Daily Archives: June 18, 2017

In A Time Of Political Correctness, The Politics Of Art Is More Important Than Ever – The Pavlovic Today

Posted: June 18, 2017 at 11:15 am

Nolan Kelly left New York for two weeks to unveil all the contradictions of Cannes film festival. In a time of political correctness and reality-star presidencies, he writes, the politics of art seems more important than ever.

In recent years, Europe has received a reputation for exclusivity. The small continent is broadcasted to the rest of the world as being full of sleepy countrysides, aided by the tranquility of welfare, a rustic idyll that comes at a steep price.

For many Americans, its become more tempting than ever to reach out to expatriate friends or distant relatives in search of a vacation or exit. But this pressure is insignificant compared to the thousands migrating from Africa or the Middle East in search of asylum or prosperity. The recent refugee crisis has led everyone to feel that Europe is too small or to set in their ways to accommodate the rest of the world. As time goes on, the clump of nations seems to only get smaller, and harder to reach. If you can pinpoint the zenith of this process, the genesis of our idyllic image, it would likely be the French Riviera in springtime, at an event which this year celebrated its 70th anniversary.

For two weeks, the Cannes Film Festival transforms the sleepy little beach town into its own kind of life raft, where prosperity and opulence await absolutely anyone who can find a way onboard. There are three things which set the experience apart from all others. The first is its prestige it remains the highest honor for selection and awards of any film festival on Earth. Next is its market; Cannes is one of the only festivals which fosters the buying and selling of film in its official capacity. And the third and most important is its closed nature those who manage to get a festival pass and decent formal attire have the feeling of nearly complete access, but passes arent sold to the public, and to get one you have to demonstrate some connection to the entertainment industry. This makes festival passes, in some sense, priceless.

The American Pavilion offers one of the more interesting ways to climb aboard. Culinary, film, or hospitality students can all apply to intern and work at or through the pavilion, a large tent situated on the beach behind the main theater, which acts as the United States main cultural hub. The internship is expensive, and essentially means paying to work a likely menial job, anything from serving industry execs coffee to washing down Harvey Weinsteins yacht. The Cannes pass makes this all worthwhile.

It just so happened that Cannes was my first stop on my very first trip to Europe. I left New York City the day after finishing my freshman year of college at The New School. In the whirlwind of finals and packing, I didnt have a lot of time to take this in, but I was sure of one thing: my first impressions of this new place would be Europe at its most presentable, most excessive, and most gilded. The young, scrappy, and hungry spend their time dreaming of Riviera nights; entry isnt usually granted until they make something out of it. I had been given what felt like a free trial, and a chance to figure out the proper way in. It was easy enough to consider myself an outsider, at least Id have a front row seat to study how the insiders operate.

The beautiful thing about Cannes, I soon realized, is that no one is allowed to attend without embracing a few contradictions. This is perhaps the truest remnant of the founders intentions to create a truly international film festival.

The first thing I noticed that didnt meet my expectations going into the program was the collaboration between the East and West. Cannes is the international film festival of recognition, yes, but I had been primed by the American Pavilion to see the coming weeks as a Hollywood invasion of the Riviera. This was true only compared to the traditional standards of French country life, and though Cannes was both glitzy and gossipy, it was refreshing as a film student to see a celebration of film that wasnt overrun by the L.A. County crowd. In fact, it seemed, the diverse and inclusive world of the film simply met in the middle, and threw themselves a party.

Its true that American standbys such as Jessica Chastain and Will Smith were on the jury, and Barry Jenkins secured a spot as head judge of shorts just months after his film Moonlight won the best picture at the Academy Awards, but these people were just some of the crowd that was in charge of enshrining and judging the official selections. This is the first platform Id ever encountered where foreign films are given the same criterion of judgment as English-language, rather than a single category of recognition, like at the Oscars. It has everything to do with the fact that American films are foreign-language here. And power rests squarely in the hands of the many.

For example, Pedro Almodovar, the head of this years jury, is a Spanish filmmaker who garners international respect from film critics. I had the pleasure of meeting Almodovar in person one night as he was walking down La Croisette at around 9 pm, surrounded by a few plainclothes security guards, iconic yellow sunglasses in hand.

Here was perhaps the most important man in town taking an evening stroll, unrecognized by the constituents that praised him. I was able to thank him for his work and shake his hand without arousing the suspicion of any photographers dining nearby. Here, the scope of quality is so wide that theres a place for anyone, and from this, a coexistence emerges.

Of course, a big part of this is that many, if not most of the people with a festival badge, are what I refer to as the carnivorous industries to film. Cinema was the first art form in which oodles of money were to be reliably made, in which a right movie at the right time could culturally polarize the world, and whole professions of sellers, buyers, promoters, and photographers have emerged just trying to absorb and capitalize on that blow.

