My picks from audio and video trends for 2016:
Smartphone have increased screen sizes and have finally become mobile TVs: Smartphones have overtaken the tablets as the most popular mobile device for viewing videos. The most watched content were targeted at teenagers videos and animation series for children.
Smartphone cameras are great, or at least close enough to great that you don’t notice the difference. We’ve reached the point where you’ve got to work pretty hard to find a phone with a mediocre camera. Compared to a DSLR, smart phone cameras are lousy because they use tiny sensors, but still the camera in your pocket is crazy good considering the limitations manufacturers work under. The vast majority of top-tier smartphones use Sony sensors for their main cameras. The molded plastic lens elements in many cameras have reached the point where they’re essentially perfect. Smart phones are already deployed in many newsrooms for mobile journalism video shooting as it is easier (and cheaper) to learn how to film and edit on your phone than it is to use a big camera.
For new smart phone camera technologies you could see array of lenses to enable Lytro-like refocusing, create 3-D depth maps, and improve image quality in low light. In many cases smart phone cameras and DSLR are complimentary: Although the smartphones have decimated the point-and-shoot segment, sales of DSLR and other high-end rigs remain.
Live streaming video from smart phone becomes mainstream. Periscope was one of the first apps to really make live streaming events simple and easy enough that people wanted to do it. Many other apps are following the trend. Facebook begins testing live video streaming for all users.
Drone videography will ger more popular as drones become more popular. Many people will learn basic and creative aerial filming techniques for drone video cameras.
Whether or not the 2016 International CES holds any big surprises remains to be seen. This year’s CES will focus on how connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets. It is quite probable that 4K TV will be big at this years’ CES show due to growing demand and falling prices. 4K becomes mainstream in 2016. CES will also have some 8K sets, though the market for 8K is at least five years away if not more (Tokyo Olympics in 2020 may be broadcast in 8K). Some new display technology is coming. LG has already demoed rollable 55, 66 and 77-inch OLED-based panels. Avegant’s Glyph technology literally beams video content onto your retinas. Analysts Predict CES 2016 Trends article gives you more ideas what to expect.
We can finally declare that 3D image in TV was a flop. Five years ago, it was estimated that the 3D technique can occupy the rapid pace of living cinemas addition. Then slowed different with technologies. But why the technology is virtually failed even though every new TV set has been added to display the 3D image as an option? Analysts said some people lack the ability to stereoscopic vision and for many, the 3D image caused eyestrain or nausea. Stereo image is to be left to various virtual reality applications.
After a year in which the weakness of smart TVs were exploited, Samsung goes on the offensive in 2016. Samsung’s new Tizen-based TVs will have GAIA security with pin lock for credit card and other personal info, data encryption, built-in anti-malware system, more. Samsung’s betting big on the internet of things and wants the TV to sit at the heart of this strategy. Samsung believes that people will want to activate their lights, heating and garage doors all from the comfort of their couch. If smart TVs get a reputation for being easy to hack, then Samsung’s models are hardly likely to be big sellers.
Whole TV industry need to go through a major transition as in most major developed markets, TV growth is slowing and in some cases stagnating. TV will account for 38.4 percent of the $503 billion global ad market in and will drop to 38 percent of the market in 2016. Digital ad spending will overtake TV as biggest category by 2017 or 2018.
Streaming video will be big in 2016. Almost all of the networks are streaming their content and streaming media is going mainstream fast. Third, 15% of American adults report they have become “cord cutters” – meaning they have abandoned paid cable or satellite television service. Many of these cord cutters say that the availability of televised content from the internet and other sources is a factor in their move away from subscription television services.
There seems to be a strong nostalgic audio trend going in. Whether it’s a sweet portable record player, a tabletop wooden radio or a full-size jukebox, the market for vintage-inspired electronics remains strong. Aside from record players, the vintage trend carries over to radios and speakers.
It seems that Americans were willing to spend on vinyl records. Nielsen numbers show that vinyl record sales rose 260 percent between 2009 and 2014, and sales for 2015 are on track to beat 2014’s total vinyl sales of 9.2 million units. Vinyl records generated more revenue in the first half of 2015 than free-to-use streaming services, but that’s not the full story. Despite vinyl sales increase it’s clear that the future of the music industry is digital. Total revenues from the digital music sector is expected to rise while physical sales will drop. Future is filled with streaming music services – both subscription services and free.
On the other end of audio spectrum High resolution audio tries to push to market at CES (again). Hi-Res Audio is the fastest growing category in music. Apple Music is planning to launch new its Hi-Res music streaming in 2016.
W3C group formed in the summer of 2015 a new working group: The Music Notation Community Group consists of representatives from some of the biggest names in the music notation software business who’ve come together to create a standardised way to display western music notation in your browser. It believes are achievable goals that can be met in 2016.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook launches Live Video API, which lets developers broadcast directly to Facebook from any device — Facebook Opens Up Live Video to Developers to Allow Streaming from Any Device — Facebook just took video streaming on its Live platform beyond the mobile phone …
Facebook Opens Up Live Video to Drones, TV Broadcast Feeds and Live Streaming Cameras
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/facebook-live-streaming-developer-api-1201751445/
Facebook just took video streaming on its Live platform beyond the mobile phone: CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during his keynote at the company’s f8 developer conference in San Francisco Wednesday that it is making its Live API publicly available.
This will allow developers to integrate live streaming into third-party apps and devices. Zuckerberg demonstrated this with a drone flying on stage, streaming video in real time to Facebook Live.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nathan McAlone / Business Insider:
A look at Mevo, Livestream’s new $399 portable video camera hub, which can stream to Facebook’s Live Video API out of the box
This is the first official camera for Facebook’s Live Video: the Mevo
http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebooks-first-official-camera-for-live-video-2016-4?op=1?r=US&IR=T
Facebook has made a huge push into live broadcasting recently, including putting a new video discovery hub right in the center of its app.
And on Tuesday, Facebook debuted its first official camera hardware partner for live video, a nifty camera from industry pioneer Livestream called the Mevo.
The Mevo camera is a rebrand of a camera called Movi, which impressed critics earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Music Industry Frets Over YouTube Despite Streaming Revenue Boost
Global revenue from recorded music grew 3.2% to $15 billion in 2015, first big gain in 20 years
http://www.wsj.com/articles/music-industry-frets-over-youtube-despite-streaming-revenue-boost-1460462403?shareToken=st2e48ad1dfae842c58c8e3fc706587777
Subscription streaming services pumped up the recorded-music industry’s revenue last year, but music consumption on free, legal sites grew faster, threatening the industry’s future growth, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s annual report.
Global revenue from recorded music grew 3.2% to $15 billion in 2015, the first significant increase after two decades of declines or negligible gains.
The uptick owed largely to a 45% increase in streaming revenue, which now amounts to $2.9 billion and makes up nearly half of the world’s digital-music revenue. Digital-music revenue for the first time outweighed the revenue from sales of physical products such as CDs, which continued their long decline.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook announces Rights Manager to help video creators combat freebooting; content owners can apply for access beginning today — Facebook launches video Rights Manager to combat freebooting — There’s an epidemic of stolen videos on Facebook. Business Pages rip videos from YouTube …
Facebook launches video Rights Manager to combat freebooting
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/12/content-fb/
There’s an epidemic of stolen videos on Facebook. Business Pages rip videos from YouTube, TV or other Pages, and then post them on Facebook as their own to gain more engagement and fans. This is known as “freebooting.” Video makers were pissed off about it because they were losing video views to others who didn’t have permission to use their clips.
