philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

HADO: The Amazing Ways Augmented Reality Is Changing Sport

HADO is an entirely new experience the company calls techno sports that uses augmented reality (AR) tech and motion sensors without requiring the player to be tethered to a gaming system, controllers, or cables. The company has three AR offerings, including HADO Augmented Sport (Player vs. Player), HADO Monster Battle, and HADO Shoot; they will soon add HADO Kart.

This is not a sport played in your living room, but in 60+ arenas in 15 countries that give ample space for the competition similar to other physical sports such as volleyball and basketball.

HADO has held several competitions and events in Asia, including the HADO World Cup tournament where the world's top players compete for a cash prize and bragging rights as the HADO World Champions. There are plans to expand globally by 2020. Currently, 600,000 users have experienced HADO sports.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/10/23/hado-the-amazing-ways-augmented-reality-is-changing-sport/#3691b05e1b33

Snap is slowly growing, but it’s banking on augmented reality to sustain it

CEO Evan Spiegel detailed how important AR will be for the company’s future. Spiegel says every daily active user interacts with a Snap AR product nearly 30 times a day on average. These come in the form of AR Lenses and filters that place masks or virtual elements on the user’s face or in their environment. He also notes that the Snap community has created more than 600,000 Lenses.

Spiegel also says the company is looking to integrate AR wearables into its lineup within the next seven to 10 years, starting with its third-generation Spectacles glasses, which the company introduced in August. The glasses come with an added camera so that people can overlay these AR effects on their content, and they go on sale in November.

In the more immediate term, the company says it expects “significant” potential revenue to come from AR advertisements, and it’s focusing on scaling its platform to make AR more personalized and to help the company make money from the technology.

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/22/20927521/snap-growth-earnings-ceo-user-ar-augmented-reality

(USC) Augmented-reality app brings research images to life

The researchers say they hope the app will modernize scientific publishing.

“By presenting it in a way that people can scroll through and see the entire dataset, we improve the way we communicate research findings,” says Tyler Ard, assistant professor of research in Arthur Toga’s lab at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The researchers plan to release a companion app that would allow scientists to upload their own material — movies, 3D models or stacks of images — and have them rendered into augmented-reality simulations.

See the full story here: https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/augmented-reality-app-brings-research-images-to-life/

Sandbox VR raises $11 million from elite Silicon Valley and Hollywood investors

Sandbox VR has raised an additional $11 million in funding from notable Silicon Valley and Hollywood icons, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Katy Perry, and Justin Timberlake.

The new investment brings their reported total to $83 million in 2019, including a $68 million round from earlier this year. The investment takes place amid a slowdown in VR funding, and it suggests that Sandbox has something special in its location-based VR technology.

Sandbox VR aims to create the something akin to Star Trek’s Holodeck, a room that can become any virtual environment and feel like it’s real, according to founder Steve Zhao.

The company is in the process of a rollout across the U.S. with a location recently opened in Los Angeles. It is coming soon to New York, Austin, San Diego, and Chicago with a total of 16 total locations planned by the end of 2020. The company has invested in retail locations, integrated technology together to create a unique experience, and built a game studio.

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/22/sandbox-vr-raises-11-million-from-silicon-valley-and-hollywood-elite-from-andreessen-horowitz-to-justin-timberlake/

Theme park of the future: Facial recognition replacing tickets at new Universal Studios in China

The new Universal Studios theme park under construction in China will use facial recognition for admissions, payments and queueing, according to Agence France-Presse.

Universal is teaming up with Chinese internet giant Alibaba for a host of services that will be integrated into the new Beijing theme park opening in 2021, the two companies announced during a joint press event on Thursday.

“There is no more seamless way to enjoy what we’re building than using the Alibaba technology,” said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, according to AFP.

Cameras will scan visitors’ faces as they enter Universal Studios Beijing to determine if they’ve paid their admission. The facial recognition cameras in the new theme park will be linked to Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payment platform. The new technology will allow Universal visitors to use their faces to join express queues for rides, pay for meals and open lockers.

Facial recognition technology is used for everything from supermarket checkouts to surveillance in China, according to AFP.

Visitors uncomfortable with the facial recognition technology or who have privacy concerns will still be able to pay for tickets, meals and merchandise using more traditional methods, Universal officials told AFP.

See the full story here: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/10/18/theme-park-of-the-future-facial-recognition-replacing-tickets-at-new-universal-studios-in-china/

CEO of Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf says he’ll step down

em022019j/jnorth/Vince Kadlubek, co-founder of Meow Wolf, stands next to one of their pip & pop sculptures in the lobby of their House of Eternal Return, in Santa Fe, Wednesday February 20, 2019. The pip & pop sculptures are used some of the new exhibits at Meow Wolf this year. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

“Five years ago, in the fall of 2014, I was making $50/a day delivering food, living at my parents’ house on the south side of Santa Fe, and dreaming of becoming an accomplished playwright,” Kadlubek wrote.

“Only 14 months later, I become CEO of New Mexico’s fastest-growing startup company and our team unveiled one of the most impactful pieces of art in the 21st century,” he said. “On March 16, 2016, Meow Wolf opened House of Eternal Return to the public and my life became forever and radically changed.”

Attendance at the edgy arts installation hit 1 million visitors by July 2018, driven mostly by word of mouth and a solitary billboard on Interstate 25 heading north from Albuquerque.

