DigIn! Media

CES 2012: Augmented Reality Steps into Toys

by Limor Schafman

Toys and games for kids have become that much more exciting now that interactivity and augmented reality are joining the fore of how children can play and learn.  

There were three examples at CES that are worth noting.  First, during the Microsoft keynote by Steve Ballmer, the Kinect was showcased through a partnership with Sesame Workshop in creating Kinect Sesame Street TV.  Microsoft is taking current TV programming and turning them into interactive experiences - partially streaming video; partially interactive video game - all with the intention of keeping children engaged while learning. (Note: thank you to GameSpot for this video).  In the video you will see the learning component, coupled with the interactive participation of voice and gesture enabled through the Kinect with Sesame Street characters reacting to viewer actions and responding immediately depending on what the viewer - shall we call them now players/actors/active learners do.          

Internet Blackout Day Protesting SOPA/PIPA

by Limor Schafman

Fraud v. Freedom - this is the context of the protest black out day you may have noticed taking place across United States based websites.  Visit Google's search browser with its black swath across its name and you will have a good visual of their sentiments.  

The issues presented by the legislation under dispute need to be addressed - fraud, security, copyright infringement.    But is legislation the proper way?  And should the legislation be so broad?  Should the Internet be subject to censorship?  Should we have our freedom of expression curtailed and subject to a central authority of review and power?  The furor around SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)/PIPA (Protect IP Act) is largely around the over-reaching implications of the proposed bills.  

The Washington Post has put together some explanations of the two bills and the surrounding controversey, which are worth looking at.

For the actual text on the bills so you can form your own conclusions, see:

SOPA - HR 3261

PIPA - S 968

I welcome your thoughts and comments - should Congress get involved in Internet oversight?  Why?  Why not?  And if so, to what objective, extent and best way to implement.  

Limor

CES 2012: Do Food and Advertising Mix?

by Limor Schafman

We've all heard of pop up restaurants being done by famous chefs and haute design food encounters created by the likes of David Rockwell (Nobu around the world). Foodies love it when the pairing of food and design come together.  How about when the design is digital, produced by projection, allows for games and interactive location based fact finding right there at table top and advertisers can buy your table for you and even top themselves up on the menu list if they pay enough.

 

That is what Inamo and their restaurant chain offers.  

2012 International CES: Unusual and Cool Finds at CES

by Limor Schafman

You've heard about the Samsung and LG seemingly paper thin 3D OLEDs (let me tell you they are amazing and the wall of 50+ LG 3D screens at the entry of the booth was mind boggling), but there were other small finds at CES that you may not have heard of so I will share them here. 

 

The Intel keynote with CEO Paul Otellini showed us what the power of chips can do beyond the gorgeous ultrabooks that proliferated the show floor.  Here we see the Adidas store footwear wall that was showcased in the London flagship Originals store and resulted in a 5% uptick in new product sales in two weeks.  

Then we move to the futuristic with the Aerial 3D Display made by Burton - these

are laser lights that truly create Star Wars like 3D holograms in regular air (in other words they do not need to have another particles in the air like mist in order to be seen as most laser displays require).  The laser lights can be interactive.  Apparently, you can make the lasers interactive with the Kinect, and probably any other interactive device like a tablet or smartphone. The can go as high as 5M in the air and 3M wide.  They can be multi-colored as long as they do only one color at a time.  

 

 

This is the Printing Dress which was featured at the Microsoft booth.  Made almost entirely out of paper, it allows you to tweet and display the text as art on the skirt.  While clearly a prototype - if you pear closely under the hem of the dress you can see the massive keyboard which is not condusive to elegantly moving through a crowd - the barrier between thought to public communication has lost one more brick.

 

Robitics in small sizes had a presence at CES as shown by Cubelets produced by Modular Robotics.  These are plastic building blocks that have sensors built inside and when you combine them, you can get the combinations to have different capabilities.  Matt, who works for Cublelets, gives us a great demonstration.  The Cubelets are available for direct purchase at the Modular Robotics website.   

 As you may have guessed, mobile devices are becoming the interface to our lives - they will (and in some cases already do) control our HVAC home systems, or TVs and radio systems, our car settings and garage door system, etc. etc.  Shelby.TV enables your iPhone to become your social media interactive video remote control.  Whew!  That was a lot of things together. What they do is they gather your Twitter and Facebook feeds and see what your friends are recommending you to watch. They then pick up the links, and post the friend comment with the video so you know why it is showing up on your Shelby.TV.  While you are watching, you can also comment and it will go back out to your social net.  And all this interaction between you and the TV is done through your iPhone or tablet. The app is free on iTunes.