It wasnt until I arrived at Cannes that I realized this relationship to the art of the movie is not parasitic but symbiotic. Ive been watching movies since childhood in awe of their artistic vision but never asking how it was that they arrived at a screen near me. The idea that genius begets greatness is as backward as believing rain follows the plow, and only at film festivals does one see the thunderstorm of creativity meet its lightning rod. Often there are masters of their craft who go unrecognized and unutilized out of a lack of connection with the right publicist, producer, or distribution agent.

One night at Cannes I had the pleasure of watching Wind River, a gripping true crime thriller by Taylor Sheridan, a rising star actor and screenwriter making his directorial debut at Un Certain Regard. Sheridan had partnered with The Weinstein Company for his production, and at the screening, Harvey Weinstein was the first one in the theater and the last one out.

Before the film started he was talking on the phone and holding an ice pack to his knee, looking not unlike a mobster whod just offed a guy. It took me a while to realize that when the films leads. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olson, received their standing ovations upon walking in, people were really clapping for Weinstein; he was the one who had provided the star power and gotten them in the room. The ovation at the end, too, had a double meaning: a feather in the cap of Sheridan but a progress report for Weinstein. He was capitalizing on his investment. Running into a few of my friends at the theaters exit, he asked the Millennials, So you liked it? You didnt fall asleep? But he already knew the answer. To him, this was all business.

That side of Cannes is important, if only because it gives the artists the prestige, money, and attention to make their work count. Here, film buffs and business execs sit side by side watching the same movies with two very different sets of eyes. Like the red-and-blue lenses in 3D glasses, it is only this combination of vision that allows the movie to really be seen.

This fusion also generates the political specter of Cannes, of which I have quite a lot of ambivalence. In a time of political correctness and reality-star presidencies, the politics of art seems more important, or at least more distracting, than ever. This is truer nowhere else than on film, where the tedious tendency emerges for the powerful to portray the meek. In Hollywood, a peculiar kind of armchair activism emerges from this, and the question of empathys ability to cross socioeconomic boundaries comes into play. Many of the best movies in the competition had strong political allegiance:

In Hollywood, a peculiar kind of armchair activism emerges from this, and the question of empathys ability to cross socioeconomic boundaries comes into play. Many of the best movies in the competition had strong political allegiance: Okja vs. GMOs and the meat industry, 120 Beats per Minute celebrating gay rights, The Beguiled as a feminist retelling of an originally misogynist movie. And yet I found myself watching three films in three days which graphically depicted rape scenes (Wind River, Okja, and the Cannes Classic restoration of The Ballad of Narayama (1983), each with a unique level of political awareness and validity all to be outdone and outvoiced by Lynne Ramseys You Were Never Really Here).

Jessica Chastain, at the end of the festival, stated This is the first time I watched 20 films in 10 days, and what I really took away from this experience is how the world views women. It was quite disturbing to me. She noted, of female characters, They just dont react to the men around them. They have their own point-of-view. This chiding is applicable to any number of Official Selection films, all but three of which were directed by men. And besides two South Korean and Japanese screenings, all directors

This chiding is applicable to any number of Official Selection films, all but three of which were directed by men. And besides two South Korean and Japanese screenings, all directors were white and made movies starring white actors, the kind of small-minded selection which got the Oscars roundly and justifiably criticized two years ago.

I came to the French Riviera to watch movies about the most passive thing you can possibly do. But I wasnt expecting the emotional and intellectual challenge of a dealing with a diverse community promoting, selling, and generating narratives both deeply personal and globally significant. The beauty of Cannes is that this challenge is extended to all of the salespeople, filmmakers and movie stars who join in on this two-week voyage into the frontier.

No one can come and go with their frame of reference intact, and in todays world of polarization and echo chambers, thats what makes the Cannes Film Festival an experience worth having. Its art at its most reverential.

Read also:EXCLUSIVE Movie Star Marion Cotillard For The Pavlovic Today: You Have To Stay Strong In Front Of People Who Want To Destroy Your Life

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Creationist views declining, but many also think God had hand in evolution – Wichita Eagle

Posted: at 11:14 am


Wichita Eagle
Creationist views declining, but many also think God had hand in evolution
Wichita Eagle
Views about evolution are changing, but a new Gallup poll shows that Americans haven't given up a belief in divine intervention in science. The belief in young-Earth creationism that God created mankind in its present form within the past 10,000 ...

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The evolution of women in video games continues at E3 2017 – Engadget

Posted: at 11:14 am

Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency's Managing Editor Carolyn Petit have been compiling data on the gender of protagonists in video games announced at E3 since 2015, which plenty of people in the industry dubbed the "year of the woman." Sarkeesian and Petit weren't convinced, so they decided to dive into the actual numbers and break down the number of games announced at E3 that actually starred female characters.

"There was this sense in the air of, things are changing and there are more games starring women announced, etcetera, etcetera," Sarkeesian said. "But we were like, OK, but we might be getting ahead of ourselves. So we just started counting. And we came up with numbers and we decided to track them over the years, which would create a really interesting data set moving forward in terms of judging how the industry presents itself and how it's changing over time."

