philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Google Alliance to Speed Up Launch of Digital Wallets, Keys

Google recently formed the Android Ready SE Alliance with the goal of enabling the speedier distribution of Secure Element (SE) technology for digital wallets and digital car and home keys among other products. In Google’s Pixel phones, the SE is a Titan M chip which, separate from the phone’s processor, stores encryption keys and validates the operating system. The Android Ready SE Alliance’s device manufacturers and SE sellers hope to speed up the timeline to bring a variety of these digital products to market.

Engadget reports that members of the Alliance, which will “work together to create a collection of open source and ready-to-use applets for SE chips,” have debuted StrongBox, its applet that is a “tool for storing cryptographic keys.”

StrongBox is “also available on WearOS, Android Auto and Android TV devices.” Initially, “the Alliance will focus on use cases like digital car keys and mobile driver’s licenses.” With regards to the former, “Google is playing catch-up to Apple.”

See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/google-alliance-to-speed-up-launch-of-digital-wallets-keys/

Filmmakers Around the World Team on Cloud Production Test: “It’s Part of Our Future”

The effort, led by veteran color scientist Joachim “JZ” Zell through the Hollywood Professional Association, grew as filmmakers in more and more countries found cloud collaboration to be critical to working amid the pandemic. The result is six shorts made by using the cloud, filmed in five cities around the world — Hollywood, Dubai, Brisbane, London and Mexico City — plus with an animated entry from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Postproduction involved collaborators from the countries involved in the shoots, as well as additional countries including Brazil, Colombia and Lithuania. Additionally, diversity is a priority and each short was directed, lensed and/or produced by women filmmakers.

The broad takeaway: Cloud production has arrived, though the project identified areas where more technological advancement is needed.

Each production implemented COVID safety procedures and used different combinations of technologies, allowing the participants to experiment with numerous workflows that enable remote, cloud-based production tasks including live review of camera footage, dailies, and participation in editorial, color grading and mixing sessions. The experiment involved the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds, as well as a range of technologies from participating manufacturers including 5th Kind, Adobe, ARRI, Avid, Bebop, Blackmagic, Colorfront, Evercast, Frame.io, Moxion, Sohonet, Teredek and Teradici. The shorts were also made with the collaboration of many companies from VFX house Framestore and Skywalker Sound (which mixed four of the shorts).

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/filmmakers-around-the-world-team-on-cloud-production-test-its-part-of-our-future

Fable Studio opens its virtual beings Wizard Engine to collaborators

Fable Studio is opening its virtual beings Wizard Engine to collaborators in fashion and nursing. The San Francisco company built the engine to manage its virtual character Lucy, an 8-year-old animated girl from the Wolves in the Walls virtual reality experience.

The Wizard Engine lets creators schedule events on different platforms for a virtual being and create new milestones in the lives of the characters, Saatchi said.

 You’ll be able to create the AI characters, distribute them on Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube. We use it to create these monthly beats in Lucy’s life.”

The tool lets Fable take a virtual being as conceived — the bible and backstory of their life, a synopsis of what will happen to them — and uses that to generate on an ongoing basis the content of their life. It generates the voice, animation, text dialogue, and video. These things would realistically make up the virtual beings life (what their knowledge base about their past is, what happened yesterday, what’s happening right now, what are they looking forward to etc).

One of the tools the Wizard Engine uses is OpenAI’s GPT3 technology to generate Lucy’s responses.

You could almost think of the Wizard Engine as an AI game engine, he said. It allows collaborators to generate and deploy interactive experiences with virtual beings to delight millions of users. So far the interactive/gaming and deep learning worlds have remained very separate, but virtual beings will only exist if they can work together.

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2021/03/26/fable-studio-opens-its-virtual-beings-wizard-engine-to-collaborators/

Levi’s Katia Walsh on AI: You can do a lot with 168 years of data

Dr. Katia Walsh, Chief Strategy and AI Officer at Levi's, is looking to combine fashion, data science and the creative process to improve everything from the customer experience and demand to supply chain and design.

Levi's is best known for its denim, but the company's master plan is to redefine itself with artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. And the apparel company has 168 years of data to become more efficient, predict and create trends and improve the customer experience. 

ZDNet caught up with Dr. Katia Walsh, Chief Strategy and AI Officer at Levi's, to talk about implementing AI, machine learning and data science at a 168-year-old company during a pandemic. Here are a few highlights. The full conversation is in the video.

...

In the case of Levi's all the products that the company has created and manufactured in the past 160 years are data. The Bing Crosby jacket that he wore in Canada is data. Once it's photographed, and that photograph is digitized, that's data. The Einstein jacket that he was photographed as man of the year by Times Magazine in 1939 that we created a replica of in the past year, that's data. So we are now using images of products to predict demand for new products based on using computer vision that can tell us based on similarity between certain products that have been sold in the past new products that have never been sold, what the demand for new products would be. So the opportunities are absolutely endless when it comes to data and Levi's. 

We are absolutely predicting right now what demand for products will be like. The further you go into time, the less accurate the model will be because there are just so many unknowns that happen to accumulate as time goes by. And we are looking to predict demand in the next half of the year, in the next month, in the next three months. 

