philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Experts Ponder Implications of IoT Vulnerabilities and Risks

The Pew Research Center reports that at a September 2016 meeting of security conference DEF CON, experts revealed 47 vulnerabilities impacting 23 IoT-enabled items from 21 manufacturers. The items included door locks, wheelchairs, and thermostats. Now, experts are asking if such security risks could “prompt people, businesses and government to avoid or withdraw from certain online connectivity options.”

To answer that question, Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center conducted a nonscientific canvas of “technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers and other leaders.”

Of the 1,201 respondents, 15 percent said, “significant numbers would disconnect, and 85 percent said that, “most people will move more deeply into connected life.” The themes that arose from their responses were that, “people crave connection and convenience, and a tech-linked world serves both goals well,” and that “unplugging isn’t easy now, and by 2026 it will be even tougher.”

They also noted that risk is “part of life,” and that “most people believe the worst-case scenario would never happen to them.”

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/experts-ponder-implications-of-iot-vulnerabilities-and-risks/#more-116859

The Patent behind Google’s Augmented Reality Camera Feature called ‘Google Lens’ Pops up at the U.S. Patent Office

The feature is like a precursor to Augmented Reality. A user could take a photo and with one click get information about it. You could be in Chicago taking a photo of the tallest building and in one click you'll see 'Willis Tower' labeled on your photo.

This is the same technology that Apple owns which was recently granted a patent for.

Google Lens could go one step further by allowing a user to take a photo of a poster of an upcoming event and in one click they would be able to access Ticketmaster for tickets or more details of the upcoming event.

See the full patent here: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220170155850%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20170155850&RS=DN/20170155850

Location-Based Virtual Reality Startup Nomadic Raises $6 Million

Bay Area-based virtual reality (VR) startup Nomadic has raised a $6 million round of seed funding led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from Maveron, Presence Capital, Vulcan Capital, and Verus International.

Nomadic is focused on location-based VR, and aims to launch VR centers in malls and theaters. The company is focusing on modular sets to make it easy to quickly switch out experiences — much in the same way a theater may replace movies every couple of weeks.

Nomadic is also in discussions with multiple studios, said CEO Doug Griffin. “We’ve heard this over and over and over from studios, that location-based is becoming part of their strategy.”

See the full story here; http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/nomadic-vr-6-million-1202462610/

Developers Share First Augmented Reality Creations Using Apple’s ARKit

Apple only announced its augmented reality developer platform ARKit last week at the Worldwide Developers Conference, but some video clips have already been posted online by developers eager to showcase the impressive potential of the software.

ARKit enables iPhones and iPads running iOS 11 to superimpose computer-generated graphics over the real world, allowing developers to take their apps beyond the screen and into the user's environment.

By using the built-in camera, processors, and motion sensors found in iOS devices, virtual content appears on top of real-world scenes, and users don't need any special equipment to enjoy them because ARKit does the heavy lifting.

Apple has invested heavily in augmented reality in recent years, making several VR/AR company acquisitions including PrimeSense, FaceShift, and Metaio. Apple's much-anticipated "iPhone 8", which is expected to be announced in September, is rumored to have 3D sensing capabilities, with augmented reality being one possible use for the technology.

"The most impressive aspect of ARKit is that it tends to just work," said Cody Brown, founder of virtual reality production studio IRL, in an online interview with Motherboard. "Other AR software often requires some sort of physical tracking mechanism (like a QR code), which inevitably becomes a major piece of friction if you are trying to get anyone to use this stuff.

See the full story here https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/14/developers-augmented-reality-demos-arkit/

Marina Abramović & Jeff Koons front new online VR gallery

Marina Abramović, Jeff Koons and Olafur Eliasson are premiering artwork on a new major virtual reality arts platform, Acute Art.

The three interactive works from the iconic contemporary artists were previewed at Stockholm’s Brilliant Minds this week. The VR digital gallery hopes to explore and encourage art’s transition from the physical art word to the new age of online. The project officially launches in Autumn 2017 with plans to bring in young and emerging artists.

“I used Phryne’s metallic surface to bring the affirmation of self into VR. You can see your reflection within her. She affirms that your presence is real, that you exist. She’s a teacher. Stimulating different sense perceptions within virtual reality is a new territory – and to use VR as a tool to connect to the universal is a wonderful thing.”

A new book, 100 Secrets of the Art World, chronicles secrets from the art world’s most influential and elite, including Eliasson, Koons and Abramović.

See the full story here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/36302/1/marina-abramovic-jeff-koons-front-first-online-vr-gallery

War Map – ent tech competitive landscape

USC researcher uses virtual reality — and her mother’s sewing machine — to treat stroke survivors

Sook-Lei Liew builds a prototype with a laptop, an off-the-shelf VR rig, a $9 swim cap and a brain-computer interface system

It was almost by chance that USC researcher Sook-Lei Liew started thinking about virtual reality. She was a neuroscientist; so was her husband. When she became a USC faculty member in 2015, her husband got a job in the Mixed Reality Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies — and, between the two, a brain trust was born between VR and stroke rehab.

“There was a lot of tech, but not a lot of science behind it,” said Liew, who has joint appointments with the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and the Department of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Liew started to dig into VR research and found some fascinating studies about bodies inside a VR system. One study showed that if you give someone an avatar with long arms in the virtual world, they interact with the real world as if they had long arms. The effect even lasts for 10 or 15 minutes after a person removes the VR headset.

That made Liew wonder something that would change her work forever: “If you give someone a healthy body in VR, will that help them recover their health?”

She launched a project in early 2016, submitting a grant proposal to the American Heart Association and receiving $150,000 to explore the possibility of a VR brain-computer interface to treat stroke survivors.

