philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Nintendo Labo VR hands-on: virtual reality goes DIY

All of the games have to be played with the headset held up to your face, which has its pros and cons. On one hand, little arms could get tired holding the Switch screen after a while; but on the other, some of minigames are designed to be played in turns, and it’s quicker to pass around the screen than it is to deal with all the fuss taking a headset on and off. Passing the headset around is meant to encourage “both virtual and real-world interactions,” says Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser.

Imagine a room-scale 3D painting app like Google’s Tilt Brush, only your paintbrush is an elephant’s trunk. That’s Doodle, one of the games based around Labo’s VR elephant mask and trunk.

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/21/18274405/nintendo-labo-vr-kit-switch-hands-on

Burpee Museum Augmented Reality App Wins Two Gold ADDYs

About the Burpee Museum App
Burpee Museum of Natural History is the home of Jane, the world’s most complete and best-preserved juvenile T. rex; Homer, a “teenaged” Triceratops; and Pearl, a newly found Oviraptor. The museum features extensive paleontology collections, as well as exhibits on the history of Native Americans in North America, the wildlife of the Rock River Valley, and more.

Burpee Museum App Augmented Reality
The Burpee Museum app makes it possible for the public to interact with Burpee’s exhibits in a whole new way, all thanks to augmented reality, a technology that uses the camera of a mobile device to add extra layers of content to the viewer’s physical surroundings. The Burpee app allows users to augment 3D historical and natural artifacts such as a beaver skull, a T. rex claw, a Hopi Kachina doll, and more.

Burpee Museum App Video
Use the app to augment a fossil into your own physical space, examine it from all sides, and study it at scale. Read about its history and where it was discovered, then snap a photo of the fossil in your environment to share.

See the full story here: http://whattheythink.com/news/94461-burpee-museum-augmented-reality-app-wins-two-gold-addys/

Augmented reality is key to transforming utility operations

“The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is working with large utilities such as Duke Energy, Consolidated Edison, EDF, Korea Electric Power Corporation and others on how AR can fit into the industry's workforce. Many AR devices manufacturing firms are also making huge investments in AR such as Atheer, DAQRI, Google, Microsoft, ODG, Magic Leap among others with AR sunglasses, helmets and other devices being largely developed and experimented for various applications. There are developments on different AR devices from heads up displays (HUD), holographic displays, and smart glasses to handheld/smartphone based.

“AR systems are flexible to operate with mobile devices, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/unmanned aerial system (UAS) along with UAV’s sensors, communication capabilities and on-the-ground or remote pilots. Internet of Things (IoT) will also play its role by putting together disparate devices, networks and databases to provide data-driven insights. Asset management, outage management systems, distribution management systems, geographic information systems and other existing utility applications will improve with new data sources by integrating the existing and new utility systems.”

See the full story here: https://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/new-technology/augmented-reality-is-key-to-transforming-utility-operations/

Holographic Augmented Reality Summer Camp Allows Students to Be Involved in the Future of Game Design

International Augmented Reality Education Foundation is partnering with Integem Inc. to offer Holographic Augmented Reality summer camps to students at multiple locations in the Bay Area.

The Holographic Augmented Reality (Holographic AR) game design camps are three-week camps that teach students how to program, design and create their own Holographic AR games. Students will learn 3D plus Time domain (4D programming) using a design-thinking process to creatively design their own game. The summer camp is designed for students with all computer skills, from zero experience to advanced level. The goal is to enable every student to program, design and innovate with future tech.

With Holographic Augmented Reality (Holographic AR), campers not only play the character but become one as they are transported into a computer-generated reality with Holographic AR technology where they interact with their environment and change the outcome with their body movements, hand gestures and facial expressions. This style of gameplay enhances coordination and plays off the imagination.

The powerful Holographic AR programming language iCreator is the only programming language that allows students to design a game where they can see themselves inside while running the program.

