Thursday, January 21, 2016

 

HOLOLENS - CHOOSE THE DEMO


Hololens allowed everyone to share their ideas for Hololens projects. Then Microsoft picked three. Beginning at 12 PM Pacific (3 PM NY) for 24 hours anyone can vote on which demo MS will execute (and share the development process).

The FINALISTS are here:

https://microsoftstudios.com/hololens/shareyouridea/thefinalvote/


Here's my take:


I am somewhat disappointed in the 3 projects selected for possible development, as they make only basic use of only a few of the capabilities of the Hololens.

GALAXY EXPLORER has (potentially) the most interesting content, but makes little use of the essential/unique properties of the Hololens. In particular. It only uses the fact that the space you are in has walls, and that you are untethered.  There is little or nothing in this project that could not be done as well with any powerful VR system (including a tethered Rift – with virtual motion).

AIRQUARIUM also uses only the untethered property of the Hololens, and that in a limited way: it almost requires the space to be free of obstacles that could be a tripping hazard. Robotic or even autonomous fish are possible in any VR system; since the fish are computer generated, info about the fish is not really AR: any VR system can deliver info about objects it has generated. Now, if this App worked in a REAL aquarium, allowing you to “interact” with REAL fish (eg that swim into your virtual space or which you could “dissect” as they swim) that would be more of a demo of unique Hololens attributes. The best thing about this project is the name.

GRAB THE IDOL (which has the worst name) is an uninspired game.  It does make the best use of the real space in which it is played. Everything else depends on the quality of the game design, puzzle creation and visual effects (and finding a better name).


GALAXY EXPLORER showcases the ability of the Hololens to manage and use a huge database of information with a visual user interface.  AIRQUARIUM showcases the ability of the Hololens to create virtual creatures that interact with the user. GRAB THE IDOL showcases the ability of the Hololens to create a fictional interactive overlay on a complex real space. But while these projects showcase specific features, they do not (on the face of the descriptions given) really do credit to the full range of the Hololens’ unique combination of features. Also, these projects all seem aimed at grade-school aged children (though implementation could make the content as advanced as desired). None seem designed as directly suggestive of business applications.


Some of the features of the Hololens used by these applications are:
Spatial mapping
Spatial audio

Voice control
Gaze control
Gesture control

Creation of images and text placed in the mapped space
Creation of high quality images
Interaction (eg IMU) with the virtual images
Accessing a (local or possibly remote) large database of information


Some of the features that are not used are:

The ability to send real information about a space to a remote user
The ability of two or more users, local or remote, to interact with each other
The ability to identify and provide information about real objects
The use of audio or video recording or streaming
Complex features of Cortana
The ability of generated creatures to interact with moving objects or real (live) creatures
The ability to create autonomous interacting creatures more complex than fish
The ability to create really interesting, fun applications
The ability to do complex tasks where a complex series of features are required for implementation
The ability to navigate between tasks
The use of a GPS for location specific tasks
The ability to use the Hololens to create art, drama, music …
The ability to do useful, interesting, unique commercial work such as
              Virtual shopping
              Virtual selling
              Office tasks
              Unstructured searching and research
              Product development
     Teleconferencing
The fact that the Hololens is attractive and futuristic
The very fact that wearing the Hololens is a “fashion” “lifestyle” statement


The problems with the three selected applications are that (a) they are all similar in their target audience (b) use features of the Hololens that can for the most part be replicated in other VR and AR systems and (c) are not on their face obviously importantly useful, compelling, or really fun.


Of the applications, GALAXY EXPLORER and AIRQUARIUM have some very interesting features, but they do not show off enough of what makes the Hololens important and unique, so I’ll have to pick GRAB THE IDOL, the game, partly because we know the least about it, so it can be most easily improved.   It does use a distinct feature of the Hololens, the ability to map the app onto a random space.  Perhaps the specific challenges in the game when programmed will be fun, and illustrate lots of features of the Hololens. In fact, since this game is open ended, specific challenges could incorporate the features of well-designed autonomous creatures from AIRQUARIUM; the large database and visual data interface from GALAXY EXPLORER; and task navigation (by selecting the order of challenges to tackle). I’d also recommend (and hope the project adds):  (a) A NAME CHANGE! and (b) multiplayer (even remote) features.

