The public cloud is significantly impacting media by moving information technology into a world of utility where compute and storage are available as needed — easy to implement and decommission. It provides a flexible infrastructure for a media-centric world increasingly based on analytics where experimentation is the foundation of digital transformation. The media industry is changing — from the way content is produced and managed to the methods used to protect, optimize, distribute and analyze that content. These changes to the value chain have created enormous pressures (and opportunities) for creative professionals. Continue reading Hybrid Cloud Becoming an Effective Tool for Media Analytics

In San Francisco’s newly opened automated, cashier-less store, Standard Market, shoppers who download the app can browse the store’s 1,900 square foot space, pick items and leave. The system is automated via cameras on the ceiling that identify the shopper and her items. It’s just one of several such stores, including Amazon’s Go stores, and in Manhattan, The Drug Store from beverage brand Dirty Lemon. Even China has opened stores without cashiers. The technology behind them is different, but all of them are dealing with theft. Continue reading Cashier-Less Stores Use AI, Cameras, Sensors, Predict Theft

Facebook’s Rosetta is a machine learning system that extracts text in many languages from over one billion images in a real time. Facebook built its own optical character recognition system that can process such huge amount of content, day in and day out. In a recent blog post, Facebook explained how Rosetta works, using a convolutional neural network to recognize and transcribe text, even non-Latin alphabets and non-English words. The system was trained with a mix of human- and machine-annotated public images. Continue reading Facebook Adds 24 Languages to Rosetta Translation Feature

A new Adobe Analytics survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers has found that voice assistants and smart speakers are becoming increasingly popular. Adobe predicts that following the next holiday season, almost half of U.S. consumers will own a smart speaker. The market has grown about 15 percent in less than one year; more than 32 percent of consumers now own a smart speaker. People are most commonly using such tech to play music, check weather forecasts, set alarms/reminders as well as obtain directions, check sports scores and traffic, and ask fun questions. Continue reading Survey Finds That Smart Speakers Are Gaining in Popularity

The New York Times, which is now posting information explaining its journalistic practices, recently described how it reviews news-relevant videos from a wide variety of sources, including news agencies; social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat; and eyewitness videos via WhatsApp, witness contacts on the ground or “joining relevant groups.” The actual verification process is broken down into two steps. First, it determines whether a video is “really new.” The second step is to “dissect every frame to draw conclusions about location, date and time, the actors involved and what exactly happened.”  Continue reading New York Times Takes Multiple Steps to Authenticate Videos

Having turned 50 years old this year, Intel released a report on the Next 50, which highlights the thoughts of 1,000 consumers about the future of technology. The report, which was conducted with research firm PSB, revealed that though Americans are enthused about technology’s future potential, 40 percent of them believe it will also introduce as many new problems as solutions. Consumers were most excited about familiar technologies, including smartphones (87 percent), PCs (84 percent) and smart home technology (84 percent). Continue reading Intel Consumer Study on Technology Considers Next 50 Years

At SIGGRAPH 2018, Nvidia debuted its new Turing architecture featuring ray tracing, a kind of rendering, for professional and consumer graphics cards. Considered the Holy Grail by many industry pros, ray tracing works by modeling light in real time as it intersects with objects. Ray tracing is ideal for creating photorealistic lighting and VFX. Up until now, ray tracing has not been possible to do because it requires an immense amount of expensive computing power, but Nvidia’s professional Turing card costs $10,000. Continue reading Nvidia Ray-Tracing Technology a Quantum Leap in Rendering

What happens when you represent attributes of content together with granular audience insights about these attributes, and performance metrics? You get granular insights on what’s driving the performance of your content. In this vETC presentation, Yves Bergquist presents a case study just completed on 21 television shows. Continue reading vETC 2018: Systems Media – An AI Case Study

The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC hosted its fourth annual virtual conference, “vETC 2018 | The Grand Convergence” June 27-28 at the Technicolor Experience Center in Los Angeles. This year’s program highlighted talks in the artificial intelligence, immersive experience and adaptive production sectors. Thought leaders from the entertainment and service industries presented an insider’s look into the emerging technologies disrupting everything from the creative process to business models and consumer behavior. Videos from the conference are going live for viewing on the ETCenterVideos YouTube channel and include presentations from Microsoft Azure, Technicolor, Equinix, Deluxe, Amazon Web Services, USC School of Cinematic Arts and Viterbi School of Engineering. Watch your daily eblast over the next few weeks for updates highlighting the vETC 2018 videos. Continue reading ETC@USC Posts vETC 2018 Videos on its YouTube Channel

Amazon and Microsoft gave a public demonstration of the integration of Alexa and Cortana into all Echo speakers and to all Windows 10 users. That means that a user can ask Windows 10’s Cortana to open Alexa, and ask Alexa on Echo speakers to open Cortana. This integration is now available to most users but will completely roll out around the country over the next week, said a Microsoft spokesperson. Some features, such as streaming music, audiobooks and news flashes will not be available at launch. Continue reading Amazon, Microsoft Introduce Integration of Alexa and Cortana

Nvidia unveiled new Turing architecture during a keynote at SIGGRAPH 2018 as well as three new Quadro RTx workstation graphics cards aimed at professionals. Nvidia dubs the Turing architecture as its “greatest leap since the invention of the CUDA GPU in 2006.” The RTx chips are the first to use the company’s ray tracing rendering method, which results in more realistic imagery. Also at SIGGRAPH, Porsche showed off car designs accomplished with Epic Games’ Unreal engine and Nvidia’s RTx chips. Continue reading Nvidia Quadro RTx Chips Offer AI and Real-Time Ray Tracing

Samsung has launched its SmartThings Wifi router to provide consumers with fast, secure home networking and a reliable smart home hub. Currently available in the U.S. for $120 per single unit or $280 for a 3-pack, the new router leverages artificial intelligence for Wi-Fi management and faster speeds — in addition to mesh networking for optimized Wi-Fi coverage. According to Samsung, a single unit covers up to 1,500 square feet; deploying multiple units helps ensure strong signals throughout the home while minimizing dead zones. Continue reading Samsung Tackles Home Networking With SmartThings Router

In June, in a letter to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, almost 19 groups of Amazon shareholders expressed concern about the company’s cloud-based facial recognition system Rekognition being provided to law enforcement in Orlando, Florida and the Washington County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Office. They joined forces with Amazon employees, the ACLU, academics and more than 70 other groups to protest the decision. After the ACLU showed how Rekognition can err in IDing people, three Democratic lawmakers joined the chorus. Continue reading Amazon Makes the Case That Rekognition Is a Force for Good

Google is beginning to distribute its successor to Android Oreo: Android Pie, which has been known up until now as Android P. The company pushed the source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and is updating Android 9.0 Pie to its Pixel phones. During the beta test, Android P was available on an array of phones, including the Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Nokia 7 Plus, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21, OnePlus 6, and Essential PH‑1. It is not, however, available to consumers with Nexus or other devices. Continue reading Google Begins to Roll Out Android Pie, First to Pixel Phones

Artificial intelligence is making its way into the workplace via the back office, automating tasks in accounting, billing, payments and customer service, and is capable of scanning documents, filling out spreadsheets and checking accuracy of records. In early projects, AI bots are following simple rules, observing and making yes-no decisions rather than high-level choices. Bigger things are coming, especially from tech companies like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, which partner with robotic automation startups. Continue reading AI-Based Software Automating Mundane Workplace Chores