philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Microsoft appoints its first-ever chief scientific officer

5G confirmed safe by radiation watchdog

5G is safe, according to the international body in charge of setting limits on exposure to radiation, which has updated its advisory guidelines for the first time in more than 20 years.

The International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the Germany-based scientific body that assesses the health risks of radio broadcasts, called for new guidelines for millimetre-wave 5G, the most high-frequency version of the telecommunications standard.

But in practice, that form of 5G, which is in use in the US and will be coming to Europe, still has output levels significantly below the new maximum.

See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/12/5g-safe-radiation-watchdog-health

AI could significantly improve the rendering power of Oculus Quest, the virtual reality headset created by Facebook’s Oculus VR

A document from Facebook AI researchers details a "super-resolution" algorithm that could be used to create a higher resolution image from a lower resolution image. In practice, this means that Oculus Quest games could be rendered at 70 percent of their current resolution, helping to provide better framerates and the opportunity for more detailed scenes. The super-resolution AI algorithm would then take the lower resolution game and create a new image that looks significantly sharper and more detailed than it originally was. This isn't the first time we've seen this technology used in a consumer product; NVIDIA debuted an AI-upscaling algorithm into the Shield TV late last year and, even before that, Google debuted Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 3's camera in 2018.

See the full story here: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3355088.3365154

TikTok to open a ‘Transparency Center’ where outside experts can examine its moderation practices

ZHEJIANG, CHINA - OCTOBER 18 2019 Two us senators have sent a letter to the us national intelligence agency saying TikTok could pose a threat to us national security and should be investigated. Visitors visit the booth of douyin(Tiktok) at the 2019 smart expo in hangzhou, east China's zhejiang province, Oct. 18, 2019.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Costfoto / Barcroft Media (Photo credit should read Costfoto / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been under a national security investigationby U.S. lawmakers who have raised concerns about the company’s access to U.S. user data and whether it was censoring content at the behest of the Chinese government. Today, TikTok tries to combat these concerns with the opening of a “Transparency Center” that will allow outside experts to examine and verify TikTok’s practices.

The new facility in TikTok’s LA office will allow outside experts to view how TikTok’s teams operate day-to-day, the company explains, as staff moderates content on the platform. This includes how moderators apply TikTok’s content guidelines to review the content its technology automatically flagged for review, as well as other content the technology may have missed.

In addition, the experts will be shown how users and creators are able to bring concerns to TikTok and how those concerns are handled. TikTok will also explain how the content on the platform aligns with its guidelines, the company says.

While the larger concern to U.S. lawmakers is potential for China’s influence through social media, TikTok at times makes other moderation choices that don’t appear to be in line with U.S. values. For example, singer Lizzo recently shaded TikTok for removing videos of her wearing a bathing suit, even as TikTok stars posted videos of themselves dancing in their bathing suits....And The Guardian reported on bans of pro-LGBT content. Again, TikTok said the guidelines being referenced in the article were no longer in use.

The Center will open in early May, initially with a focus on moderation. Later, TikTok says it will open up for insight into its source code and efforts around data privacy and security. The second phase will be led by TikTok’s newly appointed chief information security officer, Roland Cloutier, who starts next month.

TikTok in January announced its L.A. operations had moved to a new 120,000-square-foot office in Culver City, California. The company now has over 400 U.S. employees across L.A., New York, and Silicon Valley.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/11/tiktok-to-open-a-transparency-center-where-outside-experts-can-examine-its-moderation-practices/

Augmented-Reality Startup Magic Leap to Explore a Sale

Magic Leap Inc., the startup that raised more than $2 billionto build an augmented-reality device, is exploring options including a sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

AR Competition

In addition to Facebook, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. have all been investing in augmented reality with their own divisions, said Jitendra Waral, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst. AR hardware may be limited to enterprise uses for the next several years, he said.

For Magic Leap, the valuation of the company will be a question mark because suitors may have to take a long-term bet without substantial near-term revenue, Waral said. The scalability of the company’s technology could also be an issue, he added.

Led by Chief Executive Officer Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap has raised about $2.6 billion from investors and is valued at $6 billion to $8 billion, making it one of the most well-funded tech startups in the U.S. as it built a headset that could project digital objects onto the real world.

See the full story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-11/augmented-reality-startup-magic-leap-is-said-to-explore-a-sale

Virtual reality deployed to boost NZ’s biosecurity threat defences

[philnote: training, not inspection]

A collaboration between two Hamilton companies is using virtual reality to improve New Zealand's biosecurity defences by boosting the quality of shipping container inspection.

Independent Verification Services (IVS) in Hamilton has launched a new virtual reality (VR) container inspection simulation which tests and trains inspectors with a series of randomised threats.