The official Hololens site is:


The Hololens YouTube Channel is:

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Sunday, January 10, 2016

 

GOLDEN GLOBES 2016


GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES 2016

NBC SUNDAY JAN 10, 2016
7:00 RED CARPET
8:00 AWARDS

Hosted by Ricky Gervais

It's worth noting that many of the nominees this year were recently at the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) as rising stars, including: Double nominee Alicia Vikander; also Mara Rooney, Brie Larson, and David Oyelowo. 

Cecil B. DeMille Award: Denzel Washington

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Mad Max:Fury Road
Room
Spotlight
The Revenant
Carol

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Joy
Spy
The Big Short
The Martian
Trainwreck

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Saoirse Rona- Brooklyn
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Rooney Mara - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Will Smith - Concussion
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Lily Tomlin - Grandma
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Melissa McCarthy - Spy
Maggie Smith - The Lady in the Van
Amy Schumer - Trainwreck

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Al Pacino - Danny Collins
Mark Ruffalo - Infinitely Polar Bear
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Steve Carell - The Big Short
Matt Damon - The Martian

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren - Trumbo
Jane Fonda - Youth
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Michael Shannon - 99 Homes
Idris Elba - Beasts of No Nation
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone - Creed
Paul Dano - Love & Mercy

Best Director - Motion Picture
Todd Haynes - Carol
George Miller - Mad Max:Fury Road
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
Ridley Scott - The Martian
Alejandro Iñárritu - The Revenant

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Emma Donoghue - Room
Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer - Spotlight
Aaron Sorkin - Steve Jobs
Charles Randolph, Adam McKay - The Big Short
Quentin Tarantino - The Hateful Eight

Best Motion Picture - Animated
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
The Good Dinosaur
The Peanuts Movie
Anomalisa

Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language
France - Mustang
Hungary - Son of Saul
Belgium, France, Luxembourg - The Brand New Testament
Chile - The Club
Finland, Germany, Estonia - The Fencer



Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Carter Burwell - Carol
Daniel Pemberton - Steve Jobs
Alexandre Desplat - The Danish Girl
Ennio Morricone - The Hateful Eight
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto - The Revenant

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
Love Me Like You Do - Fifty Shades of Grey
See You Again - Furious 7
One Kind of Love - Love & Mercy
Writing's On The Wall - Spectre
Simple Song #3 - Youth

Best Television Series - Drama
Game Of Thrones
Mr. Robot
Narcos
Outlander
Empire

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Casual
Mozart in the Jungle
Orange is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
American Crime
American Horror Story: Hotel
Fargo
Flesh & Bone
Wolf Hall

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Lady Gaga - American Horror Story: Hotel
Queen Latifah - Bessie
Kirsten Dunst - Fargo
Sarah Hay - Flesh & Bone
Felicity Huffman - American Crime


Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Patrick Wilson - Fargo
Idris Elba - Luther
David Oyelowo - Nightingale
Oscar Isaac - Show Me a Hero
Mark Rylance - Wolf Hall

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
Taraji Henson - Empire
Robin Wright - House of Cards
Viola Davis - How To Get Away With Murder
Caitriona Balfe - Outlander
Eva Green - Penny Dreadful

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama
Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Rami Malek - Mr. Robot
Wagner Moura - Narcos
Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Rachel Bloom - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Lily Tomlin - Grace and Frankie
Gina Rodriguez - Jane The Virgin
Jamie Lee Curtis - Scream Queens
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Veep

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Aziz Ansari - Master Of None
Gael García Bernal - Mozart in the Jungle
Rob Lowe - The Grinder
Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent
Patrick Stewart - Blunt Talk

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Regina King - American Crime
Joanne Froggatt - Downton Abbey
Uzo Aduba - Orange is the New Black
Maura Tierney - The Affair
Judith Light - Transparent

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Ben Mendelsohn - Bloodline
Christian Slater - Mr. Robot
Tobias Menzies - Outlander
Alan Cumming - The Good Wife
Damian Lewis - Wolf Hall 



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Friday, January 08, 2016

 

QPORIT's VAMP:ire XRG >> PRODUCTIONS FOR VR / AR / MR


VAMP:ire XRG
QPORIT’S new XR PRODUCTION GROUP


Almost magical advances in the last few years, expanding dramatically in the last few months, and even in the last few days! makes it possible now to view 3D and full spherical panoramic videos (VR videos) comfortably and enjoyably on YouTube as well as on many other VR platforms.

