philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Chinese Theaters Test System of Onscreen Text Messages During Movies

Theaters across major cities in China have begun experimenting with "bullet screens," allowing audience members to interact with films by sending text messages that are displayed directly on the big screen, according to a recent report in China Youth Daily. Great.

If listening to people close business deals on their cell phones mid-movie isn't enough, patrons to some cinemas across China will soon have the privilege of hearing (seeing, really) other audience members' every thought on the film in front of them thanks to the bullet screens. The system is set to be institutionalized during various movies for young people who can't seem to fathom the thought of staying off their phones for two hours,...

See the full story here:http://shanghaiist.com/2014/08/20/bullet-screens-chinese-theaters.php

and here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinese-theaters-test-system-onscreen-726204

Nielsen Report Finds Live Viewing Alive and Well

The study focusing on device penetration and consumption habits found that throughout the country daily live-viewing still heavily out ranks time-shifted viewing for adults 25-54. Pittsburgh watches the most live TV daily, clocking in at 5 hours and 19 minutes, while San Francisco watches the least: 3 hours and 27 minutes. Cities average between 27 and 49 minutes of time-shifted viewing daily, and 3 minutes to 15 minutes of OTT viewing. 

See the full story here: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/nielsen-report-finds-live-viewing-alive-and-well/133194

Scientists build ‘army’ of robots capable of swarming into 3D formations

The robots are simple, free of many of the sensors and state-of-the-art hardware typically found on other bots. While that means that the Kilobots are somewhat limited in function — they have trouble moving in a straight line, for example — it also means that each bot is inexpensive and easy to build, said Michael Rubenstein, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and lead researcher for the Kilobot project.

But Rubenstein and his colleagues have big plans for their tiny robots. One day, they'd like the bots to function as "programmable matter," which is based on a concept similar to 3D printing — only without the printer, he said.

See the full story here: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0815/Scientists-build-army-of-robots-capable-of-swarming-into-3D-formations

Samsung is taking on the Oculus Rift

As early as Sept. 3, at the product launch for its new Note line of smartphones, Samsung is reportedly set to announce a virtual reality headset which has been developed under the codename Project Moonlight.

A report in The Verge states the headset is made up of a focus dial which could connect to a user’s smartphone via USB and a handheld controller that could possible connect to other devices such as gaming consoles or TVs.

Oculus and Samsung are not alone in their pursuit of the virtual reality space. Google Cardboard is a DIY approach to VR that allows consumers to create their own headsets using cardboard and their smartphone.

In March, Sony announced Project Morpheus, a VR headset whose intention was to extend the power of its Playstation gaming ecosystem. The Japanese electronics company has become sending our development kits to developers but has yet to announced pricing or availability of the headset.

See the full story here: http://www.dailydot.com/technology/samsung-virtual-reality-oculus-rift/

New Form Digital Studio to Launch Program at USC This Fall

Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer’s newly launched digital studio, New Form, will team up with students from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts to develop digital content. Two-person teams of students will participate in the year-long program to develop scripted series for the Web and pitch their projects. At the end of the first semester, three of the pitches will be selected for production to take place during the second semester.

New Form Digital, the multiplatform studio from Discovery, will contribute to the students’ exercises and guest lectures at USC. Jack Epps Jr., the chair of the cinema school’s screenwriting program, and Michael Fink, the chair of the school’s TV and film production program, will direct the new program.

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/new-form-digital-studio-to-launch-program-at-usc-this-fall/#more-83192

Vine Competitor Groopie Lets Vloggers Create TV-Style Shows Together

He envisioned a service that would let vloggers create video “episodes” together, which would be like independently produced reality TV shows.

...with Groopie, friends can shoot the episode at the same time, then merge their videos together with a built-in editing tool where you can select which camera angle and audio source you want to use for each shot in order to create one continuous video.

Groopie users each get their own profile which lets them feature their shows, each of which can have an unlimited number of episodes. This setup lets viewers follow the individual shows they like, as opposed to a vlogger’s whole channel. Shows can be shared to Facebook and Twitter, but not published to YouTube, which is by design for this startup itching to become the “YouTube of mobile.”

