By Laura Kobylecky

I am alone in the empty streets of Austin. Everything has been simplified to geometric shapes and the stars are brighter than they’ve ever been in the middle of the city. Strange eyes look from high points and serve as a unifying aesthetic to the strange world. There are no bats, no rats, and no raccoons. The closest things I’ve seen to life are the hovering drones that await my instructions. Who made this strange, virtual, world? The story begins last March.

On March 6 of 2020, South by Southwest was canceled at the decree of the City of Austin. This occurred shortly before the event was scheduled to begin on the 13^th of March and was one of the first of many large events that would be canceled as a result of the coronavirus.

#SXSW Online 2021 includes a variety of online meetings, sessions, musical performances, and many attempts at virtually recreating the interactive experience of SXSW
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This year, restrictions remained in place that prevented a full return of the in-person SXSW experience. However, the conference organizers decided to pivot to a digital format and that was the beginning of SXSW Online 2021.

SXSW Online 2021 included a variety of online meetings, sessions, musical performances, and many attempts at virtually recreating the interactive experience of SXSW. A notable addition to this is the SXSW Online XR experience. XR is an all-encompassing term referring to include Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and other forms of immersive media.

Blake Kammerdiener: XR and Film Programmer

I sat down for a video chat with Blake Kammerdiener, XR and Film Programmer, to learn more about this project.

According to Kammerdiener discussions about the idea of a virtual Austin began in October of 2020, yet work on the project didn’t start in earnest until sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It was initially a larger concept, but the scope was limited over time.

Discussions about the idea of a virtual Austin began in October of 2020 @sxsw
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In order to create the world, they collaborated with Louis Cacciuttolo and his company VRrOOm. Kammerdiener already knew Cacciuttolo and had been looking for a chance to work together. VRrOOm was provided with basic concepts and blueprints as well as videos and reference images. Kammerdiener explains that “They really worked a lot of magic to make it all happen.”

Designing an XR World

Art direction was provided by Vincent Masson. His aesthetic ended up being an excellent match for this year’s SXSW. The overall look and feel of SXSW 2021 includes a variety of simple graphics of eyes and geometric shapes that meshed will with a virtual world. This theme had already been established before this particular project, so its suitability for VR was more of a happy coincidence.

To create the #SXSW virtual world, they collaborated with Louis Cacciuttolo and his company @_VRrOOm_
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The world of virtual Austin exists within VRChat, an online, virtual reality, social platform. It begins on Congress Avenue and continues with a portal to Red River Street. Kammerdiener explains that they “had to scale it down in some respect.” The Paramount, Empire Control Room, The Mohawk and Cedar Street Courtyard are all venues that you can explore in the virtual world. This world also contains the Texas State Capitol building and the river.

Kammerdiener describes some of the other ideas the team had chosen to include, “Austin has these things called ‘moontowers’ which are these extra-large, big, lights that go up super high and have six or seven lights around them and they’re famous from Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused ‘party at the moontower.’ And so we threw a moontower in there, over there by the capital in the corner, and it’s a real scale model of the moon tower.” Kammerdiener would have liked to include some other iconic, Austin, details as well, “We talked about bats. Don’t think we didn’t talk about bats, at the very least.”

Another exciting feature, according to Kammerdiener, is the virtual concert that happens on demand at the Empire Control Room. If you travel to the virtual Empire, you can press a button and summon a tuba player. That player is Theon Cross, a British tuba player and composer. They did a motion capture recording of him performing at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London and put that performance into the SXSW Online XR experience. Kammerdiener is very enthusiastic about this particular element of the virtual world.

The world of virtual Austin exists within @VRChat, an online, virtual reality, social platform
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One of the most fun things to do, from Kammerdiener’s perspective is go to virtual parties and meetups. These events occur at the virtual venues at specified times. At these events, you and your avatar can hang out and interact directly with other people’s avatars. These events included an XR developers meetup, a DJ at the Paramount, an avatar costume contest, and a virtual axe-throwing contest at The Mohawk. Kammerdiener said that the events created a different level of connection and simulated some of the real feelings of being at a SXSW event. He enjoyed attending the events then hanging out in the virtual spaces afterwards with fellow attendees.

Kammerdiener felt like these meetups really did help fill some of the missing spaces in a virtual SXSW experience. He explains that “from the very beginning, one of the biggest, most important, things that everybody agreed upon” is the importance of creating networking opportunities and interactions between attendees. These experiences are “the bread and butter of SXSW” because they bring in “creatives from all walks of life,” including the entertainment industries and technology sectors. The creative, who normally might not meet, have the chance to interact together in the same space.

