headbin

Thoughts-to-speech conversion - one step closer

In case any anyone was under the illusion that the story universe of Sanctuary (set in 2012) is totally out there, consider this news item.

Paralysed man's mind is 'read'

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7094526.stm

Funny enough, when this project kicked off in 1997 the biggest advance in this field was with slugs. Things have moved on somewhat from Computer Electronics meets Animal Brains

Pipe dreams

Computer Arts - 3D World issue 72 has a great article on next-generation studio pipelines (ring a bell anyone?) and why they are still a ways off.

PDF

The long and short of it though is that only one film company (LucasFilm) has really taken the plunge and unified its systems so that game assets, print materials, web stuff etc can be plucked out of the feature film asset library easily. The rest are coming but when? It's hard to tell.

I take some heart from NVIDA quoted as saying that the main source of game media content over time will be films.

Soundbeam

Potential sponsor of the week, Soundbeam, are going to lend me an ultrasound MIDI interface that was developed to allow dancers to trigger sound and visuals and is now being packaged along with my old fave Arkaos VJ as an "invisible keyboard" educational tool. I am likely to be accused of sexing up the demo. Bring on the RIG!

Massive: Soundbeam

BBC DRM hacked

Will the BBC get cold feet over iMP (the 7 day free TV download service) now that the anti-DRM crowd have shown how to keep TV files forever?

Hopefully not, but for the execs who don't understand that there is no technical way to lock the box this may come as a rude shock, especially as the iMP service is still in beta.

The hack

The flame wars

iMP

Format - Windows Media Player 9
Bit Rate - 2368kbps
Metadata - none

Sims 2

Caught out yesterday. I was loudly proclaiming that no video game allows you to simply treat its material as a non-interactive linear experience when it was pointed out that The Sims 2 does just that. Anyone in the team a fan?

QUICKTIME 7 USING H264

QuickTime 7 makes the future of video crystal clear with new features including user-friendly controls and pristine H.264 video. Upgrade to QuickTime 7 Pro and capture your own movies, then share them with friends and family via email or .Mac.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quicktime/

QuickTime 7 features a state-of-the-art video codec called H.264, which delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates. Ratified as part of the MPEG-4 standard (MPEG-4 Part 10), this ultra-efficient technology gives you excellent results across a broad range of bandwidths, from 3G for mobile devices to iChat AV for video conferencing to HD for broadcast and DVD.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/h264/

The preview release of QuickTime 7 Player for Windows is available now as a free download from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/preview/.
QuickTime 7 Player for Mac
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/mac.html
QuickTime 7 Pro for Mac ($29.99)
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows ($29.99)
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/buy/

Important Notes
* QuickTime 6 Pro registration codes will not work in QuickTime 7 for Windows Public Preview. You may purchase a QuickTime 7 Pro registration code from the Apple Online Store for use in this public preview. QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows registration codes purchased during the public preview period will continue to work in the final version of QuickTime 7 for Windows.
* Apple recommends that you use QuickTime 7 for Windows Public Preview only for testing purposes on non-essential systems. We do not recommend its use with other QuickTime-based applications, such as iTunes. The Public Preview is not supported by AppleCare.

Visionbytes - metadata enhanced content

// visionbytes.com // metadata enhanced content

I met with Peter Fox from Visionbytes today to have a look at their XML tagging and browser capabilities. They've produced some impressive systems like the Video Hansard system used by Australian Federal Parliament and the all digital content management system used for Southern Star Productions.

Looking at their samples, two strong lessons emerged. Work with the flow of how customers are already using the data (e.g. their tools mimic what data entry people already use in various industries) and keep track of the start and end of every single word spoken.

In the case of Sanctuary, this implies tagging each and every event.

They are using Dragon speech recognition .

Softimage XSI MOD tool

Softimage release tool to allow gamers to MOD their favourite titles if they are modelled/animated in XSI.

SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool version 4.2

Disaster Recovery

The good news about the recent hard disk crash which wiped out thequality.com and modfilms.com is that it hasn't crippled either operations and most data has been recovered. The bad news is that not all Team Sanctuary data has been recovered and the process of recovery has revealed a number of bugs in the project's backup strategy which now have to be addressed.

