Don't Get Left Behind The Tech!

#TBT – Do you know what VR, AR, MR and AI are? (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence). How about Facial Recognition? Eye, Head and Body Tracking? We have to constantly PAY ATTENTION to all the fast-moving changes of society and technology… constantly reinventing ourselves, so we don't become obsolete. Our personal information, voiceprints, location movements and faces are now being scanned and collected with computer systems that can actually think… and learn how to manipulate our behaviors and habits. Corporations are buying and selling parts of us that we don't even know about. But I digress….

Since I don't want to get left behind the new tech wave, especially with its uses in entertainment, I finally got around to my TAKEAWAYS in notes and images from the AT&T SHAPE event from a few weeks ago. (https://shape.att.com) I saw many of you there. (I invited everybody I know both in real life and on social media, and it was free and open to the public). For those who couldn't make it, here's my attempt to share some of what I could jot down to help you get (or stay) in the new game(s). [UPDATE: All of the conferences can be seen and heard in their entirety at: https://shape.att.com/speakers] #ATTSHAPE @attshape #AI #AR #VR

AT&T SHAPE is billed as "an immersive event exploring the convergence of technology and entertainment." I watched their visionary speakers as they discuss how digital media, film, television, and gaming are being transformed by new technologies like mixed reality, interactive storytelling, emerging tech in networking and blockchain, etc.

I saw and participated in demonstrations of how technology is revolutionizing entertainment through interactive exhibits featuring visual effects, full body and facial motion capture, drone and filming tech, virtual and augmented reality & 5G.

I did the Warner Bros. Studios Tour (again… there's so much to take in) and explored outdoor sets and soundstages used for the production of classic and current films, as well as TV shows. I revisited the DC Universe and the DC Comics Exhibit, the original Batman Museum, and so much more.

ON THE ENTERTAINMENT SIDE: Filmmaker and TV showrunner, Ava Duvernay moderated the film award ceremony with David Christopher, AT&T President of Mobility & Entertainment. Sean "Puffy/Diddy/Puff Daddy" Combs talked with John Donovan, CEO of AT&T Communications about having ownership of content on multiple platforms, such as his Revolt network.  

Issa Rae, creator and star of the HBO television series, "Insecure," was interviewed by actress Khadi Don and shared her emotional process for creating her characters and shows: "I get inspired just by life. I love little moments. I love my social interactions. I mine them for comedy. I use a lot of my friendships. I use real life things. I love discomfort. There's just something about discomfort that makes me laugh. Everybody has different areas of discomfort. What makes you embarrassed might not embarrass me. And your point of view about something may be completely contrary to mine. What makes people tick really inspires me." 

(pictured above: Issa Rae interviewed by Khadi Don)

"I feel like I'm emotionally empathetic in a way, in terms of, just feeling people's embarrassment, or feeling people's emotions and things like that. So I try to translate that to the screen… just because it intrigues me." 

"And whenever I get writer's block, I do like to just watch other people's processes. Because that helps me. When I hear about how other people procrastinate… how other writers wait until the last minute to do stuff, it just makes me feel better. You want to know that other people are trashed" (laughing). 

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ON THE TECH SIDE: One cutting-edge company, called Magic Leap (https://www.magicleap.com), had their Chief Content Officer, Rio Caraeff, telling AT&T President of Technology & Operations, Melissa Arnoldi about how they have created spatial-computing technology with functionality to give anyone around the world with a cell phone the power to develop and design their own mixed reality. Not only for gaming or entertainment, but also to answer the following real-world questions, as Rio explains:

* How does technology make me smarter and more informed about the world around me?

* How does it make me more connected to my friends and family?

* How does it make me more productive at work, or with the tasks I do every day?

"A small device you wear over your eyes will shoot light into them… and you start to see 3D characters in the room around you as if they are real. You'll still see your walls, furniture, kids and pets of the real world, but there will be an added or AUGMENTED REALITY (AR), as the digital world on structured meshes become seamlessly intermingled with the photons around you from the physical world."

"You can have Star Wars companion droids roaming around your house, and tie-fighters and X-wings fighting in the sky. You can draw a giant screen and stick it to the side of a building to watch a playoff game. Anything you can imagine, you can do, because you have the digital world at your fingertip. And you can stick it into the physical world." 

"So we have sensors that see the world, almost like the sensors of a self-driving car or a Tesla. So we map and see the world. We create meshes and planes that allow us to stick pixels into that world. We have sensors that track eyes and head pose, so we know where you're looking, we know where your head is moving. Where your eyes are looking. We have gestures. We have voice. We have six degrees of freedom controllers. And we essentially get light into the eye in a digital light field, which is modeled after the analog light fields that surround us. The cumbersome fields of light that we collect every day that essentially cause us to see and perceive the real world."

