philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

IMAX And Pioneering Entrepreneur Dr. Daniel Nadler form Joint Venture To Bring A.I. Video Enhancement To Home Entertainment

IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX) and Maximus, a next-generation visual effects company founded by artificial intelligence entrepreneur Dr. Daniel Nadler, today announced a joint venture to deliver A.I.-based high-resolution video enhancement technologies across home entertainment, including solutions for streaming services and smart devices. Previously, Dr. Nadler founded Kensho Technologies, the artificial intelligence firm he sold in 2018, establishing Kensho as the world's most valuable independently owned A.I. company at the time. 

The new joint venture, IMAX AI, will advance A.I.-based solutions for Ultra High Definition (UHD) 4K enhancement across smart devices, new and library content, as well as real-time enhancement of live entertainment and sports. The IMAX Enhanced home entertainment initiative will work closely with IMAX AI to accelerate its current growth across streaming platforms and high-end consumer devices around the world. Dr. Nadler will also serve as Special Advisor to the IMAX Board of Directors.

Following the sale of Kensho to S&P Global in 2018, Dr. Nadler, who received his PhD from Harvard, focused on his work as a visual artist under the pseudonym Daniel Wallace, which involves generative artificial intelligence algorithms, photography, motion capture, digital painting and digital sculpting techniques. To support this work, Dr. Nadler founded Maximus as a privately-held visual effects firm, on the model of Industrial Light & Magic. Maximus ultimately developed A.I.-based high-resolution video enhancement technologies that are broadly applicable beyond visual art, and Dr. Nadler is partnering with IMAX to commercialize those technologies in the entertainment industry. 

The joint venture will be overseen by Vikram Arumilli, Senior Vice President of IMAX Corporation; Samantha Whitmore, COO & Head of Engineering of Maximus; and Zachary Ziegler, Head of A.I. of Maximus. Arumilli most recently served as Chief of Staff for IMAX. He joined the company in 2019 from McKinsey & Company and holds a B.A. and M.S. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School. Whitmore most recently served as Head of Engineering at Kensho Technologies and holds an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.S. from the University of Cambridge. Ziegler is currently completing his PhD at Harvard University.

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/imax-and-pioneering-entrepreneur-dr-daniel-nadler-form-joint-venture-to-bring-ai-video-enhancement-to-home-entertainment-301245979.html

The military branch, started under former president Donald Trump, is working with government contractor SAIC on a gamified training platform that allows employees to interact with full-scale digital replicas of national security satellites. The platform lets the armed forces practice responding to missile warning scenarios and collaborate in cyberspace.

They’re not exactly rehearsing how to destroy alien spaceships. But if satellite solar panels need to be fixed, they can practice doing that — without having to travel to space to do it. If a spacecraft needs to be repositioned, they can execute that too. If troops need more information about a mission, it’s as simple as pressing a button. No space suits or textbooks necessary.

More directly, Space Force’s job is to maintain, protect and expand the U.S. fleet of advanced military satellites.

See the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/12/space-force-virtual-reality-training/

Sequoia Capital puts millions of dollars into Gather, a virtual HQ platform

Wang says his goal for the startup, which he began with friends after
they all graduated from Carnegie Mellon, is simple: Focus on serving
its most consistent users, bring in customization elements to make
virtual spaces feel homey and hire a lot of engineers.

“We’re a much broader communication platform that is going to be used
across all things, but we are leaning heavily into the virtual HQ [use
case],” Wang said. The 37-person team has embedded features to promote
spontaneity, such as “shoulder taps” to prompt a co-worker to chat, or
pool tables where employees can circle around and start a virtual game
of pool.
The platform also uses spatial audio technology, which is popular in
video games, so that users can get the feel of running into each
other. The technology basically allows you to hear someone’s voice
louder when you are near them, and softer as you walk away. Wang says
that it built its own video-conferencing system from scratch because
other solutions didn’t work well with spatial technology.

One of the challenges of building a community platform is figuring out
monetization without extracting value. This is one of the reasons that
Wang, when I first talked to him in November, always wanted to avoid
venture capital money (because the incentives might rush the platform
into pursuing business models that weren’t user-friendly).

Months later, Wang said his mind changed when he met with Sequoia
Capital’s Shaun Maguire and saw an opportunity to scale the metaverse
with venture dollars.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/11/sequoia-capital-puts-millions-of-dollars-into-gather-a-virtual-hq-platform/

OK Computer: Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma’s Sci-Fi Show Is the Beginning of a Conversation on AI, Says Anand Gandhi

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi, who shot to fame as writer-director of the globally-acclaimed 2012 release Ship Of Theseus, has scripted and produced the upcoming web series OK Computer. Gandhi says his new effort, about artificial intelligence (AI), explores the “legal frameworks” that have to be put in place between “organic species” and the “cloud-based intelligence system”. He says the advent of AI has changed a lot of things and the series talks about the co-existence of the two. Ok Computer Trailer: Vijay Varma, Radhika Apte’s Intriguing Sci-Fi Comedy To Hit Disney+ Hotstar On March 26.

The filmmaker added that the film is more of an “ice breaker” in terms of starting conversations with the West about the development of AI. “What I am trying to say is that we have seen our peers in the West share great ideas and insights about AI, our future, and what life and living would be like in the future.

See the full story here: https://sportsgrindentertainment.com/ok-computer-radhika-apte-vijay-varmas-sci-fi-show-is-the-beginning-of-a-conversation-on-ai-says-anand-gandhi/

Genius Makers, by Cade Metz — the tribal war in AI

On one side, the “connectionist” tribe believes that computers can learn behaviour in the same way as humans do, by processing a vast array of interconnected calculations. On the other, the “symbolists” argue that machines can only follow discrete rules. The machine’s instructions are contained in specific symbols, such as digits and letters.

