Samsung may develop foldable augmented reality glasses
While the final product could end up being vastly different, the current design is an eyepiece that automatically switches on whenever it's unfolded.
So long as one of the pair's temples is unfolded, the glasses' projector (mounted on the temple) would beam images on the small display placed over the wearer's field of view. To make sure the device doesn't accidentally switch off if the user turns their head wrong, it looks like the company is thinking of using magnetic sensors to make sure it remains in the unfolded position until the wearer deliberately folds it.
Since it's just a patent application that may never come to fruition,
See the full story here: https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/12/samsung-foldable-augmented-reality-glasses-patent-app/
How one deepfake prankster is changing cinema history
“I’m not a coder, just a user,” said Ctrl Shift Face’s creator. “I don’t know the details about exactly how the software works. The workflow works like this: You add source and destination videos, then one neural network will detect and extract faces. Some data cleanup and manual extraction is needed. Next, the software analyzes and learns these faces. This step can sometimes take a few days. The more the network learns, the more detailed the result will be. In the final step, you combine these two and the result is your deepfake. There’s sometimes a bit of post-process needed as well.”
Things could be about to get even more convincing, too. While the attempt to replace Arnie’s audio on Terminator 2 didn’t work as planned, there are efforts afoot in research labs to pioneer the audio equivalent of deepfakes. That means that, in the near future, it’ll be feasible to realistically recreate an actor’s speech using similar training data.
“That’s out of my expertise,” Ctrl Shift Face’s creator said. “But I may collaborate with people that can do these types of AI voices in the future.”
See the full story here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ctrl-shift-face-deepfake-changing-hollywood-history/
Facebook’s digital currency has put China’s central bank on high alert
The People’s Bank of China is paying close attention to Libra, the digital currency Facebook has created. And it may inspire the bank to accelerate its plans to speed up its own project to develop a digital currency.
China’s central bank was one of the first central banks to begin studying digital currencies, back in 2014. Few details about the ongoing project have been revealed publicly. But if Libra takes off, we might see central banks across the world issue their own digital currencies to compete, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see China out in front. “We had an early start ... but lots of work is needed to consolidate our lead,” said Wang.
Sony Pictures Buys Nurulize, a Virtual Production Software Startup
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Sony Innovation Studios has acquired Nurulize, a startup whose software lets users edit, color and enhance volumetrically captured images in a real-time collaborative environment.
Terms of the acquisition aren’t being disclosed. Under the deal, Nurulize’s 12 employees are joining Sony Innovation Studios, which the company launched last year to give producers a way to virtually capture physical sets and use those digital assets in a variety of ways.
Nurulize’s Atom View software “enables us to integrate the highest-quality volumetric data capture with traditional workflows for film, television, and gaming, ushering a new method of content creation — the blending of the digital and the real — in truly innovative ways,” said Glenn Gainor, president of Sony Innovation Studios and head of physical production for Screen Gems.
Culver City, Calif.-based Nurulize was founded in 2013 by software development and VFX industry veterans Philip Lunn and Scott Metzger. It raised $2 million in seed funding led by Chaos Group, a CGI rendering software developer.
See the full story here: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/sony-innovation-studios-nurulize-acquisition-1203261061/
Virtual reality app trains would-be Hajj pilgrims
“For people who come to us for performing Hajj, it is important that they go through a training first,” Maqbool said.
The training camp is for three days. An instructor is present to guide the person in their choice of language, whether it is Sindhi, Punjab, Pashto or Balochi.
Related: Karachi students create eye-controller to move cars
Labbaik VR gives a realistic depiction of the sacred sites of the Hajj, so that when they go to perform Hajj, users can perform the rites with ease and safety.
“We have tried to be accurate down to a centimeter to give users the most authentic virtual experience,” said project developer Faisal Khalid.
The startup is currently in talks with the government of Saudi Arabia for a collaboration to take their app worldwide.
See the full story here: https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2019/07/virtual-reality-app-trains-would-be-hajj-pilgrims/
Wait, Did WarnerMedia Just Make A Huge Leap Forward In the Streaming Wars?
"We have a portfolio of opportunities to drive," Jesse Redniss, GM, WarnerMedia Innovation Lab told me as he showed me renderings atop a chic terrace hovering over La Croisette at one of the company’s events during the recent Cannes Lions Festival. He continued, "What we'll be focusing on is answering the question, 'what would content look like for 170 million phones as they converge with 5G and IoT?' And then determining how the company can share such knowledge, once it's developed, between all the units so that we can continue to be a future-forward media company."
Currently, WarnerMedia has seven foundries focused on various areas, in addition to Code Labs for HBO. Redniss says that there will be numerous collaborations between them with the Innovation Lab and that the information and findings will flow between executive leaders from various departments of the company who have been selected to make up an overall Innovation Council in order to best integrate new ideas and concepts. "Our intent," explains Redniss, "is rapid iteration."
The fact that the Lab will focus on areas that expand the company's core capabilities and create additional revenue streams from VR to Gaming to AI and much more, should make for interesting developments in the industry that could heat up the streaming wars even further.
Though WarnerMedia is based at Hudson Yards, this Lab will occupy space in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City come Q’1 of 2020. In case you missed it, this will be the company’s first innovation tech hub in Manhattan and one of AT&T’s first permanent 5G experience centers.