Slate sounded the alarm about the problem in July, and in August, Facebook announced it would soon start testing a tool to help stop freebooting.
Today Facebook officially launched Rights Manager, its version of YouTube’s Content ID. It’s an admin tool for Pages that lets them upload video clips they don’t want others using. Facebook then monitors for copies of these videos to be posted to Facebook, and can then either automatically report them as violations to be deleted or notify the original publisher.
https://rightsmanager.fb.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Facebook working on AI that can automatically tag people in videos, says its director of applied machine learning — Facebook will soon be able to automatically tag your friends in videos — Facebook is making big strides in using its artificial intelligence systems for image recognition …
Facebook will soon be able to automatically tag your friends in videos
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/13/facebook-will-soon-be-able-to-automatically-tag-your-friends-in-videos/
Facebook is making big strides in using its artificial intelligence systems for image recognition, but it’s also working on bringing this technology to video. As the company demoed at its F8 developer conference in San Francisco today, it has a team working on automatically tagging people in videos.
As Facebook’s director of machine learning Joaquin Quiñonero Candela said during his keynote today, the idea here is to allow you to search for people in any of the videos they have shared with you. Say you are on a live video feed with a friend and another friend walks into the video and has a brief conversation with you. Typically, that would be a very ephemeral experience because it would be hard to find this moment again.
Soon, Facebook may be indexing this moment automatically for you and will let you find it again simply by searching for your friend’s name. You could then jump right into the video at exactly the moment your friend walks in.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft releases public preview of Project Madeira, a SMB business management service running on Azure in US, along with Windows, iOS and Android apps
Microsoft takes wraps off its ‘Madeira’ SMB business-management service
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-takes-wraps-off-its-madeira-smb-business-management-service/
Microsoft’s new ‘Madeira’ business-management service for small/mid-sized users, along with Windows, iOS and Android Madeira apps, is now available in public preview.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K-level micro camera for industry
UltraHD resolution is spreading rapidly in many industrial applications. Panasonic has now introduced describing 4K video micro camera that can be used in many industrial applications, production equipment supervision of medical instruments.
GP-UH532 camera resolution is 3840 x 2160 points at 50 or 60 fps. The camera supports a variety of HDMI and SDI outputs.
A new camera is that it produces both the 2K and 4K signal.
Panasonic’s camera is according to the market’s smallest 1/3 inch
The camera has its own USB memory.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4257:4k-tasoinen-mikrokamera-teollisuuteen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft is bringing automatic video summarization, Hyperlapse, OCR and more to Azure Media Services
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/14/microsoft-is-bringing-automatic-video-summarization-hyperlapse-ocr-and-more-to-its-azure-machine-learning-service/
Azure Media Services, Microsoft’s collection of cloud-based tools for video workflows, is about to get a lot smarter. As the company announced at the annual NAB show in Las Vegas today, Media Services will now make use of some of the tools Microsoft developed for its machine learning services for video, as well.
This means Media Services can now automatically select the most interesting snippets from a source video, for example, to give you a quick summary of what the full video looks like.
In addition, Microsoft is building face detection into these tools and the company is including its ability to detect people’s emotions (something the company’s Cognitive Services already do for still images).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
GoPro announces developer program to let third parties create mobile apps, accessories, and mounts for GoPro products with over 100+ firms already signed up — GoPro is partnering with over 100 companies to put its cameras everywhere — GoPro has announced the launch of its new developer program …
GoPro is partnering with over 100 companies to put its cameras everywhere
With partners like BMW, Fisher Price, and Periscope
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/14/11431594/gopro-developer-program-announced-apps-accessories-fisher-price-bmw
GoPro has announced the launch of its new developer program, an initiative designed to get third-party companies to create mobile apps, camera accessories, and physical mounts for GoPro products. The company, which is holding a showcase to feature demos in San Francisco today, is trying to transform GoPro from a signature line of action cameras into a platform for others to build on and connect to.
“The GoPro Developer Program is a way for us to celebrate the innovative work of our developer community and more importantly, help enable what comes next,” GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said in a statement. “We’re grateful to benefit from the collective genius of the participating developers and we’re excited to now officially support their efforts with our developer toolkits.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flexible Sheet Camera Wraps Around Objects
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1198-ntb/news/news/24405-flexible-sheet-camera-wraps-around-objects
A novel sheet camera developed by Columbia Engineering researchers can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras.
The flexible lens array adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. The sheet camera produces high-quality quality images over a wide range of sheet deformations.
A Flexible Camera: A Radically Different Approach to Imaging
http://engineering.columbia.edu/flexible-camera-radically-different-approach-imaging-1
Columbia Engineering researchers develop a deformable lens array and set the stage for thin and flexible sheet cameras
Nayar’s team developed a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with conventional cameras. They designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent.
“Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space,” says Nayar. “While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging. We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible.”
If such an imaging system could be manufactured cheaply, like a roll of plastic or fabric, it could be wrapped around all kinds of things, from street poles to furniture, cars, and even people’s clothing, to capture wide, seamless images with unusual fields of view. This design could also lead to cameras the size of a credit card that a photographer could simply flex to control its field of view.
The new “flex-cam” requires two technologies—a flexible detector array and a thin optical system that can project a high quality image on the array. One approach would be to attach a rigid lens with fixed focal length to each detector on the flexible array. In this case, however, bending the camera would result in “gaps” between the fields of views of adjacent lenses. This would cause the captured image to have missing information, or appear “aliased.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optical sensor ignores ambient noise to detect the spoken word
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/sensor-ee-perception/4441828/Optical-sensor-ignores-ambient-noise-to-detect-the-spoken-word?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160414&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160414&elqTrackId=31ff2683a4ab4b1993000b70b4bdac9e&elq=2c7a33f1a50d4758b5a0e3ef90fefeca&elqaid=31852&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27791
VocalZoom is an Israeli startup that has invented a means of optically converting human voice to digital signals that paradoxically get more accurate in the presence of loud ambient noise.
This makes it ideal for emergency services communication, as well as its initial target applications of consumer automotive, headsets, smartphones, security, and just about any voice-recognition application you can think of.
The problem with current voice-based human-to-machine communication (HMC) systems is that they’re optimized for humans, not machines. They use acoustic microphones that detect all sounds and we waste precious power and time on fancy noise-cancellation algorithms trying to filter out background noise, while optimizing for natural, pleasant sound reproduction that is intelligible to humans.
“Everyone wants voice [recognition, command, and control] but the key challenge is background noise and the unpredictability of the environment,” said Rammy Bahalul, vice president of sales and business development at VocalZoom. He pointed out that while voice-recognition software can be trained for accents and other speech patterns, “it can’t be trained to background noise.”
To completely isolate the spoken word from the environment, VocalZoom turned to a low-cost, low-power implementation of the principles of interferometry for its HMC sensor. It uses a laser to measure low-level vibrations on the surface of the face or behind the ear that are a direct result of the spoken word.
Classic “spy” applications include eavesdropping on conversations by measuring window vibration.
On a typical voice-recognition system, the typical hit rate in a quiet environment is 80%, giving an error rate of 20%. However once the system is brought into the street, the hit rate can drop to 60% for words, and worse for sentences. According to Bahalul, VocalZoom’s technology can keep the hit rate at 90 to 97%.
