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Maria Gurova

HBO NOW Pushing the Cord-Cutting Trend - App Annie Blog - 3 views

  • In 2007, Netflix changed the landscape by introducing streaming on PC, allowing customers to instantly watch shows. By 2010, Netflix video streaming became available on additional platforms, including iOS devices. Today, video streaming services Netflix and Hulu have a strong hold among combined iOS and Android Top US Apps.
  • These convenient apps have set the stage for a preferred entertainment delivery. A whole generation of consumers have grown up with video streaming, rather than (or in addition to) paying for cable television: cord cutters and cord nevers. Major premium cable networks, HBO and Showtime, are now after a piece of the pie Netflix and Hulu have carved out
  • Both HBO NOW and Showtime are taking different approaches to standalone streaming partnerships. HBO NOW has gotten more traction in part to a heavy promotion from Apple, resulting in positive metrics. Showtime’s success is less clear, being married into Hulu’s already strong performance
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  • Netflix isn’t being left in the dust completely, kicking off their original film initiative with “Beasts of No Nation”, which will launch both in theaters and streaming video on October 16th. HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Hulu will still need to compete with each other to retain users in a new “entertainment as a service” landscape where retention is not a given, but an earned currency.
  • Cable provider Comcast hasn’t felt the heat from the cord-cutting trend, having its second best Q2 in nine years. Comcast is also in an advantageous place as a broadband provider, with 22.3 million total customers in Q2. Good quality video streaming relies on broadband internet, meaning cable providers that offer bundled internet service will still be valuable
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    the rise of streaming services and how cable networks are competing with video streaming services on their battle field 
Maria Gurova

The Artificial Intelligence Company You Should Watch ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + commu... - 1 views

  • taking these technologies out of the lab and into people’s everyday lives.
  • we're able to program physical objects to be intelligent, adapt and interact with their surroundings, and to surprise people with what is possible.
  • a video game programmed for the real world, is the first step for us and demonstrates what’s possible with Anki technology.
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  • physical objects to understand the real world and using that information to behave intelligently, we can treat these characters in the physical world as if they were just characters in a video game
  • elements that make video games so engaging and fun and literally program them onto physical characters to make an entertainment experience that has never been possible before.
  • a massive opportunity in consumer products to change the way people interact with the physical world around them
  • new category of entertainment that brings these technologies to people in a familiar and fun way
  • Almost anything we interact with in the physical world has the potential to act with autonomy and purpose, and the challenge is in identifying the truly high-impact opportunities at the right times
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    please also watch the demonstration of the Anki Drive from WWDC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnsR-kZUx6o
Maria Gurova

Frustrated? Confused? Learning software could watch your face for signals and match con... - 0 views

  • they were able to show that automated facial expression recognition could be nearly as accurate as human recognition in analyzing a wider range of student movements and gestures.
  • emotionally-aware software isn’t without ethical and privacy questions, but it opens the door to technology that’s even more engaging and that fits more seamlessly into our lives.
  • types of technologies could be used to generate more personalized digital experiences
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  • Those
  • emotion-sensing technology could build on the already booming field of adaptive learning software that assesses students’ mastery and delivers content appropriate to their skill level.
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    New face expression technology that is used for learning within computing classes, but can also be used in media and entertainment 
Maria Gurova

Wearables in the workplace: Employers buy fitness trackers to boost employee health - 1 views

  • The technology, known as UltraHaptics, is a haptic feedback system using ultrasound that provides users with a buzz-like feeling of pressure on their hand.
  • The technology does not just provide the sensation of flat surfaces, but can also be used to create the feel of 3D objects.
  • Sculptors could also use the technology to shape virtual objects using just their hands
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  • Hologram projections could be given a texture, with museum visitors
  • it could be used to indicate to drivers when a car is in their blind spot by providing a buzzing sensation on their neck, or developed as a wearable for blind people to indicate the presence of a road or obstacle
  • consumer fields are likely to be most interested due to the technology’s ability to augment existing entertainment systems.
Maria Gurova