 Another interactive I liked which was shown at the Verizon booth is the DNA Wall by Downstream which uses a mind mapping tool to display marketing information in a very dynamic way.  If you check out The Brain, you will see it is exactly the same.  I have used The Brain for a variety of projects for mind mapping a solution structure out, but also have used it for presentations.  A great way to keep the visual dynamic and the content visually structured.

And to drive out out of this blog into the next, we have Romotive's little Romo's which is a smartphone based toy vehicle in which one smartphone resides, and then another smartphone can control it.  It works with iOS and Android phones.  Very cute, very fun and just $99 if you want to give it a go.  

More CES highlights to come... 

2012 International CES: Fun Finds at CES Unveiled

by Limor Schafman

Several themes are already starting to emerge as topics we will be hearing a lot about over the next few days:

1. CEA analysts project over 100m tablets to be purchased worldwide in 2012.  But the tablet market is maxing out with purchase rate increments starting to flatten.  
2. The largest buying upsurge in smartphones is going from Africa and the Middle East; and the same with tablets and all forms of mobile devices.  This is attributed largely to the lack of infrastructure in these countries which is forcing people to immediate go mobile.  China also shows the same trends.
3. Ultrabooks are grabbing the market of mobile PCs.
4. Desktop purchases are down. 
5. TV market penetration is maxed out. The belief is that most households that want TVs now own them. 
6. TV tech is going to LCDs which are shifting quickly to LED and will OLED slowly but steadily as prices continue to drop.
7. 3D TV is said to be on the rise.

The pre-conference press expo called CES Unveiled showcased several companies (Picture left show Gary Shapiro, CEO of CEA and Steven Smith Editor in Chief of Twice).  

 

I highlight here below some of the fun and interesting finds:    

House of Marley - (LVCC Central #15237) This company, started in the name of Bob Marley, always have music oriented product (headphones, radios) have fantastic design.  The product materials are strictly conservation and natural in focus- wood is FSC compliant (Forest Stewardship Council – chop one/plant one); plastics, cardboard boxing are all from recycled product; and any cloth is hemp or recycled cotton.  Visit this booth to see a good example of aesthetic, planet conscious consumer electronics.

My PowerBag - Won an Innovation Award – a bag that has a battery charger in it that can recharge multiple devices as well.  Takes 3 hours to charge the bag, and then you are good to go with plenty of power for the road.  Allegedly the bag isn’t heavy but didn’t have a chance to test that myself.

MyCharge - This is a small device – about the size of a smartphone, just a bit thicker – that can be charge through electrical outlet or USB and then used as a portable charge for up to 5 devices simultaneously.  Nice compact charger with all the cord attachments built into it. 

Kivic - This is a streaming multimedia device that takes media from the iPhone and streams it through itself to a car system.  One way to take your personal media on the road.

Eers - by Sonomax, this gadget produces custom fitted earphones within 5 minutes.  You put the SonoFit™ Custom Fitting System over your ears and adjust.  They do not go too far in so no damage to eardrums.  The silicon forms to your ears unique shape.  After 5 minutes, you remove the earpieces and place them on your own headset and you are ready to go. 

Bikn - (LVCC Central Plaza 8) Produced by Tree House Labs, this is a sensor platform for anything you want to track, find and measure.  They are developing multiple products based on the platform – one of the first is a lost and found application.  You have the sensor attached to whatever it is you want to keep track of (phone – has a special casing with the sensor built in); a pet; a child; etc. The iPhone application (Android OS is under development) shows on the phone where the item is.  You can activate the application to show location, to show how close you are to what you are searching for (in case it is not immediately visible) and you can set geographic boundaries so that if an item is suddenly outside the set zone, an alarm goes off.   Another product places sensors in a football helmet so that if a player hits his head, you can know the level of impact sustained.  They are also offering the platform to companies for license or as part of services for the production of privately developed products. 

Invoxia - (LVCC North #6406) This product produces VOIP over iPhone through an elegant handset.  The system is unique in its interface [you interact through the iPhone]; it can manage 8 mikes simultaneously so it acts like a Polycom office system; it auto-configures with existing PBX systems as well; they are beginning to offer their own telecom services (France currently, and coming to the US).  They too won an Innovation Award.