As it turned out, at E3 2015, just 9 percent of new games starred women, while 32 percent had men in the leading role. In 2016, the gap grew -- only 3 percent of newly revealed games featured female protagonists, while 41 percent starred men. This escalation made Sarkeesian and Petit nervous about the figures this year, but things are actually closer to 2015 -- the so-called "year of the woman" -- than 2016.

"The important thing, I think, is that we don't rest on our laurels," Petit said. "We don't say, 'Oh, hey, equality achieved!' or whatever when, actually, the reality is that there's still a lot of work to be done. These trends are encouraging and great, but they're not, hopefully, the end of anything."

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Orphan Black Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Clutch of Greed – Den of Geek US

Posted: at 11:13 am

ThisOrphan Blackreview contains spoilers.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Clutch of Greed has all the elaborate cloak and dagger techniques, moments of levity, and the final dagger to the heart that we've come to expect and love from Orphan Black. Last week felt like a bit of a slog, but this week we had both the thriller and character-driven moments in perfect sync.

This is a show that originated with a similar vibe as the Bourne movies. Orphan Black's first few seasons always put the audience and the protagonists back on their heels, in a race to resolve questions like what is Sarah Manning, are there more, and who is after them. That makes this episode feel like not only a return to form, but a reunion, going home. Little touches like Clone Phones (5.0, natch) and seeing the alley by Felix's place only adds to that.

Cosima meets PT Westmoreland

Cosima wisely advises her charge not to eat the Soylent Green--er, vitamin seaweed, and gets to meet the mysterious PT Westmoreland, who was apparently friends with Darwin and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I know Darwin himself wasn't into social Darwinism, but is anyone else getting vague eugenics vibes from old PT? I feel like this guy has a century's worth of skeletons in his creepy closet.

I'm glad Cosima isn't taken in, even when he uses her favorite, "I follow the science," line, which is so spot on, perhaps someone fed it to him? Someone should tell this man he's not the first guy to offer Cosima a lab and the chance to study herself, her sisters, and all the coolest genetics in the world.

Helena goes on the lam

Helena and Donnie will always be an excellent pairing, and Donnie doing Helena's voice is an absolute gem. In a bit of foreshadowing, one of Helena's self-healing babies (because of course they are) has a sternum puncture. It's been a while since we've seen Helena's more feral side, especially directed at innocent bystanders. Lately, it has been at known enemies, or her suspicions are later vindicated. Will that doctor turn out to be someone who actually wanted information about (Helena voice) her babies? Or is she just a very unfortunate woman doing her job?

I love any time we get to see the Leda sisters doing actual normal activities that stay normal, so the idea of the word "neonatal" freaking out Helena and Donnie trying to soothe her is a joy. Pregnancy is already fertile ground for discussion of women's bodily autonomy, from the way strangers touch pregnant women and state attempts at control to religious dogma and medical interventions (or lack thereof). I would love to see the show dive into these a bit more, and Helena's fish out of water naivet could be an excellent vehicle for it.

MK makes the ultimate sacrifice and Kira chooses Rachel

Finally, the best part of this episode from both a story and craft perspective. The first act has the audience in the same position as Sarah: not believing what we were seeing, and thinking everyone has gone mad for suddenly trusting the Neos. And yet, the gambit played out for just long enough, and the trade-off (Kira, some element of peace and freedom) is just convincing enough that it had me going for a minute. Could S really agree to this? Of course not. Siobhan has a hit list and PT Westmoreland is on it, but that opening is excellent, and sets up a fantastic, tightly paced episode of everything that makes Orphan Black great.

After so many years, I'm glad someone on this show is finally directly acknowledging that Kira is special, and not just because she colors inside the lines. Watching Kira choose Rachel (which is unfair, but ultimately how Sarah experiences it) is the second-most brutal part of the episode.

MK's death is brutal, like all of Ferdinand's kills, made all the worse by how little we knew her, and how removed she felt from the world after surviving Helsinki and living on the run. It is a little weird how in denial Sarah was, and how easily she accepts that MK would stay behind. She has to know that the swap would end that way. Maybe she just wants to escape with Kira at any price? If that's the case, I hope we see her grapple with that choice.

A big part of the success of this episode is keeping other storylines - like Cosima's, Alison's, and to a lesser extent, Helena's - lean so this episode could play out like a very tightly plotted heist movie, but with Kira as the goods. For next week, we can look forward to a bit more out of the hooks that are dropped in this episode. Ira is headed off to the island in service to Clone Club, to avenge his beloved Susan. Meanwhile, Delphine makes an unexpected (and secret from everyone - including the Leda Sisters) visit to Siobhan. Allison, of course, is still stuck in her craft closet, and Helena is headed to her secret hideaway.

I'm also looking forward to see how long Rachel manages to keep Ferdinand away, since that cockroach will probably outlive and outthink PT Westmoreland at this point. The only thing worse than Ferdinand is a disenfranchised Ferdinand, as we saw this week, so buckle up and hold to your babies, sestras.