The XR Experience

After speaking with Kammerdiener, I did some further exploration in the world of virtual Austin. The worlds are only available to PCVR, Oculus Quest and Windows PC users. I used a PC, without a VR headset. As a result, my experience did not contain the full range of 3D imagery available and I had less mobility for my avatar. However, using a mouse and the “W, A, S, D” keys (forwards, left, backwards, right), I was able to explore a nice range of the world map.

The world begins at Congress. From there, you can either walk or you can grab onto a drone. The drones carry you across the map from a great height so you can quickly move from one space to the other. Without a VR headset, I don’t have as much control, but I am able to traverse the world anyway.

The world of Congress Ave looks a great deal like a simplified 3D rendered cartoon of Austin with a geometric aesthetic. Quiet, pleasant, music plays in the background. Simple eye shapes hover at various points and rotate slowly. At night, you can see very bright stars in the virtual sky. I wander to the Texas State Capitol building and see the famous moontower nearby.

The SXSW Closing Party is happening at The Empire Control Room, so I decide to navigate to that destination. In order to move to the other worlds, you have to find a portal. The portals are large circles labeled with their destination. I walk down the empty street, north towards the Texas State Capitol building and find a portal that leads to “Red River Street.”

On Red River Street are more buildings. There are carts you can ride in if you want to move faster. The Empire Control Room is labeled and you walk through that portal to enter the virtual venue. The venue is a fairly accurate representation of Empire Control Room, complete with a stage, gig posters and a food truck parked in the yard.

The world of Congress Ave looks a great deal like a simplified 3D rendered cartoon of Austin with a geometric aesthetic #SXSW 2021
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The venue is surprisingly crowded with outlandish avatar characters. A great number of people have decided to become cats for some reason. There are robots and aliens and jalapeno peppers. As I walk through, I can hear snippets of other people’s conversations. The spatial audio gives an accuracy that allows me to tell where the speaking avatars are located.

Some people are making their avatars dance or hug or do other, more advanced, movements. I can see the gestures that accompany people’s expressions in conversations. The conversations include a variety of topics, but many of them are reflecting on the experience of a virtual social event. People chat and exchange contact information. Social interactions are happening here.

I go to the courtyard of the venue. It is replicated with some accuracy as well. There are benches and decorative lights. I find the pedestal sculpture that hosts Theon Cross. I summon him with the press of a button. A glowing figure rises from the pedestal to play a beautiful bit of jazz as light and animated details flow around him.

I leave with the faintest feeling that I have actually been somewhere #SXSW 2021
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As the night goes on, avatars disappear one by one. The few that remain are some of the most enthusiastic people and also people who are involved with the event. It is an interesting and strange experience. I leave with the faintest feeling that I have actually been somewhere. SXSW Online XR is a pleasant experience that adds a layer of immersion and interactivity to this year’s online conference.

Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post SXSW: A Virtual Experience appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

Some people see them as a fun Internet novelty while others may see them as a sign that could lead to the total collapse of media trust. Ian Beacraft, CEO and Chief Futurist at Signal And Cipher (an agency that helps brands adapt to future tech) has a more optimistic perspective.

Synthetic media is a broad term for the production of media through artificial means. Beacraft introduces the concept with some popular Internet animations. The videos show celebrities and movie characters moving their mouths in sync to the words he is saying, creating the illusion that they, rather than Beacraft, are the ones speaking. These videos are rudimentary. The mouths have slightly blurred edges and a certain dissonance that flags them as fake. However, the result is close enough to convey the idea.

Synthetic media is a broad term for the production of media through artificial means
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Beacraft then brings up animated versions of himself speaking in different languages, followed by a moment where he is placed in that iconic Matrix scene and he takes the obligatory “red” pill. He further illustrates the concept with an image of Jennifer Lawrence accepting an award, but her face has been digitally replaced by Steve Buscemi. These are some examples of that synthetic media which is manipulated or made entirely by algorithms.

He addresses the more nefarious possibilities of this technology. This sort of digital replacement could be used to artificially create “revenge porn” or to alter statements made by political figures. He balances this with the more professional applications of synthetic technology. Paul Walker appeared in Furious 7, after his death, using a digital recreation. In Rogue One, a particularly young Princess Leia was brought back for a cameo.