Sculpteo - This was one of the most interesting technologies I saw.  It allows for 3D sculpting based on designs that you can do yourself.  It is a cloud based system in which you can design products; they handle the production of the item in plastic or ceramic.  You can use the application for free, and then just pay for production.  The company is partnering with manufacturers to produce large orders.

3M - (LVCC South 4 #35806)was showing a multi-touch screen which offers a steady base with a min of 20 simultaneous touchpoints.  Works with a Windows 7 computer. It’s being used by the military as a flight simulator- Lockheed Martin has taken 18 screen monitors to create a cockpit and then can train soldiers on multiple aeronautic interfaces by simply choosing another flight sim software application rather than building another actual simulator.   The financial sector is using the screens in brokerage rooms, and they can be found in the retail space as well. (Yep, those are my creative doodles testing 20 points with the sales person.)

 Parrot - (LVCC South #31424 and LVCC Central Plaza CP9) This company was showcasing its flyingrcraft technology which can be used for remote controlled video capture.  Tablets (and presumably smartphones and touch screen laptops) control the drone.  What is shown here is the AR.Drone, the first quadricopter piloted by wi-fi and using augmented reality.  

3D Is the Future of Broadcasting

by Limor Schafman

This statement was made by James Cameron during the opening Keynote of NAB 2011 that he did with Vince Pace.  Their fireside chat was part sales pitch of their newly formed partnership - Cameron Pace Group (CPG)- and a peek into the future of 3D film and broadcast.  

Their newly formed company is a declaration of their belief that 3D will become part and parcel of all film and video capture.  They ultimately envision that having separate units to film 2D and 3D will be replaced with all film/video capture taking place in 3D with 2D being stripped out and used when needed.  

One aspect which I found both interesting and greatly appreciated about their talk is Pace's bottom line perspective that 3D needs to generate revenue and it should not be costly.  They stressed repeatedly how important it is approach 3D filimg with operational intelligence.  And that 3D is second to the way operators work, Directors direct, and to the story.  They do not believe that anyone should be forced to change how they work.  Rather, to use the expertise that people have and add the component of 3D when it makes sense.  This is clearly a message that was directed to the broadcasting audience that is value+cost sensitive.  

One example that took place this past weekend is the PGA Masters.  Of the 18 cameras filming the Masters, 6 had a 3D shadow cam on the unit which used the same eye, 2 shared robos and 2 cameras shared jibs.  The whole point of the CPG approach is to integrate 3D video capture seemlessly/with minimal impact with existing 2D operations.  And to keep costs down. And btw, the 3D picture looked beautiful.

Cameron spoke of the content gap that exists currently with regard to 3D video.  The Consumer Electronics market leaped ahead beginning last year into 3D.  Without content, purchases are low. Producers don't want to shoot in 3D because of the low audience numbers.  Regardless of this slow uptake of 3D in theatres and home entertainment, Cameron and Pace believe that 3D is the future with technology arriving within 4 years to a place where glasses will not be necessary for 3D viewing.  At this point, Cameron warned, if a company does not have experience with 3D and that content in the can, they will be behind the wave.  Production and distribution winners will be 3D-rich in content.  

The session was capped with upcoming 3D film releases for Transformers, Cirque de Soleil, The Three Muskateers, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  And let me tell you - they looked great! 

 

IPv6 & Security: Do Your Planning Now

I caught up with Dale Geesey, COO of Auspex Technologies at the IGovernment conference on IPv6.  He has been working with and training others in IPv6 for many years and knows what it takes to implement this new Internet protocol and how it can be used.  

As with every corporation or government entity, security is key so Dale and I discussed what IPv6 really has to offer.  You'll need to watch the video to learn more, but know that the bottom line is that v6 can be an asset, but advance planning, preparation and implementation are the crucial to effective protection using this new protocol.

 

US Dept of Veteran Affairs Sees IPv6 as a Continuity of Service Enabler

At the IGovernment IPv6 conference I can't tell you how excited I was to see Steven Pirzchalski of the US Department of Veteran Affairs show pictures of IPv6 enabled products which were not servers - they were actual hospital equipment using IPv6 for connectivity and tracking.  Who would have thought?!  Well, I'm glad someone is thinking about how to take IPv6 out of the realm of the black box and into the world of useful applications.