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/holographic-augmented-reality-summer-camp-allows-students-to-be-involved-in-the-future-of-game-design-300816898.html

MoviePass co-founder’s new startup PreShow gives you free movie tickets for watching ads

As founding CEO of MoviePass, Stacy Spikes has already changed the way we think about paying for movie tickets. Now he’s pursuing a new approach — providing a free ticket to people who watch 15 to 20 minutes of ads.

To make that work, he said the new service, called PreShow, is bringing a of couple innovations to the table. First, there’s facial recognition technology that ensures you’re actually present and watching the ad.

By watching one of these 15 to 20-minute packages, you should earn enough points to purchase a ticket at the theater using a virtual credit card provided by PreShow. Technically, those points can be used to buy any movie ticket, but Spikes said you won’t be able to earn more than two tickets at once, “so people don’t stockpile.”

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/21/preshow-kickstarter/?ncid=tcdaily&utm_medium=TCnewsletter

Billionaire Has a New Goal for His 17,000 Workers: Learn to Code

Less than a decade after stunning workers at his Japanese tech giant with an edict to learn English, billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani wants to do the same with computer programming.

‘They value what we think’: TikTok launches a charm offensive for video creators

TikTok, the short-form video app owned by Chinese tech company Bytedance, has been on a charm offensive to video creators, and it’s working. Several video creators, who have worked across other social apps, said TikTok’s team has been helpful and supportive since the app rebranded from Musical.ly to TikTok last August. That’s quite unique compared to the experience they had working with other apps like Vine, Snapchat and Instagram in their early years. So far, it’s encouraged creators to use the app more and promote it to their peers.

Nathan Piland, a rapper who has 2.1 million fans on TikTok, said he believes he was one of the first 100 people verified on Musical.ly when he joined about three years ago. But since the app transitioned to TikTok, his relationship with the company has gotten stronger.

Beyond events, TikTok manages Slack groups for creators. Most of the conversations were about tech support issues, creators say, but it also helped them meet other people and think of ways to collaborate. That especially helped creators who aren’t based in Los Angeles, where Bytedance has an office.

See the full story here: https://digiday.com/media/value-think-tiktok-supports-charm-offensive-creators/

How Laika blends 3D printing and CGI to make mesmerizing stop-motion movies

Laika Studios does animation differently.

That’s been readily apparent from the moment its extraordinary first movie, Coraline, hit theaters in 2009. In fact, the Portland, Oregon-based animation studio is a bona fide pioneer of its craft, creating an entirely new way to meld state-of-the-art technology with the relatively ancient art of stop-motion animation to create films that look and feel utterly unique. In the video above, we take you behind the curtain at Laika’s headquarters for a peek at the studio’s new film, Missing Link, and to check out the latest innovations from this groundbreaking studio.

One of the most intriguing elements of Laika’s ever-expanding toolkit is its growing collection of 3D printers. Using the cutting-edge technique of rapid prototyping, Laika has revolutionized stop-motion animation, using advanced handmade puppets with incredibly expressive faces to walk an intriguing line between realism and fantasy.See the full story here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/how-laika-used-advanced-3d-printing-and-movie-magic-to-create-missing-link/

Virtual & Augmented Reality in Aerospace & Defense – Thematic Research, 2019 – ResearchAndMarkets.com

The story lists research topics and companies at the link.

https://www.apnews.com/Business%20Wire/76270c0789ef4e6cb6b8430c035f21bb

UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute Shows Off Virtual Reality, Wildfire Technology

The "SunCAVE" at UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute has 70 monitors with 4K resolution that researchers said create the world's highest resolution virtual reality system.

"One of the things we’re doing here at UC San Diego is generating scientific and archaeological content at high resolution," said California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology Director Larry Smarr.

Researchers have created models that when combined with wind speed and other weather conditions can predict what a fire will do.

"Wind-driven fires move really fast, but if you can get ahead of it you can manage it better," Altintas said.

See the full story here: https://www.kpbs.org/news/2019/mar/20/uc-san-diegos-qualcomm-institute-shows-virtual-rea/