philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Conference on virtual reality to open in east China

The 2019 World Conference on virtual reality (VR) Industry will be held from Oct. 19 to 21 in Nanchang, capital of eastern China's Jiangxi Province, organizers said Saturday.

A total of 108 VR industry agreements and projects worth more than 35 billion yuan (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) were inked during last year's conference held in Nanchang, said Yang Wenbin, deputy mayor of the city, at a press conference.

Over 90 percent of the projects have been either registered or put into operation, Yang said.

The city has invited more than 370 enterprise executives to attend this year's conference and a batch of major VR projects are expected to be signed, according to the organizers.

A VR expo will also be held during the event, with an exhibition area of 60,000 square meters. Nearly 200 VR and AR (augmented reality) enterprises will participate in the expo, an increase of about 30 percent year on year.

See the full story here: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/12/c_138466725.htm

Engineers solve 50-year-old puzzle in signal processing

The FFT algorithm was published in 1965. Four years later, researchers developed a more versatile, generalized version called the chirp z-transform (CZT). But a similar generalization of the inverse FFT algorithm has gone unsolved for 50 years.

Until, that is, Stoytchev and Vladimir Sukhoy – an Iowa State doctoral student co-majoring in electrical and computer engineering, and human computer interaction – worked together to come up with the long-sought algorithm, called the inverse chirp z-transform (ICZT).

Like all algorithms, it’s a step-by-step process that solves a problem. In this case, it maps the output of the CZT algorithm back to its input. The two algorithms are a little like a series of two prisms – the first separates the wavelengths of white light into a spectrum of colors and the second reverses the process by combining the spectrum back into white light, Stoytchev explained.

See the full story here: https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2019/10/10/signalprocessing

Trump optimistic about US-China trade talks

The Chinese Embassy in Washington denounced the visa action and said the US accusations on human rights violations were “made-up pretexts” for interfering in China’s affairs.

Although many of the blacklisted entities are government security bureaus, the eight companies named include some of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence.

The blacklist could restrict the access of those companies to US microchips, which they currently rely on for many of their products and services.

See the full story here; https://entertainmentoverdose.co.uk/world/trump-optimistic-about-us-china-trade-talks-32863.html

Artificial Intelligence- Empowering Patent Filling

Since the formal conception of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, way back in the 50s, more than 300,000 patent applications and over a million scientific journals have been published.

On a global level – Microsoft, IBM and the like have been working tirelessly to build a hefty patent portfolio in the field of AI applications. The recent patent activity of IBM and Microsoft clearly suggest that these companies want to make their mark as pioneers in AI and machine learning as well. Toshiba, NEC and Samsung are major players in this race too, however, it will be a while before they can catch up to either IBM or Microsoft. A particular focus in recent times seems to be on machine learning techniques which are based on biologically inspired methods and supporting vector machines using supervised learning.

See the full story here: https://www.techiexpert.com/artificial-intelligence-empowering-patent-filling/

Mark Zuckerberg wants a wearable device that can read your thoughts to ‘control something in virtual or augmented reality’

• Mark Zuckerberg discussed Facebook's goals for brain-reading tech
• A wearable that can read brains signals could be used in augmented reality 
• The company bought brain-to-computer interface company CTRL-labs
• Some users may need to have brain-reading tech implanted into the brains 

CTRL-labs wristband (pictured above) can read brain signals and translate them into information for controlling another device

See the full story here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7560765/Mark-Zuckerberg-wants-brain-reading-device-control-virtual-augmented-reality.html

Good morning! Today: Twitter and Facebook won’t remove false Trump campaign ads about Biden, the biggest threat of deepfakes isn’t deepfakes themselves, and India’s failing solar and wind boom. Get your friends to join in the fun: sign up here to get The Download every day. Twitter and Facebook won’t remove false Trump campaign ads about Biden Facebook and Twitter have both refused to remove ads placed by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, even if the content is false. The news: This week, Joe Biden’s campaign sent letters pleading with Facebook and Twitter to block adverts which promote a debunked claim he coerced Ukraine into firing a prosecutor linked to his son Hunter. But both have said that they won’t remove the adverts, because they don’t break their policies. What are their policies? Last month, Facebook said it will not fact-check politicians’ ads, a stance it has reiterated. In essence it says that, even if the content is false, the fact it is being said by a politician or their campaign, means it is newsworthy and not to be fact-checked. Meanwhile, Twitter said that the ad is “not in violation of our policies,” without clarifying further. Perverse incentives? Facebook earns a lot of money from politicians. Trump’s campaign alone has spent between $1.3 million and $3.8 million since 18 September, according to The Guardian, which took the data from Facebook’s own archive. An almighty mess: With just over a year until the 2020 election, worries over the spread of deliberate misinformation are not going to go away. Facebook’s decision, in particular, to refuse to step in over misleading ads from politicians is likely to only make things worse. The biggest threat of deepfakes isn’t the deepfakes themselves

A surprise: A new report says there are no known instances in which deepfakes have been used in disinformation campaigns. What has been more powerful is the knowledge that they could be used that way. What disinformation actors really want is not for you to question more, but for you to question everything. Read the full story here.

