DigIn! Blog

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.

         

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.  

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! 

 

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.

John Curran of ARIN Speaks on IPv6 at Digital Government Institute Conference and CES 2010

CES has begun and we are very excited to have our panel on IPv6 this coming Friday at 1:30pm at LVCC South Hall S225. We are part of the Issues and Attitudes track which perfectly describes our session.

To give you a taste of the topic, watch this interview I did with John Curran, CEO & President of ARIN who discusses the reducing numbers of IPv4 address and why it is vitally important to prepare for v6 now. This was taped a the Digital Government Institute conference (9/17/09).

Gary Arlen & Robert Raciti on Crash Course with Limor Schafman at NAB 2009

by Limor Schafman   

NAB Show 2009 has been an exciting one with lots of talk about 3D and MobileDTV. Limor Schafman, show host of on Crash Course TVMainstream.com, discussed the latest tech and market trends with Gary Arlen of Arlen Communications and Robert Raciti of GE Capital.  Streamed live off the NAB Show floor and now archived and available for viewing, the show covers conference highlights and what they mean for broadcasters and media producers going forward. 

Check out the show and please write to me comments here, and/or to me personally at limor@tvworldwide.com.

Cheers - Limor

IPv6 Forum Israel Asks: Are You Ready for 2010?

by Limor Schafman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - The IPv6 Forum Israel yesterday, on March 3rd, held a day long tutorial on the New Internet protocol at day two of the ISOC-IL (Internet Society of Israel) Annual Conference.  Speakers  joined from the IPv6 Forum, Google, Juniper, CISCO, Piano Networks, Bechtel, the IDF, ECI Telecom, PurePeak, and KeystoneTech Group.

In this third annual IPv6 Forum Israel participation in the ISOC-IL program, the Forum asked: “Are you ready for 2010?” The session focused on the key the drivers of IPv6 deployment – the significant depletion of the IPv4 addresses, and the opportunity of innovative v6 driven application development.  “We are moving to another level of interest and focus with regard to IPv6,” says Limor Schafman, outgoing President of the IPv6 Forum Israel.  The ISOC-IL conference focused yesterday on personalized ad serving, mobile web, video games and virtual worlds, and cloud computing.  Each of these assumes and demands ubiquitous, connected, on-demand content distribution systems which can only exist if IPv6 is adopted, deployed and activated through new applications.”

The conference emphasized new applications such as Piano Networks’ Vidder video distribution v6 over v4 browser based application, case studies by Bechtel, and in-depth presentations by the IPv6 Forum, Google, Juniper, CISCO, the IDF, ECI Telecom, PurePeak, KeystoneTech Group and STKI.

IPv6 deployment and development is of particular importance to Israel.  “Israel’s economy is largely based on its famous high-tech industries, which have been one of the main engines of its growth. Recently it seems that its technological superiority compared to the rest of the world is diminishing. Countries like China, Japan, South Korea who prioritize development of advanced high-tech industries, have all of them have implemented IPv6,” says Sharon Peleg, CEO of PurePeak and in-coming President of the IPv6 Forum Israel. “If we do not come to our senses and regain the famous Israeli technological advantage by actively adopting IPv6, we may find the Israeli high-tech market and Israeli economy in general, in a much degraded state.”

The IPv6 Forum Israel IPv6 Tutorial conference program can be found at www.isoc.org.il.  The full video of the conference will be available on the site in a few days.

Contact Info:

IPv6 Forum Israel:  The IPv6 Forum Israel (www.IPv6Forum-Israel.com) is the local chapter of the IPv6 Forum. It’s mission is to It provides information, education and resources to promote the deployment and development of networks, systems and applications utilizing IPv6.  IPv6ForumIsrael@yahoo.com.

 

Limor Schafman: Limor Schafman, outgoing president of the IPv6 Forum Israel, is honored to have worked with the co-founders of the chapter.  She is president of KeystoneTech Group (www.keystonetechgroup.com), a Washington DC based interactive marketing strategy and implementation company using mobile, social networks, video games, and virtual worlds.