After an initial burst of enthusiasm for connectionist thinking among AI pioneers, the symbolist tribe came to dominate as researchers realised that human and machine intelligence are very different attributes. But over the past decade the maverick connectionists have had their revenge, making many of the most striking advances in AI, such as speech and image recognition systems, conversational chatbots, semi-autonomous cars and the AlphaGo program that famously beat the world’s strongest champion in the fiendishly complex game of Go in 2016.

This intellectual counter-revolution that is now rapidly transforming the world is the subject of technology writer Cade Metz’s colourful and readable book, Genius Makers.

Genius Makers is a good read, as far as it goes, but the reader is left with the wish that Metz had displayed deeper learning.

See the full story here: https://www.ft.com/content/52163178-0e12-4de8-9fb3-adc223c12dcd

FIVARS February Edition Showcases Virtual Reality Storytelling

The seventh annual Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Storytelling (FIVARS) concluded its Winter session this Tuesday, March 9. The virtual reality film showcase, which was supposed to run from February 19 to March 2, was extended an extra week due to heavy attendance, according to event organizers.

The FIVARS Winter edition showcased 25 official selections. 

Exploring the February Selection

The international selection included moving documentaries, edge-of-your-seat horror, spatial music videos, and more.

Director Ken Winikur’s Don’t Forget Me takes viewers inside the experiences of concentration camp survivor George Brent. A volumetric capture of Brent guides visitors through his experience illustrated through a combination of 360-video, archival photographs, and chilling animations and audio.

Welcome to the Other Side – Zero Gravity took users inside of a 3D model of Notre Dame Cathedral for a virtual concert self-directed by musician Jean-Michel Jarre. The high-energy virtual reality experience, created in collaboration with the City of Paris and UNESCO, included a crowd of virtual concert-goers to share the experience with.

The FIVARS is hosted annually by Virtual Reality Toronto (VRTO). 

festival director and founder Keram Malicki-Sanchez said in a message to event attendees. “As is par for the course with the FIVARS, you are now participating with us in this historic moment.”

We can now look forward to the Fall showcase, which will run from October 15 to November 2, and include the 2021 FIVARS Awards.

See the full story here: https://arpost.co/2021/03/11/fivars-february-virtual-reality-storytelling/

HTC Device Can Translate Lip Movement Into Virtual Realty

The Vive Facial Tracker can capture up to 38 facial gestures and render them in real-time in VR. However, the accessory will be limited to the Vive Pro VR headset series.

See the full story here: https://www.pcmag.com/news/smile-youre-in-vr-htc-device-can-translate-lip-movement-into-virtual-realty

iQIYI Ushers in Next-Generation of Entertainment with Launch of China’s First Extended Reality (XR) Cloud Show

iQIYI Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company"), an innovative, market-leading online entertainment service in China, is pleased to announce that it has launched Cloud Show, China's first interactive, immersive, online, virtual performance product. Cloud Show features both real and virtual scenes enabled by multiple audiovisual technologies to deliver users a unique and fresh extended reality (XR) entertainment experience.

XR technology will be used throughout the whole process of the live-streamed concert, rendering an immersive virtual stage performance. The quality of the scenes will be further enhanced by augmented reality (AR)-enabled virtual front scenes, the use of multiple XR virtual machine positions, and film and television-grade equipment. 

Meanwhile, viewers will have the freedom to enjoy the performance in their own unique way by switching among multiple different camera angles. 

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iqiyi-ushers-in-next-generation-of-entertainment-with-launch-of-chinas-first-extended-reality-xr-cloud-show-301243046.html

Study Suggests Deepfakes Fool Top Facial Recognition Tech

VentureBeat reports that, “in a paper published on the preprint server Arvix.org, researchers at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, South Korea demonstrate that APIs from Microsoft and Amazon can be fooled with commonly used deepfake-generating methods.” More specifically, Microsoft’s Azure Cognitive Services “was fooled by up to 78 percent of the deepfakes the coauthors fed it.”

Amazon Rekognition mistook a deepfake for a celebrity 68.7 percent of the time. The researchers concluded that its study “can shed light on better designing robust web-based APIs, as well as appropriate defense mechanisms, which are urgently needed to fight against malicious use of deepfakes.”

The researchers also warned that, “voice and video deepfake technologies can be combined to create multimodal deepfakes and used to carry out more powerful and realistic phishing attacks … [and] if the commercial APIs fail to filter the deepfakes on social media, it will allow the propagation of false information and harm innocent individuals.”

See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/study-suggests-deepfakes-fool-top-facial-recognition-tech/

and here: https://venturebeat.com/2021/03/05/study-warns-deepfakes-can-fool-facial-recognition/

The Whales of NBA Top Shot Made a Fortune Buying LeBron Highlights

The most popular and perhaps most confounding NFT market is NBA Top Shot. It has minted unlikely millionaires and left many scratching their heads as it processed more than $250 million in sales from 100,000 buyers over the last month alone. 

The peculiar but lucrative subculture of Top Shot reminds others of a similar hit from the same company, Dapper Labs, in which people collected virtual cats instead of NBA highlights. CryptoKitties was a fad that was mostly forgotten after a few crazy weeks in 2017. 

Now the idea is roaring back in part because Top Shot is built for a different audience: the average NBA fan. Dapper Labs cut deals to give the league and its players a slice of every transaction—the company takes a 5% fee—with the goal of reaching casual basketball consumers and not just blockchain evangelists. It’s working. Instead of swapping jerseys after games, NBA players are exchanging Top Shot moments. 

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-top-shot-nft-crypto-digital-collectibles-11615266042