The infusion of large amounts of capital and the announcement of projects in Las Vegas, Nevada, Denver, Phoenix and Washington, D.C,, changed Meow Wolf from a scrappy upstart to a Disney wannabe in the eyes of some.

See the full story here: https://www.abqjournal.com/1380634/meow-wolf-ceo-vince-kadlubek-steps-down.html

AppliedVR Receives NIDA Grant to Study Virtual Reality as an Opioid-Sparing Tool for Pain

AppliedVR, a leading pioneer of the next generation of digital medicine, today announced that it has been awarded two multi-year grants totaling more than $2.9 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to study virtual reality as an opioid-sparing tool for acute and chronic pain. The grants will enable the company to advance two clinical trial programs respectively with Geisinger and Cleveland Clinic, studying two of its virtual reality therapeutic platforms, RelieVRx™ and EaseVRx™. The NIDA funded trials will help inform the Company's regulatory pathway with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The grants are a result of AppliedVR’s following applications, both of which were respectively awarded in September 2019.

• Virtual Reality as an Opioid Sparing Intervention for Acute Postoperative Pain Management, award number R44DA049640

• Virtual Reality as an Opioid Sparing Treatment for Chronic Pain, award number R44DA050231

See the full story here: https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/business/appliedvr-receives-nida-grant-to-study-virtual-reality-as-an/article_f48166de-072e-5160-b9db-e3071f99e015.html

Facebook will label false posts more clearly as part of an effort to prevent 2020 election interference

Changes today include:

• The launch of Facebook Protect, a set of features designed to secure candidates’ accounts. “Participants will be required to turn on two-factor authentication, and their accounts will be monitored for hacking, such as login attempts from unusual locations or unverified devices,” the company said.
• Adding information about the owner of a Facebook page, through a new tab labeled “Organizations That Manage This Page” that includes the organization’s legal name, city, phone number, or website.
• Starting next month, publishers “that are wholly or partially under the editorial control of their government” will be labeled as “state-controlled media.” This will include publishers such as Russia Today, which closely covers US news.
• Introducing a tracking tool to let users see how much US presidential candidates are spending on Facebook, including new details such as state and regional spending. The company is also adding API tools to help researchers sort through advertising data.
• Adding labels to the top of false and partially false photos and videos, including on Instagram stories, along with a link to the explanation from the fact-checker. If people attempt to share posts on Instagram that have been rated false, Facebook will now show a pop-up indicating the rating.
• Changing advertiser guidelines to ban ads that suggest voting is useless or tells people not to vote.
• Spending $2 million on media literacy efforts. “These projects range from training programs to help ensure the largest Instagram accounts have the resources they need to reduce the spread of misinformation, to expanding a pilot program that brings together senior citizens and high school students to learn about online safety and media literacy, to public events in local venues like bookstores, community centers and libraries in cities across the country,” the company said.

Islamic State Turns to Teen-Friendly TikTok, Adorning Posts With Pink Hearts

Videos, since removed, represent challenge for app’s Beijing owner, Bytedance, which has hired thousands of moderators to curate content.

The videos—since removed, in line with the app’s policy—featured corpses paraded through streets, Islamic State fighters with guns, and women who call themselves “jihadist and proud.” Many were set to Islamic State songs. Some included TikTok filters, or images, of stars and hearts that stream across the screen in an apparent attempt to resonate with young people.

The posts from approximately two dozen accounts, identified by social-media intelligence company Storyful, appeared to target TikTok’s users as part of a new show of strength—and possible enlistment tool—as U.S. troops withdraw from Syria. Islamic State has focused on online propaganda since its inception, including using social media to spread its message, setting it apart from other jihadist groups.

The extremist content marks a new challenge for TikTok. The app, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance Ltd., features short videos that started becoming popular in the U.S. in 2018 and has been embraced by teens. It was the third-most installed app world-wide in the first quarter, behind Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp and Messenger, and about 30% of users are under the age of 18, according to internal TikTok documents viewed by the Journal.

To maintain its culture of light-hearted fun, TikTok has invested in advanced algorithms that people familiar with the matter say can detect many types of harmful content. TikTok has also hired thousands of content moderators in China, the U.S. and elsewhere to curate what ends up on the app.

The company’s rules prohibit terrorist and criminal organizations from using TikTok. “DO NOT use TikTok to promote and support these organizations,” the company says in its guidelines. The videos promoting Islamic State show that enforcing the guidelines proves difficult.

“This is an industry-wide challenge complicated by bad actors who actively seek to circumvent protective measures, but we have a team dedicated to aggressively protecting against malicious behavior on TikTok,” a spokeswoman for TikTok said.

Less extreme content now poses a bigger challenge for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Those companies are struggling at times with how to decide when to remove messages that promote conspiracy theories, racist tropes and other hateful or misleading content.

When those companies leave such posts on their sites, users charge them with facilitating harassment and abuse; other users charge the companies with censorship when the content is removed.

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-turns-to-teen-friendly-tiktok-adorning-posts-with-pink-hearts-11571680389

Deepfakes are being used to dub adverts into different languages

Fake videos created by artificial intelligence are now so realistic that they are becoming useful.

Israeli tech firm Canny AI is one of several companies cashing in on so-called deepfakes, using the technology to dub videos into different languages. The firm is currently using it to dub advertisements or messages from celebrities for audiences in different countries and plans to use it for television shows and films in the future.

See the full story here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220628-deepfakes-are-being-used-to-dub-adverts-into-different-languages/