"So it feels real, it's not disorienting. It's not a separation. There's no nausea or inconvenience there. So it's a really powerful experience. And we can't wait to get it into the hands of developers and creators and to show people what we're doing." 

"It will be used for gaming, education (interactions in the classroom), retail (instead of physically going to a store, or ordering an item of clothing, for example, then having to return it because it doesn't fit the right way, the technology will allow you try it on remotely)." 

"You'll be able to look at your foot and say: 'I want to see what the new, for example, Adidas shoes look on my feet. I want to see what the new J. Crew clothes look like on me.'" 

"You can have your avatar (who looks like you… but is not you) walk into the room, and have that avatar be dressed in different ways."

"There are all kinds of applications, such as in healthcare and medical imaging. Doctors and analysts who work with CAT-scans and MRIs… people who basically capture the body in 3D. They can now dissect and explore that in a whole new way. If you're an architect, if you're an engineer, designing a building or a home, or a rocket ship, or a car, you can now work in 3D with other people who may not even be in the same place as you." 

"Gaming is interesting, but it's really communication, information, productivity, collaboration… everything I can do on the computer, and everything I can do in real life, I can do in spatial computing on Magic Leap." 

"So the opportunities are limitless. But the immediate applications are really anything that can benefit from having the digital world integrated into my physical world." 

"And anybody who creates in 3D can build for Magic Leap today. If you're familiar with Unity or Unreal 3D Engines, you can start building for Magic Leap. Right around the corner, we have Volumetric Light Field Photography, which is 'How do I shoot for Magic Leap.' So there's a broad array of creators in it, who are familiar with the language of film." 

"From a content creator point of view, you have to think about, you're not making a movie, you're not making a game. You making something that has to be in somebody's living room, or in somebody's office. The most magical experiences are those where just a little bit of digital stuff… a little bit of magic… is integrated into my environment."

"There will be a broad spectrum of developers. A six-year-old in Mumbai can take her phone and partially capture her volumetric cat, and then share it in 3D on Magic Leap. You'll have a whole broad array of music-generated content. And you'll have 60 RED cameras surrounding Taylor Swift at Madison Square Garden. And you'll be able to have her perform in your living room while you cook dinner. Or Pink."

"So, I'm in my kitchen, I'm at home. I've got my family, I want to have Pink perform. In the corner, I want to have the basketball game going on… on my table. Or, I want to be able to have a little Jamie Oliver chef helping me cook dinner. I want to draw a screen and put it on the fridge and have Netflix on. So the world can be my computing environment." 

"NBA Basketball: I can create the ultimate NBA experience where I can create 10 screens, or one giant screen, and stick them all over my house and have NBA games going on everywhere. I can also create table top experiences or have instant replays and different volumetric perspectives of the games going on throughout my home. So I can have the game here on a big, virtual screen I've just created. And then on this mesh in my living room on my coffee table, I can have a 3D scene of the last replay going on. And I can then pause it, and use my hands to fast-forward and rewind… and get up and spin it with my hands, and see it from different angles. All kinds of interesting things that you can do there as well."

"These new immersive experiences are not necessarily about wearing glasses or looking at a big screen. It's about: 'How do I take this thing I do on the phone and do it now in spatial computing?' or 'How do I take this thing I do on television and virtualize it so I can do it in mixed reality?'" 

"But what's more interesting is when you think about, 'What could I do here that I could never do before on a flat screen? Or that I could never do before on a television, a tablet, a computer, or a phone? What could I do with characters? What could I do with AI (Artificial Intelligence). What could I do with 5G out of home… having characters that know that I'm looking at them and that interact with me? What could I do if I could put a face or a body to Siri or Alexa? There's all kinds of interesting things you could do when you can personify technology, when you can bring me closer to friends and family and coworkers across distances. Things that you could never do on a screen, are things that we get most excited about at Magic Leap, that we think is going to define the next wave of computing… ultimately, what comes next."

"We want to set things up so that we can get out of the way and see what developers around the world can do with the technology. That 16-year-old in Mumbai. That 20-year-old in Tokyo. The nine-year-old in Poughkeepsie. Who have no legacy, who have no baggage, who are coming of age in a new generation, who can think without blinders… as do the digital world and the physical world." 

"For me what's most exciting, I want to really be blown away and surprised by what a global community of developers and creators with this enabling technology. So the goal is to put it in the hands of developers and creators and then see all the interesting things that they can do… and to step out of the way and support them."

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Of course, there was much, much more in the myriad of other conferences, exhibits and studio tour experiences. This just a taste of what was available, and I do have to get back to my work projects. So If you can make it to AT&T SHAPE next year, I highly recommend it! 

(This information is provided as a public service of www.BruceGordonMedia.com).