Hillcrest Labs says it has adapted its FreeSpace system to bring gesture recognition technology to Android and Windows 8 devices.
The company explains that the introduction of gyroscopes, accelerometers and other sensors has made phones viable candidates for Kinect-style movement recognition.
The FreeSpace motion engine is currently used in Roku set-top boxes and Smart TVs. Hillcrest Labs hopes to use the technology in phones and tablets by early next year.
According to SVP Chad Lucien, gesture recognition has wide potential. “In addition to being used in such obvious areas as gaming and augmented reality, sensors can detect when a phone is in a car, and can change the interface and aid indoor navigation by detecting where a phone has headed once it leaves GPS range,” he says.
“The Motion Picture Association of America released statistics today saying that Chinese theatrical revenue grew 35 percent to nearly $2 billion last year, making China the world’s third biggest film market behind the U.S. and Japan,” reports paidContent. “More quietly, though, a U.S.-based upstart VOD distributor, YOU On Demand, might be emerging as an even greater force for U.S. studio profits in China.”
YOU On Demand entered China under a 20-year exclusive contract from the government to run national VOD services.
The New York-based company, run by former professional wrestler Shane McMahon, drew attention last year when it signed Warner Bros. to the first VOD deal in China. Within the last month, the company announced agreements with Disney, Lionsgate and Magnolia Pictures. More studio partnerships are expected.
“YOU On Demand has been able to entice American studios with a ‘anything is better than nothing’ proposition, given the traditionally rampant piracy of U.S. video content in the region,” suggests the article. “Going forward, the company projects sizable revenue for its U.S. partners, who provide their video content on a revenue share basis under which they control a majority interest.”
New Paradise Laboratories, a Philadelphia-based theatrical company, is using social media to make its stories and characters available to the audience even before the show opens. This approach appeals directly to people who might not attend theaters but are active Internet users.
In their “Fatebook” production, NPL used Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to allow the audience to interact with the actors in character. The actual live show became the party where all the characters met.
In “Extremely Public Displays of Privacy,” one actor spent a year creating the character online that included pictures, songs and Facebook entries.
“What I loved the most was that I had a constant outlet for my creativity. I would follow my impulses. I was creating little pieces for my character,” explains actress Annie Enneking. “After the show closed, it felt like a little death.”
“In addition to molding the two characters’ lives online, the play also incorporated geo-location technology where a character guides you through a park,” reports Mashable. “Audience members could download a sound file for a 45-minute guided tour in a Philadelphia park. Online audiences can take a virtual walk online via YouTube. The third act completed the play with a real-time performance in Philadelphia where the theater is based.”
Can’t feel your phone vibrate in your pocket? You may soon be able to get a vibrating tattoo for your phone alerts. A new patent by Nokia outlines a magnetic ink for body tattoos that can connect to its smartphones.
“Ferromagnetic ink in the tattoo, applied to the body via stamp, tape, or ink, reacts to a smartphone’s magnetic field, meaning calls or voice mails received on a smartphone can then trigger a vibration in the tattoo’s magnetic ink,” Mobiledia explains.
Nokia hasn’t commented on the technology, leaving questions such as whether users can disable vibrations during sleep, Mobiledia points out.
There are also other up-and-coming haptic innovations reliant on magnetic vibrations that help blind students navigate computers and turn any surface into a touchscreen.
Market research firm Penn Schoen Berland recently polled 750 social network users ages 13 to 49 regarding their interests in social media and entertainment.
According to THR, 90 percent of respondents “view social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a new form of entertainment, and more than half say social media sites are important tastemakers in determining what to watch and buy. Perhaps more surprising, 80 percent of television viewers visit Facebook while they watch.”
“The poll found that a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theater would add to their experience, and nearly half would be interested in going to theaters that allowed texting and Web surfing,” reports THR.
“Millennials want their public moviegoing experience to replicate their own private media experiences,” says pollster Jon Penn. “Having dedicated social-media-friendly seats, or even entire theaters, can make the moviegoing experience more relevant and enjoyable for them.”
