philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Futurist Dananayi exhibits 3D drawings (Zimbabwe)

Tsitsi Ndabambi
Dananayi Muwanigwa changed the face of art drawings by unleashing his 2D artwork at his first ever solo RIMI Digital Exhibition which is running for one week at Batanai Gardens. The exhibition started on Thursday 14 December.

Placing his future vision of the African life on his digital canvas, he explains that he animated the paintings in a software called ‘Adobe After Effects’ then converted the animations to Gifs (Graphic Interchange Formats) which he then made to play when viewed through a smart device using Unity and Vuforia softwares.

The still images then start to make movements and ‘come to life’. Upon entering the exhibition area one would think that people are engaged in a futurist cellphone ritual of some sort with their devices pointed at the Dananayi’s artwork. The difference is he is using technology to make art come to life.

With the naked eye, they are just your usual art paintings with a sparkle hanging on a wall until you use your smart device through a certain application to view it, then it becomes a breathtaking spectacle.

See the full story here: http://www.herald.co.zw/futurist-dananayi-exhibits-3d-drawings/

Virtual Reality Accident Kills Russian Man Wandering In Headset

As virtual reality headsets become more commercially viable and more affordable, stories like this one out of Moscow may, sadly, become more common. An unidentified 44-year-old Russian man suffered a fatal injury after falling while wandering around his apartment wearing a VR headset, The Moscow Times reported.

"According to preliminary information, the man was moving around his apartment in virtual reality goggles and fell on a glass table, as a result of which he was injured and died from loss of blood at the scene," said Ivanova.

See the full story here: http://www.ibtimes.com/virtual-reality-accident-kills-russian-man-wandering-headset-2632306

and here: https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-man-dies-from-fall-while-wearing-virtual-reality-goggles-60034

ANIME NEWS: Kyoto cafe offers anime-themed Virtual Reality Theater service

An Animate Cafe Shop in Kyoto has started a Virtual Reality (VR) Theater service that allows visitors to step into the world of “Attack on Titan,” attend a Hatsune Miku concert, and enjoy other video content.

Operated by leading anime shop chain Animate Ltd., Animate Cafe Shops collaborate with popular anime and video game titles.

The service currently offers at least 20 different programs.

See the full story here: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201712230001.html

Virtual reality gaming comes to Marlborough’s Apex Center

MindTrek, a Boston-based company, announced Friday the new high-tech, free-roam gaming arena accommodating up to 16 players.

Games include battles with zombies, robots or drones; virtual mazes and digital netherworlds, the company said.

The Marlborough area is MidTrek's second Massachusetts location and officially opens on Tuesday. The other location opened in Woburn in July 2017.

The Marlborough arena is located on the third floor of the Apex Center's gaming complex and includes two 2,000-square-foot gaming spaces that can be combined for one 4,000-square-foot space.

See the full story here: http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20171222/NEWS01/171229975/virtual-reality-gaming-comes-to-marlboroughs-apex-center

SingularityNET’s Ben Goertzel has a grand vision for the future of AI

SingularityNET brings AI and blockchain together to create a decentralized open market for AIs. The implications are that it could let anyone monetize AI, allowing companies, organizations, and developers to buy and sell AI algorithms at scale, thus lowering costs and increasing capabilities. Eventually, they plan to plug the Hanson Robots’ “Sophia” robot literally into SingularityNET to power it’s brain.

“Proprietary marketplaces exist, like the Amazon Web Services for instance. What we’re creating here is a decentralized marketplace, more like BitTorrent. There’s no central dictator deciding what gets in there. Anyone can put an AI online, wrap it in our API, announce it to the network and any business that needs AI as a service can request it.

“Then you need a good reputation system to grade the best AIs with a high rating.

“AI processing is compute time sensitive. So we chose the OpenCog platform, which plays two roles. One is that it’s one of the many AI tools that we will use to build some initial AI services in the network, just the way Apple also sells its own apps. We will put some cool tools in there. The other role is closer to the infrastructure.

“We want to make the system so that the AI layer is independent of what blockchain we are using. Our prototype uses Ethereum, but this is too slow. So we want to be able to swap out the blockchain technology easily. So, the smart contracts need to be expressed in an abstract way which is independent of the blockchain we are using. And OpenCog’s logical language works well for this.