Virtual Reality Is the Most Powerful Artistic Medium of Our Time - 0 views

  • “When the zeitgeist is moving, art usually goes hand-in-hand with it,” says Rossin, describing a world in which we’re constantly glued to our iPhones, Androids, laptops, and tablets as much if not more than we are to the faces of fellow humans. Mediums have historically risen from the predominant technology and social relations of the time in which they exist
  • “Because of the level of sensory overload we experience on a day-to-day basis, we need to have this fully arresting experience in virtual reality in order to get a total sense of vertigo from a work of art,”
  • Enveloping, consciousness-bending experiences aren’t “just to escape life,” says Rafman. “But to create a total experience that will create a feeling that is qualitatively new. That is ultimately the most radical thing.”
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  • “Ultimately, new technology can reveal desires that already exist on a deep level in society,” says Rafman of the works, which pull from and amplify the seductive forces of video games and cinema. “This desire to escape completely into another dimension has existed for a long time.”
  • Virtual reality’s recent resurgence in prominence begins with Oculus and its visionary 23-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey. In 2012, the then-18-year-old with an affinity for retooling defunct ’90s VR headsets took a hacked-together model to Kickstarter with a funding goal of $250,000. A month later, over 10,000 individuals contributed $2.4 million to the campaign for what was at the time mainly aimed at being a gaming peripheral. Two years later, Facebook wrote a check to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion
  • “This is not a drill. It’s real. It’s a moment,” says Michael Naimark, Google’s first resident virtual reality artist (like Char Davies, he’s listed as a pioneer of VR on Wikipedia). “And the arts community can play a huge role in propagation.
  • Throughout art history, art has reflected the prevalent social relations of the time. It makes sense, then, that the most relative and innovative art forms being produced today would mirror our reality—one defined by a perceived sense of agency in a world filled with invisible algorithms and clicks baited to us by past clicks. The internet spoils us with infinite choice: opportunities to invent our personas, refashion our self-brands, optimize our lives, and enhance our experience. But with mega-corporations quietly holding the joystick, can we really self-determine our destiny?
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    on how contemporary are embraces VR, what artist can do to explore, explain and populate the exciting technology.
Maria Gurova

James Cameron on the Future of Cinema | 40th Anniversary | Smithsonian - 1 views

  • The technology has changed but the basics of the job haven’t. It is still about storytelling, about juxtaposing images, about creating a feeling with images and music. Only the technical details have changed
  • I think there will be movie thea­ters in 1,000 years. People want the group experience, the sense of going out and participating in a film together
  • I think it will be standard in 4 years, not 40. We will have a glasses-free technology in five years at home and three years for laptops. The limiting factor is going to be content. You can’t rely on a few films a year for this. It is going to have to be 3-D broadcast sports, scripted television, non-scripted television and reality television
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  • Hollywood is also the place for filmmakers who want to make movies for a global market. China and Russia make films for their own markets, but I don’t see the likelihood of those places replacing Hollywood
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    James Cameron believes that despite of exciting new technology - making movie is and will always be about the story. also he is certain that going to watch a movie together is a shared group experience that audience will still be looking for in the future, no mater how advance the in-home technology will be
Maria Gurova

Pixar Vets Reinvent Speech Recognition So It Works for Kids | WIRED - 0 views

  • Though characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear are wonderfully realistic and lovable, the relationship that kids have with them is largely one-sided. Kids can hear these characters talk—not only through movies, but games, toys, and other movie merchandise—but they can’t engage them.
  • It was this idea that inspired Jacob to team up with his former Pixar colleague, Martin Reddy, and launch a new company, ToyTalk. The San Francisco-based outfit develops mobile games that let kids have conversations with animated characters—dialogues that can last for hours
  • Known as PullString, it’s equal parts speech recognition engine and script writing tool, and it’s quite a departure from other speech rec tools developed by the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. It’s tailored specifically to kids, whose sentence structure, pitch, and vocal tone have posed challenges for traditional tools.
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  • “The way kids talk and communicate is very different from how adults do, both in terms of how they use language and the fundamental frequencies that come out of their throats,
  • But as he points out, the way today’s children use technology will likely dictate the tech landscape for decades to come. If you can get kids hooked on speech technology young, they’ll stay with it forever.
  • Kids don’t want to ask a monkey character in a game what the weather will be on Tuesday. They want to sing him a song or ask him about life in the zoo.
  • While ToyTalk uses existing third party technology for its raw speech recognition, it works with those partners to develop better recognition models using ToyTalk’s own data. Now, ToyTalk has a trove of some 20 million children’s utterances, which Jacob believes is the largest database of kids conversation in the world
  • “Virtual assistants are awesome when they can answer every question. In our case, it’s the opposite,” Jacob says. “I have to know a lot of things that I’m not able to answer, and redirect the conversation to something that is within character.”
  • And Jacob says some toy companies are already testing PullString to power apps based on existing characters.
  • this technology could give kids a whole new way to play that falls somewhere in between the playground and the imaginary friend. “I think at some deep level if we succeed, we’ll inspire the imagination of kids to talk about things they might not otherwise talk about,”
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    the voice rec technology developed by ex-Pixar guy that is targeted to kids. It considers all nuances of kids speech behavior and analyses millions of kids conversations to make interaction with favorite characters within all possible media truly engaging
Maria Gurova

