philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

The Man Selling Virtual Reality to China

That rapid rate of consumer adoption gives Geiger a better opportunity to push VR in interesting directions in China than he would have in the U.S. where adoption has been slower, says Eric Hanson, who teaches at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, and develops VR content at xRez Studio in California.

One of his first projects is a planned VR short film called Four Dishes and a Soup. Its simple storyline — a foreigner having dinner with his Chinese girlfriend’s family — provides a way to discuss Chinese concerns about accommodating foreign culture while maintaining a sense of unity. Early in 2017, before writing the script, he will have the actors actually have dinner in a Chinese family setting and record the improvisation among them from the foreigner’s point of view using a stereoscopic camera.

And there are cultural differences he has found one needs to be sensitive to that will impact his VR work as well. Whereas a Western screenwriter might (as Calder Willingham and Buck Henry did in The Graduate) have the hero express his love by bursting into the church when the heroine is about to marry another man and declaring his love in front of a roomful of strangers, a Chinese screenwriter would have the hero challenge the man who’s about to marry the heroine but never tell her his true feelings.

There are business differences, too. The Western convention is to take out insurance to compensate investors if a film is not completed, but Chinese producers see this as unnecessary, says Geiger.

VR arcades are already doing brisk business offering shooting games and short videos for around $7 (50 yuan) per person. These could become a place to roll out exploratory content, says Eric Shamlin, executive producer of Secret Location, a studio based in Toronto and Los Angeles that won a 2015 Emmy for a VR experience it created, and who has traveled to China to explore potential partnerships.

See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603218/the-man-selling-virtual-reality-to-china/

Virtual-reality film pushes you into Cirque’s underwater world

“Dreams of O” was released Thursday for CES as a follow-up to October’s “Ka The Battle Within.” Both are free downloads for Samsung Gear VR headset owners all year. But

The 12-minute “O” film took three days to shoot after a day of rehearsal, with the performers playing to a 360-degree camera in a submersible box operated remotely. A virtual-reality camera doesn’t zoom in and out, so the artist swims up to it.

See the full story here: http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/shows/virtual-reality-film-pushes-you-cirque-s-underwater-world

Smart augmented reality Gorilla Glass could be coming to future cars

The same glass can be used in a dashboard, which (like a tablet screen) could be touch-controlled across its entire length, while the flexibility of Gorilla Glass would also allow windows to change from clear to tinted at the driver's discretion.

All this would come with the added benefit of improved fuel efficiency according to Corning, due to Gorilla Glass's strong-yet-light make-up.

“By bringing Corning Gorilla Glass to the automotive industry, Corning is delivering lighter, tougher, and more optically advantaged solutions, enabling improved fuel efficiency, and a safer, more enhanced user experience for both drivers and passengers,” said Marty Curran, executive vice president at Corning.

See the full story here: http://www.techradar.com/news/smart-augmented-reality-gorilla-glass-could-be-coming-to-future-cars

The First Ever Augmented Reality Climbing Wall: How It Works and Why

The augmented reality climbing wall, according to its creators, Raine Kajastila and Perttu Hämäläinen of Finland’s Aalto University, comprises a projector, a depth camera and a computer system that continually analyzes climbers movements. That system is in charge of providing feedback regarding the performance of the climbers, and it adds interesting tasks and challenges for them when they’re ready.

Kajastila and Hämäläinen created the AR climbing wall you just saw for an ongoing Aalto University research project.

“We aim to study how to give meaningful AFB (augmented feedback) during climbing (and other challenging activities) visually or aurally, including (analyzing center of mass (COM) body movements) and arm trajectories, projections that follow the natural focus of attention, training of specific climbing moves, and quality of movement,” they say.

See the full story here: http://anewdomain.net/first-ever-augmented-reality-climbing-wall-how-it-works/

A Hidden Figures augmented reality app puts invisible scientific geniuses all over America

The film Hidden Figures, released late last year, follows three under-recognized female mathematicians who helped NASA launch humanity into space in the 1960s. So in order to promote it, IBM and The New York Times Company are putting literally hidden figures all around the US, waiting to be discovered with your phone. Outthink Hidden, as the project is called, is an augmented reality app that’s supposed to help people learn about marginalized doctors, engineers, and scientists. It launched at CES, and we got to check it out.

See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/8/14201852/outthink-hidden-figures-augmented-reality-app-ibm-nyt-ces-2017

Lumus Packed a 55 Degree Field of View into Optics Less than 2mm Thick

At CES 2017, Lumus is demonstrating its latest waveguide optics which achieve a 55 degree field of view from optics less than 2mm thick, potentially enabling a truly glasses-sized augmented reality headset.

Israel-based Lumus has been working on transparent optics since 2000. The company has developed a unique form of waveguide technology which allows images to be projected through and from incredibly thin glass. The tech has been sold in various forms for military and other non-consumer applications for years.

See the full story here; http://www.roadtovr.com/lumus-maximus-55-degree-field-of-view-thin-optics-augmented-reality/

Razer Reveals 4K Projector for Gamers Who Want to Go Big

Project Ariana employs a wide-angle fisheye lens in order to project real-time video of gaming onto a wall or other surfaces, for a more immersive experience than what is traditionally offered with monitors. A pair of 3D depth-sensing cameras detects lighting, furniture and other variables. Some say it is similar to the approach taken by Microsoft’s Illumiroom concept.

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/razer-reveals-4k-projector-for-gamers-who-want-to-go-big/

CES 2017: Distinguishing Between Machine Learning and AI

As predicted, artificial intelligence has been one of the most repeated phrases of CES 2017. It seems every other vendor here is slapping the “AI” label on its technology. So much so that it inspired us to take a (short) step back and look at what AI is in relation to machine learning. The reality is: there are still very few applications that can be legitimately labeled as artificial intelligence. Self-driving cars, DeepMind’s AlphaGo, Hanson Robotics’ Sophia robot, and to a lesser extent Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant, are all AI applications. Most of the rest, and certainly most of what we’ve seen here at CES, are robust, well productized machine learning applications (usually built on neural network architectures), often marketed as AI.

There’s a clear and substantial difference between the two…

• Machine Learning: learning machines.
• Artificial Intelligence: thinking machines.

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/ces-2017-distinguishing-between-machine-learning-and-ai/

Augmented Reality Solution Group Maxst Unveils New AR Products at CES 2017

VIVAR is the ultimate technology combination between AR and video calls, which enables the most efficient and easiest remote collaboration service in various fields. Through VIVAR, users are not only able to make a video call but also share 3D contents, video clips or images during the call. Furthermore, AR drawing function makes communication a lot easier and effective as users can view AR drawings simultaneously. As a user draw on the screen, the other side of user is informed as if the drawing is in reality. More importantly, these functions mentioned above are all done in real time.

The second product Maxst will demonstrate is AR smart glasses called Revelio. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfWw6tczt4)

See the full story here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170103005530/en/Augmented-Reality-Solution-Group-Maxst-Unveils-AR

Lenovo’s Windows VR headset will do affordable room-scale virtual reality

Inside the headset there's two 1440 x 1440 OLED screens, which should in theory give the headset a higher resolution than both the HTC Viveand Oculus Rift. And because the headset runs on the Windows Holographic platform, it can deliver room-scale VR, without the need for any external cameras or sensors. Instead, Lenovo's headset has front-mounted cameras to pick up depth information.

Lenovo has said it won't be making any motion controllers to use with the headset, but you'll be able to use an Xbox controller or any third-party one that works with Windows Holographic, more of which should arrive during the year.

See the full story here: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/139842-lenovo-s-windows-vr-headset-will-do-affordable-room-scale-virtual-reality