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Robotics program taps young innovators in Medway – News … – Wicked Local Medway

Posted: at 11:12 am

By Christian Yapor Daily News Staff

MEDWAY - Tapping away at laptop keyboards, about 20 participants in the 4-H youth science workshop learned basic coding skills to bring robots to life Saturday in the Medway Public Library.

Youth learn early Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) skills in 4-H, which is a youth development program.

"Two of the things we are trying to teach these kids are engineering and computational thinking," said Kim Pond, extension director for 4-H."There is science in everything we use every day, and through programs like this, we are encouraging kids to think about how things work, as well as prepare them for the work force."

The robots, which were made using Lego Mindstorms, were equipped with infrared sensors, color detection sensors, touch sensors, gyroscopes and ultrasonic sensors. Programming the functions of these sensors, the children worked together in teams to tell their robots how to navigate certain obstacles such as weaving through poles, and going up and down a ramp.

We are making robot commands so that it can act like a pet, said Jackson Alessandri, 12, of Medway. It's a lot of fun because I like building things.

"I am looking forward to controlling the robot and making it do special commands," said Jason Huff, 11, of Franklin.

"These robots are designed for younger kids that want to get their feet wet," said Nathan Shepherd, 18, of Franklin, who volunteered to help at the workshop. "The programming consists of simple drag-and-drop functions."

Shepherd said he started working withrobotics in Middle School when he himself was a participant in the 4-H program. In high school he entered competitions and worked with robots that were a lot more advanced. This fall he will attend Boston University to study mechanical engineering and continue working with robotics.

I think it's the process of getting something to work, and the end goal will be having something that works that appeals to these kids, said Shepherd.

"Building a robot and programming a robot are both equally hard, but keeping it stable so that it is not falling apart is important," said Hunter Ross, 9, of Medway.

"Actually, putting the robot together, coding it and bringing it to life is a lot of fun, and each robot is very unique," said James O'Connell, 10, of Holliston.

Shepherd said a lot of trial and error takes place when you're building and programming a robot.

You might not get it at first and it might frustrate some people, but you need to keep working at it."

"The hardest part is knowing what wires go in what holes," said Jeffrey Cadorette, 9, of Fitchburg as he worked on building his team's robot.

"It's such a great accomplishment when it's done," send Joshua Brennan, 9, of Franklin.

Most of the children who participated in the workshop have high hopes of working with technology in the future.

"It's a lot of fun and I want to build a robotic cat, or build a robot so small it can kill a disease," said Wyatt Uhe, 8, of Medway.

Christian Yapor can be reached at 508-634-7521, or at cyapor@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianYapor.

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Students put robots through the metal paces – Warren Tribune Chronicle

Posted: at 11:12 am

WARREN Local residents interested in robots got to see some up close Saturday.

The sixth annual FIRST Robotics Day was noon to 4 p.m. at the Packard Museum, featuring robotics teams from Warren, Champion and Austintown middle and high schools. Students demonstrated how their robots shoot balls, climb ropes and hang gears.

Travis Hoffman, adviser and lead engineer for the Warren G. Harding Delphi ELITE Team 48, said it was important for students to get involved in the robotics teams because the activities use many of the skills potential employers seek.

If you get that information hands-on before college, it really gives you a step up, Hoffman said.

Andy Yantes, lead technical mentor for the Austintown Fitch Falco Tech 3193 team, said schools have decreased technology classes in recent years, relegating such training to career centers.

We can teach the kids how to do programming, electrical wiring, public speaking, writing scripts, essays. Theres so many different aspects, Yantes said.

Jacob Scheidegger, 18, of Warren, serves as the captain of the project and management team, which includes behind-the-scenes tasks such as writing awards, helping with general management and fundraising. Initially beginning with an interest in STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics Scheidegger learned after four years on the team he liked business and management, which gave him an idea of what he wanted to do after school.

Scheideggers fellow teammate Alex Richards, 14, of Warren, in his first year, is more direct as the human player on the drive team, which involves operating their robot, Xtremachen20, as well as other duties including assembly and fixing the robot.

I plan to be on the team until I graduate, Richards said.

Although they are technically robotics teams, Barb Hummel, a mentor with the Champion High School Lightning Bots, said the groups draw in students for much more than robotics or technology. She compared the team to a business requiring the students to be able to manage many facets such as public relations and financing aside from the obvious technological aspect of the team.

Kids build the robot, but we also have graphic design, photography and finance, Hummel said. We utilize all skills.

Lightning Bots team member Cole Engle, 17, of Champion, corroborated Hummels statement, saying he participated in a lot of sports before joining the team four years ago. Now he works on the electronics for their robot, the Ironclad.

The best moment is when were building the robot and you see the new kids get involved, Engle said. You can see them getting excited.