There are three categories of deepfakes: voice cloning, puppetry, and face-swapping #SXSW 2021
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Beacraft explains three categories of deepfakes: voice cloning, puppetry and face-swapping. Voice cloning involves taking an “imprint” of someone’s voice and then using that in a variety of contexts, different from the original instances. A face-swap is the digital replacement of one face with another. Puppetry involves making someone appear to say words that they did not, by digitally altering the movement of the face to match the words. All of these are in some ways based on existing media and existing people.

Digital Beings

A step further is the idea of “digital beings” with an entirely synthetic basis that do note require a “real” human as a reference. Beacraft explains that realistically-human, synthetic beings might be appealing as digital assistants. They could also have a place in video games or in AR/VR applications.

One tool that might be useful in this is MetaHuman Creator, an upcoming application made by Unreal Engine, the creators of Fortnite. This application will be a cloud-streamed app that makes digital creation faster and simpler. Beacraft sees this as an example of how these digital beings might become more significant, accessible, and relevant to the public in the future.

Beacraft also sees that digital beings might become increasingly relevant as public figures. Right now avatars like the entirely synthetic, “Lil Miquela,” have proven that digital beings can capture the public’s imagination. Lil Miquela has three million Instagram followers and has proven to be a powerful influencer. The Geico Gecko and even the KFC spokesman, Colonel Sanders, are also examples of synthetic beings, according to Beacraft. They do not exist in the “real world” but they are admired as their own entities and influence public perceptions.

Making 3D Models

Accessibility is another big trend that might change the landscape of synthetic media. Photogrammetry is one currently used way of making 3D models. It involves taking many images and stitching them together in a 3D program. Beacraft explains that new techniques have made 3d avatars easier to create. He begins a demonstration of this by showing how a single photo can become a 3D model.

In the future, digital beings might become increasingly relevant as public figures #SXSW 2021
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He uses a neural network architecture called “PIFuHD.“ This is a cloud app that seems to require some level of coding skill to use and is available on GitHub. Beacraft uses a single image of himself to create a 3D model. Since the photo provides no reference for the back of his figure, the program guessed this part based on data it had been fed in its training phrase.

Beacraft puts the resulting model in a 3D modeling program to polish it up. He overlays photographs on the model to add the colors and details. The haircut is added via a texture program and reference images because apparently hair is a bit more difficult to work with. The resulting 3D human is somewhat realistic. The figure is obviously recognizable as Beacraft, but it has the usual slight “uncanny valley” strangeness and small inconsistencies that you may find in digital avatars.

Now that he has a 3D model, Beacraft uses a program called Mixamo to give it life. The program allows him to animate his model with a variety of movements. First, he makes the character walk; Next, he animates the character with a “moonwalk.” The figure’s awkward shambling makes it look a bit like a very smooth zombie. But it does work.

Open Metaverse

The advance of 3D modeling stretches beyond simple recreations of human figures. Beacraft explains that blockchain may play a key role in this future. In an “open metaverse,” digital creations might move more freely. NFT and blockchain could allow for the ownership and transportation of digital creation across platforms.

Synthetic media is not just about deepfakes and high value visual effects, but about the creation of new worlds #SXSW 2021
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For example, a person could make or buy a digital garment for their avatar and be able to sell it as an individual item, supported by blockchain technology. Thanks to the open metaverse, this item might not have to remain in a specific game or ecosystem. Any other environments that embraced this technology could also import such items.

Beacraft seems to believe in an optimistic future for synthetic media. He acknowledges that many people are concerned about artificial intelligence taking away jobs as they exist today, yet he believes that the ease of use for emerging AI design technologies will offset those losses by creating new opportunities for a wide variety of people and a range of expertise.

“These losses are preparing us for the worlds we’re going to be entering today and tomorrow. Synthetic media is not just about deepfakes and high value visual effects, but about the creation of new worlds,” Bearcraft concludes.

Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post Synthetic Media: More than Just Deepfakes appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

South by Southwest has pivoted to an online-only event this year. SXSW Online 2021, as it’s officially called, is occurring in a digital venue that includes the normal collection of sessions about a wide range of topics.