As Bahalul relates it, one potential customer put VocalZoom’s technology in an acoustic room with 120-spl (sound pressure level) noise to compare it to an acoustic microphone. “The acoustic got saturated, our optical sensor got voice very clearly,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Sources: Verizon readying all IP-based set-top box using OnCue tech, with pay-tv, online services; testing to begin this summer, available Q3 or Q4
Verizon Readies Next-Gen TV Service for Launch Later This Year (Exclusive)
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/verizon-ip-tv-service-set-top-box-1201754543/
Verizon is quietly getting ready to launch its next-generation TV service in at least one of its Fios markets later this year, Variety has learned from multiple sources with knowledge of the company’s plans. The service will be based on a new set-top box that incorporates some of the technology Verizon acquired from Intel a little over two years ago, and represents a bigger shift towards IP-based technology and a world where traditional pay TV isn’t the only game in town anymore.
A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment.
Earlier this week, Verizon filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to get approval for a new “video set-top box.” Those documents included a mention of OnCue, the internet TV service that Intel developed years ago, only to sell it to Verizon before it ever launched.
The new device will offer pay-TV services with a new interface that won’t look at all like Verizon’s existing Fios TV service.
Part of the reason for the delayed roll-out is are technical complexities that go far beyond simply giving consumers a new set-top box. Verizon is looking to finally replace its existing QAM-based TV delivery with a complete IP-based solution.
The old-school QAM approach pushes all content, all the time, to consumers, whereas IP-based technology only delivers the channel a consumer is watching. The result will be massive cost savings for the company, and will free up a lot more bandwidth to give consumers faster internet access. It also makes it possible to use cheaper set-top-box technology, and possibly even forego the set-top altogether to deliver the same programming to third-party streaming devices or mobile screens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times:
Obama backs FCC proposal to open the cable set-top box market to third-party vendors
Obama Presses for Open Market for Cable Set-Top Boxes
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/us/politics/obama-set-top-boxes.html?_r=0
President Obama on Friday announced his support for opening the market for cable set-top boxes, singling out the devices in millions of homes as a clunky and outdated symbol of corporate power over consumers, as he introduced a broad federal effort to increase competition.
“The cable or satellite box is just one example of an area where, because it’s been tied to the provider and you rent it, and consumers spend billions of dollars on it every single year, there hasn’t been much innovation,” Mr. Obama said, adding that the private sector becomes less effective “if we get closed systems or if people are gaming the system.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Politico:
Inside the European Commission’s efforts to create a digital single market and how the creative industry is pushing back
Copyright fight club
http://www.politico.eu/article/copyright-fight-club-eu-regulation-european-commission/
EU wants to change how millions watch Hollywood films and YouTube videos, but legacy media groups are pushing back hard.
“They want to read articles, watch movies and TV programs online wherever they are, whenever they want, on whichever device they happen to be using”
The biggest tech fight on the Continent this year doesn’t involve Google or Uber, though those are big. Nor is it the raging Transatlantic policy debates over net neutrality or the privacy shield so steeped in technocratese of little relevance to most people.
The biggest is the fight over copyright. A looming overhaul of the morass of laws and regulations across the EU will impact how millions of people consume images, words and music on their various devices.
It’s moving on various fronts, investigating contracts between Hollywood studios and TV stations while preparing new legislation that could change everything from watching movies and sports to publishing videos on YouTube. President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Commission pledged from the start to tear down regulatory walls and create a truer European single market.
If advocates of open Internet came with the stronger hand and enjoyed the support of the Juncker Commission, the lobbying countercharge from the so-called creative industry has succeeded at least in toning down Brussels’ ambitions. The old boys of media have won a few battles. They’ve not yet won the war.
“It’s still very hard to read what is happening exactly and what the plan is,”
Ansip, the former Estonian prime minister, is famously digitally savvy. An avid gadget user, he is rarely seen without his iPad. He came in openly determined to ensure European citizens should not face cross-border restrictions. In one speech, in April last year, Ansip described geo-blocking as a “clear example of a practice that should not exist in the 21st century.”
In the other camp was Günther Oettinger, the EU’s digital society and economy commissioner. The German didn’t even have a computer in his office when he took up the post. He had no experience in tech
Where Ansip was perceived as sympathetic to the technology platforms and open Internet advocates, Oettinger was seen as more aligned with the traditional media companies.
“Hollywood studios are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with independent producers, emphasizing the creative industry’s economic and cultural importance to the EU.”
“They put a lot of pressure on themselves with that extremely ambitious agenda [at the beginning of Juncker’s presidency], putting copyright as one of the main objectives,” one lobbyist said. “But unfortunately they’ve put so much pressure on themselves that I don’t really see how they could stop.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daniel Terdiman / Fast Company:
New study predicts 2M VR headsets will be sold this year, and 36.9M by 2020, but the medium is still six to eight years away from mainstream adoption
It May Take Years For Virtual Reality To Go Mainstream, Says New Report
http://www.fastcompany.com/3058836/vr-gaining-steam-but-not-mainstream-yet-report-finds
There will be 2 million headsets sold by the end of the year, but it could take six to eight years for VR to reach a tipping point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon to offer $8.99/month stand-alone video streaming option in US; Prime membership to be offered monthly for first time for $10.99/month in US
Amazon Ups the Ante on Streaming Video
New stand-alone option for its service is direct challenge to rival Netflix
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/amazon-ups-the-ante-on-streaming-video-1460944802-lMyQjAxMTI2MDE5ODAxMjg4Wj
Amazon.com Inc. is firing a shot across the bow of Netflix Inc. by attempting to become a primary destination for streaming video.
The Seattle online retailer said Sunday it will begin offering its video-streaming service as a stand-alone option for the first time. A monthly subscription will cost $8.99, a dollar less than the most popular plan from Netflix.
The move pits the Seattle online retailer more directly against Netflix, which also happens to be one of the biggest customers of Amazon’s cloud-computing services.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the new monthly option could be turned off or on as customers wished, a possible benefit for shoppers during the busy holiday season.
“ Jeff Bezos is absolutely escalating the arms race with Netflix,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, referring to Amazon’s chief executive. “The two services will compete more closely for customers, and Amazon has the marketing advantage by offering the full Prime service for just a little bit more each month.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Popper / The Verge:
DJI releases the Matrice 600, a $4600 drone which can stream in 1080p at 60 FPS from a distance of 3 miles, as well as the $1600 Ronin-MX aerial gimbal — DJI just released its most powerful drone yet — The film and television industry are gathered in Las Vegas this week …
DJI just released its most powerful drone yet
The M600 is aimed at Hollywood’s heavy hitters
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/17/11448434/dji-drone-m600-ronin-mx-stabilizer-price-release
The film and television industry are gathered in Las Vegas this week for the National Association of Broadcasters’ annual summit, and this evening DJI showed off two new products aimed at the big budget productions rolling out of Hollywood. Claudio Miranda, the Academy Award-winning director of photography on Life of Pi, was on hand to help unveil the Matrice 600 (M600), a $4,599 drone with a laundry list of cutting-edge capabilities onboard. The main pitch: this is the heavy lifter you want to get your fancy cinema camera in the air.
The M600 has a new video downlink, LightBridge 2, which can stream in 1080p at 60 frames per second from a distance of up to 3 miles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US-CERT advice says kill Quicktime for Windows, quickly
Unsupported software with known bugs has no place anywhere
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/18/uscert_advises_quicktime_deletion/
US-CERT has echoed The Register’s advice to the effect that if you’re running Quicktime for Windows, it’s time to delete it. Right now.
The United States’ Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Response Team’s advice comes after Apple took Quicktime for Windows for its long drive down a country road.
