

Angels in Amsterdam, dirs: Anna Abrahams, Avinash Changa

End of Night, dir: David Adler

The Starry Sand Beach, dirs: Nina Barbier, Hsin-Chien Huang

Caves, dir: Isabel Garcia Carlos

Bedlam, dir: Mat Collishaw

Genesis, dir: Joerg Courtial

Spirit of Place, dir: Dale Deacon

Tearless, dir: Kim Gina

Samsara Complete Part 1 and 2 Version, dir: Hsin-Chien Huang

Clap, dir: Keisuke Itoh

Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li, dir: Blanca Li

Bliss in the Ear of a Storm, dirs: Adam Lieber, Hal Sorta

Il Dubbio — Episode 2, dirs: Matteo Lonaradi, Javier Lajara, Javier Martinez

Anandala, dir: Kevin Mack

Goliath: Playing with Reality, dirs: Barry Gene Murphy, May Abdalla

Montegelato, dir: Davide Rapp

The Severance Theory: Welcome to Respite, dir: Lyndsie Scoggin

Container, dir: Meghna Singh

The Sick Rose, dirs: Tang Zhi-Zhong, Huang Yun-Hsien

Myriad. Where We Connect, dirs: Lena Thiele, Sebastian Baurmann, Dirk Hoffmann

The Last Worker, dir: Jörg Tittel

Exploring Home, dir: Sara Lisa Vogl

The Final Wish, dirs: Wang Haipel, Wang Shanshan

Special Event – Out of Competition

In The Mist, dir: Chou Tung-Yen

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/venice-festival-2021-unveils-vr-expanded-line-up-1234989327/

Media in 2030: It’ll Be a Universal Supermarket (Deloitte)

Digitalization is fundamentally changing production processes and the distribution of content. IP and 5G are enabling more mobile consumption of content. These are being joined by new AI recommendation and analytics to address consumers in a targeted way.

VOD gains ground, but linear TV continues to assert its role in live content such as sports and major events.

TV and video advertising adapts to new formats and relies more and more on the personalization of advertising content.

Market regulation in the media industry will be more moderate than it is today. In particular in the area of online and mobile services, this will reduce the regulatory pressure on all market participants, especially on traditional media companies.

See the full story here: https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/media-in-2030-itll-be-a-universal-supermarket/?mkt_tok=OTI3LUFSTy05ODAAAAF-jYO7XGXLR9X4Wn10aGzjUqMVbopxQ_yXPqvv3qnYTUnRFbtivZdm1eIbfJBntAtk-Xei2Pcuat39WQwNKWahwy6KOie3AMlZilNTDghttps://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/media-in-2030-itll-be-a-universal-supermarket/

Concert from Bangladesh: virtual reality music event revives 1971 Beatles charity concert—but without the white saviour complex

In response to the 1971 concert, the British-South Asian artist Shezad Dawood in collaboration with the Bangladeshi New York-based music producer Enayet Kabir will launch Concert from Bangladesh 2021 on 1 August, a "mixed-reality" concert that merges video performances from 13 Bangladeshi and South Asian musicians in an eclectic range of styles, ranging from hip-hop to experimental electronic. Each musician will be green-screened onto a virtual reality stage, designed by Dawood, that tours notable architectural and natural sites in Bangladesh and celebrates a country that, against all odds, has become one of Asia's foremost creative hubs.

"It is important to address what it means to be 'from' something, rather than 'for' it," says Diana Campbell Betancourt, the concert's curator and artistic director of the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF), which is partially funding the project. "Effective change is rarely achieved unilaterally. It comes from collaboration," she adds. With this simple, linguistic turn, Concert from Bangladesh attempts to reverse a problematic power dynamic inherent in its progenitor's name: that of a former colonial power coming to the rescue.

Spanning six centuries of musical traditions, Concert from Bangladesh features among its performers the mystic Baul singer Arif Baul accompanied by instrumentalists Nazrul Islam, Saidur Rahman, and Sohel. The show will climax with the Bangladeshi hip-hop duo Tabib Mahmud and 12-year-old Gully Boy Rana, whose socially engaged lyrics broach topics around climate emergency and poverty.

For the concert’s visual elements, Dawood drew on his previous decade of research into 20th-century South Asian architecture and the non-aligned movement during the Cold War, in particular the architect Muzharul Islam who pioneered Bangladeshi Modernism.

Indeed, much has changed in the past 50 years, not only for Bangladesh, but also around attitudes towards aid and globalism.

See the full story here: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/concert-from-bangladesh-virtual-reality

Could Augmented And Virtual Reality Be The Next Big Things In The Meetings And Events Industry?