See the full story here:

SingularityNET’s Ben Goertzel has a grand vision for the future of AI

What the Hell Is an Initial Coin Offering? ICO

(philnote: this is an excellent short explanation of ICOs.)

A token sale is like a crowdfunding campaign, except it uses the technology behind Bitcoin to verify transactions. Oh, and tokens aren’t just stand-ins for stock—they can be set up so that instead of a share of a company, holders get services, like cloud storage space, for example.

See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608799/what-the-hell-is-an-initial-coin-offering/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=22befeee23-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-22befeee23-153894145&mc_cid=22befeee23&mc_eid=cf24d7da5b

Microsoft’s Virtual Reality Attempt Fails to Impress

Windows Mixed Reality was inferior to Vive and Rift on day one.

Rather than building a VR product that works like Rift or Vive, which use outside sensors to track a user's movement in a headset, Microsoft uses sensors on the headset to track movement. It's not exactly the untethered inside-out technology VR users are hoping for, but it's a unique way to track VR.

The problem is, the two sensors that track head motion and controllers leave a lot of blind spots. Hold a controller close to your chest, and the system glitches. In gameplay, that's a huge weakness; it makes Windows Mixed Reality clearly inferior to Rift and Vive, despite being released a year and a half later. Even the headset display and latency seem inferior to those of competitors.

See the full story here: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/12/20/microsofts-virtual-reality-attempt-is-a-dud.aspx

2018 Sundance Film Festival: Latest Additions Announced, Including Eight Features, Virtual Reality Work, Hosted Retrospectives

Isle of Dogs Behind the Scenes (in Virtual Reality) / (Lead Artists: A collaboration between Felix Lajeunesse & Paul Raphael and the Isle of Dogs production team) — This virtual reality experience places the viewer inside the miniature world of Wes Anderson's upcoming stop-motion animated film, face to face with the cast of dogs as they are interviewed on set, while the crew of the film works around you to create the animation you are seeing. Cast: A selection of actors from the cast of Isle of Dogs.
See the full story here: https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2018-festival-late-additions

Developers are out of ideas, so now there’s an app for augmented reality farting

When Apple launched its new augmented reality platform, it promised the technology would usher in a new wave of apps that would completely change how we interact with their phones.

Fart apps probably aren't what they had in mind, but that's where we're at, because it's 2017 and apparently all the good ideas have already been taken.

A new app called fARTjacker uses augmented reality to put a slightly new spin on a very old category of app: farts. The app, which uses your iPhone's camera, lets you add fart effects on top of your camera and record videos. Think Snapchat's rainbow puke, but for farts.

It's not clear how the app made it past Apple's review process, given that its own guidelines explicitly state that "the App Store has enough fart apps already." It could be that the augmented reality effects were deemed enough of a differentiating factor. Or, more likely, the unusual spelling didn't trigger a manual review during Apple's automated process.

See the full story here: http://mashable.com/2017/12/20/fart-app-augmented-reality/#HHC3tWqW3kqL

Augmented reality’s surprising push into music memorabilia

Augmented reality (AR) has the power to transform a concert poster into an immersive, interactive experience, adding dynamic digital overlays that range from games to animations and beyond.

With the resurgence of vinyl records, bands and labels have a renewed opportunity to breathe new life into an exclusive fan experience with immersive media technology

I’ve been a long-time fan of Umphrey’s McGee, so when I had the opportunity to work with them to bring in an AR component to their fan experience, I signed on immediately. We created an “Augmelted Reality” poster that reflects the band’s artful aesthetic with AR technology digitally bringing vibrant colors and kaleidoscopic artwork to life through a mobile app, sparking psychedelic-induced level visuals atop the poster. Not only did fans get excited about this, but it quickly sparked a merch frenzy, with posters selling out and landing on eBay for inflated figures.

As a huge fan myself, my dream project would be a Pink Floyd rerelease of “Dark Side of the Moon” on vinyl with a VR component that allows fans to experience the album in a 360-degree animated world. With these kinds of immersive experiences, fans can tap into all of their senses to fully take in the music.

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/20/augmented-realitys-surprising-push-into-music-memoribilia/