There are a growing number of companies working on technologies that strive to make a person’s voice more intelligible to the listener over speakers, headphones, hearing aids and other consumer audio devices. Augmented Hearing, a Danish startup launched two years ago, is one of the more interesting companies at CES 2023 focusing on this space. The firm’s software-based solution runs on iOS, Windows and other CE operating systems. Their solution could mitigate the current trend of people across all age groups turning on closed captioning because they often find video dialogue difficult to understand. Continue reading CES: Startup Leverages AI to Address Problematic Acoustics

Razer introduced its latest plug-and-play webcam at CES, the Kiyo Pro Ultra, a $300 4K device that features AI-powered face-tracking and an HDR mode. The company claims its first 4K webcam touts the “largest image sensor ever used in a webcam” and promises “DSLR-like video quality.” The new device — which records 4K at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps — has a dust cover similar to that of its predecessor, the Kiyo Pro, but Razer has introduced additional protection with a built-in physical privacy shutter. It has also added an omnidirectional microphone, which should help it compete in the webcam market. Continue reading CES: Razer Updates Kiyo Pro to Launch Its First 4K Webcam

Consumer Technology Association (CTA) vice president of regulatory affairs J. David Grossman introduced U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson, NTIA administrator, who addressed the CES audience on federal plans to expand broadband access in 2023. “As you all know, the Internet today is the essential tool in our modern world,” he said. “Yet, in 2023, millions of people in this country don’t have the access or skills they need to take advantage of the Internet.” After 20 years of talk, he added, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will now provide over $65 billion to invest in that mission. Continue reading CES: Government Plans to Address the Digital Divide in 2023

The idea that gaming might be the industry sector that eventually leads everyone else into the metaverse is being discussed extensively online and elsewhere. During a compelling CES panel, GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi moderated an exploratory conversation about that possibility with a group of today’s leading game innovators and executives. Takahashi noted that the panel’s concept comes in part from Meta vice president of content & play Jason Rubin, who said that the metaverse will need a game engine, therefore game developers will be the first to create it. Continue reading CES: Experts Ask If Gaming Will Lead Shift to the Metaverse

At CES this year, Canon and Sony both showcased multi-camera capture technologies with an eye towards attracting a younger generation of viewers. Canon’s Free Viewpoint video system (using an AI-powered ring of high-resolution cameras in a stadium or arena) and Sony’s combined tools from its Hawk-Eye vision processing company and recently-acquired AI-based data visualization firm Beyond Sports can create low-latency virtual reproductions of live sports. The capture from multiple angles enables the virtual reproduction to offer interaction that a simple video stream does not, though each technology is distinct in what it offers. Continue reading CES: Canon and Sony Tools Provide a Virtual Take on Sports

Both the European Parliament (the EU’s law-making body) and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were represented on a CES panel on “AI Rules and Tools,” moderated by CTA vice president of emerging technology policy Doug Johnson. Also on the panel were executives from Facebook parent Meta Platforms and insurance provider Elevance Health, for a robust discussion on how to arrive at standards and regulations for the powerful — but often industry-based — AI technologies that will also be accepted by countries around the world and industries with competing interests. Continue reading CES: Addressing Challenges to Creating Global AI Standards

Mobile Electronics Association president Chris Cook quizzed CES panelists on innovations in the smart car space. Accenture digital strategist Monika Minarcin noted that AI doesn’t just power autonomous driving but also voice recognition, digital assistants and precision marketing. At Humanising Autonomy, chief executive Maya Pindeus is using behavioral AI to build a global standard for interaction between people and machines. DarkStar Vision chief executive Joe Scalisi is working on a passive color night vision solution that he believes can “enhance the automotive sector” with rear view mirrors and motorcycle helmets. Continue reading CES: Digital Disruptors Focus on the Connected Car Industry

Nvidia announced during CES this week that it plans to roll out its RTX Video Super Resolution feature in February for web video content viewed through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. The company promises AI upscaling up to 4K quality, but the feature requires a PC running a Nvidia 30- or 40-series GPU. The technology — which can upscale video with resolution between 360p and 1440p, including 1080p, and up to a 144Hz frame rate — has already been available on Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro streaming media players. However, introducing browser support should significantly increase its audience. Continue reading CES: Nvidia’s AI Upscaling Tech to Tackle Blurry Web Video