Speakers at #SXSW addressed the challenges of asteroid mining and space travel
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One of these sessions is “Space Gold Rush,” a discussion about the possibilities and methods for mining in space. The discussion was moderated by Loren Grush, Senior Science Reporter at The Verge, and included Joe Landon, VP, Advanced Programs Dev, Commercial Civil Space at Lockheed Martin, Alexander MacDonald – Chief Economist and ISS National Lab Program Executive at NASA – and Daniel Suarez, author of Delta-v. The speakers discussed some of the challenges of asteroid mining and space travel, as well as NASA’s future plans for space exploration and the political ramifications of a future in space.

Mining in Space

Alexander MacDonald explained that space mining entered the public imagination in the 19^th century with works of fiction. One of the first stories to address the topic was “Edison’s Conquest of Mars, it was a sequel written to the War of the Worlds where the world strikes back at Mars.” In the book, the characters pass “a Martian asteroid mining camp.” Another of the “first landmark descriptions” occurred in the early 1900s when Russian space physicist and theorist, Constantine Stokowski, brought up the idea that all civilizations have to mine basic resources from somewhere in order to create the products of civilization. Therefore, if we want to travel farther into the reaches of space, we will also need to figure out how to make mining work in space.

Daniel Suarez brought up some of the basic challenges of mining in space, mentioning that there are companies “transitioning from fiction into fact,” by addressing the difficulty of getting “things into orbit more cheaply and more reliably.” These companies, which he declined to name in order to avoid picking “winners or losers,” were focusing on “reusable rockets” to address this issue.

There are companies transitioning from fiction into fact by addressing the difficulty of getting things into orbit more cheaply and more reliably #SXSW 2021
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Another problem is the difficulty of taking “earth-based technologies” and moving them to space:

“Try to imagine mining a pile of gravel that’s in free fall, in a radiated vacuum,” MacDonald said, drawing subtle nods of agreement from Suarez and Landon.

Landon added that his former company – Planetary Resources – had dealt with some of these difficulties. He explained that they were developing technologies to address these issues, focusing on ways to “find resources that are valuable in space and characterize them.” This would involve some of the difficulties that Suarez brought up, as well as the issue that “before you can build a mine you have to know where to build it.”

Landon explained that “autonomy and tele-robotics” instead of traditional mining, will be key for making this happen: Terrestrial mining companies have expressed interest in using this sort of technology back on Earth, which could potentially lead to another wave of automation in that sector.

Before you can build a mine you have to know where to build it - Space Mining at #SXSW 2021
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Suarez mentioned that the target for these mining operations might be “near-earth asteroids.” This is because at “particular points in their orbit” they are very close to Earth. A ship should could hypothetically “pull up next to them” because they don’t have a “deep gravity well.” This means that you wouldn’t have to deal with the greater gravitational force you might get from something like the Moon when landing.

Moderator Loren Grush then asked what specific instances might warrant the use of space mining.

Landon answered that “Right now, anything sent to space must be launched at “enormous cost” as we pay the “gravity tax” to send anything away from this planet. Mining in space would reduce the materials that need to be sent on these missions. He also brought up the idea of making fuel from materials found in space, like the water that may be found in places on the Moon.

MacDonald pointed out that these ideas, like making fuel from water, might have a cost-saving element but many might well turn out to be much more expensive. While technology such as reasonable rocketry may drive down the launch cost, some other innovations might be halted. If launching fuel into space gets cheaper, then people lose the reason for doing complicated things like looking for water among the Moondust and making it into fuel.

The potential environmental cost of launching thousands of rockets into the atmosphere remains an unknown #SXSW 2021
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Suarez also brought up the associated issue of climate change, mentioning that the hundreds and thousands of rockets that might be launched into the atmosphere could produce “interesting damage at high levels in the atmosphere and that the “economic and environmental cost of that remains an unknown.

Innovation and Motivation

Grush asked the group “what are some of the struggles that asteroid mining presents?” and what these struggles may have done to delay the growth of the “asteroid mining market.”

According to Landon, Planetary Resources may have been a bit “ahead of their time” in ways that limited their chance to fully pursue their innovative ideas. He explains that a company needs “something to sell and someone to buy it.” The business of mining would require “two leaps of faith.” One is to “extract something useful” and the other is “someone to buy it.”

He is “excited about NASA’s Artemis program.” NASA’s website describes Artemis as “the first step in the next era of human exploration.” They will work with “commercial and international partners” and “establish a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars”. Landon sees NASA and their program as a “lighthouse customer” who will help create a new market.