The following info has been lost:

* Any twiki pages that had been created before Dec 7 and since modified, this for the most part means that up-to-date index pages are lost even though newer pages are available - use "Index" to find orphaned pages or Search.
* There are also many orphaned photo albums (e.g. http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/gallery/album50) is there but not linked from anywhere - work to fix this pending

The following has been restored:

* All database content
* All blogs (apart from a small number of page templates which had been stored as files)
* All video content

The following is yet to be restored, data not lost

* Changes to the image galleries between 7 Dec and 30 March

Mind over Machine

One step closer to the RIG in reality...

Mind Over Machine - Popular Science

BlogTorrent

I'm trialling BlogTorrent for keeping track of large files as torrents and making them easier to download.

http://thequality.com/bt

Linguabots and CD

Phil Hall who's joined the team as an advisor is a linguabot expert. Thinking about how CD can function as a film character, online community bot, and dev knowledgebase personality.

Links:

elzware.com
personalityforge.com
kiwilogic.de
creativevirtual.com
botcreator.com

Text previz UI

Brainstorm of UI and sample MODs for plaintext pre-viz.

Apple XML

Click on the following image to play video

Lower quality video | Higher quality video

X3D for real-time graphics

The web3d crowd are very keen to prove that the latest tools (Vizx3d for authoring and Flux for rendering) are just as good as any game engines out there. I'm sitting on the fence, having lived through the VRML years, but I'd definitely like to explore this. Things have moved on alot in the last few years.

dancing to perl in nightclubs

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/08/31/livecode.html

Hyperbolic trees

I'm keen to explore how hyperbolic trees can be used to for asset mapping and visualization on the DVD (in Browser mode) and perhaps contribute to the design of the State aesthetic.

Xreox patented the algorithm in the US which is why most punters have never seen them in use. I've asked Inxight if they'd let us use it for free in the demo.
http://www.inxight.com/products/sdks/st/

The OSS Hypertree project for a non-US audience (where software patenting is yet to take affect). I think this means you could sell Sanctuary in Europe with this but maybe not for long.
http://hypertree.sourceforge.net/

Tamara who helped write the book on this stuff. I've been playing with the H3 viewer she wrote for years.
Tamara Munzner, UBC Home Page

Download ZIP file

Walrus - US project to map the Net
http://www.caida.org/tools/visualization/walrus/

Freeframe and VJAMM

Matt Black (Coldcut) just rang to plug VJAMM as the ideal technical solution for playing a film as a musical instrument. We had a long conversation and I promised that we'd have a look at it.

* VJAMM designed for seamless video and audio looping
* Freeframe is an OSS VJ plugin framework
* vjs.net may be able to help us recruit VJs to the beta community

Little Brother - smart sensor network

Scientific American has thoughtfully run a story on the technology that underpins how the eco-activists and the State could keep tabs on one another in the real world using Tiny OS, RFID and other things.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00031F95-6274-10A9-A19983414B7F0000

Webjay: Remixing video and news on the fly

Check out the slashdot article about webjay - remixing news and video on the fly.

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/19/0044208.shtml?tid=129&tid=95

Free Oz CA

An article about a major free Australian Certificate Authority:

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/wlg/5142

Messageboard systems

Messageboard systems for evaluation:

Invisionboard (MoveableType)
VBulletin (VJforumsl)
PHPnuke
Ikonboard
phpBB (Arkaos)

Subtitling as machine-readable labelling?

Mark Robinson at subtitling company Independent Media Support (http://www.ims-media.com) gave the following useful information:

*Captioning/subtitling software is normally provided bespoke by companies such as SysMedia (http://www.sysmedia.com) and SofTel (http://www.softel.co.uk).

*Subtitling is normally farmed out to specialist companies. Only a few of the major broadcasters (BBC, etc.) keep it in house.

*It should be theoretically possible for the text normally sent to the monitor/screen to be diverted to another application for further processing (and so the text becomes the machine-readable label for each element), although he has never heard of it being done before.

Also spoke to John Boulton at Sysmedia, who explained the following:

*Subtitles are generated from the data not as text within a template, but as bitmaps. The larger part of the application is processing that conversion.

Q) HOWTO detect frame in movie trailer

My MOBMIXER app has hit a design stumbling block.