The Movie Theater of the Future Will Be In Your Mind | Tribeca - 1 views

  • Merging SEGA technology and BBC Earth content, the new attraction takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey to explore animals and nature through sight, smell, touch and sound.
  • The venue includes one of Japan’s largest screens (131 ft W x 26 ft H) with remarkable visual and sonic resolution and 12 separate walk-through entertainment zones
  • evolve into large-scale public attractions becoming urban theme parks, where cinema is only part of the experience
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  • The merging of real and projected worlds will produce a seamless experience – a complete illusion of being part of a film.
  • A truly dramatic change will come once scientists discover a way to manipulate senses directly through the brain. That is when cinema will quite literally start to merge and replace real life
  • One will be able to choose between real-life exploration or a fictional quest with chosen characters. Since memories will be recorded, one would be able to include anyone they have ever encountered, including favorite celebrities or fictional heroes.
  • Just as 3D films are only exciting for the first few minutes, characters, events and conflicts will continue to drive cinema of the future.
Maria Gurova

These are the top-earning YouTube stars of 2015 according to Forbes | The Verge - 1 views

  • The financial magazine has published its first ever list of top earners on the video platform, with the irrepressible Felix Kjellberg (better known as PewDiePie) heading the charts with pretax earnings of $12 million,
  • most of these individuals’ income comes from advertising such as sponsored videos and previews, although four of those on the list also have book deals, while a few even offer their own product lines.
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    The fact that Forbes made an official ranking of income of the YouTube celebrities is an indication that this is an actual economic driver. The numbers might not be accurate at this point of time, as there's no infrastructure to track income individuals' receive through this type of monetisation, but this is only a matter of time  
Maria Gurova

Mark Zuckerberg shows off virtual reality ping pong on the Oculus - 0 views

  • that allows people to play games with each other in real time using their hands, even if they aren't in the same room.
  • and down to simulate completely different worlds — outer space, under water and so on."
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    how VR may transform the Future of Education, imagine you don't need to  travel anywhere to be there. Additional applications of VR, e.g. Travel, Education, Entertainment etc 
Maria Gurova

Using ToyTalk Technology, New Hello Barbie Will Have Real Conversations With Kids | Fas... - 1 views

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    I've posted earlier about this ToyTalk company, they are founded by the guy who worked at Pixar for 20 years. The company develops the speech recognition technology, signed their first deal with a big toy company - Mattel. They are going to develop Barbie doll that will be able to sustain meaningful conversations with kids
Ilya Vorobiev

Microsoft's 'RoomAlive' Turns Entire Room Into A Video Game - 5 views

    • Ilya Vorobiev
       
      Despite technology advances such as Oculus and Kinect, the game is still separated from real world and augmented reality associated with bulky heads. This project addresses this problem by projecting objects on real world using depth cameras and projectors, turning your room into interactive video game. 3 minute video from Microsoft - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILb5ExBzHqw Actual News review video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aZWUw8CzAo
  • RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience
  • Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment
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  • showcase four experience prototypes that demonstrate the novel interactive experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and discuss the design challenges of adapting any game to any room
Maria Gurova

From Netflix to full immersion: how the future of cinema lies in our handhelds | Film |... - 2 views