MacDonald further addresseD the connection between NASA and the commercial market: “one thing that we’ve noticed certainly is that there is a high degree of correlation between the type of space resources that companies look to pursue and where NASA has most recently been directed to go explore.” The other speakers smile and nod in agreement.

NASA’s initial involvement in asteroid mining and exploration would be to “begin the process of learning how to manipulate the raw materials there, extract them, and figure out how you would do it.” The commercial companies involved in that would be “types of technologies that would feed into that program.” This sort of collaboration reinforces the concept of NASA as the “lighthouse customer,” leading the way to new industries.

MacDonald further explained that more recently “NASA was redirected to focus on the Moon,” so they are “developing technologies for lunar resource extraction.” He reiterates the significance of NASA’s work:

“NASA remains to this day by far, in our way, the largest funder of all R&D and missions in this area. While rocketry is a helpful purview for private investment, things like space exploration and probes to other worlds are still, very much, predominantly a government affair.”

This perspective is furthered by the “thinking behind the asteroid mission,” according to MacDonald. That mission, OSIRIS-REx will travel to an asteroid and bring back a sample. The mission, he explains, is intended to lay the groundwork for future missions to come. At NASA “it’s the scientific exploration that precedes” other goals” and “our first encounter with these optics is usually from a perspective of just trying to learn what’s there and trying to answer fundamental questions.” After that, they may begin finding “what parts of this might be useful for future human activities.”

MacDonald is optimistic about the future of NASA and the Artemis program. There has been “consistent congressional direction for about 15 years that a Moon to Mars program was what the nation demanded.” In early February, Biden made a statement fully supporting the program. MacDonald mentioned, with a slightly wry tone, that it is “encouraging to those of us at NASA that have been working on it for quite some time.” The statement drew a smile and nod from Suarez.

One of the next steps in this process is NASA’s VIPER, a robotic rover designed to assess the water to touch the volatiles. The ‘V’ in viper stands for “volatiles” and water is the principal volatile that they are interested in. The rover will be getting a closer view of the South Pole of the Moon to look for water ice. Because this is a government mission, there will be map data and new information available to the public, and the hope is that it will take NASA a step closer to the possibility of establishing habitation on the Moon.

The gateway and lunar habitation will be a great test run for the Mars mission in the future #SXSW 2021
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NASA’s other “next step” is “the gateway… a habitation vehicle that will be in orbit around the Moon. This gateway will help with further exploration of space in more ways than one. It will serve to test the operational paradigms that we’re going to use on Mars. For the first Mars mission, “a split crew operation” will be required, with some on the surface of Mars and some in orbit around the planet. The gateway and lunar habitation will be a great test run for the Mars mission in the future.

Geopolitics in Space

The conversation shifted finally to the more political side of things. Ultimately, it remains to be seen how countries will work together in the future of space. MacDonald describes this as an “increasingly contentious issue,” while Suarez mentioned that “space law is becoming a burgeoning field,” comparing it to maritime law. There remains the question of how space mining claims would work, and Landon draws a parallel with fishing rights, explaining that “I can’t own the fish when it’s in the water but when I catch it it’s mine.”

MacDonald asks the question “are we going to have a Star Trek future or a Dune future…exploring and learning from the cosmos in partnership and cooperation and in peace or are we going to be seeing clashes between the great houses for ownership of the galaxy.” He sees a “return to the kind of geopolitics that we had in the 60s and 70s because we’re returning to that level of engagement by world leaders on that issue.” Major leaders of partner countries like Canada and Japan have spoken directly about their interest and commitment to the space program.

MacDonald adds that partnerships with Russia are absolutely critical and that the USA and Russia are “still engaging in conversations,” while Landon observed that “this is really one of the underappreciated benefits of space and space exploration; it creates an opportunity for diplomacy and for international cooperation that has lasted beyond lots of other venues.”  The U.S. collaboration with Russia on the ISS is one of the “strongest areas our two countries work together on,” he points out.

At the moment, humans have only just begun to explore space. Exciting things are on the horizon for exploration and perhaps monetization and mining. The value of space exploration extends beyond immediate profit and into the possibility for collaboration and peace between nations. Keep your eyes to the sky, new things are coming.

The value of space exploration extends beyond immediate profit and into the possibility for collaboration and peace between nations #SXSW 2021
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Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post Space Gold Rush at #SXSW 2021 appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

In addition to the regular programming of sessions, SXSW also attracts brands looking to launch exclusive products. Last year Bose unveiled its Augmented Reality glasses frames – still at prototype stage – at their pop-up experiential activation on Rainy Street.