“We firmly believe in supporting a thriving research community around mitigating potential harms from misuses of synthetic media,” Software Engineer at Google Research Nicholas Dufour said in a blog post.

https://robots.net/ai/deepfakes-realistic-ai-more-than-your-scary-videos/

Ford, Universal Pictures Partner With Holoride For In-Car Virtual Reality Experience

Ford Motor Company F 1.68% and Comcast Corporation CMCSA 2.36%-owned Universal Pictures have partnered with the company holoride to create an in-car virtual reality experience at Universal CityWalk.

The experience will be offered to guests for a limited time Oct. 14-Nov. 9, powered by technology from holoride, and set inside new 2020 Ford Explorer vehicles.

Once riders step inside the Explorers from a designated pickup location, they will don a VR headset and be joined by a "re-imagined, virtual Bride of Frankenstein" who's on a journey to deliver an important message to Frankenstein.

Riders will encounter virtual monsters and obstacles as part of a fully immersive VR experience with sound effects and visuals adapted to the vehicle's movements.

Holoride uses navigational data like travel route and time along with driving data from the vehicle — like steering, acceleration and stopping — to adapt the experience to match the movement of the vehicle, according to Thursday's announcement.

See the full story here: https://www.benzinga.com/news/19/10/14577182/ford-universal-pictures-partner-with-holoride-for-in-car-virtual-reality-experience

5G means smoother virtual reality and a chance for students to birth stars

Two Cleveland schools are the first to get Verizon’s super-fast 5G connection and access to a new app, Visceral Science

Jeremiah’s school is one of only two in the entire country, both in the Breakthrough Schools charter network in Cleveland, to be equipped with a 5G internet connection that makes such an experience possible.

Brian Greene, a professor of physics and math at Columbia University, created Visceral Science as an entry into the Verizon 5G EdTech Challenge, which sought out ideas that would leverage the super-fast internet connection to improve educational opportunities in under-resourced middle schools. Greene said 5G doesn’t just make Visceral Science better; it makes it possible.

“For these experiences to work, they’ve got to be seamless when you’re in the virtual environment,” he said. “If you do something like toss a planet into orbit and there’s even a fraction of a second delay, it kicks you out of the experience. It all of a sudden feels fake. And when it feels fake, you engage with it differently. You’re no longer in a virtual world.”

See the full story here: https://hechingerreport.org/5g-means-smoother-virtual-reality-and-a-chance-for-students-to-birth-stars/

Disney taps Hitachi for smarter theme park magic

Hitachi will enter a partnership with The Walt Disney Co. to provide artificial intelligence and analytics at the entertainment giant's theme parks, the Japanese technology group said Wednesday.

Hitachi Vantara, Hitachi's U.S. unit, has agreed to provide data analysis for both Disneyland and Disney World through the Lumada suite of internet of things tools. The partnership was announced at NEXT 2019, the data technology conference being held in Las Vegas.

Disney will be able to boost customer satisfaction by reducing maintenance times. Hitachi meanwhile will use the partnership as a jumpoff point to develop offshore markets in the IoT business. Right now, Lumada is 90% focused on domestic clients.

See the full story here: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Disney-taps-Hitachi-for-smarter-theme-park-magic

Disney to ‘Spellcheck’ Scripts for Gender-Bias Using AI Technology

The Walt Disney Company will use a new artificial intelligence application to “spellcheck” scripts for gender bias in a new partnership with actress Geena Davis.

The collaboration, which was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, will involve a new AI tool called “GD-IQ: Spellcheck for Bias,” which was developed at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering.

GD-IQ is intended to analyze the text of a script to determine the balance of male and female characters and whether the mix is representative of reality, according to the trade publication.

The tool also can discern the numbers of characters based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other groups.

Davis made the announcement at a recent gender inclusion summit in Auckland, New Zealand.

See the full story here: https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2019/10/09/disney-to-spellcheck-scripts-for-gender-bias-using-ai-technology/