  • Unlike films made for the silver screen, an internet film doesn’t need to contain something for everyone
  • But the internet is different. As viewers are watching alone, films can be made exclusively for certain fanbases and still be confident of finding an audience.
  • in the eyes of a conservative family, the company should stand for wholesome entertainment, but to a 20-year-old city-dwelling college graduate, it should be more edgy. It’s unlikely these two demographics would go to the cinema together, while they almost certainly won’t be streaming the same content.
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  • Cinemas probably aren’t going to die out any time soon, but they may well host different kinds of films than laptops and phones in the near future.
  • Netflix’s chief content officer is open about this, saying that watching a movie online is like seeing a sports game broadcast on TV rather than being at the stadium
  • When you watch it, you realise that this software blurs the boundary between films and games: although, strictly speaking, you are not playing anything; you are participating in the experience.
  • A distinctive form of film is also emerging on phones: 360-degree movies were developed by Google
  • The technology gets really interesting when it comes to documentaries. Director Chris Milk has used virtual reality to make films about a refugee camp in Jordan and a mass protest in New York.
  • Fundamentally, this is taking out the middle man in that process, and making you feel as if you were actually there.
  • Call it fly-off-the-wall film-making
  • traditionally it is the director’s job to tell the audience what to look at, in this approach directors don’t exist, only “creators”
alexbelov

What Brands Should Know About Facebook Messenger Chat Bots | Digital - AdAge - 1 views

  • Brands like Disney have worked with tech firms like Disney-backed Imperson to create chat bots on Facebook's Messenger service so people can have conversations with computerized versions of characters like ABC's "The Muppets" star Miss Piggy without needing to staff an actual human on the other side of the conversation.
  • it creates a new kind of engagement, which is around messaging person-to-person like most messaging platforms but also person-to-business or person-to-brand or person-to-publisher
  • It expands the platform beyond just personal communication
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  • We actually were, I think, one of the first customers who actually requested this API
  • Imperson provides technology that knows how to automate this conversation in a realistic way, so the user believes he is speaking with a character or even the actor doing the character
  • I think there are a few different reasons why today it's more relevant and more attractive. We are taking familiar figures like celebrities; it's not just a chat bot that you speak with for the sake of your artificial intelligence curiosity. This is an entertainment experience. People chatting with Miss Piggy enjoy the experience as if they were chatting with the real Miss Piggy. In order to create the interaction, we were working with Disney people and Disney writers who actually write for Miss Piggy and make sure it's a completely authentic conversation.
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    Disney beta-tests Facebook's chatbot platform: chat with real Miss Piggy.
evgeny lavrov

Forty years from now ... | Smarter Cities | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

  • people won't have to go anywhere to have a great evening out
  • Our entertainment will come to us.
  • turn her bedroom into a virtual evening out.
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  • 3D holographic imaging
  • "By 2050, you'll be able to invite your aunt from Australia for Sunday lunch
Maria Gurova

Future of Film: Even Bigger Screens and, Yep, Cinema Selfies - Hollywood Reporter - 0 views

  • a new generation of even more ambitious theaters — possibly even including cinema's first holodeck — is waiting in the wings.
  • The first Escape theaters — which will include the Cinemark 18 & XD at the Promenade at the Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles — will open Sept. 19, showing a special edition of Fox's new young adult thriller The Maze Runner
  • Escape theaters showing The Maze Runner will project the live-action movie on to the center screen, and the side screens will feature additional visual effects
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  • "We believe entertainment needs to continue to evolve with a more immersive experience,"
  • Movie screens will continue to morph into ever-wider configurations
  • That footage will be shown in a special 360-degree OmniCam theater installation planned for the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich. Meanwhile, startup Jaunt is developing a 360-degree camera for use in virtual reality
  • High-tech interactivity also may play a role in the next generation of theaters.
  • They would include a theater where a 3D movie is projected onto a 360-degree dome-shaped screen and real-time facial replacement would be used to project audience members into the action
  • "You'd have a wristband that identifies who you are, and if you elect to, your body and face can be scanned, allowing the attractions to include you in them and allow you to interact with them
Maria Gurova