@Bose calls this the world’s first audio augmented reality platform
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This year, they are back at that same Rainy Street bar to continue the story and share what progress they’ve made over the past 12 months. The current Frames were released in January and are described by Bose as “the world’s first audio augmented reality platform.” Like sunglasses, they block up to 99% of UVA/UVB rays and feature uniformly-tinted lenses.

Like sunglasses, they block up to 99% of UVA/UVB rays and feature uniformly-tinted lenses @Bose
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But this is where the similarities with regular sunglasses end: For starters, they have “a minuscule, wafer-thin acoustic package” that is “set seamlessly in each arm’s interior — rather than an earbud.” This allows for “discreet” personal listening. They are made with Augmented Sound technology, there is no visual element. It augments your sound experience because “it knows where you are and what you’re facing using a 9-axis head motion sensor and the GPS from your iOS or Android device.” Using that data, it “automatically adds a layer of audio, connecting that place and time.” 

This sense of sound, orientation and place can be used for a variety of situations. That’s part of what brought Bose to SXSW.  According to their representative “one of the reasons we’re here at South by is there’s a really great community of content creators and developers that we want to talk to and see how we can best support the development efforts.”

The sunglasses work nicely as headphones. They tap on or off. The sound is quite discreet. It is not a bone conduction system, as some may have assumed. The representative explains “one of the troubles with bone conduction is that you don’t really get a great quality sound.” This system is “a totally proprietary acoustic system that’s actually taking a real speaker driver and playing music no differently than a speaker would through this port, using these geometry supports to cancel it in the far field.”

When you put the glasses on “you’re getting a full volume speaker into your ear but then 99 percent of that gets canceled by the time it reaches the outside of your ear. ” The end result is that you can hear your sound, as well as sounds from the outside world, but other people can’t hear your sound. So no one knows what music, or questionable audiobook, you’re listening to.

But the Frames are designed to be more than “sunglasses headphones,” hence the “reaching out to the developer community.” They want to inspire developers to make apps for the Frames. Bose will also be making headphones that contain the same Augmented Sound qualities as the Frames. Apps made for the Frames will also work on those headphones.

A wafer-thin acoustic package set seamlessly in each arm’s interior allows for discreet personal listening @Bose
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It augments your sound experience because “it knows where you are and what you’re facing using a 9-axis head motion sensor and the GPS from your iOS or Android device @Bose
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Golfshot, an app that helps golfers with on-course GPS, scoring, statistics, and tee times, is here at this event to show how their app uses Bose Frames. John, the lead native developer of Golfshot, explains: “Bose actually reached out to us, they had some developers who used our product and they just thought it would be a good integration so they contacted us and we went from there.”

One aspect of their app is providing GPS data for the golf courses. Normally, you’d have to take out your phone, a forbidden act on some courses, but “with Bose AR you just keep it in your pocket and tap on your frames from anywhere on the course and contextually, based on where you are in your GPS location, we give you whatever information you need.” You can get course data without getting out your phone, or getting in trouble.

In the future, they’d like to utilize “the compass information” that the glasses can collect. John explains that “sometimes you’re teeing off and you have trees in your way or a different elevation, you don’t know if you want to pull to this or the other side of the fairway and that can make a big difference in the golfer’s game.”

Normally you’d have to get in your cart and drive out to see then return, “ but, with this, we can just project your visual out with the glasses and find the green for you, or you can see it on your mobile device, but if you don’t want to pull out your phone you can just double tap your frames.”

The way that the current app works is by using “3D audio cues so if you double tap you get a ringing in your ear @Bose
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@Bose will also be making headphones that contain the same Augmented Sound qualities as the Frames
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The way that the current app works is by using “3D audio cues so if you double tap you get a ringing in your ear. It’s almost like a radar system and as soon as you find the green it will go to a solid tone, and then you know, okay, I need to hit over to this side.”  With the glasses, you can turn your head one way, listen to the beeping, and keep turning your head till the solid sound lets you know you are facing the right way.

@GolfshotGPS is just one possible use case for the Frames. It should be interesting seeing what the future holds for Augmented Reality and sound
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Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a writer. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post #SXSW2019 – What does Augmented Reality Sound Like? appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

The Telasuit looks like something straight out of science fiction film. It’s sleek and form-fitting. It’s the virtual reality body suit that people might imagine when they think of such things
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SXSW extends like an octopus across the central downtown area, in this case to a restaurant just outside the Austin Convention Center, which has been transformed into a showcase for the innovations of Accenture, a management consulting company with global reach.