As noted by Trend Micro at the time, that leaves a couple of wonderful bugs – ZDI-16-241 and ZDI-16-242 – to live forever.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sean Parker’s streaming service will change movies, and theaters can’t stop it
Neither can James Cameron
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/15/11439694/sean-parker-movie-rental-plan-the-screening-room-cinemacon-2016
Going into this year’s CinemaCon, the annual Las Vegas trade show for movie exhibitors, studios, and vendors, the biggest question wasn’t whether some company was going to pull a blockbuster announcement out of its hat. It was what kind of impact The Screening Room, Sean Parker’s recently-revealed service that will stream first-run movies to the home, would have on the proceedings. It was directly mentioned by name only once during the main studio presentations, but that didn’t really matter: from the tenor of the conference, it was clear The Screening Room’s threat of technological disruption is poised to change the movie business forever.
Word first broke about The Screening Room back in March, and Parker’s pitch is said to be relatively simple: consumers buy a $150 box that lets them watch first-run movies, starting the same day they appear in theaters, for $50 each. It would effectively collapse the theatrical window — the period of time in which new films are available only in movie theaters — and to compensate for fears over lost revenue, exhibitors would get up to $20 of that rental price. Parker had already lined up some heavy hitters before the news went public, with J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Ron Howard all proponents of the system, seeing it as an opportunity to grow the movie business.
Every studio at CinemaCon critiqued the service
The audiences cheered, of course, but that’s what you’d expect them to do.
J.J. Abrams who delivered the most honest comments of the conference. Receiving CinemaCon’s Showman of the Year award at the opening-night presentation, he took the stage clearly knowing that his support for The Screening Room needed to be addressed. And while he celebrated the benefits of the theatrical experience — “There is nothing better than going to the movies, and there never will be” — he also nodded to the inevitability of technological progress, stating that “We have to adapt” if the industry at large was going to remain viable.
Movie studios might let people rent films still in theaters for $50
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/10/11192688/screening-room-home-movies-sean-parker
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Create Reflection-Removing Camera
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/23-ntb/features/feature-articles/24417
In recent years, computer scientists have been investigating a range of techniques for removing reflections from digital photographs shot through glass. Some have tried to use variability in focal distance or the polarization of light; others, like those at MIT, have exploited the fact that a pane of glass produces not one but two reflections, slightly offset from each other. This led to them developing a system that fires light into a scene and gauges the differences between the arrival times of light reflected by nearby objects — such as panes of glass — and more distant objects.
In earlier projects, the Camera Culture Group has measured the arrival times of reflected light by using an ultrafast sensor called a streak camera. But the new system uses a cheap, off-the-shelf depth sensor of the type found in video game systems.
“You physically cannot make a camera that picks out multiple reflections,” says Ayush Bhandari, a PhD student in the MIT Media Lab. “That would mean that you take time slices so fast that [the camera] actually starts to operate at the speed of light, which is technically impossible. So what’s the trick? We use the Fourier transform.”
If two light signals — one reflected from a nearby object such as a window and one from a more distant object — arrive at a light sensor at slightly different times, their Fourier decompositions will have different phases. So measuring phase provides a de facto method for measuring the signals’ time of arrival.
There’s one problem: A conventional light sensor can’t measure phase. It only measures intensity, or the energy of the light particles striking it.
In collaboration with Microsoft Research, the researchers developed a special camera that emits light only of specific frequencies and gauges the intensity of the reflections. That information, coupled with knowledge of the number of different reflectors positioned between the camera and the scene of interest, enables the researchers’ algorithms to deduce the phase of the returning light and separate out signals from different depths.
The algorithms adapt a technique from X-ray crystallography known as phase retrieval, which earned its inventors the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1985.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Develop New Lens for Terahertz Radiation
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/23-ntb/features/feature-articles/24418
Terahertz radiation is a relatively unexplored slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it holds the promise of countless new imaging applications as well as wireless communication networks with extremely high bandwidth. The problem is that there are few off-the-shelf components available for manipulating terahertz waves. Now, researchers from Brown University’s School of Engineering have developed a new type of lens for focusing terahertz radiation (which spans from about 100 to 10,000 GHz). The lens, made from an array of stacked metal plates with spaces between them, performs as well or better than existing terahertz lenses, and the architecture used to build the device could set the stage for a range of other terahertz components that don’t currently exist.
“Any photonic system that uses terahertz – whether it’s in imaging, wireless communications or something else – will require lenses,”
The new device is made from 32 metal plates, each 100 microns thick, with a 1-millimeter space between each plate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
IBM inks video deals with AOL, CBC, more; debuts quality live-stream over ‘commodity’ Internet
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/18/ibm-inks-video-deals-with-aol-cbc-more-debuts-quality-live-stream-over-commodity-internet/
IBM today unveiled some significant strides forward in its bid to be a major player in the world of online and cloud-based video services, three months after the company acquired live-streaming startup Ustream and formed a cloud video unit. AOL (which owns TechCrunch), the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Comic-Con and Mazda have all signed on for IBM to provide online video solutions.
And IBM’s video unit is also launching two new services to expand its footprint in live-streaming: a product that will let media companies produce high-quality live-streams over ordinary broadband connections; and an enterprise CDN product that lets companies broadcast live-stream video within their firewalls without impacting other traffic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Trew / Engadget:
GoPro announces GoPro VR 360-degree video channel, mobile apps, discloses $5K Omni VR rig price tag, will demo “LiveVR” streaming at NAB show starting on Monday — GoPro announces VR video app and livestreaming tools — It’s been a busy few days for GoPro.
GoPro announces VR video app and livestreaming tools
GoPro VR and LiveVR give the action camera company an end-to-end virtual reality video suite.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/17/gopro-announces-gopro-vr-livevr/
It’s been a busy few days for GoPro. The firm officially took the wraps off its six-camera Omni VR rig last week, snagged one of Apple’s top designers, and partnered with over 100 companies with its new developer program. Today, the company revealed it’s launching a channel for 360-degree/virtual reality videos called “GoPro VR,” along with a version of its HEROCast wireless streaming tool for VR (called LiveVR). We also learned how much that Omni rig will set you back: $5,000 for a bundle with everything you need (six cameras, Kolor software, smart remote, cables, memory cards, etc.). If you already have enough GoPros in your kitbag, you can buy the rig on its own for $1,500, with pre-orders opening tomorrow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Crackle, Sony’s free, ad-supported streaming network, will launch on Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand on April 20
Comcast to Launch Sony’s Crackle on Xfinity On Demand
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/comcast-sony-crackle-xfinity-on-demand-1201755520/
Crackle, Sony Pictures Television’s free, ad-supported streaming entertainment network, will become available on Comcast’s Xfinity on Demand service on Wednesday, April 20.
The launch of Crackle by the U.S.’s biggest cable operator, with more than 22 million video customers, coincides with the digital network’s upfront presentation for media buyers Wednesday in New York.
Crackle, which Sony first launched as a brand in 2007, also is available across numerous other devices including Sony’s PlayStation consoles, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Microsoft Xbox and Roku.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Netflix net subscriber growth was better than expected with 2.23M in US and 4.51M overseas, but company gave weak guidance; stock down about 10% after hours
Netflix Drops on Weak-Growth Forecast
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/netflix-adds-more-users-than-expected-1461010680-lMyQjAxMTI2NzE4ODgxMTg4Wj
Disappointing forecast for its overseas business and concerns about slowing U.S. expansion sends shares down in after-hours trading
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA spools up ultra-high def aurora movie
Illuminating 4K timelapse shot from ISS
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/18/nasa_aurora_vid/
NASA has released an illuminating ultra-high definition video featuring the Auroras Borealis and Australis as seen from the International Space Station.