As a speakers bureau, my company knows keynote speakers will utilize AR/VR in their presentations to adapt to the marketplace. It’s more dynamic than a standard Zoom call or in-person presentation. Think storytelling through scent, visual and auditory channels; we envision something like Disneyland’s "Soarin' Around the World" or "It’s Tough to Be a Bug" rides. AR and VR tools could also be used to teach hands-on lessons or simply for entertainment during meetings. There is so much room for creativity and interaction. 

When exploring the potential of having our staff implement AR/VR in our meetings, we imagine we’ll play some games, and we’ll all do it from the comfort of our home, not having to travel in the middle of winter, or from the East Coast or wherever. 

In some instances, AR/VR may replace in-person events; in other events, it may be supplemental. In-person events will always have relevance and will continue to be more experiential, yet VR meetings will rise and eventually may be the vast majority of gatherings.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/07/27/could-augmented-and-virtual-reality-be-the-next-big-things-in-the-meetings-and-events-industry/?sh=3c964311525a

Facebook sets up new team to work on the ‘metaverse’

Facebook is creating a product team to work on the "metaverse," a digital world where people can move between different devices and communicate in a virtual environment, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday.

The team will be part of the company's virtual reality organization, the group's executive Andrew Bosworth said in a Facebook post.

"I believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet, and creating this product group is the next step in our journey to help build it," he said on his Monday Facebook post.

See the full story here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-sets-up-new-team-work-metaverse-2021-07-26/https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-sets-up-new-team-work-metaverse-2021-07-26/

Virtual Reality Is the Rich White Kid of Technology

[PhilNote: the last two paragraphs capture the lengthy article.]

I’m sure the rigs and goggles of 2026 will be better and more affordable than the ones we have today. I’m just not sure what else we will use them for. The problem isn’t the technology—it’s the vision. And the trouble with imagining the future through sci-fi action adventures is that it obscures the mundane everyday uses of technology.

Are we ever going to start judging VR on its performance instead of its pedigree?

See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/virtual-reality-rich-white-kid-of-technology/

VR Technology Could One Day Be Powered By Your Sweat

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable device that generates power when touched or sweated on, potentially opening up new opportunities for smaller electronics, including maybe VR technology.

In a paper entitled A passive perspiration biofuel cell: High energy return on investment, the team goes into detail regarding the potentially game-changing wearable. The thin, flexible device is worn around the users’ fingertip and collects small amounts of sweat via an absorbant padding composed of carbon foam electrodes. These electrodes feature special enzymes that activate a unique chemical reaction between lactate and oxygen molecules which, in turn, generates small amounts of electrical power.

[PhilNote: TWO energy sources!] According to the team, biofuel cells located in the wearable are capable of harvesting ∼400 mJ/cm² of energy during sleep; enough to power something like a digital (non-smart) wristwatch. In addition to sweat, piezoelectric generators allow the user to generate additional energy with light finger presses.

See the full story here: https://www.virtualrealitypulse.com/edition/daily-amazon-apple-2021-07-26?open-article-id=19847324&article-title=vr-technology-could-one-day-be-powered-by-your-sweat&blog-domain=vrscout.com&blog-title=vrscout

German startup Aleph Alpha raises $27M Series A round to build ‘Europe’s OpenAI’

With Microsoft now being an investor in OpenAI the field now more open for new insurgents into the open-source AI arena. Now a German company hopes to take on the next AI mantle and produce something akin to the success of the GPT-3 AI model.

German AI startup Aleph Alpha has now raised €23 million / $27 million in a Series A funding co-led by Earlybird VC, Lakestar, and UVC Partners. Following a seed round of €5.3 million from LEA Partners, 468 Capital, and Cavalry Ventures in November 2020, Aleph Alpha has now raised a total of €28.3 million (people in $33.3 million).

The idea behind Aleph Alpha is that it researches, develops, and “operationalizes” large AI systems towards generalizable AI, offering GPT-3-like text, vision and strategy AI models. The platform will run a public API enabling public and private sectors to run their own AI experiments and develop new business models.

The team says it will have a strong commitment to open-source communities (such as Eleuther.AI), academic partnerships, and will be pushing “European values and ethical standards,” it says, “supporting fairer access to modern AI research – aimed at counteracting ongoing ‘de-democratization’, monopolization, and loss of control or transparency.” The move is clearly meant to be a stake in the ground in the international world of AI development.

...In other words, they want to firmly center themselves in the EU under EU law, GDPR and regulation. They may well prove a useful “Fortress Europe” for the company.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/27/german-startup-aleph-alpha-raises-27m-series-a-round-to-build-europes-openai/