Elise Yantes, 15, of Austintown, was operating Falco Tech 3193s robot the Talon Hydra. Elise, who spent three years on the middle school team and three years on the high school team, said her role is co-captain of the support team. This includes working on awards, presenting the awards, outreach and helping on the robots.

The team environment is the best thing, Elise said. I met my best friend in my first year on the team, theres a lot of camaraderie.

For anyone interested in seeing more of what the robotics teams can do, Hoffman recommends attending the Mahoning Valley Robotics Challenge, which will feature at least 24 local robotics teams, Sept. 23 at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren.

ddye@tribtoday.com

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The Singularity Is Near: Mind Uploading by 2045?

Posted: at 11:12 am

Some futurists predict humans will be able to upload their consciousness to computers in the near future.

NEW YORK By 2045, humans will achieve digital immortality by uploading their minds to computers or at least that's what some futurists believe. This notion formed the basis for the Global Future 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference held here June 15-16.

The conference, which is the brainchild of Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov, fell somewhere between hardcore science and science fiction. It featured a diverse cast of speakers, from scientific luminaries like Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis and Marvin Minsky, to Swamis and other spiritual leaders.

In the year 2045

Kurzweil an inventor, futurist and now director of engineering at Google predicts that by 2045, technology will have surpassed human brainpower to create a kind of superintelligence an event known as the singularity. Other scientists have said that robots will overtake humans by 2100. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]

According to Moore's law, computing power doubles approximately every two years. Several technologies are undergoing similar exponential advances, from genetic sequencing to 3D printing, Kurzweil told conference attendees. He illustrated the point with a series of graphs showing the inexorable upward climb of various technologies.

By 2045, "based on conservative estimates of the amount of computation you need to functionally simulate a human brain, we'll be able to expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold," Kurzweil said.

Itskov and other so-called "transhumanists" interpret this impending singularity as digital immortality. Specifically, they believe that in a few decades, humans will be able to upload their minds to a computer, transcending the need for a biological body. The idea sounds like sci-fi, and it is at least for now. The reality, however, is that neural engineering is making significant strides toward modeling the brain and developing technologies to restore or replace some of its biological functions.

Brain prostheses

Substantial achievements have been made in the field of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs (also called brain-machine interfaces). The cochlear implant in which the brain's cochlear nerve is electronically stimulated to restore a sense of sound to someone who is hard of hearing was the first true BCI. Many groups are now developing BCIs to restore motor skills, following damage to the nervous system from a stroke or spinal cord injury.

Jos Carmena and Michel Maharbiz, electrical engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, are working to develop state-of-the-art motor BCIs. These devices consist of pill-size electrode arrays that record neural signals from the brain's motor areas, which are then decoded by a computer and used to control a computer cursor or prosthetic limb (such as a robotic arm). Carmena and Maharbiz spoke of the challenge of making a BCI that works stably over time and does not require being tethered to wires.

Theodore Berger, a neural engineer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is taking BCIs to a new level by developing a memory prosthesis. Berger aims to replace part of the brain's hippocampus, the region that converts short-term memories into long-term ones, with a BCI. The device records the electrical activity that encodes a simple short-term memory (such as pushing a button) and converts it to a digital signal. That signal is passed into a computer where it is mathematically transformed and then fed back into the brain, where it gets sealed in as a long-term memory. He has successfully tested the device in rats and monkeys, and is now working with human patients. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

Mind uploading

The conference took a surreal turn when Martine Rothblatt a lawyer, author and entrepreneur, and CEO of biotech company United Therapeutics Corp. took the stage. Even the title of Rothblatt's talk was provocative: "The Purpose of Biotechnology is the End of Death."

Rothblatt introduced the concept of "mindclones" digital versions of humans that can live forever. She described how the mind clones are created from a "mindfile," a sort of online repository of our personalities, which she argued humans already have (in the form of Facebook, for example). This mindfile would be run on "mindware," a kind of software for consciousness. "The first company that develops mindware will have [as much success as] a thousand Googles," Rothblatt said.

But would such a mindclone be alive? Rothblatt thinks so. She cited one definition of life as a self-replicating code that maintains itself against disorder. Some critics have shunned what Rothblatt called "spooky Cartesian dualism," arguing that the mind must be embedded in biology. On the contrary, software and hardware are as good as wet ware, or biological materials, she argued.

Rothblatt went on to discuss the implications of creating mindclones. Continuity of the self is one issue, because your persona would no longer inhabit just a biological body. Then, there are mind-clone civil rights, which would be the "cause clbre" for the 21st century, Rothblatt said. Even mindclone procreation and reanimation after death were mentioned.

The quantum world

In parallel with the talk of brain technologies and mind-uploading, much was said about the nature of consciousness in the universe. Physicist Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford and others disagree with the interpretation of the brain as a mere computer. Penrose argued that consciousness is a quantum mechanical phenomenon arising from the fabric of the universe. Those of the "Penrose school" think uploading the brain would have to involve quantum computers a development unlikely to happen by 2045.