The movie was put together by “video delivery infrastructure solution” firm Harmonic, to punt the space agency’s NASA TV UHD.
Stunning Aurora Borealis from Space in Ultra-High Definition (4K)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJAR3-UvSQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jay Donovan / TechCrunch:
FLIR and Movidius unveil Boson, a smart miniature thermal camera with a 12-core System-on-Sensor
FLIR and Movidius create the smartest thermal camera out there
http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/18/flir-and-movidius-create-the-smartest-thermal-camera-out-there/
Even though they are a 38-year-old company, FLIR System’s advanced, miniaturized thermal imaging sensors and cameras keep them hip in the world of computer vision where mobile startups are propelling the field. This morning they announced a new product—the Boson Thermal Camera. The Boson is a small thermal camera and can be used for many applications like:
Thermal imaging—recognizable to most of us as the “predator vision” demonstrated by the alien in the 80s Schwarzenegger film
Facial recognition for various security or marketing efforts
Pedestrian detection (e.g. being able to detect the number of humans in a certain area and their movement or activity level)
There are many more things these cameras can do…even the super-resolution similar to the much internet-maligned CSI “zoom in” is actually possible through software manipulation of these kinds of cameras according to Movidius’s Jack Dashwood.
The Boson is half the size, one tenth the volume, one seventh the weight and twice as power efficient as the previous model made by FLIR which was called the TAU 2.
The 12 cores on the Myriad 2 chip are fully programmable which means the Boson can directly process images, combine thermal pixel information, or process facial recognition algorithms, directly on the Boson itself, in real-time. This camera doesn’t need to offload this processing to another subsystem or to the cloud.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung first 4K Blue Ray Player
The company will begin immediately to support Ultra HD resolution Blu-ray player sales in Finland. UBD-K8500 was introduced earlier this year in Las Vegas CES.
Samsung announces at the same time a partnership with Hollywood film company 20th Century Fox. Co-operation is to ensure that Ultra HD Blu-ray discs provide the best possible image quality HDR. 20th Century Fox will release all new films HDR-compatible.
UBD-K8500′s sales will begin immediately for a MSRP of € 499.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4288:samsungilta-ensimmainen-4k-blu-ray-soitin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheaper Vizio 4K TVs With Built-in Google Cast Are Here
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/16/04/19/2016209/cheaper-vizio-4k-tvs-with-built-in-google-cast-are-here?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Cutting-edge technology always comes at a premium for early adopters, but it never stays premium for long. After launching its new P-Series 4K TVs with built-in Google Cast last month, Vizio is bringing the feature to its lower-priced TVs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluorescence Imaging: Optical filtering basics for life sciences
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-51/issue-12/biooptics-world/biooptics-features/fluorescence-imaging-optical-filtering-basics-for-life-sciences.html?cmpid=LFWOpticalFilters04192016&eid=289644432&bid=1378106
Optical filters can have a dramatic effect on outcomes in life sciences. These principles demonstrate how next-generation thin film enhances excitation and emission in fluorescence bioimaging systems.
Optical Filters: Optical filter performance keeps improving-measurement techniques must keep pace
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-51/issue-01/features/optical-filters-optical-filter-performance-keeps-improving-measurement-techniques-must-keep-pace.html?cmpid=LFWOpticalFilters04192016&eid=289644432&bid=1378106
Measuring the new generation of steep bandpass filters with bandwidths less than 1 nm tests the resolution capabilities of instrumentation; more credible measurements in these high-performance regimes are now required to advance the boundaries of optical filter technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Harrison Exposes Hot Oil and High Voltage of Ancient Live Projector
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/19/mike-harrison-exposes-hot-oil-and-high-voltage-of-ancient-live-projector/
It’s amazing how quickly a technological pivot will erase the existence of what was previously a modern marvel. A great example of this is the live video projection technology known as the Eidophor. In the beginning there was film, and if you shined a light through it followed by a set of lenses you could project an image for all to enjoy. But what if you didn’t want to wait for film to be developed? What if you wanted to project live video, or real-time data for a room full of people who could not be served by even the biggest of the cathode-ray tubes of the time? This question led to the development of the Eidophor whose story has been all but lost.
Eidophor: 1950′s Steampunk Video Projection Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BvMcqEc98
Mike Harrison has been investigating a forgotten technology: the Eidophor. Before LCD projectors, an incredible engineering effort was put into developing a live video projector. What resulted is a machine that used a electron gun to manipulate a thin film of oil spread across a mirror. It was expensive, it was complex, and it was the best that could be done at the time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lara O’Reilly / Business Insider:
Google claims YouTube ads generate better return on investment than TV in 77% of cases after analysis of 56 campaigns across eight countries — Google attacks TV, saying YouTube ads generate a better return on investment most of the time — Google is once again directly targeting TV advertising budgets …
Google attacks TV, saying YouTube ads generate a better return on investment most of the time
http://uk.businessinsider.com/youtube-ads-have-better-roi-than-tv-according-to-google-2016-4?op=1?r=US&IR=T
Google is once again directly targeting TV advertising budgets by saying YouTube ads generate a better return on investment than TV commercials most of the time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jared Newman / PCWorld:
HBO Now heads to consoles with Xbox One and Xbox 360 apps (and some Samsung Smart TVs too)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3060094/streaming-media/hbo-now-heads-to-consoles-with-xbox-one-and-xbox-360-apps-and-some-samsung-smart-tvs-too.html
HBO’s first apps for consoles and Samsung Smart TVs are here to help you watch Game of Thrones without cable.
HBO Now has come a long way on app
support since launching exclusively on Apple TV one year ago. The streaming service has now added its first console apps for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, along with support for new Samsung Smart TVs.
HBO Now is a $15-per-month standalone streaming service, which offers the full HBO catalog of original shows, movies, documentaries, and specials. Although it doesn’t include a live feed of HBO’s cable channel, some shows—including Game of Thrones—become available at the same time as the live telecast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As long as smartphones are made, they have had the old 3.5-millimeter audio plug for headphones. But now it seems that it starts to disappear some time in the future.
Future iPhone is reportedly missing it. Apple transfer the audio output to the iPhone’s Lightning port.
Also Chinese Leeco opened the game with new Android models that have only USB Type-C connector.
Audio plug rejection of both plus sides that the disadvantages.
The consumer needs to buy new headphones.
For example with USB-C headphone listening is no longer possible at the same time, when the mobile phone is being charged.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4296:audioplugi-katoaa-alypuhelimesta&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Cable threatens to sue FCC: You can’t stop us ripping off customers
Common standards for set-top boxes? Ha ha ha
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/21/big_cable_to_sue_fcc_over_boxes/
The US National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) has threatened to sue the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) if it pushes ahead with plans to open up cable boxes.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday, the NCTA’s president – and former FCC chair – Michael Powell said that the plan to force cable companies to adopt common standards for data and provide them to third parties was illegal.
“The proposed rules are riddled with gaping holes and leave unresolved major legal problems that the rules themselves would create,” railed the paper. “The FCC may not adopt rules that create such problems and then leave the industry to sort out the mess.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Lucasfilm’s Master Foley Artist Perfected the Sounds in Your Favorite Movies
http://www.wired.com/2016/04/skywalker-sound-foley-artist/
At Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, movie magic is more than CGI. The compound already had three Foley stages—buildings where sound effects are created—but in October they created a fourth, and it’s a doozy: a facility built from the ground up not only to be acoustically perfect, but to have all the design features needed for Foley artist John Roesch and his team to practice their craft.
