philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious 10-year plan could literally change our reality — and that’s scary

From the controversy over allegedly censoring conservative news sources from Facebook's trending topics, to the recent discussion over "fake news" and fact-checking in the wake of the presidential election, we're starting to explore how social media, and this company in particular, affect what we read, and perhaps what we think.

In the virtual reality world that Facebook is building, the company could actually control what we see, and what we experience. Facebook's mysterious algorithms will be at work in ways we've never really experienced before, interfacing directly with our senses.

This raises fresh concerns. For instance, a Facebook glitch in November suddenly caused two million or so users, including Zuckerberg himself, to be declared dead. That's distressing when it's just on a screen.

What if a Facebook algorithm change means that people who disagree with you are literally rendered invisible?

See the full story here; http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fake-news-and-virtual-reality-2016-12?r=UK&IR=T

Real-Time Virtual Reality (VR) – The Ultimate Experience

So what do we need to make this all happen?

• Humanoid robot that can walk
• Method to control said robot
• Wetsuit could allow full body haptic feedback
• VR camera attached to robot that can record in real-time
• Data feed that is fast enough to capture the data and relay in in real-time

Founded in 1999, Seattle based company Streambox has taken in an undisclosed amount of funding to develop “unique IP based video streaming solutions over low bandwidth connections“. Now they have added a VR offering to that which is currently in beta and support Oculus Rift. It’s not like this is something that ground breaking since 360 degree video support was released last year by YouTube allowing users to view and upload 360-degree videos.

Voysys produces a multi-camera live VR/360° production software solution called VOYSYS VR PRODUCER which supports any sort of VR hardware you might have on hand.

This software solution is built for real-time, with typical latency of 50-200 ms measured from light entering a lens to light exiting a VR headset or display. We were quite surprised to see just how quickly these hardware packages start to add up:

In addition to their VR software platform, Voysys also markets industrial solutions under the OdenVR brand.

See the full story here: http://www.nanalyze.com/2016/12/real-time-virtual-reality-vr/

Virtual Reality Can Leave You With an Existential Hangover

When the headset comes off, though, it’s back to a dreary reality. And lately van Schneider has been noticing some unsettling lingering effects. “What stays is a strange feeling of sadness and disappointment when participating in the real world, usually on the same day,” he wrote on the blogging platform Medium last month. “The sky seems less colorful and it just feels like I’m missing the ‘magic’ (for the lack of a better word). … I feel deeply disturbed and often end up just sitting there, staring at a wall.”

See the full story here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/12/post-vr-sadness/511232/

How Alibaba deployed Big Data to combat China IPR pirates and counterfeiters

As the world’s leading manufacturing center for authentic products, it is unsurprising that China has also been a source of a large share of counterfeits entering the market.

What sets Alibaba — and “Cloud Sword” — apart from other IPR enforcement efforts, is that we are one of the few e-commerce platforms — if not the only one — to also have a proactive, offline investigations program. That means we’re able to use our “big data” and analytics to help law enforcement not just identify and go after those who traffic in counterfeit goods, but also ensure that when they apprehend them, they have strong evidence to prosecute them. We even cut off the upstream source where counterfeit goods are produced.

See the full story here: http://www.recode.net/2016/12/20/13988264/china-alibaba-counterfeit-pirates-data-cloud-sword-ipr

DataVRse

"What we are doing is basically we are synthesizing new environments which are basically data-driven," he says. "You step in a room while wearing your virtual reality goggles, and you're in a new environment that is constructed from the data. You get to develop some sort of gut feeling for what is normal in that environment."

Inside the DataVRse, for example, medical researchers might explore data from patients through sound, taking advantage of how humans process noise through each ear.

"Just the pattern of me walking in the data, without me even knowing, it's solving a very hard machine learning problem," he says. "Because I always tend to face the source of the sound . . . Those paths that we take, by walking in data, it turns out that they efficiently cluster and partition the data."

"If I'm a heart surgeon, by just walking in that space, in that direction that I feel something abnormal is coming from that direction, I can identify a whole system of genes that take part in that disease," he says. "So removing a lot of UI and analytics and statistics and mathematics that is involved in data analysis, and basically using the human brain in the right way, we can use our own faculties to process large amounts of data very quickly."

To look at health issues, one of the things the researchers want to study is the large patterns about food that can be found in tweets, Instagram posts, and other social media, helping use that data to untangle the complex systems that govern why people choose to eat particular foods.

See the full story with videos here: https://www.fastcoexist.com/3066210/in-this-immersive-dataverse-you-can-explore-big-data-using-your-senses

Lenovo is releasing another Tango AR phone in 2017

According to Lenovo, around 4,000 developers purchased the Phab 2 Pro, followed by another 2,000 at a hackathon. Still, most reviews for the device have been a little lackluster, suggesting that while Tango is interesting, it’s still in its very early days and needs a lot of work.

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/augmented-reality-anyone-lenovo-releasing-193047149.html

Augmented reality and artistic experience(s)

Will augmented reality augment art?

The invention of the Screencatcher series in 2014 by the French artist Justine Emard provided a reasonable picture of the way in which artists, even those from non- technology oriented spheres, took advantage of it to create. A brief summary of the Screencatcher project: to begin with a drawing and exploration project on the theme of abandoned American drive-in theatres, Screencatcher was “augmented” by the use of AR.

Indeed, after downloading the Screencatcher application for Apple or Android, spectators discovered animations on the artist’s felt-pen drawings, vibrant waterfalls, moving skies or images of films projected on screens that were empty to begin with. A device that relates the explosion of screens (from drive-ins to the multi-screen dimension that is now part of our everyday lives), Screencatcher is also a wonderful reflection on technologies and the increasingly simulated dimension of reality, proposed by a visual artist with a more conventional path.

See the full story here: http://media.digitalarti.com/blog/digitalarti_mag/augmented_reality_and_artistic_experiences

VRStudios installs multi-player virtual reality gaming system at Muckleshoot Casino

People visiting Muckleshoot Casino that want a break from the slot machines and blackjack table can now try out new virtual reality technology.

Seattle startup VRStudios this month opened a full-motion multiplayer virtual reality system inside Muckleshoot Casino, which is the first casino nationwide to offer wireless streaming VR.

The games, which range from a Western-style shoot-out title called Barking Irons to a shooter called Time Zombies, let one or two people put on a VR headset and use an accompanying weapon as they walk around in an open space. Other casino guests can watch and hear the gameplay via TV screens that live-stream the action. It costs $5 per session and you must be over 21 years of age.

See the full story here: http://www.geekwire.com/2016/vrstudios-installs-multi-player-virtual-reality-gaming-system-muckleshoot-casino/

Can virtual reality move beyond immersive experiences to tell stories?

“How do you tell a story when the player’s got their head under the table?” I ask Rubin. He pauses. “We are really early when it comes to VR storytelling,” he says, “I don’t think we fundamentally understand the ruleset.

See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/20/can-virtual-reality-move-beyond-immersive-experiences-to-tell-stories

Virtual reality is actually here (good 2016 summary editorial)

If you think virtual reality exists today primarily in the gaming industry, you are seriously behind the times! VR springing up all over, and in some rather surprising places. VR videos are already available on YouTube, Android PlayStore and the Apple Store. Equipment prices and quality vary dramatically, from Google’s inexpensive Cardboard to incredibly expensive and complex systems.

See the full story here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3151971/virtual-reality/virtual-reality-is-actually-here.html