But Itskov thinks otherwise. The 32-year-old president of the Global Future 2045 Congress is dead set on living forever.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on June 19, 2013, to correct the dates of the Global Future 2045 International Congress (it was held June 15-16, not June 14-15, as previously stated.)

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitterand Google+.Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article onLive Science .

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Nvidia keeps the faith for virtual reality on the PC – VentureBeat

Posted: at 11:12 am

Microsoft backed away from virtual reality on the Xbox One X at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week. But it said that VR on the Windows PC is a good fit, and graphics chip maker Nvidia is all in favor of that idea.

VR has moved into its gap of disappointment, but there are plenty of believers who still say it will become a huge market over time. The market could reach$17.8 billion in VR hardware sales alone by 2020, according to SuperData Research.

E3 2017 had plenty of VR backers, from Bethesdas Doom and Fallout VR games to Sonys plentiful PlayStation VR titles, like Moss.More than 126 VR companies displayed products at E3 2017, compared to 54 a year earlier.

I spoke with Jason Paul, general manager for virtual reality product strategy at Nvidia, about VR at E3. He is one of the VR believers.Here is an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Jason Paul of Nvidia

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

GamesBeat: Whats your task here at the show?

Jason Paul: Honestly, its mostly meetings with partners and developers this year. We have a couple of VR demos were showing at our booth. We have Arctic One from 4A Games, the guys who make Metro. Its a beautiful VR first-person shooter. The other one is Star Trek Bridge Crew, which released a couple of weeks ago, but theyre coming out with a patch here pretty soon that brings IBM Watson voice recognition to the game. Its a neat example of how AI and VR are coming together, using AI to recognize what people say and translating that into voice commands for the game.

GamesBeat: Microsoft explained why they didnt talk about VR at their E3 press conference. They said that theyre going to let the Windows side focus on VR. Theyre not emphasizing on Xbox at the moment. I asked if that carries over into the future, and they said yes. It sounds like theyre going to do that much with VR with Scorpio, at least in this generation, which is an interesting shift.

Paul: Were definitely excited to see the next generation of headsets come to the Windows platform. We have a lot of partners working on holographic. Were excited to see those headsets come out and bring some new features, like inside out tracking and higher resolution displays.

GamesBeat: It seems like with the platform changing, its more suitable for the PC.

Paul: The PC has always been the leading edge platform for new technologies. Thats true with VR as well. Being able to have a very high-performance computing platform that can drive the displays, as well as the openness of the platform for content innovation and different types of headsets and input devices. Its natural that VR would start on the PC.

Above: The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti .

Image Credit: Nvidia

GamesBeat: Does it seem like theres still as much excitement for VR right now, despite all this talk about being in a trough?

Paul: At Nvidia were very excited. Any major computing transition takes time. When we look at GPU computing and AI, weve been investing in that for 10 years. Self-driving cars, weve been investing in that for 10 years. Nvidia makes long-term investments. We dont expect major technology transitions to happen overnight. But were excited for all the momentum behind VR this year. If you look at the top publishers in the world, 10 of the top 10 have announced that theyre working on VR projects. You have great headsets already hitting the market and more headsets coming from LG and Microsofts partners. A lot is happening over the next 12 months in VR.

Our big focus at GTX was expanding our VRWorks SDK. We released a 360 video SDK, and also demod a live 360 4K stereo video stream, running on two Nvidia GPUs. We also released the VRWorks audio SDK.

GamesBeat: I think they said there are twice as many VR companies here at E3 compared to last year. 120 versus 54, something like that.

Paul: Over the last day or two weve seen some big titles for VR. Fallout 4 VR, all the Bethesda announcements. Some great high-end content coming to VR.

GamesBeat: What about the PC itself? It seems to be in a prime period right now.

Paul: You have a combination of factors. You have 4K monitors, HDR, VR, esports, and a ton of great triple-A games. All of those are converging to make the PC a great gaming platform right now.

Above: Nvidia GeForce GTX with Max-Q design.

Image Credit: Nvidia

GamesBeat: On the GeForce side you guys have more efficient laptops.

Paul: Right. At Computex we announced our Max-Q notebooks. The challenge with gaming notebooks has always been, you want the best performance, but you want it in a portable form factor. Our engineers obviously spent a lot of years examining this and finding out how to reach something optimal. With Max-Q we have some new approaches as far as how to design for that optimal point of performance in a thin, lightweight, quiet notebook. Weve introduced a number of those with our partners at Computex, and were showing them here as well MSI, Clevo, and Asus notebooks. If you compare the dimensionswe have a great slide that shows the size and weight of the prior generation compared to these. Its one-third the thickness and half the weight.

GamesBeat: It seems like that could be very appealing for the esports crowd. The performance meets their needs, and they tend to want something more portable.

Paul: Its compelling for esports. Its compelling for VR. You want to take VR around and show your friends. Its compelling for the development community. They want to be able to show off their content without lugging around big systems. Weve gotten a lot of great feedback so far.

