philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Niantic Releases its New Augmented Reality Pet Game, ‘Peridot’

Peridot is a Tamagotchi-like pet game where players care for unique virtual creatures and raise them to adulthood.

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Similar to Tamagotchi, Dots need to be maintained, and players can pet, play, feed, and teach them new tricks to help them grow. Players can also collaborate with each other to cross-breed and expand the Peridot species for “infinite possibilities of Peridot archetypes” resembling “cheetahs, dragons, unicorns, and more.”

The Peridot creatures come to life through the camera-based augmented reality, and the Dots are able to recognize the difference between real-world surfaces such as water, grass, sand, etc. The app can also be easily integrated with social media platforms for quick and easy photo-sharing of in-game snapshots. ...

See the full story here: https://hypebeast.com/2022/4/niantic-new-augmented-reality-virtual-pet-game-peridot-release-info

The cult-inspired designs for Seattle International Film Festival

The posters and other materials reference that idea of cult-like devotion through a variety of references to new age spirituality, secret societies, fringe religions and ‘depictions of paradise’. “We wanted to create a feeling of ritual and worship with the Seekers that was secular, positive and especially fun,” Watson adds. “This cult is all about the good culty stuff, like comfortable robes, dancing, and singing the praises of SIFF. It’s more like the Partridge Family than the Manson Family.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/the-cult-inspired-designs-for-seattle-international-film-festival/

Somnium Space: This VR Company Wants to Give You the Chance to ‘Live Forever’ in the Metaverse

...After Artur Sychov, CEO of virtual reality developer Somnium Space, lost his father to cancer several years ago, he began exploring ways to preserve someone's personality even after death. The result is Somnium Space's upcoming "Live Forever" mode, which would allow users to be "reborn" as digital avatars mimicking their appearance and voice, and even their personality.

To achieve that goal, the company would get members' permission to record massive amounts of their personal data -- including conversations, movements and facial expressions.   

"If I die and I have this data collected ... my kids, they can come in and they can have a conversation with my avatar, with my movements, with my voice," Sychov told Vice. "You will meet the person. And you would, maybe for the first 10 minutes while talking to that person, you would not know that it's actually AI. That's the goal." ...

See the full story here: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/this-vr-company-wants-to-give-you-the-chance-to-live-forever-in-the-metaverse/

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Summary: Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called "heuristics" because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.

See the full list and explanation here: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

Your AI Doesn’t Really Understand You

... To attain AI consciousness, researchers must shift their focus from specific applications to developing a basic, underlying AGI technology that replicates the contextual understanding of humans. The key to getting to that point might be found in mobile sensory pods that can interact with the real world. It is simply unrealistic that an AI system that has never experienced anything outside its own training data (be it images, language, etc.) could ever comprehend real-world concepts. Adding sensory pods to AI hold the potential for an artificial entity to learn firsthandfrom a real-world environment. Doing so will enable an artificial entity to engage better with humans as opposed to traditional robots that are programmed directly to help people. ...

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/04/12/your-ai-doesnt-really-understand-you/?sh=4e52c9c77a3c

TikTok opens AR effects tool to all users

TikTok is rolling out its augmented reality effects tool to all creators and developers after launching a closed beta test last fall. 

Effect House allows creators to make their own AR camera effects that can be used by other TikTok users in videos. In an announcement, the company says the effects platform will be open to “all creators, designers, and developers from around the world” and will include tools and learning resources. ...

TikTok says submitted effects will be subject to certain guidelines in order to be approved for use. The company specifically says it will prohibit effects that “promote colorism or negative stereotypes against protected groups” and effects that “depict cosmetic surgery, such as lip fillers, or encourage scrutiny of someone’s appearance.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/12/23021780/tiktok-ar-effect-house

and here: https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-effect-house-beta-expansion-160625932.html

The Fake Artists Problem Is Much Worse Than You Realize

... The root of the problem is the increasingly passive nature of music consumption. People will often ask Alexa, or some other digital assistant, to find background music for a specific task—studying, workout, housework, relaxation, etc. Or they will rely on a pre-curated playlist for that purpose. They don’t pay close attention to the artists or song titles, and this is what creates an opportunity for abuse. ...

Note that one of the Hara Noda tracks has almost four million plays—that’s more streams than are attributed to most of the tracks on Jon Batiste’s We Are, which just won the Grammy for Album of the Year. 

That’s an amazing fact to consider. ...

 In fact, the number of fake artists whose music comes out of Sweden is extraordinary. But even the numbers may be misleading. According to one survey, “about 20 people are behind over 500 artist names.” ...

See the full story here: https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/the-fake-artists-problem-is-much?fbclid=IwAR2ISvX0jRJy-b1Xl6p5GykdXT3LuyaBjCP5g0Mmopjh2AqStpvLDZCLUvs&s=r

(London’s MSG Sphere) Populous’ spherical music venue gets go ahead to be built in London

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Architecture studio Populous has won planning approval for the MSG Sphere music and esports arena, which will be London's largest indoor venue.

Designed for the organisation that runs New York's Madison Square Garden (MSG), the 90-metre-high spherical music venue would be built near the Olympic Park in east London. ...

Designed by stadium-specialist Populous, the venue will have a capacity of 21,500 with 17,566 seated.

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The main auditorium would be placed within the 90-metre-high sphere along with restaurants, cafes and a members' club. Within the sphere, the interior surface will be covered in an "immersive LED surface" that could be utilised for esports. ...

The venue is one of a pair of sphere-shaped arenas designed by Populous that were first revealed in 2018. Its almost-identical sister venue is currently under construction in Las Vegas and scheduled to be complete next year.

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See the full story here: https://www.dezeen.com/2022/03/29/msg-sphere-populous-spherical-music-venue-stratford-london/

FACT SHEET: President Biden to Sign Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets

... President Biden will sign an Executive Order outlining the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology. The Order lays out a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation. ...

See the full press release here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/09/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-order-on-ensuring-responsible-innovation-in-digital-assets/

Smell significantly enhances sense of realism in virtual reality, researchers find

... The study participants played a short segment from the beginning of the game, twice, with and without smell. While they were immersed in playing, researchers administered a blend of four specific odors—forest, smoke, rotten and dank. We developed forest, rotten and dank to match the scenes, using industrial flavor compounds.

One compound we used in the concoction for dank was 1-octen-3-ol, which has an earthy, mushroom odor character. We used dimethyl trisulfide in the rotten mix, which is a product of human decomposition and attracts blowflies.

The smoke smell was a commercially available smoky BBQ marinade sauce.

Fleshing out the smells

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In the research, we used our prototype "olfactometer" to deliver the odors. An olfactometer sends specific smells along a soft plastic tube fixed underneath the wearers' nose. As the player worked their way through the VR environment, the olfactometer allowed us to accurately deliver the associated smells. ...

See the full story here: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-significantly-realism-virtual-reality.html