The Ministry of Primary Industries has approved the technology, built by Hamilton-based Company-X, to be used in biosecurity refresher training for "accredited persons" (APs), the people employed to carry out inspections.

See the full story here: https://www.reseller.co.nz/article/671635/virtual-reality-deployed-boost-nz-biosecurity-threat-defences/

Does the Future have a Past? New-Old and Old-New Virtual Realities

Facebook's purchase of Oculus-VR in 2014 is the latest in a series of events (enabled by the ménage à trois of technological innovation, entrepreneurial CEO, and hopeful consumer) that were each thought at the time to open a new era in VR, which would leave the past behind. In this seminar, Professor Peter Otto argues that the roles we have in shaping our digital futures can only be understood in relation to a cultural field that includes histories of our non-digital virtual realities.

Importantly, in the case of VR the 'new' has a very long history, which means that digital VR struggles to find its place within a world already cluttered with (arguably more sophisticated) digital and non-digital virtual realities.

In this Seminar, Professor Peter Otto will focus on three immersive/interactive environments:

1. Thomas Hornor's Colosseum (1829), centred on his 'Panorama of London', which was designed to enable immersants to live, for extended periods of time, in an alternative reality
2. the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, designed by Kenzo Tange (opened 1955), centred on a deeply-disturbing panorama of Hiroshima in ruins
3. 'Teamlab Planets', a sequence of linked, digitally-generated panoramic environments, which opened in Tokyo in 2019

See the full story here: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/research/digital-studio/news-and-events/does-the-future-have-a-past-new-old-and-old-new-virtual-realities

The 10 most innovative virtual and augmented reality companies of 2020

Snap, Microsoft, and Warby Parker top the list of companies that made the most compelling spatial computing products of the past year.

1. SNAP

For scanning the world to apply lenses to it

The ephemeral messaging platform has increasingly become an AR company in recent years. In 2019, it added a good deal of artificial intelligence to the mix as well by introducing a new feature called Scan. Scan uses computer vision technology to understand objects in the camera’s view, then suggests AR overlays, called “lenses,” that are relevant to that object. If your camera is trained on a dog, for instance, Scan might bring up pet-friendly lenses. Snapchatters just press and hold on the camera screen to scan the world around them. Snap says more than 70% of its daily active users play with its lenses every day.

Read more about why Snap is one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2020.  

9. TECHSEE

For helping customer service agents diagnose and fix problems

TechSee’s “Smart Assist” feature uses AR and computer vision to help customer service agents diagnose and fix malfunctioning hardware devices. The feature uses the support caller’s smartphone camera to give the customer service agent a view of the problem, while the computer vision model spots visible symptoms that lead to a diagnosis with 95% accuracy, the company says. Then the system can deliver advice and next steps to the client using annotations that show up directly on their smartphone screen. Some problems can even be solved without the help of a human customer service agent. TechSee says that its technology is being used by wireless service providers, consumer electronics companies, insurance companies, and utility companies.
See the full story here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90457929/virtual-augmented-reality-most-innovative-companies-2020

Serious Labs Unveils Universal Motion Base for Virtual Reality Heavy Equipment Simulators

The versatile prototype can be used for safety training across seated machines and vehicles.

Serious Labs, a supplier and creator of virtual reality (VR) solutions for training and operation of heavy equipment, unveiled its Universal Motion Base (UMB) for seated VR Heavy Equipment Simulators at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020. The UMB has been designed as the common foundation for the development of additional VR equipment simulators such as skid steers, dozers, excavators, backhoes, as well as for vehicles such as buses and trucks.

See the full story here: https://www.forconstructionpros.com/business/labor-workforce-development/press-release/21121137/serious-labs-serious-labs-unveils-universal-motion-base-for-virtual-reality-heavy-equipment-simulators

The world’s first augmented reality surgical operation

“We had a real patient both under our hands and under our eyes, the entire experience was heightened. Suddenly I had instant and seamless access to a wide range of data about the patient, which proved to be a vital aid in the operation.”

The procedure itself involved the resecting and repositioning of the upper jaw bone, in order to restore the patient’s biting functionality. For an operation such as this, normally an external monitor would be used to analyse vital information about the patient’s condition.

This time around, with the use of a headset developed as part of the EU-funded VOSTARS (Video-Optical See Through AR surgical System) project, that very same data appears in the lens of a visor worn by the lead surgeon.

The data visible through the visor includes the patient’s heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing rates, alongside pre-operative information retrieved from imaging technologies used beforehand, including CT, MRI, or 3DUS scans.

The data visible through the visor includes the patient’s heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing rates, alongside pre-operative information retrieved from imaging technologies used beforehand, including CT, MRI, or 3DUS scans.

See the full story here: https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/the-worlds-first-augmented-reality-surgical-operation/