Above: LawBreakers in action.

Image Credit: Boss Key Productions

GamesBeat: We saw some interesting announcements out of the PC gaming show yesterday. They talked about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. LawBreakers has a launch date.

Paul: Weve been working with the LawBreakers guys on a feature we call ShadowPlay highlights. Basically, it gives the developers ways to tell GeForce Experience and ShadowPlay when to record video. If you get a kill streak or an amazing play in a game, the game will automatically record that for you, and after your sessions finished, itll show you your highlights. Thats one thing were looking forward to from those guys.

GamesBeat: How do you distinguish ShadowPlay in the market among all the different ways people can record and stream?

Paul: It comes down to GPU acceleration and quality. Because we have a built-in hardware encoder, we can capture and encode that video very quickly with very minimal performance impact on a game, and we can do it at very high quality, up to 4K at 60 frames per second. The other thing is that its just easy to use. Its built right into GeForce Experience, which many people already have on their PC. You hit alt-Z, pull up the interface, and capture.

Above: E3 2017

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

GamesBeat: Streaming and influencers is exploding. Its an interesting way for everybody to get the word out and receive information now.

Paul: One of the other things we use ShadowPlay for, were using it to do live streaming as well as video capture. You can use the exact same technology to live stream out to Twitch or YouTube. Earlier this year we announced streaming to Facebook Live as well. Its an interesting phenomenon. All sorts of game content sharing is happening now. Games are obviously an art form, but capturing content in games is becoming an art form too. Thats why were investing a lot in Ansel, which youre probably familiar with.

GamesBeat: Thats the picture capture technology?

Paul: Right, our in-game photography mode. Its been doing really well. We announced another couple of game integrations here at the show. Theres about 13 titles now with Ansel support. Were getting a lot of positive feedback from the gaming community. They can capture their favorite characters and environments in new and interesting ways.

GamesBeat: Any other subjects that are on your mind right now?

Paul: Were showing some of the G-Sync 4K HDR monitors at our booth here. You may have seen those before, but were showing off more with a few partners. And the rest of the booth this year is some of the top upcoming PC games. The core of our presence is 40 Destiny 2 PCs, showing it off in 4K on GeForce GTX. We also announced a bundle this morning with Destiny 2 and our GTX 1080 and 1080 Ti. Thats coming at the end of the month.

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Students create game to help acrophobes confront their fear of heights in virtual reality – GeekWire

Posted: at 11:12 am

Muhammad Hussain plays a virtual reality rock-climbing game in the Virtual Reality Lab, part of the iSchool at the University of Washington (Photo courtesy Vriti Wadhwa).

For people afraid of heights, leaning over a wall when rock climbing could cause feelings of terror and nausea. Being attached to ropes when climbing is not always reassuring for an acrophobe.

But perhaps experiencing similar conditions in virtual reality with two feet on the ground could help people overcome those fears.

Thats the theory of six University of Washington students, who have developed a virtual reality (VR) rock climbing game to study how users experience the fear of heights. The game has the potential to help researchers analyze how virtual reality can possibly find solutions for patients with other phobias.

This game was part of our final project for our immersive environments class at UW, said lead storyteller and designer Sanjana Galgalikar. We wanted to create something that was a challenge but also feasible as a project within the three-week span that we had to work on it.

To create the game, the team used a game-making software called Unity. Unity is a game-making application that allows for the creation of different plug-ins and functions such as graphics, sounds, and animations. Unlike other game creators, Unity makes it easy to write codes for characters, object behavior, and environment without complicated and multi-layered processes. The application is considered more progressive as it allows for games to be published on multiple platforms, whether for consoles, desktops, or mobile.

The team went through a step-by-step process to create a user flow outline and storyline for the rock climbing game, plan out the different game levels, and then apply it to the Unity software. They then self-coded the logistics of the game through C#, a multi-purpose programming language, to bring in the different elements altogether.

The element of virtual reality technology allows for a computer-generated environment that consists of 3D images, sound experiences, and sensory stimuli for users.

Most of the participants said it was really immersive, in the sense that they were actually feeling like they were climbing a mountain, said project developer and video producer Jeewon Ha.

The game incorporates three levels of rock climbing, increasing in difficulty. The first level is a simple procedure of climbing from one block to another without being stuck in one place. The second level includes different elevations and mountains to climb through, making it easier for the user to fall down. The third level involves challenging swinging techniques needed to reach to the top of the climbing wall.

The gap between level two and three was so big that barely anyone passed through level three, said Ha.

The general control system of the game was an important element needed to create a realistic setting. The interaction between the controllers and content on the screen needed to be well-coordinated.

I created the general controls in the game, said game designer Muhammad Hussain. The trigger on the handle allows you to pick up an object, or hold yourself onto the rocks of the wall.

