philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Everything is too complicated

I think the most important questions we can ask right now are actually the simplest: how does it work? How do you set it up? What happens when people don’t understand something? Do I need to create a new username and password? Is all of that secure? Does it work well with other things I’ve already bought? What assumptions are you making?

These are all the same questions our friend Walt Mossberg started asking in 1991 when he first started reviewing personal technology, and kept asking through the end of his run with us last year. They’re even more important now.

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/7/16861056/ces-2018-bad-assumptions-smart-assistants-tech-confusion

Robots and virtual reality steal the show at Asia’s biggest toy fair in Hong Kong

“The adult segment accounts for 40 per cent of the toy market in the US and 60 per cent in Japan, but only 1 per cent in China now.”

“AR and VR technologies are pretty mature now, and they will start to become part of our daily life,” Cheung said.

Just one month into the launch of its new toy arrow, which comes with an AR mobile game, sales already topped 1,000 units. In 2017, they sold more than 200,000 AR toy pistols.

See the full story here: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/2127339/robots-and-virtual-reality-steal-show-asias-biggest-toy-fair

Looxid Labs Wins a CES 2018 Best of Innovation Awards in Virtual Reality

Looxid Labs received the Best of Innovation Awards following last year’s honoree Google (PRNewsfoto/K-ICT Born2Global Centre)

Looxid Labs, a tech startup developing a user emotion recognition system optimized for Virtual Reality (VR), announced that LooxidVR -- a mobile based VR headset for eye tracking and EEG recording -- has earned a CES 2018 Best of Innovation Awards in Virtual Reality.

LooxidVR is a mobile based VR headset, analogous to Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream View, embedded with EEG sensors and eye tracking cameras and thus can keep track of a user's brain activity, eye movement, and pupil dilation. In particular, LooxidVR allows time-synchronized acquisition of eye and brain data concurrent with VR contents and provides an expandable API, which can be widely applicable in various VR industries that require better understanding of users' emotional status such as stress level, preference, and engagement.

find Looxid Labs at Booth #52907 at 'Eureka Park'

See the full story here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/looxid-labs-wins-a-ces-2018-best-of-innovation-awards-in-virtual-reality-300578657.html

What the Star Wars VR Experience at Downtown Disney Is Really Like

We entered into a small room in Anaheim decked out in concrete slabs adorned with ancient runes — quite fitting for a Rebel hideout. We were welcomed into the Rebel Alliance, filled out foreboding "don't sue us if you die in here" waivers and were prompted to use the force to open a nearby door to receive our mission briefing (a friendly castmember used a button to open the automatic door, but I swear I felt something when I waved my hand).

Ushered into the next room, our small group of four would-be rebels stood in rank file before a floor-to-ceiling video screen. Upon scanning our nifty new wristbands, the screen flashed to life and we were greeted by a familiar face: Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) from Rogue One. He briefed us on our mission (I won't spoil it, but it involves collecting some precious cargo while undercover as Stormtroopers) and were ready to be fitted for our spec-ops assignment.

Rows of backpack vests and helmets hung from the ceiling in the next room,...

With our backpacks strapped and our visors on, my team and I stood in a small corridor that magically transformed into a docking bay straight out of an Imperial cruiser. For me, a VR novice, this was incredible enough. Clearly I underestimated the technology's power. A door opened to our left and, lo and behold, we walked through it.

To my surprise, and my cohorts, the remainder of the VR experience was not us simply sitting in this transport, as it quickly docked and we were sent on our way to collect our bounty. In what undoubtedly must look hilarious from an outside perspective, my three squadmates and I ambled from room to room (which to us were incredible vistas of lava-filled space worlds and Imperial cruisers) in clunky helmets and tight backpacks, ooh-ing and aah-ing as we gave thumbs up and peace signs to passing creatures and stormtroopers.

Then things got intense. ...

Tickets for Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire are are on sale now at www.thevoid.com for $29.95 at Disney-adjacent locations.

