philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Copy and paste the real world with your phone using augmented reality

As this awesome demo from developer Cyril Diagne demonstrates, AR can be the perfect tool to quickly grab visuals from the real world and paste them into digital documents. Just point your phone at what you want to copy, and drag it over to your desktop. No fiddling around emailing images to yourself or cutting out objects in Photoshop. Forget it: your homework / mood board / dumb meme involving your pet’s stupid face is already done.

This is only a research prototype right now, but judging by replies to Diagne’s video, it looks like a few companies are already working on similar software.

Elon Musk talks Tesla cars playing augmented reality games while driving

But what many people found even more interesting is his suggestion that Tesla vehicles could run some kind of game that interacts with reality, like Pokémon Go, a popular mobile augmented-reality game, but while the vehicle is being driven “safely.”

Electrek’s Take

I’d like Elon to elaborate a little on the “while driving safely” part, because I’m not exactly sure what it entails. It sounds like driving would be part of the game.

If it’s anything like Pokémon Go, that sounds crazy dangerous.

Maybe he’s talking about self-driving, but it sounds like driving is part of the game play.

See the full story here: https://electrek.co/2020/05/04/elon-musk-tesla-minecraft-augmented-reality-video-games/

Don’t Regulate Artificial Intelligence: Starve It

Human society existed for millennia before AI systems had unlimited knowledge about each of us. And it will continue to exist, even if we limit that knowledge by starving our machines of that personal information. AI will still be able to make the economy more efficient, create medical advances, reduce traffic and create more effective regulations to ensure the health of the environment. What it will be less able to do is threaten human autonomy, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

In the case of AI, lean will mean less mean. It’s time to put artificial intelligence on a data diet.

See the full story here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/dont-regulate-artificial-intelligence-starve-it/

How to teach AI to reason about videos

A new study presented at ICLR 2020 by researchers at IBM, MIT, Harvard, and DeepMind highlight the shortcomings of current AI systems in dealing with causality in videos. In their paper, the researchers introduce CLEVRER, a new dataset and benchmark to evaluate the capabilities of AI algorithms in reasoning about video sequences, and Neuro-Symbolic Dynamic Reasoning (NS-DR), a hybrid AI system that marks a substantial improvement on causal reasoning in controlled environments. ...

While an important part of human vision, pattern recognition is only one of its many components. When our brain parses the baseball video at the beginning of this article, our knowledge of motion, object permanence, solidity, and motion kick in. Based on this knowledge, we can predict what will happen next (where the ball will go) and counterfactual situations (what if the bat didn’t hit the ball). This is why even a person who has never seen baseball played before will have a lot to say about this video.

A deep learning algorithm, however, detects the objects in the scene because they are statistically similar to thousands of other objects it has seen during training. It knows nothing about material, gravity, motion, and impact, some of the concepts that allow us to reason about the scene.

Visual reasoning is an active area of research in artificial intelligence. ...

The CLEVRER dataset

The new dataset introduced at ICLR 2020 is named “CoLlision Events for Video REpresentation and Reasoning,” or CLEVRER. It is inspired by CLEVR, a visual question-answering dataset developed at Stanford University in 2017. CLEVR is a set of problems that present still images of solid objects. The AI agent must be able to parse the scene and answer multichoice questions about the number of objects, their attributes, and their spatial relationships.

...As a solution, the researchers introduced the Neuro-Symbolic Dynamic Reasoning model, a combination of neural networks and symbolic artificial intelligence.

CLEVRER is one of several efforts that aim to push research toward artificial general intelligence. Another remarkable work in the field is the Abstract Reasoning Corpus, which evaluates the ability of software to develop general solutions to problems with very few training examples.

See the full story here: https://bdtechtalks.com/2020/05/04/clevrer-dataset-ai-video-reasoning/

How to Hold a Virtual Gala — Video Production Gurus Reveal the Tricks of the Trade

PC: What are your pointers to note when going virtual?
TS: One criticism of virtual events is that they can be less personal than live events. That does not have to be the case and often occurs more when a virtual event is an afterthought or done as an alternative method rather than an intentional one. It is okay for virtual experiences to be authentic and organic; they just need to be well-produced with quality content to be effective.

There are three things that have the most impact on streamed or digital engagement:  (1) quality content, (2) production value, and (3) authentic human connection. The goal is to produce an online event your audience will actually watch and stay engaged. So, consider a prerecorded production.

...

Consider alternative sponsorship opportunities. Virtual events open up a lot of additional revenue streams and sponsorship opportunities that can give even greater exposure and impact to larger audiences than a live attended event. There are virtual waiting rooms and landing pages that can be used for sponsor recognition, as well as closing credits. There are also a lot of great fundraising tools out there that can be integrated into virtual experiences such as Better Unite, One Cause, and Text 2 Give.