 

Sharon Peleg: Mr. Peleg, incoming president of the IPv6 Forum has over 12 years of experience in entrepreneurship and in product and business development. He is the CEO of PurePeak (http://purepeak.com) – a highly technological, leading company that provides advanced solutions for IP networking requirements, establishments of large networks, ISPs and NGNs, and provides high-end colocation solutions in premium data-centers around the world.

Business Opportunities in 2009: A Conversation with George Kliavkoff of NBC Universal

by Limor Schafman

 

I had the privilege this week to interview George Kliavkoff, outgoing Chief Digital Officer for NBC Universal, at the NY:MIEG (New York Media Information Exchange Group) [http://www.sobelmedia.com/2008/07/29/2396/]  Breakfast held at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Building.

 

With a focus on gift wrapping 2008 and casting forward to opportunities in 2009, we covered a number of different topics.  The full interview is available on TV Mainstream.  Here are some highlights:

 

Olympic Online Consumption

Customers want to consume media wherever they are and they are proving this with viewing behavior.  The Olympics stats are impressive:  2200 hours of live programming, 52M unique on line viewers, 1.4B page views, and 10M hours of streaming media over the 16 day period of the Olympics.  Note however, that 90-95% of Olympic coverage consumption was on the TV, with the remainder on the Internet and a very small amount on mobile.  The numbers show what a success the Olympic Games were for NBC Universal, and proves the adage that customer experience needs to be a driver of product and services development.  If it is, advertising, investment, and other revenue streams will follow. 

 

 

Smart Co-opetition Partnerships Can Build Success

Consumers want ease of use, convenience and a great customer experience.  If you build it and there is value, consumers will come.  Seeing the hunger for digital media and knowing quantity and quality of content were needed to draw consumers in, NBC sought out partners, and formed a joint venture with News Corporation to distribute premium content online with an advertising revenue model.  Hulu was born and today reaches 98% of the US marketplace with its multiple and varied distribution partnerships.  MSN, Yahoo! MySpace, AOL, Comcast, TV.com all stream Hulu video, with the video player skinned with that particular brand’s logo. CBS and ABC/Disney are the only two companies not working with Hulu, though their content can still be searched found and linked to through that site.  The centralized aggregation and distribution of premium content gives Hulu the scale and means to be successful.  

 

Advertising

Kliavkoff believes monetizing content with advertising will not be as difficult as people think.  Companies will be more concerned with the use of their dollars, so there will be a “flight to quality.” Though reduced in quantity, the money will be there. 

 

One interesting nugget of learning from tests on Hulu is that while consumers don’t like to view advertising, they will view it for value received.  And when given a choice between seeing a long movie trailer up front or a series of shorter advertisements over the course of a video steam, the surprising research results are that people are divided 50-50 as to preference.

 

Opportunities for Development Investment in 2009

Innovation is a key driver of revenue, and now is the time to invest in new technologies and new business models.  NBC/U and GE Commercial Finance created the Peacock Equity fund to make Series B investments in technologies that are tangential yet related to NBC/U’s core business. Capitalized with $250M, the fund has invested $100M thus far in 11 companies.  One company has successfully exited – Adify was acquired by Cox Enterprises for $300M within 6 months. Other investments include those in ad networks, mobile, and video games advertising companies.  These give a sense of how NBC/U is perceiving its business going forward, what it considers “tangential,” and where the opportunities lie for companies starting to build technology now.

  

George believes that the future lies with digital platforms replacing traditional distribution and advertising mediums. Distribution of content across all platforms – traditional, internet, mobile and onward is the plan of the future. Companies wanting to place bets will find advertising dollars seeking out digital means to deliver their messages when they return to the market place. Local distribution and advertising will become personal.  Advertising delivery systems that can target consumers with their specific needs (to buy an automobile) with advertising and information for as long as they need that content (once the car is bought, ads shift to nearby locations for road-trips or oil change discounts), will be of interest to consumers and investors.