Over a nearly 40-year career, Roesch has worked on everything from E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark to Interstellar and Frozen. He gave us a tour of the new Foley stage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Monthly data limits by home broadband providers increasingly forcing consumers to cut back or cancel streaming video services in the US — Broadband Data Caps Pressure ‘Cord Cutters’ — Monthly limits by home Internet providers like Comcast and AT&T force people who stream Netflix or Sling TV to ration Web use
Broadband Data Caps Pressure ‘Cord Cutters’
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/broadband-data-caps-pressure-cord-cutters-1461257846-lMyQjAxMTI2MDI5MTAyMjE4Wj
Monthly limits by home Internet providers like Comcast and AT&T force people who stream Netflix or Sling TV to ration Web use
“I wouldn’t have regular TV if not for the data cap,” he says. “Comcast has got me by the throat.”
Data limits once seemed like a problem confined to smartphones. But millions of Americans are facing them in their living rooms as their home Internet providers require them to ration Web usage or pay surcharges.
That is a threat to Netflix Inc. and video upstarts that depend on broadband to deliver their service. Many have complained about it to federal regulators.
Fearful of crossing data limits, some customers say they are canceling the streaming services, including Netflix, Sling TV and Sony PlayStation Vue.
A family with several members could be using many services at once—video and music streaming on tablets and phones, online gaming, surfing social media and downloading software updates—which could burn through many more gigabytes per hour.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Marantz / New Yorker:
How storytelling pioneers are experimenting with GoPros, 3-D printers, and homemade camera rigs to invent a new medium, cinematic VR
Studio 360
The pioneers who are making the first virtual-reality narratives.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/25/making-movies-with-virtual-reality?currentPage=all
You put your smartphone into a portable device like a Google Cardboard or a Samsung Gear—or you use a more powerful computer-based setup, such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive—and the device engulfs your field of vision and tracks your head movement. The filmic world is no longer flat. Wherever you look, there’s something to see.
The producers at Wevr invited Bravo to write and direct a V.R. project. “I said no,” she told me. “It sounded like a technical thing, and I’m not into technical. But then I talked to my husband, and he said, ‘How often do people just hand you money in this business?’ So I changed my mind.” She thought about what kind of story might be told most effectively in the new medium. “The two words I kept hearing about V.R. were ‘empathy’ and ‘immersion,’ and I wasn’t sure that being immersed in one of my dark comedies would be all that useful.”
Instead, she wrote a naturalistic drama about a group of friends who encounter two police officers.
“We start by identifying people with interesting minds, and then we wrap them in a creative bear hug,” Batt said. This can entail weeks of meetings, phone calls, and test shoots designed to help directors unlearn much of what they know about two-dimensional films—or “flatties,” as V.R. triumphalists sometimes call them. Neville Spiteri, Wevr’s C.E.O. and another of its founders, said, “We’ve had traditional scripts that can’t work as V.R. unless they’re totally rewritten.”
Hard World for Small Things” would be a live-action short, with two scenes filmed on location.
The second, much shorter scene would take place inside the store. Bravo would use four wide-angle lenses, pointing in all directions from a single source, positioned so that the viewer felt like one of the friends. Then, in postproduction, Wevr would “stitch” the footage together to make a single spherical image. A three-hundred-and-sixty-degree camera rig picks up everything within view, including boom mikes, external lighting, and lingering crew members. It’s possible to remove such visual detritus in postproduction, but this adds time and expense. The standard practice is to call “Action!” and then run and hide. (The camera rig itself is edited out later.)
On traditional film sets, the director and the crew are present for almost every scene; on this shoot the car would hold only the camera rig and the actors, who would be wearing wireless microphones.
An engineer at Wevr built a camera rig out of aluminum and sandbags, to minimize jostling
Anthony Batt told me, “A lot of tech people are talking a big game about V.R. right now. A lot of scholars, people way smarter than I am, are coming up with theories about it. And then a few people, including us, are just diving in and fucking doing it.” Wevr has overseen more than twenty V.R. projects, and six more are in production. “Does that mean our stuff is always perfect?” Batt said. “Fuck no! It means we start with no idea of how we’re gonna make a project work, and we make it work. Or we don’t, and the whole thing turns to jello, and we learn.”
V.R. “experiences,” as they’re often called, can be fictional or journalistic, narrative or open-ended. They can look like small-budget movies, big-budget video games, or experimental art pieces with no obvious precedent. Some are called “cinematic V.R.,” or “V.R. storytelling,”
“One of the main challenges for storytellers is learning to think in terms of spheres instead of rectangles,”
Cinematic grammar no longer applies. There is no frame in which to compose a shot. An actor who directly addresses the camera isn’t breaking the fourth wall, because the viewer is already in the middle of the action. The viewer can look anywhere, so the director often adds subtle visual or auditory cues to indicate where to look, or to signal that the viewer’s gaze can wander without missing anything important.
Tracking shots must be steady and slow, because too much camera movement can cause discomfort—viewers have reported headaches, vertigo, and nausea. For the same reason, most V.R. experiences last only a few minutes; more sustained stories tend to be divided into episodes.
In “passive” V.R. experiences, you simply enjoy the ride; in “interactive” ones, the environment responds to your choices.
The Google Cardboard and the Samsung Gear have been on sale since last year. More sophisticated V.R. headsets have been available to developers for about two years, in prototype form, and are now reaching the market. The Oculus Rift, which produces precise localized audio, sells for six hundred dollars. The HTC Vive
Movies also began as filmed theatre, but directors learned to use the camera to heighten emotions.
It’s not clear whether zoom lenses can be used in V.R.; as far as I know, no one has tried yet. Nor do V.R. directors use montages, dissolves, or split screens—though these are all technically feasible, they might seem abrupt or confusing to the audience, which is learning to watch V.R. while its makers are learning to make it.
“There’s minimal editing, because we’re still figuring out how to do it,”
certain things either will or won’t make sense, and we won’t know until we throw it in a headset and look around
“Will we look back at these headsets and laugh at how clunky they were, like cell phones from the eighties? Probably. ”
Primitive head-mounted displays were invented more than half a century ago. The Headsight, built by Philco, in 1961, used magnetic head tracking and separate video projections for each eye. There was a wave of V.R. hype in the eighties, and another one in the nineties, but only in this decade has the technology become sophisticated enough for the wave to crest.
In 2012, a nineteen-year-old named Palmer Luckey started a campaign on Kickstarter
“It took a few weeks to port the underwater thing into it,” he said. “As soon as I put it on, I went, ‘O.K., this is what I do now.’ ” Wevr was born, and Spiteri’s underwater animation became a V.R. experience called “theBlu.” The following year, Facebook bought Oculus for two billion dollars. “That was the moment when everyone, including us, went, ‘Holy shit, this V.R. thing is not a drill,’ ” Batt said.
“theBlu” felt more like a demonstration of current technology than like a harbinger of the medium’s future: such tranquil experiences will soon have to compete against V.R. sports, V.R. concerts, V.R. shooting games, and V.R. porn.
“So far, most of the V.R. stuff I’ve seen is annoying,” Murray told me. “It’s too long, or it has no reason to exist in that form other than novelty, or you’re given the expectation that you can interact with the space when, actually, you can’t. But every once in a while you see a glimmer of something that makes you go, ‘I want more of that! ”
The shoot was scheduled for the next morning, at a sixteen-hundred-seat neo-Gothic auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. The entire space would be captured by four GoPro cameras, each about two inches in diameter.
