philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Virtual reality has real problems. Here’s how game developers seek to delete them.

Throwing out the orthodoxies of traditional game development and starting from scratch, all while making a piece of software that should be comfortable and familiar to the millions who already enjoy games, is an appealing challenge.

But even as creativity leads developers to different solutions, they all trend in the same direction: growing the suite of tools that will help players slip comfortably into the world of VR.

“The standardization of those settings has been a big help for the whole industry in general, because the player can get used to them from game to game and get their ‘sea legs,'” said Daly.

See the full story here: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/virtual-reality-has-real-problems-heres-how-game-developers-seek-to-delete-them/

Apple’s AR/VR Strategy is Both, And.

The fact that super-secretive Apple decided to hold a 1,000-person internal meeting on its headset plan is itself confirmation of the scale and depth of Apple’s commitment to this project.

Apple bought Vrvana — including its pending patent application — in November 2017 for $30m. So Apple, and possibly only Apple, has a solution for the latency problem. (3ms!!!)

Increasing FOV in a headset that also meets weight and power and brightness requirements is hard.  ... My guess is that Apple does not have a solution for the FOV problem. Yet. 

 A recent patent filing indicates a technique for “selectively darken[ing] portions of the real-world light from view…to allow improved contrast when displaying computer-generated content over the real-world objects.” Not incidentally, this might allow the lens to be fully darkened, converting an AR (transparent) display to a VR (opaque) display. ...

Apple is building BOTH a pass-through AND a see-through headset.

Apple internally announced a 2022 headset ship date now because they’re confident they can hit that target — but only with pass-through.

The 2023 headset is a see-through headset, and it’s the real technical challenge.

See the full post here: https://medium.com/swlh/apples-ar-vr-strategy-is-both-and-cfdf32d369ac

THE PRESIDENT PARDONS THE FOUNDER OF A CHURCH THAT WORSHIPS AI

To get tax exemption from the IRS for Way of the Future, Levandowski shared his church’s version of the Apostle’s Creed with the IRS. “[The AI Church believes in] the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.”

Apparently, Levandowski’s church did not include a “Do not steal” commandment on its list of do’s and don’ts. He was convicted of downloading 14,000 documents from Google’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, and taking them to rival Uber. Levandowski was convicted on what a federal judge called the “biggest trade secret crime” he had ever seen. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $179 million.

...The pardon was supported by big tech money including Peter Thiel and Oculus’s Palmer Luckey.

See the full story here: https://mindmatters.ai/2021/01/the-president-pardons-the-founder-of-a-church-that-worships-ai/

Artificial divide: How Europe and America could clash over AI

SUMMARY

• Artificial intelligence is a rapidly advancing field that policymakers everywhere are struggling to keep up with.
• Calls for international, and particularly transatlantic, cooperation are growing.
• In Europe, interest in strengthening “ethical” AI policy is particularly strong – including as a way of making Europe more attractive than other jurisdictions around the world.
• Close cooperation between Europe and the US is not a given: Europe sees the US as its main competitor in AI; the US wants to join forces against China on AI, but European interest in such a front is weak.
• The non-combat military realm may be a good area for transatlantic AI cooperation.

See the full story here; https://ecfr.eu/publication/artificial-divide-how-europe-and-america-could-clash-over-ai/

Facebook’s AR/VR Head Calls for “Big Shift” in How It Deals with User Privacy

Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth released an internal memo, entitled “The Big Shift,” which underlines why the company needs to start building products now that better balance user privacy and user experience.

Virtual and augmented reality opens new, more intimate windows into user behavior though, with biometrical data obtained from VR/AR devices offering important vectors for understanding what makes each individual tick. It’s a treasure trove of user data which has largely gone untapped (and unleaked, as far as we know), but it won’t always be that way.

Now, Andrew Bosworth, the head of Facebook’s AR/VR Reality Labs team, is calling on his colleagues to put user privacy at the core of its products. 

“Starting in January we are changing the way we approach product development in FRL. Instead of imagining a product and trimming it down to fit modern standards of data privacy and security we are going to invert our process. We will start with the assumption that we can’t collect, use, or store any data. The burden is on us to demonstrate why certain data is truly required for the product to work. Even then I want us to scope it as aggressively as we can, holding a higher bar for sending data to the server than we do for processing it locally. I have no problem with us giving users options to share more if they choose (opt-in) but by default we shouldn’t expect it.”