The role of algorithms in product design. Walsh said: 

Well, product design is a very creative process. I've worked in financial services, I've worked in telecommunications, I've worked in technology. This is my first time leading AI and helping drive digital transformation in the creative company, in a fashion company. It is incredibly creative. It is a highly imaginative process. What we are doing is partner with designers, partner with planners, planning is the original data science function in a company like Levi's and retail and apparel, and bringing the latest tools and this combination, this flywheel of digital data and AI to be able to drive demand, to predict demand, to optimize costs, and to also really deepen the connection with consumers.

...

See the full story here: https://www.zdnet.com/article/levis-katia-walsh-on-ai-you-can-do-a-lot-with-168-years-of-data/

Restored Ghent Altarpiece returns to Saint Bavo’s Cathedral with a temperature-controlled case and AR headsets

One of the masterpieces of European Medieval art, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece by the brothers Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, is being unveiled today in its new home in the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Ghent, for which it was created in 1432.

All the interpretation has been moved to a new visitor centre in the crypt, where visitors will learn of its creation, the complex allegorical scenes and its later history, through augmented reality headsets, before moving up into the main cathedral to see the real thing. 

See the full story here: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/ghent-altarpiece-unveiled

Gimmick watch: Augmented reality ice cream has arrived

Chin Chin, Soho’s cutting-edge ice-cream scientists, ...

Chin Chin’s special Easter pudding is a (checks notes) Augmented Reality Sundae. Let's start with the food: it’s a spring/summer bunny sundae. The dessert is fully vegan, featuring a rabbit made of milk jelly, perched on a coconut-and-rose ice cream, all plonked on a bed of edible chocolate-and-matcha clay. The non-food bit: once you’ve procured one of these bad boys, whip out your phone, slap on the special filter and behold! Computer-generated flowers sprout from the plate like magic. As the poet Jay Kay almost once said: this dessert... it’s virtual insanity!

See the full story here: https://www.timeout.com/london/news/gimmick-watch-augmented-reality-ice-cream-has-arrived-032521

Research says 29% of US adults used Augmented Reality

29% of consumers have used mobile augmented reality (AR). More importantly, they are using it often with 59% of mobile AR users engaging at least weekly and 78% at least monthly. This is a telling indication of mobile AR’s potential, given that active use is a key mobile app success factor. It is also tied closely to revenue metrics.

The top mobile AR app category today is gaming, followed by social. 

“Gaming and social are typically where new consumer technologies germinate,” said Mike Boland, Chief Analyst of ARtillery Intelligence. “But history tells us that sustained value will develop around utilities that solve everyday problems. This is boosted during a pandemic when eCommerce has inflected and AR can add a valuable dimension to remote shopping.”

See the full story here: https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2021/03/26/research-says-29-of-us-adults-used-augmented-reality/

Part of Downtown L.A. is turning into a projection art playground for one night only

For one night only, LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light will turn five blocks of Downtown L.A. into a walkable exhibition of digital artwork. Curated by the NOW Art Foundation, the April 10 event features site-specific works from seven artists, including Refik Anadol, who designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s centennial celebration projections, and the Art Department, the anonymous collective behind the short-lived Griffith Park Teahouse and 2019’s surreal dandelion factory.

see the full story here, including locations https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/news/part-of-downtown-l-a-is-turning-into-a-projection-art-playground-for-one-night-only-032521

Sophia the Robot ‘self-portrait’ NFT sells for almost $700K

A hand-painted "self-portrait" by the world-famous humanoid robot, Sophia, has sold at auction for over $688,000.The work, which saw Sophia "interpret" a depiction of her own face, was offered as a non-fungible token, or NFT, an encrypted digital signature that has revolutionized the art market in recent months.

Titled "Sophia Instantiation," the image was created in collaboration with Andrea Bonaceto, an artist and partner at blockchain investment firm Eterna Capital.

Million-dollar 'drop'

While "Sophia Instantiation" was offered as an NFT -- which verifies ownership of a 12-second video clip showing Bonaceto's portrait morphing into Sophia's interpretation -- the robot's original physical painting was also included in the single auction lot. But the image was just part of a wider selection of Sophia's artworks put up for sale.

See the full story here: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/nft-art-sophia-robot-self-portrait-scn/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0lodllgXtLxUq368m8NlQbRnPIU2Rh3svIeIZ_pjVtHTguC-g7PfJZ9oE

Connected-TV Maker VIZIO Goes Public Leveraging Hot Streaming-Video Sector

U.S.-based Connected TV maker VIZIO went public today on the New York Stock Exchange, touting its combined hardware and software offering as a way to leverage the red-hot streaming-video space.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company offered 12.3 million shares at $21 each, according to a statement.

“VIZIO has developed a complete ecosystem: We make both TVs and the software that runs those TVs, plus soundbars that connect the audio experiences,” Wang said. ‘Owning and operating multiple sides of the TV business allows us to move faster, experiment more, monetize differently, and develop a deeper relationship directly with VIZIO owners.”

The company is betting on the growing popularity of connected TVs, which enjoyed particularly strong uptake during the worst of the pandemic as cord-cutting from traditional pay-TV bundles increased and locked-down families began looking for new entertainment options beyond the traditional pay-TV bundle. A raft of high-profile new streaming services also has benefitted from the shift, especially on connected TVs. 

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2021/03/25/connected-tv-maker-vizio-goes-public-leveraging-hot-streaming-video-sector/?sh=1441acb452c2&fbclid=IwAR0vooD8nmttU0dxizOHwnEuBbd3FBL1gFsMymk8nx0DaUV8qwcwOWJfKr4