The team built a prototype, using a laptop computer, an off-the-shelf VR rig, a $9 swim cap and an open-source brain-computer interface electroenchepalogram (EEG) system. Liew used her mother’s sewing machine to connect the electrodes to the cap. The whole system costs less than $5,000. It’s called REINVENT: Rehabilitation Environment using the Integration of Neuromuscular-based Virtual Enhancements for Neural Training

This is how it works: The system uses virtual reality as well as brain and muscle sensors to show arm and hand movement in the virtual world when the patient has used the correct brain and muscle signals even if the patient cannot move his or her arm or hand in the real world. Over time, they can train the damaged circuits to work again.

{from video - "We take signals from your brain, and we take signals from your muscles, and when those signals indicate that you are trying to move, then in virtual reality your arm moves, even if your arm doesn't really move in the real world."}

So far, the system has only been tested on healthy older adults, but, in the next six months, it will be tested on people recovering from a stroke.

The team demonstrated the project at the South by Southwest festival this year, and the experience was mind-bending for Liew.

“Our booth was across the hall from NASA, and they had a Mars habitat

“Most of the demonstrated uses for VR are gaming or entertainment right now,” Liew pointed out. “But the future has got to include VR for health care, too.”
Are people in the future going to be controlling houses and cars with their brains? Liew thinks it’s unlikely.

See the full story here: http://news.usc.edu/122574/usc-researcher-uses-virtual-reality-and-her-mothers-sewing-machine-to-treat-stroke-survivors/

Inside The Mill’s mind-bending alternate reality art showcase

AR llamas, VR nightmares and a no-chill adventure in biometric relaxation.

This was the scene at The Mill's first big open studio exploring the connection between technology and humanity, titled Move Me. That day, the Technicolor-owned "creative content and technology studio" (a fancy way of saying "we make visual effects") expected to see just shy of 1,000 special guests move through its doors and experience the outer limits of its in-house technology and creativity.

Not all of the projects on display at Move Me had the same polish as a Ridley Scott production or an Epic Game's demo — many of the experiences were built in the space of just a few weeks — but it was by far the most concentrated mix of truly creative applications for emerging technologies I'd ever seen.

See the full story here: https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/10/inside-the-mill-s-mind-bending-alternate-reality-art-showcase/

Imax brings virtual reality to movie theaters

I mustered the courage to test out the Mummy Prodigium Strike VR option, despite popular belief that this demo (held in a small cubicle called a "pod") was the scariest one there. I'm usually the one laughing during a scary scene, but as screaming zombies, giant spiders and herds of crows started coming at me at super speed from every angle, I let out more yelps than I'd care to admit and found myself clutching my headset just to remind myself that it's only a game.

I also couldn't help but wonder how strangely funny I looked to the outside world and what my closest friends would be doing in these moments. I'd bet they'd most definitely be pulling out their phones ready to capture me in entertaining action.

That's exactly what Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond says he had in mind with these Imax VR centers, intending to make it a social experience that can be enjoyed by people both inside and outside of the game. That's the difference, according to him, between the Imax experience and setting up an HTC Vive at home, which can play most of the same games, but costs an substantial amount to set up. In Eagle Flight Multiplayer, you can be a bird flying over Paris while your friends joke about your bizarre head and arm gestures as they wait for their turn.

The VR arcade is currently only available in Los Angeles and New York locations, but 10 pilots are expected to launch by the end of the year in Imax movie theaters.

See the full story here: https://www.cnet.com/news/imax-brings-virtual-reality-to-movie-theaters/

Doug Liman Goes VR With ‘Invisible’: “I Thought People Could Do Better”

With Invisible—his latest project from Conde Nast Entertainment, Samsung and VR firm Jaunt—the Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow helmer continues to push boundaries and question established procedure, entering the world of virtual realitywith a bang and a lot of action, and demonstrating that the much-discussed, burgeoning medium need not be reduced to a mundane, aimless panorama.

Speaking with Deadline, Liman touches on his proclivity for “immersive storytelling,” the low bar that has been set with VR, and the “Holy Grail” he is chasing after in the medium.

...

There’s some really boring VR content out there. It’s like watching a PBS videotape of a boring play. You’re like, “Cool! I can look at the ceiling and the wall, in case the main performance isn’t boring enough.”

...

I discovered almost immediately that the bar for Melisa and her writing is so much higher because you have to hook an audience way more quickly, because part of VR’s appeal and the way it works is that the audience has to want to follow the story. Then, they enjoy hunting to find the breadcrumbs you left them. They love exploring the world, but they have to want to explore it.

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I selected Invisible as the story I wanted to tell in VR because it does have effects and it does have action. The reality is, it was shockingly hard to do the action. I was working with [director/stunt coordinator] Simon Crane, who’s done a number of films with me. He’s at the top of the field in action directing, and I’m excited for the next one we do because of how much we learned.

... Those of us who grew up when movies were made on film are used to shooting and waiting to see the results, and a modern filmmaker is used to seeing results immediately. ... In VR, there’s a lot of looking at the elements that are going to go into it, and then having to imagine what it’s going to be like when it’s all put together. Especially when you get to visual effects, sometimes you don’t to get to see it until a month later.

The audio is so complicated. ... VR was the same way, where mixing the sound is so complicated that when you’re doing the stitching of the picture, you have a lousy soundtrack that you’re working with, and then separately, over here, you have great sound, but you have no picture to go with it, and it’s not till it’s all done and it’s too late to make any changes that you finally see the sound and the picture married.

Has it been heartening to see the conversation shift over the course of this past year, with the success of your series and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Carne y Arena, which lit up Cannes?

Filmmakers feed off each other, even if we don’t know each other.

See the full story here: http://deadline.com/2017/06/invisible-doug-liman-conde-nast-virtual-reality-emmys-interview-news-1202109737/