Moreover, YouTube VR videos are not only accessible to VR viewers, the same videos can be viewed as standard YouTube videos by everyone. For the first time, distributing 3D and panoramic videos is available to all creators and accessible to all viewers: that is, everyone!

Beyond YouTubeVR, there are many other systems becoming available this year for all kinds of interactive entertainment, educational, scientific and marketing applications.

We are planning to create an eXtended Reality (XR) video production company. 

eXtended Reality ( XR ) includes...
·        Virtual Reality (VR)  -- Facebook Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Google Cardboard, etc;
·        Augmented Reality (AR)  -- Google Glass II and more;
·        Mixed Reality (MR) -- notably Microsoft Hololens and Magic Leap
·        And other realities!


Our working (possibly?; maybe, maybe not, permanent) name is:

 “QPORIT’s VAMP:ire Group”. 


QPORIT and VAMP:ire are both acronyms:

QPORIT
Quick Previews Of Random Interesting Things

VAMP:ire
Virtual Augmented & Mixed Productions: 
interactive reality entertainment

Note: Vampires draw blood and are long lived, 
both good qualities for a video production group!


We have several projects in process -- beginning with extending our current coverage of film, theater, new tech (especially XR) and other Interesting Things with much more coverage using YouTube VR, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, HoloLens and other XR platforms!

FILM & THEATER
NEWS VIEWS REVIEWS PREVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
PRESS CONFERENCES & RED CARPETS

XR TECHNOLOGY
    NEWS REVIEWS & HOW-TO’s

We have also started working on the development of some major XR & transmedia content projects including a fictional XR dramatic series; the remembrance of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death; an immersive modern adaptation of an edgy, seductive, political, 2500 year old masterpiece, for LIVE performance and filming as a 3D 360 Virtual Reality Feature; and a BIG XR TRANSMEDIA SCIENCE PROJECT: a live theatrical and eXtended Reality project with the style and pizazz of a Broadway Show -- the best science-technology-convention-conference-documentary ever!             

We will also create 3D & panoramic commercial projects for stand-alone presentation in all XR formats, including Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Cardboard, other mobile platforms, and Microsoft HoloLens, and ads for insertion in YouTube VR videos.


We would love to hear from anyone
interested in learning more about 
QPORIT's VAMP:ire Group


PLEASE CONTACT US AT



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Wednesday, January 06, 2016

 

OCULUS RIFT PRE-ORDERS OPEN


The Oculus Rift has just (as of 11 AM EST 1/6/2016) started taking pre-orders.

The price is $599. The estimated shipping is May 2016.  (Update: First units may ship in March.)

It is possible that developers with a game or product for the Rift that will be ready when the Rift ships can get a device earlier.

Backers who obtained the DK1 from the original Oculus Kickstarter campaign will be given a FREE Limited Edition Rift as a Thank-You for their support!

The Rift will ship with some free games, a controller and a new remote.

The pre-order form includes software that will check your computer for compatibility with the minimum specifications. In part:

GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDEO GTX 970 or AMD 290 or better
MEMORY: 8 GB or more
PROCESSOR: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or better
VIDEO OUTPUT: HDMI 1.3 Compatible
OPERATING SYSTEM: 64 bit Windows 7 SP1 or newer
USB: 3x USB 3.0 plus 1


A full description of the requirements and some certified "Oculus Ready" machines (at $999.00) is available at

OCULUS READY COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS
https://www.oculus.com/en-us/oculus-ready-pcs/



A bundle, soon to be available, with a $999 Oculus Ready computer, and the $599 Rift will cost $1499.


MORE LINKS

OCULUS HOME (Pre-order here!)
www.oculus.com

OCULUS KICKSTARTER
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game

BIG THANKYOU!!! FROM OCULUS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2016/01/big-thankyou-from-oculus.html


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Tuesday, January 05, 2016

 

BIG THANKYOU!!! FROM OCULUS


Oculus starts taking orders for the Oculus Rift tomorrow (Jan 6, 2016)!