Vevo and Yahoo! Music have a new syndication deal that will allow fans of Vevo’s videos to stream them on Yahoo, “one of the most heavily trafficked websites in the country,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Yahoo! gives Vevo a way to reach viewers outside of its other syndication partners and its own web and mobile properties. In aggregate, Yahoo! sites reached 173.5 million unique U.S. visitors in February, according to comScore, putting Yahoo! third behind Google sites (220 million) and Microsoft sites (186.6 million),” the article states.
“The layout of Vevo videos at the Yahoo! Music page has the familiar Vevo look: a black background, a Vevo-branded player in the center of the page, popular Vevo videos on the right column and a video playlist scrolls across the bottom of the page,” reports THR. “Videos have pre-roll advertisements and, below the video player, and display advertisements as well.”
Available in the UK and North America, Vevo is a joint venture music video and entertainment platform between Universal Music Group and Sony Music. Vevo’s extensive catalog also includes content from EMI Music and a long list of independent labels.
Following Yahoo’s lawsuit filing against Facebook, the social network is buying hundreds of patents from IBM to build up its intellectual property portfolio, which pales compared with Yahoo’s.
The lawsuit concerns 10 online advertising patents that Yahoo says Facebook has infringed upon. According to Reuters, a “classic defense” for companies facing patent lawsuits is to threaten with countersuits involving their own patents, which could be Facebook’s motivation for the patent purchase.
“The 750 patents from IBM cover a broad range of technology, ranging from search to semiconductors, according to a person familiar with the matter,” the article states.
Facebook is also prepping for its initial public offering that some analysts have suggested could value the company near $100 billion.
After 18 months of development, the Obama administration is enacting new rules that reduce restrictions on counterterrorism efforts.
“The guidelines will lengthen to five years — from 180 days — the amount of time the center can retain private information about Americans when there is no suspicion that they are tied to terrorism, intelligence officials said. The guidelines are also expected to result in the center making more copies of entire databases and ‘data mining them’ using complex algorithms to search for patterns that could indicate a threat,” the New York Times reports.
Officials say the same information was available under the previous rules, but it was far more cumbersome for analysts. However, privacy advocates are unsure about the change, raising civil liberties concerns.
“There is a genuine operational need to try to get us into a position where we can make the maximum use of the information the government already has to protect people,” Robert S. Litt, the general counsel who oversees the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Times. “We have to manage to do that in a way that provides protection to people’s civil liberties and privacy. And I really think this has been a good-faith and reasonably successful effort to do that.”
Netflix is taking new steps to boost its content offerings. The streaming video and DVD rental service has plans to produce an original horror series to premiere next year and may potentially acquire two broadcast dramas.
“Netflix describes the 13-episode horror series, ‘Hemlock Grove,’ as a ‘gripping tale of murder, mystery and monsters set in a ravaged Pennsylvania steel town,'” reports Mashable. “The show is based on a Brian McGreevy novel by the same name and is being directed and produced by Eli Roth. ‘X-Men’ actress Famke Janssen and ‘Anna Karenina’ actor Bill Skarsgard are among those who have already been cast for the series.”
The streaming service is considering buying rights to the recently cancelled Fox show “Terra Nova” as well as ABC’s “The River,” which is expected to be cancelled after the first season.
“For Netflix, amassing a large stable of original series is just one way the service is attempting to win the broader industry battle over content,” the post states.
According to research firm IHS Screen Digest, online movie viewing will exceed viewing on DVDs and Blu-ray this year.
Legal online viewing is expected to grow from 1.4 billion movies last year to 3.4 billion this year. Meanwhile, viewing movies on physical discs will decline from 2.6 billion to 2.4 billion.
Streaming services from Netflix and Amazon represent 94 percent of paid online movie viewing.
“The report highlights the price disparity between online purchases and movies sold in retail shops,” reports Bloomberg. “Consumers paid an average of 51 cents for every movie consumed online, compared with $4.72 for physically purchased videos, IHS found.”
