Category: Item of Interest

Something I found interesting written by someone else.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest

Apple wins patent on 3D object-recognition Technology.

Apple wins patent on 3D object-recognition technology http://t.co/1rg8SO3I

Apparently one of the patents Apple acquired when they purchased Polar Rose last year.

The USPTO has awarded Apple a patent on 3D object-recognition technology that goes well beyond the current face recognition already included in apps such as iPhoto and the iOS 5 camera application, allowing a device to “build” a 3D face or object by analyzing the curves, contours and shadows of a 2D image. Such technology would give Kinect-like detection and recognition capabilities to cameras such as those found in iOS and Mac devices.

The technique could be used, for example, to create biometric logins that only unlocked the device when the owner was identified (though as with other such techniques, keeping the device able to distinguish the actual owner versus a picture of the owner would be the key to real security). It could also be used to automatically take and upload timed pictures of users who were not the owner, or lock out machines when the owner’s face was not detected. Apple mentions also being able to identify persons who are not aware that they are being recognized.

Those who know me will realize that I’m thinking of how we can apply this technology to production metadata. Facial identification is a powerful tool if it’s accurate, and the ability to recognize more objects will give us even more metadata to feed into identifying and editing algorithms.

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Business & Marketing Item of Interest

MPAA Costs Hollywood More Than US BitTorrent Piracy.

MPAA Costs Hollywood More Than US BitTorrent Piracy http://t.co/A67CYG6W Kind of silly exercise but it’s an interesting exercise!

Even TorrentFreak aren’t taking themselves seriously with this one, but by extrapolating how much more the MPAA studios would make if all the US BitTorrent traffic moved to NetFlix subscriptions, and comes to the conclusion:

Continue reading “MPAA Costs Hollywood More Than US BitTorrent Piracy.”

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Business & Marketing Item of Interest Monetizing

Congress seeks to tame the Internet.

Congress seeks to tame the Internet http://t.co/TxW4SJLf

A terrific article by Nancy Scola at Salon goes into detail why SOPA/PROTECT IP is such a bad idea for the Internet. I strongly recommend you read the whole article as it’s hard to excerpt just part, but I thought this was important:

When it comes to talking about SOPA, it is important to remember this: You can think that “intellectual property” infringement (not only of movies and music, but knockoff Nikes sold online) is bad for the American economy and still think the legislation is a disaster. Not only would the bill likely do little to address the problem of online content fraud and counterfeiting, but it takes aim at the core features of the Internet that have contributed a great deal to the American economy.

 

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Business & Marketing Item of Interest Media Consumption

Sweet sanity: 75% of Americans say infringement files should be under $100.

Sweet sanity: 75% of Americans say infringement fines should be under $100 http://t.co/ftKhPLNA Now to get the message to Politicians

Frankly, when you can legitimately pay $7.50 a month for access to millions of tracks, the current statutory fine – up to $150,000 per instance – are way out of balance.  There are far worse things you can do – criminal acts – that incur less of a penalty.

Actually, one third of the respondents thought there should be no fine for what 70% of people apparently are already doing: downloading content that isn’t licensed to them.

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Business & Marketing Item of Interest The Business of Production

10 Signs Internet TV is Ready to Disrupt the Industry

10 Signs Internet TV is Ready to Disrupt the Industry http://t.co/OpURKa1o

The ten bullet points from Mark Suster’s talk at The Future of Television. There’s good detail in the text summary, and the full 10 minute talk is available on video.

1. The promise has been made for too long, People are cynical

2. The right factors are finally in place

3. YouTube is the new Comcast

4. The distributed ad platform enabled this industry to evolve

5. Internet TV is following the CLASSIC case of the “Innovator’s Dilemma”

6. Cable & Satellite packages will become music albums

7. Mass adoption of Internet video has already taken place

8. TV is the medium people prefer (whether we like it or not) –

9. Video is different than text. It requires unique, creative skills

10. This revolution is starting in Los Angeles.

 

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Business & Marketing Item of Interest Media Consumption

This is How Apple Will Eventually Defeat DIRECT TV!

This is How Apple Will Eventually Defeat DIRECTV http://t.co/tjCVRNgP Bad technology compounded with a “don’t care” attitude.

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Apple Pro Apps Item of Interest

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, XML. data structures and how fast is FCP X?

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, XML. data structures and how fast is FCP X? http://t.co/kCf3AQRs

The discussion starts with a discussion of the release of Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1. We know what features are in this release and what else is coming in “early 2012″ but what will Apple do for Version 2?

Continue reading “Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, XML. data structures and how fast is FCP X?”

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Assisted Editing Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata

Who’s looking at you? Apparently everything!

Two stories today that caught my attention are:

Facial Recognition App Detects, Captures Smiles Technology intrudes more & more into “human” territory

Meet Swivl, The Motion Tracking iPhone Dock That Always Keeps You On Camera More and more automatics!

Now, it would be really cool if Swivl tracked you and kept you on camera using facial detection but it does not: instead it uses a hand held transmitter/controller to “know” where to point the camera.  Even with that it will make a great addition to a video blogger, web episode producer as the producer/talent can move and have the camera follow them as they do.

Continue reading “Who’s looking at you? Apparently everything!”

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HTML5 Item of Interest The Business of Production

Adobe’s new strategic direction

Adobe’s new strategic direction. http://t.co/GuVwzrhT Beyond the layoffs, the real news:

Moving forward, Adobe will offer customers the ability to make, manage, measure and monetize content and applications across all devices.  The company has long been the leader in content authoring solutions with its Adobe Creative Suite® product franchise. Its Digital Media growth strategy revolves around its recently announced Creative Cloud and will enable the company to rapidly deliver new product capabilities and services; penetrate untapped market segments; and increase overall engagement with customers.

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Assisted Editing Interesting Technology Item of Interest

How I automated my writing career!

How I automated my writing career http://t.co/Q7ld3YHH

Naturally, any automation of “creative” processes interests me because I believe that some parts of the creative process of video postproduction can be automated. However, author Robbie Allen is right when he says:

Continue reading “How I automated my writing career!”