In a gesture of great generosity, and in the spirit of promoting the success of Virtual Reality, as a big THANKYOU!!! to its earliest supporters on Kickstarter, OCULUS is sending a free copy of the newest, about to be released, official Rift, to everyone who subscribed to its initial campaign and signed up for the first DK1!

THANKYOU!!! from OCULUS 

and

THANKYOU OCULUS!!!

If you were a subscriber to the Oculus Kickstarter campaign, 
just log into your Kickstarter account
and confirm your address for shipping!

www.kickstarter.com


If not, to pre-order the new Oculus Rift, go to Oculus:

www.oculus.com


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Monday, January 04, 2016

 

Pre-CES VR NEWS


Recent VR news heading into CES...

1. Oculus Rift has just announced it will start accepting pre-orders on Jan 6 https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

2. YouTube now accepts 3D and full spherical panoramas. They play as VR in Gear VR and Google Cardboard. And they can be viewed as ordinary YouTube videos.

3. Microsoft has opened a Hololens demo center at their flagship store on NY.
https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2015/12/17/microsoft-hololens-experience-showcase-opens-for-developers-at-the-microsoft-flagship-store-in-new-york/

4. Gear VR, Convrge, and Altspace all have beta versions of Gear VR compatible social media chat rooms. Gear VR also has a beta web browser. Milk VR accepts 3D panoramic videos up to 25 GB.

5. Rumors and pre-beta announcements include: patents, hires and acquisitions that point at VR development at Amazon and, especially, Apple; new streaming 3D and panoramic cameras; and a distance sensor based on radio frequency waves. HTC is announcing they will announce improved technology at CES. There are dozens and dozens of VR related companies, products and events at CES.

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Friday, January 01, 2016

 

2016 CALENDAR - HOLIDAYS, TECH EVENTS, AWARDS, FILM FESTIVALS



2016 CALENDAR



EVENT TYPE DAY START END
JAN
NY DAY HOLIDAY FRI 1-Jan
CES TECH CONF WED 6-Jan 9-Jan
GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS SUN 10-Jan
SUNDANCE FF THU 21-Jan 31-Jan
SAG AWARDS AWARDS SAT 30-Jan
FEB
DGA AWARDS AWARDS SAT 6-Feb
CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAY MON 8-Feb
BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL FF THU 11-Feb 21-Feb
PRESIDENTS DAY HOLIDAY MON 15-Feb
LONDON BAFTRA AWARDS SAT 27-Feb
ACADEMY AWARDS AWARDS SUN 28-Feb
MAR
SXSW FF 11-Mar 18-Mar
GDC VR TECH CONF TUE 14-Mar 15-Mar
EASTER HOLIDAY SUN 27-Mar
APR
TRIBECA FF WED 13-Apr 24-Apr
PASSOVER HOLIDAY FRI 22-Apr 30-Apr
Shakespeare died 1616 HISTORY SAT 23-Apr
MAY
CANNES FF WED 11-May 22-May
STREAMING MEDIA EAST TECH CONF THU 12-May 13-May
JUN
E3 TECH CONF WED 14-Jun 16-Jun
JUL
IND DAY  HOLIDAY 4-Jul
SIGGRAPH TECH CONF MON 24-Jul 28-Jul
AUG
ON VACATION?
SEP
LABOR DAY HOLIDAY MON 5-Sep
NYFF FF FRI 23-Sep
OCT
ROSH HASHONAH HOLIDAY SUN 2-Oct 4-Oct
HIFF FF THU 6-Oct 10-Oct
COLUMBUS DAY HOLIDAY MON 10-Oct
YOM KIPPUR HOLIDAY TUR 11-Oct 12-Oct
NOV
ELECTION DAY ELECTION TUE 8-Nov
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY THU 24-Nov
MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY MON 30-Nov
DEC
HANUKAH HOLIDAY SAT 24-Dec
CHRISTMAS EVE HOLIDAY SAT 24-Dec
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY SUN 25-Dec
NY EVE HOLIDAY SAT 31-Dec

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    Quick PREVIEWS Of Random Interesting Things

     
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