To make the experience compelling to buy wallpaper/ringtones from a movie trailer you need to be able to get the frame/soundtrack snippet you want within a few clicks. There lies a problem with the way movie trailers are published typically. The player is either the Windows, Real or Quicktime media and there is no easy method (I can see) to pass the current frame, or time, to another application.

Q) What is the best approach? I'm leaning towards A1

A1) Replace movie files themselves with files with embedded scripting (e.g. Quicktime created in LiveStage Pro)?
A2) Embed files in Shockwave?
A3) Embed files in Flash?
A4) Javascript call to movie player API? (can't find way to do this)
A5) Java wrapper for movie player (http://java.khm.de/content/projects/VideoPlayer.java)
A6) Rely on user to type in current frame number

Testing MTQuicktime macro

Testing the Quicktime macro for Damon.

Click on the following image to play video

Lower quality video | Higher quality video

Avatar technologies

Techniques and technologies for inserting a player into virtual space.

http://www.cyberextruder.com

http://www.digimask.com/

An Inexpensive Video Panorama System

InexpensivePanoramicVideo

Proof-of-concept panoramic video system involving the author's "hexacam", six firewire cameras mounted in a ring.

Software at http://www.vrhotwires.com

Imagmagick

http://www.imagemagick.org/

God bless OSS! All the static manipulations needed for the prototype and beyond in one handy library. See me for sample code, I've been using for ten years now *gulp*

Webcam interfaces

Besides http://www.eyetoy.com

there is

http://www.bhv.de (Camgoo PC Eyetoy clone in development), sole UK distribututor, http://www.interactiveideas.com, has announced this in the trade press as a £19.99 game (£29.99 with camera) with "six fully interactive games" ripped off from eyetoy:play

---

Flash 8 prototype

http://www.protozoo.com/?p=178

Mobile content development research

http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/0,6566,st_p_58,00.html

http://www.thewirelessfaq.com

http://www.ringtonemarket.com/

http://ringtonetools.mikekohn.net

http://www.ringtonecreator.info/download.shtml

http://www.unwiredtec.com/wmcreator.shtml

View frames of The Matrix

Too simple an idea for someone NOT to have done it on the sly.

"Er yeah, I'd like the ring-tone with the leather chick..."

Choose a frame of the movie to display:

http://onyx.chattanoogastate.edu/~jack/matrix/

Technology R&D test wishlist

Tests that could have a big impact on the screenplay are in bold.

• Embedding/packaging meta-data for assets
• Meta-data plugins for key production tools
• 3D collision detection against video
• Left/Right groove detection by webcam (Eyetoy clone)
• Ubertext flash layering
• Asset metrics
• Actor/Prop/Scene/Set labelling
• Re-mix labelling
• Feeder protocols
• MP3 generation/MP3 ringtone generation
• 360 degree panorama control object
• Loop editor/Switch
• Application media player
• P2P client
• Variable video parameters
• Variable audio parameters
• Variable panorama parameters
• Variable motion capture parameters
• Variable display/render parameters
• GUI design
• User profile requirements
• RDF story schema
• RDF rights schema/Creative Commons interface
• MOD installer
• Devnet community structure
• GROOVER MOD design
• FEEDER MOD design
• SWITCH MOD design
• Switch interface to 3rd party DJ/VJ tools
• Asset meta-data
• Online community literature review (refresher)
• Cross-platform game platform literature review (refresher)

Bitstream Syntax Description Language:

Bitstream Syntax Description Language: Application of XML-Schema to Multimedia Content Adaptation

Console vendor information

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe: Technology Group

Developing for XBOX

Interactive media frameworks

Reasonably up-to-date summary across all interactive media frameworks.

http://www.colleges.org/~support/filsPresentation/img0.html

Virtual camera views from kewazinga

Simple virtual camera movement. Lots of sports samples, only low-res though.

http://expn.go.com/xgames/wxg/2002/archive/axis/index.html

Renderware questions

Q) Demo team size (skill sets)
Q) X3D support
Q) Features of Studio over Graphics
Q) AI components relevent to project
Q) MPEG2 streaming latency
Q) Number of simultaneous audio channels
Q) Eyetoy support
Q) Hardware requirements, minimum spec
Q) Public API? I.e. how to integrate OSS layer and Renderman.
Q) Desktop emulation of console?
Q) Support terms
Q) Producer recommendations