See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/08/vine-competitor-groopie-lets-vloggers-create-tv-style-shows-together/

Move over 3D movies, here comes virtual reality

... recent reports suggest that Facebook is now going after Hollywood studios and directors, asking them to create “Oculus Experiences” specifically for its virtual reality device, the Oculus Rift.

The current talk is of developing companion shorts for feature-length films (the way Guillermo del Toro did with “Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot”), and then of creating other types of shorter-form entertainment content specifically for the Oculus Rift.

But take a look at the broader tech zeitgeist. Hollywood has already shifted our behaviors, convincing us to a pay a premium ticket price for a 3D film and spend the better part of two hours wearing cheap, plastic 3D glasses. The consumer technology industry has already conditioned us to buy gaming devices for entertainment experiences at home. And Netflix and iTunes have conditioned us to buy movies on-demand. From this perspective, the Oculus Rift experience fits in perfectly with the current technological zeitgeist.

See the full story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/08/12/move-over-3d-movies-here-comes-virtual-reality?curator=MediaREDEF

Why the Public Library Beats Amazon—for Now

More than 90% of American public libraries have amassed e-book collections you can read on your iPad, and often even on a Kindle. You don't have to walk into a branch or risk an overdue fine. And they're totally free.

Though you still have to deal with due dates, hold lists and occasionally clumsy software, libraries, at least for now, have one killer feature that the others don't: e-books you actually want to read.

From Amazon's own top-20 Kindle best-seller lists from 2013, 2012 and 2011, Kindle Unlimited has no more than five titles a year, while the San Francisco library has at least 16.

See the full story here: http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-the-public-library-beats-amazonfor-now-1407863714

USC Viterbi Startup Garage: version 2.0

The Startup Garage, Southern California’s only venture accelerator for engineering student-led companies, offers financial support, mentoring, legal advice, office space and other strategic resources to a select group of budding business builders over a six-month period.

More than 115 teams competed for the eight spots in the accelerator, which launched June 30 and runs to the end of the year. Each team, co-founded or led by a current USC Viterbi student or alumni, received $50,000 in exchange for a 10 percent equity. That compares to $20,000 and 4 percent last year.

This year’s crop includes a company creating a music platform that helps you discover music based on your mood; another building a system to make drones easy to fly; one producing dynamic pricing software to maximize profitability; and a mobile platform that allows a small group of intimate friends to connect and collaborate on fashion decisions.

“I think we have an excellent group of young entrepreneurs who are working on some amazing ventures,” said Ashish Soni, founding director of the Viterbi Student Institute for Innovation (VSI2), which launched the Startup Garage. “We want to make Viterbi a leading source of innovation across the region, country and world.”

See the full story here:

Can digital storytelling be accelerated? Only if you accelerate your Oregon Story Board application

• Digital storytelling creatives don’t often identify their projects as a business. While folks in the tech startup scene self-identify as “building a business,” many of the people pursuing awesome storytelling concepts are motivated by pure creative energy. And while they realize that they have to find ways to fund their projects, seeing that project as a “startup” or a “business” is often an non-obvious intuitive leap.
• Acceleration is not a common concept. Again, in the tech startup world, folks have been conditioned to understand the concept of an accelerator. In fact, some would argue that startups have been inundated with accelerator opportunities. But if you don’t see your digital storytelling as a business and you don’t have any peers who are going through accelerators, then seeing an accelerator as an opportunity for your company is yet another non-intuitive leap.
• “Digital Storytelling” is an even more broad and amorphous term than “startup.” From an Oregon Story Board perspective, we see digital storytelling as covering a very broad range of pursuits. It could be anything from content creation—filmmaking, transmedia, journalism, video games—to creating technology and platforms that support storytellers—blogging platforms, special effects software, editing suites—to the services industries that support storytelling—production, post production, digital agencies. But that isn’t inherently obvious by muttering the words “digital storytelling”.

Read the full story here: http://siliconflorist.com/2014/07/28/digital-storytelling-accelerate-oregon-story-board-application/