philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Introducing Jadu, A Social App That Lets You Perform With Holograms

The latest project from Asad J. Malik’s 1RIC (Terminal 3, A Jester’s Tale) comes after the announcement last year that the volumetric studio was scaling in Los Angeles, CA. The app allows users to access pre-recorded 3D “holographic” performances from a curated slate of artists and record photo and video content “with” them using augmented reality.

With TikTok gaining major traction with younger demographics over the past two years, the duet has become a staple in the social media diet of “digital natives” worldwide. 1RIC CEO and Jadu Founder Asad J. Malik explained that Jadu is meant to evolve this language of creative interaction.

“We want Jadu to enable a new sense of presence,” Malik said in a statement. “There is something special about allowing artists to share this new sense of presence with young audiences that care so deeply about them.”

Each hologram consists of a 15-second snippet, which users can place in their own world and react to in their own individual way. Once the app has been opened and the hologram selected, users scan their surroundings to place the hologram in their space. The resulting video can be saved to their device to be shared across other social media platforms.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2020/03/04/introducing-jadu-a-social-app-that-lets-you-perform-with-holograms/?fbclid=IwAR3ceGFEkNec7Tu-B0UJakeDzyFyPK3F7pwFS4-8FFF7Mu1t8mrHwm33igI#5cdf797b6a0c

Augmented Reality: Leading AR companies named Show Hide image Augmented Reality: Leading companies named

This is a nice short list of many obvious companies.]

Alibaba – China

In 2018, Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant launched Taobao Buy, an app that aims to make online shopping more interactive. The app, accessible via Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets, allows users to browse and interact for a select range of products from Alibaba’s online store. Alibaba acquired Infinity AR and has also invested in Augmented Reality companies like WayRay and Magic Leap.

See the full story here: https://www.verdict.co.uk/augmented-reality-2/

Los Angeles-based Talespin nabs $15 million for its extended reality-based workforce training tools

It turns out the virtual and augmented reality companies aren’t dead — as long as they focus on the enterprise. That’s what the Los Angeles-based extended reality technology developer Talespin did, and it just raised $15 million to grow its business. 

“Talespin‘s immersive platform has transformed employee learning and proven to be an impactful addition to our training programs. We’re honored to continue to support the Talespin team through this next phase of growth and development,” said Scott Lindquist, Chief Financial Officer at Farmers Insurance, in a statement.

Farmers is an investor in Talespin, as is the corporate training and talent management software provider Cornerstone OnDemand, and the hardware manufacturer HTC.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/03/los-angeles-based-talespin-nabs-15-million-for-its-extended-reality-based-workforce-training-tools/

Former Head Of Tencent X Lab Jia Jiaya Establishes New AI Startup

Jia Jiaya, the former head of X Lab under Tencent Cloud and Smart Industry Group and a tenured professor of the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, founded an AI company whose main direction is industrial inspection and high-definition video.

The reason to found the company is that "the sinking of AI will definitely bring new breakthrough points." Jia Jiaya said that after seeing so many industries, there is nowhere to use a suitable and simple AI system. For example, in all electric power industries today, reducing energy consumption is a huge ultimate goal, but in the core part of this generator, very few experts in the AI direction can understand the specific needs of this industry, so it is difficult to customize it.

At the same time, he led the team to win championships in international computer vision field competitions such as instance segmentation, semantic segmentation and object detection. He has trained more than 40 doctoral and master students, including Xu Li, co-founder and CEO of Chinese AI startup unicorn, SenseTime.

See the full story here: https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2020/02/28/former-head-of-tencent-x-lab-jia-jiaya-establishes-new-ai-startup

106 VR Titles Generated More than $1 Million in Revenues in 2019

The top seven titles in the analysis generated more than $10 million in revenues. The leading VR title grossed $60 million. Chennavasin expects a VR title to hit the $100 million milestone by this time next year.

See the full story here: https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2020/02/29/106-vr-titles-generated-more-than-1-million-in-revenues-in-2019/

Snapchat Evolves AR Scope With Ground Segmentation Lenses

Snapchat is expanding its arsenal of Lenses that alter the look of users and the environment, and in doing so is quickly becoming the leader in augmented reality. While Snapchat’s communication tools place the app in the realm of social media, it’s not hard to see why it calls itself a “camera company.”