The Teslasuit is on display. It is, according to the company, “the world’s first highly integrated smart clothing apparel that includes haptic feedback, motion capture, climate control, and other systems”. Haptic feedback is the technology that allows users to actually “feel” a digital environment. Wearing the suit lets you interact with that environment and “become the natural full-body controller at the same time.”

I spoke with Dimitri Mikhalchuk, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, to learn more. The project started out with a desire to make an “immersive suit” suit for gaming in virtual reality. Sergei Nossoff, the Chief Technology Officer was “nineteen when he conceived the idea of building the suit”

The team originally wanted to make a “5d cinema cabin,” it’s a theme park-style attraction where “you can see the graphics flying onto you” and have other physical elements added to the experience. Mikhalchuk explains that, despite those features, “you’re still in a box and if you look the wrong way you’ll miss things.”

They wanted to ‘make it better’. The idea behind the Teslasuit was to bring sensations to the skin surface so that you can’t miss them even if you do look away.

They started working on the Teslasuit as a full-body experience. As the project developed, so did their goals in order to “provide the level of immersiveness” that they wanted, they expanded their project and added biometric feedback and motion capture to actually learn about how the user is standing. Different poses have different effects on the muscles and skin and they wanted to be able to capture that data as well.

The idea behind the Teslasuit was to bring sensations to the skin surface so that you can't miss them even if you do look away.
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They started working on the Teslasuit as a full-body experience
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They were developing hardware and software in conjunction so they could really understand how it would work together. They have a wide variety of talent in the company, working in small teams to solve the many problems that such a complex endeavor brings. “There are “double PhD biomechanical scientists. We have scientists in neurology. We have scientists in chemistry and materials, fabrics, you name it. Fashion designers, graphics designers, 3d designers, there are loads of people there,” says Mikhalchuk, emphasizing that teamwork and communication are a huge part of their company culture and that, despite the varied teams, people are kept in the loop on all that is happening.

Although it started as a gaming suit “The more we developed it, the more we saw it’s not actually a gaming suit, it shouldn’t really be a gaming suit as such. It can support games, but there’s so much more it can be used for.”

Different poses have different effects on the muscles and skin and they wanted to be able to capture that data as well
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The Minimum Viable Product was completed at the end of 2015. Mikhalchuk calls it “Teslasuit version zero… it was just a proof of concept that worked,” he recalls. It was at that point when they started “looking for funding and trying to set up a company.” Three or four months ago they started working with Accenture. Since they were “working on enterprise level-projects, obviously Accenture has the capacity to facilitate a global rollout, so it made sense to partner up.”

Sports are all about specific, precise, techniques and when you are told, verbally, how to correct yourself, sometimes it’s very difficult to figure it out in 3d in multiple planes. - That’s where the Teslasuit could be of use
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The development of the suit was a journey. The fabric itself was an achievement. According to Mikhalchuk, they “were not happy with what was off the shelf.” They needed something breathable, but also conductive. Conductive fabric is dense so they “moved away from the conductive threads that were being advertised because they didn’t provide enough of what we needed.”

While, for proprietary reasons, exact details of the fabric are limited, it is described as “smart textile.” Their website explains that the “smart textile transfers sensations from the virtual world to the human body through tiny electrical impulses controlled by an on-board mini-computer (Control Unit).” The “haptic feedback system” creates sensations for users. These sensations include “soft touch,” “heavy and light impact,” and “rain or wind-blowing.”

The development of the Teslasuit was a journey. The fabric itself was an achievement.
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The Teslasuit could point out technique errors right when they happen and allow for the user to fix their movement
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Mikhalchuk describes some of the more specific use cases for the Teslasuit, such as sports training. He says that sports are all about specific, precise, techniques and explains that “when you are told, verbally, how to correct yourself, sometimes it’s very difficult to figure it out in 3d in multiple planes.” That’s where the Teslasuit could be of use.

The suit could track where a person “makes an error and excite the muscles to augment the error.” So if you start to swing wrong it can “activate the biceps that open up your arm” and it would seem like “an invisible force is pulling.” This would draw your attention to the exact point of error with the exaggerated moment and allow the user to make the necessary corrections. The Teslasuit could point out technique errors right when they happen and allow for the user to fix their movement.