“A lot will depend on exactly how we position the camera rig, and then we’ll do blocking and lighting around that.”
“GoPros are terrible in low light, so you’ll want to flood the actors’ faces,”
“A slight change in height makes a big difference,”
“For all of human history, art, music, storytelling, religion—those have been our modes for communicating the incommunicable,”
“Under your seats is a headset that will change the very nature of what it means to be human.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Camera Slider Helps get the Shots with E-Waste Controller
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/23/camera-slider-helps-get-the-shots-with-e-waste-controller/
A camera slider is an accessory that can really make a shot. But when your business is photography rather than building camera accessories, quick-and-dirty solutions often have to suffice. Thus the genesis of this camera slider controller.
The photographer in question in [Paulo Renato], and while his passion may be photography, he seems to have a flair for motorized dollies and sliders. This controller is a variable-speed, reversible, PIC-based design that drives an eBay gearmotor.
Slider Controller with Auto-Reverse and Variable Speed Control
http://paulorenato.com/index.php/electronics-diy/192-slider-controller-with-auto-reverse-and-variable-speed-control
Tomi Engdahl says:
Million Image Database
http://digitalarchaeology.org.uk/new-page/
“Photo documentation projects, like the Million Image Database, are a crucial part of preserving cultural heritage. Congratulations to the IDA on the unveiling of its new archive.”
– Dr. Alan Bowman, FBA, Oxford University, Director, Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
Introduction
The Million Image Database is an ongoing, international effort to document heritage objects throughout the world with a special emphasis on at-risk sites in the Middle East and North Africa. To that end, in collaboration with UNESCO, scientists at Oxford University, our other academic partners, and Dubai’s Museum of the Future, we have distributed lightweight, discreet and easy-to-use 3D cameras to a global army of volunteer photographers. We have also launched the Paper Archive Database, which aims to digitize and consolidate millions of historical images contained in hundreds of scattered collections. Finally, we are facilitating the use of social media platforms to collect images of heritage material. It is a true global effort, completely unique in scale and scope.
Mission
When Wikipedia took the bold step of creating an on-line storehouse for the accumulated conglomerate of human knowledge they defined their mission as “empowering and engaging people around the world to collect and develop educational content, and to disseminate it effectively and globally free of charge, in perpetuity.” Our mission, while focusing specifically on heritage material – objects, architecture and places – rather than educational content generally, is otherwise just the same.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Small Experiments in DIY Home Security
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/24/small-experiments-in-diy-home-security/
[Dann Albright] writes about some small experiments he’s done in home security.
He starts with the simplest. Which is to purchase an off the shelf web camera, and hook it up to software built to do the task. The first software he uses is the free, iSpy open source software. This adds basic features like motion detection, time stamping, logging, and an interface. He also explores other commercial options.
Next he delves a bit deeper. He starts by making a simple motion detector. W
Build Your Own DIY Home Security System with Text Messaging
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-diy-home-security-system-text-messaging/
Ask HackADay: Network Security Camera
http://hackaday.com/2010/04/10/ask-hackaday-network-security-camera/
Open Source Video Surveillance Software
iSpy is the worlds leading open source surveillance software for Windows PCs
http://www.ispyconnect.com/
iSpy the most feature-rich surveillance software in the world!. Some key features include: Unlimited Cameras and Microphones (including IP and USB cameras), Motion Detection, Motion Processing, Recording, Scheduling, Audio, Remote Access, Network Audio Broadcasting, Password Protection, Desktop Recording, YouTube Uploading, Cloud Uploading, FTP, SFTP, SMS, Twitter and Email alerts.
iSpy is the world’s most popular open source video surveillance and security software. With more than 2 million users worldwide, iSpy works with more cameras and devices than anything else on the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elmo Keep / Fusion:
Prince ferociously protected his copyrights, issuing takedown notices and refusing to stream his music through any service except Tidal
Why Prince didn’t want his music on the internet
http://fusion.net/story/294276/prince-music-not-on-the-internet/
Prince was an artist of such singular vision, possessed by talents so otherworldly that his being one of the greatest guitarists ever was often overshadowed by his embarrassment of other performative riches. He was a magnetizing sex alien, with a several-octave vocal range; a multi-instrumentalist who played every track on several albums; a producer of other artists’ mammoth hits; an interpreter of covers superior to the original; and a writer of a boatload of the most memorable and stylistically-eclectic songs in the history of pop music.
And Prince was an outlier in another way, one that put him at odds with the entire industry of music distribution on the internet: he didn’t want any of it to be there.
Many people trying to parse their grief today by sharing Prince’s music and performances online have discovered it’s not very easy to do. Prince ferociously protected his copyrights, enforcing his right as an artist to control the presentation and distribution of his work. On the web, he did this by ruthlessly issuing takedowns and refusing to stream his music through any service except the flack-catching Tidal.
This is how Prince always did things. You don’t become one of the most innovative, transcendentally-talented artists ever to draw breath without at the same time enacting some controlling, perfectionist tendencies over your output.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chris O’Brien / VentureBeat:
Limited availability on streaming services will diminish Prince’s legacy, while Bowie’s legacy, with his full catalog online, will grow over time — What Prince could have learned from Bowie about the value of music streamin
What Prince could have learned from Bowie about the value of music streaming
http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/22/what-prince-could-have-learned-from-bowie-about-the-value-of-music-streaming/
Musically speaking, there wasn’t a huge amount of overlap between David Bowie and Prince, the major pop icons who died this year.
Still, there were some important similarities. Many people will point to an obvious one: the occasional adoption of androgynous personas.
But I’m thinking of something more fundamental. Both men were insanely prolific. And while they each briefly enjoyed major pop chart success and sales status during their careers, they generally churned out massive catalogs without regard to sales or popular acclaim.
When I think of both artists, I think of lines from the musical “Hamilton.” Both men were “non-stop,” artists who really wrote “like they were running out of time.”
Now, however, one of their biggest differences has become glaringly apparent: their attitudes toward technology and music streaming.
Since we learned that Prince died yesterday, my friends who are true fans have been flooding their Facebook feeds with lists of their favorite songs and albums, particularly the obscure, late career ones. Prince was one of the few artists who could make Bowie look like a slouch: 39 studio albums over almost 38 years.
Prince’s catalog is only available online through the artist-backed Tidal music streaming service. I can’t blame him. Tidal offers double the royalties of other music streaming services, and has no free tier.
But otherwise, Prince’s catalog is pretty much locked away as far as users of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and Google Play are concerned. Tidal, naturally, is using that exclusivity to promote itself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:
YouTube capturing only a sliver of TV ad spending, with higher CPMs and content quality among the major concerns for advertisers
YouTube’s Quest for TV Advertising Dollars
http://www.wsj.com/articles/youtubes-quest-for-tv-advertising-dollars-1461343177
While the Google platform has had the most success siphoning off some TV ad spending, its challenges offer a cautionary tale for Facebook, Twitter
Cord-cutting is on the rise, ratings for many networks are in decline, Web video consumption is surging and there’s a new crop of stars on digital media. Surely, marketers are chasing this migration of mostly young viewers by diverting huge chunks of their television advertising budgets to digital video.
But, for the most part, that’s not happening.
Facebook and Snapchat get all the buzz these days with their billions of daily video views, but there’s really just one game in town when it comes to winning over any TV marketing money to the Web—YouTube.