Is it curtains for the big screen? - FT.com - 1 views

  • According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, US movie attendance peaked in 2002 and has been steadily declining ever since. To compensate, theatres have rolled out new technologies such as 3D, Imax and premium large-format cinemas, raising their ticket prices and thus keeping the box office at record-breaking levels
  • The majority of us are increasingly staying home.
  • At Cannes this year, the studio with the most films in competition
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  • was not one of the big studios, but the streaming service Amazon.
  • But blockbusters have a design flaw: their marketing costs are enormous — opening a movie typically costs anywhere from $20m — and they spend less and less time in cinemas. To take a recent example, ticket sales for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped by an astonishing 68.4 per cent on its second weekend
  • “What you’re going to end up with is fewer theatres,” George Lucas said during a panel at the University of Southern California in 2013. “Bigger theatres, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100.”
  • He argued that a film will come out in cinemas for 17 days — three weekends — which is where 98 per cent of films make 95 per cent of their revenues anyway. On the 18th day, the film will be available everywhere and you will pay for the size: a movie screen will be $15, a 75-inch TV will be $4, a smartphone will be $1.99.
  • “Fifty per cent of Americans did not step into a movie theatre last year, and of the 50 per cent that did go into a theatre, 95 per cent of them went to one or two films,”
  • Arguably, it’s more visual than television. It has our full attention: each frame must pull its weight in terms of narrative and spectacle. That is why it is a director’s medium: it envelops us. TV comes to us, into our homes, casual, familiar, favouring habit-forming episodic narratives. That is why it is a writer’s medium. The big screen glamorises — its stars are the stuff of myth; the small screen is more like a member of the family
  • And something like The Avengers, it’s too much fun laughing with the audience. These things are communal experiences.
  • But then many film-makers would argue that movies should be consumed differently from music: a song is a song wherever you play it, whereas films were built for the big screen.
  • “I don’t think that experience is going to die,” says Obst, “although I do worry that eventually we will all be inside on our huge computer screens, watching all of the different types of entertainment together
  • Nothing breaks the spell of the movie more instantly than the pause button.
Maria Gurova

YouTube's Grand Plan to Make VR Accessible to Everybody | WIRED - 0 views

  • Today, YouTube is unveiling 360-degree virtual reality videos and a virtual movie theater for all YouTube videos, available to anyone with a Google Cardboard headset. The goal is to “democratize virtual reality” and “bring VR to everybody
  • social network is now seeing 8 billion daily video views. Facebook itself recently debuted 360 video. And the social networking giant owns Oculus,
  • But Facebook, its biggest competitor, is rapidly encroaching on YouTube’s turf.
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  • expects that library of content to grow “very rapidly,” especially as the company works with YouTube creators to get more VR content up on the platform
  • According to Variety, these YouTube stars are even more influential among US teens than Hollywood celebrities.
  • The one stumbling block is that not that many people have the equipment to experience VR. Google says some 1 million folks already own the Cardboard viewer
  • it’s convenient that the company is launching these virtual reality features right before The New York Times ships 1.3 million Google Cardboard sets this weekend, as it debuts its new VR documentary, “The Displaced.”
Vladimir Antonov

Zwift launch new online multiplayer turbo training game - Cycling Weekly - 0 views

  • Startup tech company Zwift have launched a new online cycling that looks to change the way we train indoors
  • online multiplayer cycling game that looks to revolutionise indoor training
  • The game allows cyclists from all over the world to meet and ride together in virtual reality, possibly putting an end to tedious and lonely turbo training sessions
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  • Zwift’s software can then convert the signal into power data, which is calculated by considering rider weight, the virtual terrain and even drafting into account to convert the power to speed within the game.
  • the virtual environment is impressive as it gives off sound effects from your surroundings and from the other riders that pass or are around you, making it a supremely immersive training session
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    It's not new development, but it confirms that VR (kind of, just a game for now) is not somewhere there, it's here and I can use it for a reasonable price Next steps could be VR treadmill (for bad weather), VR swimming-pool (to be placed inside a garage or basement) etc, literally all kinds of sports that could be replicated indoor with VR 
al_semenchenko

Visual Perceptive Media - BBC R&D - 1 views

  • Imagine a world where the narrative, background music, colour grading and general feel of a drama is shaped in real time to suit your personality.
  • Visual Perceptive Media is a film which changes based on the person who is watching the video. Rather than drawing on sensor data to profile the environment, it focuses on the user themselves. It uses profiled data from a phone application to build a profile of the user and their preferences via their music collection and some personality questions.
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