...

See the full story here; https://www.papercitymag.com/society/virtual-gala-best-practices-holding-party-online/?fbclid=IwAR2jlNW_BVosP395rgF170oXqoLek6khsd5biP7L6lRCD3szcv4EnytB9QQ

Valve suddenly ends SteamVR support for macOS to focus on Windows, Linux

There was no official explanation for ending SteamVR support for MacOS. However, there were several signs leading to it, including that Valve’s Index VR headset does not support MacOS. The most recent Steam Hardware Survey also revealed that only about 3% of Steam users were on MacOS, UploadVR reported. With just over 1% of all Steam users owning a VR headset, the percentage of people on MacOS who own a VR headset becomes almost negligible.

VR gamers also prefer Windows and Linux for running high-end titles, according to PCMag. While MacOS devices may receive a boost from eGPU, Windows and Linux machines offer modification and customization capabilities.

Linux is actually less popular than MacOS, with less than 1% of all Steam users, but it is preferred by developers, according to UploadVR.

See the full story here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/valve-suddenly-ends-steamvr-support-201521972.html

AppliedVR Partners with Red One Medical to Empower Caregivers on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Fight by Providing Comprehensive Virtual Reality Stress Management Tools

AppliedVR, a leading pioneer of therapeutic virtual reality (VR), today announced a partnership with Red One Medical, an innovation-focused medical sales company providing customized solutions to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system. AppliedVR and Red One Medical look to offer therapeutic VR programs for pain and anxiety management for VA patients and staff.

In the first stage of our partnership, AppliedVR and Red One Medical will provide cutting-edge VR-based stress management programs to frontline healthcare workers facing long hours, scarce supplies, and increasing stress levels during this COVID-19 crisis.

"The COVID-19 crisis is taxing our most critical resource: frontline caregivers," says Dr. Beth Darnall, chief science advisor from AppliedVR. "Hospitals are looking for ways to support their clinicians throughout this crisis. VR Care Systems from AppliedVR offer relief as a comprehensive stress management tool. They instantly soothe distress, and help users learn essential coping skills to better manage stress outside of the VR headset."

See the full story here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/appliedvr-partners-red-one-medical-124900857.html

All the things COVID-19 will change forever, according to 30 top experts

Tech exec, VCs, and analysts—from WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart to AOL cofounder Steve Case—on the pandemic’s lasting impact on how we live, work, and think.

See the full story here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90486053/all-the-things-covid-19-will-change-forever-according-to-30-top-experts

Emerging consumer trends and their future in a post-pandemic world

Shopstreaming

VR Economy

Virtual Companions

Ambient Wellness and Cleanliness

Stella McCartney opened a flagship store in London that features an in-house air filtration system. The fashion designer's store at Bond Street has a sustainable air solution that removes 95% of airborne pollutants. Coming out of the pandemic, people will be more concerned about the air they breathe, the things they touch and the water they drink. Hence, providers will need to think and invest accordingly in initiatives like Stella's in order to make sure that the stores are clean and the surrounding physical components of these have a positive impact on consumers' physical and mental well-being.

A-commerce 

Open-source Solutions 

Coordinated Development

Virtual Status 

See the full story here: https://www.thedailystar.net/toggle/news/emerging-consumer-trends-and-their-future-post-pandemic-world-1898383

These pop songs were written by OpenAI’s deep-learning algorithm

BRIGHT, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 11: Katy Perry performs on March 11, 2020 in Bright, Australia. The free Fight On concert was held for for firefighters and communities recently affected by the devastating bushfires in Victoria. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

The news: In a fresh spin on manufactured pop, OpenAI has released a neural network called Jukebox that can generate catchy songs in a variety of different styles, from teenybop and country to hip-hop and heavy metal. It even sings—sort of.

How it works: Give it a genre, an artist, and lyrics, and Jukebox will produce a passable pastiche in the style of well-known performers, such as Katy Perry, Elvis Presley or Nas. You can also give it the first few seconds of a song and it will autocomplete the rest.

Chatbot sing-alongs: To be honest, it’s not quite there yet. You will notice that the results, while technically impressive, are pretty deep in the uncanny valley. But while we are still a long way from artificial general intelligence (OpenAI’s stated goal), Jukebox shows once again just how good neural networks are getting at imitating humans, blurring the line between what’s real and what’s not.

See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/01/1000942/pop-songs-katy-perry-elvis-openai-neural-network-deep-learning-algorithm/