“We are looking at the beginning of the end of the age of movies on physical media like DVD and Blu-ray,” says Dan Cryan, IHS senior principal analyst. “But the transition is likely to take time: almost nine years after the launch of the iTunes Store, CDs are still a vital part of the music business.”
Adobe is currently offering a free beta download of Photoshop CS6 for both Mac and Windows. The first major upgrade in two years, CS6 is expected to hit the market by June.
“Adobe says highlights of the next version of CS6 include an addition to its content-aware component called Patch, similar to Clone, where users can choose a sample area they want to patch and then blend pixels ‘for a stunning result,’” reports Digital Trends.
Adobe is emphasizing dramatic enhancements to speed and performance for the new release.
“The final product will come in two versions — the standard Photoshop CS6 and the more expensive Extended edition with its extra features,” explains the post. “The free beta version offers users the full Photoshop experience.”
The latest Android tablet from Acer is the quad-core Iconia Tab A510, which the company claims is its fastest tablet to date.
According to Acer, the upgraded processor offers “three times the graphics performance compared to previous generation processors.”
The A510 will include the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Additional features: 10.1-inch screen, 1280 x 800 resolution, 1080p video playback, Dolby Digital sound, 32GB memory and two cameras.
Pre-installed apps include Polaris Office 3.5, Evernote, Netflix, Kindle and Google Music.
Pre-orders for the $450 tablet began yesterday. “While there are no words yet on when the tablet will ship, the special edition models will celebrate and sponsor the upcoming 2012 Olympic games in London by featuring the five Olympic rings on the back of the tablet,” reports Digital Trends.
Spotify has added 12 new tools to its app approach to music streaming, including: TweetVine, Def Jam, Filtr, Digster, Classify, Hot or Not, Domino and more.
According to Digital Trends, Spotify “now has more than 10 million active users and over three million paying subscribers.”
“For all its faults (and it isn’t faultless), the service is capitalizing on its idea of being ‘the OS of music,’ and consumers are liking it,” indicates the post.
The majority of the new apps address music search and discovery, tour dates, new releases, curated playlists, other related data and social interaction. Digital Trends provides a brief description of each app.
Competition in this space has seen numerous changes of late, more of which is expected to play out this year. “We think there’s room to grow — and we think there’s room for multiple services,” Rdio CEO Drew Larner recently explained in an interview. “It’s inevitable we’re going to see a shakeout, probably in the next 12 to 16 months. There’s going to be some consolidation.”
Cameron Pace Group is focusing on 3D workflow and business models, and joining groups to rally support for their efforts. The Sports Video Group this week welcomed CPG as a platinum sponsor.
“When Cameron and Pace joined forces 12 years ago, their mission was to create a new entertainment experience for feature films,” reports SVG. “More recently, the mission of their company, which was formed last year, has expanded to include the non-theatrical broadcast world.”
CPG has been extending this mission to include sports broadcasting. The company supports “ESPN 3D and CBS Sports, with their 3D sports productions, including US Open tennis, The Masters golf, NBA All-Star Game, and MLB Home Run Derby.”
CPG’s sports production is centered on the company’s Shadow D technology, an integrated 2D/3D camera system that captures both 2D and 3D images at the same time.
“By combining the 2D and 3D deliverables, CPG hopes to push the ubiquity of 3D in all markets, whether feature film, episodic television, or sports broadcast,” explains SVG.
At the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit in Salt Lake City, Viacom unveiled a new ad service called Surround Sound.
The service will enable advertisers to reach audiences across every screen on which Viacom has a presence — from television and online video to premium displays, mobile or other digital platforms.
Surround Sound will be available for Viacom media networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Spike and VH1. It is powered by Adobe’s AudienceManager platform.
“With Surround Sound we’re able to extend those audience buys across all of our properties, find those individual unique audience segments — what we’re calling ‘pinpoint accuracy’ — to be able to serve them targeted and most relevant ad experiences,” explains Josh Cogswell, SVP of digital products at Viacom.
Surround Sound offers advertisers scalable media buys across nearly 100 million homes on-air, more than 80 million unique visitors online, and the mobile and email users the company reaches globally.