See the full story here: https://www.roadtovr.com/facebook-reality-labs-bosworth-big-shift-user-privacy/?fbclid=IwAR0tg9a8HnI7Af2pq8CCA9VZvam1hBrl4R109w6nRg9EP5C_LtUSgmen2Ug

“NOT ANOTHER SECOND,” AN AUGMENTED REALITY EXHIBITION CENTERED ON LGBTQ+ SENIORS

Infographics dot the interior of Not Another Second, an exhibition dedicated to the tales of 12 LGBTQ+ seniors, centered around riveting portraits shot by German photographer Karsten Thormaehlen. Among the images and information at the ticketed and socially distanced installation, visitors will find the statistic that roughly three million seniors identify as LGBTQ+. This number is expected to double by 2030. And yet, we rarely hear such stories from the mouths of seniors themselves. Through the use of augmented reality, powered by Kaleida Studio, Thormaehlen’s images come to life and the subjects speak of their years of tragedy, triumph and pride. Open now within The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights (a senior community), the exhibition informs, entertains and uplifts. ...

None of the seniors featured shy away from the depths of their tribulations. But heartbreaking stories of isolation, secrecy and fear do yield to empowering experiences of freedom, romance and longterm love. Ultimately, resilience is the defining note—and it’s one of respect.

See the full story here: https://coolhunting.com/culture/not-another-second-an-augmented-reality-exhibition-centered-on-lgbtq-seniors/

Panasonic will help create immersive entertainment spectacles in Illuminariums

VentureBeat reports that the experiential entertainment in its “reprogrammable immersive theaters surround visitors in a sensory space with 360 degrees of sight, sound, and scale” with the target of delivering “out-of-reach places, people, and experiences to make our planet a more inspired, empathetic, and connected place.”

The first three 3,000-square foot Illuminariums will open in Atlanta, Miami and Las Vegas. The company “expects to have 25 to 30 Illuminarium venues open in the world’s megacities and mega tourism locations within the next five years.”

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/11/panasonic-will-help-create-immersive-entertainment-spectacles-in-illuminariums/

TikTok’s new Q&A feature lets creators respond to fan questions using text or video

TikTok is testing a new video Q&A feature that allows creators to more directly respond to their audience’s questions with either text or video answers, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The feature works across both video and livestreams (TikTok LIVE), but is currently only available to select creators who have opted into the test, we understand.

Q&As have become a top way creators engage fans on social media, and have proven to be particularly popular in places like Instagram Stories and in other social apps like Snapchat-integrated YOLO, or even in smaller startups.

On TikTok, however, Q&As are now a big part of the commenting experience, as many creators respond to individual comments by publishing a new video that explains their answer in more detail than a short, text comment could. Sometimes these answers are meant to clarify or add context, while other times creators will take on their bullies and trolls with their video responses. As a result, the TikTok comment section has grown to play a larger role in shaping TikTok trends and culture.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/20/tiktoks-new-qa-feature-lets-creators-respond-to-fan-questions-using-text-or-video/

Highschool Start-Up Launches Virtual Reality System to Help Mitigate Autistic Meltdowns

Three high schoolers made a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform that helps individuals with autism calm down during meltdowns. Cognality is currently in the beta-testing phase and has received very promising feedback.

Cognality allows people to access these safe spaces anywhere and at any time. Their users can access the semi-personalized virtual reality scenes through their phone and a complimentary portable virtual reality headset. Some of the scenes include a bedroom, bathroom, car, train, and nature experiences. 

The founders have partnered with Dr. LouAnne Boyd, a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Engineering with expertise in human-computer interaction, assistive technology, and augmented and virtual reality, to research the effectiveness of their product. 

See the full story here: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/534669735/highschool-start-up-launches-virtual-reality-system-to-help-mitigate-autistic-meltdowns

Superintelligent AI May Be Impossible to Control; That’s the Good News

It may be theoretically impossible for humans to control a superintelligent AI, a new study finds. Worse still, the research also quashes any hope for detecting such an unstoppable AI when it’s on the verge of being created. 

Slightly less grim is the timetable. By at least one estimate, many decades lie ahead before any such existential computational reckoning could be in the cards for humanity. 

Now Alfonseca and his colleagues suggest it may be impossible to control a superintelligent AI, due to fundamental limits inherent to computing itself. They detailed their findings this month in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research.

The researchers suggested that any algorithm that sought to ensure a superintelligent AI cannot harm people had to first simulate the machine’s behavior to predict the potential consequences of its actions. This containment algorithm then would need to halt the supersmart machine if it might indeed do harm.

However, the scientists said it was impossible for any containment algorithm to simulate the AI’s behavior and predict with absolute certainty whether its actions might lead to harm. The algorithm could fail to correctly simulate the AI’s behavior or accurately predict the consequences of the AI’s actions and not recognize such failures.

“Asimov’s first law of robotics has been proved to be incomputable,” Alfonseca says, “and therefore unfeasible.” 

We may not even know if we have created a superintelligent machine, the researchers say. This is a consequence of Rice’s theorem, which essentially states that one cannot in general figure anything out about what a computer program might output just by looking at the program, Alfonseca explains.

...Last, Alfonseca says, “We have not proved that superintelligences can never be controlled—only that they can’t always be controlled.”

See the full story here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/super-artificialintelligence