The game even includes a teleportation feature, which allows the user to fly to different rock climbing walls in the area, simply by moving the arms in a swinging-like momentum. Once a user is no longer able to grab onto the rocks, they feel the sensation of falling down, which ends the game.

Testing out features with users has allowed the team to analyze reactions to the intense environment they created. Several participants felt frightened when they looked down from a high elevation or reacted audibly when falling down.

In our user testing, we tried to reduce as many negative user experiences as possible, Galgalikar said. We added a layer of vignette (darkening the corners of a visual element) to ease the side effects of falling down.

The team experimented with a virtual element called six degrees of freedom, which refers to stimulated capability given to the body to move in different directions. This makes the experience more realistic for users.

Virtual reality has been used in phobia-related research before. Dr. Hunter Hoffman, Director of the Virtual Reality Research Center at the Human Photonics Lab at the University of Washington has done extensive research on how virtual reality can treat pain and phobia.

Most people avoid the thing theyre afraid of, Hoffman said. The nice thing about virtual reality is that people are more willing to go closer to their fears.

In his research, Hoffman used virtual reality to study people with arachnophobia, fear of spiders. His work allowed him to see how the virtual world could help people confront their fears.

The ability to customize the experience for each individual patient is what makes the process a lot more effective, Hoffman said. In theory, virtual reality makes it a lot easier to change the program accordingly.

Hoffman isnt the only scientist studying VR as a treatment for phobias. Virtually Better is a company that sells virtual reality-related research to psychologists for further analysis or use in studies.

Therapists use experiences like this to help with phobia of heights, water, and other exposure therapies, Hussain said. When you think of immersive experiences, you think of virtual reality. It kind of speaks for itself.

The team of students has already presented their work at the AT&T VR Hackathon in Bellevue,Wash. and now hopes to take their game to even more competitions and hackathons down the line.

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AI and machine learning will make everyone a musician – Wired.co.uk

Posted: at 11:11 am

Music has always been at the cutting edge of technology so its no surprise that artificial intelligence and machine learning is pushing its boundaries.

As AIs that can carry out elements of the creative process continues to evolve, should artists be worried about the machines taking over? Probably not, says Douglas Eck, research scientist at Googles Magenta.

"Musicians and artists are going to grab what works for them and I predict that the music that will be made will be misunderstood by many people," Eck, told WIRED at Snar+D, a showcase of music, creativity and technology held this week in Barcelona.

At the event, which is twinned with the Snar dance music festival, Google held an AI demonstration where Eck showed a series of basic, yet impressive musical clips produced using machine learning model that was able to predict what note should come next.

The Magenta project has been running for just over a year and aims discover whether machine learning can create "compelling" creative works. "Our research is focused on sequence generation," Eck says, were always looking to build models that can listen to what musicians are doing. From that we can extend a piece of music that a musicians created or maybe add a voice".

Just as the drum machine was loathed and feared by many when it first hit the mainstream in the 1970s, AIs role in the creation of art has sparked similar fears among critics. Eck, who admits that he was initially among the drum machine haters, explains that it took an entire generation of musicians to take the technology and figure out how to take it forward without putting good drummers out of work. He envisages a similar process of misunderstanding and eventual acceptance for AI-based music tools.

Given its flexible nature, its likely that musicians and other artists of the future will all use AI differently, according to Freya Murray, program manager at Google Arts & Culture Lab.

"Some will collaborate with machine learning, others will use it as a tool and for others it will be their creative process and thats the case throughout the history of art," she told WIRED.

"In the creative process, it can provide that stimulus to take you in a direction you might not have gone before". AI will also have an important role in art education, says Murray.

Also at Snar+D was Abbey Road Red, the legendary studios tech incubator. Jon Eades, who heads up the scheme agrees that the dawn of AI in music is a good thing.

"In the same way that Instagram has democratised the process of taking and editing photos, well see a similar progression towards making more people musical creators using assertive AI to help people make good music, he told WIRED at a recent talk on AI at the London studio. "I dont think well see a complete replacement of composers with computers but I do think there are going to be big shifts. Weve already seen passable results in a lot of areas".

Georgia Tech

The move to AI-based music creation tools will be "as big a technological shift as the digitisation of music," he predicted, albeit cautiously.

Abbey Road Red recently announced the most recent intake of startups for its mentoring scheme, including AI Music, a company that plans to use artificial intelligence to transform music "from a static process of a one-directional interaction, to one of a universal dynamic co-creation". Applications for the next wave of hopefuls are now open (until 7 July).

While machines may not replace composers anytime soon, theyre certainly catching up. This week, a marimba-playing robot called Shimon composed its own music for the first time. Developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, the musical bot was given more than 5,000 complete songs, two million motifs, riffs and short passages of music and then asked to produce its own composition.

However, Freya Murray says robo-composers simply can't compete with the human touch, explaining: "Our ability to imagine and create is at the core of what it makes us human and artists will continue to express the world we live in, and imagined worlds."

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AI and machine learning will make everyone a musician - Wired.co.uk

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