YouTube has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of advertisers shifting spending from TV to chase viewers who have migrated to online video, but even the Google platform is siphoning away only a small fraction of marketers’ media budgets.
“Web-only properties are still making a case for a seat at that [TV budget] table versus sitting at the kids table,” said Adam Shlachter, president of VM1 at ad buying agency Zenith Media. “I don’t think it will change drastically this year.”
Overall spending on TV advertising is forecast to rise 0.5% to $63 billion this year, excluding the Olympics and political spending, according to the research and ad buying firm Magna Global.
Meanwhile, Web video advertising is expected to rise 28% to $9.8 billion in 2016, according to eMarketer, still a fraction of the money spent on TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The DisplayPort Display Interface: Robust and Future-Proof?
https://www.eeweb.com/blog/eeweb/the-displayport-display-interface-robust-and-future-proof
When it debuted in May 2006, DisplayPort was ahead of its time and faced stiff competition from HDMI in high-definition consumer electronics devices. The latter had already carved out a niche, and went on to become a nearly ubiquitous interface across millions of TVs, monitors, desktop video cards, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, and even laptops. DisplayPort, meanwhile, had only made its way into a few new PC monitors and digital signage displays. Fast-forward 10 years and we see a different situation: The rapid dissemination of 4K-resolution monitors demands greater video bandwidth for maximum performance than that which can be supplied through contemporary HDMI. Achieving 4K resolutions at anything beyond a 60-Hz refresh rate now requires DisplayPort. Worth noting, though, is that buying into the technology is a long-term investment, because DisplayPort allows for daisy-chaining multiple 4K displays, or future proofing for 5K (5,120 × 2,880) and 8K (7,680 × 4,320) resolutions.
DisplayPort is a license-free, royalty-free video and audio interface standard that allows both internal and external display connections. The standard was developed by the graphic processing unit (GPU) and display industry and is administered by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It was designed to replace the analog-VGA (video-graphics-array) and DVI (digital-visual-interface) interfaces in PCs, monitors, and eventually consumer electronics, as well as the internal board- to-display LVDS (low-voltage-differential- signaling) links in PCs and consumer electronics. DisplayPort features a high degree of interoperability by bridging multiple standards and device types.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Poopable Cameras
http://hackaday.com/2016/04/24/poopable-cameras/
Pill cameras, devices for ‘capsule endoscopy’, or in much cruder terms, ‘poopable cameras’, are exceedingly cool technology. They’re astonishingly small, communicate through a gastrointestinal tract to the outside world, and have FDA certification. These three facts also mean pill cameras are incredible expensive, but that doesn’t mean a hardware hacker can’t build their own, and that’s exactly what [friarbayliff] is doing for his entry into The Hackaday Prize.
First things first: [friarbayliff] is not building one of these for human consumption. That’s a morass of regulatory requirements and ethical issues
This pill camera will use a simple, off-the-shelf 2 megapixel image sensor that can be bought on eBay for less than five dollars. With a small 32-bit micro, these cameras are easy to drive and capture images from. Power is provided from a single silver oxide button cell battery and a boost converter. In total, [friarbayliff] estimates the total PCB area to be just under one square inch, making this a relatively inexpensive device to build. There will be a radio transceiver in there somewhere, but [friar] hasn’t figure that part out yet.
Tiny Wireless Capsule Camera
A tiny wireless capsule camera for medical imaging or space-constrained environments
friarbayliff
https://hackaday.io/project/10845-tiny-wireless-capsule-camera
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Netflix has no interest in live video — and what Facebook could learn from that
http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-netflixs-live-video-2016-4?r=US&IR=T
For years, Netflix had to fend off questions about whether it would ever be interested in live video, especially sports.
“There is no interest in live sports currently,” Sarandos replied.
But what about “live” in general?
“There’s not a technological reason that we wouldn’t want to go to live,” Sarandos explained. “Our brand proposition is very much about on-demand. To the extent that watching on-demand is better than watching live, we bring a ton of value to it.”
This places Netflix at odds to a lot of the tech industry now.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg seems to be very much in love with the social network’s new live video feature, and is reportedly trying to cut checks to stars to get on the platform. Twitter, which owns live-streaming app Periscope, recently struck a deal with the NFL to stream Thursday Night Football. Facebook was in the running.
But Netflix has firmly aligned itself linear TV, or making people watch a show at a particular time. And the whole point of “live” is saying, “You have to watch this now.”
Netflix doesn’t want this. It wants you to be able to binge-watch anything you want, whenever you want.
“Other people doing ‘live,’ I think it’s great,” Sarandos said. “It’s about a further expansion of internet television to include live. We don’t have to do everything, to be part of that expansion.”
Live can be inconvenient
Live video can be “raw and visceral” as Mark Zuckerberg has described it, but it’s also inconvenient. Having to watch something “now” or miss out is annoying. You can’t always drop everything next time BuzzFeed decides to blow up a watermelon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook is developing a stand-alone camera app with ability to livestream video, to encourage users to create and share more photos and videos — Facebook Developing Camera-First Format — Camera app to encourage users to create, and share, more photos and videos
Facebook Developing Camera-First Format
Camera app to encourage users to create, and share, more photos and videos
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/facebook-developing-camera-first-format-1461601368-lMyQjAxMTE2MTI5NTcyMTUyWj
Facebook Inc. is developing a stand-alone camera app to encourage its 1.6 billion users to create, and share, more photos and videos, people familiar with the matter said.
A prototype of the app developed by Facebook’s “friend-sharing” team in London opens to a camera, similar to disappearing photo app Snapchat, the people said. Another planned feature allows a user recording video through the app to begin live streaming, they added.
The project is in its early stages and may never come to fruition, the people said.
A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on product plans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dave McNary / Variety:
Lionsgate to distribute more than 100 films on Steam, including The Hunger Games
Lionsgate Launches Distribution Through Steam, Includes ‘Hunger Games’
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/lionsgate-steam-distribution-hunger-games-1201759667/
Valve Corp. and Lionsgate have formed a partnership under which Lionsgate will license more than 100 films to Valve’s Steam digital distribution platform — including all four Jennifer Lawrence “Hunger Games” titles.
The partnership, announced Monday morning, includes the titles from the “Hunger Games,” “Twilight,” “Saw” and “Divergent” franchises. The “Hunger Games” films grossed $2.9 billion worldwide while the five “Twilight” titles totaled $3.3 billion.
Lionsgate releases about 15 films a year and the companies plan to add more titles as the partnership expands worldwide.
“We’re delighted to partner with Steam, a leader in the digital entertainment and gaming space, as part of our commitment to remain at the cutting edge of innovation in delivering content to online audiences around the world,” said Lionsgate president of worldwide television & digital distribution Jim Packer. “With over 125 million users, Steam represents a unique, exciting and disruptive opportunity to expand our global distribution business.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Tilley / Forbes:
Hover Camera, a foldable drone, follows you automatically, with 13MP camera for 4K video, ships in summer for less than $600
This Self-Flying, Camera-Equipped Drone Can Follow You Anywhere
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/04/26/hover-camera-computer-vision/#281655396e47
Hover Camera’s creator, Meng Qiu “MQ” Wang, pulls out a small, rectangular device that looks at first like an external hard drive. He folds out the body, presses a button on the top and throws it into the air. It immediately begins hovering smoothly (yet loudly) in place. Four propellers sit enclosed in a carbon fiber grate, almost giving it the illusion that it’s floating magically. MQ walks around and the machine starts following him. He pushes it and it quickly flies back into place.