QuickVid is a new AI-driven text-to-video platform aiming for a mass market user base. The tool draws on various generative AI systems to automatically create short-form videos for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. Created by former Meta Platforms programmer Daniel Habib “in a matter of weeks,” QuickVid is quite rudimentary, though Habib says he plans to continue fine tuning and adding features. Unlike Google and Meta have done with their nascent text-to-video systems, QuickVid has bypassed the formalities of research papers and industry previews and jumped directly to a public-facing website. Continue reading QuickVid Uses AI to Create Short Videos from Text Prompts

At Nvidia’s CES 2023 keynote, executives revealed new products and innovations in laptops, gaming, the omniverse, robotics and auto technology. Nvidia senior vice president of gaming Jeff Fisher focused on the company’s AI developments, emphasizing that, “AI will define the future of computing,” and adding that “this has influenced much” of what the company is showing at CES. He highlighted the company’s “new era of laptop computing,” powered by its Ada Lovelace architecture, GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs and new 5th generation Max-Q technologies with DLSS 3 for quadrupled speed. Continue reading CES: Nvidia Intros AI Impact on Gaming, Omniverse, Laptops

There are people here in Las Vegas and it’s beginning to look a lot like CES again. A little sticker that says “I was at CES 2022” reminds us that only a hearty few made last year’s trip. As anticipation builds for the Thursday, January 5 opening of the CES exhibits, CTA’s vice president of research Steve Koenig kicked off the pre-show media briefings with his take on “Tech Trends to Watch.” Artificial intelligence, Web 3.0, digital health and augmented reality predictively top his list with a distinctive side note: Watch how enterprise — business at scale — innovates on top of recent tech innovations. Continue reading CES: Steve Koenig Reveals This Year’s Tech Trends to Watch

In the wake of overwhelming public response to recent offerings DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, OpenAI this week introduced Point-E, a text-to-3D model generator that is garnering positive feedback. Faster and less resource intensive than comparable systems, it’s still in the early stages and prone to occasional disjointed results but has advanced the proposition. Using a single Nvidia V100 GPU, Point-E can create a 3D model in under two minutes, generating “point clouds” — data sets representing a 3D shape. Point clouds compute more easily than the wire-fame meshes traditionally used to model 3D objects. Continue reading OpenAI’s Point-E Offers a New Take on Text-to-3D Modeling

Amazon Games and Crystal Dynamics are teaming on a new multiplatform installment in the “Tomb Raider” franchise. Crystal Dynamics is producing the title, which Amazon Games will publish globally. The as-yet-untitled project will mark Amazon Games’ first single-player narrative, following multiplayer titles including “New World” and “Lost Ark.” Crystal Dynamics plans to use Unreal Engine 5 to take gameplay and storytelling to the next level, according to Amazon, whose games VP Christoph Hartmann called the franchise “one of the most beloved IPs in entertainment history,” following the adventures of British archaeologist Lara Croft. Continue reading Amazon and Crystal Dynamics to Publish New ‘Tomb Raider’

DeepMind researchers have trained an AI to solve computer coding challenges as well as the average person. In a paper published last week in the journal Science, the group from Google’s AI division described how AlphaCode performed when pitted against human programmers, ranking in the top 54.3 percent in simulated tests, commensurate with “approximately human-level performance.” “This performance in competitions approximately corresponds to a novice programmer with a few months to a year of training,” according to Science, which says about half the humans who compete in coding contests could outperform the AI. Continue reading Deepmind’s AlphaCode AI Can Program Like Human Coders

Disney Research Studios has created an AI tool that can make actors look older or younger more simply than the costly and time-consuming visual effects that are the current status quo. While artificial intelligence had been used to age or de-age people with relative success in still frames, the results lacked photorealism when applied to video. Disney calls its app FRAN, for Face Re-Aging Network. FRAN has been trained to identify the parts of a face that change with age and can either accentuate or erase the telltale signs. Continue reading Disney Invents High-Quality Tool to Rejuvenate or Age Actors