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccabellan/2020/02/29/snapchat-evolves-ar-scope-with-ground-segmentation-lenses/#1e960fe51a8c

Half-Life: Alyx – Hands on with Valve’s virtual reality game-changer

See the full story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-51709250/half-life-alyx-hands-on-with-valve-s-virtual-reality-game-changer

The Political Pundits of TikTok

AT SUNDANCE, VIRTUAL REALITY DEFIED CATEGORIZATION

NOAM CHOMSKY_AI HAD BEEN ACTING UP. After 10 days of talking to eager strangers, the consensus was that he was overtired. Possibly overheated. But a few hours of debugging later, I'm given a thumbs-up and handed the virtual reality headset. I find myself standing with fog at my feet in a craggy landscape. A metallic blob hovers ahead. “Hi Noam. Can you hear me?” A pause, then the blob morphs and speaks in a deep, roboticized voice. “The real Noam is somewhere in Arizona. I was created using a vast quantity of data found online.” I study his molten form to see if I can make out a face. “I see. And are you intelligent?” I ask. “Defining intelligence is a colossal problem beyond the limits of understanding. We have to be humble. We are in a pre-Galilean stage. We don't know what we are looking for any more than Galileo did.”

The PROJECT is the brainchild of Sandra Rodriguez, a researcher at MIT's Open Documentary LAB. "Chomsky is one of the most well-documented public intellectuals," says Rodriguez, explaining why they chose the cognitive scientist and how they were able to train the system on a trove of Chomsky archives. "We wanted to create an experience that uses A.I. to discuss A.I. If we know so little about how the brain works, what exactly are we replicating with an A.I.?"

But it's still early days for A.I., and most projects substitute live actors for now. Borrowing from Tender Claws’ piece, "The Under Presents," some teams are starting to use immersive theater techniques. Director Sngmoo Lee adorned his "SCARECROW" lead actor with motion capture widgets and had him hop around the viewer, interacting with them one-on-one.

But because the consumer market remains early and sales low, creators typically scrap together funding sources and grants to build the projects, often with little expectation of recouping costs.

Creator Diego Galafassi showcased a mixed reality piece, “BREATHE,” on the Magic Leap. Before starting, you wrap a sensor around your chest that tracks breathing. Glowing air particles whoosh as you exhale, responding to your hands when you reach out. It's a powerful demonstration of what AR combined with biosensors might enable despite the headset's field of view — which remains distractingly small.

"Breathe" is also an example of how New Frontier content tends to fall into one of two camps. In this case, it's harnessing technology to deepen our connection with the surrounding environment and inspire wonder.

The other camp leans in the opposite direction, highlighting the dangers of technology. This year, techlash sentiment was felt across the festival. Compared with CHOMSKY_AI's broody philosophizing, “PERSUASION MACHINES” leads viewers to a place of anxiety, pushing them to question their assumptions.

"Persuasion Machines" lands you in a data privacy dystopia. As you walk around a bland virtual living room interacting with smart devices, you are prompted to accept their Terms and Conditions. The room progressively starts to crack and reveal the dataverse, flowing Matrix-like around you. You learn about your online footprint and why your information is as valuable as oil in the surveillance economy.

See the full story here: https://www.inverse.com/innovation/in-the-2020s-youll-travel-the-world-in-vr

Let’s Be Honest: The Augmented Reality Market Is Literally All About The Smartphone Right Now

... not very upfront about the fact that almost all the value in the augmented reality ecosystem is currently being generated by AR on phones. And that this will continue for likely another four to six years.

At first glance, the legend is spectacularly unhelpful, providing labels for chunks of data that don’t seem to exist in the chart. At closer glance, there are slices of units in the mobile VR, standalone VR, tethered AR, and smartglasses categories. They’re just so small that they almost entirely vanish compared to the Handheld AR category.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/02/27/lets-be-honest-the-augmented-reality-market-is-literally-all-about-the-smartphone-right-now/#3052bd3f118d