Academic partnerships

These may be worth exploring for access to research funding and access to academic research.

http://www.ost.gov.uk/link/

http://www.ost.gov.uk/ostinternational/

http://www.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~morph/

Interactive fiction

"What I see is an interactive drama for the masses who have computers, but who are not 'gamers'." Randy Littlejohn
http://steel.lcc.gatech.edu/grandtextauto/archives/000138.html

So how does the re-mixable film idea mesh with the interactive fiction community? My idea is simply that this kind of film be re-purposable for the AI and IF folks to play with. We concentrate on making art and go the one extra step to provide a low level interface so it's of practical benefit to different communities. I think that will be enough of a challenge for SANCTUARY. What do you all think?

HfC was supposed to be re-purposable only BDE overestimated the capabilities of their software. Any notion of re-purposing Pan, his forest, and misc. other elements of the film went out the window when early tests came up nought. It wasn't possible to re-use Pan's head from the banner ad (our test) in the final movie the way we envisaged.

RDF inside assets

Q) Can we chuck RDF inside every re-mixable asset?

Would be nice because then each asset is intrinsically self-contained for the future. Access the same URL, but requesting different MIME types, gives you either RDF or the asset (vid, sound, whatever) itself. Anyone know any shit hot semantic engineers?

A) Probably. I think that means that we've got a way to let the masses sort their own shit out. All we have to do is come up with an RDF compliant way of FEEDER operating.

http://www.w3.org/TR/photo-rdf/#goals

Sensors

Eyetoy Linux driver

LEGO Mindstorms audio pitch sensor

Making Things sell a/v components for tracking

Antaras pitch correction software for sound engineers

Course notes in Digital Audio Programming: Spectral Transformations (inc. pitch detection)

Laser Active Tracking/

Glossary of terms

• GROOVER is the name of the module which allows the film to be played like an instrument.

  Groover is made up of five key logical OBJECTS which are:
  

  
  
  • DISPLAY - what the user sees
    
  • ASSET - a self-contained media chunk ready for display
    
  • MASK - a self contained media chunk used purely for adjusting the appearance of other assets
    
  • EFFECT - a way of manipulating an asset
    

• NOTES are individual events which are triggered from arbitrary (any) input or a specified input (e.g. circle button on PS2 controller)

• GROOVES are rhythm tracks playable, displayable, and recordable through GROOVER. Each track is comprised of many notes.

• The CONTROLLER LAYER receives input for controls.

• The CINEMA LAYER contains read-only elements of the film. Content within the Cinema Layer cannot be affected directly by the user.

• The PRESENTATION LAYER is responsible for all real-time audio and graphical elements. The layer contains both interface (GUI) elements and "fake" cinema elements which are in fact overlays.

• ASSETS are the image, audio and video elements
  

SANCTUARY interactivity wishlist

I'm thinking of the following interactive areas to explore:

* CD - the Customised Dude who is your guide through the entire experience (i.e. help, character, dance companion)
* Bat Action - rhythm game built around echo location rhythm patterns. Controller/body language driven patterns play the tune and navigate the forest as a side-effect.
* Dog vision - terminator style view of the world. Access to the API.
* Face plant - substitute user face textures for troopers and activists

Note that all of the above can, in story terms, operate in parallel so in theory the linear narrative could simply suspend whilst in a user initiated interactive mode.

By the way, the EyeToy works a treat. One of the games packaged with it (Kung Fu) is fantastic - Why must we choose vbetween a harddrive and body language controls at the moment?! {:-( Maybe another reason to focus on a PC/Mac demo which could have both Logitech USB cam and MOD downloads...

CD/State technical design

This article resonates with how CD has been designed by Blake. It is through CD that Blake learns about her own fears and shortcomings.

Wired News: Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is

And more recently:
Neural software could become soldier's best friend. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are using neural-network technology to create software that automatically offers individual real-time advice to soldiers and other government teams in the field.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040205S0013

Future troop helmets
http://www.chapmanlogic.com/blog/archives/000055.html

Arkaos developer info

The VJ software Arkaos is a candidate component of the re-mixable film experience. The Arkaos developer page has a whitepaper on the architecture and contact details for the main developer.

A case study in web3d film-making

Our case study on web3d film-making was presented at SIGGRAPH 2002.