 

Mobile has undergone an opening of the doors of possibility with the introduction of the iPhone, the Android OS and the G phone. George anticipates a marketplace for premium applications and a wave of new mobile development and associated business models. Of particular interest to him are companies focused on personal productivity and services.  This is an underserved and compelling market sector.

 

As a final wrap, George named 2008 the year of “Great Achievements,” and sets the bar for 2009 with the tag, “Recession Accelerates Shift to Digital.”

 

You heard it here first and to listen to the full interview in George’s own words, go to NY:MIEG’s online TV Channel. 

 

Live Streaming Video With A Twist

by Limor Schafman

I attended AUSA [Association of the U.S. Army] Conference today to see what some of the latest technologies are.  The conference is fascinating - it covers everything from boots, to Oakleys, to camouflage netting, to head mounted displays, water proof paper, and Bradley assault vehicles.

One very interesting technology was a fully integrated system of data feed to a mobile command center and soldiers in the field, each being able to interact and see in real time live streaming video and have situational awareness that was shared among them.  Mobile laptops, head mounted displays, video capturing telescopes all interfaced and fed one another seamlessly.  Potentially quite effective.

But the technology that really got me - perhaps because it is powerful for both commercial and military uses - was Video Flashlight(tm) by Praetorian a subsidiary of L3 Communications.  This technology takes multiple streams of video, all streaming live and scalable to any number of cameras [50, 70, 100, more], and makes accessible on demand as overlays to a 3D model.  The result is a 3D immersive display that gives a real time video look at what is happening on the ground (or in the air for that matter).  Imagine Google Maps' Satellite view on steroids. That if you clicked on a part of a map, instantly that section would come alive with streaming video, which could be manipulated from various angles.  That is what this system does.

The streams are layered onto a 3D visualization model of a terrain, for example.  The 3D terrain of anything and can be well defined, or not, it doesn't matter.  Wherever you put your cursor within that 3D model, the live streaming video from the appropriate camera automatically streams and layers real world action on the model.  If you zoom in and shift to the right, the appropriate camera will pick up and start streaming that particular angle that would be viewed if you were actually in that location.  If you zoom out to a bird's eye view, you then can choose which parts of a building you want to see, for example.  You can see where your security personnel are located, and where infiltrators or burglars are located.  All with a click of a mouse.

The technology also can be activated to act intelligently so that if someone is loitering, or an unexpected package is sitting too long in one location, or there is motion where there should be none, or someone is approaching a secure area, that relevant video stream will automatically pop up and become central so that security surveillance teams can see what is going on.

I can tell you that I have seen quite a bit, and this technology blew me away.  It was streaming, live, seamless, immediate, comprehensive, and scalable to a significant  number of video inputs.  OK, they were selling and I bought it hook line and sinker.

Oh, forgot to add that the technology works with existing CCTV systems, and can link to Microsoft Windows PCs, and PDA's. 

Current uses are in the military, large public facilities like the Meadowlands, and, I can't wait to be able to write about this one, they are doing something truly innovative for the Redskins.  I am sworn to secrecy until they launch, but it will make that revived team even more exciting to watch.

Mayor Bloomberg Kicks Off Internet Week

by Limor Schafman

Gracie Mansion was abuzz this evening with 200+ Internet Week officionados.  The brain child of David-Michel Davies ("DMD"), Internet Week was strongly supported by Kathy Oliver, Film Commissioner for the City of New York.  Bloomberg gave the event a healthy kick-off talking about the importance of the technology and digital media sectors for the economic well being of the city.    The goal of the city is to make New York the place "where the people that you need, want to be," said Bloomberg.  And they have a global perspective. The Mayor also announced the official launch of NYCSeed - a funding mechanism for local internet startups, and the fact that NYC-TV is up for a Webby Award this year (check out the site - you'll see why).    Bloomberg topped off the evening by giving DMD an official Proclamation announcing New York's support of Internet Week.  Way to get a vision realized!