philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Golden Gophers Go With Virtual Reality To Tempt Football Recruits

“It’s insane. This changes the game,” Arkansas football head coach Bret Bielema has said about VR in the past. Arkansas is one of a number of schools that work with FusionSports competitor StriVR.

FusionSports believes that its VR experience through the custom built mobile app also helps to cause recruits to avoid noise from social media and keep them engaged and focused on the content that takes a lot of time and cost to develop.

“Filming the Gophers was not only exciting for us, but also for the players, fans, and even Goldy Gopher,” adds FusionSports Founder and CEO Ashley DeWalt. “With this VR app, I have no doubt recruits nationally will see the football program in a whole new light and dispel any misconceptions.”

See the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2016/11/23/golden-gophers-go-with-virtual-reality-to-tempt-football-recruits/#22bc771411ed

Lowe’s partners with Palo Alto startup to sell tech gadgets

In a move that reflects the changes jolting the retail sector, the Lowe’s home improvement chain has struck a deal to showcase technology products sold by Palo Alto’s B8ta within its stores.

Arcades offer inexpensive taste of virtual reality

Virtual heartthrob

Fans of Japanese heartthrob actor Kento Yamazaki have to pinch themselves to keep from kissing him when he leans in with lazy machismo at a virtual-reality event in Tokyo.

In one restaurant scene presented by Fuji TV on Sony’s PlayStation VR headgear, you’ve just cooked a pasta dish. Yamazaki, a squeeze from the hit TV show “When There is Someone You Love,” condescendingly but lovingly tells you it could use a squeeze of lemon.

He then brings the pasta-wrapped fork to your mouth. Cue melted hearts.

In another scene, you are side-by-side with him on a balcony, looking up at the moon and stars. It’s hokey and predictable, but a must-feel outing for fans.

The experience was part of a summer festival that cost 2,000 yen (about $18). Though you missed this one, Fuji TV is already planning others and has demonstrated VR dating with a TV show announcer.

See the full story here: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-business/20161118/arcades-offer-inexpensive-taste-of-virtual-reality

Blockbusters and virtual reality could help IMAX China turn its fortunes around, say analysts

IMAX has VR centres in Los Angeles and London that are set to open at the end of this year or the beginning of 2017, and at least two pilot sites are planned for China, IMAX chief business development officer Robert Lister told the Post in an email.

The VR “pods”, which can accommodate about six people, will show short, interactive experiences.

“Chinese consumers appear to have a very significant appetite for virtual reality experiences and we expect China to be a crucial market for our VR centres,” Lister said, noting that VR wouldn’t replace traditional cinema.

“With China being IMAX’s fastest growing cinema markets [approximately 700 theatres open or set to be open in the market] we think it can be a very significant part of our global VR strategy,” he said.

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“Blockbusters matter,” he said. “It’s the lack of hot Chinese movies.”

Huang said IMAX’s fortunes next year depended on whether good Chinese movies were released.

“IMAX movies in general are like an arms race – you need the wow, the graphics, the technology. I think that’s why the Chinese movie hasn’t really been challenging US movies.”

See the full story here: http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2047935/blockbusters-and-virtual-reality-could-help-imax-china-turn-its

McDonald’s Christmas campaign includes augmented reality experience

Every food tray in McDonald's will include an advent calendar, which comes to life with games, camera filters and instant win opportunities with the use of augmented reality app Blippar.

Customers simply download the app, hold their phone over the tray mat and watch a new advent calendar door come to life each day. There will be thousands of £10 Amazon gift vouchers going up for grabs via the app.

This is part of the McDonald’s Christmas campaign, which focuses on good times and celebrates the role of the restaurant chain during the festive period.

The campaign launches today (21 November) with the premiere of "Juliette the Doll" – a 90-second film, which focuses on a vintage wooden doll who comes to life after being left on the shelf for another year.

See the full story here: http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/mcdonalds-christmas-campaign-includes-augmented-reality-experience/brands/article/1416206

Here One earbuds are wireless ‘computers for your ears’

Here One begins shipping in February. It's available on the company's website, and will be sold at big-box stores that have yet to be named. Retailing for $299, Here One is nearly double the price of Apple's announced-but-delayed AirPods, but they also promise to do far more than simply reproduce sound without a cord.

Packed with multiple microphones and packaged in a charging-station box, Here One is positioning itself as an always-in device that can create a multi-tiered soundscape that boasts what Kraft describes as "layered listening, directional hearing and smart noise filters."

An accompanying Here One app allows users to customize the sound reaching their eardrums with a screen touch, though ultimately Kraft says the idea is for machine-learning algorithms to kick in and choose listening parameters based on your profile and location.

For example in an office setting, Here One can leverage the GPS in your smartphone to tell its app to start playing music, turn down background chatter and turn on a setting that allows anyone speaking in front of you to be heard over the music.

See the full story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/11/22/here-one-earbuds-wireless-computers-your-ears/94233730/

China’s Internet Boom – Online experimentation doesn’t have to be limited to tech companies.

The most significant innovation is happening not among Chinese Internet companies but in the country’s so-called “real” economy. Corporations in old-school sectors like construction, agriculture, transportation, and banking are pursuing new business models based on big data, social media, and the Internet of things.

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So it’s China’s largest residential-­property developer—not a tech company—that is pioneering the integration of Internet-based technology and services into fully wired communities. Vanke wants to create urban hubs that supply residents with gardens, safe food, travel, entertainment, and medical and educational services, all enabled by the Internet.

China’s insurance and banking industries have also embraced the Internet. Firms like Ping An Insurance recognized early on the opportunity to build customized models for risk assessment based on information gleaned from 24/7 tracking of physical and online activities.

Regulatory and finance structures in the West militate against this kind of experimentation, but China’s corporate culture encourages the broad reach. Asia specializes in big-tent conglomerates with protean areas of interest: a boat maker goes into semiconductors; a snack vendor might have an automotive division.

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Information, entertainment, retail, and communication were the easy plays for U.S. companies, the real-economy sectors that the Internet could infiltrate without too much trouble. Chinese companies will be first to bring the Internet to the other realms of life and industry.

Then the West could be playing catch-up with the East.

See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601686/chinas-internet-boom/

This security camera was infected by malware 98 seconds after it was plugged in

Ninety-eight seconds after it jumped on the Wi-Fi, the camera was attacked by a Mirai-like worm that knew the default login and password. The worm (its advance agent, really) checked the specs of its new home and then downloaded the rest of itself onto the device and, had Stephens not locked it down beforehand, would then be ready to participate in all manner of online shenanigans.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/18/this-security-camera-was-infected-by-malware-in-98-seconds-after-it-was-plugged-in/?ncid=tcdaily

Sound Technology Company Mach1 Unveils Mach1 Spatial Audio the First Audio Format Created Specifically for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

Surgeon behind the first HEAD transplant unveils a virtual reality system to prepare patients for the experience

A neurosurgeon planning to carry out the first human head transplant has unveiled a virtual reality system that will "prepare patients for life in a new body".

Professor Sergio Canavero wants to carry out the operation next year and believes it could lead to people paralysed from the neck down being able to walk again.

Russian wheelchair user Valery Spiridonov has volunteered to take part in the first operation, which would see his head "frozen" to stop brain cells from dying and tubes connected to support key arteries and veins.

The spinal cord would then be cut, repaired and fused on to a donor body and the skin stitched back together.

If successful the process could still lead to "unexpected psychological reactions" from the patient as they get used to their new life, so a virtual reality world to prepare them for a different body is being developed.

See the full story here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/surgeon-behind-first-head-transplant-9285705