That is exactly what Steven and I discuss here - how using IPv6 allows for services to be given to veterans, in a way that brings higher quality of service to them and at less cost to the Department.  Continuity between the healthcare services provide by veteran hospitals and the veterans themselves - the end to end point connectivity - is the value IPv6 brings to such applications as sleep disorder monitoring and care.  

 

A Look at How Bechtel Implemented IPv6

At the IGovernment IPv6 Conference, I had the pleasure of speaking with Fred Whettling of Bechtel.  He brings his expertise as well as a visionary view to that company.  They have used his skills to great effect - by which I mean, they listened to him where other companies would have ignored his views.  

The result is that since 2005, Bechtel has been slowly and steadily rolling out IPv6 throughout its corporate infrastructure.  In this video interview, Fred shares with us the process they used, some of the issues encountered and their solutions, and how to manage change between development, Q&A ad production.

 

2D/QR Codes Pave the Way to Consumer Focused Augmented Reality

by Limor Schafman

One of the interesting things about this year's CES was the arrival of technologies long in the works and now ready for consumer use. Such is the case with Augmented Reality.  All the rage in marketing and advertising circles, augmented reality, the use of digital interfaces or other extra-experiential mechanisms or story telling tools to bring an enhanced experiences to a given situation, is starting to show up increasingly in the consumer world.

  Now, we've been seeing the use of 2D, also known as QR, codes for some time in some one-time-only oriented advertising by brands, on magazines, coke cans and bus stop posters.  And the uses have been pretty cool.  Now we are seeing a resurgence and we will be seeing greater ubiquity in usage.  Hallmark cards will be releasing a special brand of card using 2D codes. I have not yet heard what will be the augmented part of the experience (if you go to the Sobel Media event tomorrow morning and learn more, do tell), but the very fact that a name brand is taking 2D codes and making in part of a card found in any store, is a commentary of how accessible the technology is now.

   Intel, interestingly enough at CES, was showing off its new i5 core processor with an augmented reality display.  As you will see in this video, they chose to use Esquire's December issue with Robert Downey Jr. as an example of technology requiring enough processing power to use their new chip. 

To get the full effect of what is happening with the AR, check out this video by Esquire on the December issue:

I have to say that I was not buying that this could only be done with the new Intel chip. Nevertheless, it is nice to finally see technology which was showcased 10 years ago at Siggraph and which I saw also demoed at the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Lab at that time, finally hit the mass market.

Taking this one step further, tonight, at the Disruptathon event in Tysons Corner, VA, I saw another level of 2D code use.  Until this point, we have been seeing 2D codes that are all the same, thus featuring the same media - very creatively, but still a mass production. Ven Chava of AirArts has taken this to the next level with his company's TalkingTag products. With patent pending technology, Chava has created a system for producing unique 2D codes which then allow for very personalized use of the codes to create UGC media as an augmentation to whatever you want to stick a tag onto.  This enables voice, photos, video and other data of ones own making to be added to anything that has this unique identifier - like a post note or notebook page.  All you need is an iPhone or Windows Mobile phone. Take a look at this video interview with Chava to hear more in his own words:

Take TalkingTag's technology and put the tags on Hallmark cards and you have a whole other level of personalized greetings. On the simple level think what this could mean to direct mail, books, magazine and newspaper articles.  Add the TalkingTag fingerprint-style uniqueness and imagine how cool it would be if we could embed 2D codes in a tweet and other social media communications.  Configure a photo with a 2D embedded watermark and add vocal commentary or any other additional media.  As you can see, I think Chava is on to something quite big.  Check out the TalkingTag store for products with which you can create your own augmented reality experiences.

Now if you want to hear more about Esquire and from some of the thought leaders in this area, walk fast and be ready to stand at the SobelMedia Augmented Reality panel breakfast taking place at the Samsung Experience Store in the Time Warner Building in NYC tomorrow, Thursday morning.  Come bright and early at 7:30am to hear from David Curcurcito, Creative Director for Esquire; David Polinchock, founder of the Brand Experience Lab [with whom I saw the first iterations of this technology at Siggraph oh so long ago]; Doug Dimon, Creative Director/Broadcast Design at Creative Bubble/NYC and Adam Broitman, Ringleader of Circ.us.  And with digital media visionary, Richard Carey, as moderator.

I'm always interested in hearing more about cool uses of 2D codes and experiences and explorations into augmented reality.  So please do write in and send links to cool things we should take a look at.