Mikhalchuk also describes a scenario where the user could step into the body of an avatar in a virtual landscape. They could then repeat movements that are shown in that virtual world.

They have already started engaging universities for their research in rehabilitation
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If you wore a device like this all the time, it could be used to predict some medical conditions, like heart attacks, by tracking biofeedback
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The Teslasuit could also have medical applications. Mikhalchuk explains that they have “already started engaging universities for their research in rehabilitation. He has visions of using the Teslasuit in “post-neural surgery rehabilitation,” or other recovery situations that require similar stimulus. He explains that taking the Teslasuit home for therapy could “make an inpatient into an outpatient, so people don’t have to stay at the hospital.”

He also has visions of a scaled-back version, possibly a T-shirt that could be worn more constantly. According to Mikhalchuk, if you wore a device like this all the time, it could be used to predict some medical conditions, like heart attacks, by tracking biofeedback. He speculates that this suit could serve as a diagnostic tool for far-off places where people might not have access to other services.

At the moment, these are ideas for the future. According to Mikhalchuk, there is a “new version coming out at CES next year…so come January we’re gonna have something more interesting.”

The current specs on the Teslasuit are:

• A Haptic feedback system, Motion capture system, a Climate control system and Wireless (Bluetooth or Wi-Fi). It has a rechargeable long-life battery and comes in sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, and XXXL.

The Teslasuit could also have medical applications
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Laura Kobylecky is a writer. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post #SXSW2019 – Feeling Real Sensations in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Laura Kobylecky

SXSW is a “convergence of the interactive, film and music industries.” Over the span of ten days, there are panels, educational sessions, a trade show, special events and more. One particularly unique element of the experience is the intersection of ideas. You can go straight from a concert to a discussion of artificial intelligence.

Here at Sony’s pop-up activation during SXSW, the company is showcasing some of its latest innovations. One that lies at the intersection of technology and music, is Flow Machines, an intersection of artificial intelligence and human ingenuity.

Sony's Flow Machines is an intersection of AI and human ingenuity
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The Flow Machines presentation begins when a group of attendees is herded into a dark room. Haruhiko, Tatsuya and Ikuko are here to present. They are lit brightly in the dark room. Haruhiko is holding a guitar. It seems that anything could happen here. They explain that using Flow Machines, this group is going to make a song.

A projection of the Flow Machines interface is on the stage behind them. It might seem familiar to people who make digital music. The interface looks like a standard DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), such as Garage Band or Abelton, that one would use to record, edit and produce music.

Is this something that musicians might want to use?
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According to the presentation, “Flow machines doesn’t do everything, it needs to work with creative people.” It is intended to serve as a tool to “enhance the creativity of artists,” instead or fully replacing the human role. This also means that the group will have to do more than press a button.

The software allows users to work within a particular key and decide some progressions for that key. The pattern here is a IV, III, VI VI progression. This means that the users can make their sad songs in minor keys, give the machine general idea of where they want to music to go and see what happens.

Flow machines needs to work with creative people
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The presenters went ahead and made a backtrack in the same key already. What the group is making will be the final piece of the musical puzzle and “together with that chord progression, our song will sound like a song.” By the time we’re done, “You can tell your friends this is the song I produced at SXSW.”

An audience volunteer is summoned with the call “This is South by Interactive, right, anyone has the courage to come over and play the song with us…It’s F, Em, Am, Am,  Do any of you play the guitar?”

No one answers. Haruhiko, the mild-mannered Project Engineer, is forced to show off his own skills. He plays a smooth bluesy run with electric rock energy and smiles slightly as he does so.

The song has a “computer feel,” blues guitar aside. But it is musical.
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This is a proof-of-concept model specifically for SXSW. Flow Machines Professional is an “AI assisted music composing system . Artificial intelligence works by making it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. So the patterns in the music of the machine will be based on the data it is given.

This is a “proof-of-concept model for SXSW
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According to the presenter, the current iteration of Flow Machines is based on “some styles from current songs that we produced for this software..that’s why it kind of has a musical theory behind it.” If the input data were modified, the user could create different results and “if you want to create a crazy style you can let it learn that crazy style and it will be capable of that.”

This particular project continually emphasizes the “augmentation” aspect is designed to serve as an aid to the creative process. Is this something that musicians might want to use? That’s up to them to decide.

Laura Kobylecky is a writer. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post #SXSW2019 – AI Assisted Music appeared first on Tech Trends.