Read the full article here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-secrets-empire-downtown-disney-review-1071738?mc_cid=7f538a3718&mc_eid=cd6a4d9ecf

British Startup OWidgets Has Created The World’s First Olfactory (smell) Design Kit

Most people don’t think of smell when they think about technology, but really it’s the next natural sense to stimulate in video games, simulators and mixed reality.

Imagine playing a vr game and smelling smoke.  You may know that your village is burning down and you have to defend it.

A British company called OWidges has created the first olfactory design toolkit for developers to bring the sense of smell into the world of technology.

See the full story here: http://www.nibletz.com/eureka-park/owidgets-smell

Blippar – The ‘Shazam for faces’: World’s first facial recognition for smartphones is now more than 99% accurate and can even tell identical twins apart

• The app scans faces and brings up a profile with information about the person
• These profiles include images and links to a target's social media accounts
• The augmented reality technology can recognise over 400,000 public figures
• It can even tell apart identical twins such as Irish pop duo Jedward

See the full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5239767/The-Shazam-faces-99-67-accurate.html

DAQRI Founder’s Passionate TED Talk on Potential Impact of Augmented Reality Gets Personal

According to Mullins, the first doctor's lack of information regarding the relatively new surgical procedure as an option was partly due to the fact that "knowledge is not flowing." And that, says Mullins, who stepped down from his CEO role late last year, is what led to his initial passion for augmented reality.

"I made it my mission so that no one has to through that, and I thought: How could augmented reality start address this problem? What would it look like?" said Mullins.

"Now we can argue: Could augmented reality make the best surgeon better? I would say: yes. The data clearly says that it could … all we have to do is get the knowledge flowing in augmented reality, then we can make a general practitioner or a Good Samaritan anywhere in the world a surgeon when they need to be. And it's not just about surgery, it's about anything you can learn."

See the full story here: https://next.reality.news/news/daqri-founders-passionate-ted-talk-potential-impact-augmented-reality-gets-personal-0182013/

Amazon Alexa making appearance in $1000 Vuzix augmented reality smart glasses

Little is known about the performance of the glasses, with Travers saying that information from Alexa will be presented inside the wearer's field of view.

The glasses utilize an Amazon Alexa licensing program, allowing third parties to implement the technology in a variety of products. For the most part, the technology has been used in speaker sets and smartphone docks, with the Vuzix implementation being the first in a pair of smart glasses.

The Amazon Alexa-embedded glasses are expected in the second quarter for about $1000. It is hoping to get the price down to under $500 by 2019.

See the full story here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/01/05/amazon-alexa-making-appearance-in-1000-vuzix-augmented-reality-smart-glasses

See the ‘Stranger Things’ Upside Down in Augmented Reality

PhilNote: video at link.  Fun basic AR.

While in the AR Upside Down, the user can look around, viewing their world through a dark grey haze, from under the shade of a big, creepy tree. It's also possible to look back through the doorway into the real world, and once a person has finished exploring, they can step back through the way they've come - or, it they're feeling boring, they can simple take off their AR headset.

See the full story here: https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/17454-stranger-things-augmented-reality

Virtual Reality Will Propel Sony Corp (ADR) Stock Price Higher!

Sony's virtual reality headset - PlayStation VR (PSVR) - has quickly become the new staple in the VR community. While the Oculus Rift, owned by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB ), and HTC Vive are generally considered higher-quality outfits, they also have a higher price point. While recent price cuts to the Vive and Rift have made them more affordable PC VR options, the PSVR was able to jump out to a quick lead, because, for a long time, it had the best combination of price and quality.

In about a year, Sony sold more than 2 million PSVR headsets, easily outpacing the Vive and Rift. While the two have since slashed their prices, Sony may already have a distinct advantage going forward: its user base. Essentially, all a user needs to run the PSVR is a PlayStation 4 and the company's movement camera (now included in the PSVR bundle). Before the holidays, Sony  announced it eclipsed the 70 million mark for PlayStation 4 sales.

See the full story here; http://www.nasdaq.com/article/virtual-reality-will-propel-sony-corp-adr-stock-price-higher-cm900673